"All right, let's try to summarize everything," Yamoto said. "We'll call the scenario only the two of you know of—the one with the horrible Ellize—'scenario A.' The second scenario, the one everyone else in this world knows with the saintly Ellize, will be 'scenario B.' After reincarnating into this world, I wrote about what had happened in Fiori exactly as I remembered it. My experience is 'scenario B.' This means that, as far as I'm concerned, 'scenario A' shouldn't even exist."
She drank some of her melon soda. Yamoto was essentially saying that the world had never changed. Ellize and Fudou Niito only mistakenly believed it had.
Niito looked at her and brought up something that had been bothering him. "You said you wrote exactly what happened on the other side, but there are several storylines in Kuon no Sanka depending on who you pick as the heroine. How does that work? You must have added things in."
"Yes. The other storylines are entirely made up. They're predictions, in a way. I tried to guess what would have happened if Verner had acted differently. The true story is depicted in Ellize's route. I made it so that it would be the most important route in the game, as well as the only one that leads to the true ending."
Besides Ellize's route, all of the others were pure fiction. That explained why Niito had been able to play through them without any issues. The world stopped him from seeing the true ending so he wouldn't create a time paradox, but there was no such risk with the other routes. After all, Yamoto had made them up from scratch.
Niito had always thought of the other routes as potential futures that simply hadn't been picked, but he was realizing he'd been utterly mistaken. There weren't any other possibilities or other futures.
"I'm not sure it really matters, but I'd like to point out my predictions aren't just wild guesses. I've always been pretty good at predicting the future, even in my past life," Yamoto added.
That's all fine and dandy, but at the end of the day, predictions are just that—predictions. Nothing but guesses, Niito thought. He drank some water to soothe his dry throat and asked another question. "Does that mean scenario A is nothing but a product of our imagination?"
"That's very likely. I can think of another possibility, though. You know how in some sci-fi stories, characters will go back to the past to change it? There are three main schools when it comes to describing the consequences of time travel. Do you know what they are?"
"You're putting me on the spot," Niito said. He was a bit puzzled by the sudden question, but he answered anyway. "I guess the most obvious consequence is that the present would change as a result."
Yamoto nodded. "That's the first pattern, yes. A famous example of this would be that blockbuster movie with the killer android."
"Another option is to create a loop, right?" Ijuuin chimed in. "For instance, a character is saved by someone. They go back to the past, only to discover that it was their future self who'd saved them, and they do it once more. By doing so, they create a loop where all the events are linked and must happen to keep the timeline cohesive. As for a good example...oh, there's that British novel set in a wizarding school."
Yamoto nodded once more. "Exactly. Although that franchise changed its mind midway and went back to the first pattern in their latest play."
"The last option is to go in another direction altogether and say that nothing can change in any particular world, even if the past is changed. Instead, another timeline—a parallel universe—is created," Niito said.
"That would be the last pattern," Yamoto confirmed.
"I still don't understand what you're getting at. How does any of this relate to the matter at hand?" Niito asked. Niito had answered to humor her, but he hadn't dragged his sickly body to this café to discuss time travel or sci-fi novels.
"There's only one main difference between scenario A and scenario B," Yamoto said, putting one finger up. "And I think a parallel universe in which scenario A unfolds might just exist. Let's call Fiori A the world in which scenario A unfolds, and Earth A the world in which I write that story for Kuon no Sanka. The Fiori I remember will be Fiori B, and the world we're in right now will be Earth B."
As she spoke, Yamoto took out a piece of paper. She set it on the table and drew four circles, one in each corner. She then wrote Fiori A above the one in the upper left corner, Fiori B above the one in the bottom left corner, Earth A above the one in the upper right corner, and finally, Earth B above the last one.
"This is our starting point," she said, motioning toward Fiori A with her pen. "Let's assume that the story you know took place in this world. Another me would have existed there. She observed what happened around her, then transmigrated here, as I did."
Yamoto drew an arrow from Fiori A to Earth A.
"Then, that 'me' wrote about what she'd seen on the other side and turned it into a game, Kuon no Sanka. That would be scenario A, the version of the game you originally knew. Obviously, this is nothing but a hypothesis, but I believe the Ellize of scenario B saw scenario A somehow. Now that I think back on it, she often acted in ways that wouldn't make sense unless she knew the future."
Niito understood immediately what had happened. Yamoto had no way of knowing, but she should've added an arrow connecting Earth A to Fiori B.
Ellize (Fudou Niito) had transmigrated from Earth A to Fiori. She'd acted in a completely different way compared to the original Ellize, which had forced Fiori to split into two distinct timelines. Thus Fiori B had been born.
"Ellize's foreknowledge prompted her to change her behavior. The divergence created Fiori B," Yamoto continued. "Then, the same thing happened. I died, transmigrated, and wrote the scenario for Kuon no Sanka based on what I'd seen in Fiori B."
"That makes sense... The scenario we know would be the one of a parallel universe," Niito whispered, considering the implications.
The current Ellize had to have existed on Fiori A first. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have thought of changing the original Ellize's behavior. Everything stemmed from her disgust for the horrible character in the original scenario—Niito was sure of it. That made Earth A the current Ellize's starting point.
The current Niito was a part of Ellize's soul—the part that hadn't managed to transmigrate, so he too had most definitely been on Earth A at the start. Suddenly, a memory popped into Niito's head. He recalled once not finding his coat where he thought he'd left it.
I finally get it. I actually did travel! The main part of my soul—Ellize—pulled me along to this timeline—the parallel universe in which Fiori B and Earth B coexist!
Niito estimated that he'd traveled through the timelines on the very same day the main part of his soul had been reincarnated. Ellize had ended up in Fiori's past, creating a divergence, while he'd been left on Earth. However, the divergence had dragged him into the "correct" universe—Earth B—so as to match Ellize's path. In other words, Fudou Niito had died on Earth A, and his soul had split into two parts. The bigger part had become Ellize, and the smaller part was the current Niito. He was a scrap of his original soul that had failed to transmigrate, so it had taken over the body of the Fudou Niito of this world instead.
Image here:
That finally explained why Niito's coat hadn't been in the right place. He wasn't the one who'd moved it—it had been the original Fudou Niito of Earth B whose body he'd taken over. That was why he—the current him—didn't remember any of it.
As for Ijuuin, he'd definitely gotten mixed up in this mess because of Niito. He originally only knew scenario B, but the world had been forced to do some damage control after Niito had contacted him. It had forcibly adjusted his perception so that it would match Niito's.
At the end of the day, this whole thing's still only one big unverifiable theory... Besides, this whole parallel universes and diverging timelines business is far too removed from human understanding. The more I think about it, the more confused I get. The only thing I've learned for sure is that Ellize didn't enter the world of a video game—the game's scenario is based on a real world.
All in all, Niito hadn't been able to confirm much. The only thing Niito was certain of was that Fiori existed outside of the game Kuon no Sanka. Besides that, he was gradually becoming convinced that figuring out the answer was impossible altogether for one simple reason: no one could confirm their hypotheses. All they could do was decide whether their theory sounded plausible enough to satisfy themselves.
Ellize (me), you're in the real world. Get that through your skull and stop playing around like you're in a video game. If you don't start taking things seriously...you'll end up regretting it.
Niito had a feeling he probably wasn't the best person to warn Ellize, but he still hoped she'd pick a path that wouldn't leave her crippled by regret.
◇
YAHOO! The time has come!
A couple of days had gone by since Verner's unfortunate confession, and it was finally time for the final battle.
Still, I'd very narrowly dodged a bullet on that day. I honestly felt like patting myself on the back for my quick wit. Telling Verner I was dying had been a stellar idea.
Leaving that whole confession business aside, the timing was perfect for our attack. With Four-Eyed Pervert having just told the witch that the octopus's plan was a success and that I'd left the academy, she'd never see it coming.
Anyway, it was getting increasingly harder for him to pretend to be Dias. Alexia would eventually figure it out if we dragged it on too much. The same went for me. I was still holding on to my title as the saint, but it was only a matter of time before Verner blurted out that I was a fake. He wasn't a bad guy, but I constantly lived in fear that he'd accidentally let something slip.
I wanted to deal with the witch sooner rather than later so that I could give Eterna her position back. As for what would happen after...well, que será, será! If I made it out alive, I'd vanish in the dark of the night and spend my remaining days lazing around somewhere. If I didn't, I'd laze around in the afterworld. It was all the same to me. Either way, the truth about me would come out, and I was pretty sure no one would mourn a fake—in fact, they might even cheer.
Anyway, the first step of the plan would be to have Verner and the others go down to the second basement level under the guise of a special lesson.
The witch had asked Dias—or rather, Four-Eyed Pervert—to take advantage of my absence by sending her a couple of students who were close to me. She wanted to use them as hostages. Her request worked in our favor. Our biggest headache had been figuring out a way to make sure the witch wouldn't freak out when she noticed a group of students in the basement.
Now that she'd asked for them to be sent herself, she wouldn't think anything of it.
While the witch and the students fought, I'd create a magic vacuum around the academy to prevent the witch from using her teleport skill. Then, I'd head to the basement myself, bash the witch's head in, and let Alfrea seal her.
If everything went well, the only thing left for me to do would be to leave a letter behind confessing I was a fake and to flee before anyone woke up. Everyone would realize Eterna was the true saint all along and worship her—a perfectly happy ending.
If sealing Alexia didn't work, I'd just kill her myself and die alongside her in that basement.
Yup, this plan is absolutely foolproof. I don't see how it could go wrong.
"The success of this mission rests on your shoulders," I said. "However, please remember that your job is only to tire the witch out so that she cannot teleport. Once that is done, I want you to prioritize your safety and retreat. Do not throw your lives away. Does everyone understand?"
If anyone else but me were to lose their lives today, I'd consider the whole thing a massive failure—even if the witch was defeated and peace restored.
My goal was to secure a happy ending for everyone, and I wasn't interested in making concessions, so I reminded them once again that I didn't want them to give up their own lives.
"Yes!" all but two of them answered.
Instead, one asked, "Hey, can we have some mount before we go?"
Needless to say, the one who'd just spoken was Alfrea, the stupidest person I knew. At least try to read the room, Miss First Saint...
The other was Verner. He hadn't said a word, a grave expression on his face.
"Verner?" I called him.
He scrambled to find the words to reply. "Huh? Oh, um... Y-Yes! Of course! I'll give everything I have!"
Are you really okay? Please don't mess up! You're the main character! I can't have you make a huge blunder because you're in a daze! This isn't training anymore, this is the real deal! No matter what happens, don't lose your focus in front of the monsters, okay?!
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