Even if Sarah hadn't appeared that day, Seiyen wasn't destined to die.
Eventually, someone would have rescued him, recognized him as a member of the Cygnus Guild, and he would have gone on to live a life anyone might envy.
But the poison that had entered his body would leave him with a lasting consequence: erectile dysfunction. The lover he was soon to meet would leave him because of it.
Unable to overcome his heartbreak, Seiyen would remain celibate for the rest of his life, growing old and dying alone. The hero who should have been born as his son would never exist, and the world would ultimately be destroyed.
“…What the hell did I just see?”
Sarah felt dizzy from the absurd future she had just witnessed.
The world is going to end over something like that?
When that miserable tale finally came to an end, another image appeared before her: Seiyen lying in a hospital bed, screaming at the top of his lungs.
I'm impotent! Me… impotent?! No, doctor! What are you saying?!
The young man's anguished cries echoed relentlessly in Sarah's ears.
And even now, as she helped him escape, they showed no sign of stopping.
The Seiyen of that ruined future just kept crying.
As though begging her to do something. To make it right.
“Ugh… ughhh…”
His wailing was so loud that Sarah's head began to throb. She groaned and clamped both hands over her ears.
“…”
Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant sight.
“…What's going on? She really does seem to be in pain.”
Growing concerned, Seiyen quietly put a little distance between himself and Sarah without her noticing.
“Oh! Over there. I can see the exit. Come on, miss!”
While Sarah was still struggling, Seiyen spotted light filtering through the thorns ahead and hurried toward it.
I'm impotent. I'm impotent. Me. Me… meee…
As he approached the light, the cries gradually weakened, fading into a distant echo.
“Huh…? He's stopped crying?”
By the time Seiyen reached the exit, the incessant wailing that had been tormenting Sarah had fallen completely silent.
Finally freed from the endless lamentations about impotence, Sarah looked at Seiyen's back with an expression of profound relief.
“Phew…”
Then the cracks that had filled her vision slowly closed, and the black mass clinging to Seiyen's shoulder dispersed like smoke on the wind.
What's this? Has it been resolved?
Just as the thought occurred to her, a sharp, electric jolt shot through her left forearm.
“…?”
Sarah instinctively looked down at the source of the pain.
The numbers etched into her skin were rapidly decreasing.
Huh…?
Startled by the unexpected change, she widened her eyes and watched intently.
The numbers continued to fall for what felt like an eternity before finally coming to a stop.
Just like that, 503,932,781 years had been deducted from Sarah's sentence.
“…Wow. A million years in one go?”
She hadn't done anything particularly extraordinary, yet her sentence had been reduced by a million years in an instant.
Sarah regarded Seiyen's back with newfound appreciation.
This little brat is a lot more important than I thought.
Such a dramatic reduction in her sentence gave her hope that she might regain her freedom far sooner than expected.
Her spirits soared.
“Miss! What are you doing back there? Aren't you coming?”
Seiyen, who had gone on ahead, called back to Sarah when he noticed she wasn't moving.
“I'm coming! Let's go!”
Her energy completely restored, Sarah answered in a playful singsong voice and skipped toward him.
Seiyen glanced at her, his expression plainly asking, What's gotten into her now?
Still practically bouncing with excitement, Sarah approached him and gave his back a sharp slap.
“You're bigger than I thought, huh?”
She wrinkled her nose playfully, flashed him a teasing smile, ruffled his hair, and skipped ahead again.
Feeling lighter than she had in ages, Sarah didn't even realize what she'd said—or how badly it could be misunderstood.
“Ah, seriously! What's wrong with you? You keep…! You must be crazy!”
Unfortunately, that left Seiyen to suffer all the embarrassment.
His face turned bright red at her startlingly direct remark. Covering his face with both hands, he stumbled after her, careful not to lose sight of her.
“Seiyen! You're safe!”
“You idiot! Who told you to go into the thorns alone?!”
“Why is your face so red? Are you hurt?!”
The moment they emerged from the Black Thorns, the people who had been anxiously awaiting their return rushed toward Seiyen, showering him with questions and scolding him in the same breath.
Those who crowded around to embrace him paid no attention to Sarah, even though she was the one who had brought him out.
Sarah had never been particularly interested in receiving anyone's gratitude, so she found their indifference rather convenient.
“…Oh?”
What surprised her was something else entirely.
The black masses that had been perched on the others' shoulders had disappeared, just as Seiyen's had.
Could the two things be connected?
It seemed worth keeping an eye on.
Anyway, where's Enoch?
Enjoying her solitude amid the crowd, Sarah suddenly realized that the familiar flash of red hair was nowhere to be seen.
She searched the sea of unfamiliar faces, but Enoch was nowhere among them.
In fact, he really did seem to have left. Even the horse he'd been riding was gone.
After all that nagging, apparently he'd stepped away for a while.
Oh, wait. Isn't this my chance?
Sarah's eyes gleamed like those of a predator spotting its prey.
The most troublesome person here had vanished, and no one else was paying her the slightest attention.
Could this be a sign from heaven telling me to leave now that I've finished what I came here to do?
Everything had fallen so neatly into place that Sarah made up her mind at once.
She began weaving leisurely through the crowd.
Now that she knew how to reduce her sentence and had gained a rough understanding of the situation on the surface, she felt confident she could manage on her own.
Should I jump over there?
Looking for somewhere she could slip away unnoticed, Sarah spotted a secluded stretch of ground.
A flimsy railing had been erected there to prevent accidents along the steep slope near the Black Thorns.
Having chosen her escape route, Sarah headed toward it as though she had every reason to be there.
“Birds should do.”
Muttering to herself, she vaulted over the railing.
As her body dropped down the slope, an ominous light flickered in her eyes.
She directed her command toward the birds perched in a nearby tree, their black eyes watching her descent.
Come here.
She felt black magic surge through her damaged magical circuits.
A tightness seized her chest as the birds burst from their nests and swooped toward her.
One after another, they gathered beneath her, supporting her weight with their wings and slowing her fall until she landed safely.
The dense forest concealed her little arrangement with the birds from anyone who might have been watching.
Tap.
Sarah's feet touched the ground. She gave a soft whistle, and the birds scattered naturally back into the forest.
Unlike humans, animals lacked sufficiently developed reasoning to resist suggestion, so she could still influence them even with her damaged magical circuits.
Not bad at all.
Watching the birds disappear with a satisfied smile, Sarah pushed through the thick grass and finally stepped onto a proper path.
“…?”
Before she could gather her thoughts, her body was suddenly lifted into the air again.
The next instant, she realized that the firm pressure around her waist was someone's arm.
From her unexpectedly elevated position, she could see the back of a horse that had been peacefully grazing a moment earlier.
What the heck? Why am I up here?
Everything had changed in the blink of an eye.
As Sarah blinked in confusion, a quiet chuckle sounded behind her.
Still struggling to make sense of what had happened, she instinctively turned toward the voice.
And so, after everything, she had come full circle.
“You're later than I expected.”
It was Enoch Soser.
He looked down at Sarah with a relaxed smile, as though he'd been waiting for her there all along.
“…”
Sarah stared blankly at the face that had appeared before her as if by magic.
Then she looked back toward the railing she'd jumped over, before turning her gaze to the horse beneath them.
No matter how she tried to piece together what had happened, it made no sense.
“How did you…?”
How had this man known she would make a sudden attempt to escape? And how had he managed to get here ahead of her?
Her eyes widened in disbelief at the inexplicable turn of events.
“It's easy to predict what a slave is thinking.”
Enoch scoffed, looking down at her with an air of effortless superiority, and tugged on the reins.
“You did well. You've been through a lot without any sleep, so I'll reward you when we get back.”
He didn't even bother scolding the slave who had dared to attempt an escape without his permission.
Instead, he simply set off along the path they were supposed to take.
The horse, which had been grazing peacefully, gave an impatient snort and broke into a trot, its hooves clattering against the ground.
Damn it. This isn't good…
Feeling her freedom slipping through her fingers, Sarah kept glancing back with a troubled expression.
“Don't look away. Watch carefully.”
Enoch wasn't about to let her avoid what lay ahead.
The kind and benevolent master seized his slave by the chin and forcibly turned her face forward, refusing to let her deny reality.
“From now on, this is your home.”
He emphasized the words as though trying to brainwash her.
From now on, this is your home.
Forced to face forward, Sarah reluctantly lowered her gaze.
Then, without warning, her vision split wide open.
“…!”
Her eyes locked onto the sprawling Cygnus Guild in the distance.
“Well? Looks pretty nice in the daylight, doesn't it?”
Enoch's proud voice sounded above her.
Sarah nodded absently, offering a halfhearted agreement.
“Yeah. It's really…”
Her gaze remained fixed on the vast scene before her, sweeping across it in disbelief.
“Disgustingly beautiful…”
Just as Enoch had said, the Cygnus Guild was disgustingly beautiful in the daylight, its orderly buildings standing out against the desolate landscape.
The important word, however, wasn't beautiful.
It was disgustingly.
The guild's neatly arranged grounds were undeniably beautiful, but the enormous black masses looming between the buildings ruined the view.
The things writhed as though alive, their sprawling bodies strewn chaotically across the ground.
Compared with the sight before her, the world she'd glimpsed through the carriage window yesterday had looked positively pristine. Hardly apocalyptic at all.
Squeeeee…
The black masses twisted their slimy bodies and emitted low, drawn-out cries.
Perhaps because of their size, they were nowhere near as cute as the little ones she'd seen inside the Black Thorns.
From a distance, the guild looked like a ruined city overrun by giant monsters.
“Haaah…”
Sarah still had no idea what those black masses were.
But being shown something like this, at the precise moment she was trying to escape from Enoch, felt far too deliberate to be a coincidence.
She counted the masses with a conflicted expression. Then, unable to bear the burning sensation rising in her eyes, she squeezed them shut.
Our god really…
…knows how to tell me to stay put.
When Sarah opened her eyes again after that bitter thought, the pitch-black monsters that had covered the grounds were gone.
“…Hahaha…”
Only then could she appreciate the beauty of the Cygnus Guild without anything obscuring it.
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
“To think I'd actually have a home…”
Still laughing, Sarah managed to force out the words.
“I'm so happy I could die right now, Master…”
Her laughter sounded forced and mechanical.
The horse neighed energetically and continued forward.
Ha. Hahaha. Hahahaha.
As they rode through the quiet forest, the rhythmic clatter of hooves mingled with Sarah's increasingly unhinged laughter.
And so, this is the story of…
Sarah Rosenbaum, the wicked black mage who sold out her country in her previous life.
Struggling to save the ruined surface world she herself had destroyed.
A human drama that looks like a comedy from a distance, but up close is a tragedy…