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TL: ALT
Chapter 157 – The Intervenor’s True Identity
The pop-up expanded and swallowed my field of vision.
The scene of the confrontation with the three members of Saber, Saber played backwards at a furious speed.
The memories of summer vacation, the fourth-floor strategy, the summer trip, the third-floor strategy, the regular test, the rainy season, the second-floor, the first-floor…
Even when I watched it again, I still couldn’t understand when I had moved from the skill world to the job world.
The Karakuri UFO took off in the opposite direction from the Black Swan Forest Water Park, and I returned to the Okutama Lake Dungeon.
As I had confirmed with the “Escape from Difficulty” pop-up, this area was just as I had expected.
Naturally, I thought I would return to the scene where I talked to God right after stopping the dungeon from collapsing in the skill world.
But just before that,
“Whoa, I think I’m going to have to ask you to wait a little bit.”
The rewind stops with a voice that suddenly echoes.
It was the beginning of the scene where God asked me a favor.
It was the deepest part of the collapsed Okutama Lake Dungeon (in the skill world), a vast space of black and white that had just been filled with a hole that opened to the gap of the world.
In that space, God, who was floating in the air, stopped with her face turned toward me.
The scene turns white, like a PC that has frozen.
It’s like that feeling when you wonder if your computer is actually working.
At first, the white was translucent, but it got darker and darker, and my field of vision was completely filled with white.
…but my field of vision wasn’t directly blocked.
The scene was all white, but it had depth.
It was a space where the white stretched endlessly.
As for the voice I heard earlier, I have an idea who it is.
Or rather, there’s no other being that could do such a thing.
“So it was all your doing, huh? Come out!”
I shout into the white space.
When I shouted, “I have realized that this world is an illusion for the purpose of testing!” on the roof of my high school, there was no response from anywhere, and I felt sad.
I thought it might happen again this time, but
“――Well done. You’ve realized it well.
Said a voice and part of the space in front of me swelled up.
The space swelled up’ is a strange expression, but it’s the only way I can describe it.
A part of the white void increased in density, expanding without changing its volume, and before I knew it, something white had appeared.
A chrysalis the size of me unfolded like a flower.
What emerged from within was a white figure.
A beautiful young man with pure white skin and no clothes.
The white skin is not a metaphor; it is literally pure white.
His face is incredibly beautiful, but the contours and ridges are a little far from human.
There is something about his features and contours that reminds me of a dragon.
The first thing that came to mind was the Lizardman monster, but this is much closer to a human.
There is almost nothing reptilian about it, and it feels like a highly evolved, intelligent race.
Even though it is neutral, it probably has a male body.
The parts that are not hidden have neither male nor female characteristics.
“That was brilliant, Yuto Kurashiki.”
A slightly high male voice said.
“I was worried what would happen when the hole appeared, but thanks to you, I got to see something interesting.”
He said and then started to giggle.
“So you’re the Boundary Dragon Splefnir, right? You’re the God of the world where Haruka-san, Kudave and Clovis used to live?”
“Whoa, excuse me. I haven’t introduced myself yet.”
He said, holding me back with his white hand,
“That’s right. I’m known as Boundary Dragon Splefnir. It’s not an accurate name, but… well, humans wouldn’t understand it anyway. I’m the dragon god who rules the borders of the world, which in ancient times was called Spring Raven. That’s not all, but it’ll do for now.”
The dragon man shrugs.
“I’m going to tell you this first, because I know you’re probably nervous, but the ‘Escape from Difficulty’ you just activated is now completely stopped. In fact, I invited you, who were in the midst of running away from your difficulties, to a sacred place within me by cutting out a moment that was infinitely close to zero. Well, you can think of it as a kind of ‘interlude’ in a play. The events here have no causal connection in reality. Just as the interlude in a play does not foreshadow the main plot.”
What Splefnir was referring to were the side effects of Escape from Difficulty.
The description of Escape from Difficulty included the caveat that “since the recognition of causality is too much of a burden for the human soul, if you spend too much time going back and forth about causality, your own causality will wear away.”
I can’t stand the thought of my own causality wearing away while I’m talking to that dragon man.
“So you mean it’s okay to talk to you?”
“That’s right. As long as you’re here, you don’t have to worry about time.”
“That’s a relief, but… what do you want?”
I ask cautiously.
“No, no. It’s no big deal. I just wanted to give the star actor a little tip. You really entertained me.” Splefnir says this, smiling without any ill intentions.
“You said that before. Something about it being brilliant or something.”
“That’s right! It was amazing. I knew you were no ordinary person from the way you kept the dungeon from collapsing, but to be honest, it was even more than I expected. I was excited to see how you would get out of that difficult situation and what answer you would find to the conflict it created… but I never thought that you would escape from the problem itself! Kuku, you are the best!”
Splefnir laughed, his white porcelain belly heaving.
“So you were watching from somewhere? Or was the situation itself something you created?”
Before I got caught up in the job world, I heard this guy’s voice interrupting my conversation with God.
I think it went something like this.
“You seem like a pretty nice God, but this is too lenient.”
“You’re right. I’m impressed you could see through it.”
Splefnir shrugged.
“You say that, but you let me hear your voice in the first place.”
But I had forgotten that voice until I used Escape from Difficulty.
Not only did I forget about Escape as a whole, but I also got a headache every time I recognized the word Escape.
At first, I had even forgotten my own self-perception as me in the skill world.
Is it possible to just wander into another world and conveniently (or “unconveniently” to me) forget things so precisely?
“How did you know I was the one?”
“I can’t think of anything in this world that has more power than even God. At most, it would be another god.”
I don’t know whether there is one or not.
I continue.
“Even though the collapse of the dungeon is over, this place was a space where there was a hole in the world until recently. What’s more, some of the gods from another world flowed in from there. If there is someone who could intentionally create the situation I got into, the only candidate is the Boundary Dragon Splefnir.”
It’s not really a deduction.
It’s something easy to remember.
It seems like the clues were scattered around to lead me to that answer.
“Yes, that’s right. You’ve managed to get through the trials the gods gave you. Well done, human from another world! …Just kidding.”
“I see. So you were right about this being a test from the gods.”
I sighed at the God of the other world who was making fun of me.
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