Ch.5555. My Future Self Will Bear the Responsibility

The internal exploration went smoothly.

Since this place was set as an ancient ruin, the monsters had been struck by ancient time and only undead appeared. I brought along the “Talisman Radiating Holy Light” I had used before, so nothing posed any threat.

If anything was difficult here, it was finding the way. The passageways twisted in multiple directions with a malicious structure that made you go in circles if you got even slightly lost, and once you lost your way, it wasn’t easy to get back. But since I had memorized the entire path, it wasn’t a problem at all.

After going deep inside for quite some time, I finally saw the door leading to the final room.

There was an undead guardian blocking the way, but it too succumbed to my item’s power, so I could enter without delay.

Inside the room, an altar-like structure was prominently embedded in the center.

‘What kind of altar is this for?’

Destroying this would eliminate the apocalypse ending.

However, I didn’t know any other details beyond that. Even in the game, it only explained that destroying this would prevent the apocalypse, with no additional information provided.

Though it felt unsettling and I had many questions, there was only one thing I needed to do now.

Destroy the altar.

As long as this altar existed, the possibility of the apocalypse ending remained open, so I couldn’t leave it alone.

As I approached to destroy the altar… a system window suddenly appeared before my eyes.

[This action may attract their attention. Do you really want to proceed?]

This was a sentence that had never appeared in the game.

Attracting their attention? Who are ‘they’ supposed to be?

I couldn’t tell if this was due to the change in difficulty or because this wasn’t a game anymore.

I wasn’t sure, but drawing attention didn’t seem like a good thing.

So what should I do? Should I just leave this as it is?

‘That’s unsettling in its own way.’

This is the kind of unfair scenario where once it triggers, there’s no countermeasure—the apocalypse just arrives.

Even if the probability is extremely low, isn’t it too much that there’s no way to prevent something that gives no warning signs?

Moreover, I’ve personally experienced breaking through that probability. No matter how low the chance, I simply couldn’t feel at ease.

So my deliberation wasn’t long.

“No matter what, I have to deal with this.”

I didn’t know who “they” were, but they didn’t seem more dangerous than the apocalypse possibility right before my eyes.

Even if “they” turned out to be more dangerous than expected, my future self would bear that responsibility.

With that thought, I drew my sword.

Using a sword to break something obviously isn’t appropriate, but I’m going to use a trick, so it doesn’t matter.

This was originally a trick I planned to use to destroy the magic stone in the grand banquet hall… anyway, it’s a minor technique that can only be used on breakable objects.

The method is simple. Rush toward the target as if you’re going to collide with it, and at the exact timing, use both dodge and parry simultaneously.

“Heeyah!”

*Boom!*

Then the parry hits the stationary object, drastically reducing its durability.

In the game, this technique could only be used on designated objects, but after secretly experimenting here, I found it could be used on any structure.

I hadn’t used it before because I didn’t particularly want to break anything.

Anyway, using this trick caused cracks to form in the altar, which then began to split. It seemed the durability wasn’t particularly high, as it was almost destroyed in one go, so I just kicked it to finish breaking it.

I may not be able to level up, but my base strength is good. If I could just increase my stats, I’d grind like crazy.

‘I guess it’s a benefit that I don’t have to grind.’

There was no point in feeling regretful since nothing would change, so I decided to just think of it that way.

Growth and grinding aside, after completely destroying the altar, I felt relieved at having resolved one issue.

‘Time to head back.’

It had taken several hours just to get here.

Dealing with the undead that appeared along the way also took some time, and the map was extremely vast to begin with.

Fortunately, once the altar was destroyed, the return path would change to a straight line.

*Rumble rumble*

There was a commotion outside the room. Assuming it was the sound of the structure changing, I decided to wait patiently.

[You have prevented the apocalypse.]

[They are beginning to take interest in you.]

With that unsettling system message, the noise ceased.

When I opened the door, there was indeed a straight path remaining.

‘I should have opened it before it ended.’

I should have watched how the structure changed. My curiosity came too late.

I was safe because of it, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret.

If Celia had been here, she would have opened the door first to see. Just to watch her reaction too.

‘…Why am I suddenly thinking about Celia?’

Am I tired? All sorts of thoughts are coming to mind. I should just go back and get some sleep.

///

The imperial dinner was, of course, lavish.

But despite the luxurious meal before him, today’s emperor was merely picking at his food, and seeing this, the empress noticed something and smiled knowingly.

“You’ve decided to accept it, haven’t you? That boy.”

“…I’m already not in the mood to eat, so don’t bring up that fellow.”

“Hehe, is it really such a bad thing?”

“It means losing our Celia! How could I be happy about that?”

“Then do you have someone better in mind for her?”

At the empress’s words, the emperor closed his mouth, then awkwardly put the food he’d been picking at properly into his mouth.

Then he answered in a voice as quiet as an ant crawling.

“I… was thinking of keeping her with us forever…”

“That’s not possible. I won’t let my daughter live as a spinster.”

A father who still sees his daughter as his little princess, and a mother who has a more realistic view.

Though their tone might be a bit cold, the content of their conversation was nothing but warm.

Celia’s brothers started whispering among themselves, having roughly guessed the situation from the couple’s conversation, so Celia had to focus silently on her meal.

If Ludion himself had been present, she would have acted confidently, but strangely, she became timid when he wasn’t around.

Otherwise, there was talk about the broken magic stone, which the imperial family seemed to have decided to handle internally.

Since it was an issue resolved with the intervention of an outsider, it could become complicated if mishandled.

Ludion didn’t want to gain any merit from this incident anyway, so he would agree to handling it this way.

“I think that would be best. Ludion would prefer that to unnecessary trouble.”

After she said this, the emperor made a displeased face again, while the empress smiled contentedly.

Had she said something wrong? As Celia pondered this, the empress began to tease her.

“Already at the point of making important decisions for him? Still, you shouldn’t boss him around too much.”

“N-no! I’ve never bossed him a-around…”

“…So you have?”

“I haven’t!”

She had dragged him to various places she wanted to go whenever she had free time.

But was that really enough to call it bossing him around?

…Oh right. Lately, she’d been finding it fun to tease him and deliberately make things difficult for him.

But still. She hadn’t bossed him around. Besides, he wasn’t the type to be easily pushed around even if she tried.

She regained her composure with such self-justification. The empress was still smiling contentedly, but Celia pretended not to notice.

After dinner, Celia returned to her room and threw herself onto the bed.

Lying on the soft bed looking up at the ceiling, she reached out to grab a book as usual, but nothing was there.

“…Right. I lent it to him.”

The book that should have been there was currently borrowed by him.

It didn’t really matter. The bookshelf in her room was packed with many books, so she could just take out any of them to read.

But somehow, she didn’t feel like doing that, so she just relaxed and went limp.

‘…I used magic that I’d only seen in books.’

She reviewed the magic she had used today.

It was thrilling no matter how many times she recalled it. She never thought she’d be able to use magic she’d only seen in books so quickly.

The magic that had pierced through the demon’s abdomen, the magic that had severed its neck.

All of it utilized theories she had seen in books.

Mana and stars. Recognizing the relationship between them and using the mana of countless stars in the universe rather than the mana around her.

Mana containing the power of stars is much harder to handle than commonly used mana.

However, it has the advantage of tremendous utility, allowing for applications that would be impossible with ordinary mana.

But is it possible to bring it from such a great distance?

If asked that way, one could only answer that it’s impossible.

But what is magic? Isn’t magic about making the impossible possible?

Even if it sounds like childish nonsense, that’s what magic is.

The more impossible it sounds, the more exceptional the magic, right?

Of course, all of this was possible thanks to the favorability reward.

The “Concept Materialization” she received as a reward this time was literally a technique that allowed her to turn concepts she imagined into reality.

However, utilizing it was not an easy task.

Despite its fancy name, using it required a vast amount of magical knowledge, creativity to deeply and profoundly imagine concepts, and mana control to freely manipulate mana, among other things.

So if…

The Journey of the Stars series hadn’t included so much theoretical content to the point of excess,

Or if Celia didn’t have the genius magical talent to understand it all and make it her own,

Or if Celia didn’t have the deep fan enthusiasm to utilize it in the first place.

“Concept Materialization” would not have shown its full power and would have merely slightly increased mana utilization efficiency.

‘I just liked someone. Is it okay to receive so much?’

Unaware of this, Celia simply thought that the favorability reward had given her an absurdly powerful ability.

Does she know? That in the original work, she realized and used the techniques from the Journey of the Stars series without any favorability rewards.

That the favorability system merely accelerated what she would have eventually developed on her own.

Well, good is good. It’s not a bad thing to be able to use it earlier.

That’s when it happened. Suddenly, she couldn’t see the ceiling anymore.

The familiar blue window and text appeared.

[The target has successfully changed the future.]

[Congratulations! Your exclusive stats will grow due to the future change.]

[There is another altered future. Growth values are being adjusted.]

[Current time value: 3]

“Ah…”

So he finally did it. He prevented that apocalypse.

Another altered future must refer to the magic stone incident from today.

For some reason, she felt overwhelmed with emotion.

But at the same time, she felt bitter. For him to accomplish such a feat alone, it made her feel unnecessary.

Thinking about it, she recalled today’s demon hunt.

He could have handled it alone, but he let her take part for her experience.

That was more like a master-disciple relationship than a partnership.

‘Am I just getting in the way?’

As she was starting to feel depressed with such thoughts, she realized this wasn’t the time for that.

‘Wait. If he succeeded, that means he’ll be back soon.’

What if he came back injured again?

With such worries, she felt she should go check on him.

So she tried to get up from the bed… but at that moment, more text appeared, stopping her.

[Time value has reached 3. Related knowledge will be granted.]

[Warning. This will be accompanied by considerable pain.]

It was enough to make her momentarily confused.

“Huh?”

*Zzzzing*

As if to say she should understand through experience, pain enveloped her before she could properly grasp the situation.

She began to groan from the headache-like pain that came without permission.

“Ugh. Uuugh?!”

Even in the midst of this, it was remarkable how desperately she tried to hold back her screams, thinking that making noise would escalate the situation.

In the end, she couldn’t check if Ludion had returned safely.

She clutched her head, rolling around in pain that felt like her skull was splitting, and then passed out.