Yesterday I was in mini-hibernation (about 17 hours) Shun's Perspective …What am I supposed to do?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't come up with an answer.
Demon King
Pope
I'd heard both of their arguments.
The leaders of the two great powers who would guide this world-ending battle—those were their positions.
And yet, despite the magnitude of the moment, both had spoken only in the briefest of words, as if they'd coordinated beforehand.
But within those few words lay an unimaginable depth of feeling.
Even someone like me—a reincarnator, practically an outsider—could sense it.
The resolve of both of them, far too heavy, unbearably heavy.
For some reason or other, I'd ended up holding a key that could heavily influence that battle.
It wouldn't mean much if I sided with the Demon King's camp, but if I joined the Pope's side, the key I held could be a tremendous asset.
…Emotionally, I wanted to side with the Pope.
I just couldn't bring myself to wish death upon all the people I'd met in this world. I simply couldn't.
But after hearing the resolve of both the Demon King and the Pope, I started wondering whether someone like me even had the right to intervene in their battle.
The fact that I was a reincarnator played into it too.
The Demon King and the Pope, who had been fighting in this world for ages.
And the people who, even without memories, had been reincarnating over and over in this world for eons.
No matter how the battle ended, didn't it seem wrong for upstarts like us reincarnators to participate?
That's what I kept thinking.
Rather than agonizing over it like this, maybe doing nothing was the right answer. I was starting to think that way.
"You're troubled, aren't you?"
Kathia had arrived.
"Yeah. Really troubled."
"Tell me what's on your mind. Sometimes just putting it into words helps you sort through your thoughts."
"…Yeah, you're right."
So I told her. Haltingly, I laid out what I'd been thinking.
The order was all jumbled, and I just blurted out whatever came to mind, so I'm sure it was hard to follow.
But Kathia didn't rush me. She listened to every last word.
"Hmm. So in short, you want to side with the Pope emotionally, but you're hesitating because your resolve isn't sufficient."
"That's a blunt way of putting it, but…yeah."
I couldn't help but smile wryly at Kathia's characteristically blunt assessment.
At the end of the day, my resolve just wasn't enough.
"As the Hero, inheriting
Julius-niisama had always been my hero.
Not just because he was strong.
Not just because he was cool.
Above all, it was because his aspirations shone so brilliantly.
That iron will—something I didn't possess—was what made him the object of my admiration.
"If it were Julius-niisama, he would have agonized over it too, but still arrived at his own answer. I can't do that."
What kind of answer would Julius-niisama have reached?
I didn't know.
I didn't know, but he would have found his answer—and then he would have fought.
Maybe, if it were Julius-niisama, he would have pursued that third option I'd given up on—the one where everyone gets saved.
Whether it was achievable or not was another matter, but Julius-niisama would never have given up until the very end.
Completely unlike me.
"I'm shallow. Compared to Julius-niisama, compared to the Demon King, compared to the Pope…"
I bowed my head and let out a deep sigh.
"Is that really so bad? Being shallow?"
"Huh?"
Here I was, drowning in self-loathing, and Kathia just casually tossed that out.
"Shun, you think of resolve and willpower as something weighty and serious—and you're not wrong about that."
"Yeah."
"But! You don't need anything that grandiose to take action!"
"…Come again?"
"I want to do this. I want to do that. Those kinds of feelings are almost always small and flimsy. So what if they're flimsy? Besides, when you're comparing yourself to living legends and a genuine Hero, of course their resolve and willpower would be extraordinary. If you measure everyone against them, everyone else is going to look flimsy by comparison."
"That…might be true…"
"If the weight of your will determined whether you were allowed to act or not, then nearly everyone in this world wouldn't be allowed to do anything."
"Isn't that an absurd argument?"
"Maybe."
When I instinctively objected to Kathia's point, she readily conceded.
"However—setting aside the whole debate about whether will is heavy or light, there's no rule that reincarnators can't participate. Kyoya and the others are fighting openly on the Demon King's side, aren't they?"
"…Fair point."
Now that she mentioned it, she was right.
In the Demon King's camp, there were Kyoya, Nemugishi-san, and
From what I'd seen, all three of them held core positions within the Demon King's forces.
Thinking about it that way, being a reincarnator wasn't a valid reason to stay out of the fight.
But.
"The three of them seemed to have their resolve firmly in place."
Especially Kyoya.
The thought of Kyoya brought a bitter feeling welling up in my chest.
Being told by Kyoya that my sword was hollow—it had probably shaken me more than I'd realized.
"We are reincarnators, yes—but right now, we are residents of this world, living in this world. So we have every right to participate."
"That's…also true."
We, too, were living in this world now.
"At the end of the day, worrying about whether your will is heavy or light is pointless. It's invisible—you can only measure its weight for yourself. So all that matters is what you want to do."
"What…do I want to do."
"Exactly. And on that note—there's a saying from my previous life that I heard a lot."
I looked up and met Kathia's gaze.
"Better to regret doing something than to regret not doing it."
On her face was the mischievous smile of a child who'd just pulled off a prank.
"So I chose the path of doing something and regretting it."
"…? What do you mean?"
"Appraise me, and you'll see."
Tilting my head, I used Appraisal on Kathia.
And then— "Wh—what?!"
The Status that appeared before my eyes was jarringly off.
The number of Skills was suspiciously low.
"What?!"
And when I looked at one of those few remaining Skills, I let out another cry of surprise.
『Purity』
It was one of the seven Virtue-type Dominator Skills.
"You know about my Unique Skill, yes?"
With those words, everything clicked into place.
Kathia's Unique Skill was called Conversion.
A seemingly mediocre skill she'd lamented as having no use.
Its effect was to convert Skills into Skill Points.
In other words, it allowed you to redo your Skill selection.
However, the conversion rate wasn't one hundred percent—the more you used it, the more you lost. It was a trap.
Because of that, Kathia had sealed this skill away and never once used it.
But looking at the situation now, what she'd done was plain as day.
"You used Conversion."
"Indeed. Thanks to that, I lost most of my Skills."
Kathia's Skills were nearly all gone.
Purity, and the one additional Skill gained through the Title that came with it—that was truly all she had left.
All her stat-boosting Skills had vanished too, so her Status had dropped slightly.
Still, it easily exceeded a thousand on average, so she wouldn't fall behind any ordinary soldiers.
But in the battle to come, that level of Status was practically meaningless.
Even at full strength, I'd be nothing but dead weight.
And yet, Kathia— "You're going, aren't you?"
"Yes. I don't want to see my family, my servants, or any of my friends die."
While I'd been waffling and agonizing, Kathia had already made her decision.
…Right. Right, of course.
I slapped myself hard across the cheek.
That snapped me into focus.
"Then I'll act too—shallow resolve and all."
No matter which side I chose, the pain would remain.
If one side won, I'd surely be tormented watching the aftermath.
And if I chose neither, I'd spend the rest of my time endlessly agonizing over the choice I didn't make.
So—better to regret doing something than to regret doing nothing.
"Besides, I don't even know if my contribution would make a difference."
Maybe before I ever reached the deepest depths of the Great Ello Dungeon, I'd be reduced to cinders…
Actually, I was starting to think that outcome was more likely.
With my meager strength, I probably wouldn't amount to much in the fighting.
But.
"I'll do it."
If I'd decided to do it, then I'd do it.
Maybe, precisely because my power was so small, it was the perfect fit for tackling this with shallow resolve.
"I'm counting on you, then. I'm nothing more than a frail young lady who's lost nearly all her power to fight."
Kathia said that and leaned against me.
"O-oh."
While I was flustered, the door burst open with a bang!
"Kathia. You snuck off without me."
"That kind of thing is always won by whoever acts first."
"I'll kill you."
"S-stay!"
I leaped into action to stop