Ch.139Negotiation

Although the Demon King had promised to grant a wish if defeated, the manager suddenly went back on his word.

“Why can’t you save Leo?”

“It’s a bit complicated… just wait a moment.”

The manager put his hand on his chin, thought for a moment, then spoke.

“What do you think would happen if we turned back time?”

“I’d just go to the past.”

“And then what happens after you go to the past?”

“Well, I suppose the future would completely change, wouldn’t it?”

Even the smallest action, like buying ice cream after going back to the past, could completely alter the course of history.

But that creates the paradox where changing the future would erase the future you came from.

So unless you actually experience time travel yourself, you’ll never get a definitive answer.

“I used to think that too, but surprisingly, it follows the flow of the future.”

The manager started talking as if he’d personally experienced time travel.

“We completely turned back the world itself. In other words, we didn’t go to the past—we rewound the world to the past.”

“…Is that possible?”

“The power of a deity is truly remarkable.”

It seems this person really has experience interfering with time from the past… or is it the future? Anyway, he’s meddled with time somehow.

“But why did you turn back time?”

“Because a madman called the Demon King appeared and destroyed the world.”

Restoring a world destroyed by the Demon King—the power of a deity really is amazing.

It would have been nice if they’d used that impressive power to eliminate the Demon King earlier. While I was thinking this, the manager continued.

“Anyway, I said when you turn back the world’s time, it follows the flow of the future, right? But it’s not just following—the exact same future is inevitably recreated.”

“I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”

“People who existed before will definitely be born again. And events that happened before will occur in similar ways.

Even if we create Supernatural Powers or Divine Powers and inject them into humans, nothing changes, and history proceeds as it originally did.

That’s why we called you. We thought that if beings who never existed before intervened in history, it might completely change things.”

The manager seems to be talking about fate. At least now I understand why fate exists.

“So what does that have to do with Leo?”

“Just listen. Anyway, what you fought was the lingering soul of the first Demon King who existed before—that is, before we turned back time. Remember what I said earlier about how people who existed before will definitely be born again?”

Hearing the manager’s words, an unsettling possibility occurred to me. Could Leo have been the original Demon King?

I’d like to dismiss this as nonsense, but the Leo we just saw while fighting the Demon King looked no different from the Demon King himself.

But hearing this story raised several more questions.

“Then what exactly was the Demon King we were just fighting?”

“The lingering soul of the first Demon King.”

“So you’re saying it was Leo from the past? But can two identical souls exist in the same world?”

“From the point we turned back time, this is already a different world.”

“But you said earlier that it follows the original history.”

“Think of it as a parallel world that follows the flow of the original world.”

It’s a confusing story, but I tried to summarize it somehow.

“…Just explain it in a way I can understand.”

“According to fate, Leo was destined to become the first Demon King. Got it?”

“But why is the original lingering soul here then?”

“I told you earlier that the same future gets recreated.”

The manager let out a deep sigh before continuing.

“We tried to save people who were supposed to die by giving them Supernatural Powers or Divine Powers. But then the Demon King appeared and killed those people.

So we passed down magic from our era and tried to advance civilization as much as possible. But then the very existence of magic completely disappeared.

And the void left by the vanished magic was filled by the Supernatural Powers and Divine Powers we had passed down.

When we give something to the world, something else takes away just as much. That’s this damn fate.”

“So you’re saying that thanks to your unnecessary meddling, the Demon King was newly created, right?”

“…You really have a way with words, don’t you?”

“I saved the world as you asked, so I think I can speak however I want.”

These people forcibly brought us here and ordered us to fight in what amounted to threats, but we somehow managed to do it. So I think I have every right to speak my mind.

With that thought, I glared at the manager, who sighed even deeper than before and said:

“Yes, we tried to prevent the future Demon King and ended up creating a new one. Happy now?”

“Yes.”

“…Why are people with souls identical to yours always so irritating?”

“Thanks for the compliment. But why did Leo die before becoming the Demon King?”

“I told you that when something is created, something else disappears. Since the first Demon King’s lingering soul appeared, all the power Leo would have had went there. And Leo filled that void with his lifespan.”

Hoisted by their own petard. Serves them right. The manager added:

“Anyway, that’s why we can’t save Leo. If we save him and the disaster that happened back then happens again…”

The manager trailed off, as if he couldn’t bear to even imagine what had happened. What on earth occurred to make him react like this?

“But since I have the same soul as Leo, isn’t there a possibility I could suddenly become the Demon King too?”

“That’s why we gave you a body so weak you could lose to a passing middle schooler.”

“But there’s still a possibility, right?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve installed all kinds of protective measures in your body to prevent that.”

“…You don’t happen to have installed a self-destruct device or something in my body, do you?”

“We did.”

Suddenly, goosebumps spread all over my body. Unlike the Goddess, this person isn’t purely good.

As I broke into a cold sweat, the manager made a chilling statement.

“Don’t worry, we’ll never trigger it as long as you don’t become the Demon King.”

If I come back to life, I’ll never do anything that might make me the Demon King. Never.

Anyway, that seems to be why the manager said he couldn’t save Leo. But is there really no way to save him?

“…What’s happened to fate now?”

“It’s completely derailed. The being who was supposed to become the Demon King is gone, after all.”

“Then what would happen if Leo came back to life in this state?”

“This is no longer a parallel world derived from the original world—it’s a new world. How would I know the future?”

“Then there’s a possibility that Leo won’t become the Demon King, right?”

If the future followed its course, Leo would have become the Demon King, but now there is no such future here. So even if he comes back to life, it shouldn’t matter.

With that hope, I spoke to the manager, but all I got was a cold response.

“I still want to eliminate unnecessary possibilities.”

But it’s not over yet. There’s no time limit anymore, so if necessary, I’ll keep trying to persuade him forever.

“What if we just make Leo extremely weak like me? Put a self-destruct device in his body, turn him into a woman, and so on.”

“What if fate suddenly reappears due to some external factor and Leo becomes the Demon King?”

“That’s why we put in the self-destruct device, right?”

“That works for you because you’re from another world, but it might not work for us who share the same fate.”

The more we talk, the more malice I hear in the manager’s voice. Does he hate Leo that much?

“Do you have some kind of grudge against Leo?”

“Thanks to him destroying the world before, I’ve been wandering around for hundreds of years.”

“But you said earlier that the Leo from before and the Leo now are different beings.”

“Their essence is the same.”

Now the manager was glaring at me too. Why is he acting like this when I genuinely tried to help?

“But why did Leo become the Demon King before?”

“His soul was gradually corrupted by evil spirits after his close comrade died and his lover died too.”

“Then what if we save his lover and prevent the evil spirits from approaching him?”

“To be honest, I just don’t like him. He’s the reason I’ve been through all this crap—why should I save him?”

“Then you shouldn’t have promised to grant a wish.”

“…You’re both such a pain in the ass.”

The manager took an incredibly deep breath and said in a voice full of discontent:

“Damn it… looks like I’ll be working another 100 years.”

“Why suddenly?”

“I’ll have to keep monitoring that bastard Leo until he dies to make sure he doesn’t do anything strange.”

Surprisingly, the negotiation ended more easily than expected. Well, I was planning to argue until it worked out anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

Anyway, as I was savoring the joy of victory, the manager asked me:

“So what exactly is your wish?”

And I told him the wish I had already decided on.

“To bring back me, Leo, and the saint that Leo loved.”

***

I asked the Goddess to drop me into hell rather than heaven. After being stained with so much blood, I didn’t have the face to go to heaven.

So while waiting for the judgment that would come to me, suddenly my body began to fill with vitality.

My body feels light without the aid of drugs or magic, and there’s no pain anywhere.

Thinking that perhaps the demons of hell were about to destroy this body, I opened my eyes and saw a familiar scene.

Collapsed ruins, traces of battle everywhere, and floors that had completely disappeared.

This is the place where I fought my last battle—it seems to be reality.

“…Goddammit.”

Come to think of it, I definitely asked to be sent to hell. The Goddess seems to have granted that request.

Living alone in this cursed world, crushed by guilt until death—this is indeed the hell most fitting for me.

But I’m just tired now. I’ve lost all purpose and truly have no will to live. So I tried to commit suicide, but for some reason, I can’t create a sword with my Supernatural Power.

So I was about to strike my vital point with my bare hands to escape this hell when—

“Hero?”

A truly longed-for voice came from behind me.

But this voice cannot possibly exist. How can it exist in reality when dead people never come back?

That’s what I thought logically, but instinctively I turned my head toward the voice.

And there, before my eyes, was a person who absolutely couldn’t exist in this world—the person I truly loved.

I don’t understand why Zoe is here. But I don’t deserve to go to her. How could I shamelessly face her with so much blood on my hands?

However, contrary to my thoughts, my body was gradually approaching Zoe.

I’ve already committed enough sins—terrible sins that can never be forgiven—so I’m nothing but a disgusting sinner who can never be forgiven.

But if that’s the case, if I’m just a sinner, wouldn’t it be okay to commit a little more sin?

If my soul is going to rot in hell forever anyway, it doesn’t matter how many more sins I commit.

So I ran to this being who was too good for me, and embraced them tightly.

“Hic… hnngh…”

There’s a mountain of things I want to say, but perhaps the human warmth I felt after so long melted my frozen tears, because all that came out were tears.

So I silently felt with my whole body the truly warm human touch that I thought I would never feel again.

Finally, my—our—cursed journey has ended.