The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody - Volume 4 - Chapter 1

DAY 1

The Spirit of Ireena

“I want to be a mom!”

Sunlight flooded the main drag of Kingsglaive, and Ireena shouted this sudden declaration with her whole heart.

“…Um, Miss Ireena? What brought that on?”

“Hey! What’s with that face?! I see you cringing!”

“No. Well… You did just say you wanted to be a mom… I mean…” Ginny glanced at me for backup.

I nodded once. “What happened? I don’t understand why you want to bear a child… Or did someone get you pregnant? Tell me his name and address. I just want to say hi.”

And dismember him. He deserved to die, obviously.

As I let every evil emotion in me run wild, Ireena shook her head.

“No! I was just really moved by our earlier conversation!” Her round eyes sparkled.

“Which one?”

“You mean the one about the Holy Mother?” Ginny asked, incredulous.

Ireena nodded, and we finally understood.

* * *

It had just happened.

After leaving Norman’s research institute, we headed to the next spot on our itinerary, The Statue of the Holy Mother. According to our schedule, this was the final group activity of the day.

A giant sculpture of a woman loomed over us.

The dwarven guide stood in front of it. “Let’s see. This is a statue of Lady Aisha, who raised the Demon Lord and Lady Olivia.”

She continued. “Everyone knows the Demon Lord and the legendary apostle, Lady Olivia, were like siblings after they met in the slums and bonded… Isn’t that right, Lady Olivia?”

“…Yeah.”

“In the holy texts, the details of their difficult life are evident.”

“…Well, yeah.”

“Left without parents, they craved affection. One day, Lady Aisha suddenly appeared and showered them with love as if they were her own children!”

“…You’re not wrong…”

“However! The Evil Gods found out about the Demon Lord’s existence and set a wicked plan into motion, targeting the lives of the Demon Lord and Lady Olivia! Lady Aisha risked everything to save them…and they were set free—in exchange for her life! There, she met her tragic end!”

Tears streamed down the guide’s face. When I looked around me, I saw all the students were in the same condition.

“Aah…! How terrible…!” Ireena sobbed.

“I’ve read the holy texts more times than I can count…but their parting always brings a tear to my eye…”

Ireena and Ginny dabbed their eyes with handkerchiefs.

“…? This is different from the story I know…” Sylphy was the only one who tilted her head in bewilderment.

As for Olivia and me, we could do nothing more than smile in our sarcastic way. Neither of us had any idea why she came to be known as the “Holy Mother.”

It was true we had been raised by a dwarf named Aisha, but she only taught us how to pickpocket and cheat at gambling. And she was a huge cheapskate…

“What?! This is all you earned today? Jeez! You’ve got nothing going for you! I should have just saved up on my own!”

She used to complain we were cheating her out of the money that we earned, subjecting us to one of her inebriated rants as she drowned herself in alcohol. Honestly, no one would have objected to calling her a piece of shit. Obviously, I had no respect for her.

Even the story about parting with her was complete garbage.

Aisha didn’t die. In fact, she didn’t even protect us. She had used every means at her disposal to escape.

I had cleaned up our attackers in a heartbeat. Around that time, Olivia and I had raised our rebel army…but that was a story for another day.

That was the last time I saw Aisha. She either died on the roadside or rose to riches. At any rate, I had zero interest about her whereabouts.

…I seriously never thought she would be revered as a Holy Mother. Aisha! Of all people!

“Lady Aisha is a role model to women of the world! Listen up, young ladies! When you have children, aspire to be a mother like Lady Aisha!”

If Aisha was their mom, any kid would rebel. How did history get the facts all wrong?

…Not that I could do anything about it.

“Lady Aisha is the paragon of motherhood!”

“Let’s buy miniature bronze statues as keepsakes!”

“It’ll remind me to be on my best behavior if I put it in my room.”

In this generation, women saw that lowlife as the maternity gold standard. At this point, what good would it do for me to change their minds? Still, Olivia and I were left with mixed emotions…

After listening to a series of fictions, it was time to break off into small groups.

I was disturbed knowing those fake anecdotes would be handed down across generations.

Ireena felt otherwise. “The story of Lady Aisha made me think of my own mom!”

Ireena had a mother. As we all tended to. Not that I’d ever seen her.

“I always admired my mom. I think she’s amazing, like Lady Aisha…which is why I want to be like my mom, too!”

I see.

She didn’t want to be a mother. She wanted to be like one. The tales about the Holy Mother must have ignited those dormant desires.

I could see where she was coming from. It was like when my old creativity came back after reading books on architecture. It made me dream about building another castle.

“I’m not very confident I’ll be a good parent to my children… I’m starting to doubt if I can even be a decent one, let alone one like my mom.”

“Well, they say parenting isn’t easy. …But Miss Ireena, I don’t think you need to be concerned about that now.”

“What do you mean?”

“…Don’t you know where babies come from?”

“What? S-stop making fun of me! I obviously know where they come from! It’s easy…! Y-y-y-you…kiss the love of your life…and then, boom! Baby time! That’s what Daddy taught me!”

“Um… Ireena… Even I know that’s wrong. Listen closely… Babies are brought by a stork! Heh-heh!” Sylphy chuckled.

“You’re way off the mark, too,” Ginny said.

“What?!”

As I watched their exchange, I was thinking the same thing Ginny was.

There was no reason for Ireena to worry about parenting. Not now. I mean, she didn’t even know how babies were made.

I didn’t have a problem keeping it that way. In fact, I wished she would never come by that knowledge.

Even I knew she would eventually bear children, though.

Imagining it made me want to murder the father…! Ireena was my best friend. She was almost like a daughter to me! There was no way I would let anyone touch her that way.

Even though I wanted her to be happy, this was nonnegotiable.

I prayed she would never meet someone who would have children with her…!

I was in the middle of my thoughts.

That was when the space near us fissured.

All faces tensed as they witnessed the phenomenon, and not just the girls. Everyone in the area went pale.

“…I get that the point of these incidents is they come out of the blue, but I sure do wish they would give us a break during our trip,” I muttered, squinting to observe the sliver floating in empty space.

It was slowly opening… Just as I heard a low thud, someone pounced outside.

A person… An elf, based on the pointed ears.

A girl. She seemed…young, wearing our school uniform, even though she couldn’t possibly be a classmate.

The elven girl appearing before us looked like…

“M-Miss Ireena…?!”

Exactly. She looked like young Ireena.

“W-who are you…?!” Ireena hesitantly asked her mirror image, who looked back with a somewhat nostalgic expression.

But that only lasted a second.

Her bearing became determined as she straightened her spine. “My name is Elis! A soldier from the future!”

We all gawked at her. Elis pointed at Ireena.

“On this very day, something awful will befall you! I’ve come from the future to prevent it and protect you! If I fail…”

“…the world will be destroyed!”

A little girl had popped up unannounced and declared she was from the future.

All eyes were on us.

…How should I say this? This was really bad.

“Umm, Elis? Would you mind coming this way?”

“What?! Are you pitying me? I can see it in your eyes. Don’t touch me, perv!”

“Now, now. This way… Follow me, guys.”

We booked it out of there, switching locations to a deserted back alley.

I directed my attention to Elis. “Where did you come from? Tell me who you are and what you want.”

“What?! Do you have no brain cells? I just told you everything! I’m Elis! I’m a soldier who has come to protect Mo…um, Ireena! Jeez! Stop making me repeat myself!” She glared, giving me some major attitude.

“…A soldier from the future, huh? That’s not…,” Ginny trailed off, looking as incredulous as everyone else.

A messenger from the future. It was hard to accept. After all, we couldn’t travel to the past on our own.

That said, it wasn’t impossible. After all, we’d just visited an ancient timeline through the powers of a kid-god. There was a chance Elis had been sent here by that same kid.

I asked her if that was the case.

“What? God? Who?”

It seemed my guess was wrong. Then how did she get here?

“That’s a secret! I’ll never tell! And Da…I mean, that dirty old man told me to keep my mouth shut! Something about a ‘temporal paradox.’ Like, what? Give it to me in layman’s terms!” Elis pointed to me in anger for whatever reason.

“…Ard, do you think she has any relation to the demons?”

It was definitely possible. But…I couldn’t figure out what their motive might be.

If all this was connected to the suspect I had in mind…

I cast a detection spell to investigate that possibility, procuring the location of a certain someone before casting a summoning spell.

It only took a moment for a magic circle to manifest on the cobbled street.

Smoke billowed around the summoned. The genius. The walking disaster. The magic scholar. One of the former Heavenly Kings.

Verda…

Plus one.

“AAAAAAAAAH!”

Norman was sprinting inside a machine that looked like a big wheel.

…What the hell?

Rattle-rattle-rattle. The wheel spun.

Its power source sprayed sweat. “RAAAAH! By the way! What will this experiment prove, master?”

“You’re—well, you know… Something?”

“What do you mean by ‘something’? Don’t tell me this is just for fun!”

“Hey! Obviously not. Who do you think I am? You know me, myself, and I. Get with the program… Erm. What was your name?”

“Norman! It’s Norman! Could you please remember already?!”

“Oh, I suck at remembering the names of boring people.”

“But I’ve been your pupil for decades!”

…Seriously… What the hell was going on here?

My cheek twitched. “Um, pardon me,” I called out to Verda. “May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Hmm? Hey there! If it isn’t Ard! What are you doing here…? Oh. Looks like we’re somewhere else. I guess you summoned us here?”

“Yes… Let me cut to the chase. Time is of the essence. Is she yours?” I glared at Verda, probing her for the truth.

Elis had to be Ireena’s clone of sorts. I wouldn’t put it past Verda to use her for some sort of stupid scheme.

…That had been my guess.

“What? Not to my knowledge.” Verda cocked her head.

Ireena and the others eyed her suspiciously.

Meanwhile…I had broken out in a cold sweat.

Verda wasn’t lying. I had cast a number of undetectable spells on her. They told me whether her statements were true or false, and those spells…proved she’d been honest with me.

“Is she actually from the future…?”

“What? Who’s from the future? Where? Oh! Could it be this little girl? Hmm? I can feel her spirit is out of the ordinary. All right. We need to start dissecting—”

“Sorry to bother you. That was all. Please return to wherever you came from.” I cast another spell and sent Verda and Norman on their way.

…Next up.

“Elis. Who are you?”

“As. I. Said. I’m a soldier from the future, birdbrain!”

…She wasn’t lying either.

“C-could it be true, Ard?” Ginny asked.

“Yes. It seems safe to say she’s from the future.”

“That means…” Ireena started piecing things together.

“Something awful is going to happen!” Sylphy yelped.

We exchanged a look before staring at Elis.

…How on earth did this happen?

…There was no way around accepting it was the truth.

“Okay, Elis. And what might that bad thing be?”

“No clue!”

“…Cool. And when will it happen?”

“Beats me!”

“……”

“Hey! Stop looking at me like that! It’s not my fault! It happened out of the blue, okay? The world started collapsing out of nowhere, and when Da… I mean, when the pervert checked out the situation, he realized the world was gonna fall into ruin because Mo…I mean, an elf named Ireena got caught up in some trouble!”

“You’re saying you don’t know anything else?”

“Uh-huh! And something about ‘disturbances in space-time’ and some ‘observations’…but I tuned it out because I didn’t get it!”

“…I see.” I couldn’t stop a long sigh from leaving my lips. “My instinct is…to lock ourselves away in another dimension. We can wait there until the day ends. How’s that?”

“That won’t work! That’s what Da… I mean, that creep told me. Even if we isolate Mo… erm, Ireena, we can’t alter the incident because of causality and facts or whatever!”

Causality and facts, huh. Unless we rewrote destiny, any effort would be in vain. The incident would be set in motion, even if we resisted. Which meant we couldn’t alter the danger set to befall Ireena.

Then there was only one solution.

“When it all goes down, we will take out the ones who intend to harm Ireena… That’s our only option.”

“Great! Finally, something I can understand!” Sylphy exclaimed.

“We have Ard with us, so I don’t see an issue,” Ginny added.

Everyone except Elis seemed relieved. I knew Ireena had more faith in me than anyone else. There wasn’t so much as an ounce of fear on her face. In fact, she let her lips form a gentle smile.

“We’ll wait until it happens. That’s all we can do. We can’t change anything by worrying. There is one thing we can do to pass the time, though,” Ireena suggested. “Travel! And you’re coming, too, Elis!”

“…Okay!”

For whatever reason, Elis warmed up only to Ireena. With a huge smile, she buried herself in Ireena’s chest.

We left the back alley and started on a new journey with Elis in tow.

“Hmm. So this is what Kingsglaive looked like.”

“Does it look different in the future?”

“Yeah. Not as many people… This feels new!” Elis’s eyes sparkled as she eagerly took in her surroundings, like a typical tourist. “Hey, Mo…Ireena! I’m hungry! Ooh, I wanna eat that!”

“Honey bread? Sure, I’ll buy it for you.”

“Yay! I love you, Mo…I mean, Ireena!”

Ireena and Elis trotted over to the stall.

I watched this exchange feeling as though…

“Nom-nom… This is great!”

“Is there bread in the future?”

“Yeah. I mean, our time periods aren’t too far apart.”

“Huh. You seem to be enjoying it.”

“Nom-nom… That’s because… Om-nom… eating is… Munch… my second-favorite thing… Nom…… Bleh! My throat!”

“Here. Have some water.”

“…Aaah. I thought I was gonna die.”

“Chew. Didn’t your mother teach you that?”

“…Yeah. Sorry, Mo…um, Ireena.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me. By the way, you just said eating is your second-favorite thing in the world. What’s better than eating?”

“Spending time with Mo… I mean, Iree… Um. I think I can say this… Spending time with my mom makes me happier than anything else in the world!”

“…Me, too.”

The two smiled at each other.

It made me feel as though…

“They’re like mother and child,” Ginny said.

…Well, that was true. They were basically doppelgangers and had immediately developed a bond that gave no indication they were strangers.

…On the outside.

Maybe Elis was just her doppelganger. It was still in the realm of possibilities.

“I wanna eat that one next! Please, Mom…? Oh! S-sorry! I meant—”

“Ha-ha-ha. Don’t worry about it. When I was your age, I accidentally said that to ladies in the village, too.”

“Y-yeah! It was an accident! Sorry! Hee-hee-hee!”

…Nothing was definite. Not yet.

“Ah.”

“Whoa! Elis! Are you okay? You need to watch where you’re going. Otherwise, you’ll trip again!”

“Ah… Waaah! Oww! I scraped my knee!”

“Oh, don’t cry! Did you know tears wash away joy?”

“Hngh…”

“Yes, that’s it. Stay strong.”

“…Am I a good girl?”

“Yes! Pain, pain, go away! All better! Right?”

“Uh-huh! Thanks, Mom!”

…So much for hiding it.

I found it hard to believe. Or maybe I just didn’t want to accept it as truth.

This Elis girl had to be… Well, it more than likely wasn’t the case.

But there was a small possibility…that she was Ireena’s daughter.

There was no way. It couldn’t be true. Obviously.

After all, Ireena was the living embodiment of innocence—an angel walking among us. If she received some random guy and bore his c-c-child…!

It was absolutely inconceivable! I would never let that happen! If it did, I would never consent to Ireena becoming anyone’s wife!

Never! Ever!

“H-hey! What’s wrong, Ard? You look so…ogrely,” Sylphy observed.

“Don’t worry about me. Just planning to rip the limbs off an imaginary enemy…cough, future husband, cough.”

“…Now I’m even more curious. What’s up with you?”

Ignoring her dubious stare, I let my imagination run wild for a long time…

Day fell into evening.

Under the darkening sky, Elis was no longer smiling and chatting exclusively with Ireena. Ginny and Sylphy had managed to infiltrate her inner circle as well. It didn’t take Elis long to open up to them.

…But even though Elis had warmed up to practically everyone, I was somehow the exception.

“Elis, careful where you’re walking. You’ll trip again.”

“…I don’t need you telling me that.”

See example above.

“Elis, want anything else to eat?”

“Jeez. Didn’t you just watch me shovel food in my mouth?”

And another case.

“Eli—”

“Can it. Your breath stinks.”

Case. In. Point.

Where did I go wrong?

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!” Ireena scolded her between these episodes, causing Elis to tear up, but it wasn’t enough to check her attitude.

…Not that I cared if some random kid hated me.

Even though Ard Meteor was an average nobody, I used to be the man known as the Demon Lord. I wasn’t about to spend my time currying the favor of some little girl—or worse, worrying what she thought about me.

…So it should be understood that the following question was posed only out of pure curiosity.

“Elis. Do you dis-ngh…dislike me?”

So I might have fumbled midway, but I wasn’t on edge or anything.

In fact, I didn’t even care if she revealed she actually hated my guts. I wasn’t at all torn up that I was the odd one out or that this could be bad for…reasons.

…And the weather was warm, so it was totally normal to sweat a little.

Elis turned and stared at me. “What would you think of a married man who has tons of women waiting on him?”

“What? Um…pardon my language, but he would be a piece of shit.”

“So you agree?”

“Yes. A married person should never have relations with anyone other than his or her spouse.”

“And if his cheating makes her cry?”

“That would be unforgivable.”

“And the man?”

“Should obviously die.”

“Yeah. There’s your answer.”

What was that supposed to mean?

…In the end, our free time came to an end without Elis ever warming up to me.

“I guess we should return to the inn.”

“Nothing has happened yet. I think,” Ireena observed.

“We still have five hours until the end of the day. I assume it will happen then,” Ginny reasoned.

“Let’s bring Elis back to the inn with us!” Sylphy suggested.

As I walked behind Elis on our way there, I let myself get carried away by my thoughts.

Strolling along, my thoughts turned as I looked at Elis from behind.

There hadn’t been a single moment where I’d felt something was about to go down. Not even the tiniest of omens. I’d been keeping an eye on the town with a detection spell, but it hadn’t picked up on anything or anyone suspicious.

The demons weren’t lurking in wait. Even Verda was on her “best” behavior. I really didn’t get the vibe that a showdown would happen within the next few hours.

Which made me suspect one thing: Was Elis lying?

There was no doubt she was from the future, but what if she’d lied about something bad happening today? What if that was her way to get closer to Ireena…?

That would make Elis the real enemy.

…I couldn’t deny that possibility but knew it was just conjecture at this point.

Staying vigilant was the only reasonable course of action.

Possibly because I was trying to convince myself of this…

…my body immediately reacted to my sixth sense blaring the alarm.

Something was wrong. I cast a defensive spell as soon as felt it.

A magic circle fanned out of the ground, manifesting into a semitransparent barrier around us.

“What’s happening?” Ireena seemed baffled.

At the same moment, water bullets exploded against the wall. From the impact, I could tell it wasn’t a serious attack. Even without our defenses, we wouldn’t have been in real danger.

But something was off about this. The attack wasn’t aimed at Ireena but…Elis.

What in the world was going on? Before I could ask, my attention was directed upward.

The orange sky had ruptured. Racing across the void was a young girl in a robe, its hood masking her face.

“…I take it you’re an enemy?”

No response. She just looked down at us.

That seemed to touch a nerve with Elis.

“You’re the culprit! Right?!” she started to yell. “I dunno what you’re planning, but I won’t just let you do whatever you want! I’ll take you down and save the future!”

The girl in the sky trembled…as if she were the embodiment of rage itself.

“Rude. This is all your fault, you know.”

When I looked closer, I could see her mouth under her hood twitching.

“Come again? Speak up!” screamed Elis.

That had apparently pushed the girl to her limits. She clicked her tongue in irritation.

“Yeah? Well! Can you hear me now? My generation is in shambles! Because of you! There’s been a shift in the space-time continuum, creating a paradox! Because you meddled with time!”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Oh, come on! Did you have no brain cells when you were younger? Fine! I’ll explain it in a way even you can understand!” The young girl grabbed her hood with her hand and yanked it down.

One look at her face and…

“I’m Iris! A soldier from the future to make you return to your own time! It’s time to go back to the future, Mo… I mean, Elis!”

Iris was the spitting image of Elis and Ireena.

“What do you mean…you came from the future…?!”

Elis was shell-shocked by this unexpected twist. The rest of us were more or less shaken.

“H-hey, Elis. Is she your friend?”

“I… I have no idea who she is…” Elis started to perspire.

Iris glared daggers at her. “Duh! I’m from further in the future than you!”

“What?” This only seemed to confuse her.

Meanwhile, I was beginning to get a grip on the whole picture.

“Iris, right? Can I ask you a few questions?”

“…What?”

“About the paradox created by Elis. I think that’s what you said.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Meaning…this incident occurred because Elis traveled across time. Is that right?”

“Hey! What are you trying to say?!” Elis went bug-eyed.

Iris nodded. “Exactly. I assume Mo… I mean, Elis told you there would be an incident concerning Gran… I mean, Ireena. And that it would bring the world to extinction.”

Spot on. I nodded.

Good grief.

Iris shrugged, hovering above us. “There will be an incident, but I don’t know the details. There is one thing for certain: This is all happening because Mo…cough, Elis traveled to the past.”

“Wh-what?! That’s impossible!” Elis screeched in a panic.

I ignored her, focusing my attention on Iris. “If that’s true…are you implying that nothing will happen if Miss Elis returns to the future?”

“It’s possible. At the very least, it’ll cancel out the paradox in my own generation.”

“Then—” I started to say, but Elis interrupted.

“Are you telling me to go back to the future?!” she barked at Iris. “Peabrain! There’s no way! I mean, you could be the enemy!”

Elis had a point, but this bickering would never settle anything.

“Sigh. I never knew you were so stubborn when you were young,” Iris said. “I guess there’s no way around wrestling you back to your own time.”

“I’d like to see you try…!”

I guessed this was the only natural conclusion. They became militant, preparing to fight it out right there.

Ireena planted herself between them. “W-wait! If you make a mess here—”

In the middle of her sentence…rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble…the ground started groaning and shaking violently.

“I-is this an earthquake…?!”

“I-I’ve got a bad feeling about this!”

Sylphy was right on the money.

When the vibrations settled down, the cobbled road nearby began to crumble…and the earth split open.

In a mass panic, people started scrambling away. I cast a spell, saving those who were late in escaping before they could plunge into the chasm.

As this was happening, a golden ray blasted out of the crater, stretching toward the heavens like a pillar.

It started to dim…revealing a certain someone.

“Erm, hello! I’m Uriel. I’ve come to save the original universe from annihilation.”

This young woman was another duplicate of Iris, who had the same features as Elis, who looked exactly like Ireena.

“Umm…Uriel, right? I’m sorry, but would you mind repeating that?”

“Sure thing. Erm, hello! I’m Uriel. I’ve come to save the original universe from annihilation,” she repeated in a downbeat tone.

This woman had the appearance of Iris, Elis, and Ireena in a few years.

“Did you come from a time after Iris?”

“Nope. Lady Iris is from Universe 187,582. I’m from 98,545.”

“Uh, so in other words…you’re from a parallel world?” Ireena asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“This is getting bigger than I thought…”

“Hey, guys? I’m not following…”

I sympathized with Ginny and Sylphy, but somebody had to get the ball rolling.

I must have looked like I was wasting away. “And…what’s your goal?”

“Oh, right. I need to stop Elis and Iris from fighting. By engaging in battle, Universes 84,858,817,422 to 108,548,758,445 will be annihilated. If you continue, all original universes will continue to die out…until every reality is destroyed. Including this one, Universe 487.”

I could feel my head pounding, but I couldn’t afford a headache now.

“So basically, nothing will happen if Iris and Elis don’t fight, and they return to their own worlds and their own time periods,” I guessed. “And…that will save these ‘original universes,’ or whatever, from annihilation.”

“Exactly.”

If I was being honest, this talk about infinite universes was a situation all on its own. Welp. No use worrying about that now. There was a greater problem that needed my immediate attention.

“W-who are you?! I swear you popped out of nowhere!” Elis exclaimed.

“You’re suspect. I don’t trust you,” Iris added.

This was an issue.

“Hm… This could be a problem. Yggdrasil was right. I can’t stop the two without trust, so I’ll have to resort to force. I was hoping we could end things without a scuffle, but…well, I suppose this is out of my control.”

In that moment, Uriel seemed thirsty for blood. Shining blades flashed behind her.

“This is going to sting, but please try to endure it,” she suggested, facing Elis and Iris and raining down the blades.

“Hah! Bring it on!

“This doesn’t change my goal…!”

A three-way melee broke out.

Uriel looked just like Iris, who bore a resemblance to Elis, who was basically Ireena’s clone. Their battle ravaged the ancient capital of Kingsglaive.

“I’m guessing this is Elis’s ‘dangerous incident,’” I murmured.

I cast a detection spell to gather the status of the town and a defensive spell over any signs of life. This would prevent any casualties. As seconds passed, though, the surrounding buildings started to crumble.

We were standing in the very center of the main road, observing the mayhem, but…our view started opening up as more edifices were blasted into smithereens. We eventually ended up with a panoramic view of the vanishing city, even though we were on flat ground.

“A-Ard! We have to stop them! O-or else the town will…!” Ginny pressed.

“You’re right…” I crossed my arms, looking conflicted.

I could have stopped them in about two seconds.

But…I actively chose not to intervene.

Why?

Because watching this capital burn felt so good.

…Obviously, Kingsglaive wasn’t built overnight. It had taken a great deal of work, and I had grown attached to it.

But…this place was the source of my trauma.

And it was all Lydia’s fault!

See example below.

“Ack! Watch out for the stage where the Demon Lord was once a jester!”

They were referring to the tiered stage in the middle of the road, destroyed just a moment ago. As the story went, the Demon Lord had dressed as a jester for the people’s amusement…but they couldn’t have been more wrong.

It hadn’t been of my own volition! I was forced into the role after losing a game…!

There had been a time when Lydia would frequently pop in to pick fights with me. Back then, I hadn’t been used to her ways, so I was always the loser… That was where this stage came into the picture.

“I win! As your punishment, I order you to dress up as a clown and put on a show.”

“…Don’t be ridiculous. A ruler would never.”

“Bok-bok! Chicken! I guess you’re a ruler with no talent in the arts! My bad! I never would have guessed you didn’t have a funny bone in you, since you walk around with that huge ego and—”

“Who are you calling a chicken?! I can do anything!”

She’d totally set me up. I had a stage constructed in the most crowded part of town and put on the performance of a lifetime.

Lydia had been the only one in the audience who’d laughed. The general public had cringed at their king’s desperate show.

My heart had been crushed.

At least now one of the reminders of that traumatic event had been destroyed… To be honest, I was feeling pretty good.

“Ack! Look out for the bridge where the Demon Lord streaked!”

Amazing! That thing could split in two.

“Ack! Not the legendary restaurant where he dined and dashed!

And now it was out of business. Hooray!

I was shocked it hadn’t gone under for thousands of years. Now that was impressive.

“Ack! Spare the hole he wanted to crawl in!”

Not a trace left! Heh-heh. This was turning out to be the best day of my life!

“Ack! Watch out for the statue commemorating one of his explosions!”

And there it went, into teeny-tiny smithereens. I mean, what was there to commemorate? An explosion was nothing to celebrate.

“Ack! Not the memorial hall exhibiting his somersaults!”

Good riddance.

“Ack! Save the statue of the Demon Lord yelping in pain after his kneecap was kicked in by the Champion!”

Only Lydia’s face was smashed to pieces. Served her right.

Heh-heh-heh-heh. I was ready to tell the trio to kick it up a notch—

“Ack! Watch out for his castle!”

……Hold up.

“Ack! All their attacks are concentrated on it!”

Wait!

“Ack! One of the towers has been blown into oblivion!”

Wh-wh-wh-what…?

What the hell do you guys think you’re doing?!

My castle! Castle Millennion! Smashed beyond recognition!

How could they?!

After all the love and labor that had gone into creating it!

After all the times Lydia had split it in half…and Sylphy had blown it up…which was so…many…times…!

I’d repaired and remodeled the castle until it was perfect!

How could they turn it into a junkyard?!

Some crimes could never be forgiven! They needed to be subjected to the punishment of a serious ass-whooping!

My nerves had set my legs into motion…but something happened before I could take a single step.

“What the heck are you donkeys doing?!”

That almost ruptured my eardrum. It could be heard across Kingsglaive.

In an instant, Elis, Iris, and Uriel trembled in fear and stood still.

Ireena sprinted toward them. “Elis, lower your sword! Iris, put away your magic! And Uriel! You come down right now!”

No one dared defy Ireena, whose face flushed red in anger.

The three of them meekly obeyed.

“On your knees!” Ireena barked.

“““Y-Yes, ma’am!”””

“I’m not saying you can’t fight, okay? But you need to learn to restrain yourselves.”

“B-but they—,” Elis started.

“And don’t talk back!”

“I’m sorry!”

“And you, Uriel! You know it’s dangerous to throw knives! What if someone got hurt?”

“E-erm, actually, this is hardly considered dangerous in my world…”

“My house! My rules!”

“R-right on…”

“Jeez! Stop being a downright public nuisance!”

“…Says the one shouting,” Iris pointed out.

“Excuse you?!”

“Eeek! I-I’m sorry!”

“And no nitpicking!”

The young woman and two little girls shrank back.

“You’ll each be spanked one hundred times! Elis, you’re first!”

“What?! N-no way!”

“Don’t talk back! I swear this girl will be the end of me…!”

Ireena looked downright pissed as she doled out their spankings.

She really had the makings of an actual mother.

After a round of parental punishment, peace returned to the town.

We made a speedy decision for Elis, Iris, and Uriel to return to their respective eras.

Elis was hesitant at first, but…

“Are you…disobeying?” Ireena threatened.

“Eek! But! Even if I return, there’s no guarantee that everything will be fine—”

“We’ve got a guarantee.”

“What? Wh-where?”

“My intuition! There’s nothing to top it!”

“Ummmm…”

“What’s with that look? Are you asking for another spanking?”

“O-of course not!”

Ireena was invincible. With no further objections, the three girls returned to their respective times and worlds.

Iris and Uriel practically dived into the fissure, trying to escape Ireena as fast as humanly possible. On the other hand, Elis floated above hers.

“…It was a short run, but I had a ton of fun.”

“Me, too. Hang out with me whenever you’re free. You’re always welcome here,” Ireena assured her with a grin.

Elis returned a smile, though she didn’t seem too convinced, scratching her cheek sheepishly.

“Umm… I hate to tell you this, but I can’t do that. Traveling across time requires so much magic, I can only do it once in a lifetime.”

“What? Does that mean…we’ll never see each other again…?” Ireena was crestfallen.

Elis giggled for some reason. “That’s not true. We’ll definitely meet again.”

She trotted up to Ireena, giving her a big hug…and pecked her on the cheek.

“We’ll see each other again someday, Mom.”

Elis beamed, joy bursting like flowers, before returning to her own time.

“I knew it. She’s Miss Ireena’s daughter.”

“What? Excuse me? Elis? M-my child?”

“Ooh. That actually makes sense. I mean, they’re basically twins!” Sylphy agreed.

Ginny and Sylphy had reached the same conclusion. Ireena’s eyes darted in confusion.

Well, I guess that confirmed it. There was a future waiting for me where some random man sweeps Ireena off her feet…!

No! I haven’t given up just yet. The future was for me to decide.

I would never back down! I was ready to crush my horrible destiny in my grasp!

I raised my fist with new hope, thrusting it into the heavens.

“Waaah! This is horrible! Everything is going to shit!” I heard someone shout.

It was Verda. She raced toward us with heavy footsteps, golden hair bouncing.

“Phew… I’m beat. Hm? Where’s the little time traveler?”

“She just returned to her time.”

“What?! That’s too bad. I would have loved to dissect her. Even just the tip,” Verda moaned.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Can I help you? I believe you were shouting about something.”

“Oh, right! I think I told you a few hours ago that I didn’t orchestrate this whole thing.”

“Yes, and it seems you actually had nothing to do with—”

“My bad! That was a lie!”

“…Come again?” I felt a bead of cold sweat trail down my cheek. “Um, what are you saying?”

“Well, I just found out about it! Hmm… Where to start? Maybe with the birth of this wonderful scholar prodigy?”

“…I would appreciate it if you focused on the most important points.”

“Come on… Fine. I’ll start…with what happened three hundred years ago. I was creating magical tools to interfere with parallel worlds, but I gotta say, it was pretty tricky. Even my divine intellect was having a tough time.”

“…And you abandoned your experiment?”

“No way! A good scholar never knows when to give up! I trudged forward with my studies. I finally managed to figure out a prototype…but something went wrong, and the thing wouldn’t work.”

“I see. You were ready to begin the experiment, but it wouldn’t cooperate.”

“Uh-huh. Even though I’m as mild as they come, I totally blew my fuse! I started screaming at it, you know: ‘Why can’t you listen to what I’m saying?’ ‘Why do you make eyes at other people?’”

“…Sure.”

“But it wouldn’t budge! So I reached the end of my rope. I was like, ‘Fine! See if I care! I never want to see you again!’ I kicked it to pieces and then found a new lover…cough, experiment to help me forget all about it…”

“This is about an experiment…right? Because you’re making it sound like a love story.”

“It’s been three hundred years. I’ve moved on. But one look at Elis…and all my feelings came rushing back. I thought I was over it! But…it’s been eating away at me.”

“You are talking about some device…right? Because it’s starting to sound a lot like an ex.”

“I went to go see it for the first time in a long while…and I found out it had turned on! While we were taking a break for all those years, it had started to operate! I had to ask if it was trying to toy with my feelings, but I got no response.”

“I mean, it’s an inanimate object. Just a magical tool.”

“But it was too late for us to get back together! Because I had something new in my life! Still, it refused to talk to me… I was starting to feel like I was crazy, you know, but—”

“I’m sorry. Could you explain this better? I can’t tell if this is about your love life or your experiment.”

“Sigh. Fine! I’ll wrap things up.” Verda paused for a moment. “I made a magical device to meddle with parallel worlds…three hundred years ago. It works now! The little time traveler must have come around then.”

“…Did her arrival impact the machine?”

“Yep. Now I have a question for you: Has anyone else dropped in?”

“Two people. Is something the matter?” I asked.

“…Oopsie.” There was a bead of sweat forming on her cheek.

In that moment, I started to see the entire picture.

We thought we had solved everything by returning Elis to her own time.

But we were horribly wrong.

We weren’t even close to resolving the issue… In fact, it hadn’t even begun.

“Uh-oh. Seems like it’s rampaging.”

“…Explain yourself. Now.”

“Well, in layman’s terms, the machine can bring entities from the other side to their counterparts in this world.”

“Are you saying it rewrites causality and fact? Does it forge a connection between entities in both worlds? And the target just happened to be Ireena this time? Is that why her close relatives came here?”

“Well, you’re not wrong, but listen closely. This is important… I designed the device to summon one entity at a time. Except there were three people this time. Which means the machine is defective. If this keeps up—”

“You can’t mean…”

I immediately imagined the worst possible future.

A second later, the darkening sky started to split in half, opening to the void…

“I am God Ireena. I have come to purify this world.”

Before us was something giant, divine, and resembling Ireena.

And that wasn’t the end of it. Something else ripped through space.

“I am Memory Ireena. I‘ve come to document this world’s affairs.”

That wasn’t the end of it, either. Something else ripped through space.

“Aaaaaah! It is I! Royalty of the Underworld! Blood Ireena! Blergh!”

That still wasn’t the end. Something else ripped through space.

“Raaaah! I’m Mountain Ireena! Oh yeah!”

And so on…[INTENTIONALLY OMITTED]

“’Tis I—Mysterious Ireena!”

“’Ello there! I’m Thousand Ireena!

“Hiya! Metamorphose Ireena at your service!”

“Yoo-hoo! It’s me! Sparkling Ireena!”

“Greetings! Metallic Ireena!”

[INTENTIONALLY OMITTED]

“I’ma Ultimate Ireena!”

“I’m known to all as Gigantic Ireena!”

“What’s up, guys? It’s your girl, Cosmetic Ireena!”

They just kept jumping out of their parallel dimensions.

If our first day on the trip was this chaotic, how would we handle the next few…?

I could feel myself burning out as I stared at this living nightmare.