"F-Frey?"
Ruby, who had just returned from the bathroom, saw Frey staring blankly at the pendant around his neck, his eyes wide open in disbelief. Startled, she hurriedly stepped closer.
"When did you… open your eyes?"
"…"
"Ugh… I wanted to recreate that moment perfectly…"
She moved close enough to gently grip the pendant hanging from his neck, her face clouded with regret as she muttered.
"This is my last chance… if I fail in this round, then next time, my soul will…"
Her tone wasn't filled with blame toward Frey for breaking their supposed pact. Instead, it was laced with fear, anxiety, and an unmistakable dread.
"Um…"
Standing there, unable to even speak, Ruby looked at him with pleading eyes. Frey, who had been watching her with a completely different gaze than before, slowly opened his mouth.
"This pendant… what is it?"
"Huh?"
"How did you get this…? No, I mean… it's bothering me."
"Is that so?"
Feigning calm, Ruby immediately reacted, her lips curving into a smile.
"Thank goodness. I was worried it was too crudely made for you to recognize. Hehe."
"You mean…"
"This was a gift I gave you in the past."
"…"
Silence fell after Ruby's words.
"I don't remember ever receiving something like this."
"Well, I guess you wouldn't. You don't have your memories right now, do you? This journey is all about helping you remember—"
"No, I mean, I really don't recall ever getting this."
"…"
Ruby's expression turned puzzled as she looked at him, feeling his hand tremble as he tried to stay calm.
"This… this was something that blasted innkeeper gave me."
"Frey?"
"Where did you see this? When did you discover it?"
"What are you talking about? I told you, I gave it to you."
In response to his wary questioning, Ruby scratched her head and replied.
"That… that can't be. I swear I saw it somewhere…"
"Wait… is a memory coming back to you?!"
"…"
Frey fell silent as Ruby's voice, filled with hope, broke the air.
'What is this really…?'
He already knew.
There was no way Ruby could have seen this pendant.
Before entering the fourth trial, he had never once shown it to her—and not during the trial either.
In the fourth trial, Frey was in a state of being bound to the Soul Orb, so he hadn't experienced the endless flow of time directly like Ruby had.
But the memories of what he'd gone through with her were still etched into his soul.
And those soul-bound memories had no record of Ruby ever seeing his pendant during the fourth trial.
"Come on, admit it, Frey. A memory's coming back, isn't it? You can't hide from me, can you?"
Ruby looked directly into his eyes as she spoke, showing not a hint of deception.
"Keep that up, and I'll have to scold you, okay?"
And strangely enough…
The terrifying, oppressive aura of the Demon King that used to cling to Ruby was nowhere to be seen.
"You know… I'm scary when I get mad, right?"
In front of Frey now was simply a girl gazing at him, her eyes full of tenderness.
"Hmm?"
An oddly familiar girl, someone he felt he'd missed for a very long time.
"…Uh, yeah."
"See? I knew it! I was sure this would be effective!"
As Frey nodded in response to her excitement, Ruby hugged him tightly, rubbing her face against his.
"Then…"
Then, Ruby's eyes suddenly shifted as she glanced up toward the night sky.
"…"
Her expression twisted into one of despair.
"Why… why isn't it clearing…?"
"…"
"I did it right… I retrieved your memories. I made you remember the pendant, didn't I?"
Murmuring to herself, Ruby wore a look of despair that Frey had never seen before.
"No… I don't want to disappear…"
"Ruby?"
"I don't want to leave you behind… please…"
And with those words, Ruby buried her face in Frey's chest and began to sob.
*Shwoosh…*
In that moment, a star, which had been shining exceptionally bright in the night sky, began to fall.
"…"
As Frey, who had instinctively begun patting Ruby's back, glanced at the falling star, a cold sweat ran down his back.
"What… what is going on?"
Memories he had never experienced before began surfacing.
---
"Frey, today we're camping out in the Ashen Woods."
"But there are monsters there—"
"Monsters? I'll handle them all. Don't worry."
Ever since the day she'd given him the pendant, Ruby's affectionate advances toward Frey only grew more intense.
"Let's go to the Eastern Continent today. I remember you liked the food there."
"Or maybe the Western Continent's unicorn farm… oh, wait, the unicorns will go wild if they see you. Maybe the bicorn farm instead? No, I'd be attacked there."
"How about the beach today? The sea was so beautiful when I looked at it with you…"
"Today, let's—"
No, to say she grew more intense was an understatement.
It was as though she were someone with a terminal illness.
As though she'd made up her mind to enjoy her life to the fullest in the face of the approaching end, she dragged Frey around the entire world, experiencing everything together.
"There's still… no memories, right…? Frey…?"
"…"
"It's… it's okay. You haven't done anything wrong, Frey. Hehe."
And by the end of each day, Ruby would always stare into the distance with a vacant expression.
[2 - 01]
[Recover Frey's Memory]
[2 - 02]
[Protect Frey until his memories return]
[2 - 03]
[Relive memories with Frey (in progress)]
"Ruby?"
"…Oh, yes?"
By now, Frey's own voice was beginning to carry a hint of concern as he called her name.
Since receiving the pendant from her, scattered images had started surfacing in his mind.
They weren't full-fledged memories. Rather, they were hazy fragments, like looking at snippets of film.
The old Frey might have dismissed them, assuming Ruby was pulling some kind of trick.
"…"
Except the scenes that were appearing… were the very ones Ruby had recently been trying to recreate all across the world.
And, strangely enough, they were also scenes that appeared in the drawing he'd made after his memory was erased during his first reset.
"Of course! I'm just fine!"
In that moment, seeing Ruby's overly cheerful voice paired with the dark shadows under her eyes only made Frey more uneasy.
"…How many resets do you have left?"
"Don't worry, I have an unlimited number! There are plenty of chances left, so don't stress, Frey, alright?"
"…"
Despite her reassurances, Frey could see that Ruby's soul was steadily deteriorating.
Even though he couldn't handle souls, he'd retained enough residual power from having "Retry" once to sense the state of her soul.
"Today… let's go back to the academy for a change…"
"Ugh…"
"Frey?"
Their journey, which had been filled with both anxiety and a strange thrill, took an unexpected turn one day.
"Ugh… ugh…"
"Is it happening again?"
That journey… that sense of unease came to a head when Frey found himself consumed by the Demon King's influence, and when he finally came to his senses…
Ruby was lying beneath him, drenched in blood, crying like a heartbroken child.
"Sniff… sniff…"
"This…"
"S-sorry, Frey."
As Frey, looking horrified, reached out toward her, Ruby for the first time avoided his touch, standing up with a somber expression.
"Just… just give me a moment… a moment alone."
With that, she stepped out of the room, not returning until after the sun had set.
"…"
The entire time, Frey sat on the bed, staring blankly.
"Frey… sorry. Were you waiting?"
When Ruby finally returned after sunset, she seemed as bright as she always had.
"Today… let's go to the Western Continent's desert."
"The desert?"
But something about her had changed.
"It's where the stars look the most beautiful at night."
It was the determined look in her eyes.
---
"Look over there, Frey."
"…"
With a mere snap of her fingers, Ruby transported them to the sprawling desert of the Western Continent.
"The stars are exceptionally bright tonight."
In the heart of the desert, the boy and the girl sat side by side, gazing up at the star-strewn sky, hands intertwined.
"Come on, this is where you're supposed to say something cheesy like 'I'm your star.'"
"…"
"Never mind. I suppose you don't remember."
Murmuring with a disappointed look, Ruby then glanced down at the potato soup and the loaf of rye bread warming up beside it.
"Frey… do you like rye bread now?"
Then, out of nowhere, Ruby asked.
"Yeah."
"Strange."
"What's strange?"
Frey, who had indeed grown to like rye bread, nodded without much thought, but Ruby just stared at him, making him tilt his head in confusion.
"You used to love whole wheat bread. You didn't like rye."
"What?"
"I, on the other hand, hated whole wheat and liked rye and potato soup. Don't you remember?"
Frey's face began to twist
in disbelief as Ruby's words seemed to draw him into a fog.
"We teased each other so much about it… Eventually, we ended up switching our tastes completely."
"What…"
"To understand why I liked rye, you kept trying it, and I did the same with your whole wheat… and in the end, our preferences flipped."
Chuckling softly, Ruby leaned her head on his shoulder.
"When this loop began, I looked at the bread I'd been eating, the first one I picked up when I started over, and it was whole wheat."
"Wait… what?"
"You kept giving me rye, so I thought I must have liked it. But before this whole loop began… the bread I ate was always whole wheat."
Ruby muttered with a gentle smile.
"You see, even without realizing it… we remembered each other."
"This… doesn't make sense."
"Hmm?"
Ruby spoke with a dreamy look, but Frey's face grew pale as he stammered.
"I… I've always loved rye bread. I don't think I've ever liked whole wheat…"
"Before this endless loop began, there was a time when you lost your memories, just like now."
Ruby, gazing at Frey's confused face, softly stroked his hair.
"Even though you can't recall it… the you from back then, the reset you, couldn't even stomach rye bread or potato soup."
"Ah…"
For a moment, Frey's face reflected pure shock.
"Now that I think about it…"
Ruby's words were true.
He'd seen it for himself while in his soul form, with Pherloche's pet, Goo Goo, watching alongside him.
The reset version of him, the self that had erased his own memories to embrace corruption, had detested the rye bread and soup Ruby had lovingly prepared.
Why? Why was that?
He could remember liking buttered rye bread since he was a child.
But why did the reset version of him hate it?
What on earth could it mean?
Could it be… we really had a connection in the past…?
As the thoughts he'd denied all along began to seem more and more real, Frey's face grew pale.
[2 - 01]
[Recover Frey's Memory (0/1)]
"Anyway, Frey."
Meanwhile, Ruby, who hadn't noticed his distress, glanced up at the night sky with a sad smile and began to speak.
"It's time to say goodbye."
"What?"
Hearing that, Frey felt an inexplicable sense of unease as he turned to face her.
*Thud!*
In that moment…
"Haah… haah…"
Ruby suddenly slumped to the side, her breathing ragged.
"R-Ruby?"
Frey, panicking at the unexpected turn, reached out toward her.
"Why… why is this happening all of a sudden?"
"I… took a little trip."
"This… is blood?"
As Frey's hand brushed over her heart, he realized it was soaked in her blood.
"I went to see Aria, who has the Hero's Weapon… I revealed myself as the Demon King and let her pierce my heart."
"What…?"
Frozen in horror, Frey stared at her as she continued, her words chilling him to the bone.
"I managed to stop the bleeding with magic until now, but… I can't hold it any longer."
"Is this…"
"Goodbye, Frey."
"What… are you doing?"
Panicked, Frey tried pouring star mana into Ruby's heart, but the wound only grew worse, smoke rising as the injury continued to fester.
"I've worked so hard to restore your memory… but I don't think it's going to work."
"…"
"Today, you nearly became the Demon King. Just one more outburst… and you'll be completely corrupted."
As she spoke, Ruby reached out and gently cupped Frey's cheek.
"If I just had a few more days… I could have saved you… but before that, either my soul would shatter or you'd succumb to corruption."
"…"
"So I'll use my last reset. Even if it means my soul will shatter… there's a chance you'll keep your memories."
"Wait…"
"Your memories will remain. I've practiced soul magic for ages now. I even learned from Pherloche how to preserve memories from a previous round."
Tears began to stream down Ruby's face as she stroked Frey's cheek.
"According to her, it's the technique that allowed the five main heroines to retain memories from past rounds… I just hope it works…"
"Wait."
"If your memory remains, go find Serena. Explain everything to her, and she'll help you restore the rest…"
"Wait!!"
Sensing something terribly wrong, Frey shouted out in alarm.
[2 - 01]
[Recover Frey's Memory (0/1)]
"At least… at least I can spend my final moments with you under this starlit sky…"
Still staring desperately at the quest window in the empty air, Ruby's eyes filled with tears as she whispered her last words.
"Frey… could you remember?"
With those words, she reached out to the pendant around Frey's neck, touching the gem embedded in it and whispering softly.
"I'm Ruby… your gem."
"Wait, I don't understand—"
"Forever… I love you…"
The boy and the girl never finished their sentences.
*Crackle!*
The world quietly flipped upside down.
---
Thus, the final round began.
"Haaah…!"
Just as Ruby had promised, Frey opened his eyes in the new loop, his previous life's memories fully intact.
"What… what is all of this…?"
What he saw was himself, tied to a chair, having just accepted the Corruption Quest.
"…"
And there, slumped against the floor of the Hero Party's secret base, was Ruby, sitting limply with her head bowed, her eyes hollow.
*Drip…*
As her soul shattered bit by bit, tears slid down Ruby's face.
"Ruby…?"
Watching her, Frey's complexion paled rapidly.