The Limit

“............Show......”

“Hahaha, that's right! That slaughter show I had you watch too!”

Her footsteps echoing, Nare walks on down the hallway.

Every now and then she laughs cheerfully as she goes on reminiscing, as if fondly recalling old times, but what she's telling, the life Nare has lived, can honestly only be called awful.

A hell blocked on every side, with no escape.

In that hell, this woman has stayed trapped, endlessly.

As for me, if I were in the same situation, could I bear it?

Imagining it, I shudder in spite of myself.

No way.

Me, I couldn't.

In no time, my heart would hit its limit.

Perhaps this woman, Nare, also reached her limit long ago and is broken.

Her laughter is so hollow and bone-dry.

“It all started with a tiny tantrum. One time, when time rewound as usual and I returned to the head's study room, the ‘Ring of the Ranrananga White Lizard’ on my finger happened to catch my eye.”

Gazing at her own fingers, bare now, thin and sinewy, Nare goes on talking.

“That ring is our family heirloom. Something passed down from head to head...... Actually, there's no way that just wearing this makes you recognized as the head, as those fools believe, but even so, it can be called the symbol of the head of the Luclees family.”

“............”

“‘Just because I was born of the bloodline meant to head this family, I'm stuck repeating this hell’...... that was what suddenly crossed my mind at the time. That ring, all at once I found it unbearably hateful. So I took it off right away and threw it out the window.”

“Outside?”

“Yes. And then, you know, an uproar broke out. If I recall, some servant happened to pick up the ring that had fallen outside? Then Doj got his hands on that ring, and a dispute broke out over who would become the owner of the ring.”

<Well, that would happen.>

“All it would take is for Sarelka to say ‘This ring is mine’, and that would settle it. But that man is a coward, so he can't. Doj tries to have the ring passed down, to Keranko. That, Karashia can't accept. As a result, there's bloodshed. Karashia cuts Keranko down, with ‘Agzeliary’.”

......I see.

So something like the tragedies we've watched happened.

“By that point, I had gained a power to grasp the words and deeds of the people in the mansion while staying in this room, a...... mysterious power, you see. Watching and listening to that uproar from the head's study room, I...... I felt something I had never felt in all the repetitions of time until then...... hahaha, a thrill. And on impulse, I killed myself.”

“Huh?”

“I wanted to try all sorts of things, you see. Just by throwing away the ring, the people I hate so much would hurt and kill each other on their own! Hahaha, hahahahahaha! It was exhilarating! It was fun! I, you know, began researching how to make them suffer more and more! I tried all sorts of things. Even if I failed, I could just start over by dying, so I could experiment as casually as you like!”

No no no, you say casually, but every time you start over, you die, don't you?

<As I thought, the heart of this woman, Nare, must already be broken somewhere. To the point where she no longer minds her own death at all.>

“And then, I found one conclusion. ‘If you're going to throw the ring away, do it outside Karashia's room’. This, is the optimal solution I arrived at after hundreds of rounds of trial and error. Once time rewinds, I immediately toss the ring outside that girl's room and sneak back to the head's study room. By doing that, lo and behold! Karashia goes berserk, and every single person in this mansion, servants included, dies! Honestly, when I discovered this fact, I burst out laughing! Man, it was hilarious! Watching the people who tormented me endlessly go at each other's throats and die all on their own, you know!! Hahahahahaha, hahahahahahahahaha!!”

Nare laughs.

She doubles over, laughing out loud.

......Whether she really finds it funny, I can't really tell.

She is walking in front of me.

I can't see her expression.

......I don't even want to.

After laughing for a while, Nare cleared her throat once with a kohon and resumed her “personal story.”

“Now then, anyway, having discovered this ‘optimal solution’, I repeated it endlessly after that. By now, it's beyond counting. Why, you ask? Because it was fun. This was my revenge against them. After confirming everyone was dead and basking in satisfaction, I would repeat time again. I kept doing that, on and on.”

......When I heard that, something struck me as odd.

“Why?”

“Hm?”

“Why, endlessly, repeat?”

“Well, because that's my revenge.”

“Repeat a few times, that, I can kind of understand. But it's strange. Didn't you, think to stop at some point?”

“............”

“The mansion people, once all of them are dead, then there's no need, for Nare to die. If you don't die after that, no enemies, so you should live long. Wrong?”

I don't mean to preach about the emptiness of revenge, though.

The important thing is how you live after the revenge, isn't it?

Why see the revenge through, get satisfied, and then die?

If you didn't kill yourself there, your life would continue after that.

“............Hahaha.”

At my question, Nare's shoulders slumped slightly, and she laughed weakly.

“By the time I realized that, it was already too late.”

“............?”

“Perfect timing. I'll show you.”

With that, Nare heads for a door a little further down the hallway.

This is the door to Keranko's room.

Inside, Keranko, Fateu, and Doj should be having tea.

If she enters a place like that, an uproar will undoubtedly occur.

But Nare, about that sort of thing, couldn't care less.

Before I can stop her, she flings open the door to Keranko's room.

The moment she does, cries of surprise and screams rise from inside the room.

......That's how I imagined it would go, but it didn't.

I can't hear a single sound from inside the room.

This is strange.

Thinking so, I hurry over to Nare and peek into Keranko's room.

Then, what leapt into view was an astonishing sight.

Inside the room, as I expected, Keranko, Fateu, and Doj were enjoying tea.

But.

Keranko and Fateu, in the pose of chatting with each other.

Doj, in the pose of pouring tea from the pot into Fateu's cup.

Like a still image, they were “frozen.”

“Wh, what is this......!?”

When I look closely, even the tea being poured from the pot in Doj's hand has stopped moving, as if frozen in an instant.

“We've reached the time limit.”

Nare, looking bored, starts talking again.

“Once a certain amount of time has passed after the rewind, this happens. Time stops moving, forward. In the past...... it wasn't like this. Even when I lived much, much longer, the time of the people around me kept on moving without stopping. At some point, before I realized it, it became like this. The same goes for space. Within the country at least, I could go anywhere I liked. Now I can't. Before I knew it, the mansion's surroundings were wrapped in a mysterious mist, and I could no longer go beyond it.”

Wh, why......?

<Ah...... I see, it's already...... at its limit, I suppose.>

Limit?

<The mysterious power that makes time repeat in loops...... its source is probably a god. This loop...... this ‘small world’ that keeps on looping, most likely exists on the power of a certain god, I believe. That god's power......>

Is, running out......?

<Probably. Most likely, because Nare, for the sake of her revenge, set off an absurd number of loops, beyond what the god anticipated, that god's power has begun to run dry. Looking at it that way, Emi, I can more or less imagine why you kept looping with your memories intact. With the god's power as it is now, there is probably no strength to spare to do anything about your soul, a foreign element that has newly intruded into this world.>

“Now then, this is the answer to your question. Even if I wanted to finish my revenge and lead a new life from there, such a thing is no longer permitted to me. Literally, there is ‘no future’. For the people of this mansion...... me included, that is.”

Nare turns back toward me.

With a dry smile, on her face.

Smile though it was, that expression was already, hopelessly worn out.

“Hey, Emi. I have, a favor to ask. I think someone with as much power as you, could probably do it.”

And with that tired face, in a faint, limp voice, Nare said this to me.

“Won't you, end it for us?...... Our, time.”

This arc too is finally reaching its climax.

Thank you for your support.