“……………….”
While being tormented by intense pain in my immobile body, I was fully witnessing the final battle of the Hero Harris. Because of the influence of the medicine produced by Riel, some white something is still raging inside my body, pricking around. However, it can be said that thanks to that, I was able to witness everything without losing consciousness.
“Everyone… is gone…”
Tia’s melancholic murmur quietly resonates in a world where nobody exists anymore. The twisted Demon King and the Hero Harris no longer leave any trace in this world. Everything has disappeared, and only the hollowed-out ground is in front of me.
“Ah… huh… huh…”
“Ed? Is it okay now?”
“… Yeah, somehow.”
Still with the aching body, I got up from Tia’s lap. I hate to admit it, but I’m used to this level of intense pain. Once the regeneration of bones and muscles is completed with [Regenerate] which doesn’t need bandages, getting up is no problem.
Silently, I walk towards the place where the two disappeared. It is the top of this mountain, and the world that has come to an end can be overlooked.
“It’s beautiful…”
“That’s right.”
Tia, who followed me, murmurs that next to me. The blizzard is no longer blowing in the world where the day is gradually falling. The first sun in fifty years shines on the white surface, and the white reflecting the red is so beautiful that I want to cry.
“I wonder if this snow melts?”
“I don’t know. If the temperature and such return to normal, I think it will melt… but that might take quite a while.”
Considering the story of Harris and my memory, there shouldn’t be so many places in this world that are cold enough for snow to remain all the time. If it returns to the original climate, most of it will melt, but I don’t know if the climate will return in a world where all life has died out.
“Hey, Ed?”
“Hm?”
“I don’t understand… is this sight, what the Demon King of this world wanted?”
“I don’t know.”
I’ve already collected the power of the Demon King. Therefore, I should understand a little bit of the Demon King’s thinking…
(No matter how I think about it, I can’t imagine that the Demon King wanted this.)
What was left in the Demon King was only a storm of emotions such as pain and fear. It’s something that those who are attacked and robbed have, and it’s not something that a being that destroys the world alone can have.
Then the key would be the white something that is still raging inside me. But if asked what it is, I don’t know. For now, I can deal with it to the extent that it hurts when I consciously push it to the corner of my body, but that’s the limit of what I can do now.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand anything.”
“I see…”
Therefore, I evade the question and tell Tia that. Regardless of the reason, there’s no doubt that the Demon King Tree… the Winter Demon King destroyed this world. Then saying something like “Actually, it might have been a victim too?” would be far from tactful, to say the least.
The Demon King is me, the evil that must be defeated. That’s all I need to know now.
“…By the way, what happens to us in this case? Can we get back properly?”
“That’s fine. It’s about three more minutes.”
“Eh!? So…”
“When Harris-san died, I got a notification.”
“I see… this time it was rather busy, wasn’t it?”
“Haha, that’s right.”
When Harris disappeared, I got a notification in my head. According to it, due to the confirmation of the complete disappearance of a soul with a certain rank or higher from the world, we will be forcibly returned to the <White World>
It’s laughable. If you eradicate the life of that world, you can return without having to struggle to be expelled… What’s up with that? If you interpret it positively, it might be said that it is a safety device to rescue us from the ended world, but my head was not as naive as to appreciate it that way.
That’s why I don’t feel like telling Tia about it. I just convey what is necessary… And time quietly flows.
“In the end, I couldn’t do anything.”
“That’s not true, is it? Harris-san also said that he was able to get here because we helped him.”
To Tia’s muttering, tormented by a sense of powerlessness, I answered lightly. Sometimes you need transparent words of comfort. If licking each other’s wounds eases the pain, it’s much better than forcing yourself to endure it.
“But… I couldn’t help Harris-san.”
“No, that’s impossible. To save Harris-san…”
“I know. I understand that my words, which are nothing more than passers-by, cannot reach Harris-san, who had lost something important by the time we met. But I still wanted to do something for him. Because Harris-san… was like Ed.”
“Huh? Me?”
At Tia’s sudden words, I tilt my head pointing at myself. I can’t quite pin it down when she says Harris and I look alike.
“That’s right. You know, I helped Ed in Amelia’s world, right? That time… I saw how you, from a long time ago… really a long time ago, was traveling around the world.”
“…Ah, I see. Huh.”
Upon hearing those words, I reflexively grimace. Honestly, I don’t remember it so well, but I vaguely remember that my past self was incredibly powerless, pitiful, shameless, and led a cowardly life.
The fact that Tia knew this was an unpleasant truth, but she continued to talk without caring about it.
“He reminded me of you from that time. For a single, unyielding purpose, you had discarded everything else… That’s the kind of feeling. Not realizing how much you were hurting, you just kept walking…even though there was nothing but a cliff ahead, you never stopped. That’s why… I wanted to help him somehow. Even though I knew it was just my selfishness, I just couldn’t…”
“…….. I see.”
Understanding the meaning of the glances Tia occasionally sent towards Harris, I nodded to myself. Ah, that’s right. Tia is that kind of person. And because she is that kind of person, she is still here by my side.
“….Then, hasn’t he already been saved?”
“Eh?”
“I mean, Harris-san achieved his goal, didn’t he? Unlike me, who kept falling without realizing that the destination was a cliff, he actually managed to take his revenge. Then he must have been saved. If I could have gone home… I would probably have thought, ‘It was worth it, I did it’’, no matter how much trouble it took.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I think so! Besides, just hearing about it, I can tell how hard he worked. It would be a lie if he wasn’t saved. I arrived here after repeating the same thing many times. Then, Harris-san’s hard world would end this time, and from next time he can live happily in a world where there are no Demon Kings or snowstorms. Maybe he will just stay as a fisherman, get married to the same person and have children? It seems that the world is designed to follow a somewhat similar flow…some kind of correction force…compulsion? Anyway.”
“That’s how it is… Yeah, I hope it is.”
“Yeah, that’s how it is. Just believe in me quietly. Harris’s misfortune…ends here.”
I extend my right arm forward and clench my fist tightly. There’s nothing there, but I’m sure that marked the end of such a conclusion.
“Alright, Tia.”
“Mm-hmm.”
When I stretched out my left hand, Tia took it. The last life left in the ended world. Feeling each other’s warmth, we bid farewell to the world fading into twilight.
(T/N: I might stop posting anytime by end of june, My end sems start in july)