Ch.126126. Retry

Aria Rius.

She was the protagonist of a game called Retry, a girl who grew up in a small mountain village, loved by many.

Her character background was quite detailed as released by the game company, and her appearance was impressively small and cute.

As you play the game, you naturally fall for her bubbly charm and cute behavior, but.

If you ask whether Retry was successful as a game, it wasn’t.

Rather.

It couldn’t have failed more spectacularly.

What they call a backstabbing game. It became notorious as a game that inflicted emotional damage on players by combining cheerful characters with the worst possible world setting.

The gameplay itself could be considered quite excellent, but.

That terrible world setting and depressing story didn’t blend together as harmoniously as intended.

Additionally, the most irritating thing was the attitude of the protagonist, Aria Rius.

She overcomes whatever happens.

The girl always despairs and falls to her knees, but eventually gets back up again.

And at the end, she smiles brightly.

That felt too jarring to players and created a sense of rejection.

Nevertheless, I had no choice but to continue playing such a game. Even after seeing the ending several times, I kept going back to see it again.

That was all I could do.

“The previous cycle?”

Aria hesitated for a moment as if wondering what I meant, but after a brief pause, she exclaimed and opened her mouth.

“Oh right! Yes! In the first cycle.”

Taking a deep breath, Aria answered with a hint of regret.

“Everyone died in the end. As you know, Professor, there are some outcomes in this world that cannot be avoided.”

“……”

“Where should I begin?”

And so began Aria’s somewhat disorganized and poorly structured.

Story of the first cycle.

* * *

The Professor came to see me at the end of my second year.

It was just before the winter break of my second year was about to begin.

At that time, the Professor was hospitalized, but he insisted on seeing me and came with Professor Erika’s guidance.

“Aria Rius.”

Looking at me with a haggard appearance, the Professor exhaled roughly while sitting in a wheelchair.

“Yes?”

“Winter break is about to start. Where are you planning to go?”

It was such an unexpected question that I was a bit taken aback.

“I’m going home. But, who are you?”

“Tsk!”

The Professor clicked his tongue and weakly struck the wheelchair with his fist. It seemed less intentional and more like that was all the strength he could muster.

“Go to the Sahar Desert immediately. Now, in winter, is the optimal time. Find Hin, the master of the Salt Blade, and become his disciple. With your talent, you should be able to learn everything during the winter break.”

“What?”

I thought it was completely out of nowhere.

I was just planning to go home and eat stew with my family!

“It’s for your own good. Erika will accompany you, so go together.”

“But, suddenly saying such things…”

“Spring of your third year. You’ll surely be glad you listened to me. So hurry!”

Looking back now, I think the main reason I followed his words was because Professor Erika asked me separately afterward.

I heard he had something like a split personality and often attempted suicide.

Since it was like a last request from someone like that, I decided to follow it just this once when she asked.

After leaving the kingdom, passing through the Marias Forest, and arriving at the Sahar Desert, I really did meet Master Hin, the Salt Blade expert, and trained with him.

Just as the Professor had said, if I brought a broken yellow crystal flower, he would accept me, and it was true.

I also discovered my talent. It turns out I had quite a knack for swordsmanship!

And.

Surprisingly.

In the spring of my third year.

During that fresh, vibrant time, an opportunity came for my Salt Blade skills to shine, as if it had been waiting for me.

At the Spring Flower Festival in Robern.

A yeti brought by a circus troupe went on a rampage, and I saved my friend Forentia from danger!

If I hadn’t learned the Salt Blade, Forentia would surely have been seriously injured or might even have died.

I went to visit Professor Deus in the hospital and told him about it.

The Professor responded very calmly with one sentence.

“So you avoided the Forentia death route.”

“Pardon?”

At the time, I didn’t understand what he meant, but the Professor immediately gave his next instruction.

“You need to rank first in the midterm exams. To do that…”

It seemed a bit random, but getting first place in the midterms wasn’t a bad thing for me either, so I followed his advice.

Surprisingly, the top student in each grade’s midterm exam was given a private audience with the Saintess who was visiting Robern at that time.

Professor Deus made me memorize certain things to say during that meeting, and I followed his instructions exactly.

It was quite amazing.

I got to meet the Saintess privately and became close with her!

After that, everything continued to progress smoothly according to the Professor’s words.

Leorus became a master of the spear.

He also became proficient in water attribute magic and always did his best in our battle formation.

Happy started using something called a magic power gun from the Republic of Clark and improved tremendously.

Forentia’s magical abilities became top-tier, comparable even to Princess Elenoa’s within the academy.

Jin broke away from his family affairs.

Rather than being from an assassin family, he showed his versatile abilities as an ordinary person while staying with us.

I thought everything was going smoothly. When I followed the Professor’s instructions, things really did resolve in the best possible way.

From his hospital bed, he always gave instructions, and when I returned after resolving issues as he said, he would nod as if it were only natural and give the next order.

Then.

During the winter break of my third year.

Exactly one year after we had met.

He made a request of me.

“Find a Black Mage. Specifically, a Spiritmaster.”

It was the first time.

It was the first time Professor Deus, who had always given orders, made a request without any information.

“This winter break, there’s little to gain from your usual activities. So it doesn’t matter if you do something different.”

As he said this, Professor Deus’s body had grown thinner, and the scars from cutting his wrists had multiplied.

According to Professor Erika, he had started attempting self-harm with the injections given by nurses.

He also frequently screamed that the owner of his body was different.

My friends and I eventually set out to find a Spiritmaster. It was quite difficult, but with the Saintess’s help, we finally found one.

“Yes, I knew this day would come eventually.”

An adult woman wearing a black robe with purple eyes.

The Spiritmaster, who covered her face below the nose with a semi-transparent black cloth, met her death with a dejected voice.

“Perhaps there was never an end after all.”

Her voice, filled with empty lamentation, gave us an uneasy feeling that we were doing something we shouldn’t.

But anyway.

The Spiritmaster died, and we gave the Professor a book she had written on the basics of spirit magic.

One month later.

Exactly one month later.

The Professor was discharged from the hospital.

He said he had completely eliminated the other personality inside him.

At the time, I didn’t understand what that meant at all.

“From now on, I’ll accompany you all.”

He began to act with us as our guardian. By that time, I had tremendous trust in the Professor.

Thanks to him, I had escaped death several times, and he always gave me exactly the abilities I needed before incidents occurred.

But even such a Professor always seemed anxious.

Even when I properly carried out his orders, the Professor didn’t show happiness.

Instead, he would bite his lip and always repeat the same words.

“We can’t continue like this.”

Why?

Why was the Professor always dissatisfied even though I did my best to follow his instructions?

Time continued to flow.

Spring of my fourth year.

Professor Deus married Professor Erika.

However, the wedding was quite modest, and it felt more like Professor Deus did it out of necessity rather than love.

The Verdi family didn’t like Professor Deus, so he said he needed to form a connection with the Bright family to avoid being abandoned by his own family.

Still, Professor Erika didn’t regret it. Having nursed him through his illness, she truly loved Professor Deus.

And I think I was a bit jealous too.

I felt like I had lost the Professor, who always worried about me and made the best choices for me, to someone else.

Perhaps that’s why.

I always wanted to be acknowledged by the Professor. No matter what great deed I accomplished or what powerful enemy I defeated, he would calmly listen as if it were expected and move on to the next topic.

“Subdue Dante, but don’t kill their leader. Accept some sacrifices.”

The Black Mage group we had confronted several times. Their purpose was unknown, but they claimed to fight for the salvation of the continent.

I thought this was my chance.

I thought I could resolve it better than the Professor wanted.

When Dante’s leader took my friends hostage.

I didn’t hesitate to behead Dante’s leader. Everyone would have been in danger otherwise.

Thus, Dante was destroyed.

Their goal was truly far-fetched, but they certainly had the power to achieve it.

When the Professor heard this story.

Bang!

After striking the desk hard once, he gestured.

“Get out.”

“P-Professor?”

“Just get out. You don’t need to come see me anymore.”

Why did he react that way?

Considering all the evil deeds Dante had committed, eliminating them seemed like the natural thing to do.

“Is it because I killed their leader? But if I hadn’t, my friends would have been in danger!”

“What does that matter!”

Crash!

Once again.

The Professor shouted as he violently struck the desk.

“For you in the first cycle to save this world, you should have accepted that level of damage! Some sacrifices are inevitable to avoid the end of this cursed world!”

“First cycle? What? What do you mean?”

“If you had just followed my words, that would have been enough!”

Professor Deus said as he wiped his forehead with his hand.

“It’s over.”

The Professor is truly a mysterious person.

Everything happens exactly as he says.

Indeed, within a few weeks, the continent became a sight that could only be described as hell.

Because there was no longer any place for the dead to rest on the continent.

The dead did not sleep but woke up and began to wander the continent.

Evil spirits who died with grudges easily killed the living.

Neighboring countries could deal with it temporarily because they had some knowledge of Black Magic, but too many people were dying, so they gradually collapsed as well.

Naturally, the kingdom that lost its function first and instantaneously was.

The Griffin Kingdom, which had unconditionally rejected Black Magic.

People dying helplessly.

Neither mages, knights, nor priests.

The kingdom fell without being able to respond to the numerous evil spirits.

Those killed by evil spirits also became evil spirits themselves, pouring out their resentment on both the dead and the living.

And finally.

The Professor fought against the evil spirits to protect me, whom he called the last hope until the end.

After all, the Professor, as a Spiritmaster, was one of the few who could fight back.

Even abandoning his fiancée.

That silhouette of him saving me.

But because he was physically weak from the beginning, and he had learned spirit magic late and through self-study.

The Professor looked at me as his heart was pierced by an evil spirit.

“If there’s a next time for you, then…”

That was the end.

The Professor was overcome by evil spirits, and I too closed my eyes, unable to defeat these transcendent beings.

‘If I had listened to the Professor, could I have saved everyone?’

With such regret.

It began again.