Chapter 172: - Result of the Judgement

༺ Result of the Judgement ༻

[Cycle ?????]

<Ferloche’s POV>

How many times had I repeated this? I couldn’t even remember anymore.

Well, I had long since given up keeping track of the retries. It was truly meaningless after all. Tallying the countless failures that seeped into the unending flow of time only brought me a sense of despair.

“Gugu~! Let’s eat!!”

No matter how many retries I’d have to undertake henceforth, I no longer needed to deceive the Demon God or cast any magic.

Thanks to my shattered soul and mental state, even if I did nothing to hide and lived just as I always had, the Demon God would remain unable to discern my true self.

But of course, it was only in dimly lit places or during the nights when the Demon God’s surveillance weakened that I occasionally unveiled my true self.

It was partly to trick the Demon God’s watchful gaze and to protect myself in the endless flow of time.

I left my actions to my absent-minded self while my true consciousness remained submerged in the subconscious– similar to an automated process, you could say.

If I hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have lasted for long. Enduring the endless flow of time with a sound mind would have inevitably led to a complete loss of self.

It dawned on me that Frey was truly an amazing person. Between the two of us, I didn’t know who spent more time in these repetitive loops, but he must have felt a similar pain...

I was still far from atonement.

“Ah, ouch! Not my hand! Just eat your food!!”

In any case, the reason I briefly brought out my consciousness was to review my checklist.

To make it convenient to see what I needed at a glance and memorize it, I wrote everything down on a piece of paper with each retry.

As such, periodically, I would need to check if I missed anything. It was because if there was even a slight mistake, I would have to restart from the beginning.

[Checklist]

1. Pray to the Sun God every day to obtain the ‘Blessing of the Sun God’.

Obtaining the ‘Blessing of the Sun God’ was so important that I had to put it at the top of the list.

It was a necessary skill to keep the Demon God from killing Frey, and at the same time, an essential skill to protect Frey from danger.

Yes, I had been doing this all the time.

From Frey’s perspective, I prayed every day, starting from the second cycle when he entered the academy, without fail.

This way, the Demon God and Frey would see me as a foolish Saintess who relentlessly tried to kill him. It was the most effective method I found through the countless regressions.

2. Deceive the Demon God while helping Frey.

Naturally, I had been successful in this.

During the auction incident, even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I intentionally used my ultimate skill against Frey and pretended to be affected by Eucarious’ hypnosis magic.

While doing so, I also purposely gathered the group outside the auction house so that Kania could discover Frey’s badge.

I wrote a silly, threatening letter and threw a maid outfit on him after the incident. Then I ended the entire event by breaking Frey’s neck.

It might seem excessive, but there was no other way. If I hadn’t done such things since the beginning, I wouldn’t have been able to quell the Demon God’s suspicions completely.

Besides, even if I did break his neck there, Frey wouldn’t die. The ‘Emergency Protection System,’ a system originally designed to help Frey, still remained.

Thanks to that, Frey didn’t suffer any real damage, and I was able to almost completely deceive the Demon God.

During the attack on the commoner dormitory, I deflected the attacks while emitting my holy power, ensuring that the commoners weren’t injured. This was to trigger Miss Irina’s suspicions...

When Frey and I descended into the church’s underground, I... intentionally led him to the room where an important hint was written on the stone tablet.

“...That’s right! Our Gugu is such a good girl!”

I wouldn’t have enough time if I kept reviewing all these things. So far, the Demon God has yet to catch on, so it must be progressing smoothly.

3. Achieve the DLC entry condition (Adjust timing of the five enlightenments).

This was the most critical and difficult task.

I don’t even know how many times I had to Retry because I couldn’t control that timing.

Ever since I realized that one of the conditions to activate the “2nd Year DLC Story” was for all five students, including myself, to discover Frey’s true identity, I had been researching a way to make it happen just before the 2nd year began.

Furthermore, one coincidence was literally just that: A coincidence. After countless regressions, when I figured out how to make it happen, a genuine laughter escaped me for the first time in a long while.Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com

That adorable little girl was the key all along.

Although now, I could secretly do the behind-the-scenes work necessary to make it inevitable, back then, when it was just a ‘coincidence,’ how many regressions was it to just find that condition?

“Yaaawnnnn...”

Ah, I needed to yawn first.

The most effective excuse when tears threatened to well up was yawning.

– Sssk...

Although there was still a lot left on the checklist, I folded it and put it in the drawer.

“Uuuh...”

What should I do? It felt as though I had reached my limit once again. It had been a while since I felt like this, so why was it happening again?

“Uuaaah...”

When I started to panic...

“...Huh?”

Huh, what in the world?

Whom I had been feeding was not Gugu, but a pencil all this time. I had food scattered across the desk and had let the pencil ‘eat’ it.

Had I finally reached my breaking point? I thought I had been holding up remarkably well until now. After everything I had done to come up to this point?

“Whooo...”

Casting the pencil to the corner of my dormitory, I buried my head in my hands and let out a deep sigh.

“Woo, woo...”

At the same time, tears started to gather in my eyes. I couldn’t help it; I was so frightened and stressed.

“My soul... My soul feels like it’s starting to fall apart...”

“I’m not sure of it, but I definitely have to write it in my diary!”

Then, I quickly opened my diary.

[xx Year, July 14th]

[I’ll think about it slowly first. I’ll write the contents later.]

I hurriedly started writing on the empty page from yesterday. I had to leave the memories in the diary, even in this dumbfounded state, to remember the current situation.

[It was because... I’ve come this far with these conditions only once.]

Finally, I finished the diary entry hastily and carefully placed it in the drawer.

“Finally... Finally...!”

And then, without realizing it, tears started flowing from my eyes.

“Finally, I can give Frey a happy ending...! And...”

If I could come up this far, it was already as good as succeeding.

As long as I didn’t make foolish mistakes like before, I could certainly intervene in the Third Ordeal.

And in that ordeal, I could finally...

“...Receive his judgment.”

Soon, I could meet the Frey of that cycle once again and receive his judgment, as well as judgment of the Frey of this cycle.

Why did I have to face judgment?

Well, it no longer mattered. The end was drawing near anyway.

“Ugh...”

I was so excited that my mind and soul started trembling, but it didn’t matter.

I have almost completed my role now.

Once I received judgment from Frey, I would disappear.

And then, I would just become a bright and foolish Saintess... who protected him from the sidelines.

Because, in all likelihood, he wouldn’t want me—someone who had transformed into a monster and committed countless sins throughout the regressions—by his side in the future.

Of course, I was slightly sad... but if he could have a happy ending, I would be satisfied.

Well, still... in the end, I wanted to tell him this.

What was it?

That was...

.

.

.

.

.

I love you forever, Frey.

“I love you forever, Frey.”

[The playback, spanning from the moment Ferloche gained the Power to Retry up to the current cycle, has concluded.]

The screen, seemingly from Ferloche’s point of view, transitioned to show Ferloche inadvertently confessing her inner feelings and then displayed the ending message.

“F-Frey... I... I...”

Upon seeing this, Ferloche, who was fidgeting anxiously in the Judgment Room, carefully spoke to Frey, who had been watching the summary video without ever taking his eyes off the screen.

“N-Now the judgment...”

“...Of course, we should start the judgment.”

However, Frey interrupted such words from Ferloche and declared calmly while looking at the scale in the center of the room.

– Drrrrr...! Drrrr...!

In the next second, the huge scale began to shake.

“Y-You must be disappointed, right? I’m sure you must be disappointed in me... “

As the judgment began, Ferloche quietly lowered her head and began to mumble.

“Even as you underwent multiple regressions, you remained unyielding... While I, who is supposedly the Saintess, faltered multiple times... and even committed wrongdoings...”

“...Ferloche.”

Interrupting her words, Frey whispered with a gentle smile on his face.

“Thank you... for your hard work until now.”

“Huh?”

As Ferloche was staring at Frey with a puzzled expression, a loud noise erupted from the scale on the side, announcing the results of the judgment.

– Thud! Clang!

“Ah...”

Ferloche’s mouth hung wide open, as she froze in place. The other four girls behind her had identical reactions.

“.............!”

“Also...”

Frey declared while looking at them with a bright smile.

“Thank you, everyone.”

“For loving me again.”

The scale next to him had achieved a perfect balance.

– Creak... Creak

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