The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason

Save Point: Chapter 3

So steeped in a stagnant time had she been.

That the beginning of the first regression went unnoticed, even by herself.

To immediately register a cloud stopping its languid drift? An impossible thing, that.

But the unawareness lasted mere seconds.

Soon, she could feel something stirring, something amiss.

[Searching for a Save Point!]

[Opening Player Log!]

Because the world itself was crumbling, reassembling anew.

Her half-year vanished in an instant, receding as if it were a lie, a phantom.

The three weeks, so impossibly long, vanished in what could only be described as an instant.

‘…W-What is this?’

Naturally, Adele was bewildered.

For one who had lived a life of static years, the scene unfolding before her was far too great a shift.

But, regardless, she was able to grasp the situation as she watched the spectacle play out.

As with others’ experiences, the vision before her was utterly intuitive.

Time was turning back. For reasons unknown, all the tragedies that had transpired were now disappearing.

The Hero’s head, severed by Evan’s blade, was reattaching itself.

Beyond that, they were reverting even before the battle with Evan had begun.

Even the moment Adele had pierced the Hero’s body was swiftly fading away.

By this point, even Adele could discern what was happening. After all, she was a thief of exceptional observation.

‘…Time…’

It was rewinding, centered on the Hero.

Every scene, always, was illuminated by Luke.

Thanks to this, she could now witness aspects of the Hero she had never seen before.

Moreover, she could see the very moment when Yulis and Lily’s attitudes had abruptly changed.

Lily’s change in demeanor occurred when they had stopped the monster wave in Cloud Village.

Lily, who had gotten into a heated argument with Luke at that time, went straight to the Hero afterward, weeping and apologizing.

Yulis’s shift in attitude had happened far earlier.

Even before they had captured the Tyrant King, her demeanor had already transformed.

In the earliest dawn of their journey, she who was taking a brief slumber, had abruptly sought the Hero.

From then on, Ulis had subtly aided the Hero.

Naturally, in returning this far, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t witnessed other scenes.

She was able to see the Hero’s countless battles.

During the Crimson King subjugation, she saw the Hero alone, stepping forth to halt the Gluttonous Maw when all others had fallen unconscious.

That figure was undeniably awe-inspiring, akin to beholding a scene from myth.

『I offer twenty years of my life.』

And she could also see the price he paid to capture that mythic moment.

Beyond that, the scene of the Hero triumphing over Olek.

During the Puppeteer extermination, the scene of him fighting alone when all others were brainwashed, and so on.

Countless scenes she had not witnessed passed by.

Each one was astonishing, magnificent…

And each one was utterly harrowing. The Hero was, quite literally, grinding away his very flesh and blood as he fought.

Seeing that, Adel’s brow naturally furrowed.

“Just… what.”

The path he walked seemed so utterly wretched.

And the things she had done, oblivious to it all, seemed so incredibly foolish.

“…What in blazes was I doing.”

With each passing scene, it felt as though her heart was being pricked with pins.

Perhaps because she had lived in quietude for the past six months, each passing scene resonated with overwhelming intensity.

The hero she had doubted with every waking breath was, behind that gaze, living more diligently than anyone.

Of course, questions still lingered, their answers obscured.

Regrettably, the scenes granted by the regression were primarily grand battles, momentous events.

The conversations Luke had with his party regarding the ‘regression’ itself were mostly skipped through at blinding speed.

Therefore, it was perhaps only natural that such questions plagued her.

She understood the hero had fought tooth and nail.

The shift in Yullys and Lily’s attitudes, too, could be roughly inferred.

They must have witnessed this unreal spectacle, just as she had.

Otherwise, their sudden change in demeanor would be utterly inexplicable.

But then, why had she loathed him so intensely?

Why was his soul so stained? Why did every manner of suspicion blossom when she looked upon him?

No matter how much she pondered, her mind could not grasp the answer.

But that was only for a moment. Soon, she would know the truth.

Just as Yullys and Lily had, she, too, accessed the very beginning.

A mountain of piled refuse, a floor scattered with shattered bottles.

And seated at its center, a pathetic figure.

The hero in his earliest form. The hero from a time when he possessed nothing.

For a time, the b*stard recounted the party’s last moments, before beginning to negotiate.

『I offer up bonds of fate.』

After that, she knew the whole truth.

A myriad of lights filled the darkening canvas of the night sky.

Each time those lights pierced the hero’s form, his soul grew more tarnished. He, who had been so certain he was a villain, sacrificed everything for them.

And for the world.

“…Ah.”

Adel, witnessing it all, remained speechless for a long moment.

Unlike the unnerving stillness of the past six months, the shift had been too drastic.

A reason why she hadn’t reacted sooner.

A larger reason, perhaps, was the lump forming in her throat.

And so, she watched the spectacle unfold for a while.

[Data Expansion Complete!]

[Branch Point Identified.]

[Designating Save Point.]

Before she knew it, she had regressed.

*

Blink.

She opened her eyes briefly, then closed them again.

As if her soul had taken a short journey, a dizzying giddiness greeted her.

But it was fleeting, and soon her vision cleared, allowing her to confirm her location.

The place she had fallen was the very center of the village street.

Seeing Adel suddenly still, the residents of myriad races regarded her with puzzled expressions.

To her, who had lived ninefold the time, even the inhabitants’ leisurely movements seemed impossibly swift.

Yet, conversely, her mind was rapidly sorting through the situation.

The question of ‘Have I returned to the past?’ didn’t even surface. Of course, she was back in the past.

That it was possible, Yulis and Lily, who had returned before her, had already proven.

The problem was *when* she had returned to.

“Please… I beg you…”

Coming to her senses, Adele frantically checked her artifacts.

Especially the dagger-shaped artifact.

The curse dagger she had used was single-use, so if used, the remnants would surely remain.

Adele earnestly wished she had returned to before she made her mistake.

But the result…

“…Ah.”

The curse characters, densely packed onto the dagger, were already gone.

Meaning Adele had returned to a point after she had already launched her attack.

Fragmented, the hero’s memories surfaced – him groaning all night after being attacked by her.

At that time, the hero’s face was utterly rotten.

The betrayal of his own comrade attacking him, the anxiety about the future, and the agony of the curse descending… countless things must have tormented him.

That desolate night had not vanished.

Thanks to that, Adele’s expression darkened in real-time.

“Ah, no…”

She had to go and apologize right away. And so, in a flurry, she’d rushed to Luke, offering her profuse regrets.

“…And that’s how it came to be.”

How she arrived at this present state.

*

“…Haaah.”

After hearing her entire tale, I let out a soft sigh.

As ever, the stories of my returning comrades were steeped in darkness.

Six months in the Room of Spirit and Time. Lucky she’s an elf, but still, a trying experience indeed.

‘Good thing that Four Heavenly King fellow is of a mild temperament.’

Truth be told, if he intended to inflict pain, his ability would become something more terrifying than anything else.

With acceleration applied to the mind, even just a few needles pricked into the skin could deliver a taste of hell.

In any case, with her added to the count, there are now three who have regressed.

Now, the time has come to dissect that b*stard’s strike, the one that’s been a persistent question.

That utter cheat of a technique that instantly killed me.

Thankfully, after hearing her story, I knew exactly how he did it.

As mentioned before, his power was to stretch the time of ‘anything’ he targeted.

He froze the very flow of time around him, save for himself.

Who knew a power seen only in… certain videos… could be realized in reality?

I don’t know how much strength he poured into it, but if not that, there was no other way.

The thought came to me while listening to her account.

‘Ninefold in three weeks…’

To have consistently bet on that meant, in essence, he’d become capable of it.

I don’t even recall betting that high in the game itself.

The difficulty had truly risen, meaning, just as I suspected, his abilities had grown stronger.

In any case, this confirmed whether he’d taken my head in one fell swoop.

‘But how to defend against it…?’

The problem was, I couldn’t think of a single way to do so.

There was no way to discern the tell before he stopped time, and even if I knew, I couldn’t defend against it.

Just thinking about a countermeasure already made my head throb.

And then, it happened.

“Khukh! Cough! Cough…!”

Suddenly, a rough cough burst forth, and blood seeped from my mouth.

The influence of the curse she’d planted.

It seemed the Rot Curse had temporarily damaged my organs.

They’d regenerate soon enough, but the feeling was far from pleasant.

The party members, witnessing this, spoke up, one by one.

“Lu-Luke!”

“Hero! Are you alright?!”

I turned my head a little more, looking at Adelle.

“I’m sorry… I’m truly sorry…”

She bowed her head deeply, as if on the verge of tears.

“Ahem! Ahem!”

I coughed, a rather theatrical affair, thinking to myself.

Ah, I’m going mad, truly.