Setting Error

The thought that an inexplicable contradiction existed even for Roel gave me the creeps.

All this time, I’d been thinking Roel might have regressed. Maybe the contradiction Raelran-nim mentioned could be a clue to explain Roel’s regression.

But not fully trusting Raelran-nim’s words, I asked with a bit of wariness.

,Surely, you’ve found a contradiction in Roel too?”

Raelran-nim chuckled coldly at my question.

,You don’t think Illia was wandering around an empty place for no reason and just happened to find you, do you?”

I frowned at Raelran-nim’s question. It sounded like Illia saving me was a planned event.

But the more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed. From the start, even I, who created the passage, didn’t know it led here, so how could Roel know I’d arrive there and send Illia in advance? It couldn’t be explained without coincidence. Illia even tried to kill me, mistaking me for a demon.

When I told Raelran-nim about this, he stroked his chin with a strange smile.

,That’s why I said it’s an inexplicable contradiction. So, my guess is right. Huhu, it seems Roel is likely to be the most dangerous existence for you.”

,Raelran-nim. Explain it properly. What the hell is going on?”

At my urging, Raelran-nim sighed softly and nodded, starting to explain.

,Before you appeared, Roel suddenly trembled like he’d been struck by lightning, then abruptly canceled all his schedules and left this place, saying he was searching the surroundings with Illia, without even revealing his destination.”

,Searching…?”

,Yes, he headed straight to where you were with Illia. I don’t know how Roel knew you were there, but it was clearly a deliberate act to save you.”

At Raelran-nim’s words, I ran a hand down my face. How did Roel know about me, who came from another world? Is there some way Roel could find out my location…? An unpleasant sense of unease stirred in my chest.

Raelran-nim continued his explanation.

,When Roel brought you back unconscious, Conrad and I naturally thought you were a demon disguised as Roel, but… Roel was convinced you weren’t a demon, but an ordinary person. That’s the inexplicable contradiction of Roel I was talking about.”

I think I finally understood what Raelran-nim meant by Roel’s inexplicable contradiction. Even if finding me was explained as a coincidence, the reaction afterward was evidence of the contradiction.

Raelran-nim and Conrad, who saw me, who had died at Roel’s hand, alive and well after several years before the impending doom, naturally thought my existence was a demon’s trick or that some trap was hidden, and were very wary. From my perspective, it was a bit disappointing, but that was the normal reaction.

But Roel suddenly insisted that I, who had appeared after several years, was not a demon, but his younger sibling. Why didn’t Roel have any doubts about me in a situation where the sibling he had killed with his own hands had come back to life after several years? Could it be that Roel has some secret that makes it unnecessary to doubt my existence…?

As I moistened my dry lips with saliva, Raelran-nim read my expression and, judging that the explanation was sufficient, brought up another topic.

,I have a few questions to ask. It’s important for deciding what we need to do in the future, so I’d like you to concentrate and answer.”

At Raelran-nim’s words, I pushed the questions about Roel into a corner of my mind and nodded. Satisfied with my focused appearance, Raelran-nim asked.

,It doesn’t seem like you came to this world by design, am I right?”

Had he noticed even that? Well, I didn’t even know what year it was and showed that I mistook it for the original world, so it’s understandable. I nodded.

,By chance, I was trapped in a dimensional rift and came here by accident while looking for a way out. To be honest, I never even thought other worlds existed.”

Being possessed by a novel is complicated enough, but the fact that there are places with different world lines is truly unexpected. This doesn’t even exist in the scrapped settings.

Raelran-nim asked with a suspicious voice.

,There is a way to return to the original world you lived in, right?”

,When this rune wrapped around my wrist turns green, I can create a passage back to the original world.”

To add credibility, I raised my left wrist and showed Raelran-nim the circular runes, but for some reason, Raelran-nim narrowed his eyes and glared at me.

,…I don’t see anything on your wrist. I don’t feel any magical flow either.”

,Huh…? That can’t be right? It’s so clearly visible.”

To see if the runes were really invisible, Raelran-nim even took out a staff from his pocket and used some magic on my wrist. As something like steam gently wrapped around my wrist and slowly disappeared, Raelran-nim asked in an annoyed voice.

,Does it… really exist?”

I shrugged at the suspicious look.

,I’m not lying.”

,Is it a type of magic that isn’t visible to others except the user…? As expected, the new master is full of unknowns. I should investigate that magic in detail later.”

Raelran-nim, who had been shining his eyes with interest, scratched his temple as if organizing his thoughts, then suddenly asked me.

,What are you most curious about right now? Don’t hesitate and say whatever comes to mind.”

I was flustered by Raelran-nim’s sudden request, but I immediately blurted out what came to mind as instructed.

,I’m curious about how Roel lost his arm and why the world is going to be destroyed even though the Demon King is dead.”

Raelran-nim smiled ambiguously at my question and said.

,To come up with questions that cut to the chase in an instant… Is it because you have a great intuition? Or do you have a special talent for reading the flow?”

Raelran-nim, who was muttering to himself with incomprehensible words, chuckled and answered my question.

,It was two questions, but since the stories are connected, I’ll explain them at once. The Pontiff revealed himself to us right after the Demon King died and Roel’s hero party returned. All this time, the Pontiff of the Chaos Church had disguised himself with death, deceiving all of us and secretly preparing to summon ‘that being,’ the faith of the cult.”

The Pontiff must have believed in the god of the Chaos Church, of course. But the summoning would have been impossible. The god who would answer the call didn’t exist anywhere in the first place. The Chaos Church was a cult, after all.

But at the next words I heard, I felt like time had stopped for a moment.

,The Pontiff who revealed himself to us had already summoned a god into his body. That’s why Roel-“

,W-wait a minute! A god was summoned?”

At my urgent question, Raelran-nim nodded, observing my expression with sharp eyes.

,Yes, it’s certain. The Pontiff killed the survivors with a single blow with tremendous power different from before. If it weren’t for Roel, there would have been no survivors. Roel lost his arm in the fight with the Pontiff. We retreated, and the Pontiff created the Chaos Worm to destroy the world. And he was planning to gather the light of the sun and moon with the power of God to plunge the whole world into chaos. Ellie sacrificed herself to divide the chaotic sky created by the Pontiff, but in the end, it only bought us some time. Ellie’s magic is being swept away by the chaos and disappearing.”

,No way….”

I was curious about who this Ellie person was who divided the sky, but more than that, I couldn’t believe that a god had been summoned into the Pontiff’s body. The Chaos Church is simply a mid-boss created for Roel’s growth and a cult. I had never even considered what their faith was, and I hadn’t bothered to create a setting for the god of the Chaos Church. The Chaos Church was born by adding words about religion that I had picked up somewhere.

How could a non-existent god be summoned into the Pontiff’s body…? Suddenly, an ominous sense of unease flickered in my mind. With a hunch, I took out the setting book and checked for clues to resolve the unease in my head.

Seeing me like that, Raelran-nim asked with a puzzled voice.

,What are you doing alone, talking to the air…?”

Despite Raelran-nim’s question, I silently checked the setting book. And finally, after checking the setting book to the end, I had no choice but to distort my face.

,It’s not there….”

I had thought until now that the Chaos Church was simply a cult. But as a result of checking the setting book, the word ‘cult’ did not appear anywhere in the novel. Only I, the author, had recognized it that way.

Then everything is explained. The reason why the Pontiff could summon a non-existent god….

The Pontiff and Konfushion fought Roel with the power they got from the god of the Chaos Church. Of course, I, who thought it was fake, had never considered the source of that power. But since the novel didn’t say that the power was false, this becomes a setting error.

If causality worked to eliminate that setting error, what would happen? It’s very simple.

Causality makes the god that the Chaos Church believes in, ‘that being,’ exist. If the existence of God is true, then the strength of the Pontiff and Konfushion gains causality with the explanation that they received power from God, as the Pontiff said.