Screeeech— Something bit into my sleeve.

It was one of Odin’s night ravens.

Letting out an ominous caw, the raven asked mockingly.

「Have you given up?」

I grinned and answered.

“No.”

「There isn’t a single star left that can help you now.」

I knew that too.

Who among the constellations could possibly help us now that we’d become enemies of the entire universe.

“That’s probably true. If we’re talking about ‘stars’.”

A very old tale began to flow out from my entire body.

During the three days Yu Joonghyuk had bought me, the tales that had barely managed to recover had begun their final story.

[The fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ begins its story!]

Like stars flickering at their last moment, all the fables of the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ were awakening.

「“You were the one who said we couldn’t do it alone! You were the one who gathered us! You were the one who told us all of this!”」

I silently listened to the voice of that tale.

「The party heard that message. As they watched Kim Dokja’s fluttering hair. His long eyelashes and eyes, his cheeks glowing white, his mouth twisted sadly. As they realized anew that Kim Dokja had existed in this world with such a face.」

What sort of expression was I making right now. Like the Kim Dokja of that day, would someone remember how I looked now.

「I want to see the ending with you too.」

The startled night raven screamed, let go of my sleeve, and flew up.

He had noticed it. What I was trying to summon now.

“Come forth! ■■■■■■■■!”

There was a sound like the space-time of the universe being torn. Between the cracks that covered the sky, an immense suction force arose.

Constellations, Otherworldly Divinities, the hounds as well. Every being in the vicinity was vanishing into the rifts.

The cleaner that devoured the warped Plausibility of this <Star Stream>.

「The Plausibility is sufficient.」

The opponent was the worst calamity of this <Star Stream>.

「If this really is the tale you bastards want, I’ll show you as much as you like.」

Barely suppressing the tremors in my body, I looked up at it.

An indescribable vastness.

The nameless mist (The nameless mist).

Judging by its size, it seemed to be an avatar rather than the main body, but right now, even an avatar was more than enough.

[Run away! All of you―!]

In the face of the calamity that devoured Plausibility, the stars began to scatter in all directions. The mist of the ‘nameless vastness’, swelling in size in an instant, swallowed the surrounding universe whole.

Watching the mist creep toward me to # Nоvеlight # gnaw me to pieces, I recalled the main story of 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

In the main story, when the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ was about to be eaten by the ‘nameless vastness’, there had been an Otherworldly Divinity who saved him.

「The Secretive Plotter.」

It would be a lie to say I held no hope at all.

Maybe he would come again. Maybe, as in the main story, he would save me here too.

But I knew full well that it was a vain hope. So I tried calling out more likely epithets instead.

“Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal! Please help! I even offered you trumpet shell meat, remember!”

Anyone would do.

“Black Dragon of the Abyss! Don’t tell me you forgot I’ve got a low-grade dragon heart! You’re a fellow dragon, aren’t you going to help me?!”

If even a single star answered, that would be enough. Please, from within this goddamn pandemonium.

I wanted to live.

I screamed and screamed again until my throat tore.

Just as the surging mist was finally about to start eating away at my entire body, someone hoisted me up.

A hard back.

Limp on that back, I spoke.

“Why didn’t you go.”

At that, the owner of the back replied.

“Because there’s still something I need to get from you.”

The Yu Joonghyuk of the 41st round hadn’t gone back to Earth. He had refused Uriel’s offer and stayed here.

I could hear the heartbeat of the bastard running recklessly through [Return from the Dead].

Spending the rest of his life that remained, he began to run, limping.

“Is there no way left now.”

This bastard honestly believed that I’d have some sort of trick right to the very end.

With a bitter smile at the foolish regressor, I answered.

“There isn’t.”

“I see.”

“But it’s not over yet. You never know. Maybe we’ll end up going to the underworld.”

“I’ve never gone there after dying.”

If only I had a bit more time to write.

“Now that you’re not a regressor anymore, maybe this time you’ll go. Let’s start over there. We’ll spark a revolution in the underworld and steal the giant war machine ‘Pluto’. How about it?”

“There’s no way something like that―”

Yu Joonghyuk glared at me like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, then soon turned his eyes forward and muttered.

“It’d be nice if there were.”

No matter how much he ran, it was impossible for the current Yu Joonghyuk to escape the ‘nameless vastness’.

Even so, Yu Joonghyuk did not give up. Just as he had always done, he ran without giving up until the very end.

I felt sorry for him.

Did I still have any sentences left that could save this bastard. I didn’t know. Even so, I had to try everything I could.

[Exclusive skill, ‘□□’ activates!]

The scenery of the world slowed, and the final plea began.

But I had no idea what sentence I needed to write to save Yu Joonghyuk. No matter what kind of imagination I brought to bear, I couldn’t picture a future where we escaped.

I thought that maybe this really was the end of the 41st round. That our fate was to vanish without ever being properly read, without even remaining behind as a proper fable.

[Warning! Due to the collapse of the incarnation body, the use of this skill is not proceeding smoothly!]

[You have almost no margin left.]

To make matters worse, the number of characters allotted to me wasn’t even twenty.

A mere twenty characters.

How was I supposed to persuade the world with just those twenty characters. How was I supposed to make an unread story be read.

The moment I thought that far, a light went on in my head.

An unread story.

And I completed a single line.

「This is a story about unread despair.」

That was the entire sentence I could write.

A sentence that maybe couldn’t change anything.

To call an unread story an unread story.

Even so, I thought.

This would be enough. If it was the reader I knew— if it was you, who had loved this story more than anyone, I was certain you would read this sentence.

[Scene reproduction has succeeded.]

[You are exiting the ‘snowfield’.]

The mist of the ‘nameless vastness’ chased after us.

With the last of his strength, Yu Joonghyuk began to run.

[A new fable begins to sprout!]

With every one of his desperate steps, the sentences I hadn’t been able to write followed.

「Even if it is not read, it does not give up.」

Thinking of a single footprint left behind in the snowfield, I read that life.

「Just by not giving up, a story becomes a fable.」

Praying that this story would reach beyond the universe.

But the speed of the crashing mist was faster than I’d thought, and at last it caught up to us.

“Kim Dokja―”

In that moment, I felt my insides lurch.

Something was coming.

“Yu Joonghyuk!”

Instinctively, we curled up our bodies. Centered around us, a vast storm of light swept in.

The world reeled. Staggering, Yu Joonghyuk lost his hold on me.

Floating in the scenario’s zero gravity, we turned to look back. The mist that had been bearing down on us until just now was scattering in a blinding flash.

Through the majestically dissolving mist, the magnificent sight of a dying universe unfolded.

In the place the light had swept past, nothing remained.

No stars, no Otherworldly Divinities, nothing at all.

Before long, like a new blank margin, a single sentence appeared above the universe spread out before us.

「It looked like a kind of period.」

Looking closer, it wasn’t a period.

In the scenery of destruction, a man was standing there, watching us.

*

A faint sound of thunder came from the clear sky. The sign of a light backdraft drifting in. Crackle, crackle— a small burst of sparks briefly dyed the sky, then quickly vanished.

Sitting on the bed, Yu Joonghyuk looked up at that sky and muttered.

“Backlash of Plausibility.”

It was something impossible.

Especially here, of all places, there was no way something like a ‘Backlash of Plausibility’ could roll in.

“Captain. What nonsense are you spouting. Did you not wake up properly?”

Lee Jihye, pulling on Yu Joonghyuk’s arm, yanked him off the bed.

“Did you forget what day it is today? The kid’s waiting!”

Without a word, Yu Joonghyuk rose from his spot and took a coat from the wardrobe.

Come to think of it, today was an important day.

As he naturally slipped on the coat, Lee Jihye blew up at him.

“Captain! Are you out of your mind? You’re going to wear that pitch-black coat again today?”

“There’s a white one too.”

“White, black, whatever! Captain, you can’t go in ‘constellation fashion’ today. You’re not the ‘Secretive Plotter’ anymore!”

“I—”

“Just be normal, please! Dress so you stand out as little as possible! Do you want the kid to be embarrassed in front of all the parents?”

“…….”

“Ugh, seriously. Uriel kept nagging me about this before she left for work— Wait, why are there only the same coats in your closet?”

Grumbling, Lee Jihye naturally moved on to rummage through Lee Hyunsung’s wardrobe as well.

“Why does this guy only have military uniforms!”

“Lee Hyunsung is a soldier.”

“What, soldiers only wear uniforms?”

Lee Jihye finally managed to find one outfit in Lee Hyunsung’s wardrobe that wasn’t a uniform. It was a suit.

“Here, just wear this!”

Without a word of complaint, Yu Joonghyuk took the suit she handed him and put it on.

Seeing how quickly he’d become neatly dressed, Lee Jihye nodded in satisfaction.

“Looks good on you.”

“It’s impractical for combat.”

“Why would you be fighting? Come on, let’s hurry. We don’t have much time.”

Today was the day of the parent observation class. In case they were late, the two of them quickly checked their surroundings, then started running through the air with [Phoenix Steps].

“Gloomy weather.”

“It’s perfectly clear, what are you even talking about.”

It didn’t even take five minutes to reach the school. After straightening their clothes to look as inconspicuous as possible, the two of them clumsily stepped into the school grounds.

Judging by how noisy it was inside the classroom, class already seemed to be in progress.

Just then, the student teacher who had been waiting outside recognized them.

“Are you here for the parent visit?”

When Yu Joonghyuk nodded, the student teacher let out a small “Ahaha” and asked again.

“May I ask your child’s name…?”

“Kim Dokja.”

“Ah, so you’re Dokja’s parents!”

Thinking this would lead to the worst misunderstanding, Lee Jihye quickly jumped in.

“He’s the uncle. I’m the older sister.”

“I see. In that case, would you come this way?”

Following the student teacher’s guidance into the classroom, they saw a group of parents gathered at the back.

Some of the parents, spotting Yu Joonghyuk and Lee Jihye, whispered among themselves or sneaked glances at Yu Joonghyuk’s face as they talked.

But most of them were just lined up in boredom, yawning repeatedly.

The two of them roughly took a spot near the lockers and began observing the students.

The students, under the art teacher’s guidance, were each drawing pictures on their sheets of paper.

A cluster of small backs of heads gathered together.

Among those back-of-the-heads, Yu Joonghyuk quickly found the one most familiar to him.

“It really is amazing when you think about it sometimes.”

Lee Jihye, who happened to be looking at the same back of the head, spoke.

“That such a small head can think about so much.”

Time passed quickly.

One by one, the students turned in their drawings. Each time a drawing was submitted, the teacher would call over the parents with exaggerated gestures and talk with them.

“Wow, what did you draw here?”

As the students who’d finished turning in their drawings left the classroom chatting with their parents, the small back of the head Yu Joonghyuk was watching still had its forehead pressed to the desk.

He couldn’t help worrying that at this rate, the kid’s head would get sucked into the desk.

Just then, the teacher moved first.

“Dokja, time’s up.”

“Just a bit more.”

Now, the only ones left at the back of the classroom were Yu Joonghyuk and Lee Jihye.

Spotting the two of them, the teacher smiled brightly and asked,

“Dad, would you come over and take a look?”

Yu Joonghyuk walked over.

But focused as he was, Kim Dokja didn’t even notice him approaching, immersed in his drawing.

The teacher asked,

“What are you drawing there?”

“The universe.”

“The universe?”

Just as he said, the background of the drawing was a pitch-black universe. A universe sprinkled with faint starlight.

Standing on that universe were three people.

Looking back and forth several times between the drawing and Yu Joonghyuk, the teacher asked,

“Is this you drawing your dad?”

“Mm.”

Yu Joonghyuk stared at Kim Dokja’s drawing. There was definitely a man there who had the exact same face as him.

A man covered head to toe in blood, glaring at the world with hateful eyes.

Yu Joonghyuk immediately recognized who he was. There was no way he couldn’t.

Because that Yu Joonghyuk was—

“Forty-first round.”

The Yu Joonghyuk who most resembled himself.

Next to him stood a man wearing a pure white coat.

His hair was somewhat lighter than he remembered, but this time as well, Yu Joonghyuk instantly recognized who he was.

“And who’s this?”

With an embarrassed expression, Kim Dokja answered.

“It’s me from another world.”

“Oh my, that’s a very profound picture.”

Judging from the look of them, the two men in the drawing had just finished some kind of fight; they both looked very exhausted.

As if revisiting a time long past, Yu Joonghyuk stared at the two men in the drawing for a long time.

In the meantime, the teacher’s gaze moved to the last person in the picture.

“Then… who’s this naked person next to them?”

There was a naked man there holding a single sword.

Yu Joonghyuk looked at that man as well.

The moment he looked at him, he had the sensation that the man in the drawing was looking back at him.

“Captain.”

Only then, as if she’d finally realized something was wrong, Lee Jihye’s expression changed as she looked at Yu Joonghyuk.

Without answering, Yu Joonghyuk kept staring down at the man in the drawing, then suddenly lifted his head to look at the air.

Crackle crackle crackle.

The backdraft he’d witnessed in the sky earlier rang out once more.

Watching those sparks, the Secretive Plotter unconsciously opened their mouth.

“Even now.”

For a moment, it felt like a dearly missed starlight was twinkling far beyond the distant universe.

Staring at that starlight, the Secretive Plotter said,

“It seems there’s still an unread story left.”