It hurt. It hurt like hell. I’d built up some resistance to pain by now, but it still hurt like hell.
Feeling my life threatened, I forced my ability into overdrive and devoured both the Holy Spear’s explosion as it tried to pierce my body and detonate, and the spear that came flying at me again.
Every time I used Devour, it grew in every way—range, power, everything. So why not just use it aggressively all the time?
‘Because the stronger the ability gets, the more my lifespan gets shaved off like crazy in return...’
There was a reason I used it in such a narrow range, like in one-on-one combat. I was going to die anyway, sure, but if I kept spamming it, it wouldn’t be strange if I suddenly dropped dead at any moment.
‘With this, I’ve probably lost about two months. So I’ve got, what, half a year left...’
“Mister!!!”
Seeing Ritsuka running toward me from far away, I closed my eyes as if I were collapsing from exhaustion.
"""
“...Romani, I’m going to ask you something first. Why is Albus’s Spirit Origin pattern like this? All I’ve seen from you so far are the revisions you’ve checked and fixed for me...”
“...As a staff member and Chaldea’s medical advisor, I sincerely apologize, Director...”
“Romani, I’m asking again. What is this...”
“...First, I’m sorry for hiding it all this time. It was Albus’s request...”
“I’m the Director!!!! I have the right to know the condition of my staff, no matter what their intentions are!!!”
“...Albus...”
Romani told the Director the truth he’d been hiding from her all this time, and Ritsuka and Mash, listening through the monitor, were no different.
“Albus was worried that if the Director and Ritsuka found out, it would negatively affect the battle and make them feel guilty for no reason, so he hesitated to say anything and tried to hide it as much as possible...”
Smack!!!
That was anger. Not at the staff member who had deceived her...
“If you solve all these incidents and return to the present, I promise you as Director that I’ll support you properly, with money or anything else you need, so don’t worry!”
“Please give it to Ritsuka instead of me. I wouldn’t even know what to do with that much money.”
“Why would you make it awkward for someone who’s offering to give you something!!”
That promise from the past—that was the Director, Olga Marie, repaying the first friend she’d ever made, and a precious staff member, in the only way she could...
She didn’t fail to understand why he’d hidden it. No, she understood better than anyone. Knowing his personality, he must have hesitated because he was afraid she’d get crushed under guilt for no reason...
“That idiot is such a coward...”
“He never slept properly because of nightmares every single day, and he was terrified of getting hurt even a little... How much did he...”
He was the kind of person who was so stupidly kind that it was almost pointless, and who hated causing trouble for other people. So it wasn’t strange that he’d done this, but...
Thud!!! Thud!!!! Thud!!!!!
Only after she’d beaten the already-fallen Romani for a long time did she finally calm down.
“Ha... ha... ha... For now, Romani, your punishment will be decided after this whole incident is over. And as for Albus...”
The one lying there unconscious, his whole body reduced to a rag...
His neck twisted, his legs bent out of shape, both arms torn off...
“...Director, let’s talk after Mister wakes up first...”
Ritsuka laid him across her lap, tending to him while pleading in a mournful voice, and...
“Right... let’s talk after he wakes up first...”
"""
In any case, I got up.
My body still creaked all over, but it wasn’t like I was in any condition to stay lying down.
“...Ritsuka?”
Why was that girl looking down at me with tears in her eyes...
“Why did you hide it? You’re going to die soon.”
...Damn it, Romani. No, wait, I was going to have to tell them sooner or later anyway...
“Ritsuka, if you’re going to die either way, and not doing it means you die too, what would you want to do?”
“...I’d do what I have to.”
“Just sitting around waiting for the day you die is pathetic enough already, but watching some kid who’s still in middle school grind himself to pieces to save the world... no matter how I looked at it, it made me feel guilty...”
Thud!!!
Ritsuka punched my face while I was lying there, but my body didn’t even bruise.
Thud! Thud!! Thud!!!
“Hitting me won’t do anything but hurt your hand.”
“I know.”
“Tell the Director I’m sorry too.”
Even so, if I had to face her now with my bare face, I had no idea what I’d hear.
“Senpai, has Albus woken up?”
“Yeah.”
‘Ah, Mash too...’
“Just in time, the Director also has something to say...”
“Shit...”
"""
And so the four of us gathered for a face-to-face meeting...
“Th-the Doctor is...”
The Director turned on the screen and pointed at Romani, who was covered in bruises and blood in the back.
“First... about hiding it...”
“Enough. I get the gist of how you feel.”
“Why are you all so quick to judge people...”
“I haven’t met that many people, but even I can tell Albus is easy to read.”
“He really is simple in a lot of ways...”
“You three are all too much...”
And just like that, I got verbally beaten up by the three of them.
“You’re always slacking off, so EMIYA keeps nagging you...”
“You always fight with tricks, so Artoria keeps scolding you...”
“And whenever we make you do paperwork, your typing is so slow it’s infuriating...”
“And even then, you still can’t handle group life properly, so you eat alone and spend your free time alone...”
“You’re weirdly good about keeping promises, but when it comes to complicated things, you can’t do them...”
“And yet you still go out of your way to take care of everyone else like an idiot...”
The three-way verbal assault hurt far more than the hazing I’d gotten in the military.
“S-stop...”
“Stop what? We’ve still got at least 300 more...”
“I can’t even say this much to a lover...”
At that, the three of them turned away and blushed.
‘Wait... are they serious?’
I’m not oblivious. I’m not bad at noticing obvious feelings like that.
‘But that’s the problem. If I judge by my face or how long we’ve known each other, there’s no way...’
We’d only known each other for about three months, and honestly, my face was not handsome enough to make anyone swoon.
‘Well, even if it is real, it doesn’t matter in this situation...’
“Ahem! Senpai, I already told you before, didn’t I? That I don’t have much time left either...”
“Huh? You only told me that?”
“Th-that’s... actually, we all talked about it before, but when we were all going to say it together, Albus was the only one who was unconscious...”
“Mister was the first one to talk about it, and back then he was struggling because of that mental control thing, so...”
“You hid things from us too, so maybe we can hide things from you as well, right? Anyway, now we’re done hiding things from each other, right?”
“There really isn’t anything else.”
“Yeah, nothing from me either.”
“Me neither.”
“...Since early 2026, weird things have been happening one after another, and now I’ve ended up here and gone through all kinds of nonsense...”
Then the others tilted their heads, looking confused.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“What?”
“It’s... 2015 right now.”
...What?
“What kind of bullshit is that? We’re in 2026...”
“Didn’t you check the calendar? What are you suddenly...”
At that moment, as if time had stopped, everything around me froze.
“What the hell... what the hell is this!!!”
Then a strange pair of voices rang in my head.
[The decline in perception has absorbed too much of the divine spirit’s rank and reached its limit.]
(That Beast bastard modified the Singularity and devoured divine spirits, and way too easily at that—powerful ones, too...)
“Who the hell are you... what are you saying!!”
[Are you listening?]
(The place you’re in right now is the year 2015. Time travel... is probably the right way to put it.)
[From now on, you must not speak to them about years or anything similar.]
(I’ll erase this memory from both you and them entirely. If this kind of conversation happens again, I’ll control your accident response and avoid it.)
“What kind of bullsh—”
Before I could even finish that sudden nonsense, my vision darkened and I fainted.
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