Chapter 39: Chapter 37: On the Other Side of the Screen
The series of brand-new events had come to an end, and I was finally able to return to the academy.
After the battle in the capital, the knights and soldiers—including my little Scotterbrain—had dropped to their knees and begged me for forgiveness, swearing that they'd be more loyal from now on. I'd only brushed them off. I honestly didn't mind.
Sure, I'd been calling them traitorous knights in my mind and all, but I was a fake. They technically hadn't betrayed their master at all: they'd been serving the wrong master from the start!
Anyway, I'd refused to fire anyone because of what had happened, so the members of my guard had remained the same. The only thing that had changed was Scotterbrain's sword. She'd bought a new one and refused to use the one that showed her status as the head of my guard. According to her, that sword was "too heavy" for her to bear. I mean it is pretty heavy, so it must be hard to swing around.
The semester had passed without any particular trouble, and the winter holiday had started. As soon as it ended, it'd be time for the second martial tournament. This time, the students wouldn't be divided by grades. And then, last but certainly not least, the final fight against the witch would occur. I didn't have much longer to live, and I had no idea what would happen after the one-year period covered by the game passed. I wanted to make sure everything was dealt with before then.
For the time being, my main focus was training Verner and the others. I wanted them to be strong enough to survive the first part of the witch fight. For my magic vacuum strategy to work, they'd need to tire the witch out and get her to use as much MP as possible. That was the only thing I couldn't do myself...
Hang on... I messed up, didn't I?
I'd already told Verner "I can do everything by myself!" when I totally couldn't! I needed someone to help me, or the witch would just run away!
Oh no! I'm so stupid! How do I fix this?
I couldn't just go back on my word and be like, "Actually, I was just kidding! Hewp me pweeeeease!" That'd be so lame!
Should I just exclude Verner?
It wasn't like I absolutely needed him to be part of the group. I just required a few people to keep the witch busy. It didn't really matter who those people were as long as they weren't official knights—I didn't want her noticing that I was behind it. Any student or teacher could fit the bill. It didn't have to be Verner.
The only thing was...Verner was already as strong as a knight. He'd proven it by winning against Marie, who was always supposed to be at the same level as a knight. He still couldn't compare to Layla, though she was in a class of her own anyway as the head of my guard.
On top of that, Verner could use dark magic. That meant he was the only one besides Eterna who could actually hurt the witch. Passing him by would be a huge loss, and I didn't feel comfortable sending Eterna to the basement—I was worried she'd end up turning into the final boss if she was given a chance to fight the witch.
Eterna hadn't been standing out much recently (probably because of me) but I had a feeling that was for the best. She'd be happier that way. After all, whenever Eterna started taking up a lot of space in the game, she died.
All in all, excluding Verner from the witch fight would prove difficult. If none of the people I sent down there could hurt her, she probably wouldn't need to use much MP to fend them off.
I guess I have no choice—I'll apologize to Verner and ask for his help.
I sooo didn't wanna, though! I'd just called him a burden, so how could I suddenly change my mind and beg for his help? I'd sound so ridiculous!
I made my way to the sports ground. It was located behind the main building, and students mostly used it to run laps, spar, or practice their swordsmanship on straw men. I'd decided to swing by to see if I could find promising students, but...the more I looked at them, the more I realized how exceptional Verner and his friends were. All these students were much worse than random dude. They'd be no use whatsoever.
Wait! That guy looks pretty strong.
There was a student swinging his sword over and over again. His form didn't look half bad. He was wielding a sword that looked very much like the one I'd given Verner, but he was handling its weight like a champ. Actually, the way he swung his sword reminded me of Verner, and...
Yeah, no, that's totally Verner. Whatever, I'm leaving.
"W-Wait! Lady Ellize!"
Unfortunately for me, he noticed me. He ran toward me at an insane speed, a serious expression on his face.
Boy, he sure is fast.
I know, I know. He must be mad about what I'd said last time. I did tell him he was a burden, after all. Oh well, que será, será—I'll be the bigger person and apologize. What d'you mean, it's my fault to begin with?!
"I'm so sorry about what happened last time!"
Huh? But I haven't opened my mouth yet!
I'd been on the verge of apologizing, but Verner had beaten me to it. I had no idea why, though.
If I were to sum up what had happened, I'd been confined based on the orders of the royal families. Verner had come to save me even though he knew he was committing treason. Naturally, I had a talk with the royals after the battle, and I'd made sure Verner and the others wouldn't be in trouble for what they'd done. Still, that didn't change the fact that he'd been willing to take a huge risk for me. Then he'd tagged along when I'd gone to the Bilberrian capital, and he'd used his body to shield me from the crow's attack. I hadn't needed him to do that, but there was no way he could've known.
Verner had put his life on the line for me not once, but twice. Instead of thanking him, I'd told him he was a burden.
Damn, I'm trash! And I still have absolutely no idea why he apologized.
"I-I heard from Eterna and the others that I'd truly...died...at that time."
Yup, you sure did. You better be thankful, because I did my best to save your butt!
"I tried to save you, but I ended up having to be saved instead... And yet, I was under the impression that I had protected you. I understand why you were so disappointed..."
Verner was pretty quick to convince himself that he was in the wrong, wasn't he?
You could've yelled at me and pointed out that I was rude to you even though you'd done nothing but help me, you know?
Anyone would agree that I was in the wrong here. The hero had slipped into the demon lord's castle to rescue the poor princess, but she'd escaped her cell, beaten up the demon lord all on her own, and berated the hero once he'd arrived. The hero still hadn't given up on the ungrateful princess, however, and he'd sacrificed his life to protect her...only to be told that he was a weakling and had no business being a hero if he died from such a pathetic attack.
I would've destroyed the game disc on the spot.
I'd totally forgotten up until now, but I hadn't even thanked him!
I'd always been like this, even in my previous life. I'd somehow get the idea that I'd said something when I hadn't, and I'd end up forgetting to thank people when I'd meant to. Yeah, it'd happened way too many times. Deep down, I probably thought that they'd understand I was thankful even if I hadn't put my feelings into words...but that wasn't how relationships worked, right? In my previous life, my girlfriends would always break up with me right after we'd gotten together, but it looked like I still hadn't learned my lesson!
All right, I totally missed the right moment to say it, but I'll do it anyway!
"I should be the one to apologize. You and your friends risked your lives to save me, but I ended up being cruel to you. I deeply regret what I said, Verner. Please forgive me," I said, bowing.
Am I holding a press conference here?
I looked like a star or a politician apologizing on TV. They always paid attention to the position of the camera and showed their best angles. Just like them, I'd even ended up using the most cliché wording ever ("I deeply regret what I said") and added the one-two punch of every Japanese person's most lethal weapon—the bow. It wasn't for nothing that this traditional pose had endured for hundreds of years, if not more!
To be honest, I'd never believed the celebrities' apologies. They always seemed so damn fake. It was just as unbelievable as when someone told you they'd "consider your suggestion moving forward."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Lady Ellize!"
Verner, you're too much of a good guy! You should've said something along the lines of "I don't know if I can forgive you just yet, let me think about it" and made me sweat a little.
"I also wanted to thank you for coming to save me. It made me really happy..." I added.
That wasn't a lie—I'd been so certain that no one would try to save me that it had made me feel pleasantly surprised when they had. I still thought it had been a stupid idea, sure, but I couldn't help but be glad someone had cared about me enough to go through with it.
I owed Verner a heartfelt thank you.
Verner didn't answer me. He was staring at his feet and seemed to be deep in thought.
Are you okay?
After a few seconds, he finally raised his face. He looked so serious.
Wait.He always looks serious, doesn't he?
"Lady Ellize... I'm still weak, but I swear to you that I'll become stronger. I'll become strong enough to be your knight, I promise!"
A-All right...
I didn't think he needed to worry about it too much, to be honest. He was the strongest in his grade. All he had to do was make sure not to screw up his written exams, and he'd join the saint's guard without a doubt.
I wasn't sure I'd still be the (fake) saint by then, but that was another issue. Actually, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be.
You'll serve Eterna when the time comes, so do your best!
For the time being, motivating him was the best thing to do. "I'm sure you will, Verner. I believe in you."
If he continued to train dutifully, he'd eventually become strong enough to defeat the witch on his own. That would make my life way easier, so I definitely wanted him to keep doing his best.
Thankfully, Verner and I had made up. I wasn't sure how I would've gotten him to help me if we hadn't, but everything would be fine now! All I had to do was just make him stronger and send him to the basement.
Phew!Victory is at hand!
◇
I'm certain that's what that idiot's thinking right now.
Fudou Niito was looking at a CG on his computer screen as he guessed what the other him—Ellize—was thinking. He did his best to stop himself from laughing.
If he hadn't known that Ellize was him, he would've enjoyed the beautiful oath the protagonist had just made to the heroine. The scene was right out of a romance movie. The sun was setting as the protagonist swore he'd become stronger for the heroine's sake. She smiled at him, engraving his every word into her heart.
How much more cliché can you get?!
Niito knew better, though. The other half of his own soul was in Ellize's body, while he was only still there because part of his soul hadn't properly transmigrated yet. He was nothing but leftover scraps. Ellize was the true him—which made her the furthest possible thing from a dating sim heroine.
"That brand new confinement arc and Verner's death surprised me a little, but she seems to have gotten back on track. Still, Eterna is basically invisible on this route," Niito said with a bitter smile.
He had conflicted feelings about the lack of Eterna, the main girl. Dating sims always had some characters show up more often or less frequently depending on the route you were on. In fact, Lina Thomas—the sickly heroine—had only shown up once on this one, when Ellize had healed her. Sometimes, certain heroines didn't appear at all unless you did something specific in the game.
When you thought about it that way, Eterna still had a lot of screen time compared to others. After all, she was Verner's childhood friend and a regular member of his party.
Eterna's reduced screen time also meant that no one needed her to assume her duties as the saint. Ellize's goal was to make sure the girl got the happy ending she deserved and remained out of danger, so in a way, she'd succeeded.
"I shouldn't expect too much from him, though... If he was smart enough to make sure everything worked out in his life, my life as Niito wouldn't have ended up like that either."
Niito was all too aware that Ellize was far from being a genius. Truth be told, she was an idiot—just like him. If anything, he thought she'd done a pretty good job so far considering they basically shared one brain cell.
At first glance, she seemed to be doing great. Hell, she'd performed miracles! The only issue was that she grossly underestimated her enemies. Oh, and she took everything—and everyone—too lightly.
Take her confinement, for instance. Niito didn't get why she'd stayed put in her cell for so long when she knew she didn't have much time left. It was unlikely that the witch had noticed her absence in a single week, but what if she had? Ellize should've returned to the academy immediately instead of taking the risks she had.
In the end, everything had worked out well enough, but that didn't mean she'd made the right choices. Just because the result was right, it didn't mean the process had been. Something could've gone wrong, and their plan would've been ruined!
Niito couldn't help but wonder whether Ellize was even dumber than he was because she was missing part of her soul.
"The fact that Eterna doesn't show up much is probably unavoidable anyway. It's hard to say for sure—I'm still in the dark about the end of Ellize's route—but the entire community already knows that Eterna's route and Ellize's can't coexist."
The idiot on the other side probably hadn't even realized it, but the reason was simple: you could only get on Ellize's route during your first run. Eterna's route, on the other hand, appeared from the second playthrough onward. This meant that it was completely impossible to start Ellize's route and hop onto Eterna's later on in the game. Naturally, the reverse was true too.
Niito had done his fair share of tests, and he'd noticed that it was still possible to get on other girls' routes. Marie or Layla, for instance, were easy targets if you started with Ellize. It just wasn't possible to get Eterna's.
All that to say that Ellize's stupid plan of playing matchmaker for Eterna and Verner had long since failed...if the game was to be trusted, that is. And these days, Niito often wondered whether the contents of the game could truly be trusted. One event, in particular, had triggered these suspicions: the battle of the royal capital.
In the game, Verner's party would fight the crow. As soon as the monster's HP would reach zero, it would run away and attack Ellize. Verner would then jump in its way to protect his saint and end up dying.
At that point, Ellize would bring Verner back to life. There were two ways that could go down: Ellize would either use her magic to send air into Verner's lungs, or—if her affection parameter was high enough—she performed mouth-to-mouth.
Would I do that?
If there was no other alternative, Niito believed he would. Saving someone's life always came first. He'd learned how to do cardiac massage and how to perform mouth-to-mouth when he'd gotten his driver's license, just like everyone else in Japan. He knew very well that under such circumstances, gender didn't matter.
However, in Verner's case, there had been another way. Fudou Niito was certain he wouldn't have kissed another dude if he had a choice—after all, he was a man and he wasn't gay.
And yet, the Ellize in the game did make that choice if her affection was high enough, even though there was absolutely no need for it. She could easily use her magic to send oxygen right into Verner's lungs, but Ellize would kiss him because she wanted to. The whole mouth-to-mouth thing was only an excuse.
The scene had blown up online. Everyone had talked about it for days, and tons of react videos had been uploaded.
Figures! If you don't know the circumstances, it just looks like a nice romantic scene. I would have been moved too if I didn't know who Ellize was! Yup, it's definitely a very nice CG. Straight to the point and super romantic.
However, to Fudou Niito that image appeared terribly fake. It looked like the makers of the game had twisted the reality of the situation and added it in just to fit the genre of the game.
Niito coughed. He felt like something was stuck in his throat, so he immediately brought a hand to his mouth. After a few seconds of uncontrollable coughing, he opened his hand and looked down at his palm. It was covered in sticky crimson liquid. He took out a wet wipe from the pack he'd set on the desk a while back and cleaned his mouth.
"I don't have much longer, huh? But I still have some things to do before I go to the other side..." he mumbled, standing up and wobbling all the way to the entrance.
There wasn't much more he could do here.
He'd already taken out all of his savings—thirty million yen, more or less—and had paid the inheritance taxes ahead of time. He didn't want to leave the money in his account and risk it being frozen for whatever reason after his death. He'd dealt with everything beforehand, and he'd already shared what he had between his mother and sister. He also had life insurance, so another few dozen million would go to his family after he passed.
With his duties taken care of, he was mostly focused on figuring out the connection between this world and the other one. They seemed to be linked...somehow.
Ellize's actions did have an impact, but in the end, Kuon no Sanka was just a game. She couldn't change the "real" world. All she could do was create texts, CGs, BGMs, and lines of code. Her actions were being recorded.
There was no new world on the other side of the screen, simply a polarized light filter and glass. A screen was simply a screen. Everyone knew that.
At the end of the day, data's just data. A real human can't enter the world of a game because that's not a thing in the first place. And yet...part of my soul ended up in the world of Kuon no Sanka. I know that for a fact. I've even met Ellize and talked to her. She wasn't some drawing, she was a person. That means the world she's in has to be real. She can't be inside a game...right?No matter how hard Niito thought about it, he had no way to find the answer.
Had Ellize entered the world of Kuon no Sanka, or had she transmigrated into a world that simply happened to be similar? Then again, maybe Niito was thinking of it the wrong way—maybe that world had always existed, and Kuon no Sanka somehow reflected what happened there. While these three theories sounded quite similar, they had completely different implications.
The strangest thing, as far as Niito was concerned, was that Ellize's actions didn't just change the contents of the game—they also changed everyone's thoughts. The players somehow believed that Kuon no Sanka had always been like this.
Why? And how?
Niito wasn't a religious person, but even he was forced to admit that only a god or a demon was capable of such a feat. And if anyone were to know something about that...it had to be the producers of the game.
"It was produced by...Attimo Game Project. Their address is...ah. That should take me around three hours by train, huh?"
Even though he was pretty much only waiting for death to take him at this point, there were still things Niito could do. On the other side, his stupid twin was doing his best, so he had to do his part too.
Niito willed his body into obedience, trying to ignore the sharp pain that accompanied his every move. He forced himself to suppress his nausea and started looking for his coat. He couldn't find it in its usual spot. After a while, he noticed it was lying on the floor.
"I don't remember throwing it on the floor. Weird... There shouldn't be anything wrong with my memory, though..."
Niito was puzzled, but he eventually concluded that he must've forgotten he'd moved it and put it on.
He didn't take the painkillers his doctor had prescribed him. Whenever he did, he'd get drowsy, and he'd be unable to think. Unfortunately, that meant he had to live with excruciating pain that assaulted his every nerve. Niito didn't let that defeat him, though.
"I look like trash," he said, laughing as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was as pale as a corpse, his cheeks were sunken in, and the skin under his eyes was hollow and dark. He looked like something right out of a zombie movie, even despite the clean-shaven face and freshly washed hair.
His eyes, however, shone with purpose. He no longer looked like a man wasting away as he waited for death. Having something left to achieve had given him the sense of purpose he needed to keep on living.
"All right, it's time to go meet God. I'll bring you a souvenir, so hang tight, Ellize," he said, looking at her picture on his computer screen.
Niito left his room. Today, he'd head to the company that had created Kuon no Sanka.
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