I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 2

by Namekojirushi

  Prologue 1-1: Tsumiki Nozomuno

  Tsumiki Nozomuno exhaled loudly in the quiet restaurant.

  She would never let out a gloomy sigh like that in front of the customers, but that didn’t matter now. The last customer had left a long time ago.

  “Hahh...” Tsumiki looked around the empty establishment once more. Her shoulders slumped.

  She’d been feeling pretty glum lately.

  There were two reasons why Nozomiya wasn’t doing well. The first was the fact that the shopping street where the restaurant was located had been getting emptier and emptier over the past few years. The other was the chain restaurant that had opened in front of the station. It had taken the last of Nozomiya’s already dwindling customer base. Now the restaurant itself was in danger.

  All Tsumiki’s parents would tell her was that she didn’t need to worry. But she knew it wasn’t a matter of pride. They genuinely didn’t want to worry her.

  The three of them ran the tiny cafeteria together, and she loved it very much. She couldn’t bear to lose it.

  But is there anything I can do...?

  She was popular in the neighborhood for her cheerfulness and energy. It was just that all of her fans were older folks, and there weren’t enough of them to keep the place going.

  The most obvious strategy was to undersell the restaurant at the station to bring back customers, but if that was feasible, she was sure her parents would be doing it already. If they weren’t, that must mean it wouldn’t work.

  That meant that their last recourse was the food itself—to rethink the menu.

  And it wouldn’t be enough just to change the flavors of some of the dishes they already served. She needed something to make Nozomiya a destination restaurant. Something that would win the hearts of customers, not just their stomachs.

  But while Tsumiki had been a waitress for a long time, she’d never cooked. There was a certain reason her parents wouldn’t even let her set foot in the kitchen. There was no way she could come up with some amazing new dish that would solve everything on her own.

  But Tsumiki wasn’t the type of girl to sit still in the face of adversity.

  “...Yeah. Okay, it’s decided!” She wouldn’t let her beloved Nozomiya go out of business. She was ready to do anything to keep that from happening.

  Prologue 1-2: Tetra Metra Retra

  There was once a monster that wrought destruction upon the earth.

  Its body was so large that it covered the land as far as the eye could see. With each step, it caused earthquakes. With each breath, it caused whirlwinds. And it is said that this monster tried to destroy the world for its own pleasure.

  This soon brought down the wrath of God, and the monster was punished.

  Its massive body that had covered the earth was banished below the surface, within the Hall of Sealing, so that it could never come out. Next to the Hall of Sealing, God made a temple and a village. Then he made guardians from the dirt to guard its door...

  And now, in the present, the descendants of those guardians were facing a greater peril than they had ever known.

  “Yes. The Hall of Sealing shook again. Yes, the walls collapsed a little more...”

  “I see. Understood.”

  Tetra Metra Retra, the daughter of the village chieftain, looked up at the statue of the goddess in the great hall of the temple as she listened to the statement from the villager she’d sent to check on the seal.

  “Thank you for the report.” Tetra bowed to him.

  He was supposed to leave after that, but it seemed there was something he wanted to ask.

  “Um, well... Is the seal really going to be broken?”

  “...” For a moment, her face took on a bitter expression, but it soon returned to a vague smile.

  “It will be fine. After it was sealed away, the ‘Monster Who Defied God’ went on a rampage that was serious enough to put a crack in the Hall of Sealing, but it finally tired and relented. That’s what the stories say. I don’t want you to worry.”

  “Yes, of course. Then we’re fine. Of course.” The villager bowed and left the room.

  “...Whew.” Once she was sure she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore, Tetra let out a slightly aggravated sigh.

  “How could a legend that’s tens of thousands of years old make you feel better?” she whispered to no one in particular, then shook her head in resignation.

  Tens of thousands of years ago, God had blessed the village with several miracles in order to make it possible for them to fulfill their duties with ease. That included the gift of eternal food and shelter.

  But those miracles had, at the same time, robbed the people of their will to live. Without needing to work hard to survive, people grow lazy, no matter how strong a sense of duty they might have.

  The guardians were now drained of all vitality and ambition whatsoever. Even with the whole village in danger, they showed no initiative of their own. Tetra had to give them orders just to get them to look at the seal.

  If anything, Tetra was the one treated as an outlier for trying to act. But even she could do nothing about the Monster Who Defied God.

  ...No. More accurately, she was the one person in the village who knew how to do anything about it. And she’d only found out by using her position as the chieftain’s daughter to gather up all the fragments of legends in the village and research them.

  “...” But she didn’t try to put it into practice.

  She couldn’t. The method was far too cruel.

  So what was there to do? She couldn’t ask the villagers.

  She had to get help from outside.

  ...Why are you doing all this for villagers who won’t help you? she asked herself in weakness from the corner of her heart.

  But she knew the answer. This village was her home, and she loved it.

  She shook off her weakness and prepared to ascend to the surface.

  Prologue 1-3: ?

  The “Beast” held a strong hatred for the “Monster Who Defied God.”

  How long had it lived with that loathing? ...The Beast wasn’t human. It had lived for an eternity, and even it didn’t know anymore.

  The Beast was once tricked into lending the Monster its power.

  It was that mistake that had cost the Beast everything.

  The Beast had lost its freedom, and so it had no way of knowing what destruction the Monster had wrought upon the earth... but it assumed that the Monster had destroyed the world for its own satisfaction.

  Hatred, regret, guilt...

  “Monster... I’ll kill you myself...”

  The Beast lived on, its body wracked by these three pains. Its hatred for the Monster was the only thing that kept it going. Defeating the Monster someday was its duty—the reason for its existence.

  That was the only way it could stay sane. That was the only way it could find the strength to keep living.

  And so the Beast waited.

  It kept waiting for the chance that would grant it its freedom once more. It waited, not knowing if the chance would ever come.

  It waited for the day when it would fulfill its revenge—its duty.

  It suffered as it waited.

  It hated as it waited.

  And one day... The chance it had been waiting for finally came.

  Chapter 1: The Shopgirl and the Dark Matter

  It had been five days since I’d awakened to the bloodline of the Namidare, and saved three stories and three heroines.

  I hadn’t been caught up in any new stories since school started, so I was living a safe, peaceful high school life... Or, at lea
st, that was the theory.

  “Sir Rekka, you’re looking a little tired today, aren’t you?”

  “...Huh?” Before I left for school, Harissa Hope had asked me that, and I wasn’t sure how to respond.

  Harissa had smoky blond hair and blue eyes that made her look like a foreigner, but she was actually a sorcerer from another world. She was currently unable to get home, so she was staying with me.

  Harissa always volunteered to do the chores, and she’d been diligently working all morning in a bunny apron. Underneath that, she wore some of my old clothes because my mom’s didn’t fit. I thought she might not like wearing boys’ clothing, but she seemed more okay with it than I had expected.

  So yeah, Harissa was a good, hard-working girl. Sometimes she could be clumsy, but I found that cute.

  Most guys would love to have a girl like that looking up at them and worrying... but I just looked away. “Nah, I just didn’t get enough sleep. A little rest a little at school and I’ll be fine,” I said, hoping she’d drop the subject.

  “I see. I’m glad to hear it. See you later, Sir Rekka.” She seemed to believe the lie I fed her, and smiled radiantly.

  I waved a cold, sweaty palm at her as she bowed, and then made my escape out the front door.

  As I headed down the road to school with my classmate, Satsuki Otomo, she peered at my face.

  “Rekka, are you tired?”

  “...Huh?” It was the second time that day I’d gotten that question, and it took me a second to respond.

  I tilted my head awkwardly and looked at her as she walked next to me. I still wasn’t used to seeing her in her high school uniform, and it made my heart flutter a little.

  On the day of the school entrance ceremony, I found out that she was a mage, but things hadn’t changed that much between us since then. Evidently our relationship as childhood friends wasn’t going to change so easily.

  She stood up straight, with her long, black hair blowing a little in the breeze, and looked at me like an older sister worried about a little brother who wasn’t taking care of himself. I was glad she was concerned, but... I looked away. “No, it’s just some sore muscles. I pushed myself a little too hard in gym class yesterday.” I just made up a reason, hoping she’d let it go.

  “I see. If it hurts, you should get a heat pack from the nurse’s office.”

  “Yeah...” I nodded halfheartedly, still looking away.

  “Good morning, Rekka.”

  “Hey. Morning.” The first person to greet me when I came into the classroom was the pretty girl in the next seat, Iris.

  Her name was Iris Fineritas Cyphercall. The reason it was so long was that she was what you’d call an alien. She normally hid it inside her body so that no one could see it, but she actually had a pretty silver tail coming out of her butt.

  There was a reason she was sitting here in my class as an “Earth exchange student,” but it’s a long story.

  “Looking kinda tired, huh, Rekka?” Iris’s long twin tails bounced as she tilted her head and moved her face near mine.

  “...Am I?” After the third time that morning, I didn’t have the energy left to look away.

  “Yeah, that’s right. Like you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

  “...” I knew exactly why, but I just avoided her gaze and stayed silent.

  Iris must not have liked my response, because she leaped out of her seat and hugged me.

  “H-Hey!”

  “Aww, come on! Why are you making that face when you’re lucky enough to get to see me?”

  “No, we’re both students. We see each other at school every day...”

  “Rekka, don’t talk back to me.” You could tell she was a princess. Her selfishness shone through.

  But when she grabbed onto me like that, other parts of her pressed against me... I won’t say what, but two soft things! Even worse, everyone was staring at us! “Rekka! Iris! Get off of each other!” Satsuki yelled, slamming her hand down on the desk. Then she glared at Iris.

  Satsuki sat on the other side of me. And each and every day, my stomach cried out in pain from being trapped between the two of them.

  “Oh, shut it. I was just worried about Rekka’s health.”

  “It didn’t look that way to me.”

  “Don’t get so upset. That’s why even if you drink milk, none of the nutrients go to your breasts.”

  “I don’t think enough nutrition’s getting to your head, Iris.”

  All these two ever did was yell at each other.

  “...Don’t you think we need to have a talk soon?” Iris said with a cheerful smile on her face.

  “Sounds great to me. I was thinking you and I needed to settle things.” Satsuki’s smile alone sent shivers down my spine.

  Sparks were flying between the two of them, and I was still caught in the middle. If they were going to try and start a fire, I just wished they’d do it somewhere else.

  “Let’s take this outside,” Iris taunted.

  “First one who can’t ever stand up again is the loser,” Satsuki replied.

  “Wait! Hold it, you guys!” I’d wished they’d do it somewhere else, but I kept trying to intervene anyway.

  Both of them were starting to scare me, for one thing. What kind of discussion ends with one person never being able to get up again? The point of a conversation is to talk things out and find a peaceful solution!

  And so began another psychologically taxing day for me.

  ▽

  I knew exactly what it was. The reason I was feeling so tired all the time was...

  “YOU GUYS!”

  I screamed toward the mountains from the roof of the school. As I stood there panting, an echo came shouting back at me: “...guys!”

  “What are you doing, Rekka? You look like a crazy person,” said R, the girl in an army uniform floating next to me.

  She looked like a young girl, but she was actually an artificial life form from the future sent to observe me. She was almost always expressionless, but she could be absolutely nasty.

  “Don’t call me a crazy person. If you had Satsuki and Iris and Harissa bugging you every day, you’d want to scream, too!”

  “If one of the other boys heard that, they’d rip you apart.”

  “I don’t care!” I ran both of my hands roughly through my hair.

  “Then just choose one of the heroines already,” R sighed.

  R was here to stop the “War of All,” a large-scale calamity that would occur in the future between the “heroines” I saved. In order to prevent it, I allegedly needed to pick a heroine to fall in love with.

  And she never hesitated to remind me of that, either.

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Oh, my. So you’d prefer a polygamous relationship?”

  “Shut your mouth!” I turned to the fence and screamed again, but quickly got bored and started to roll along the roof. To be honest, I was reaching my limit.

  My last name is Namidare. Namidares have a special bloodline that causes us to get caught up in “stories.”

  This special bloodline activates at the age of sixteen, and because of it, I’ve already fought ultimate mages, otherworldly demon kings, and galactic tyrants... Just thinking about it was enough to kill my mood.

  I thought I’d somehow managed to make it through and regain my nice, normal life... But I realized the day after getting back how wrong I was.

  For instance, who was going to make my lunch? Satsuki or Harissa?

  Who would I pair up with in gym class? Satsuki or Iris?

  Was it okay for me to sit on the same sofa as Harissa and watch TV?

  “The lunch thing in particular was awful...”

  “You mean when Satsuki and Harissa almost got into a duel?”

  “Yeah...” Originally, Satsuki had been coming over every morning to make sure Harissa and I weren’t “doing anything weird,” but she also made us breakfast and packed lunches. Once Harissa started to figure out how to do
chores, however, she decided that she wanted to make lunches of her own. That’s how it had all started.

  Man, neither Harissa nor Satsuki was willing to back down an inch... The two of them almost had a magical duel right then and there.

  Well, the most dangerous part was that they’d both expected me to eat what they made and tell them whose was better...

  In the end, I got them to agree to switch off: if Harissa made breakfast, then Satsuki would make lunch, and if Satsuki made breakfast, then Harissa would make lunch. But by the time they reached a compromise, I’d almost given myself an ulcer.

  That’s basically how these five days had been for me.

  “Don’t tell me you’re not enjoying the harem life.”

  “The only things I’m ‘enjoying’ are injuries and mental exhaustion...” I sighed and leaned against the fence.

  My lack of sleep and sore muscles were all from dealing with the girls every day. If they didn’t let me get some rest soon, it might actually kill me.

  This bloodline of mine was turning out to be a real hassle.

  “If I get caught up in another story, I’m going to be screwed...” I looked up at the partially cloudy sky and whispered.

  “You should know better than to tempt fate.”

  ...I hate people from the future.

  It was just then that the sun ducked behind the clouds.

  ▽

  Lunch break was almost over, so I decided to leave the roof.

  R was bent over in the shape of a boomerang, flying in a circle around me and shouting, “My head is spinning!”

  It was extremely aggravating, but supposedly she couldn’t get more than five meters from me, so there was no helping it. I ignored R as best I could and hurried down the hallway.

  I’d gone to the roof of the special classrooms building in hopes of avoiding everyone, so I needed to book it to make it back to my classroom in time.

  “Hey, hey, hey! You! You! You there!” I heard a very fast-talking voice behind me and stopped.

  I turned around to see a girl in a slightly messy school uniform pointing a chopstick at me.

  “Wh-What?”

  Judging from the color of her tie, she was a first-year student like me, but something about the way she looked made me wary.