I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 3

by Namekojirushi

  A big box. And a dragon relief that looked like Leviathan.

  That was all I could really see from where I was. Was this the High Leader’s ultimate weapon?

  “Its name is ‘Eternal Death Before Defeat.’ It is our ultimate weapon that will send them to hell. It’s loaded with a perpetual motion machine that will create a huge explosion when it goes out of control!”

  The soldiers all shouted in joy.

  If it exploded when it went out of control, then it was basically a bomb, huh? I couldn’t even imagine how big an explosion from a bomb that size would be. And its power source was...

  “Hibiki. Do you think that thing’s really got a perpetual motion machine in it? It all looks like it’s made of wood to me.”

  “Well, it doesn’t exist anymore, but they say that years ago, a genius in Europe developed a perpetual motion machine using wheels. It was supposedly made almost entirely out of wood.”

  “Which means it’s possible?”

  “I don’t know... But I don’t think he’s lying.”

  “Why? Maybe he’s just lying to inspire his troops. That’s possible, you know? Maybe they really need it.”

  “Were you not listening to the name he gave it?”

  “Um...”

  Eternal... something or other, right? I remembered it was long and kind of goofy...

  “!”

  I gasped and looked at the weapon again. It couldn’t be...

  “Death before defeat, right? Is there any point in lying if you’re planning to die too?”

  I said nothing.

  “And look carefully. There are a lot fewer claymen here than the number of gold ones we saw on the battlefield. I think it’s pretty clear that this war is just about over. And the gold claymen are trying to wipe out the white ones... In other words, surrender means death for them.”

  There was no way to win and no way to survive. Their last recourse was to take their enemy with them in a huge explosion...

  “My heroic comrades! If you can delay the enemy for just a little while longer, the engine loaded inside Eternal Death Before Defeat will reach critical mass and go out of control. It will wipe them out, along with the surrounding area. We will be guided to heaven by the engine and the dragon, who is a servant of God.”

  “...You heard him. So what’s the plan, Rekka Namidare?” Hibiki asked.

  “The plan?”

  “We’ve got a few hours until the explosion. The white claymen will probably do everything they possibly can to buy time. As outsiders, we’re the only ones who can stop it...”

  That’s right. We were the only ones who could stop it. The bearers of the Namidare and Banjo bloodlines were the saviors of stories that were headed for bad endings. Getting caught up in a situation where only we could save the day meant that we were already a part of the story.

  The claymen’s story... This war.

  Could we stop a war that was already underway? With just the two of us? How?

  “What the hell do we do now...?”

  My whisper was drowned out by the claymen shouting.

  ▽

  We took to hiding inside an empty storehouse.

  “......”

  “......”

  Hibiki and I were lying low in the shadow of a pile of crates, and neither of us said a word. The transformation spell had already worn off.

  The war. And “Eternal Death Before Defeat.”

  If we believed what the High Leader said, the engine was powerful enough to destroy both the white and gold claymen, as well as the land itself. I didn’t know what kind of perpetual motion machine it was loaded with, but supposedly this thing that could generate infinite energy was going to go berserk... Odds were good that he wasn’t bluffing, either.

  If that happened, the claymen’s story would quickly reach a bad end. But what could we do? The white claymen were in bad enough shape that suicide seemed like a reasonable option. Unless we could stop the war, they were definitely going to use the engine.

  No, just stopping the war wouldn’t be enough. The root cause of the conflict was apparently color discrimination. If we couldn’t get rid of that prejudice, the same thing would happen all over again even if we put an end to the war.

  Was that... Was that something a mere high school kid could do? It was something only a few heroes throughout history had ever accomplished.

  ...Sure, I’d stopped a space war once. But that was because I’d managed to blackmail the enemy before the war even started. And I’d only been able to get the information I needed in order to do that because Satsuki was there to use the Magic of Omniscience.

  I didn’t have any way to stop a war once it had begun. But if I didn’t stop it now, this story was heading for disaster.

  One option would be to destroy the engine... No, if I did that and it blew up, we wouldn’t be any better off. I didn’t know anything about disarming bombs.

  Iris had access to the latest in space technology. Would she know how to disarm it? Wait, even if I did dismantle Eternal Death Before Defeat, the gold claymen would still just kill all the white claymen.

  If Satsuki used her magic to research the claymen’s history, would she be able to find some way to end the discrimination? What about asking Tetra to let the white claymen live in the artificial world in the Hall of Sealing?

  ...Come to think of it...

  I recalled the dragon motif carved into the sides of the huge box. The High Leader had said something about the dragon being a messenger from heaven. Dragons were probably an object of worship for them.

  And the dragon in the relief looked just like Leviathan.

  “That’s right...”

  With her help, I might be able to stop the claymen. But even if I stopped the war, I didn’t know if I’d be able to get rid of the prejudice that caused it in the first place.

  “...Wait, what am I thinking?”

  None of them were here now. Why was I even thinking about asking them for help? Moreover, I’d already decided not to involve any of them anymore.

  I shook my head to shake off the weakness that was creeping into my thoughts.

  “I’ll deal with this. Somehow...”

  I clenched my hands into fists as if trying to crush my weakness.

  “Hibiki... Let’s do this.”

  “Do what?”

  “What else?” I stood up and pounded my fists on my chest, telling myself I had to fight through the fear. “We’ll deal with all of this! Together!”

  “What are you talking about?!” she yelled. Hibiki seemed like she was starting to worry. “Listen, we’re already caught up in two messy stories! We can’t handle any more... And we can’t stop a war!”

  “We’re going to stop it anyway.”

  “We can’t!” she screamed and shook her head stubbornly.

  “Our bloodlines are the last hope for these stories. No matter how hard it gets, we shouldn’t give up until the end.”

  “Yeah, that’s the ideal! But I’m telling you to think about what we can realistically do! Get a grip!”

  Yeah. She was probably saying the rational thing. But still... I, at least, didn’t want to give up until the end.

  “If you say you can’t do it, I’ll just do it myself.”

  I tried to show her how resolute I was, but...

  “I won’t let that happen!” she yelled back at me loudly.

  “H-Hibiki?”

  “Solve three stories at once...? The slightest bit of common sense would tell you how dangerous that is!”

  “Well, sure, but... I don’t have a choice. I can’t abandon them.”

  “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

  “I’m not... Well, I don’t plan on dying, but I’m willing to take that risk.”

  The argument carried on, but for some reason, Hibiki looked like she was starting to cry.

  “Huh?”

  I wasn’t sure how to handle this unexpected reaction.

  “...Are you planni
ng on leaving me alone?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re the only person in this world I can be with now!” she yelled as tears started to roll down her cheeks. As soon as they fell, new tears came down to replace them.

  “...What do you mean?”

  “You don’t understand? You idiot!” she yelled as she cried. “When I hurt my friend, I thought I couldn’t be around anyone ever again. But once I learned what it was like to be with someone, I couldn’t go back to being alone... That’s why I came to you! Even somebody like me can be with you...!”

  Hibiki had told me that she’d come to me in order to cut down on the total number of stories that we’d be caught up in. But that wasn’t the real reason... Well, it was probably part of the reason, but she’d finally just admitted to the truth. She couldn’t go back to being alone.

  That’s why she came to me? Because she had a “good” reason for being with me?

  “How do you think I felt when I came to meet you?!”

  Listening to her sob, I remembered the moment I’d decided to go with her.

  “...”

  What had I been thinking when I looked at her face then? Harissa had just collapsed. I’d realized that I was a threat to the people around me and decided to leave... but hadn’t I felt better knowing that I wasn’t alone? Hibiki was the same way.

  “Hibiki... Do you not like the fact that I might die?”

  “...”

  She nodded.

  “Then it’s not that you want to give up on the story because you think it’s impossible, right?”

  Another nod.

  “I see...”

  I nodded back, now understanding what Hibiki was really thinking beneath her cool exterior. I wanted to save all the stories. So did she. She’d only said she didn’t want me getting in over my head with these stories because it might get me killed.

  That made things simple.

  “I promise you.”

  “...?”

  “I won’t die.”

  I looked straight into Hibiki’s tearful eyes and swore to her.

  “No matter what, I promise you I won’t die! I won’t sacrifice myself and leave you behind! Maybe you shouldn’t rely on a normal kid like me, but if you want... I’ll turn into an invincible hero!”

  I put as much heart into those words as I could and gave her every reassurance I could think of.

  “Please! I won’t die! So don’t give up until the very end!”

  Hibiki wasn’t really such an unfeeling person. If she were, how would she have been able to leave behind her only friend even when it tore her up inside? So...

  “Hibiki, please, fight with me.”

  “...”

  Hibiki looked down hesitantly and blinked several times.

  “...Just this once.” Her voice was hoarse. “Just this once, I’ll... fight with you till the end.”

  “Really?!”

  “Yeah. But if I think you might die, I’m gonna drag you out of there kicking and screaming if I have to.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  I laughed at Hibiki’s joke.

  She seemed to relax for a moment, but then her expression turned serious again.

  “Listen. Keep your promise, okay? You’re the invincible hero of my story.”

  “Got it.”

  And so we made a promise to each other.

  All right, it was time to do this. We were going to solve these stories together.

  Intermission 3

  It was long past midnight. In another hour or so, the sun would be up.

  Satsuki was still trying to break the sleep spell on Harissa. She’d barely slept at all. Her feminine chest was heaving up and down. The long hours of spellcasting had sapped her strength. She’d only managed to keep up the spell through an incredible combination of concentration and mental fortitude.

  And then...

  “Cross over the boundary of light and darkness, and release thyself.”

  With a snap that only a mage could hear, the sleep spell on Harissa was finally broken.

  “Whew...”

  All the tension drained from her body at once, and Satsuki leaned back into her chair with a big sigh.

  “Zzz... Zzz...”

  Harissa was still sleeping, but it was a normal sleep. She would wake up soon.

  “......”

  Satsuki pondered what to do now. She’d only been able to concentrate like that because she was doing her best to avoid facing a certain truth. In order to avoid thinking about it, she’d stopped herself from thinking about everything. She focused exclusively on breaking the spell instead.

  But now that was over. Which meant...

  “Rekka...”

  She was forced to stare down the reality of the situation.

  “......!”

  With nothing left to stop her, all she could do was cry. The first stream of tears was quickly followed by another, and then another. She bit her lip hard and tried to suppress the noise in her throat.

  “Waah... Waaahh...!”

  Trying to hold back her sobbing, her nose and throat began to sting.

  It was just then that Harissa’s eyes opened a little. Satsuki hadn’t been able to keep from weeping, and Harissa must have heard her.

  “...Huh? Satsuki? Why are you crying?”

  “No, it’s nothing. Just...”

  Satsuki quickly wiped her face with her hands and tried to come up with something to say. Harissa still seemed out of it. In a stupor, she watched on for a moment before suddenly sitting up in bed.

  “Wait! Where’s Sir Rekka? What happened to Sir Rekka? I was on the second floor when I heard a loud noise, and when I came down, there was a strange man...”

  Harissa’s eyes darted left and right as if she was trying to recall what happened next.

  “Umm... umm...”

  But she couldn’t seem to remember. Harissa started to cry too.

  “Rekka... He’s not here.”

  “What?”

  “He left you with me, and then ran off with that Hibiki girl.”

  Satsuki tried to speak as calmly and indifferently as possible to keep from crying again.

  “Ran off...?!” Harissa repeated.

  She then tried to leap out of the bed, but Satsuki grabbed her by the wrist.

  “Wait, where are you going?”

  “I’m going to save Sir Rekka, of course!”

  Harissa had been asleep the whole time and had no idea what was going on, but there was no hesitation in her voice. She’d probably already guessed that Rekka was caught up in another story.

  Satsuki was jealous of how she could just say, “I’m going to save him.” But she had to tell her anyway. She had to tell her what he’d said.

  “...Rekka said not to come.”

  “Not to come?”

  “Yeah, he said he didn’t want us following him...”

  It was sad, but it was true. She had to tell her the truth.

  “Sir Rekka said that?”

  “Yes.”

  “He said that it would be a bother if I went after him?”

  “Yes.”

  “What was the reason?”

  “...I don’t know.”

  Satsuki had barely been told anything, so there was no way for her to know. Rekka’s words had been such a shock to her that she hadn’t thought to ask.

  “...”

  Harissa frowned and looked down at her feet for a moment. But then...

  “I’m going to help him anyway.”

  She raised her head and spoke clearly.

  “Harissa, I know how you feel, but...”

  “Sir Rekka saved me twice.” Harissa looked straight into Satsuki’s eyes. “Satsuki, I never told you what actually happened when he saved me, did I?”

  “I heard something about defeating a Demon King with a laser gun, but not much more than that...”

  “Rekka said he was going to fight the Demon King alone.”

  “...!”
<
br />   Satsuki was stunned for a second, but ultimately realized that that did sound like something her childhood friend might say.

  “And I didn’t hear this until later, but Sir Rekka had no idea then that he could beat the Demon King with the laser gun. He said it was just luck that he was victorious, but I don’t think that’s right.”

  Harissa’s cheeks were a little flushed. Maybe she was remembering what had happened. There was a strong light in her eyes.

  “Sir Rekka asked me to send him home before he fought the Demon King. But when I told him what was going to happen to me, he said he’d fight the Demon King after all.”

  If you just heard that part, you might think that Rekka Namidare was a wimp who’d done a complete one-eighty on a whim. A hero in a storybook or fantasy novel wouldn’t do that. They’d declare from the start that they were going to defeat the Demon King for the sake of the people and never deviate from that.

  But Rekka Namidare was just a normal boy. The kind you could find anywhere. Satsuki knew that well.

  “It wasn’t because he thought he could win, or because he was a hero,” Harissa continued.

  “Rekka saved me because he wanted to save me. It wasn’t his world. It wasn’t his problem. He could’ve run away. And he stayed anyway, just for that reason. The reason he won, I think, is because that’s the kind of nice person he is.”

  That’s why, Harissa said...

  “He probably said he’d go alone as a kindness towards you and me. I think he’s willing to suffer as much as it takes for our sakes.”

  “!”

  Satsuki gasped at the words that came out of the younger girl’s mouth.

  “And that’s why I can’t let him do it alone.”

  Rekka had saved everyone because he wanted to save them. And now Harissa was going to save him because she wouldn’t let him do it alone. Sometimes saving someone meant doing something without considering their feelings. In fact, when Lea had rejected Rekka, he’d taken her hand and saved her anyway.

  But even so... Even if they slapped your hand away and told you that having you around didn’t help... If you really wanted to save them, shouldn’t you do something? Even if that made them hate you...

  ...I want to save Rekka?

  “You’re right.” The answer came quickly to Satsuki. “I can’t leave him alone either.”