After a long while, Allen lifted the pen. He looked at the name 'Hilda,' which was now completely smudged and illegible.
He turned his wrist.
He wrote Hilda's name outside the circle.
Right next to Eris's name.
[Oh? Such a great philanthropist?]
Allen's gaze swept over the text that had suddenly materialized. He then looked back at the names of Hilda and Eris, his eyes darting between them.
'Stop with the sarcasm... I just think Eris will need her.'
[Eris will need her? A fine excuse, a very fine excuse.]
[Eris certainly does need her.]
[But is that really your rational consideration, or is it mixed with your 'kindness'? Allen?]
'...'
[Eris needs her, but Eris also needs Philip, and Eris needs Sauros. What now? Are you going to save them all?]
[Weren't you just deciding not to save Philip and Sauros because their schemes against you, their 'own son,' and their own daughter were more about calculation than affection? Because it clashes with the sense of 'family' you found in the Greyrat household in Buena Village? Because it's completely at odds with the concept of 'family' you built with Paul in your childhood?]
[Since you're saving Hilda, why not just save them all while you're at it?]
[What's so hard to forgive?]
[Save them, save them all! Save everyone!]
[Then dig up the entire Fittoa region! While you're at it, save everyone from Buena Village and the Fittoa territory too!]
[What are you hesitating for?]
[After you save them, go to the capital and help Philip kill James, push him into the position of family head. It's all on the way, right, young master Allen of House Boreas?]
The text flickered, filled with a thick, malicious taunt and mockery, as if it was enjoying the spectacle of Allen's choices at this crossroads of fate.
It was truly enjoying itself.
[Who do you think you are? The chosen saint, the greatest Samaritan in the Six-Faced World? You think you can save whoever you want?]
[And who can you even save?]
'...'
[You save Hilda, who showed you kindness and is a relatively normal person in the Boreas household? So after you save this mother, what's next? Do you save her husband? Her father? All her relatives?]
[You're not going to reconsider?]
[Are you sure you won't reconsider?]
[Can you...]
[...even save yourself!]
Snap. The pen in Allen's hand broke.
The system panel vanished instantly.
Allen watched the rapidly drifting dust dissipate into the air and helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose.
'...What the hell kind of system is this? It's like my damn smartphone from my old life came to life, I swear.'
'It's serious one moment and completely unhinged the next, like it has a split personality. During the day, it's like me on a professional call with a client. At night, it's like me ranting on social media.'
Allen unconsciously fiddled with the two broken halves of the pen, his gaze shifting between Hilda, Philip, and Sauros.
Finally, he just pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
He understood the system's underlying message.
That line, "Can you even save yourself?", was a reminder of the cost of abandoning his "future knowledge."
'The current situation is a complete mess. Even if I set aside my personal feelings and try to think from Eris's perspective, I probably should save everyone. But I haven't even finalized the plan for the people I truly want to save yet. Paul and Zenith's situation is still up in the air.'
'How can I be so arrogant as to think I can save everyone?'
Allen narrowed his eyes at the writing on his desk. To save Paul and Zenith, he had already decided to shatter the 'detestable future,' but as someone who had read the original story, he was well aware of the 'price' that came with it.
The most critical point was this—if his actions caused too great an impact and he unfortunately caught the eye of the Dragon God, and that man 'saw' him, a person who shouldn't exist in this loop, and then noticed that the fates of everyone he interacted with were changing drastically from previous loops...
What would Orsted do?
Simple.
He would show up, get in his face, and ask, "Have you heard of the Man-God?"
And then, it would all be over.
Would he have a chance to explain?
Would explaining even work?
Would Nanahoshi be by Orsted's side this time?
If she was, would she have a fleeting thought to save him?
The price of discarding his future knowledge...
...was Allen's own life and safety.
But even so.
He had still decided to discard his 'future knowledge.'
The image of everyone running towards him in the snowy valley, a moment frozen last winter, was still as clear in his memory as if it had just happened.
Some things...
...in the mind of Allen, a person who had lacked affection since childhood...
...after he truly 'accepted' them...
...were, in a way, more precious than his own life.
And the Boreas family...
...were they within that circle of 'acceptance'?
Not at the moment.
The candlelight flickered.
Allen picked up another pen.
He slowly drew a question mark next to Hilda's name, but didn't touch Philip's or Sauros's.
"...I'll keep observing..."
"...Three years and three months. There's still time to 'see' things more clearly."
With a long sigh, Allen spread his hands on the desk and rested his head on his arms.
Though utterly exhausted, he didn't feel the slightest bit of sleepiness.
Before him were the winding wooden grains of the desk.
In his vision, the white moonlight flowed between the 481 lines of the wood grain on the desk.
Allen stared at the desk, his pen unconsciously scratching against the paper.
'System.'
[I'm here.]
The dust materialized just as quickly this time, its tone calm, as if its earlier outburst was just an illusion.
Allen seemed tired. He simply thought of a certain person's name in his mind.
In the next instant, clouds of dust rose on the desk before him, forming a massive world map. It zoomed in continuously until the familiar bird's-eye view of the Shirone Palace appeared.
[Engage 'Gaze'? Duration, 10 seconds.]
[Yes.]
His vision passed through crowds of people.
It landed on a similar-looking desk.
A waterfall of deep blue fell upon the tabletop, transforming into winding streams that flowed through the wooden grain.
That wasn't a river.
It was Roxy's hair.
Her soft blue hair cascaded across the desk like a waterfall, its deep blue color blending with her eyes.
Between the falls of hair were familiar deep blue eyes.
Allen looked into Roxy's pupils.
At that very moment, on a night in the Asura continent, two people separated by a vast distance were looking at each other from a mirrored angle, both resting their heads sideways on their desks.
Roxy blinked, a troubled expression on her face.
She tugged at the hair on her forehead and lifted herself from the desk.
Underneath her cheek was a letter.
The 'gaze' from the search function couldn't pick up sound.
But Allen could still 'hear' the soft scratching of her pen on the paper.
It was a sound that traveled through time, from two years ago when they roomed together. While Allen watched with his chin in his hand...
...it was the sound of Roxy, looking focused yet still a bit dazed, writing in the monster encyclopedia.
Ten seconds is short.
But it was enough to lull Allen into a deep sleep.
Beside his hand, the pen strokes he had made unconsciously had sketched out...
Roxy's name.
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