The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

The tip of the rapier draws near, about to pierce Havoc’s body.

However, the moment it hits Havoc, the rapier suddenly stops. It’s an unnatural stop, but the rapier doesn’t move forward any further. Even Irene and Havoc, who was about to be stabbed, both widen their eyes. Liam and the others also stare in shock, not understanding what just happened.

Irene, seeing from their expressions that this isn’t something they did, looks to her surroundings.

“Chaos! …You?!”

Irene’s gaze lands on a black-haired boy.

***

We’re surrounded by a group of humanoid monsters, goblins. They outnumber us. We defeat the goblins just like always. But even so, the number of goblins that come charging at us are greater than how many we’re defeating.

Even though we’re at a numerical disadvantage, I don’t panic.

“Chain Bind.”

“Leave the rest to me!”

Alexia restricts the goblins’ movements with magic chains. The skill makes it look like they’re bound in chains, but it’s a spell that inflicts Paralysis on the target through the game system to render them immobile. Seeing this, Irene deals the final blow to the goblins while the chains prevent them from moving.

I have reliable party members. We’ll never lose. Even with that many goblins, thanks to the two of them, we were able to defeat all of them.

“Teacher! Did you see? We defeated them with the spell you taught me!” Alexia said cheerfully.

She’s exaggerating. Sure, I taught her a lot of stuff, but it was mostly just stuff from the wiki, so I really haven’t done anything worthy of such respect. Even so, I share in her joy rather than denying it because I know I was of help to her.

“Teacher, do you have time after this? Today, I want to learn more about the spells that sages can use.”

Alexia seems like she’s having fun. She’s always excited to talk about skills and the setting of Another World. She really loves this game, huh. But Irene doesn’t really seem interested in conversations like this since she doesn’t respond much, so maybe we should talk about other things once in a while.

While that’s on my mind, my surroundings suddenly turn pitch black. Becoming worried, I look around. At some point, the corpses of the defeated goblins transformed into something else.

Humans. Human corpses. They’ve turned into countless human corpses. And among them, I see Roseline.

“Roseline?!”

Covered in blood, Roseline reaches out to me, begging for help. Irene approaches Roseline. Watching her emotionlessly approach, I get a disturbing feeling.

“Stop, Irene! Stop!”

She doesn’t stop. The tip of the thin rapier pierces Roseline’s back. Roseline’s upper body jerks upward, and her extended arm falls to the ground.

“Roseline! Hang in there!” I shout in a panic as I hold Roseline in my arms, but there’s no response. She’s already dead.

“Teacher,” Alexia calls out to me. Even though a murder occurred right in front of her, she has an innocent smile which sends a chill down my spine. “Aren’t you going to praise me? It’s because you taught me how to kill that I can kill so many people.”

“You’re wrong. I never taught you anything like that. I didn’t teach you so that you could do things like this!”

“Wasn’t it you who taught me how to fight my enemies efficiently? I’m only putting that into practice. I’m on the battlefield because you taught me how to kill. Isn’t this all because of you?”

“In the end, you are the reason why Lady Alexia and I dirtied our hands as well as why that woman was killed, are you not?”

“I didn’t know this was another world. I thought it was a game. I never thought anything like this would happen.”

“So anything you do is alright as long as you didn’t know? Are you saying you have done nothing wrong?”

There’s nothing I can say in response. Not knowing doesn’t justify anything. Not to mention the fact that I nearly realized it, but tried not to. If I had noticed sooner, they wouldn’t have had to dirty their hands like that, wouldn’t they?

“This is your fault, Teacher.”

“Face your retribution.”

Irene’s rapier impales me. I shouldn’t be able to feel pain, but there’s a sharp pain in my chest. My HP rapidly decreases until it hits zero. When the rapier is removed, my robe is gradually dyed red.

I don’t want to die. I desperately search through my inventory. I take out a potion and use it, but it has no effect. To the system, I am already dead. There’s no way I would be able to heal.

I take the Doll of Sacrifice out of my inventory and twist it in an attempt to break it, but it won’t even budge. Instead, a message window pops up.

Cannot find target in death state. If no target exists, the effect will not activate.

That can’t be. Aren’t I in a death state? There’s no way there’s no available target. Isn’t this the same as what happened back then? Then, am I really going to die?

…Help me. I don’t want to die!

Alexia and Irene only watch callously as I suffer. My heartbeat slows and my senses dull. My consciousness gradually fades.

Then, I accept that nothing will save me now.

The next moment, I wake up.

Tears flow from the corners of my eyes. I’m drenched in sweat. My t-shirt feels gross, sticking to me with sweat. And as if all the liquid in my body leaked out as sweat, my throat is completely dry. My mind still fuzzy, I look around while wiping the sweat and, confirming that I’m in my room, I realize that I’m still alive and start crying again. Once I calm down again, I feel disgusted at the fact that I was only thinking about my own survival above all else.

Ever since I logged out, I shut myself in my room, wrapped in my blanket on top of my bed. My mom was worried about how I wasn’t coming out, so she came to check up on me several times, but I didn’t have the energy to answer.

With the curtains closed and the lights off, the room is a bit dim, but it’s still daytime, so it’s still bright enough that I can see everything inside the room. And inside this dim room, the Valgear faintly glows. I can’t take my eyes off the device that started it all.

I haven’t touched the Valgear since then. I felt like if I even touched it, it would take me back to that world again. Of course, that would never happen. Though, maybe common sense has been unreliable since the moment a game world sent me to an alternate world. The device isn’t turned on right now, so it won’t activate. Unless I use this device and play the game, I won’t have anything to do with that world.

That way, that world and the days I spent there will seem like a dream or an illusion.

I wonder what happened to that world after that. The Weichsel Empire’s invasion… Apparently, they invaded to take the land of the Allied Commune back from the vampires. The vampires in Clermont were already gotten rid of. Therefore, the Weichsel Empire has no reason to attack. It should have been resolved through communication.

But if they came to defeat the vampires, would they invade without even informing Clermont? Maybe the Weichsel Empire had no intention to communicate with the Allied Commune. Do they think the vampires have already taken control of the entirety of the Allied Commune?

What will happen if the war between the two countries continues? If their invasion advances to Clermont, the capital of Commune, then Commune will probably be at a disadvantage. Clermont was under the vampires’ control until just recently. They’re still recovering from the previous battle, so they’re not fully prepared for war.

And with the class-upgraded Alexia and Irene joining in, Commune has no chance of victory. If they fight, Commune will lose. As someone who lives in Japan which celebrates peace, I can’t possibly understand what kind of end an invaded country will be met with. In real-world history, there are many countries that have been invaded. But in history textbooks, they’re so trivial that they only take up a few lines or aren’t even described at all. But now, it might be happening in a world through the internet.

Roseline is a princess. In her position, she can’t retreat from a war with another country. And now that Raoul, who she relied on, is gone, she has no choice but to take the lead in the fight to protect her country. In that case, then Roseline’s fate would be…

No, maybe Commune will miraculously drive them back. But if that happens, then Alexia and Irene will be in danger. They’re fighting on the front lines. If Commune defeats Weichsel, that would be the same as defeating Alexia and Irene.

…This is pointless. I should stop. I’m never going to that world again. It would be stupid to go to a world where I might die.

I’ll just close my eyes, cover my ears and stay uninvolved. If I stop thinking such pointless thoughts and forget about it, I’ll be able to enjoy a peaceful life.

…And yet. Even so… What are these lingering thoughts? What is this uncomfortable feeling in my chest that keeps insisting that this is wrong?

I could never forget the days I spent in that world. It was only a few months, not even half a year, but I remember it vividly. It’s true that I didn’t know the reality of it. But I had fun spending time with everyone. That isn’t a dream or an illusion. Those are things that I definitely experienced.

So I can’t just ignore and abandon that world and the people I met there. But what can I do? If a war breaks out, do I really think I can stop it by myself? That’s some serious hubris. That might be possible for the protagonist of a movie or a story who does those sorts of heroic things, but I’m just a fake hero who’s completely different in reality.

Also, this is something that’s happening in an alternate world. Since I live in the real world, this probably has nothing to do with me. Maybe I have no right to involve myself in the first place. And there’s also the fear. Just like in that dream, I might get killed just like Raoul, and I might end up killing people. When I think about that, I can’t help but feel hesitant.

Even so, I want to help Roseline, and I want to stop Alexia and Irene. I’m not sure whether or not this is just my naive sense of justice or my desire to be a hero. But I don’t want to twist that desire. Maybe I’m letting Raoul’s words tie me down. Or maybe I only feel this way because of my feelings of guilt at what my actions in the other world have caused. Even so, I want to find out what happened to that world and to my friends of my own volition. And if it’s going in a bad direction, I want to prevent that.

If a war has started, I might have to fight if things don’t go well. Since I can use the game’s skills as is, I have the power to fight. But will I be able to use that power without hesitation? There’s no way. With the skills I use, my attacks could injure people or even kill them. And since there’s a possibility I could be killed, I’m in no position to even consider holding back.

I just want to save people. Do I really have to hurt people to do that? Why did I only pick attack skills? If only I had status ailment spells like Alexia, I’d be able to put them to sleep or paralyze them without wounding them.

…Like Alexia…? There is a way! That’s it, I can use that!

My preparations are only ideas. I can still turn back. A warning that conflicts with my intentions passes through my mind. My determination isn’t so unshakeable that that warning would only make me hesitate a little bit.

Protagonists of movies and stories act with unwavering conviction. Unfortunately, I don’t have that sort of conviction. I’m scared to go to the other world, and I’m even more terrified of dying. I can’t shake off that fear. But if I close my eyes, cover my ears, and pretend all of those days never happened, I’m sure I’ll just regret it and keep running from it. I’d probably never be free from that dream-like curse my whole life.

Suppressing the fear in my heart, I grab the Valgear with my trembling hand.

I’m going back to that world one more time!