Once upon a time.
Let us stop deceiving ourselves with phrases like that.
A great deal of time had passed, but to us, it was reality and the present.
It was the day the Princess died for the five-hundredth time.
I could no longer endure it.
The Princess kept losing her life to those terrible beasts wearing human skin.
Her neck was cut. She bled. Her breath was taken away.
How could I possibly watch that happen?
Was a world where good people suffered right?
Certainly not.
Therefore, I reached a conclusion.
I would create a world where the Princess no longer suffered.
***
As though time had stopped, everything lost its movement.
The Princess’s body, which should have risen and fallen with her breathing. The wind around us. Even the Demon’s falling head.
Instead, a gentle male voice rang out, and before me appeared a vague form whose color and shape I could not properly perceive.
“Re-Mindscape.”
【That is right. Since my life vanished within this mental-image world, my mindscape is conveyed to you, who harmed me.】
The figure’s voice was perfectly calm.
The distorted, broken voice it had possessed as the Demon had become the gentle and tranquil voice of a man.
“You do not resent me?”
【I do. However, I know that your true intent is not evil, so I cannot express it.】
“You are a stubborn old fellow.”
Even though I had called it selfishness.
Meanwhile, the scenery around us began gradually changing.
Castle of Midnight.
It was the same scenery as the ninth Gate.
However, judging by the many lights visible in the distance and the occasional presences I could sense, this place was……
【The Leporia Kingdom before I put everyone to sleep.】
At that moment, a loud voice rang out nearby.
“Princess, please stop! No meaning can come from such an act!”
“Did we not finish having that conversation around the time I died for the 210th time, Sir Devin?”
A young man in a black robe was kneeling while holding the hands of a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. He was crying.
That was probably the Princess and this figure before the Gate was created.
“As long as I exist, people will not give up on my Mana. As long as I live, people will try to kill me.”
“I-I will help you!”
“How? Will you kill everyone? I……. No matter what, I cannot bear to watch other people die. I would rather suffer for everyone for the rest of my life…….”
【The Princess was very stubborn. Other people would have vowed revenge or killed everyone long ago.】
“Yeah, that is usually what people do.”
【That is why I devised a solution.】
The young man cried at the Princess’s words for a long time, then forced out his voice.
“I…….”
“Yes?”
“I will……. enable you to possess death, Princess. I will ensure that you no longer need to live in this world.”
Tentacles squirmed out from the young man’s back.
The enormous tentacles rushed outward one by one, drawing a geometric magic formation around the Princess.
“Is that…… possible?”
“Yes. If your heart stops one more time, Princess, you will never awaken again. May I dare place such a curse upon you?”
“Will someone die as the price?”
“No one will die. Only the Princess will be able to end her life.”
The Princess shed tears like beads.
Her face turned red as she faced the hope called ‘death.’
“That is not a curse. It is a blessing, Sir Devin.”
As Devin’s tentacles dropped blood over the magic formation one by one, a dense red light burst from the Princess’s body.
The light exploded once, gathered toward the Princess’s heart, then disappeared.
【There was no problem with the plan. All I needed to do was end the Princess’s final life and follow after her.】
“But then it went wrong.”
STAB!
“Ugh, cough……!”
Blood burst from Devin’s mouth. A sharp blade had pierced his body.
“As expected, you were plotting such a rebellion, Devin.”
【The Royal Mage, Rapaiyu.】
The man named Rapaiyu stabbed Devin’s body several more times.
After coughing up blood repeatedly, Devin finally let his body go limp.
The Princess screamed at Devin’s dreadful state and collapsed.
“L-Lord Rapaiyu……. Why? Why did you do this to Sir Devin……?”
“Princess. How terrified you must have been.”
Rapaiyu held the Princess’s hand as though he could not even see her pale expression.
“Pardon……?”
“Sir Devin made a contract with a Demon and placed a curse upon you, Princess. However, do not worry.”
Clear pale-green Mana flowed from Rapaiyu’s hand.
Realizing his intent, the Princess screamed and struggled to escape him.
“N-No! Do not do it, Lord Rapaiyu! Do not!!”
“I cannot completely dispel the Demon’s Mana, but I can twist it. Now, Princess.”
Gradually.
After that, the place where we stood slowly changed back into the original location.
“Did you show me everything?”
【That is right. I cannot endure showing you more.】
Devin’s figure pointed an index finger at me.
【The rest of the story is simple. Rapaiyu twisted the Princess’s curse so that only a ‘being from another world’ could kill the Princess.】
His form was gradually fading.
【I am Devin’s lingering thought, mixed into the Curse of Eternal Extinction that Devin placed. So never speak to the Princess of anything related to Devin. I am only the ‘Demon,’ not Sir Devin.】
“All right.”
For some reason, it looked as though he was shedding tears.
【Ah, Princess. When will you be free…….】
I gave a brief bow toward his completely fading form. Then a notification window appeared before me.
=====
<Hidden Quest: ■■■’s Wrath> (???)
That One became furious at the sight of all this.
They were appalled by humanity’s selfishness and greed.
That One bestowed a blessing upon the Mage who intended to kill the one he loved for the sake of the one he loved.
That One wished to grant the Mage’s beloved the ending she so desperately desired.
However, human selfishness dared to reject that blessing and even denied the Princess her rest.
How arrogant is that?
How cruel is that?
Our ■■■ has reached the limit of Their patience.
However, although you possess sin, you have no evil intent.
Therefore, That One grants a final opportunity even to you, who killed Their Apostle.
This is your true final opportunity.
Destroy the kingdom.
Grant freedom to the Princess.
◆ Clear Condition: The destruction of the Leporia Kingdom.
◆ Reward: One specific Skill (A++)
◆ On Failure: The destruction of the ninth Gate and
=====
It was a Quest I had not seen for a long time, so it felt both welcome and unfamiliar. I also wondered whether it had always emphasized the phrase ‘final opportunity’ by mentioning it twice.
“Ugh, blegh……!”
Then, pain as though my internal organs were twisting surged through me.
As sour fluid rose into my mouth and I spat it out, a sound like dozens of people speaking at once echoed in my head.
『Get out at once. Then annihilate them.』
That ill-tempered b×stard. Perhaps it could not endure my being inside the Princess any longer?
Fine, I would leave.
Time was truly of the essence now.
[Skill 「Mimicry-Deep Sympathy」 is released.]
CRASH!
The empty space of the mental-image world shattered, and a powerful force began pulling me in order to expel this outsider.
I hurriedly poured all my Health Potions into the Princess’s body.
***
When my consciousness returned to my body, an intense feeling of weakness washed over me due to the aftereffects of consecutively using A-Rank Skills.
This damned body was a problem even in my final life.
“Leia! Harmon! Come in!”
From now on, every moment would truly matter.
As I regenerated the sword with the Cloth of Regret and called the two of them, I sensed presences almost immediately.
“……Hmm? Huh!”
At that moment, the Princess, who had been struck in her mental-image world, could not regain consciousness and began to collapse.
Her body, which had been sitting on the bed, fell headfirst. I hurriedly caught and supported her.
And then.
The door opened.
“…….”
“…….”
“It is not what it looks like.”
Harmon’s pupils shook wildly.
Leia looked at me with contempt, as though she were looking at trash.
“I said it is not.”
Because I had rushed to support the Princess, her body had fallen onto the bed while mine ended up above hers.
To a third party, it looked as though I had laid the Princess down and positioned myself on top of her.
“Did you call us so that we could watch what you, no, what the human was about to do to the Benefactor? I apologize, but I do not have those tastes…….”
That b×stard really needed to be starved.
***
After somehow sorting out the situation, I moved rapidly across Leia’s 「Froststep」.
“Make them faster, and run faster!”
“Huff, huff……. A-Are you insane?!”
My Physical Rank was D. Just as my durability and strength were far inferior to others, my stamina and speed were also much worse.
So I decided to ride Leia, whose Physical Rank was higher than mine. In her current condition, she was likely Physical Rank C and Mana Rank A, so she was better than a D-Rank weakling like me.
Leia carried me in a princess carry while creating footholds, panting heavily. Honestly, her breathing was becoming increasingly loud.
The lukewarm breath touching my cheek was especially unpleasant.
“Tsk, do you want to watch us all die? Run faster!”
“Using Froststep while running is difficult enough, and I am carrying you too, Benefactor!”
I ignored Leia and looked around.
Then, upon seeing something, I quickly struck Leia’s shoulder and shouted.
“Hey, Leia! Here, stop!”
“Finally!”
At my signal, Leia stopped in place and dropped me down.
……Huh?
Dropped me?
“Ah.”
“Hey, you…….”
Leia was so excited that she dropped me without creating the stairs I needed to descend.
As I fell rapidly, my view changed at a terrifying speed.
“You blockhead b×stard!!”
That ice-brained idiot goddess was finally going to crack my head open.
Just as I thought that, someone caught me.
A woman with long red hair and a large hat.
It was Hwa Yejin.
“What are you doing? Why are you falling from above?”
“……You look beautiful, Ms. Hwa Yejin.”
“What? Why are you suddenly saying that?!”
I refused to decorate my final death with that ice-brained idiot’s trolling.
I gave the unusually pretty Hwa Yejin a few claps, then got down from her arms.
“Yeah, I thought that plan was too bold for that child to come up with.”
Sa Ujin walked out through the blood stench that seemed strong enough to bend one’s nose.
He was filled with killing intent as 「Pygmalion’s Web」 flowed from both hands.
“So, did you think you could remove me before the tenth Gate opened? If that was your thought, I am really looking forwa—”
“Hey!! Sa Ujin!!”
“……Hmm?”
I still remembered it.
The first time I received this Quest.
At that time, I truly felt happy to see Sa Ujin for the first time in all my lives.
Perhaps because I remembered that, I felt my expression brighten on its own.
“Shoot some web at me!!”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone except me, who was standing with my arms wide open and smiling—Leia, Hwa Yejin, the Lust Demons, Harmon, and even Sa Ujin—looked at me strangely.
Sa Ujin’s killing intent nearly vanished. After thinking for a moment, he asked,
“Do you have some kind of aberrant sexual fetish?”
“F×ck.”
Of all people, that was the last person I wanted to hear that from.