Chapter 67: At the End of Despair (9)

[67] 9. At the End of Despair (9)

The boy pretended to gag.

“Ugh, that’s so cheesy.”

At that, Rem and Parsley’s faces flushed as they turned to the boy.

He said with a sullen look on his face,

“This is that idiot?”

“Y-Yeah…”

Parsley, her face red, barely managed to nod. Rem, on the other hand, was pale as he looked at the boy.

“Me…?”

Then, he suddenly hid behind a rock.

Everyone stared at him in bewilderment.

“…Rem, what are you doing?”

“T-Time paradox…! W-We have to hide…!”

“…That doesn’t apply to parallel worlds.”

At *my* words, Rem peeked out from behind the rock. He frowned.

“What do you mean…?”

“If it did apply, then this space-time would have already collapsed, and we’d cease to exist.”

Rem’s face went blank. They say that couples start to resemble each other. Now he’s making the same face as Parsley.

“Anyway, now that this is taken care of, go back to your original world. I’ll open the ‘door.’”

Pushing aside my useless thoughts, I drew a line in the air.

Then, just like when Rem had appeared, the space rippled. The ripples soon formed a rectangular shape.

Rem and Parsley stared at it, their eyes wide with shock.

“Just who the hell are you…?”

It was Parsley who asked.

It was a question I had heard so many times that it didn’t even faze me.

“Just a civil servant. Working under an asshole geezer.”

“That doesn’t even make…”

“No more questions. I can’t tell you, and I don’t even have the time. I don’t know about the young man, but that young lady’s body is on the verge of collapsing.”

As if hit where it hurt, Parsley shuddered.

Then, getting up, she took Rem’s hand and walked towards the ‘ripples’ without a word.

“…Thank you. For telling me to live.”

Just before entering the ripple, Parsley turned to look at the boy and spoke. The boy replied with a slight smile.

“It’s nothing. Now, hurry up and go.”

Parsley smiled faintly and then looked at me.

“… You too.”

“I was just doing my job.”

I shrugged.

Parsley smiled brightly and turned, stepping into the ‘ripples’.

And then, just before she disappeared completely…

“Wait.”

Parsley and Rem turned to look at me.

Scratching my head, I said,

“If you’re really that grateful, would you mind doing me a favor?”

Confused looks appeared on their faces, a gaze that seemed to be urging me to hurry up and spit it out.

“It’s nothing much, really, I just wanted you to give my regards to a colleague of mine who works in your world.”

“…Who?”

I hesitated for a moment before answering

I’m wondering if this would create an unnecessary variable.

But then I just decided to say it.

Their world was half-fucked anyway, thanks to a crazy goddess.

“Chloe.”

“Just a name doesn’t…”

“She’s more commonly known as the Demon King in your world.”

***

After Rem and Parsley had left,

I looked down at the boy and couldn’t help but feel a bit baffled.

“…Are you crying?”

“My tear ducts are damaged. So I can’t cry?”

The boy wiped his eyes with his sleeve and wore a sullen expression. Then he said, his voice gloomy,

“…And it’s been a while since anyone’s treated me this well.”

“…I see.”

I spoke bitterly.

Due to the nature of my job, I knew the boy’s entire life.

The boy’s past and future were so dark, without a single ray of hope.

“But at least this will give me something to live for.”

But unlike me, the boy didn’t stay depressed for long. He slapped his cheek, a resolute look on his face.

“Now I know who to avoid.”

Those words made my heart sink further.

However, I didn’t hesitate.

I gave up on things like the Trolley Problem a long time ago.

“I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to avoid him.”

“What? What are you… Mmmph!!”

The drone, which had been on standby in invisible mode, restrained him, and in an instant, the boy was wrapped up like a cocoon. He struggled.

But it didn’t last long.

“…!”

The boy’s struggle subsides as he’s injected with a sedative. I looked at the boy’s face and continued speaking.

“You’re going to meet him, and you’re going to fall for his scheme and kill people. And then in the process, you’ll lose your vocal cords, just like you did in that other world.”

I pulled out a cigarette from my pocket and placed it in my mouth.

“Alain’s calculator determined that the probability of this world surviving is higher if you do.”

*Sizzle, sizzle.*

The tip of the cigarette glowed red.

“Well, even though I call it a calculator, it’s not an actual device. It’s more like… a rule. You’re familiar with the concept.”

White smoke spread into the blue sky.

“Fate, prophecy, grand narrative. Or, you know, the original story.”

I closed my eyes.

“A scenario that a world creates to increase its probability of surviving, from the moment of its birth.”

I dropped the cigarette and crushed it under my foot.

“And while the other you are a variable that entered from another world in that other world, here, you’re already factored in. To be precise, the world split the moment you entered that other world.” (TL Note: If you don’t get it, basically this is a parallel world where Rem had always existed in this world, unlike our original rem which was reincarnated. More theory in afterword.)

I walked toward the boy who was being restrained by the drone and pulled out a syringe, piercing the needle into his arm.

“So, I’m sorry, boy.”

The boy’s body went completely limp. Feeling a bitterness in my mouth, I spat.

“Alain’s calculator, what’s this kid supposed to be doing right now?”

[A deep sleep brought on by starvation. Location 4752.1657…]

“Skip the location, just dump him in the designated spot.”

[Confirmed.]

I watched the drone, carrying the boy, fly off into the sky. Then, realizing that I still had work to do, I checked my watch.

“Well, with this, Alain’s calculation should be back to its original… Huh?”

I rubbed my eyes and checked the watch again.

But it didn’t change.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

“Even after intervening this quickly, it’s still changing? I mean, I practically undid everything!”

I shouted, but my voice wouldn’t reach anyone. It’s not like the world had ears.

I collapsed to the ground and sighed.

“I’m going to get chewed out by the geezer again…”

Then, looking at the spot where Rem and Parsley had disappeared, I muttered,

“And I’ll probably see you again too…”

***

In a dimly lit office, illuminated only by a few magic lamps…

The Tower Master, Sage, irritably ruffled her hair while looking at the documents on her desk. She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

It had been a good thing that she had brainwashed her useless daughter and sent her away.

It had also been a good thing that Drubis, that pathetic fool, had driven himself to the brink of ruin, unable to handle the grief of losing his daughter.

The problem was the pile of work she had been putting off while focusing on her daughter’s matter.

Although it had already been a month since her daughter left, and Sage was still buried in work.

Sage gritted her teeth as she thought about her daughter’s weak, foolish face.

How could she be so similar to her younger self?

It was so disgusting that she couldn’t even bear it.

To begin with, what did that stupid girl think the reason Sage was working so hard was?

It’s all for her, so she could inherit the position of Tower Master.

She dares to talk back,

And that pathetic display of throwing a tantrum and threatening to kill herself just because some boy died.

Even calling her stupid would be too generous.

… Well, she’s still her daughter.

If she suffers for a few years like this, maybe she would become a capable mage, just like her.

And when that happens, her daughter will be grateful.

*Tap, tap.*

Sage was startled by the sound of something tapping on the window.

Turning to look, she almost screamed.

“R-Rem…?”

She couldn’t believe her eyes, but, hanging onto the window, was the very same brat who had seduced her daughter.

He was desperately tapping on the window, a pleading look on his face.

Momentarily surprised, she dispelled the lock spell on the window with her magic.

Rem stumbles into the room and collapses on the floor.

Looking at him closely, he was a mess.

Perhaps it was a side effect of the experiments, but his once black hair had turned white,

and his frail body was covered in scars, full of traces of experiments.

And attached to his eyes and his hand were strange, crude-looking magic tools, as if they had been hastily cobbled together from junk.

Preparing a spell, Sage asked cautiously,

“I heard you were dead, how are you still alive?”

She hadn’t lied to Parsley.

She really had heard that he’d died in the laboratory last month.

Rem, in response to her question, picked up a blank sheet of paper and a pen from the desk and then started scribbling.

[They lied. I had to escape.]

“Hah.”

Sage couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

She’d known since he had somehow managed to be the top student, while blind and handless, that he wasn’t an ordinary boy.

To escape from the lab without even being able to use magic.…

Crossing her legs, she sat back in her chair and asked,

“Then why are you back here instead of running far, far away? Are you suicidal?”

[I need to see Parsley.]

Again, Sage let out a dry laugh, this time for a different reason.

“Why? Are you planning on making her a test subject this time? Or maybe using her as a hostage?”

Rem shook his head frantically, then desperately scribbled something on the paper and held it up.

[I need to apologize.]

“Apologize?”

Rem nodded.

He placed the paper back down and started writing again.

[I thought about a lot of things in the lab.]

[And I realized that I never properly apologized to her.]

[I deceived her.]

[And then, consumed by guilt, I left her alone.]

[I shouldn’t have done that.]

[Somehow, I need to…]

Suddenly, his pen stopped.

Then his back began to tremble.

Sage realized that he was crying.

Crying without tears are truly pathetic.

After He made a few choked sobs, he started moving the pen again.

[I searched the entire Magic Tower, but I couldn’t find her.]

[That’s why I came here.]

[Please, I beg you, Tower Master, let me see her.]

[After that, I will accept any punishment you deem fit.]

And then Rem prostrated himself before Sage, as if he were praying.

“….”

Sage thought for a moment.

Naturally, she had absolutely no intention of letting Rem and Parsley meet.

She’d finally brainwashed her and sent her away.

Sage didn’t want to ruin her efforts.

What she was considering was how to get rid of this boy.

She couldn’t just hand him over to the guards.

That would make the news before the day even ends, and it would reach her daughter’s ears.

This had to be handled quietly.

And she couldn’t kill him either.

Murder was the one line Sage would not cross.

It was a tricky situation.

But Sage was a genius of the century.

And she quickly came up with an ingenious solution.

“For now, follow me.”

Rem looked up at her with a tense look on his face. She smiled kindly at him and said.

“But don’t you need to clean yourself up first?”

There’s no need to put as much effort into this good-for-nothing as she had her daughter, she thought.

***

“Never come back, and just stay in the eastern corner of the continent.”

At the top of the Magic Tower…

…Betty looked at the Tower Master issue the order to leave.

Naturally, the boy, named Rem, protested.

He clung to the Tower Master’s ankle, begging to see the girl named Parsley one last time. He even slammed his head against the ground.

“Meeting Parsley now might bring harm to her. Even so, do you still wish to see her?”

But those words finally stopped him.

He climbed into the carriage with a dark look on his face, and then he drove off, towards the where the moon was setting.

Betty decided there was no need to watch any longer.

She pulled out a return stone from her pocket,

She closed her eyes, and crushed it.

*Whoosh-*

The sound of wind twisting.

When Betty opened her eyes again, she was standing before a dilapidated mansion.

Ailleyde Mansion.

It was once a beautiful place more than any other,

but now it’s in ruins, abandoned after the sudden fall of House Ailleyde.

Betty slowly walked into its depths.

Reaching the center of the ruins,

the place where the Ailleyde’s banquet hall had once been.

But now, a place occupied by countless documents and maps…

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!”

That wasn’t Betty’s voice.

It was a blue-haired girl, crawling on top of the documents and maps.

With bloodshot eyes, she was going back and forth between the documents and maps, connecting them with string.

“Because the Saint didn’t lose her eyes, the Gematria Company’s exports have plummeted, and because of that, a dragon in the middle of Act 3… No, no!! Causality isn’t connected like that. Think, Irene! Use that stupid brain of yours…!!”

“Miss Irene.”

Irene’s head shot up.

“Betty?”

Joy instantly spread across her face.

And then, before Betty could even react, Irene was rushing toward her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

“You’ve worked hard. The Parsley matter, it all went well, right? Parsley fed the love potion to Sage, right? Right?…Betty?”

Betty hesitated for a moment and shook her head.

“…I’m sorry.”

Confusion appeared on Irene’s face as she let go of Betty. She stumbled backward, and then, covering her face with her hands, she turned her back on Betty.

“_____!!”

It was a scream that even a beast wouldn’t make.

Irene started throwing things. She kicked and ripped the papers and maps she had painstakingly organized all night.

But Irene, blinded by rage, had forgotten all that.

After a long outburst, she glared at Betty and said,

“It was such a simple task!!”

Betty simply hung her head.

“All you had to do was hand that love-starved, attention-seeking bitch the love potion recipe! Then she would have fed it to that narcissist woman, been caught, and turned into a mute!!”

“I gave her the recipe, as you said, but Miss Parsley didn’t…”

“Then why is the story still twisted?!”

A small object flew through the air, hitting Betty on the head. Her forehead split open, and a stream of blood runs down her cheek.

And seeing that, reason returned to Irene’s eyes.

“B-Betty, are you okay…?!”

She rushed towards Betty and hugged her tightly.

Then she pulled out a healing potion from her subspace pocket and healed Betty’s wound.

“I’m sorry, Betty. I was just so angry. You know I really care about you. It’s just…”

Betty smiled gently.

“It’s okay. I understand.”

At that, Irene’s face went blank for a moment, and then crumbled into a crying face.

“Betty…!”

She buried her face in Betty’s chest.

Then, in a tearful voice, she said,

“Why do these things keep happening to me…? I really tried my best… I just wanted to be happy…”

“Shhh- It’s okay, Miss.”

Betty stroked Irene’s head and patted her back.

“In the end, once the hero party defeats the Demon King, it’s all over, right? Everything will work out.”

“No, Betty, you don’t understand. Everything has to happen according to original storyline. Otherwise…”

Betty chuckled and nodded her head.

“Yes, yes, otherwise it will head down the ‘bad ending route’, right? I know, I know. So just get some sleep. How long has it been since you’ve slept properly?”

“I can’t. I haven’t finished my calculations yet. If I don’t make sure everything follows the original…”

“Shhh, shh. Just go to sleep.”

“I can’t. I need to organize the mess I made…”

Soon, the sound of steady breathing is heard.

Betty realized Irene had fallen asleep, standing up. She lifted her up and carried her on her back.

Then, going deeper into the ruins,

she laid her down in a bedroom that was relatively clean.

“Ugh… Ahh…!”

Not long after, Irene started to moan in her sleep, as if having a nightmare.

Betty stroked Irene’s forehead with a dark expression. Then she looked around.

Traces of ruin were etched in every place her eyes reached.

It was even more heartbreaking because she knew how grand and beautiful it had once been.

It was a place where even the air had once seemed brilliant…

“Mother… Father… I’m so sorry… It’s all because of me…”

“It’s okay, Miss,”

Betty wiped the tears from Irene’s face.

At the same time, she couldn’t help but think about Rem, his back, as he left in the carriage.

The one who twisted Parsley’s fate.

He was probably the other variable that ‘that woman’ mentioned.

And the one who’s making her suffer right now.

But Betty decided not to tell Irene about it.

The boy was now on the eastern continent, never to return.

He wouldn’t be able to disrupt fate ever again.

‘That woman’ promised her as much.

******* (Author’s Afterword)

*Trolley Dilemma:

Basically, people are tied to a railway track, and you have to choose whether to kill one person to save five, or let five people die to save one.

Woof woof!

(Parsley’s story ends here!!!)

Whimper, whimper…

(To be honest, I have a lot of regrets about this story…)

Whimper…

(I guess you could say the plot went beyond my abilities… Writing this chapter, I could truly feel my shortcomings…)

Arf arf!!!

(But, even though this yellow dog is incompetent, I’m not giving up!!)

Woof woof!!

(I’ll take this failure as a lesson and try to write a more entertaining story next time!!!)

Arf arf!

(So please, stay tuned!!)

Woof woof!!!

(I’m thinking of telling the story of the mercenary, ‘Sha-whatever-the-fuck Pointy Ears’ next!!!)

**** (TL Afteword)

I think what that this implies is that Parsley created a parallel world where the world already had ‘Rem’ in it, because in rem’s original world he was someone that got reincarnated there and thus an ‘intruder’. Interesting.