The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

To be fair, I never actually carried it out.

I only thought about it. Just thought about it.

Like planning to install bombs deep inside the sewers to collapse the capital city from below, just in case I had to assassinate the Emperor during the story.

Of course, the taller a building, the deeper you need to reinforce its foundation, and the Imperial Palace was no different.

Just planting bombs on the floor wouldn’t be enough to bring down the Imperial Palace itself. It’s not like the sewers conveniently circled the entire palace either.

Even if it did collapse, only a part of it would go down.

“......”

“......”

Alice and Claire were staring holes through me.

“I can guess what you’re thinking, but I never actually did it.”

“Really?”

Alice narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“I swear. I only considered it.”

“Considering it is bad enough! Don’t tell me you knew the layout of the Dreadnought battleship because you snuck inside the same way?”

“......”

Hmm......

It wasn’t just the Dreadnought. I knew quite a lot of other things too.

Like the hidden secret library inside the Imperial Palace, or how quickly the soldiers and knights would respond in the event of an explosion... I’d run a lot of experiments.

As I avoided their gazes, Alice pressed a hand to her forehead.

“But you never actually set anything off, right?”

“The collateral damage would have been too great.”

In order to properly calculate something, the damage couldn’t be too excessive. I had to be able to control it. If it took too long just to confirm things, it would tire me out.

But it seemed that the Sylvia inside the game didn’t have those kinds of thoughts.

[Wait!]

Sylvia had just started to turn around when Leo suddenly shouted.

[...]

[Wait, wait. Sylvia, just wait a moment.]

[Leo?]

Alice widened her eyes slightly in surprise as she looked at Leo. The character graphics hadn’t changed much, but it seemed like they had added some new motions. It was rare in this game, which reused motions from previous games and other projects to death, to see a motion I hadn’t seen before.

[Sylvia, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I feel like... even if we catch you, you’ll still find a way out.]

[...On what basis are you saying that? I could just be panicking, you know.]

[No, that’s not it.]

Leo shook his head.

[You didn’t even think about running away. I may not be as good as my father, but I’ve trained enough in swordsmanship to at least sense that much.]

[...]

[And no matter what method you use, we probably wouldn’t even remember it.]

[Leo?]

This time, it was Claire who reacted.

[I’ll ask again. On what certainty are you making that claim?]

[...You do have some method after all, don’t you?]

Leo took a step closer to Sylvia as he spoke.

[Is it bothering you that I might know something?]

Leo, huh?

Hmm, I don’t think so.

I knew what was going on because I’d already played through it, but if Sylvia was aware of her own identity, she wouldn’t be fooled by that line.

Only those with the blood of Fangryphon could resist the goddess’s power. And even then, it had to be a true, thick bloodline to mean anything.

Unless it was Claire, standing right next to Leo, there was no one in this era who could resist.

......And Claire had died in the original story.

But if Leo was subconsciously sensing something, like he had in the illusionary world, then things could turn out differently.

When Leo had first met Alice and me, he had turned pale.

But in the illusion created by the goddess, Leo had treated Alice and Claire naturally, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Maybe that was because I had become their sibling, but I thought it was more likely that Leo was sensing a prior timeline.

If this world had been rewound over and over until it caused such side effects, it made sense that Leo, who had been caught in the center of it, would feel something strange.

If we think about the famous clichés, it would be something like, “Huh? Why am I crying...?”

It’s not just rewinding time, but restoring everything to its previous state and erasing the memories. If you do that enough times, wouldn’t there be parts too deeply carved to erase anymore?

[...No, you don’t know anything.]

Even as Sylvia said that, her voice carried a hint of uncertainty.

I couldn’t tell if it was because she was thinking along the same lines as I was, or if she truly didn’t know yet.

[Are you trying to set off the bomb?]

[...]

[If you’re not coming with us now, I’ll just stand here. If you don’t want me getting caught in the blast of the bomb you set, come with us.]

[If the ‘method’ you mentioned really exists, wouldn’t I just kill you here and reset everything?]

[Sylvia?]

Alice called Sylvia’s name in disbelief.

But Sylvia didn’t even glance ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) at Alice.

She was glaring only at Leo.

As if to say she didn’t even want to care about anyone else.

......And honestly, I could kind of understand how she felt.

[No.]

Leo said.

[You won’t do that. You don’t want to. If you did, you would’ve already pressed the detonator.]

It was the kind of line you’d expect from a shounen manga.

......But it was also the truth.

I wouldn’t have done it either.

I wouldn’t want to kill Leo, Claire, Sylvia, or Charlotte.

Just because I had the ability to rewind time didn’t mean I’d gamble the safety of people I cherished.

[...]

Sylvia stayed silent for a moment.

[Sis.......]

Sylvia glanced briefly at Claire, who was calling out to her, then said,

[...I see. You really are too sharp in some ways.]

[Does that mean you’ll listen to us?]

[No, it means I have to find another way.]

[What do you mean—]

[A way to cut off just the unnecessary parts cleanly, without getting caught by you.]

[Sylvia!]

Feeling something from Sylvia’s hollow tone, Alice stepped forward.

She reached out toward Sylvia.

But before she could—

[...Reset.]

Sylvia said.

*

Boom.

[Huh?]

At the sudden explosion, Leo whipped his head toward the source of the sound.

[What was that......?]

A massive blast had erupted from the direction of the Imperial Palace.

Several citizens who had realized what was happening screamed. In an instant, the surroundings plunged into chaos—

[...Father?]

Alice, who was nearby, muttered blankly—

And then—

*

[...Huh?]

[Leo, are you spacing out again?]

The scene changed again.

Now, Leo, Claire, Alice, and Charlotte were sitting in a café.

[You can't just zone out during review. You’re not thinking the exams are far off and getting all relaxed, are you? You’ll be in serious trouble if you do.]

At Claire’s scolding, Leo blinked a few times and gave a sheepish smile.

[Ah, sorry. I guess my mind wandered a little.]

[What were you thinking about so deeply?]

[Uh...... what was I thinking about again?]

When Leo muttered that with a slightly dazed look, Claire let out an exaggerated sigh.

[So basically, you were just spacing out.......]

[Don’t be too harsh, Claire.]

Charlotte joined in with a wry smile.

[Sometimes you do need time to clear your head. Should we have some tea?]

[I agree with that.]

Alice answered Charlotte.

[Then let’s take a short break and continue studying afterward.]

[Yeah.......]

Leo answered Alice with a smile, but his brows were faintly furrowed, as if something still bothered him.

*

“......”

“......”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t do it.”

Even after turning off the broadcast, Claire and Alice kept staring at me, so I explained again.

“I’ve rewound time several times, sure, but I’ve never caused a massive disaster.”

“Planting a bomb right in the middle of the Imperial Palace isn’t a massive disaster?”

“That was just to see how quickly the palace soldiers would react...... Wait, huh?”

Caught off-guard by Alice’s sudden question, I ended up responding in a dumbfounded tone.

“You fought with swords and magic head-on while thinking about your next move, remember?”

Claire added, and I just stood there, mouth agape.

“......How do you remember all that?”

“Hmm...... Actually, until now, everything was all mixed up in my head, so I wasn’t sure—”

“But after coming over here and taking some time to sort it out, I started remembering the patterns. Same for me.”

“......”

Ah, no way.

Since we’re now farther from the goddess’s power, are the memories from all those rewound timelines starting to come back?

“They’re still a little blurry though.”

“Yeah. So it’s even more confusing.”

It seemed the goddess’s power hadn’t fully left our world yet, so the memories weren’t completely clear.

And if we were to return to the other world, and the goddess’s power completely disappeared—

Would that mean all the memories would return to everyone else’s minds too?

......Maybe I should consider the possibility of not going back.