Vol 1 Chapter 18 – Change, Part 2: Final【Vol 1 — A Happy Childhood】

“Hey. What is the meaning of this.”

Regen Blum stared hard at the video crystal floating in the air.

“…—!”

…Bad.
I thought I’d hidden it well… I let my guard down.

He’d caught on during a moment where my consciousness had been fading from everything Regen Blum had put me through.

“I asked you what the meaning of this is…!”
“Guh—!!”

His toe drove into my stomach.
My pain receptors were already half-numb, but the sensation of my organs being compressed was something I couldn’t endure.

Still… what now.
Without that, this whole thing was a complete waste.
All I’d accomplished was putting Regen Blum in a worse mood.

My hopes were fading.

My mind went blank.

I was supposed to save Sophia, and now…

“Will-kun——!!”

That’s when it came—a clear, high voice cutting through everything.

Both Regen Blum and I froze, eyes pulled toward her.

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Of all the moments, Onee-chan, why now.

◯

“Will-kun!! Why are you—”

Sophia had appeared in the center of the room without warning, and the moment she saw the state I was in, she let out a cry of anguish.

My clothes were torn and frayed in patches, and every inch of exposed skin was covered in cuts and bruises.

“What happened…! Will-kun, why are you like this, Will-kun…”

Just imagining what Sophia must have been feeling looking at me right now made my chest ache far worse than anything Regen Blum had done to me.

If our positions were reversed, I don’t think I could bear it.

“Sophia. How did you get in here… well, a mage of your caliber, I suppose something like this is nothing. …As expected of you, Sophia! As expected of the woman I fell for…! Ahh, I’ve been desperately wanting to see you. So you came to me after all, didn’t you, Sophia.”

Regen Blum spread his arms wide and stared at Sophia.

Sophia glared back at him with murderous intent in her eyes.

“You’re the one who—!! How could you!!”

The air in the room trembled.

It felt as though the space itself had frozen solid.
A sharp, abnormal chill ran through my body.

Even with my bare-bones knowledge of magic, I could tell it was a torrent of mana.
The source was Sophia.

But—

“Ahh, please don’t be so angry, Sophia. Learning that you’re even more beautiful when you’re furious was a welcome discovery—but there’s something more important right now, isn’t there.”

My body locked up.
Not as a figure of speech—I couldn’t move a single finger.
My thoughts felt clouded, like fog had settled over my mind.

“Sophia, clever as you are, I’m sure you understand.”

The moment Regen Blum said those words, the surge of mana radiating from Sophia dispersed like mist.

“……”

Sophia bit her lip and her face twisted with anguish.

What… what just happened.

“Just now, I took control of Will Role-kun’s brain. A small application of healing magic. I’m no match for you, but I’m confident I have reasonable talent as a mage in my own right. For instance—once things are in this state, unraveling Will Role-kun’s mind and turning him into a vegetable would be trivial. It appears Will Role-kun hasn’t worked with mana much at all. He was surprisingly easy to take hold of.”
“…Stop it.”

Sophia’s voice trembled.

“Of course. I have no desire to see you suffer.”

Regen Blum stepped forward and came to a stop right in front of Sophia.
He reached out and touched her cheek gently.

“…Please. Don’t do anything to Will-kun.”
“I understand. Of course—that’s conditional on you doing as I wish.”

Sophia’s pained eyes turned to me.

My head was foggy, my thoughts sluggish—but looking into those eyes made my chest hurt.

I have to do something…

“Now, then… Sophia, let me confirm one thing. You belong to me. That’s practically an established fact at this point. And yet—Will Role-kun said something rather concerning earlier.”
“…”
“He told me you asked him to take your first time last night. Is that true?”

Sophia kept her head bowed and said nothing.

“…Haah. So it’s true. I knew you spoke of him often. But I had no idea it had gone that far… That won’t do, Sophia. If you do something like that, your beautiful body will be spoiled.”

Regen Blum stroked Sophia’s cheek with tenderness, and slowly pulled her into an embrace.

Being held by him, Sophia trembled.

“Fortunately, it appears you and Will Role-kun didn’t go all the way. But there’s no guarantee something like that won’t happen in the future. The Sophia who is to become mine cannot have her purity defiled by anyone other than me. Absolutely not. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not.”

As if he couldn’t hold it in any longer, laughter slipped out of him.

“So, Sophia—would you take your clothes off for me?”
“…What?”
“Ahh, you can rest easy. There’s a strong barrier around this room. No one can enter. …Though you managed to break through it—but only because Will Role-kun, someone you knew well, was here as a reference point. Unless someone is already aware of Will Role-kun’s presence, they cannot teleport directly into this room.”

Regen Blum released the embrace and stood close in front of Sophia.

“If Sophia would offer her virginity to me a little ahead of schedule, I’ll forgive every act of impudence Will Role-kun brought here. I’ll treat him too, of course.”
“…Then if I do that, swear to me you’ll never lay a hand on Will-kun again.”
“I give you my word.”

Regen Blum’s mouth curled upward.
Sophia watched it, and looked down slightly.

Sophia reached unhurriedly for her own clothes and began removing her outer layer first.

“…Sophia-neesan, you can’t.”

The moment I said it, my brain burned like fire.

“Quiet.”

“You can’t! Sophia!!”

Again—as if being seared through, as if a knife had been driven directly into it—my mind screamed with pain.

“…—. …I’m sorry, Will-kun. But it’s okay now. Just knowing you cared that much about Onee-chan is enough for me.”
“That’s exactly the problem!!”
“Huh? Will…kun?”

Sophia stared at me, startled.

“Will Role. Close your mouth.”

My brain felt like it was exploding.
Hot, hot, hurts hurts hurts hurts.
Gritting my teeth through the sensation of my mind being ground to mush, I bit back the pain and spoke.

“Why is it that Sophia always, always, completely ignores my feelings and dotes on me however she wants—but only right now, at a moment like this, she gets all weak?! Sophia—don’t you say you love me?!”
“…I love you, that’s why—”
“That’s what I’m saying is wrong!! If you really love me! If Sophia sacrifices herself for me—lets this smug degenerate piece of garbage do whatever he wants to her, hands her entire life over to him—and then I’m left behind watching all of that happen, have you even thought about what that would do to me?!”

I screamed with everything I had.
A raw, stinging pain at the back of my throat, my brain boiling.

Through all of it, Sophia looked at me as if something had just struck her.

“…Tch! Say one more word and I promise you won’t recover from it.”
“Will-kun!!”

A sudden gust of wind slammed into me and drove me into the wall.

“Gah—hk, ah…!”

“Sophia. Don’t you move either.”
“—!”
“If that’s how it’s going to be…!!”

Through the edge of my vision, I caught it—Sophia being pushed down by Regen Blum.

“No…!”
“Then I’ll just force myself on you. Right in front of that peasant over there. Don’t worry—Sophia will be mine regardless. It’s only a question of whether it’s now or later. Hahahaha! Ahh, ahh, you’re beautiful even when you’re struggling, Sophia.”
“…Stop…”

Sophia was pinned beneath Regen Blum.

“Ahh, Sophia—let’s see me break you by any means necessary, shall we. That’s a pleasure in itself.”

Regen Blum reached for Sophia’s clothes.
The sound of fabric being torn reached my ears.

“And fortunately, Will Role-kun was kind enough to bring the video crystal here with him! Let’s make sure our first time together is properly preserved…!”

Regen Blum’s laughter rang out.

“Will-kun… Will-kun, Will-kun, Will-kun, Will-kun—please, please, I don’t know, I don’t know what to do, Will-kun, what do I do…”

What do I do.

Through my hazy, fading consciousness—from the depths of a deep, deep darkness—I heard Sophia’s voice.

In that darkness, I found I was surprisingly, impossibly calm.

What do I do.

That was the question.
What was Sophia supposed to do?

Come to think of it—because of the words I’d fired off on impulse, Sophia’s options had gone to zero.

She didn’t want to abandon me.
But to do that, she had to abandon herself.
And yet if she didn’t want to make me suffer, she’d been told not to abandon herself.

It was, in a word, cruel.

What a terrible position I’d forced Sophia into.

But—that impulse had made those words genuine. That was my real feeling.

I didn’t want Sophia to get hurt.
What she felt toward me on that same point—that didn’t change anything.

In a game like that, the one who says it first wins.
But if I’d already said it, if I’d already backed Sophia into a corner—then I had a responsibility to see it through.

So. Think.

What do I do.
Sophia didn’t need to do anything.

I would do something.
So what did I need to do?

Think.

The obstacle at this exact moment was that Regen Blum had taken hold of my brain.

So I just needed to do something about that.

Think.

Regen Blum had said something. Let me think.

He said that because I apparently hadn’t worked with mana much, he was able to take hold of my brain easily.

…True enough—I hadn’t used magic since that day.
But put the other way, up until that day, I had been properly channeling mana to use magic.

Once I thought about it that way, I could feel it clearly—something foreign nestled inside my own mind.

Regen Blum’s mana had slipped into my brain and was doing as it pleased.

Right now, Regen Blum’s attention wasn’t on me. It was on Sophia.

Strangely, I didn’t feel like I’d fail.

I turned my consciousness toward Regen Blum’s mana, settled deep inside my own mind—and drove it out in a single motion.

In that instant, I felt control return to my body.

——I can do this.

I slowly pushed myself upright, extended my awareness into the mana drifting through the air, and gathered it to the sole of my right foot.

Drawing on an old, half-buried memory, I shaped a wind spell—and detonated it.
At the same moment, I drove my right foot into the floor with full force.

I launched off the ground like a spring, cutting through the air, and in one stride brought Regen Blum—still pinning Sophia—into range.

And with every ounce of momentum loaded into my fist—

I drove my knuckles straight across Regen Blum’s face.

◯

“Will-kun… Will-kun, Will-kun, Will-kun, Will-kun, Will-kun—…”

Sophia buried her face in my chest, crying her eyes out and calling my name over and over again.

I could feel my already-ruined clothes gradually growing damp with her tears as I let out a long, slow breath.

Both of Sophia’s arms were wrapped around my back, and there was a strength to them that made me think she might never let go.

I glanced to the side. Regen Blum was completely flat out.
Unconscious.

Once I confirmed that, I reached up, grabbed the video crystal that had been floating overhead—calmly observing everything from start to finish—and tucked it into my pocket.

Phew… It was over.
This should be enough to sort things out.

In the end it had somehow worked out, but the fact remained that I’d put Sophia through a terrible ordeal.

“Sorry, Sophia-neesan…”
“No, that’s not—I’m sorry, Will-kun, I’m sorry too, I’m sorry, Will-kun, Will-kun, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Well, maybe that part was mutual.

“Sophia-neesan, can I say something?”
“…What is it, Will-kun.”

She lifted her face from my chest and looked at me with eyes that had gone completely red.

“Let’s close the book on all of this. I think both of us have been through a lot—but dwelling on it isn’t going to do either of us any good.”
“Huh, but… but—”
“So.”
“…—?”

“From now on, you and I are going to be together forever. That’s all we need, isn’t it?”

Sophia stared at me in blank silence, her tear-swollen red eyes going wide.
Then, from those red eyes, more tears spilled over, one after another.

I was about to panic for a moment—but when Sophia suddenly smiled through it all, I found myself even more flustered.

Sophia—

“…Yes! I’m going to be with Will-kun, forever and ever and ever…!”

She threw her arms around me with everything she had as she said it, and I couldn’t quite see her face clearly—but I was certain she was wearing the most radiant smile of her life.