Ellie’s eyes widened.
“You… how on earth…?”
A small figure brimming with immense Divine Power. As the robe fell away, what appeared was an unforgettable pink-haired Elf boy.
The last mission as an Adventurer. He was the experiment encountered during the subjugation of One Who Devours the Twilight.
Does the Goddess of Love love even those children who know nothing of love?
To solve this question, they gathered children with pink hair regardless of their species, thoroughly castrating their emotions in a mad experiment.
‘Jonah must have been one of them too.’
However, the reason Ellie distinctly remembered the boy before her was not solely because of that.
He was the one who stabbed her in the back, causing her to lose an arm while she was fighting the rampaging guardian summoned by One Who Devours the Twilight.
The boy, shaking the beast god’s artifact, spoke.
“Sis can’t save us. If you want to, please die by my hand.”
“…….”
Ellie could say nothing. She couldn’t even imagine what the powerless experiment boy had gone through to become this strong.
She hadn’t just promised to save him; she had taken away the reason to live and pushed him into a deeper Hell.
What stood before Ellie was not just a simple enemy, but an innocent victim.
A sin from the past.
Her body trembled with guilt, but she couldn’t simply agree to die.
Not just because she didn’t want to die… but because what came to mind first was Jonah’s face.
Unlike the boy who saw her as an enemy, Jonah saw her as a benefactor.
Jonah was the only child she could save, and the only one she would be responsible for in the future.
But if Ellie were to die so irresponsibly? What would happen to Jonah?
Thinking this way, no matter who the opponent was, Ellie couldn’t agree to die.
Just as she steeled her resolve with her trembling body.
Poof.
Jonah appeared behind the boy and stabbed his heart with a dagger.
‘How?! I could barely sense him….’
Even in such a moment of mental turmoil, it didn’t change the fact that Ellie was strong. But how did Jonah breach her sensing ability?
That alone was shocking, but Jonah’s next words were even more astonishing.
“You shouldn’t hit on another man’s girl.”
Although it sounded like he tried to say it softly, Ellie, at this distance, could hear him clearly.
One shouldn’t touch another’s woman.
Jonah had often clung to Ellie, but there was an intensity in those earlier words unlike anything before. And then.
“Farewell, Cena.”
“……!”
Turning the dagger sideways, Jonah completely crushed the heart. The boy, referred to as Cena, gapped his mouth and slumped down, closing his eyes.
To others, his lips might not have been clearly visible, but to Ellie, who was facing him directly, they were crystal clear.
-Hey, me.
The boy called Cena had surely called Jonah’s name. And Jonah also knew the boy’s name.
What had been merely speculation was now confirmed.
Jonah had once been one of the experiments she had sought to save.
And just now, he had killed his friend, the one who had gone through the toughest times with him.
For Ellie.
With a terrifying expression unlike anything he had ever shown, Jonah carefully laid the body down on the ground.
Jonah, placing his hand on the bloodied chest of Cena, slowly bowed his head. He trembled as if mourning the death of a friend.
After a while, he raised his head slowly.
“Jonah…?”
Ellie was struck speechless.
In those lovely pink eyes, a fierce flame seemed ready to burn the world down.
The people of the world would label that flame as revenge.
*
I killed the Protagonist.
No, to be precise, I killed the one who was to become the Protagonist.
While it’s true that I cherish everything in this world, there are definitely those I feel particularly attached to.
Take Ellie, for example. She was meant to be the heroine of my novel, and I had intentionally set her up with care, pouring in my preferences.
Naturally, I had more affection for her.
The same went for the Protagonist.
The center of events, the one responsible for resolutions, the reflection of the ideal superhuman imagined by the author.
I poured myself deeply into creating that character, someone who would have to take on many tasks in this harsh world in my stead.
But now. I had removed the Protagonist with my own hands.
To be precise, it wasn’t the Protagonist themselves, but the body they would possess that I killed.
At this moment, I didn’t care much about the current contents. What I consider to be the Protagonist is the soul that will someday inhabit this body.
But now that the body is shattered, it’s also true that I may never meet the Protagonist I knew again.
“Ah.”
Realizing that, a lament escaped me.
Slowly laying the corpse down, I began to ponder.
What happens to this world when the Protagonist is gone?
.
.
.
.
.
.
After some deep thought, surprisingly, there’s no problem at all!
I never actually wrote a solid story. What exists is only the setting.
There are no world-ending problems that can only be resolved with the Protagonist.
Of course, I had indeed laid various risks so that issues could arise, prompting events to unfold…
But isn’t that something I’ve already pondered over? As far as I can reach, I’ll somehow try to resolve it.
This is both my duty as a creator to this world and my heartfelt sincerity as an entity reincarnated without anyone to trust.
In other words, what I have to do doesn’t change…!
No, it may even be good for the true Protagonist, who should have possessed this body, to live peacefully back on Earth.
As that thought crossed my mind, my earlier gloom dissipated, and I began to feel a sense of pride.
Just as I was about to get up and greet Ellie with my usual giggle.
“Ugh!”
The summoning conditions for the guardian suddenly flashed in my mind.
I quickly scanned the surroundings while keeping my head down.
Countless types of monsters sprawled around, and the freshly fallen Elf corpse.
Now, what remains is a passionate desire for revenge, and a sincere prayer towards the World Tree.
…Isn’t this the perfect condition for summoning?
As I was about to rise, I instead closed my eyes and focused.
Unjust thoughts, unjust thoughts, unjust thoughts…
In an instant, memories of unjust episodes from my past life flashed through my mind like a slideshow.
I did my homework, but left it at home, and the academy teacher slapped my palm for lying about not doing it.
I wrote a bit of a novel during class, and the middle school teacher forced me to read it aloud in front of my classmates.
I was told I could read any book during study hall, but my high school teacher tore apart my light novel right in front of me, claiming it wasn’t a book.
My parents cried, fearing their kid would become a pervert for only reading dirty comics at home.
I started a part-time job to save money for the gacha, and just before the pick-up point, the card company froze my card for excessive spending, making me miss it.
I threw away my part-time job and began writing as an author, but I was a struggling one, earning less than 300,000 won a month, with my heart getting more and more worn out every day…
Yet, I held an event gifting cash to the first 10 commenters out of gratitude for the readers, and only 6 people commented.
Days when I couldn’t even pay rent and was just consuming savings, yet by writing steadily, I managed to reach the rankings’ top tier, only for the site to shut down a month later…
There was a nasty 5,500-character hate comment because someone mistook me for someone else.
After fighting with other readers in the comment section for my sake, I copied the hate comment and sent it privately, only to delete it later.
Despite everything, I persevered and eventually managed to make a living writing, when a fellow struggling author dismissed me as a “hentai author.”
I made a big deal about gacha for my beloved character, but within a year, they were treated like water rockets due to the meta shift.
I clearly saved my work in real-time, and backed it up to the cloud, but for some reason, all my manuscripts were erased without a trace.
And lastly, I turned on my laptop, filled with grand ambitions to spark a gender-reversal boom, only to be met with a mysterious explosion that claimed my life.
As those memories came rushing back, I felt a burning sensation deep within me, almost like blood rushing backward.
That fiery sensation coiled like a snake and slowly lifted my body, filling me until it reached the tips of my head.
With eyes wide open, I raised my gaze. The magnificent figure of the World Tree filled my sight.
“Ah….”
It was hard to believe such a cracked voice came from my own throat.
From such heights, the ancient mystery looked down on us regally. I directed my heartfelt lament towards the World Tree.
“…I wish everyone except me was dead.”
With that statement, the vision of the World Tree began to glow green in response.
