The Heart and Blade That Only I Possess

It was Kyle who was especially surprised by Lete’s sudden remark.

It wasn’t simply because she had bluntly revealed in front of Sylvia that he could be presumed to be a regressor.

No, of course, that was also a reason, but it wasn’t enough to be so surprised.

The reason he was so surprised was the expression ‘you’ in the sentence Lete had uttered.

‘You? What does that mean? As if Sylvia has gone through the same thing as me.’

Kyle is a regressor. It’s a truth that’s not even surprising anymore.

To correct the flawed past, he returned here, trying not to repeat the same mistakes and carefully moving forward step by step.

But Kyle thought it was all his own doing.

In a way, it’s natural.

It’s hard to imagine that there would be anyone else besides him who has experienced this phenomenon, which could be described as a miracle of God.

“Since there’s no time to waste while you’re flustered, I’ll continue with the explanation. Is that alright?”

“…Yes.”

Lete, who was smirking at his dumbfounded expression, opened her mouth, and Sylvia answered in place of Kyle.

She didn’t seem as surprised as Kyle.

As if she had encountered something she had foreseen, she was a little shaken, but very calm.

“To put it simply, God does not rule over just one world. And most of the worlds were destroyed by Erze. Yes, to borrow your expression, should I call it a parallel world?”

Parallel world.

The two weren’t fools enough not to know what that word meant, so they blinked with their mouths open.

In the first place, the regression that the two experienced was, in a broad sense, no different from coming to a parallel world.

Of course, the theories about time travel and parallel worlds are still controversial in the magical academic world, and it would be difficult to say for sure because they haven’t been proven.

But at least the two of them had personally experienced a case where they could believe those words.

“And in any world, I couldn’t stop Erze. The fragment I left behind always fell into Erze’s hands, and rather, it ended up strengthening her power.”

“Then shouldn’t you just not leave a fragment behind?”

“That’s the truly paradoxical part. If I hadn’t done that, I could have at least delayed the destruction by Erze. But that doesn’t stop Erze. Eventually, in any world, Erze led the world to destruction.”

In other words, it’s an either-or choice between holding a shield and crouching against a strong enemy, or holding a sword and fighting back.

If Lete hadn’t left the Eyes of Dawn and left the world as it was, it would have taken Erze longer to kill Lete, gain her power, and completely take control of the world.

But that’s only a matter of time.

Rather, Lete was looking for a hero to defeat Erze by leaving her fragment behind and using it as a sword, even if it meant gambling to accelerate the destruction of the world.

“That’s why I had no choice but to guide you so that you could find me and reach the truth. No, to be exact, Kyle Lionheart. I had no choice but to change the future so that you would protect this child.”

“Are you saying that it was your intention that I ended up protecting Sylvia?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, could it be that even that…?’

“…Yes.”

When he asked in a disbelieving tone, the answer came back after a moment of silence.

At that moment, Kyle’s eyes widened without measure.

Reflexively, his fist clenches.

It’s not just because he’s angry that he was played like a doll according to her machinations.

In the end, Kyle was able to protect Sylvia as she wished, and he was able to reach this truth.

He is grateful for that in itself.

However, he was furious when he remembered the nightmare he had to leave Sylvia with and the harsh memories he had to endure because of it.

“Why… was that the only way? Why did it have to be me and Sylvia?”

“Because I had to entrust it to the one with the largest vessel of soul. To the one who can endure even after receiving my fragment.”

“Is that all the reason? The pain Sylvia had to endure in the past because of your unilateral thinking…!”

“Kyle!”

He flinched.

As his voice, which had been getting louder and louder, reached the ceiling, Sylvia called out his name as if to stop him.

“…I’m okay. Of course, it would be a lie if I said that the past memories weren’t sad and difficult, but I’m okay if it was for the sake of the greater good. So, you don’t have to be angry on my behalf.”

“Sylvia…”

At her firm but gentle persuasion, Kyle barely released the strength in his fist and closed his eyes tightly.

Then, he opened his eyes again and looked at the goddess in front of him.

“To be honest, I can’t believe it. Are you really saying that all the things I experienced that day were done under your direction?”

“Yes, it’s hard to believe easily. Instead, I’ll show you the proof.”

Lete placed her hand on her chest towards him, who was asking for the truth.

Then, a white light enveloped her, and she transformed into another figure.

The moment they witnessed it, Kyle and Sylvia had to fall into a sensation as if they were being struck in the back of the head.

The one standing there was none other than a member of the Eyes of Dawn, who had driven the two to their deaths.

However, they couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a robe.

As if to put an end to that question, the man in the robe kindly lifted the hat part, answering instead.

“You’re…”

There were some differences in the scar on his face and the slightly thinner cheeks, but the moment Kyle saw the man, he could quickly guess who he was.

“…It’s the first time I’ve seen you like this. Kyle Lionheart. No, I should say ‘me’.”

That’s right.

The man was definitely Kyle Lionheart.

But his voice was quite different from Kyle’s now.

Unlike his clean, mid-bass voice, the other person’s voice had a strong husky feel, as if it was slightly scratched, like the man he had encountered before the regression.

“Sorry for the trouble. To you, and to Princess Eleanor. I’ve done a terrible thing.”

“…Are you telling me to believe this?”

“There’s nothing I can do even if you don’t believe it. This is the truth, and it’s the reality you have to face and move forward with.”

“Ha, haha…”

Kyle burst out laughing as if he was dumbfounded.

So, you’re saying that his other worldline self drove him and Sylvia to their deaths and made them come all the way here?

To be exact, it was Lete’s doing behind the scenes, but in the end, it was none other than himself who did it.

“In order to protect you, or rather, Princess Eleanor, and to get you here, this was the only way. For you to have Princess Eleanor in your heart, and for her to have you in her heart as well. I thought that was the only way you could lean on each other and move forward.”

“So, the mission at that time was also put in with the intention of not wanting to achieve it from the beginning.”

“Yes, I was just trying to increase the amount of time you had with Princess Eleanor as much as possible. I already knew that you were going to give up the mission and choose Princess Eleanor.”

In other words, he was trying to create the driving force to move forward by making them look into each other’s eyes and love each other.

Sylvia hadn’t foreseen this far either, so she was just listening to the words of another Kyle with a dumbfounded expression.

“Then why did you have to kill us? If you had just left us alone…”

“There were several reasons. If I had to pick one, it would be to buy time.”

“…So you regressed us to the past?”

“No, to be exact, it wasn’t me and Goddess Lete who regressed you to the past. It’s the power of Princess Eleanor over there.”

At that moment, Kyle and Sylvia’s eyes met.

To be exact, Kyle’s gaze was directed at the red fragment engraved in Sylvia’s right eye.

“In order for that eye to regain its perfect power, I had no choice but to give it that much shock. And that gamble was successful. Thanks to that, you and Princess Eleanor were able to return here together.”

“I see. Could it be that even the secret manual you gave me…”

“Since we have the same body, the solution was simple.”

Kyle recalled that he was able to control magic freely after reading the secret manual about black magic that he had given him, and he was able to understand the inside story.

No matter how much black magic it was, he had always wondered where the power to fix him, who was born unable to handle magic, was.

But it turns out it wasn’t black magic.

It’s just that he knew the method because he was Kyle Lionheart like himself.

And he must have done such a trick to give himself strength.

“So you’re me from another world?”

“Yes, to be exact, I’m already dead. I’m just a corpse that was barely moving with a piece of soul torn by Goddess Lete.”

“That’s strange. I know very well that I’m not a great person who would throw my body like that for the sake of the greater good.”

“I’m surprised myself. But things in the world don’t always go as expected.”

Without bringing up any plausible stories, or even mentioning any topics that could be a trigger.

Looking at him shrugging his shoulders as if nothing had happened, Kyle clearly recognized that the other person was himself.

Because Kyle Lionheart is originally that kind of person.

“I’ve told you the truth, so I guess I can leave now. Listen to the rest from Goddess Lete.”

“…Are you disappearing?”

“Yes, that was just my duty. I’ve done my duty, so I don’t need it anymore.”

It seems that what was supporting him was not only Lete’s power, but also a kind of thought.

And now that he has finally achieved it, he is trying to disappear like this.

Watching another version of himself gradually fading away, Kyle clenched his fist.

He has a lot to say, and there are a lot of things he wants to ask, but he couldn’t bring himself to open his lips.

But if there’s just one thing he wants to ask.

“…Did you love Sylvia too?”

This would be the only one.

At those words, another Kyle silently looked at himself who had walked all the way here, smiled bitterly, and shook his head.

“You fool. If I had, things would have been easier. In the first place, my biggest task was to make you love Princess Eleanor.”

“……”

“So don’t worry, Kyle Lionheart.”

Then, he pointed to Kyle’s chest with his finger and said his last words.

“What you have inside is a blade that only you can have in countless world lines. Protect Princess Eleanor with it.”

“…Okay.”

When he heard those words, Kyle felt something welling up inside him, but he nodded, trying not to show it.

Paaat.

Thus, another hero who had told all the truth finally disappeared.