「—Shin, something terrible has happened!」
“What’s wrong?”
On the morning of the day the academy reopened, just before the homeroom session, Arthur spoke with a troubled expression.
“—The number of students in Class F hasn’t changed.”
“…What? It should have decreased since Kai isn’t here, right?”
“That’s what I thought too, but… the fact is, the number of students in Class F hasn’t changed.”
Arthur continued.
“Nobody remembers Kai. Except for you, me, and Lady Hera, everyone else says a dark god suddenly appeared.”
“That can’t be…”
According to Arthur, after we disappeared, a mysterious figure with their face hidden under a hood appeared and cast some kind of magic that spread dust all over the country. Arthur had a bad feeling the moment he noticed this mysterious person, so he used the power of a spirit to protect himself and managed to avoid the magic.
As for me and Hera, we were abroad, so we were unaffected.
At first, Arthur didn’t understand what had been done to him, but when he hung out with his classmates during the break, no one knew about Kai. That’s when he had his family investigate.
Could it be… one of those common “corrective forces” in a reincarnated game world scenario? And was that mysterious person some kind of agent for it?
“By the way, who’s there instead of Kai?”
“My family found out that his name is Louis. I don’t know what he looks like, but apparently, that boy is in the academy in place of Kai.”
Louis, huh… Who could he be? I don’t recall any character like that.
“But there’s no point in thinking about it without knowing what he looks like. For now, let’s check out Class F later.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
After exchanging serious looks, we turned our gaze to our teacher, Ms. Emma, who had just entered the classroom.
At lunchtime, I immediately headed to Class F with Arthur. Unusually, there were quite a few people gathered in Class F, and it was a bit noisy.
“Ah, I see him—!”
Arthur spotted the transfer student, but… his eyes immediately widened in surprise, and then, for some reason, his expression shifted to one of understanding.
Feeling puzzled by Arthur’s reaction, I followed his gaze, and like him, I opened my eyes wide in shock.
The transfer student looked exactly like Kai.
The only difference was that one of his eyes was purple, but other than that, he looked almost identical, even his height.
What’s even more surprising is that despite it being his first day, he was already chatting comfortably with the heroine Aria, Cynthia, and even Seira, who speaks in a boyish manner.
“Arthur, who is that guy? Louis, right? Why does he look exactly like Kai?”
“…I didn’t mention this before because I wasn’t certain, but—according to what I found out, Louis has been here since the start of the school year. Apparently, he came to the academy to search for his twin brother, Kai, who’s gone missing. Louis was abandoned as a child.”
“…Was that setting always there…? And there’s no way he’s been here since the start. Kai was here, after all.”
“But that’s how things are now. And, thanks to defeating the academy intruder, he’s become one of the Ten Greats, just like Lady Hera. He holds the ninth seat.”
So that’s why so many people have gathered here? I have no idea what’s going on anymore. What the heck is happening?
The protagonist never had a twin brother. Even the fanbook didn’t mention anything like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure the protagonist was an only child… Could this be the work of that mysterious figure?
Ah, my head’s spinning… I want to be comforted by Hera’s presence…
As I held my head in frustration, Arthur prefaced his next words with, “This is just my guess, but…”
“I think it’s the work of the person who erased everyone’s memories.”
“…Huh? …Ah… I see, so that’s what’s going on.”
Arthur’s words unraveled the tangled mysteries in my head, connecting them into a single thread.
Here’s my guess:
The protagonist was erased by me.
That’s when that mysterious figure, who’s likely another reincarnator operating behind the scenes in this world, created two new settings using one of this world’s unique artifacts.
The name of that artifact is—the Forbidden Tome, Akashic Records.
It’s a divine artifact you obtain after completing the game, allowing you to replay your favorite parts of the story or rewatch cutscenes.
However, the description of this artifact says, “A forbidden book that records everything in the world. Those who possess it gain the power to interfere with the world.”
In other words, a reincarnator familiar with this forbidden tome is likely trying to force the story to follow the original plot.
To make Louis the protagonist, they needed a strong connection to Kai.
So they made Kai his twin brother and altered everyone’s memories to fit the narrative of him going missing. In doing so, they also retconned Louis into having been enrolled from the start.
Since they’re blood-related, it wouldn’t be strange for Louis to have similar powers, making him a suitable replacement for Kai.
And because I made sure to defeat the intruder without revealing my true identity, it probably made the rewriting process easier.
“Ugh… so this time, the reincarnator is a die-hard fan of the original story… they’re basically my natural enemy.”
After all, I’m trying to change the story to save Hera, so to an originalist, I’d be their biggest obstacle.
But you know what, originalist—
“I won’t let you have your way.”
I’m going to destroy all of your plans.
For Hera’s sake—
