-----Narrator POV-----
A tall man with white hair and golden eyes staggered out of the darkness, his arm hooked over the shoulder of a girl with straight black hair. His clothes were shredded, cuts and bruises covering him from head to toe. He leaned on her as if she were a pillar, fingers gripping the fabric of her sleeve for balance.
Cough. Cough.
"Orsted…"
"N‑Nanahoshi… put me down…"
"Yes…"
With careful movements, Nanahoshi lowered him toward the cavern wall. She guided his back until it touched the cold stone, then eased him down to the floor. Her hands stayed under his arm the entire time, steady and firm, making sure he would not slip even for a moment.
Once he settled on the ground, Orsted drew in a slow breath. Nanahoshi knelt beside him, her face tightening as she finally saw the full state he was in. The man who had guided her through every danger in this world now sat cracked and exhausted before her... The sight hit her harder than she expected.
"Nanahoshi, grab my coat. Inside the left inner pocket there is a circular case. It is a healing ointment. Could you bring it to me?"
"Y‑yes. I will do it right away."
Nanahoshi rose quickly and reached for his traveling coat. The fabric was damp and cold, heavy with salt water that clung to her hands as she lifted it. She dug through the soaked folds, fingers numbing as she searched along the inner lining. After a few seconds of fumbling through the wet cloth, her fingertips brushed against a hard shape. She pulled out the circular case, flipped it open, and saw the clear, slightly opaque cream inside.
Without hesitation, she hurried back to Orsted, her steps splashing lightly against the cavern floor.
Her movement drew Orsted's attention as he lifted his head and eyes locking onto the ointment in her hand.
Slowly, he raised his arm and opened his palm toward her, offering it without a word. The gesture exposed the injuries he had taken in the battle.
"Thanks, Nanahoshi."
The simple gratitude struck her harder than the sight of his wounds. Her fingers curled slightly around the case, her jaw tightening as she forced the words stuck in her throat to move.
"…Let me do it."
"Mn?" Orsted lifts his chin slightly in question.
She opened the container and scooped a bit of the ointment with her fingers. Holding her breath, she reached for his left hand. The moment her fingertips touched his skin, Orsted's hand twitched at the contact, his forearm tightening in a reflex meant to pull away.
But Nanahoshi's grip closed around his forearm firmly as her fingers dug in just enough to stop him. The sudden pressure made him look up at her in question.
Her eyes were sharp with determination, but beneath it trembled a raw mix of worry and sandness. The emotions tightened her jaw and steadied her hands, pushing her past hesitation.
Orsted felt the tension drain from his arm almost on its own as he let it rest in her grasp.
Nanahoshi drew a shaky breath, her expression tightening as she continued.
Spreading the ointment across his forearm, her fingers moving in slow, careful strokes, adjusting the pressure each time he stiffened, smoothing the medicine over the damaged areas with deliberate precision. Her other hand steadied his arm from underneath, keeping it from shaking as she worked.
Then she moved upward, leaning in slightly to reach his face as her thumb braced his jaw, steadying him, while her fingers applied the ointment to the shallow cuts along his cheek and brow. Each stroke was slow and controlled, her breath held as she worked across the torn skin.
Her eyes traced each cut with growing tension, her brows drawing closer the longer she looked. The guilt on her face deepened with every small wound she treated.
When she finished with his face, she lowered her hand and reached for his other arm. She lifted it gently, supporting his wrist with one hand as her fingers hovered above the skin.
However, her hands stopped as her fingers trembled in the air, and she bit down on her lip to keep it still.
Orsted felt the faint sting of her fingers pressing into sensitive skin, and then the sharper sting of small, salty droplets landing on his wounds. The warmth of them spread across the raw surface before sliding down in thin trails.
He shifted his gaze toward her.
"I‑I am sorry… I should have never been c‑caught…"
Nanahoshi bowed her head, unable to bear looking at him as she waited for his response, terrified of what he might say, scared of the man's reprimanded voice.
But the voice that reached her was calm and gentle enough to cut through the fear trembling in her chest.
"…It is not your fault, Nanahoshi Shisuka."
Sniff...
The cavern stayed still around them, and the soft sound of her crying filled the space. Each tear fell onto his hand with a faint patter, warm droplets landing on his skin before sliding down the back of his knuckles.
-----Orsted POV-----
What is going on…
Irregular variables keep appearing one after another, each one slipping into the timeline like a clue I did not notice until it was already too late. I press my palm against the cavern wall, feeling the cold stone steady my thoughts as I try to sort through the chaos. My injuries throb, pulling my schedule further out of alignment.
Should I abandon this loop?
No. If I move on without identifying the source of these disruptions, the next timeline could fracture even worse. I need to understand the pattern before I take another step.
I inhale slowly and let my eyes trace the uneven cracks along the cavern floor, using each line to guide my thoughts.
Nanahoshi appeared at K410. Seven years early. Yet she arrived in the same location where I originally found her. I confirmed the Fittoa Region remains untouched, and the teleportation incident has not occurred. Her summoning does not match any known trigger. No mana surge. No ritual. No celestial alignment. The anomaly begins there.
Three months into our travels, the Red Hydra's Chamber opened. Its energy spread across the plains of the Asura Kingdom, a phenomenon meant to occur next century when the Hero of Asura awakens. The chamber's activation accelerates the awakening of the Red Dragon's Labyrinth, strengthening the dragons and destabilizing the conflict zone where Laplace is destined to rise. This event has never surfaced in any of the past thousand loops.
Inside the chamber, after I defeated the Red Hydra, I found two children. The sight alone was enough to raise suspicion. No child should have been able to reach such a dangerous place, and the fact that they opened the chamber themselves made the situation even more concerning.
Matheus Boreas Gresham. The heir of the old head of the Gresham family. His presence here contradicts every record I have. He should have died during the succession purge.
Then there was Sebastian Aiken. A child whose birth is documented for the year K467. I watched him raise his hand and produce a king‑level shield spell without breaking a sweat.
How is a child like him casting a spell that should be impossible for his lineage?
Is this connected to Nanahoshi's early appearance?
"What's wrong, Orsted?"
"...Do not mind me."
"Don't say that!"
"..."
"Orsted… I am always grateful that you found me. You helped me adjust, you protected me, and you guided me all this time. But even I can tell that I'm holding you back from doing the things you set out to do. I don't want to be pushed aside while you take care of everything. I want to return the favor… so please, tell me what you're thinking!"
She looked straight into my eyes as her tears gathered again, yet in her gaze I saw the same girl who once traveled beside me in silence. Even then, without words, her presence made my journeys feel warmer than any I had lived before.
I cannot ignore that.
"Very well, Nanahoshi Shizuka. I will tell you the truth."
-----Nanahoshi Shizuku POV-----
I am not sure how much time has passed since Orsted began speaking. His voice never wavered, and his expression stayed as stern as ever, yet something felt different. Maybe it was the wounds he carried, or maybe it was because I have spent enough time with him to finally read the small changes in his face. As he spoke about the slaughter of his dragon clan and the long, lonely journey of hunting his mortal enemy, I saw something I never expected from him. He looked sad. No, sad is too small a word. He looked distraught.
"Timelapse was it…"
I hugged my legs close to my chest. The cavern was quiet except for the flickering flames of the small fire we lit to warm ourselves. The light danced across the stone walls and cast long shadows behind us.
"Orsted… did you meet me before?"
I tilted my head. He was staring straight into the fire, unmoving, as if the flames held the answer he had been avoiding.
"Yes. I did."
The words were simple, but they carried weight. I felt my chest tighten.
"Would you tell me what I did in that loop?"
The question hung in the air between us. The fire crackled softly, and the warmth brushed against our faces, but Orsted did not look away from the flames.
"Nanahoshi Shizuka, you were transmigrated to this world in the year K417. I found you in the southeast plains of the Country of Asura. From there we traveled across the Central Continent until we reached the Ranoa Kingdom, where we parted ways because you enrolled at the Magic University as a special student."
Orsted slightly tilted his head upward, his eyes tracing the uneven ceiling of the cavern as if the memories were carved into the stone.
"During your time at the university, you spent years researching summoning magic. Eventually you fell ill and were hospitalized at Chaos Breaker Castle under the care of Perugius Dola."
Nanahoshi listened without interrupting.
"The friends you made at the university searched across the continents for a medicine that could cure your illness. Their efforts were successful."
The fire crackled softly between them.
"After recovering, you spent the next years studying summoning magic under the guidance of Asura's Hero, Perugius Dola."
"Oh, this story sounds pretty good. It sounds like my efforts were acknowledged and I was granted access to study under a famous person."
Orsted's voice remained steady as he continued.
"Through years of your craftsmanship, you were able to create a transmigration machine. A way back to the world of your origin."
The moment those words left his mouth, adrenaline surged through my veins. I stood up without thinking, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to escape my chest. I stared directly into Orsted's eyes, searching for the answer that had been gripping my heart since the moment I arrived in this world. I wanted to hear it. I needed to hear it.
But the look he returned tore me apart.
"Despite your great efforts, you were never successful in returning home."
A cold stream burned through my insides as I tightened my hands together. I needed a moment for his words to settle. When I finally opened my eyes, I forced myself to speak with resolve.
"And then?"
"… You asked permission to leave Chaos Breaker Castle. Perugius allowed it, although reluctantly. He told you to take fresh air and clear your thoughts. However…"
Orsted's breath stopped ever so slightly and it was the closest thing to a physical flinch I had ever seen from him.
"… After two weeks without returning to Chaos Breaker Castle, Perugius sent Almufi the Bright to search for you only to find your body... In your room."
The words struck me like a blade driven straight into my chest. I felt the world tilt slightly, as if the cavern itself had shifted under my feet.
So that was it. I was destined to fall into despair. I was destined to break after countless attempts to return to Japan. I was destined to die alone in a room, with nothing but my own failure beside me.
I slowly lowered myself to the ground, letting my body fold until I sat with my knees bent, almost without thinking, and stared up at the ceiling, watching the flickering firelight danced across the stone surface.
The shock still pulsed through me, but beneath it a quiet and steady thought began to rise through this whirlwind of emotions.
If I truly perfected the transmigration device, then the failure was not mine.
I inhaled slowly, letting the cold burn settle into clarity.
"Orsted… if I really failed after perfecting the transmigration device, then it means that there was an exterior interference that rejected me from leaving this world in the first place."
Orsted tilted his head toward me, the movement small but deliberate, as if my words had reached a part of him he had never examined before.
"I think that I was brought here for a reason. The very fact that you only met me in your previous loop, compared to all the thousands of loops you lived through, means I was an important factor in breaking the endless cycle you have been fighting..."
His eyes widened slightly as he lifted a hand and placed it over his mouth.
"… So I can only leave this world once I have fulfilled the duty that brought me here in the first place. And I think my duty, Orsted…"
I turned toward him, my voice steady despite the storm inside my chest.
"… is to help you defeat Hitogami."
-----Narrator POV-----
The girl with straight black hair reached into her jacket and pulled out a small notepad. She grabbed a short writing utensil from her pocket and began annotating quickly, her eyes moving between the page and Orsted as she spoke.
"Orsted, your clan blessed you with the power to defeat Hitogami without fail. That blessing forces the world to repeat itself every time you die or fail to kill the god within your time limit."
"Correct."
"However, even though the blessing is foolproof, the drawback is that every living organism in this world is hostile toward you, and your mana regeneration is extremely slow. Because of that, you barely have allies and you cannot afford to fight carelessly. So when the time for Laplace's revival arrives, you must fight a prolonged war against the demon race and defeat the three strongest warriors of that era at the same time while being ambushed. And after all of that, you still need to preserve enough strength to fight Hitogami himself."
"Correct."
"Throughout your loops, you learned how to manipulate certain events so they become favorable for you in the future. But those adjustments does not effectively save you from using a lot of your energy and mana throughout the war."
She finished annotating and looked down at her notes, tapping her pencil lightly against her lip. The tapping stopped as she lowered the pencil closer to the paper, her eyes narrowing with a sudden spark of insight.
"You are like a hardcore gamer doing a speedrun."
"Mn?"
"Your methods are… how can I say… mediocre?"
The already frightening expression of the Dragon God tightened just a little at that comment.
"It is fine. That is why you should leave the games to the youngsters!"
She smiled brightly as she said it with full enthusiasm, completely throwing Orsted off balance. She continued writing in her notepad without giving him a chance to respond.
"Orsted, we will be taking a different approach in this timeloop. Despite you being the strongest being in this world, you are only one person. There is only so much you can do alone. We are going to need more hands."
Orsted's expression tightened again, a look of a man who had spent thousands of years building a plan through trial and error, only to watch a teenage girl casually erase it with a pencil stroke.
"That is why I will help you rally people. And since we have money and power but not much authority, the easiest group to rally would be a mercenary band."
"I cannot accept this. Forming a band of adventurers that only work in exchange for gold cannot be trusted."
"Filtering out competent and trustworthy people could be a challenge… but that does not matter. We will establish a system ruled through violence. And with you being the strongest being in this organization, every other person will have no choice but to follow."
"..."
"Even if they become liabilities, we can build safety nets and insurances. Back in my world, I watched a lot of counter‑intelligence documentaries."
"..."
"Now we simply need manpower. Recruiting people capable and talented enough to operate in such a complex system might prove challenging in this medieval world. It might be better to train a young person from the ground up. Oh, that reminds me. What is the university I attended in my previous loop called?"
"… Ranoa University of Magic."
"A place where I can gather fresh talent and young people eager to take their next step in life, all while having access to the newest developments in magic research. That is the perfect location for our headquarters."
The girl jumped out of her seat, raising her arms with full enthusiasm as she looked up at the ceiling.
"… You seem happy."
The voice caught her attention. She turned and responded with a bright smile.
"Of course! I will not have to travel through creepy places anymore or go an entire week without a proper bath! Civilization really is the best!"
The comment made Orsted feel strangely guilty, though he could not explain why. Nanahoshi turned fully toward him, her expression bright as she extended her hand with full confidence.
"Orsted, let us work hard together!"
Orsted stared at her hand for a moment, then lifted his gaze to her smiling face. A brief smile softened in his stern expression as he raised his arm and took her hand.
"Ah. Together, let us defeat Hitogami."