Chapter 165: Puck and 486 Are Getting Married? Wedding in Progress!
"I guess the story wraps up for now, huh?"
In a space of pure white, Natsuki Subaru still wore that gaudy set of long robes — except he wasn't standing. He sat cross-legged in front of the mirror that reflected the viewing seats.
Before he ever crossed over to another world, one of his great loves as a homebody had been reading manga. So if he had to divide his own experiences into volumes, this was the perfect place to end one.
Not that he had all that much interest in the part where he watched his own past play out on a screen.
Just as he'd once told Rem — smile and talk about tomorrow, don't sulk over past mistakes and miss out on the good things ahead!
Still, the viewing wasn't entirely useless.
He'd once thought that after enduring every hardship, after successfully putting Emilia on the throne and getting everyone their happiness, he'd write an after-story about it all. Now it looked like that job had been done for him (lol).
Natsuki Subaru thought that cheerfully enough, but then his smile faded bit by bit, and his face turned serious without his meaning it to.
What worried him more, by comparison, was the way that whole crowd in the viewing seats had been reacting.
Emilia, Rem, Ram, Elsa, Meili, Crusch — the state of their hearts was honestly alarming!
But there was nothing for it. He was already bound to that group by a thousand threads and ties, and if he weren't, they probably wouldn't be sitting there watching in the first place.
So if anyone told him to give up on those people — he couldn't do it!
Which left him with exactly one option, didn't it?
Natsuki Subaru let out a sigh.
But after a brief headache-stricken grimace, what emerged was hero-mode Natsuki Subaru!
He grinned, wild and arrogant, and threw a punch at the air in front of him.
"I'm going to save every one of you! And then I'll bring about an ending where everybody's happy!"
That wasn't some sudden overflow of saintly compassion, though. He had his own selfish motives mixed in there too.
If you compared this world to a game, then there had to be an ending.
Clearing the perfect ending might just be the key to beating this game — and at the end of it, maybe he'd finally have a shot at going home!
Before crossing over this time, he'd come clean to his parents about his situation early on.
Of course, the part about dying over and over in another world was strictly off-limits. That would only make Mom and Dad worry.
So once he'd finished explaining, he comforted the two of them by telling them to think of it as him taking a long trip.
He'd made a promise: he would come home as soon as he possibly could.
And if things went well, he might even bring back a daughter-in-law or two for them (Rem and Emilia)!
So since it was a promise made with his mom and dad, he would never go back on it!
Whether it was the Witch of Envy who might have dragged him into this world, or the Witch Cult, the Three Great Mabeasts and the Great Disaster — he'd beat every last one of them into the dirt!
At the same time, he'd make up for every regret in his memory. This time Reinhard would stand shoulder to shoulder with old man Wilhelm and take his revenge on the White Whale by his own hand, and grandfather and grandson would be reconciled. Puck would get to stay at Emilia's side once again. He'd come to understand Satella, and keep the promise he'd made back in the Sanctuary — save her, redeem her… (wish slot, to be developed).
And beyond that, he'd save the people in the viewing seats, and the second-playthrough friends outside them who were tied to him by those same thousand threads. He'd learn what knots were tangled up in their hearts and undo them one by one, so that everyone could be happy!
"Ha, once you say it out loud it sounds like an awful lot. Am I being a little greedy here? Well, whatever — I've always been this arrogant a guy, so it's fine!"
Natsuki Subaru muttered it to himself, and in the end he laughed out loud.
The screen viewings existed now, sure. But since this time around was an entirely new route, when he reached the very end he still wanted to write an after-story — a record of his past, a look back over his whole life.
If the world he'd just seen — where at the manor branch point he became the Purge King and got a taste of the underworld as a mob boss — deserved the name "Wrath line";
and if the previous life, where the Witch of Envy pulled him into another world and he went stumbling around trying to survive and explore, deserved the name "Envy line" —
then this time, with the branch point set before he ever crossed over, back in the world of Japan, maybe he ought to name it —
The "Redemption line"!
Exactly as it sounded. He was going to try for the route where every single second-playthrough character got their happiness!
He would redeem everyone connected to him, without an ounce of prejudice!
It was his arrogance — and it was also what he had to do in order to "go home."
If anyone doubted it, then come and try him!
Come see whether he could actually pull it off!
Natsuki Subaru's mouth split into a grin, and in his eyes was that hard, unbreakable look that belonged only to a man who had gone through Return by Death more times than he could count.
…
In the viewing area, the image on the screen froze on Rem's final smile, and then went completely black.
But just as everyone in the viewing seats was talking over whether this session was finally over —
the screen flared back to life. This time it gave off a lively, buoyant feeling, in bright colors nothing like before, brimming with festivity.
And in the very center of the image, the utterly explosive title of this viewing gradually surfaced:
[According to unofficial history: when 486 proposed to Emilia, Puck did not approve. 486 declared that he would definitely win over his father-in-law someday, which is why, years later—]
[Back when Natsuki Subaru first woke up, he was lying on Puck's lap — a lap pillow. In that very moment he had already fallen in love with Puck. He simply couldn't bring himself to admit out loud, for the sake of his pride, that he was a furry lover!]
[Every lap pillow on Emilia's lap afterward was only a stand-in for the one he truly longed for. That is the reason Natsuki Subaru has held on to his love of lap pillows — all who hear it are moved to tears~]
[Natsuki Subaru is beyond question a white-hair lover… That's right, have you noticed? Puck is covered head to toe in white fur!]
[And now, please enjoy this feature-length unofficial-history documentary: "486 and Puck's Wedding, In Progress!"]
"Holy crap, it's a bombshell?"
Every mind in the viewing area short-circuited for a moment when they read the words on the screen.
And the thought that surfaced right after was —
How did Puck, with those thick brows and honest eyes, end up getting swept off his feet by his prospective son-in-law Natsuki Subaru? This had to be a joke!
Then, all at once, everyone thought back over the descriptions above.
Lap pillows, white-hair lover, furry lover?
Hold on — didn't all of that actually line up?
"It's true, Lord Subaru said his favorite thing was catgirls!" Ferris put in out of nowhere, offering testimony. At the same time her pretty face flushed faintly, and she mumbled, "Sometimes, when Lord Subaru's under too much mental strain, he has Ferris help him relieve the stress—"
Of course, what Ferris meant was letting Lord Subaru stroke her fluffy ears — and, well. In any case, there was nothing improper between the two of them. It was purely a matter of leaning on each other.
"Wait, this — this is… slander! I demand to protest!" Puck shouted in a sudden panic, because from a moment ago he had felt a chillingly cold stare settle on his back.
And the owner of that gaze needed no guessing. It was, naturally, Envy— no, it was Emilia!
That gaze of hers seemed to be putting Puck on trial, interrogating him:
—Don't tell me you betrayed me too?
[Author's Note: PS: The unofficial history of Puck and 486 will be written up briefly and passed over, and then we'll return to reality.]
[Author's Note: The current plan for the main line follows the idea behind the name "Redemption line" — redeeming all of the second-playthrough characters.]
[Author's Note: In this book, the second-playthrough characters are not separate individuals from parallel worlds; rather, it's more like the characters themselves being reborn after having lived through that world line.]
[Author's Note: Also, for the Royal Capital arc coming up, I'm planning to have them tear the place up a bit, though I'm still working out the details.]
[Author's Note: When the next viewing session begins, more people will be pulled in — for example, the people from the Sanctuary arc, including Echidna and the various Witches.]
[Author's Note: On top of that, my current thinking is to give Echidna — who's now nothing but a soul with her original humanity lost — the memories from back when she was part of the world-saving party the Great Sage founded four hundred years ago.]
[Author's Note: The Echidna of that time pursued knowledge in order to excise the tragedy and cruelty from the world and shelter those who suffered. She understood the human heart and she understood what love was, and she had always looked up to Flugel in that world-saving party.]
[Author's Note: Lastly, if there's anything you all want to see, leave a comment once this round of the Great Silence is over.]
____
⚡ BONUS CHAPTER MILESTONES
✍️ 5 REVIEWS = +1 Bonus Chapter 💎 100 POWER STONES = +1 Bonus Chapter 🔥 P@TREON (Walnut-chan): Read +40 chapters ahead & unlock 60+ exclusive stories!
🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: The Retired Void Hunter — posted on The_Mikudayo