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Chapter 352: The Demon King\'s Denial

- Ruffle...

Then, memories that had filled the corridor slowly began to replay.

All of them were Frey\'s memories from a first-person perspective.

So there was no room for manipulation.

- Crack...!

"Uh."

Despite being on the verge of tears, Ruby kept scrutinizing the scene that was playing in front of her. Soon, her eyes widened when she saw a familiar scene.

“So, I was taking a walk on this path yesterday…”

In Frey\'s memories, she was having a walk after having stabbed a knife into his heart and whispered softly to him.

- Drip, drip...

A large amount of blood flowed from Frey\'s body.

Ruby watched the flowing blood with fascination, then slowly stroked his cheek.

“Are you feeling cold? Then, let me offer you my body.”

She hugged Frey, who was shivering to the point where his face had turned pale.

"If it weren\'t for you, I would have died of boredom long ago."

"You will always be my plaything, Frey."

"What? You love me?"

"I love you too. Forever."

The memories continued to disperse along with Ruby\'s words.

Although the memories were nonexistent in Ruby’s mind, it was a scene that felt too familiar.

Because it was the torture that Frey had inflicted on herself in the ship\'s cabin just a few days ago.

"So, everything here...?"

When Ruby muttered and looked around, familiar scenes played out.

- You, why aren\'t you screaming?

- Even after displaying such a painful expression, why do you still choose to remain as my subordinate? You gain nothing from it.

- You remain loyal to me even after enduring such torture. It\'s fascinating.

The torture Frey had subjected her to in the past few days mirrored what she had done in those memories. In that memory, with her face concealed by magic, she had inflicted the same torment on him.

The corridor was filled with Ruby, smiling and inflicting torture towards him.

Of course, occasionally, when Frey seemed to be in too much pain, she would flinch, her face turning red, or she would just stare blankly at him.

And sometimes, Ruby would invite him to dinner and engage in trivial chatter.

Judging from the way she kept praising the potato soup and talking about rye bread to Frey, it seemed like she quite liked him.

- You also launched a secret mission in the battle against the Imperial Army. How commendable.

- You want to handle Clana yourself? Hmmm... What should we do?

- I wonder how can a human be so wicked towards their own kind? Frey.

As Ruby, with a dumbfounded expression, continued to walk, a loyal-looking Frey appeared.

He was the Demon King’s most loyal soldier and secret weapon, but he went about secretly plotting and doing underhanded things on the battlefield as if the goodness he had shown so far was a lie.

Even the five girls, including Ferloche, had crumbled under Frey.

"Frey... was my loyal subordinate? How the hell?"

Thanks to this, Ruby started to feel disoriented.

Why had he, who seemed so kind, become her subordinate?

"As of today, I am known as Frey, a member of the Demon King\'s army."

"Hmm."

"Please take care of me, Demon King."

Ruby, who took a step into the corridor in search of the reason, found herself increasingly perplexed as she reached the very first memory related to her.

- Chu...

"I’m not sure what’s happening but... I liked it, boy."

It was because one day, Frey arrived at the Demon King\'s army with a devil named Eucarius, whom she couldn\'t remember as her subordinate. He pledged his loyalty by kissing her feet.

In the previous cycle, that was their first meeting.

Frey had blindly pledged loyalty to her from the beginning.

"What is this... hmm?"

Thanks to this, Ruby, who was showing a confused expression, soon narrowed her eyes.

It was because she could feel a faint aura from the end of the corridor.

She wasn\'t certain, but walking further might lead her to the true starting point of her connection with Frey.

- Crackle...

"Huh?"

However, another problem arose.

"Wh-what the hell is this?"

She couldn\'t move forward anymore.

"...It\'s the end, huh?"

Before she knew it, Ruby had reached the very beginning of Frey\'s memories.

Naturally, there were no memories before that.

"Th-this is strange."

However, for some reason, she could feel numerous memories at the end of the corridor.

Moreover, perhaps it was just her feeling, but the wall seemed slightly weakened.

- Rumble!!

Ruby looked around and quietly reached out to the wall, but when the hallway shook in an incomparably louder way than before, she gritted her teeth and started to run forward.

She managed to find out that he was a regressor, but there was still much she didn\'t understand.

Before the palace collapsed, she wanted to find out the truth.

Having escaped the corridor, Ruby started looking around while catching her breath.

"...No."

However, soon, despair painted her expression.

"All the memories are disappearing."

The memories embedded in Frey\'s soul had already faded away significantly.

Of course, since these were unconsciously embedded memories in the soul, they wouldn\'t directly impact the actual memories. However, the problem lay in the fact that the soul itself was fading away.

"L-Let\'s go to the recent memories."

But now, she couldn\'t simply give up after coming this far.

Because if she could just go a little further, she felt she could get closer to the whole truth.

- Shaaa...

- Step, step...

With a firm determination, Ruby quickly rushed past the fading memories and started heading towards the memory at the top.

"...Okay."

Then, she suddenly stopped and fixed her gaze.

"If it\'s the memory of that day, I can be sure of everything."

It was the starting point, a memory from just a few days ago when Frey \'reset his point\' that Ruby encountered when she first arrived at this place.

"...Let’s change perspective, let’s change perspective, let’s change perspective."

"Hmm."

The replayed memory showed Frey in the bathroom of the Imperial Palace, mumbling and staring at the mirror like a mad person.

"As expected, he has gone crazy from that time..."

"Great, it has changed again."

"...?"

She observed him with a slightly terrified expression. But when Frey spoke with a foolishly bright expression, she furrowed her eyebrows.

[Special Ability - Skill Shop]

The shop, seen from Frey\'s perspective, entered her eyes.

"What is this...?"

Ruby swallowed dryly as she gazed at the system windows, but soon, she widened her eyes in shock.

It was because the skill at the top of the list was not \'Absolute Love.\'

[Mind Control: Allows you to freely manipulate your thoughts and mind.]

- Purchase complete.

- \'Points\' will be reset.

At the top of Frey\'s skill window was the \'Mind Control\' skill.

"What in the world is happening... Ughh!"

Having opened the help guide for the administrator function with a cold expression, Ruby posed a question upon witnessing the unfolding situation before her and then suddenly sank into the ground.

A significant amount of her power was being sucked away somewhere.

Ruby almost got bounced out of this space, but with only her determination to verify the truth, she persevered.

- The skills at the top of the special abilities list that the Demon King and the Hero could purchase were different.

It was the words that appeared in front of her.

- The ability you, as the Demon King, most desire is to love unconditionally.

- Therefore, the ability to grant you absolute love is set as the strongest skill.

- Conversely, the ability that the Hero, Frey, most desires is the power to control his thoughts freely.

- Because if he can control his mind freely, everything will become easier for him.

- Therefore, while other \'heroines\' can try to use the skill themselves, Frey can only use the top skill by purchasing it.

"What is this?"

Ruby slowly read the words that appeared before her before mumbling with a hardened expression.

"In the end, nothing has changed, hasn’t it?"

Sure, it was surprising that Frey\'s top skill was different.

However, in the end, maybe that was exactly it.

With \'Mind Control,\' it was enough to help him continue harboring feelings of love for her.

In the end, the truth remained unresolved...

"...Wait a moment."

Gritting her teeth, Ruby soon mumbled with an expression as if she had reached a realization.

"Come to think of it, \'Mind Control\' is the cheapest skill in my special abilities..."

In her special abilities, \'Mind Control\' was the least expensive skill.

It was because she evaluated it as an utterly unnecessary, miscellaneous skill.

"Then... is it the same for Frey?"

Ruby\'s guess turned out to be correct.

Among Frey\'s special abilities, the cheapest one was none other than the \'Absolute Love\' skill.

Perhaps it was because Frey considered himself someone who didn\'t need to be loved.

"This changes everything..."

Confirming this, Ruby started mumbling with a serious expression.

"If he wanted to love me, he should have just bought the \'Absolute Love\' skill."

It was simple logic.

If all of this were Frey\'s plan to trap her, then purchasing the \'Absolute Love\' skill, the cheapest one for him, instead of \'Mind Control,\' which would blow away all the points he had collected so far, would have been the right choice.

However, even as his points got reset, Frey still chose \'Mind Control\' over \'Absolute Love.\'

Why in the world? Why did he do this?

Why did he choose to control his own mind while taking enormous risks?

"...Huh?"

Ruby fixed her gaze on Frey\'s memories with a serious expression and soon widened her eyes.

- Srrk, sk...

It seems like the plan was successful.

Before entering the waiting room where she and the Hero Party waited in the Imperial Palace, Frey was solemnly scribbling something in a notebook with a serious expression.

I mean, the plan to purchase \'Mind Control\' to forcibly maintain the current situation.

Just in case I might forget, I should write it down in the notebook I always use.]

As Frey wrote more sentences, Ruby\'s expression stiffened.

It\'s already been a few days since my memories came back.

In front of her, she saw Frey continue to write in the notebook, and while doing so, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

.

.

.

.

.

When was that? Yeah, it was probably during the final moment of the \'Erosion Incident.\'

The critical moment when the Demon King and the Demon God joined forces to forcibly corrupt me, and the Sun God forcefully intervened to prevent it.

Somehow, at that moment, memories that I had forgotten surfaced.

Wearing an unexpectedly gentle smile, Frey continued to write the story in the notebook.

The person I loved more than anyone else.

The reason for the almost infinite cycle of constant regression.

And the memories of Ruby, my most precious person that I must save at all costs.

Pausing for a moment, Frey put down the pen and sighed.

Perhaps I have reached the limits of regression and that led to memory issues.

The Hero’s privilege — \'Retry.\'

It was my ability that no authority could interfere with, not even the gods.

The cost of using it was something I could never ignore.

His hand trembled as he brought the pen back to the notebook.

Did the memories from the previous cycles briefly come back as a side effect of them trying to corrupt me forcibly in that unstable state?

Well, who knows?

What was important was that I found my memories of Ruby.

The rest were just trivial matters.

Anyway, with Mind Control, I won\'t forget these memories, right? Let\'s forcibly maintain this condition for a while.

- Hush...

Then, the scene shifted.

I tried everything I could, but she didn\'t come back to normal.

She still loved me, but she could never be purified.

As a result of constantly turning back time, it seems my final moment has arrived.

This may be my last regression.

Time is running out.

If I continue like this, my soul will be shattered within a few days.

I need to purify Ruby before that happens.

My bet with the mastermind was to restore her to her original self.

There is no other way to save the both of us.

The scene shifted to late at night, Frey was standing on the deck of a passenger ship. He looked up at the night sky and continued to write in the notebook.

Now, I could not even remember my memories of the past cycles, but the memories of the first cycle still linger.

She was my childhood friend. We always shared rye bread together and had a secret romance that everyone in the academy knew about.

Then, that unforgettable night filled with twists and turns came.

If it weren\'t for that damned mastermind, we would have lived happily.

Having written that far, Frey quietly dropped his head, closed the notebook, and the scene changed once again.

This time, I’m trying a different method I\'ve never tried before, one that I\'ve been avoiding until now.

Having done everything in the previous cycles, I decided to try the opposite this time, and there\'s hope.

Perhaps we\'ll return to the happy times we once had.

You, who lost your memory and became the Demon King, and I, who became the Hero who had to defeat you.

Will those cruel chains finally break at the very end?

Sitting in the lobby of the inn with a tired expression, Frey exerted strength on the last page of the notebook and jotted down something.

Regardless, I will definitely save her.

I will purify her and make her live happily without fail.

I love you, Ruby.

Forever.

As the writing concluded, Frey turned his gaze.

There, Ruby herself was present, wearing a cold expression.

It was herself from just a few minutes ago.

- Shaaa...

The last memory scattered in all directions and disappeared.

Suddenly, the wave of the crumbling palace had reached the place where Ruby was kneeling.

- Crackle...

Scenes of Frey desperately trying to purify her, scenes of herself refusing the ‘Purification Quest’ that followed.

After that, the scenes of Frey enduring beating after beating from herself began to be erased one by one.

- Crackle, crackle…

The scene of Frey, who, despite taking a beating, tried desperately to communicate with her, but eventually closed his eyes with a sorrowful expression as his soul which had reached its limit, finally dissipated.

And finally, at the end, with the last of his dying breath, Frey whispered eternal love while caressing her cheek, was also erased.

"..."

Now, all that remained around Ruby was complete darkness.

Frey was nowhere to be found.

Only she existed in a completely empty space.

"I-I didn\'t know…”

In that never-ending darkness, Ruby knelt, unsure of what to do. Her whole body trembled uncontrollably, and her face was marred with indescribable confusion.

"I didn\'t know, I..."

The bitter truth she had discovered was too cruel for her.

"Wh-wh-what am I supposed to do from now on..."

As she tried to gather the fragments of memories that were scattered in front of her, Ruby began to mumble, her eyes reflected her inner turmoil.

However, it was already too late.

She had already let go of something more precious to her than anything else, with her own very hands.

As it was, she was afraid to even go outside this space.

If she went out like this and saw Frey’s cold, unmoving body, she felt like her entire existence would be completely destroyed.

"..."

Thus, in the complete darkness, Ruby kneeled in her lonesome. Her face pale as her whole body trembled, unable to do anything.

"N-no."

However, she forced a smile and began to mutter.

"T-The Demon God said Frey is not a regressor. There must be something wrong here. That’s right, this must be an illusion."

A faint hope began to appear in Ruby\'s eyes.

"I have to go to the Demon God."

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.

.

.

Meanwhile, in the imaginary world.

"Hmm, great. It\'s really delicious."

For some reason, the Demon God, who had completely freshened up compared to a few hours ago, was sitting in an elegant black chair, smiling.

"This is it."

Behind her, feathers from Gugu were still stuck in her back.

Unchanged.