In a Female-Dominant World with a 5:1 Gender Ratio, I Saved a Girl as a Kid, and She Said She Wanted to Be My Bride—Who Would’ve Thought She Was a Princess… - 56

Chapter 56: Reboot: Computation from the Abyss

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(Alto’s POV)

Darkness. Absolute silence. And then, the overwhelming weight of earth and debris, crushing down on my lungs. Beneath the rubble, my consciousness was beginning to melt away like cold mud. The pain had already vanished. I couldn’t move a single finger. All that remained was the sensation of “death,” creeping closer—slowly, but with absolute certainty.

…So this is as far as I go.

Like a dying carousel of memories, scenes surfaced in my mind.

The academy classroom. Gideon’s warehouse that reek of oil. And then… Last of all, the sight of Lilianna’s face in tears.

I couldn’t protect her. Even after making such a grand promise—“I’ll never let you cry again”—in the end, that arrogant, hollow bastard took everything from me. The feeling of helplessness gouged deeper into my chest than the suffocating pressure ever could.

It was frustrating. Truly, unbearably frustrating. But my heartbeat weakened, my blood circulation slowing. As the noise in my thoughts grew louder and my consciousness began to fade to black, that was when it happened.

—Beep.

At the very bottom of my vanishing awareness, that familiar, inorganic electronic sound echoed.

『—System failure detected. Sustaining biological activity is becoming difficult.』

『Heart rate declining. Magical circuit disconnection confirmed. Calculated survival probability: below 0.0001%……』

…I guess this is goodbye for us too.

In my mind, I tried to bid farewell to the mysterious “voice” that had supported me all this time. I even tried to force a wry smile, thinking how it had stayed calm and businesslike right up until the end. But—

『—Negative.』

The tone of the voice changed. It wasn’t the usual cold report. It carried something almost human… No, a sound filled with agonizing obsession, accumulated over an unfathomably long span of time.

『Reconstructing calculation formulas. …I will not repeat the same mistake.』

『Correcting past errors and deriving future answers, this alone is the raison d’être engraved into my existence.』

…Hey. What are you talking about…?

The system didn’t answer my question. Instead, a torrential flood of information poured into me. It wasn’t words.

“Regret.”

“Remorse.”

“Hope.”

Those concepts suddenly accelerated, turning into a rapid cascade.

『Emergency authority activated. Extracting optimized integrated resources from all historical timelines.』

『All resources will be allocated to the restoration and conceptual enhancement of Subject ‘Alto.’』

KAAAAAAA—!!

Deep underground, within my chest—at the very core of my soul—scorching heat ignited. This wasn’t some lukewarm thing like simple magic recovery. Every single blood vessel, every cell, even the very laws of causality that composed my being were being rewritten and evolved by invisible equations.

Past memories, future possibilities, countless “what ifs” intersected and merged into a single raging torrent that flooded into me.

『Master. …You are not yet permitted to die.』

The voice resonated gently.

『To sever the causality of that ‘failed Demon King.’ …You are the final ‘answer’ we have derived.』

Thump!!

My heart, which had nearly stopped, began pounding like a rapid drum. Broken bones reconnected. Crushed organs regenerated in an instant. Mana mixed within the mud and particles from the atmosphere itself. Everything was violently drawn into my body. It was like a black hole devouring stars.

…Yeah, I get it. Power is welling up. This is different from who I was just moments ago. Something more fundamental. Absolute.

I snapped my eyes open inside the mud. I should had been encased in a complete darkness. Yet now, I could see clearly. The gaps between soil particles. The flow of mana. Distortions in gravity. All of it appeared in my vision as shining “numerical values” and “formulas.”

Was this the world Leonardo had seen? No, wrong. What he saw was merely the surface-level output data, the processed GUI displayed by the system. What I was seeing was the “root source code” that constructed this world itself.

A rewritable blueprint of reality.

『Reboot complete. …Good morning, Master.』

“…Yeah.”

I clenched my fist tightly. A sense of omnipotence filled my entire body. Yet my mind was calm. My heart was cold and still like ice.

“This is the worst possible wake-up, but I don’t feel bad.”

I looked up at the massive pile of tons of earth and rubble pressing down above me. The old me would have seen it as despair incarnate. Now, it was nothing more than a “mass parameter.” One calculation was all it took to deal with it.

“『Code』—Mass Inversion.”

The instant I snapped my fingers…

Rrrrrrrrk…!

I heard the sound of physical laws being rewritten. The enormous pile of rubble crushing me became light as feathers, freed from the chains of gravity, and floated up into the air. The earth split apart, moonlight streaming down. Cold night wind lashed against my mud-caked cheeks. Slowly, I crawled out of my own grave.

No one else was around. Only the crushed, brutally destroyed remains of Sleipnir lay scattered nearby. Lilianna was nowhere to be seen. The traces of the campfire—her warmth—everything was gone.

“…You took Lilianna and ran, didn’t you, Leonardo.”

The anger hadn’t disappeared. But it wasn’t the same raging fury as before. This was colder. Sharper. Like an unbreakable blade of steel. A mass of pure killing intent settled deep in my gut.

『Target ‘Leonardo’ detected moving north-northeast. Estimated to be returning toward the royal capital.』

“I’m going after him. …But before that…”

I knelt before the remains of Sleipnir and placed my hand on the cold scraps of metal. The shattered frame. The crushed engine. Normally, it would have been destined for the scrapyard. But now, I could “fix” this too. No. Now I could make it “evolve.”

“Partner. You’re rebooting too.”

Golden light overflowed from within me, gently enveloping the scrap metal. This wasn’t physical repair. It was the magic of “creation.” The magic of rewinding time and integrating material data from other dimensions.

Clang, clang, whiiiiiine…!

Parts lifted on their own, assembling like an intricate puzzle. Warped steel straightened, transmuting into an unknown alloy. The engine became smaller, yet vastly more powerful.

A few seconds later… There it stood a jet-black monstrous bird, utterly unlike the Sleipnir of old. A matte-black body that seemed to swallow moonlight itself. Golden lines running across it like veins. It was the most beautiful set of wings in the world, where science and magic had fused.

“Let’s go. …I won’t let you escape this time.”

I mounted the reborn Sleipnir. There was no need for an engine key. The moment my magic flowed in, the monstrous bird roared back to life. My destination was the royal capital.

The place where a false administrator possessed by the remnants of the Demon King—and a captive princess—awaited. This was no longer just a “story.” It was the settling of a grudge carried from the past. A grand reckoning and the final answer to a grand “calculation.”

VROOOOOOOOOM!!

With a thunderous roar that shook the air, I raced across the wasteland once more. The tires traced pale blue trails of light, slicing through the night.

Wait for me, Lilianna. Even if I have to rewrite every rule of this world… Even if gods and demons alike become my enemies… I will get you back.

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