Chapter 78 - I Can Win, But...
By the time I was finally released from their barrage of questions, the sun had begun to dip.
Peering at my smartphone, it displayed "17:04."
Evenings in midwinter flee by at a run.
If I dally too much, it will likely be pitch black before I know it.
Since it would be a pain to be subjected to a night raid by goblins with night vision, I decided to set up a barrier while I still had the chance.
Fighting an interception battle without sleep or rest would be exhausting, so I'll call it a day here.
I cast a Sacred Circle on Rio and Angelica, cutting off any threats within a three-hundred-meter radius.
There is still the possibility that the High Priest will attempt to intrude regardless, but I'll deal with that when it comes.
Even just preventing ambushes using monsters provides a significant effect.
"Alright."
Having finished setting up the barrier, I contact Ayako-chan via my smartphone.
I launch the app and send a message.
Combat is ongoing. I'm staying at the Saito Household with Angelica today. Sorry if you've already started preparing, but you don't need to make dinner for us.
As long as I haven't completely defeated the enemy leader, the guarding continues.
In short, I can't go to work until I settle things with the High Priest.
I wonder if my social life is going to be okay?
As I stare at the screen with a gloomy feeling, the message changes from unread to read.
At this very moment, Ayako-chan is reading those words.
...I wonder what kind of reaction I'll get.
I felt a slight sense of dread.
Because, considering Ayako-chan's personality, you know?
She might lecture me with a long, depressing message... While I was making that rude mental preparation, an unexpectedly brisk reply arrived.
Understood.
By the way, it came with a dejected-looking emoji.
Why, at this timing, is she acting like a normal girl...?
She even sent one more line: "Please make sure you win."
I'm starting to feel like I've done something incredibly bad.
Because right now, Rio and Angelica are standing in the kitchen over here.
Apparently, the two of them are going to make dinner.
Though the atmosphere differs between this pair—one Japanese-style and one Western-style—it's certain they are both flashy girls.
They are easy-to-understand beautiful girls.
In contrast, Ayako-chan has a calm appearance, but if you look closely, she's quite well-formed.
The type where she's a beauty once she takes off her glasses.
She isn't wearing glasses, but she's just that kind of aesthetic.
And I'm the guy who told such a plain-yet-cute girl, who works hard at cooking, "I'm staying out tonight, so I won't be eating your food."
On top of that, at my overnight destination, I'm being flanked by two sparkling, high-maintenance girls.
My sensation of it is almost like...
"I've abandoned my wife to play around at night clubs."
Ayako-chan isn't my wife or anything, so it was a mysterious sense of guilt.
"I don't really get it myself, but I just feel incredibly sorry..."
Thinking I might help out as a distraction, I head toward the kitchen.
Even if I devote myself to Rio and Angelica, it won't do anything to make amends to Ayako-chan.
Even so, I was someone who couldn't help but be kind to others.
Should I call it the opposite of taking it out on someone—spoiling them instead?
I recall a feature in a women's magazine that said when a man becomes strangely kind, there's usually a reason behind it.
Since it's actually true, I have no rebuttal.
I step into the kitchen and turn my eyes toward the girls cooking side-by-side.
Rio is cutting vegetables on the right, and Angelica is grating something on the left.
I can smell garlic and onions, so they might be making curry.
"Should I do something too?"
"Nakamoto-san, just sit down."
"Father, please sit down."
Synchronized replies.Yes, I shall obey. There is no middle-aged man who can win against the synchronicity of young girls.
"It's cramped here, so if Nakamoto-san comes over, it'll just be harder to work. You've been moving around plenty, so just rest."
"That's right. Father, you should just act like a father and sit grandly in the living room as the pillar of the household."
"I get it... I love old-fashioned dads who don't do housework..."
"Eh, why are you offering such strange empathy, Rio-san?"
Setting aside the blunt retort of Wait, isn't the usual Angelica making me do the housework?, I observe the two of them.
These two are quite in sync.
Perhaps because their fetishes align, their opinions occasionally coincide without intention.
I'm sure they aren't happy about it either. They turn their faces away with expressions like Why with this girl?
It's a combination that's hard to judge whether they have good or bad compatibility.
Is it an unwanted synchronicity brought about by a father complex hobby?
Is it a feeling like, I don't like her as a person, but her taste is good?
...Unwanted synchronicity?
For a moment, my thoughts brushed against a sensation—the answer to the discrepancy that had been nagging at my mind.
The plan I formulated as a way to neutralize the High Priest.
It was to stuff her into a container, sink it into the sea, and trap her in a loop of death and resurrection, but...
"Ah."
No good.
I realize this is impossible.
I've got it; so this is what my subconscious was warning me about, I think, slapping my knee.
After all, the High Priest's time reversal doesn't just involve her alone returning to the past.
She brings the person who killed her 《...》 along with her, returning their consciousness to a few minutes before death.
If that's the case, sinking the High Priest into the sea is the worst possible option.
If the High Priest dies of suffocation on the seabed, she will likely time-slip back to the world a few minutes prior.
But even if she returns, she'll just be underwater again. The High Priest will die again, and return to the past. She will repeat this forever.
Simultaneously, I will also repeat an unending reversal on the surface.
In sync with the High Priest drawing her last breath, I will be sent back to the world a few minutes prior.
I will be trapped in an endless cage of time, forced to live a life that is no different from that of a dead man.
"...This is more troublesome than I thought."
The perpetrator is also synchronized and pulled back. It is truly a double suicide, a joint death.
I feel even a sense of dread at the obsession that must have been the factor in manifesting this skill.
That's right.
I must not kill the High Priest.
I should consider a different method.
I think, while stroking my chin.
In that case, what if I use goblins instead of myself?
I'll handle the part where the High Priest is stuffed into a drum, but I can have the threatened goblins do the actual dumping into the sea.
With this, the goblins should be the ones trapped in the loop of death and resurrection instead of me, but...
"..."
Is it okay? Is that really okay?
Does the High Priest not assume at all that her subordinates, the goblins, might defect through threats or bribery?
I don't think she was such a foolish person as to act without considering her subordinates or weapons falling into enemy hands.
She is a self-righteous and strongly opinionated person, but I recall she didn't make many blunders regarding combat.
In short, the High Priest thinks it doesn't matter if a few goblins betray her.
...What does that mean?
"Ah."
There, I realize the effect of the High Priest's skill.
It wasn't described as "returning" to the past, but rather "rewinding" the past.
Not that the High Priest and the one who killed her time-slip to the past.
It might be a specification where the entire timeline of this universe is rewound to the past, and only the High Priest and her killer retain their memories from before the rewind.
If this is the pattern, trapping the High Priest and the goblins in a loop of suffocation and resurrection is out of the question.
The universe would stop progressing toward the future and would be trapped forever in the few minutes leading up to the High Priest's death.
Though, since most living things cannot perceive that they are being caught in a loop over and over again, they would likely just live in a world that progresses without advancing, remaining unchanged...
But such a thing is no different from being dead.
"What a nuisance of a skill..."
It's better to think of the High Priest's time reversal as a forced double suicide that takes everything in this world down with it.
In other words, having someone else kill her is out.
If that's the case... would sealing her while she's alive be best?
For example, what if I damage her spinal cord to put her in a vegetative state and entrust her to some hospital?
For a moment, I thought it was not a bad idea.
But I immediately remembered the High Priest's status and realized it wasn't realistic.
That woman's HP should have been over 23,000.
HP doesn't simply indicate the upper limit of how many times one can be hit.
It is a numerical value representing life force. The higher this ability score, the higher the tendency for healing power to be.
It is said that if it exceeds ten thousand, most injuries will heal within a week.
While it's not as if severed limbs will grow back, parts like mucous membranes, nerves, and bones are easily repaired.
Even if I were to damage the High Priest's spinal cord or vocal cords, she would eventually recover on her own.
And then she would break out of the hospital and come after me.
...In that case, should I just damage the High Priest's spinal cord periodically? Returning her to a vegetative state over and over again before she fully recovers.
Doing that forever. By me. Until the High Priest reaches the end of her life, for a lifetime?
But, does that woman even have a lifespan?
A woman who had an Alchemist modify her body and hasn't aged since she was twenty-nine.
I might be able to do it if I wanted to, but it was a method with far too much burden.
"Can't I win...?"
At this point, it starts to feel like following the High Priest's words might be best.
I commit suicide, and she commits suicide following me as promised. With this, the peace of the Earth will be protected, and Angelica, Rio, and Ayako-chan can lead happy lives.
—No.
That's not it. Reckless self-sacrifice only makes the people left behind sad.
There must be a more optimal answer for me.
Something, something.
A perfect answer.
A means to neutralize the High Priest.
Think, think, think.
I wanted a hint, any hint at all, so I cast my eyes over every object in the house.
When I glared at my smartphone screen, Ayako-chan's devoted message was displayed.
In the kitchen, two beautiful girls.
At home, there is a girl waiting for my return. Ayako-chan, who devotes herself to me.
Girls who are fighting over me.
Outside, a van is parked, and inside are Tanaka and the two captured goblins.
"...Ah...?"
And then, I am stunned.
It's not because I can't win.
It's because I can win.
"...I might be able to, but..."
However, this means giving up being human.
In exchange for victory, I will become a true demon.
But, to neutralize that woman with minimal sacrifice, I have no choice but to take this method.
My only anxiety is whether my psyche can endure it.
"...It's fine... if I win, it's all mine. I'll win, and think about it after that."