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TL: ALT
Chapter 159 – The Continuing World
“You’ve been a real pain in the ass.”
I said to Splefnir with a frown.
He said I had less than a 20% chance of passing the test earlier.
I’m glad I was able to pass, but it’s not good to be thrown into a situation like that without any prior confirmation of my intentions.
“I think it was a world of indulgence for you. Even so, are you sure you want to go back? You can still go back to that world now, you know?”
“I escaped from there. I don’t have the face to go back to those people.”
I’ve lived longer than them, but all I could do was give that answer to the problem.
No, I refused to answer at all.
“You look quite refreshed, don’t you?”
“Trying to give a clear answer makes me feel uncomfortable. If you think there are no easy answers, you’ll feel that life is like that.”
You could say that by escaping, the path I should take became clear.
Since I chose to “escape” from them, I must be happier than they are in my original world.
If I’m not, I won’t be able to face them.
“What will happen to that world? Will it perish?”
“Perish is a somewhat strong word. It will simply cease to be woven.”
“How is that different from destruction?”
“You’re worried about them, aren’t you? Don’t worry. Even if the world stops weaving, the people in it won’t suffer. In fact, they won’t even notice that the world has ended. Tomorrow, which they thought would go on like yesterday, will one day stop coming… That’s all there is to it.”
“It’s like a popular manga series that suddenly gets canceled.”
Even though I’ve heard that they won’t experience the pain of destruction, my feelings of helplessness don’t change.
It’s as if I’ve stolen the future of those high school students.
“I understand how you feel. Like I said, that world is just a bunch of loose threads. It’s not your fault. Even if you don’t do anything, the world doesn’t have the causal power to maintain itself as a world in the first place… Wait a minute?”
Splefnir, who had been talking so cheerfully, opened his eyes wide and stared into the void.
Splefnir looked into the empty space, which seemed to contain nothing, with a strange expression on his face.
He did this for more than ten seconds,
“Hee! This is interesting!”
Splefnir looks at me excitedly.
His aloof, distant attitude seems to have blown away like a lie.
“W-what is it?”
I say, pulling myself up involuntarily.
“It’s wonderful. You have changed that world. The causality created by your existence has given that world strength. A new causality has sprouted in a world that was on the verge of unraveling.”
Splefnir’s eyes are filled with admiration as he looks at me.
“Could it be that…”
“That is correct. This world will continue to exist. A world that should not have continued to exist… You really are a find!”
Splefnir says this with a face that looks like he’s about to applaud me in praise.
“I see… that’s good.”
It’s not really my world, but I was relieved to hear that this world will continue.
The youth of the high school students will continue for a long time to come.
“What will happen to me now that I’m gone from that place?”
“It seems that the you from that world―the you that overlapped with the you you call yourself―is the only one that disappeared because of Escape from Difficulty.”
“So the original me was left behind in that place?”
“That’s right. Even though you were supposed to escape with your tail between your legs, the result is a happy ending. You’re still the best.”
Splefnir’s tone is full of praise, but… I don’t feel praised at all.
I scratch my cheek and ask about something else that’s been bothering me.
“What happened to the story about getting Phantom Beast Summoning under special conditions?”
“No, that wasn’t the point. That message from God was just a trigger, a signpost. You took that message to heart and repeated your reckless dungeon raids, leading to the cause and effect that brought you here.”
As a result of worrying about Honoka-chan and the others, I regained my unique skill, Escape, and discovered Escape from Difficulty.
If the Oracle hadn’t been so specific, I probably wouldn’t have set out to conquer the post-collapse Okutama Lake Dungeon.
Even if I had, I wouldn’t have done it with a level restriction due to my five-job system or by myself.
As a result, the atmosphere I created would have been less intense, and I probably wouldn’t have ended up in a situation where I had to confront the party members directly.
“I see. I guess I was just making it up as I went along.”
I realized that I had misunderstood one thing.
In the first place, the message from God wasn’t “Obtain the Phantom Beast Summoning.”
To be precise, it was “Defeat a dungeon boss 400 levels above you in a solo battle.”
That was the same as the special condition for obtaining Phantom Beast Summoning in the skill world, but it wasn’t directly specified as obtaining Phantom Beast Summoning.
It seems like God’s messages are basically expressed in a roundabout way.
I thought it was an unusually specific message, but it was actually a roundabout way of saying something else (?).
If the special conditions of the skill world can be fulfilled in the job world, then it makes sense that the special conditions themselves were not the goal.
When my questions stopped,
“No, you did well. Even when you gained power or the praise of others, you never lost sight of yourself.”
Splefnir applauded again.
“I have lost sight of myself. I just realized it along the way.”
“That’s even more amazing. You resisted the urge to work for the world and managed to return to your original self.”
“But you’re the one who made that compulsion work.”
I’m not completely satisfied, but if he’s going to praise me, I’ll take it.
“Well then, it’s time for your reward.”
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