Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

Having already succeeded in his mission of building the Tower of Suffering, as long as the Archbishop of the Color Domain doesn't expose him, he'll be firmly scapegoated. And Crusch, who's followed him down this dark path, can't escape it either.

He might be able to escape, but then what? The collapse of the kingdom and civil war are already inevitable facts.

If Tsugumi hadn't come back, his whole situation would have been ruined. So when Tsugumi arrived, he already looked like he'd been completely messed up, but not to the point of going completely insane.

After all—with Prisoner Lao's arrival, justice will prevail! With Prisoner Lao's arrival, the world will be at peace!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: I can talk now (venting). I couldn't communicate with everyone while writing this chapter, so I read too much of the original work and went a bit overboard—but it wasn't a forced writing style. In the original work, although Pandora's purpose isn't explicitly stated, she does hint at targeting Subaru in almost every volume. Since she knows Frugal and is also a mastermind from 0 years ago, she must know about Return by Death. Under these circumstances, if she were to ruthlessly trap Subaru, he would have a hard time resisting—after all, if Satella's save point settings were even slightly reliable, there wouldn't be the ending where the rage route is endlessly strangled. However, once the protagonist returns, there won't be any more plot points where he gets trapped; it's a straight path to the end of Re:Zero. Anyway, one more chapter, five chapters to the maximum word count as an apology and a request for votes!

Set it as your homepage to get the latest updates on works like "Traveling Through the Heavens, Can You Be Smarter Than Me?" as soon as they're released.

917

636. The Demon's Rewind, Threatening the Joker

How much of a blow would a hundred cycles of reincarnation have on Subaru Natsuki?

It's tragic, but it's not so bad either.

Unlike all his previous deaths, Natsuki Subaru was filled with hope this time.

As long as Tsurugi is still here, as long as he comes back, everything will be alright.

No matter how tragic the situation, as long as his demon is still around, everything will be full of hope—moreover, his demon is not like that mindless witch who keeps saving files without saying human words!

A large archive must be both high-quality and robust!

Looking at the hopeful Natsuki Subaru, Tsugumi nodded, then said softly.

"Good news and bad news. The good news is that I did save a few original save points. The bad news is that they are all quite far back in the game, and once you choose this save point, at least until I add new jealousy factors, you can only start from this save point. I think you can accept that..."

Tsugumi didn't have much jealousy, and even Natsuki Subaru didn't have much of a witch inside him.

Because the one inside him wasn't the real body at all; the witch's true form seemed to be imprisoned under a tower in the desert, sealed tightly.

Therefore, Tsurugi can currently reside at two save points, and once it does, it cannot be modified.

"Absolutely! I can easily take it down with my teeth!!!" Natsuki Subaru patted his chest confidently.

"With you, Boss, by our side, no demons or monsters can stand against us!"

"Okay!" Tsurugi clapped her hands and then went online.

He looked around and his gaze suddenly focused on a white pigeon not far away. The moment his attention was drawn to it, the pigeon 'disappeared'.

"Hmph, a sneaky little thing? As the mastermind, he can't be anything special. Trying to break Natsuki Subaru's spirit while he's away for a short time, but he can't even do that?"

Now he's not going to move; he's going to speed up, catch you, and kill you!

He restarted recording the time points.

Cold, shivering.

Natsuki Subaru opened his eyes to find a somewhat familiar-looking middle-aged man with a scar on his face standing in front of him, who was holding a blade of grass in his mouth and handing him an apple.

"Hey buddy, wanna buy an apple?"

Natsuki Subaru:? ? ?

Holy crap, my save file is corrupted and I have to start all over again?!

"Sorry, I reverted to the wrong save file," Tsugumi said casually in his mind, which was filled with "Holy crap!"

"This is the first original save point. Am I going to send you to another one? Or do you want to start the game from scratch?"

Absolutely not! Subaru Natsuki shook his head frantically—starting all over again? Once is one thing, but we can't keep doing this forever!

Subaru Natsuki, who decisively refused, immediately restarted the game. With blood splattered all over the bewildered Apple Uncle's face, he jumped to save the game again.

This time the save point was much closer—it was just one day after we finished dealing with Warcraft.

Although it's been a long time since the King Selection, more than two months have passed, but at least we don't have to go through the Mansion arc again, right?

Then, time began to flow again.

Over the past two months, Subaru has been secretly working harder and harder to get Tsugumi to torture him in exchange for pain to strengthen his physical abilities, all so that he can solve problems faster when Tsugumi takes over his body to fight for him.

Of course, he didn't just spend these two months as a sports student reflecting on his studies; he also worked hard to improve his public image, especially with Emilia.

Not only did he cultivate her favorability, but he also prepared her mentally, using his half-baked but still far more advanced political skills than the people of this world to make Emilia accept the difficulty of her election.

Oh, by the way, there was a little incident along the way, namely Parker.

This old man, who seems to have nothing to do except for exhaling, has recently become even more listless for some reason.

It seemed that its soul had suffered some unseen damage, but neither Betty nor Roswaal could find anything wrong with it.

As long as Subaru knows in his heart, his 'father-in-law,' who is utterly useless except for exhaling and self-destructing, was completely taught this bad habit by his good older brother.

No one knows where its stolen soul went, but all in all, it turned out to be a good thing.

After all, Emilia's magic power actually increased a lot because she usually sleeps a lot in her old age, and—there's no need to worry about her exhaling and self-destructing as soon as Emilia dies.

That can be considered a great deed.

But for Subaru, the focus of his strategy was always on that one person.

Roswaal

......

KO KO KO~~~~

"Come in, please~~~~~~~" Roswaal said with a drawn-out accent, smiling and waving to Subaru as he entered.

"What brings you here in broad daylight, Subaru~~~~~~"

"Let's speak frankly." Subaru's expression was unusually calm; after all, this wasn't the first or second time this had happened.

“Roswaal, I know what your wish is. You tricked Emilia into participating in the King's Election with dragon blood, wasn't it all so you could kill the dragon, obtain its blood, and then resurrect your teacher, the Witch of Greed, Echidna?”

917 >>

Without hesitation, Roswaal immediately revealed his secrets, causing his eyes to narrow instantly. After a moment of silence, his smile faded, and he said softly...

"The teacher's wise book was indeed correct; you are the one..."

"No!" Subaru denied his statement categorically, standing up and slamming his hands on his desk, gritting his teeth.

"Throw away that worthless, worthless book of yours! Its prophecies won't help you! Because I know what rubbish it contains—is it meant to make you torment me and cause me 'setbacks'?"

"The more clearly you understand the contents of this book, the more useful it becomes~~~~~" Roswaal wore a nonchalant smile, but in reality, his eyes held fanaticism and obsession.

"Remember what I told you before?"

"The demon within me, perhaps." Subaru threw out his trump card.

"Resurrect your teacher? Sure, my conditions are simple: whoever gives him the Great Sin Factor will have one wish granted!"

Just kidding, he only does it based on his mood!

"Ha, this is no joke, Subaru~~~~" Roswaal clearly didn't believe Subaru's nonsense, or rather, he firmly believed in the book left behind by his teacher.

"Such a simple miracle doesn't exist in the world~~~~ However, we can certainly cooperate."

Subaru's eyelids twitched slightly. He knew this guy's character very well. Roswaal appeared relaxed and at ease, but inside he was a fanatical and crazy guy.

The only way to get him to honestly abandon his original plan is to show him a possibility, not to act without seeing the benefits.

He had previously persuaded Roswaal more through a semi-threatening approach, so it's likely that the sudden mishap was due to some new instructions being given to him from the book in his hand.

Under the prison warden's orders and Natsuki Subaru's half-baked threats, he naturally obeyed the former without hesitation. So, he truly deserved his death that time.

Therefore, this method is still the best!

"Hey, Subaru, teach him a lesson he won't forget!" Subaru shouted, pointing at Roswaal's head.

Roswaal paused for a moment, then looked at the motionless Natsuki Subaru, a smile spreading across his face as he was about to speak again—

Euler!!!

The next moment, he saw a phantom fly out from behind Subaru Natsuki, grab Roswaal's head, and smash through the wall with a whoosh, flying away!

"What's wrong?! Where is Lord Roswaal?!"

Hearing the commotion, Ram rushed over and, seeing the empty office and the huge hole in the wall, immediately grabbed Subaru Natsuki and questioned him.

"He went out for a walk," Natsuki Subaru said nonchalantly, without batting an eye.

"You can't possibly suspect me, can you? You don't think I have the ability to knock him flying, do you?"

Ram glared at the composed Natsuki Subaru before dashing out. Natsuki Subaru, meanwhile, looked at the large wall and the sun outside, stretched lazily, and then sat down on Roswaal's chair with his legs crossed.

"Ah, what a lovely sunny day~~~~~"

After being tense for so long, he can finally relax and unwind.

If your older brother can play online for you, what chance is there of him failing? Relax and just wait for the result.

The worst that could happen is that the world is destroyed once, but compared to exploring on my own, at least I can explore the map thoroughly.

Meanwhile, Roswaal, who had been captured by Tsugumi in his Vitrum form, was transported directly to the 'Sanctuary', which was not far from here.

The village, protected by a barrier and inhabited by a large number of demi-humans, was shattered by a streak of shooting stars. With a deafening crash, Roswaal rose in disarray from a tomb made of a giant stone.

"You—" He looked at the unfamiliar spirit before him, about to speak, but Tsugumi clearly didn't want to hear any nonsensical talk.

So with a wave of his hand, he tossed over all of Subaru Natsuki's memories up to this point.

"You can't..." Satella said weakly.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Tsugumi snapped off the guy's outstretched hand without hesitation, speaking with obvious impatience.

“Everyone else knows that returning from the dead is troublesome, but this clown is an exception. No matter how arrogant that idiot is, he has no one else who needs to return except for his jailer!”

Rather, it's more accurate to say that those connected to Roswaal's network of relationships were basically within Subaru Natsuki's purview of saving them, and he simply couldn't tolerate their deaths.

Ironically, the fact that death and resurrection made such scum and enemies aware of it didn't really matter much.

A massive flood of memories rushed into his brain, and Roswaal immediately rolled on the ground in agony, howling in pain. His fragile soul was tormented by hundreds of deaths, making his life worse than death. But Tsugumi always managed to save him each time.

917>>>>

The pain continued relentlessly; the excruciating agony of slowly tearing one's soul apart persisted.