Nanahoshi was sitting on the bed in her room.
Her shoulders and head were drooping.
With her head down, I can’t see her expression.
Judging from her posture, it seems like a mix between fatigue and resignation.
And, like me, at least a little shock from the failure.
“….”
It’s time for an honest conversation.
I had a sneaking suspicion this would be a failure.
That’s because of what my future self said.
He said [It fails at the very end.]
Although I don’t know if this is the end, or there’s more to come.
I never heard the specifics of the failure.
It’s not something I would have understood.
I don’t even know whether the experiment turned out differently.
Thinking back now, I should have asked for more details, but regrets won’t help.
Moreover, my future self said I failed to support her.
I failed to support her, and then Nanahoshi…
Although my future self was vague, I have no doubt she met a sorrowful end.
In other words, that’s now.
Here and now, Nanahoshi is depressed, I need to support her.
But, I don’t know how to respond.
Failure can happen to anyone, it’s no use worrying about, that’s… normal.
Even my future self should have said something like that.
No, because my future self became such a hardened person, he might not have said anything at all.
In fact, he might have said something horrible and driven Nanahoshi away.
He was a considerably horrible person, he might have even said something like, [It’s probably impossible to return anyway, just become my woman.] and attacked her.
… I’d like to know the failed example.
Well, I’ll have to think for myself.
If my correct answer is a mistake, I’d really like to know what went wrong when I try to console Nanahoshi.
Umm…
I guess I’ll start as always.
When Sylphy is like this, I’d sit down next to her. Then put my hand on her shoulder.
Is this how you seduced those three?”
Nanahoshi raised her face and looked at me with damp eyes.
… yeah, that is kind of like making a move.
“Excuse me.”
I returned the hand I was about to place on Nanahoshi’s shoulder to my knee.
“Um, Nanahoshi-san. Can we talk?”
“Huh? I’m busy.”
“Well, even so… being alone at a time like this, it might be better to talk things out, even if it isn’t easy, even if it doesn’t solve the problem, we can work on that afterwards, getting your spirit back is more important.”
The book Nanahoshi had open on her knee caught my eye.
Japanese was written on the page.
[The hypothesis failed at the final stage.]
That’s what was written.
“It was good to hear that I would fail beforehand.”
Nanahoshi traced her notes with her finger as she said that.
“If I failed without knowing that, I would have blamed some defect in the magic circle.”
Nanahoshi looked up.
She doesn’t look depressed.
I seem to have misunderstood the fatigue and resignation I saw earlier.
After all, Nanahoshi considered the possibility of failure.
Well, maybe she doesn’t need my support then.
No, it’s possible she’s still depressed…
As I was thinking, Nanahoshi turned back to her notebook.
“Hey, do you remember my hypothesis?”
Hypothesis, hypothesis…
I have a feeling that I heard something about that.
Somehow, I felt like it was nonsensical.
I don’t remember it very well.
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”
“….”
Nanahoshi’s eyes were getting moist again.
I’m sorry.
“Well, then I’ll give you the outline…”
Nanahoshi began her explanation.
That is to say, she just began reading out of her notebook.
“First of all, the Fedoa Region metastasis event (that summoned me) is not originally supposed to happen.”
“Why would something that doesn’t originally happen occur, when I heard about your future self, I thought someone from the future sent me to the past… no, more like [Placed in the past.]”
“Because a person who should not originally exist was placed in the past, history changed. The balance of the world’s aggregate magic power was broken, causing an adjustment on the scale of the Fedoa Region disappearing to occur.”
Ah, I remember hearing about this.
But at the time I had other things on my mind, so I don’t remember much.
It’s a nonsensical conversation but…
She’s become more energetic, she seems to be recovering from the shock.
No, it’s too soon to say that.
She might just be distracted.
I should still keep her company.
“Do you understand?”
“Yeah.”
Nanahoshi turned to another page in her notes.
This page was labeled [Who and Why].
“From here on is the main issue.
Someone in the future modified history and I was the outcome.
Allow me to explain why it’s because of [The Future].
I was able to come to this conclusion because of Orsted.
He is sent from the [Past] and does a loop in the [Present].
In the present, Orsted can’t really intervene, and his loop is the strongest existence until he wins.”[1]
Orsted’s father, the first Dragon God sent him.
The first generation Dragon God used a secret technique to send Orsted into a fixed-interval time loop.
According to Orsted, he can only escape the loop by defeating Hitogami.
Until now, he hasn’t been able to, but sooner or later he should succeed.
He’s definitely strong enough.