"Uooooooohhhh!? Ugh!? *Cough cough*! What the hell—my throat hurts so bad…!"
My consciousness snapped back and I jolted upright.
"What is this place… a cave? What was I even doing…?"
Still dazed in the dim cave, I looked around—then immediately felt overwhelming thirst. I cast **Create Water** and drank. It tasted incredibly good.
"—!? —!?"
When I looked again, my eyes locked onto Eve.
She was staring straight ahead, eyes wide open, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
Her face—which usually showed zero expression—was undergoing dramatic changes. This was extremely rare.
"Wh… wha—"
"Wait a sec… let me remember first."
I cut off Eve's hoarse question and tried to piece together what had happened.
…But why is my head spinning so much? My memories are all foggy… What the actual hell is going on?
"…Umm, I'm pretty sure I fought Enri and won…? And then—!"
I activated **High-Speed Thinking** to accelerate my thoughts and reached the conclusion in an instant.
I remembered everything.
I had died.
"—So I really was dead, huh?"
The moment it clicked, I forced my body to stand.
If that was the case, this was bad. I had to hurry—hurry—
"Eve! What happened to Enri? How long have I been dead?"
"Huh…? Huh…?"
I fired questions at Eve, who was standing right beside me, but she seemed completely lost and could only stammer.
Ignoring her confusion, I pressed on quickly.
"The one we were fighting—Enri. Where is she now? Is she dead? If she's still alive, we're in serious trouble. If she attacks now, this time we're definitely done for."
"I… haven't seen her since then… but…"
"So… I'm dead? …Anyway, how long was I out?"
"S-seven minutes… maybe…?"
"I see…"
I muttered while scanning the surroundings vigilantly.
Not long at all. No one had attacked in that time, so it was probably safe to assume Enri had disappeared.
**Magic Detection, Clairvoyance, Heat Detection, Imperial Barrier, Rapid Thinking**
Just to be safe, I layered every detection spell I knew across the area, erected a protective barrier, and cast every self-buff I could remember—preparing for anything.
"—!"
**Heat Detection** picked up a reaction.
One that didn't belong to Eve, me, the students, or the guards.
It wasn't wrapped in any magical power—just a faint, weak signal.
Round, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand… an object that hadn't been there before I died.
Cautiously, I approached the source.
"What the… a coin?"
A single small coin lay on the ground.
Suspecting a trap, I layered multiple **Insight** and **Appraisal** spells on it… but nothing changed. It really was just an ordinary coin.
Once I was certain, I picked it up.
"Coins…? It's filthy… completely weathered—I can't even tell what kind it is. **Repair**, **Clean**."
I cast restoration magic on the coin.
"A 10,000-lien coin? Why is something like this here…?"
The grime and rust washed away, revealing a shining golden coin stamped with the profile of a woman with very long hair—a **Lien Coin**, the most widely circulated currency on the entire continent.
I turned it over from every angle, looking for anything unusual… but there was nothing. Just a perfectly normal 10,000-lien coin.
What the hell was going on? I had no idea.
"…Well, whatever."
I couldn't figure it out no matter how much I thought about it, so I decided to shelve the mystery.
I had no clue why a Lien coin was lying around here, but… since Enri didn't react to it either, that last attack was probably some kind of automatic magic that triggered upon death. Probably.
Besides—whether she's alive or dead, I'm staying on full alert either way.
Right now, the only thing that matters is getting everyone out of here and to safety as quickly as possible.
"**Resurrection**"
I cast a modified version of **Resurrection** (blended with **Hypnosis**) on the bodies of the students and guards—making them forget everything that happened and delaying their awakening.
While I was at it, I also resurrected *that person's* soul.
…What he did is unforgivable. This is just my selfishness, my self-satisfaction.
Next, I intervened in the magic formula of the **Other World**—whose creator was no longer present—and overwrote the administrative rights to myself.
With this, I could now operate the spell from this side.
All that remained was to synchronize the magical signatures of the sleeping students with mine and Eve's, then set the coordinates… **Teleport**
"—Okay, this should do it."
I set the destination of **Spatial Teleport** to the location we had entered from, configuring it to move everyone at once.
There were a lot of targets this time, so it would take a little while—about five minutes.
Still, considering the number of people, that was insanely fast. Good enough—
"Hey… hey… how… are you… still alive?"
Just as I started to relax, Eve spoke to me in a voice that sounded like she'd seen a ghost.
Hmm? Why are you so surprised—ah, right… I never actually explained it, did I?
"Sorry, I forgot to mention… I can 'come back to life even after dying,' so don't worry. I'm not a ghost."
After I said that, Eve looked even more bewildered, question marks practically floating above her head.
Maybe I didn't explain it clearly enough.
"…To be precise, I cast a spell on myself beforehand that allows me to revive once even if I die. …So if I die *now*, I won't be able to come back again. In other words, I'll have to re-cast it later… haaah… what a pain in the ass…"
I sighed, already dreading the upcoming hassle.
It was genuinely annoying and exhausting.
"You're l-lying… I've never heard of such a spell."
Eve shook her head in disbelief.
"Well… yeah, that makes sense. Because I created this spell myself."
"...Huh?"
—**Dimension Resurrection**
That was the name of this magic.
A spell I invented a very long time ago.
Its effect was simple: the moment the target's heart stopped and all vital signs ceased, the spell would automatically activate and revive them.
Why did I make something like that?
Simple.
I just didn't want to die.
To become a hero, I knew I'd have to go through countless life-or-death battles.
If I died even once, that would be the end.
No matter how strong I got, a single surprise attack while I was off-guard would finish me.
I absolutely, positively did not want to die.
…Back then I was seriously terrified of death and searched for every possible way to avoid it.
Becoming a vampire, finding an elixir of immortality, the **Blessing of the World Tree**… almost everything ended in failure.
When I realized nothing was working, I thought, "Fine, I'll just make the damn spell myself."
So I took the basic **Regeneration** spell's auto-recovery effect, mixed it with the time-and-space manipulation system of **Dimensional Bestowal**, and somehow—after endless sleepless nights of research, experimenting with mana costs and vows and everything else—it actually worked.
I was ecstatic.
This meant I'd never die again.
I ran around like an idiot, exhausted and sleep-deprived, celebrating.
But then I discovered a fatal flaw.
For some reason, even though the spell was structurally based on **Dimensional** magic, it was categorized as **Recovery** magic.
The formula used the target's post-death body or lingering soul to rewind to their pre-death healthy state… yet somehow it registered under **Recovery** instead of **Dimensional**.
Made no sense.
Worse—because I'd poured massive amounts of mana into a beginner-level framework, it ended up **overwriting and blocking** even the highest-tier **Recovery** spells like **Greater Heal**.
In other words, while **Dimension Resurrection** was active on my body, *no other recovery magic could affect me at all*.
Are you kidding me?
As a result, for as long as the spell was activly reviving me, I couldn't be healed by anything.
The spell did boost my natural regeneration, so most injuries healed automatically… but serious wounds would remain as permanent scars.
That's why my body is covered in old scars.
Thankfully, most of them are hidden by clothing.
…Well, I *can* heal them if I really want to.
But if I heal everything constantly, my natural regeneration weakens and could interfere with the spell's effect.
So unless it's life-threatening, I leave them alone.
I don't want to die in a real emergency.
And the worst problem of all… because the spell uses **Dimensional** magic and the formula is imperfect, sometimes after revival I lose memories from before death.
In the worst cases, I've lost up to three whole days and had no idea *why* I died.
"'This time' I remembered everything properly. Thank god…"
Seriously, this spell is way too flawed…
The formula is so complex that casting it takes days of total focus and fasting.
It's exhausting. Painful.
And now I have to do it again because I died… just thinking about it makes me want to die. Someone please help.
On top of that, depending on how damaged the body is at the moment of death, there's sometimes a delay before the spell activates.
And if the damage is *too* severe… it **teleports** you.
Physically.
While I was groaning internally about how broken my own spell was… Eve spoke up, looking utterly confused.
"I don't understand… 'This time'…? It almost sounds like… you've died multiple times before—"
"…Hm? Well yeah, I've died a bunch of times. Not recently, though. The last time was… during the fight with the 'dragon,' I think… Man, that thing was seriously strong…"
"...…Eh?"
Eve's face went completely blank with shock.
…Yeah, I get it. Hearing someone casually say they've died multiple times would make anyone react like that. I'd make the same face. I sound like a lunatic.
"Th-that… where… did it happen…?"
Eve's voice trembled as she asked, almost forcing the words out.
"Where…? Umm… I think it was four years ago, when I was being chased around by Aldi… so probably… Magikosmaia? I think."
The last thing I clearly remembered was defeating one dragon, then two more showing up as "seconds."
In other words, I died because I couldn't keep up.
What happened after that, I don't know… but I assume the knights or someone finished them off.
I really wanted to know the details immediately.
But—when I revived thanks to **Dimension Resurrection**, the first thing I saw was dense forest all around me.
I later found out that the damage had been so catastrophic that I was forcibly teleported to the northernmost unexplored region of the continent—the Rasvet continent.
Why the hell.
And that's when my hellish days began.
Apparently because it was treated as **Spatial Teleportation**, the side effects hit me immediately after revival: motion sickness, cold, headache, stomachache, sleep deprivation, and muscle pain all at once.
And whenever I moved even slightly—unimaginable agony.
**Refresh** didn't work at all.
I spent days barely able to move in a place crawling with powerful dragons and monsters, constantly terrified of being attacked.
Even after I could move again, my condition didn't recover for a whole month.
I survived on water alone.
I never want to go through that again.
…Though, even in that state, back then I kept challenging powerful monsters anyway, so it ended up being insanely good training.
I hunted down every strong monster I found, chased after an insanely fast fox-type demon beast that attacked first (I pursued it relentlessly), though it ultimately escaped.
As a result, I never learned what happened in Magikosmaia afterward.
And because I was so overwhelmed surviving on the Rasvet continent, I completely forgot about it until now.
There were monsters way stronger than that dragon everywhere…
"Th-that time… were you… wearing armor…?"
"Armor? Yeah, I was…?"
While I was lost in memory, Eve asked another question.
Back then, to escape the clingy Aldi, I wore full heavy armor and a full-face helmet to completely hide my identity, and I even used **Magic Camouflage** so no one could detect me. Total lockdown mode.
"Did you… meet… a girl… with gray hair…?"
Eve leaned in close, staring intently into my face as she asked in a trembling voice.
A girl with gray hair… ah, now that you mention it—
"There was someone like that… I used to make her drink the leftover magic potions and trained her. So many memories… I wonder what she's doing now. Hope she managed to make a proper spirit contract…"
Come to think of it, that was how it all started.
I hated the resigned look on that gray-haired girl's face, so I started crushing slave traders.
Couldn't help it. It pissed me off.
"She didn't have a name, so I just picked one for her… Well, picking one randomly might not have been nice, so maybe she has a different name now… Wait—how did you know about that? I'm sure I never told anyone—!?"
I looked at Eve—who had silently lowered her gaze—and flinched.
…She was crying.
"Eh, wait—wh-what's wrong…? Why are you suddenly—"
I stammered like an idiot.
Seriously, what's going on all of a sudden… Are you hurt somewhere? If so just say it normally, please—this is startling.
"…You were alive. Rei… Rei—"
Eve's tears fell to the ground as she spoke in a small, trembling, sobbing voice.
This sudden change… Could I be under some mental interference spell? …No, I was extremely careful around Eve. I didn't sense any such magic. Then why—
"—Ah, teleport is almost ready. Better brace yourself. It'll be soon, and I'll use **Refresh** on you, so it won't be too bad, but it'll still feel rough."
While I was thinking, I realized only one minute remained until mass teleport.
I warned Eve.
Since **Dimension Resurrection** was no longer active, I could use **Refresh** this time.
No more of that hellish pain. I was genuinely relieved.
As I was thinking that—
"—Hey, Rei."
"…Yeah?"
Even though I told her to brace, Eve spoke anyway.
…By the way, my name is Jirei, not Rei. Did I say something wrong?
"I… have someone I like."
"...What?"
Someone she likes…? Why bring that up *now* of all times?
"…Back then, I realized it too late… so I couldn't say it. But the next time we met, I swore I would definitely tell you how I felt."
"…I see. Well, that's good, I guess. I don't really get it, though."
I gave a vague reply.
I don't know what point you're trying to make, but if you want to say it, go ahead. It's none of my business.
"So—I'll tell you now."
"…? What do you mean—!?"
Before I could finish, my balance broke.
Eve suddenly collapsed against me, pressing her body into mine.
At the exact same moment, the teleportation spell activated.
My vision shook violently—then snapped back to the room we had originally rushed into.
Aldi, who had been sulkily drawing on the ground, noticed us and jerked his head up.
"Jirei! What's going on—?" He asked.
"I love you.
You saved me.
You're blunt and foul-mouthed, but you're also kind…
I love you. I really, really like you. I—"
Aldi's jaw dropped.
Eve, still leaning fully against me, looked straight up into my eyes with glistening tears and spoke each word clearly.
"—I want you to go out with me. …Finally… I got to say it."
The words rang out clearly.
In that instant, the entire room froze.
A heavy, stunned silence enveloped everything.
Several tens of seconds later.
"…Um… what exactly is the situation here…?"
Aldi asked, face full of utter confusion, clearly not comprehending anything.
…Yeah.
That's what I'd like to know too.