[Do you not even have the leisure for a brief conversation?]
“Will you open the door if we talk?”
[What reason would a Gatekeeper have to exist if he opened the door so readily?]
“You could still open it.”
At the same time, I charged toward him.
SCRRRAAPE……
Because of its weight, I had to let the sword hang low as I ran, and the sound of the blade scraping against the floor grated on my ears.
[You must have waited a very long time for this very moment.]
“What moment?”
No, wait.
My foot caught for an instant at the strange wording.
‘A very long time?’
‘Did it really take me that long to get here during this Run?’
Long enough for someone who had surely lived far longer than I had to call it ‘a very long time’?
[Are you truly not curious why I would say such a thing?]
“…….”
I was curious.
To be perfectly honest, there was no way I could not be.
Could he possibly remember the previous Runs too, just like the woman?
[I may be unable to grant the thing you desire most desperately, but I am willing to grant you anything else.]
Would someone not normally try to tempt me by saying, ‘I shall grant the thing you desire most!’?
[Of course, I am aware that your wish is not one that can easily be replaced by another.]
“Ha.”
Was he mocking me?
“What is the point if you cannot grant the one thing that matters most?”
I had come all this way with a single goal.
Telling someone like me, ‘I will grant anything except that,’ was hardly going to make me happy.
[It is better for you to abandon a hope that cannot be fulfilled as quickly as possible. That is why I am making this offer.]
“What a joke.”
[Moreover, I possess the ability to make good on that offer.]
The ability to make me give up what I wanted most?
Or the ability to grant anything except what I wanted most?
“I do not know what this supposedly impressive ability of yours is, but it seems your subordinates failed to properly tell you what my wish was.”
Too dumbfounded to keep fighting, I had loosened my grip on the sword. As I tightened my hands around it again, the King slowly stroked his smooth chin.
[I know. That is precisely why I am saying this.]
His slowly moving finger pointed toward the solitary door standing behind him.
[That wish can only be fulfilled by using that door. Therefore, I cannot grant it.]
“Then move.”
[Did you already forget what I told you moments ago? I have a duty to guard that door.]
“I think I told you something too. Just open the door.”
[Even if I wished to open it for you, I cannot simply hand over the key as I please.]
“Why should I care?”
[Considering that you have spent far longer than an ordinary person would have endured and still managed to reach this place, that wish must be something so important to you that you could never abandon it.]
No matter how I reacted here, I would only be letting him manipulate me.
“…….”
But how could I simply pretend not to care and thrust my sword at him after hearing him speak as though he knew about every previous Run?
‘If he knows…….’
If that bastard truly remembered the entire process, could things not have been different?
If he knew, could he not have persuaded his subordinates?
‘Or at least ordered them to pass a message to me…….’
But would I have believed them?
When I stopped in place with my sword clenched in my hands, the King grinned.
[Good. Have you finally decided to speak with me?]
“……Whew.”
If there was a way to return without fighting, I would gladly take it.
I was sick and tired of fighting.
That was why I had been listening to him drag out this pointless conversation in the first place.
[You and I both have more than enough time. I can wait as long as necessary for you to make your decision.]
“I assume ‘sending me home without a fight’ is not one of the choices you are willing to accept.”
It was closer to muttering to myself than speaking to him, but the King nodded solemnly as though he had heard every word.
[If you name anything else you desire, I am willing to grant it. Even aside from the restriction that prevents me from opening the door, I have need of your abilities.]
I raised my empty hand and slowly opened and closed it.
Compared to all the fighting I remembered, it was surprisingly soft.
There were calluses, but not nearly as many as there should have been.
“Haah…….”
Questions had piled up one after another throughout my descent.
But did anything I wanted to ask him actually help me return home?
If I thought about it that way, none of it mattered.
“So that is how it is…….”
I did not know why I had even hesitated.
Whether he knew about my repeated resets or not, nothing had changed.
He knew I wanted to go home, and he was still refusing to let me.
“The one above and the one below are equally damn inflexible.”
I muttered that and glanced toward him.
He was looking down at me with a meaningful smile.
Given our positions, he naturally had to look downward, but it felt as though he was looking down on me in every sense, which irritated me.
[I can wait as long as necessary until you arrive at the correct answer.]
Instead of answering him, I turned around and walked toward the doorway.
[And if your thoughts have become too rigid, I can help with that as well.]
I stopped at a position that looked suitable for leaping up and aiming for his head.
After pointlessly scraping my foot across the perfectly flat tiles a few times, I gripped the sword's hilt tightly with both hands.
“I do not need your help.”
[A hasty decision may not serve your future well.]
“I have thought about it enough.”
[Is that truly your choice?]
“Yes. I do not think choosing now or choosing later will change my answer.”
The amount of time I had experienced was probably far greater than the amount that had actually passed.
If the King's words were true, then perhaps my death did not merely return me to the ‘Starting Room,’ but also sent me back to the exact time when I had first fallen into this place.
Although if everything truly returned to the beginning, there was still something strange about that woman and the old shopkeeper.
‘It has taken too long.’
Because of that, I could no longer tell whether some of my memories were things I had truly seen and experienced, or false memories created by my imagination.
All I could recall clearly were the faint emotions mixed into them.
[I believe I am the only one who truly understands you.]
“If you understand me, then you should let me go.”
[Can you even clearly remember the place you are trying to return to anymore?]
Could he read my thoughts?
“……What the hell do you know?”
I tried not to let my emotions show, but I could not stop my voice from trembling.
“I am going home.”
Fuck.
Just as he said, I had forgotten most of it.
But I was still going back.
I had probably forgotten everything I had studied before coming here, so once I returned, I would have to stay up night after night and memorize it all again like a madman.
But even that would be infinitely better than this place, where I fought, suffered, and died without rest.
At least there, I would not have to endure pain bad enough to make me wish I were dead.
And I would not actually die.
[The one who blocked your way immediately before this also offered me his abilities and received what he desired. There were objections because he belonged to the same race as ‘those who betrayed the Will,’ but…….]
The one who had blocked me just before this.
He was probably talking about the cyborg boss.
[Yes. He wished not to die, so I showed him a way to escape death. It was something entirely achievable with his own abilities. You too dislike dying, do you not?]
“Shut up.”
In the end, this bastard was nothing more than someone standing in the way of my return home.
[Perhaps immortality does not entice you because you are already defying death. Then what of something else? Do you desire enough strength that your life would never be in danger? For various reasons, I cannot grant you power greater than my own, but if you wish, I can make you the strongest being after me.]
“If I just go home, I will not have to fight in the first place, will I?”
[Ha ha. Do you truly believe that?]
“People there do not charge at you for no reason trying to smash your skull open like they do here.”
[If your concern is that you have nowhere to settle because you were not originally of this world, I will grant you a place to live. If you miss the fine food you lacked during your journey here, I can provide so much of whatever you love that you will eventually grow sick of it and flee from the sight.]
As though trying to make his offer more dramatic, he spread both arms wide.
[And if you lack someone to give your heart to, I can arrange as many meetings as necessary until you find such a person. Naturally, I cannot demand anything of those beyond my influence, so the candidates would be limited to those beneath me.]
I had to ignore him.
[There is much more I could grant you. After all, the reason you were forced to fight so fiercely was because my loyal subjects judged you to be an intruder in my tomb and attempted to stop you.]
“If you knew I was not one of them, why did you not stop them beforehand? You did nothing, and now you never shut the fuck up.”
I needed to ignore him and kill him.
[Had I done so, you would never have had reason to hesitate as you do now.]
My grip tightened around the sword.
“You did it…… on purpose…….”
[Ah. I would prefer that you not misunderstand. Although returning home was the only thing you desired, we had no way of knowing that at the time. We needed to confirm it.]
Misunderstand?
[Besides, if that truly was the only thing you wanted, then there would have been no room for negotiation. In that case, eliminating you would indeed have been necessary.]
“……So you did do it deliberately.”
He had deliberately put other choices before me so that when the time came, I would hesitate.
[But now that your circumstances have changed, there are things I can offer you. That is why I arranged this meeting…….]
Before he could finish speaking, I kicked off the ground and charged toward him.
[……because I favor those who strive and those who possess ability.]
His eyes followed the place I leaped from.
I raised my sword high and brought it down.
But instead of his exposed forehead, revealed as he tilted his head upward, the blade struck his enormous hand.
BOOM!
The impact sounded as though I had struck a gigantic solid wall, yet the sensation in my hands was like burying the blade in a soft wall of packed earth.
[I shall forgive your rashness, since you seem to believe I toyed with you.]
“Keep your forgiveness.”
SHNK.
I ripped the sword free from his hand.
Bright red blood erupted like a fountain.
“Urgh. Ptoo…….”
The blood flooded my vision, and I nearly slammed face-first into the floor.
Fortunately, I managed to wipe it away just before impact and avoided cracking my head against the ground.
“Argh…….”
Fuck.
He looked human, yet he was disgustingly hard.
How the hell was I supposed to kill this bastard?
‘He is so damn huge that I cannot even ignore him and slip past.’
I could fully understand why he had considered me beneath him.
I was in perfect condition, equipped with the weapons and armor possessing the highest Attack and performance I had available, yet I could not even cut through one of his palms.
[The one who wished to escape death did not arrive here by fighting his way down as you did. He came intending to place himself beneath me from the very beginning, but…….]
How many times would I have to die before I could kill this bastard?
No.
If dying sent me back to the beginning, there was no guarantee I would ever reach this point in better condition than I was now.
Then could I actually kill the King at all?
[……It would be difficult to say that you possess some extraordinary ability that distinguishes you from all others. However……]
……When had I ever fought because I believed I could win?
Things had simply blocked my path and tried to kill me, so I fought back because I wanted to survive.
This time was no different.
[……You died again and again. Even after winning, you sometimes lost again. Yet you defeated beings possessing abilities powerful enough to be counted among the strongest and descended all the way to this place.]
“……What?”
[Am I wrong?]
“You……”
The King smiled with satisfaction at my reaction.
[If a wish drove you to such lengths, then at least its sincerity is beyond question…….]
“How much…… How much do you know?”
The King gave a quiet laugh and lightly tapped the armrest of his Throne.
[This tomb belongs to me. Have you ever known a man who did not know what happened within his own property?]
The way he refused to answer directly and instead danced around the question made my insides boil.
Or perhaps what truly angered me was the way he spoke as though I were just another thing that belonged to him.
[The space from which you emerge is not part of my tomb, so I cannot know what occurs inside it. But I know everything that happens in the other spaces.]
That explained why the Doppelgänger boss had suddenly changed its attitude.
It had known the King was watching.
[For example, I know when someone who clearly died appears again.]
All this time, whenever I died and returned……
Had time never actually gone backward?
Had I simply been returned to the ‘Starting Room’?
Was that why the first boss had remembered the attacks I used against it?
Then why had the old shopkeeper always acted as though he were meeting me for the first time immediately after I emerged from the ‘Starting Room’?
[I understand well how difficult the time you spent here has been, and how greatly that suffering intensified your desire to return to the place where you once lived.]
“…….”
Then why did my body return to exactly how it had been when I first fell into this place every time I revived?
If time was not actually reversing and I alone was simply coming back to life……
[But during all the time you struggled to escape this place, do you truly believe the home you wish to return to has remained exactly as it exists in your faded memories?]
“…….”
[The reason you wish to return is because you long for the home preserved in your memories. You do not wish to return to a place that has changed beyond recognition, do you?]
What if the King was right?
What if so much time had truly passed that everything had changed?
[There is certainly a way to travel from this place to your homeland. But there may be no way to return from your homeland to my tomb.]
I stood frozen as though afflicted by a Curse.
The King looked at me with a smile already certain of victory.
[Can you truly say that you would not regret it?]