Anyway, I’d come into the summoning room to do some gacha.
"Mister, could you maybe untie me firs—"
"Mash, bring me tape so I can seal her mouth too."
"What are you going to do to someone who can’t even resist with her mouth covered..."
I turned my gaze to Ritsuka and stared at her.
"...Sigh."
"At least curse me!! What’s with that look?!"
"Ignore Fujimaru. Albus, this summoning is going to be 300 rolls. If we want a support or a Heroic Spirit strong enough to ignore that, this level of investment isn’t too much."
"All right... then let’s go!!!"
And so I smashed through Saint Quartz like a madman, starting with the Servants I’d built bonds with over time...
"Nobu?! You’re here too?!"
"Hahaha!! So you made it here too, murderer!!"
Then there was a girl who looked like King Arthur, and another girl in what looked like a uniform...
"Hahaha!! To think you’d even have a Beast under your command—just as expected of my..."
"Draco!!"
The Beast I’d met in the Roman Singularity stared straight at me.
"...Since I’ve been summoned, I’ll obey for now..."
"Thank you..."
And then...
"That wish..."
"Huh? Ephemeros?"
"It’s Ephemeros!!! You’re the one who named me, so how could you forget it!!!"
Honestly, in the Singularity I wasn’t in my right mind because of the mental control, and after I was released I was probably shaking with fear, but...
"Thanks for coming..."
I’m grateful to this guy for carrying me against Zeus and Poseidon.
"Hmph! Be prepared to have your throat torn out in your sleep!!"
There were others too...
"There’s a Saber reaction here?!"
"X got way too excited..."
Two King Arthurs from who-knows-where.
"No, is King Arthur’s face just the default for female heroes?"
Besides them, the Servants I’d met as enemies in Singularity after Singularity, but who hadn’t been devoured by me, answered the call as well. The problem was...
"But, Director, the materials for skill leveling and Spirit Origin ascension..."
"You guys dig them up."
"We also need to keep monitoring the Director..."
"I know that, so just make me some coffee already..."
"Damn it..."
""
"Ooooooh!!! Such incredible Heroic Spirits!!!"
Richard was so excited he was practically clutching his heart and hanging on.
"Richard, from here on out, we’re farming materials..."
"...There are over a hundred people in front of me right now, you know?"
"That’s why I’m telling you to follow me."
"...But those two are...?"
Richard pointed, in a much weaker voice than usual, at the elite staff who had followed behind him.
"Ah, they’re new recruits, but they happened to have exactly the skill set we needed, so we squeezed out the materials we didn’t have and rushed their Spirit Origin ascensions..."
"I’m Reimei. I’m a Pseudo-Servant."
"My name is Sima Yi. To think my older brother came too... truly..."
"Today, both you and I are going to do 300 runs each, so please eat first."
"...For my little sister, older brother..."
"Both of you."
""Kyaaa!!!""
"They don’t look alike, but judging by the scream rhythm, they really are siblings..."
And then...
"Hey~ mister, I’m touched you gave me a full Spirit Origin ascension the moment I showed up."
"Thank you for coming..."
"They came as a one-star, so I could instantly get them to NP5..."
"Arash, you’re on first wave duty from now on."
"?? No way..."
Arash felt a terror that shook his very soul for the first time in his life...
""
"Um... mister, how many times have we... done this?"
"Can you remember how many times you’ve used Stella?"
"...No idea... Mash, are you... okay?"
"Se... senpai... Albus... I can’t... any more..."
"No apology... either... so I can’t keep going... You two should wash up and go to bed too..."
"Yes..."
"Mash... could you... wash me...?"
"Please... come this way..."
And so the three of us, all exhausted, let the day end there...
""
I couldn’t see the morning sun, but I could still wake up by instinct when it was time.
"Ugh, my head... but..."
However I looked around, the room was a girlish one, not something you’d expect a man to be using...
"Did I get the wrong roo—"
"Are you awake, Albus?"
"Mash? Why am I here...?"
"The Servants got into a fight and blew away Albus’s room. You passed out in the middle of it, and you didn’t have anywhere to sleep, so..."
"Sorry..."
"Somehow my head was killing me..."
"It’s okay. We have an emergency sleeping bag too..."
"You could have just put me in that..."
"But you worked so hard all day, so I couldn’t..."
"You worked hard too. Stop thinking about everyone else before yourself..."
We chatted about all sorts of things after that, like how Ritsuka had messed up her skill selection and couldn’t clear in three turns, or how the Director had drunk so much coffee she’d built up a tolerance...
"Albus... I don’t know if I should ask something like this, but... how much time do you have left?"
"...What about you?"
Honestly, I had expected a question like that. We were both on borrowed time, after all.
"According to Doctor, about 80 days..."
"I’m about the same..."
The brief silence that followed was enough to make the room’s temperature drop exponentially.
"I... want to live even one minute, one second longer. These days are just too happy..."
"That sounds a lot like Olga Marie... What, are you two sisters?"
"Th-that’s... no!! Anyway, even though I’m heading toward death, I’m scared, but I don’t regret what I’m doing now. What about you, Albus?"
Was she asking because she wanted reassurance? Or was she just genuinely curious? I didn’t know which, but right now it felt like I could answer honestly without any problem.
"I’m not some ideal person like you. If I had known the outcome from the start..."
"I wouldn’t have saved you, I wouldn’t have become terminal just to help Ritsuka more, and I wouldn’t have restored the Singularity the way the Director ordered. I’d probably just hide away even if I died."
"I-is that so..."
There was disappointment in Mash’s eyes, but more than that, she looked a little sad. Ideally, maybe those words were wrong.
But for Mash, who was learning about the world, my words were no longer wrong.
"But..."
No matter how little hope there was, no matter how much regret I carried...
"Even if I had known, once I’d already made my choice, I wouldn’t even have time to regret it. Right now, I’m just running so that even if I die, I won’t leave behind any regrets—no attachments, no hope, no dreams."
"...Are you happy right now, Albus?"
"Yeah. That’s what makes it a problem..."
How painful the end of this story would be...
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register