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

The mastermind behind the scenes, the grand narrative, doing great things for a person's great goal, the witch taking the blame—the differences are basically not that significant.

He was simply wrong about the mastermind's plan.

I initially thought it was the clichéd Human Instrumentality Project—the plan to eliminate human bodies and unify their spirits—or some other kind of Eye of the Moon that was just a way to deceive the whole world, but the result is clearly somewhat novel.

Are you planning to transform the world from a single universe into multiple universes? That's certainly a grand goal!

But what is the purpose of doing this? Is it to free humanity's fate from the predetermined outcome of Odragna?

This is freedom! (Allen feels this way)

"So, you were supposed to explode on the spot and blast this world into a multiverse, but in the end you didn't explode and were sealed away?"

"...It wasn't an explosion; the destruction of half the world was actually the result of a timeline overwrite."

Satella's sorrowful eyes were hidden beneath her black veil as she whispered...

"When the consequences of my other self’s inability to control the power of jealousy occurred, world lines that should never have been created appeared out of thin air. These world lines were supposed to meander infinitely and eventually divide up Od Ragnar’s origin."

"The world was in chaos. In that short period of time, countless people who should not have appeared appeared, and countless people who should have been alive disappeared into thin air. At the same time, a 'door' that should not have existed also appeared in the great forest."

"Perhaps that was one of Pandora's goals, but there is no doubt that guiding me to destroy the world was also her goal. But even I don't know what's behind the 'door'."

"In this chaotic space-time, only three people maintained their individuality."

Sword Saint Red, Dragon Polkenica, and Sage Frugal.

The three of them were spared from the cycle of disappearance and rebirth due to their unique characteristics, even as the timeline twisted and turned.

Red is able to sever all powers, including authority and protection, because he has reached the unprecedented and unparalleled 'Heavenly Sword' realm. Therefore, the authority of jealousy will be continuously severed by him in a short period of time.

As for the divine dragon Polkenica, it is the highest-level fantasy species at the pinnacle of the dragon race. Its immortality makes it impossible for the timeline to erase its existence or find the death of its branches in a short period of time.

Ultimately, even if this weak world were to explode, it wouldn't be able to create an infinite number of multiverses; at most, it would only be a finite number of universes.

The sage Freugel is even more direct—he is, in this world, the 'only' existence.

Flugel is Subaru Natsuki, or rather, he is the first Subaru Natsuki to travel through time.

In fact, Natsuki Subaru could have had a brilliant future in this timeline. The only difference between him and that sage was that the sage had never damaged his own door and could use decent dark magic. As for wisdom?

If you could rewind infinitely, you would appear incredibly wise—in reality, in the eyes of those geniuses at the mansion, isn't Natsuki Subaru now a cheat code that can calculate everything without fail?

As for his personality—to be honest, if Subaru Natsuki hadn't been tortured into obedience by dying so many times, his arrogant personality, if not corrected, would probably fit the descriptions of him by later generations.

The three of them are the only beings who can maintain their absolute selves in an infinitely chaotic and reset timeline, therefore they are the only hope to save the world.

They had a fundamental disagreement about how to deal with Satella.

Red advocated for the complete eradication of the Witch of Envy. Aside from his thuggish nature, he was a pure warrior who believed enemies should be killed. Nothing could shake his resolve.

The dragon Polkenica believed that an attempt should be made to purify or separate Satella from the Witch of Envy. He preferred "balance" to "annihilation."

Flugel was plunged into the deepest anguish. He loved Satella deeply and firmly believed her soul could be saved. He didn't want to kill his lover, nor did he want her to be sealed away forever. But he had no other choice.

How many times did the latter actually try?

No one knows, but the final result was—sealing.

This choice was made because they realized they could not kill the Witch of Envy. The witch factors she had absorbed and the powers she was involved with were too profound. If they forcibly killed her, it would be tantamount to directly triggering a global catastrophe. So, in the end, they sealed her beneath the Tower of Sages.

But the wise man had his own selfish motives, or rather, he placed his hopes on four hundred years from now.

“He used the power of jealousy to preserve a timeline, the only timeline connected to him,” Satella said softly.

922 >>

"The only timeline that separated from him from the moment he entered this world is the timeline that goes back four hundred years and the timeline that goes back to the present."

"He integrated this timeline into the world, erasing 'Flugel' that existed four hundred years ago. Then, he brought Satella, who had been sleeping in the great forest because he wasn't there, from that timeline into this one."

"He hoped that four hundred years later, that Satella would bring me out of the Tower of the Sages, merge us into one, separate the jealousy, and then truly get rid of it..."

"For this, he killed his potential for perfection, replacing it with his current state, starting from scratch..."

"Yeah, so he's just torturing himself, right?"

After hearing the story, Tsurugi nodded slightly, her heart completely unmoved.

Ultimately, this is just one side of the story.

The Pandora described by these witches is like a pure villain who ruined their grand plan to save the world—but if you think about it, are these witches normal people?

How good can the beautiful world they construct according to their philosophy, their understanding, and their self-image really be?

Frugal—that is, Subaru Natsuki—was probably well aware of the kind of people these witches were, so he abandoned Echidna and the witch cult early on and ran off to the Great Forest to live a life of two with Satella.

Then this fake witch Pandora suddenly popped up and blew everyone away. If you think about it carefully, it's debatable whether she's really a witch.

After all, the name Pandora is enough to evoke a lot of thoughts.

Tsugumi had initially thought the Seven Deadly Sins Factor had leaked from some hellish demon, but now it might be another possibility—

The box Zeus gave to Pandora contained calamities, disasters, and plagues. After opening the box, humanity became greedy, lazy, arrogant, and wrathful.

Of course, it's not impossible to say that there is a hell. After all, the original hell actually had eight deadly sins. It was only later that vanity was incorporated into pride, melancholy into sloth, and envy was added later to make up the seven deadly sins.

Thinking about it this way, perhaps the jealousy factor in this world was brought by Pandora, after all, this also fits the last sin added after the merger of evil.

Of course, considering that this person led the Priests of Greed to attack the Great Forest a hundred years ago in an attempt to directly open a door in the Great Forest, she was definitely not a righteous person either.

Tsurugi instantly thought of many possible 'stories', but now he had achieved his goal.

"Spoiler complete, I'm off now."

"Oh, so heartless? Won't you stay a little longer?" Echidna's voice trailed off as she pouted.

"I need to go see what you've done to that poor guy who's torturing himself."

Tsugumi glanced sideways, and Echidna immediately looked away guiltily.

Great, Tsugumi felt that she would soon have another show featuring Natsuki Subaru that she could watch herself.

......

Time rewinds to after Natsuki Subaru returned to his body.

The first thing he saw when he woke up was an anxious Emilia. Although he was very uneasy, Natsuki Subaru was relieved and continued his light novel protagonist storyline.

They encountered a demi-human named Garfield who guarded the sanctuary, and also met Ryuzu, an artificial spirit created by Echidna.

But for Subaru Natsuki, who had already prepared his strategy, dealing with these storylines was a piece of cake.

After all, he had almost won over Betty at the mansion, and this time, with the information about Echidna, he would be 100% sure to win her over.

Collect all 100% of the CGs in the mansion! Get them!!!

In short, the romance and plot of these light novels are not important, so just ignore them!

They soon arrived at Echidna's tomb, where Emilia's trial began.

In short, this so-called trial forces you to confront your past, present, and future.

For Emilia, the challenge lies in confronting her tragic childhood memories sealed away—the memories of her life in the Great Forest of Elior with her foster mother Fortuna, the elf Juth (the future "Sloth" bishop), and the tragedy that led to her being frozen for a century. She needs to overcome this fear and achieve true growth.

But this was clearly a huge torment for her, a half-elf whose mental age was only twelve or thirteen.

She was completely unable to pass the trial. She was in great pain from the torment of these memories. Seeing this, Natsuki Subaru felt heartbroken and told Garfield that he could also enter the trial.

Garfield immediately asked Subaru to take Emilia's place in the trial, and in order to set a good example, Natsuki Subaru immediately entered the trial arena.

Then--

Subaru's first trial was facing his past. He entered a virtual world made up of his own memories to confront the past he least wanted to look back on.

922>>>>

For Subaru Natsuki, this past is undoubtedly the Japan before he traveled through time, the wrong past where he had created a rift with his parents because he was trying to escape reality.

This was a simple yet painful trial for him. He was already able to face his past shortcomings and foolishness with equanimity, but what was painful was that he knew his parents were no longer alive.

Even though Tsurugi gave him an ideal and a dream to strive for, he had dreamt more than once in the dead of night of the future that his parents would die of depression because of him.

It was precisely because of this truth that this trial, which could have been easily overcome, became much more difficult and bitter.

Faced with the illusions of his parents, even though he knew it was all fake, he still painfully accepted it, and thus he quickly passed the trial.

The second trial—which, in theory, should be a 'non-existent present' world.

It would be a series of 'possible' worlds, simulating the tragic fates his companions would face after all his deaths, showing how those he cherished would fall into despair and collapse.

If nothing unexpected happens, this will be a very delicious iAng project.

However, because of Tsurugo's advance spoiler, the trial itself became problematic.

Given that these are just illusions and that parallel worlds do not exist at all, how could such illusions possibly shake his spirit?

At most, it's just a series of extremely painful illusions to experience; it's a matter of watching a few more movies.

In any case, Natsuki Subaru's skin and spirit have long been hardened to an unbreakable level by Tsugumi's tempering.

That won't do; it won't serve the purpose of a trial!

So, with a flash of inspiration, Echidna used her powers to create another trial—

What If: A Trial of Possibilities

There are indeed no parallel worlds in this world, but that doesn't prevent Echidna from using her powers to deduce how a worldline would develop due to a deflection choice.

These are still possibilities that do not exist, but because the protagonist is Subaru Natsuki, he will experience these possibilities from a first-person perspective.

As a result, Subaru Natsuki was forced to experience all the possible "what if" timelines for himself.

His spirit, forged into steel by the Dongjiang River, withstood tremendous trials.

However, to Tsugumi's surprise and also to her appreciation, it did not break down.

On the contrary, it was under such trials that he finally truly confronted his own arrogance.

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.: While writing this, I read a lot of posts and came up with my own ideas, which I'll probably be proven wrong about 100% in the future. But given my writing speed, it will probably take at least four or five years to finish (lol). Anyway, I'm speeding up my writing!

I reckon I was already in the hospital when they sent me this. I couldn't sleep last night, and I'm getting more and more afraid of physical exams now. (sigh)

923

642. Sloth, arrogance, wrath (if)