Chapter 7 – I Will Survive, Hey, Hey!
If earlier my heart had been racing from the fear of losing track of the future I knew, now it pumped furiously in anticipation of a new possibility.
Mayer focused his gaze on me unblinkingly. Had he noticed that my heart had been shaken? “I need you to defeat the demon lord. Please, work with me to bring justice and fight evil,” he said in a murmur.
“…Why me, of all people?” I asked, my tone shrewd. This was something I had to clarify. “Because I have memories of the first playthrough? Because I’m a support mage who’s more capable than you expected? But you must’ve been unaware of these factors when Your Excellency decided to rescue me. So I must ask: why did you?”
Feeling as if the dizziness in my head had suddenly been washed away by cold water, I tried to visualize the situation as objectively as possible. True, I did feel betrayed by Fabian, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand why he did so. He must have thought it was the best option toward achieving victory against the demon lord. While I couldn’t blame Fabian for his criminal decision, that didn’t mean I wasn’t angry.
He couldn’t imagine leaving me out of the expedition? My foot! He shouldn’t have said something like that in the first place! The feeling of being fooled by the empty promises that were typical of a protagonist was just as bad as being scammed by a trusted acquaintance. Its effect on me was quite large—pessimism had replaced my love for mankind.
In any case, it would benefit me to accept Mayer’s proposal if I wanted to act on the front lines as an expedition member. However… I still couldn’t figure out why he had chosen me. What use did he see on me, when even Fabian had thrown me away?
“I see that you underestimate your worth. You will be of more use to me than you think; this I guarantee,” Mayer suddenly said as if hearing my thoughts. He didn’t give me a specific reason, however; it seemed we weren’t close enough to share thoughts. My use… indeed, I could be very useful. Much more than Fabian knew, and Mayer guessed. I was confident that, should I decide to fully support him, Fabian would never be able to beat the duke.
By using the game walkthrough I knew, the information gained from the player perspective distinctive of a possessor, and my skills as a support magic specialist, victory in the battle against the demon lord would surely be Mayer’s.
But would this be okay? I hesitated not out of guilt for stealing the protagonist’s position; I just worried whether I could reach the final ending with the one supposed to become the final boss. Choosing Mayer meant exchanging a certain future for an uncertain one. Then again, it wasn’t set in stone that Fabian could reach the true ending either. The path to the true ending was a difficult one, to begin with. Even when it was played as a game, it was a path of suffering that required many challenges. The only reason Fabian was able to clear the first playthrough was because of me and the knowledge I held.
But it would be a grave mistake to expect the second playthrough to go the same way as the first. Fabian had likely abandoned me under the assumption that I had already given him all the information I had; that was a huge miscalculation on his part. Everything I told him was about the first iteration and that didn’t include dungeons and items that weren’t related to his expedition corps. Because of that mistake, he would fail to complete the second playthrough. I was so certain of this, I could even call it a prophecy. I did feel uneasy leaving the future of this world in Fabian’s hands, though…
Anyway, I now had a choice to make between a certain future that was out of my control and an uncertain future where I’d be the one behind the wheel. I had the feeling the stress of that choice would give me an ulcer.
While I was chewing my lips, conflicted, a shadow of a smile appeared on the duke’s face. “I also feel curious… Curious of where your limits lie, how much you know…” he wondered aloud and my heart jumped at his meaningful tone. He didn’t seem to be talking about the information I knew about the first playthrough… Had he noticed something else? Could it be that he had found out that I tried to assassinate him?
…Yeah, I had tried to kill Mayer Knox in the first playthrough. And it wasn’t just once.