cold.
The cold that penetrates deep into the bones.
It's so cold that it freezes the body and even the soul.
The weather was gloomy, and the sky was filled with thick, low, gray-yellow turbid clouds. The strong wind mixed with white snow roared and raged through the slums. It was like a sharp sword rising from the fluid in the hand, capable of piercing through a tight leather jacket, not to mention the exposed face. It was scratched one after another, causing excruciating pain.
"Ahhh, it's freezing to death! Seriously, if there's General Winter or something, we'd better come out quickly! As long as we defeat it, it will turn into spring, right?"
In a ruins covered by ice and snow.
There was a young man with his arms folded in front of his chest, his teeth chattering up and down, and his body trembling, shouting loudly at the dirty sky.
He has short black hair, is neither tall nor short, and is about average in height. His physique may have been exercised and is somewhat muscular. The cheap gray sportswear looks particularly suitable on him.
Only the sharp look of his triangular eyes left an impression, but now he has lost his domineering look due to the weak and droopy corners of his eyes.
——frozen.
After all, this is a world of ice and snow, and he is only wearing thin sportswear. Plus, he is still an ordinary person. It is worthy of encouragement to persevere.
You won't catch a cold tomorrow, right? It would be bad if you catch a cold. No, after all, will I reach "tomorrow"?
The triangular-eyed boy fell into deep thought.
While he was distracted, a bowl of steaming soup came into view.
"Okay, okay, Natsuki-kun, stop complaining. How is it possible that there is General Winter here? Even if there is, you can't defeat him at all, right?"
Sitting opposite is a young man of about twenty years old. Different from the ordinary boy who only has triangular eyes as the highlight, the man opposite is more handsome and handsome. Even in the ice and snow, he does not yell as unbearably as him. .
Be a reliable adult.
The two of them are currently the only colorful beings among the vast snowy ruins.
"Here, take a sip of soup to warm yourself up."
"Thank you, Xiaolin."
The triangular-eyed boy took the steaming bowl and greedily absorbed the little bit of warmth. At the same time, he couldn't help complaining: "I said, do you want to help me find some clothes first? I'm not like you, Xiaolin, who can withstand the cold. I'm just an ordinary person. ah."
"No chance, no chance. Whether it's food or clothing here, they are all frozen solid and cannot be used at all."
"This is really bad news that adds insult to injury."
The adult's words broke the boy's fantasy and seemed to tell him to face reality. It was like seeing clearly the many lifelike human-shaped ice sculptures standing around them.
"Speaking of which, Natsuki-kun, would you like some wine to warm yourself up?"
"liquor?"
"Ah, I just found it in Lord Rom's stolen goods storehouse. It's a very good thing."
"Thankfully it's still alive."
The triangular-eyed boy looked at the ruins around him, thinking that it could survive the violent cold shock wave just like him, but he immediately expressed deep sympathy for the fact that it was about to be drunk.
The two of them unexpectedly share the same problem?
Although comparing people to wine is weird in itself.
"How about it? Do you want to drink?"
"I'll forget it, I'm not old enough to drink yet."
The only thing left... may not be the right word to express it, but the only persistence left was like a shackle that bound him to do irreversible things, allowing him to suppress his thoughts.
If you let yourself go, you might actually become the evil party that destroys the world.
"You guy, can you stop being such a middle school student? Are you a junior high school student?"
"He's a high school student!"
The adult male opposite seemed to be able to see through his heart. Even though he didn't say those words that could kill someone, he could quickly understand what he meant.
Incredible people.
But being angry, even if you need help from the other person every time, you are still being angry!
Then he took a vengeful gulp of hot soup.
“Delicious!”
The triangular-eyed boy exclaimed.
He didn't expect that the other party could make such a delicious hot soup despite the extreme lack of various resources. How versatile was he?
Doraemon? !
The steaming liquid flowed into his stomach, and the heat warmed his body from top to bottom, making his frozen body active again, and a look of comfort appeared on his face.
But immediately, the action of drinking soup stopped again.
"Wait a minute, Xiaolin! Where did the meat in this soup come from? Could it be an ice sculpture..."
"no."
"That's a cat..."
"No! Do you think I can fight against that behemoth?"
The other person rolled his eyes angrily.
He seemed troubled by his unfounded delusions.
"Yeah... indeed."
After thinking about it, that cute kitten turned into such a terrifying existence after the death of its owner. The change before and after was too big, right? !
"This is just one of Master Rom's collections, so feel free to eat it, it's definitely not a mess."
"How many good things does Mr. Rom have? By the way, if there are so many good things, why do you only serve me milk mixed with water? Isn't that too stingy?!"
Instead of being comforted, he became even more resentful.
Really, is it necessary to be so fussy? The other party has now turned into an ice sculpture and cannot move forever.
After a while.
The triangular-eyed boy asked: "Say, is it still alive now?"
"You mean Parker? He's probably dead. You also saw the beam of light that shot into the sky just now. After that, the cat's aura dissipated, so he's probably dead."
"Is it true? There is someone more powerful than Parker in the capital?"
"Yes. Haven't you seen it all?"
The adult did not feel sad because of the death of his close friend who was very happy with him. Without any emotional fluctuations, he still stirred the fresh soup in the pot slowly.
On the contrary, the triangular-eyed boy was a little silent, and heard this sentence in a trance.
"Stay strong and survive!"
"...Hey, it turns out you're not in a trance?"
He couldn't help but complain loudly.
This is a sentence that people in the slums would say, and what I want to express is as simple as the literal meaning. But in this situation, no matter how strong you are, you can't survive, right?
"You shouldn't be stunned by the cold, right?"
"Probably. If this continues, I might really have to meet the owner of the apple vendor."
"That's really good news."
"Is this good news?"
It's great to see him still have room for rants.
However, his purple and blue cheeks do seem to be a little unable to hold on. Even if there is hot soup to relieve it, is he almost reaching his limit?
At this moment, a figure appeared at the end of the ice and snow world. It was a girl with gorgeous clothes and an elegant expression. She attracted the attention of both people as soon as she appeared.
She kept jumping back and forth on the rafters, and arrived in front of the two of them in the blink of an eye.
"Welcome back, Liu Zi."
"But I'm back, Miss Liuzi. If you wait a little longer, you will only see me as a cold person. But please don't get me wrong, I don't mean to pretend to be cold, but I am really cold."
The two reacted differently.
And this elegant girl spoke venomously: "The life and death of Natsuki-sama has nothing to do with me. Even if you are frozen to death like the bugs on the roadside, I will not have the slightest sympathy, and will even choose to turn a blind eye. , I can guarantee this.”
"Isn't Miss Liuzi's promise a little strange?"
The depressed boy narrowed his eyes, making his already depressed triangular eyes even narrower.
the other side.
"Liu Zi, what's the situation?"
"As you imagined, Mr. Xiaolin, the entire capital has been completely destroyed, and almost everyone has been turned into ice sculptures. In addition, Mr. Parker was also attacked by someone. The opponent was a man with fiery red hair, and it was just a sword... "
"Is that the beam of light just now?"
"yes."
The information the girl brought was somewhat unexpected.
The death of my friend was already expected, but he was killed with just a single A, and he was still such a powerful being. I really didn't know what to say.
"Also, although the other party also hangs his eyes, he is much more handsome than Natsuki-sama."
"……Huh?"
"Much more handsome than Natsuki-sama."
"I know, there's no need to repeat it a second time! I'm just an ordinary person anyway! Damn it!"
The triangular-eyed boy was completely off guard by the girl's poisonous tongue.
Looking back, I didn't do anything to her, right?
At most, he ran to the other party's master and cried bitterly, then hugged his legs without letting go, and stalked him for help. As for being so specific to himself?
Even if you know that the other party is set to have a vicious tongue, it's still too heartbreaking!
"But it doesn't matter, this is Miss Liuzi's cuteness."
"You are really hopeless, Natsuki-sama."
The elegant girl still had a venomous tongue, but the young man was so shameless that he didn't care at all.
Bang bang——
"Okay, Liu Zi just happened to be back, let's sort out the information."
His words made the two of them stop bickering.
"Don't put on such a serious expression. You're just looking for the reasons for failure and correcting them. Relax."
Despite saying this, the triangular-eyed boy still looked extremely serious. Even though Leng's consciousness was about to fly away, he still steeled himself and prepared to remember the next words firmly.
Smile a little.
"The first is the main reason for this failure. Come on, Natsuki-kun, what do you think it is?"
"Hmm... I guess you didn't stop Satira from coming to the slums, right?"
"Bingo! That's the right answer! Applause!"
The young man was not proud of having answered the question correctly. Instead, he frowned, feeling annoyed at his failure.
He is too stupid.
Although she used poor words and lies to deceive the other party for a while, Satila's vigilance gradually increased as time went by. In the end, she did not trust herself at all and ran to the slums. Finally, she happened to be involved in a transaction and was killed.
That's the whole story.
"That's right. Taking the initiative to help find the badge, redeeming the badge first, choosing to change the transaction location, and then delaying the time, none of these methods will work. No matter what you do, Satila will die in the end."
"...Ah, I know."
"So Natsuki-kun, what did you find out about it?"
"Um?"
There was a daze in the boy's triangular eyes, and his stupidity was exactly the same as that of the stupid goddess.
It seems that even though he has special abilities, he still can't grasp the key points.
"Does Natsuki-kun know about Steins;Gate?"
"Ah, I know, it is a masterpiece after all."
"Then you should know that no matter what efforts the protagonist makes when saving the heroine, the final result will end in tragedy. So, how does he break the situation?"
"You mean...deceiving yourself?"
"I'm telling you to look for external forces, idiot!"
As the saying goes, if you don't have the IQ to make it up, how long will it take to keep trying and making mistakes?
Some people (Rintaro Okabe) remain consistent after jumping 20,000 times, and some people (Subaru Natsuki) completely collapse after doing it more than 80 times. If you want to achieve great things, you must at least weigh your own weight, right?
Obviously the triangular-eyed boy in front of him didn't have that potential.
"I always feel that Xiaolin, you are looking down on me."
"That's right, what's wrong?"
"...Under normal circumstances, I would euphemistically say it was a misunderstanding, but you are too straightforward, aren't you?!"
"I'm only doing this to you, Natsuki-kun, you should be happy."
Is this necessary to be happy?
His triangular eyes kept scanning the master and servant in front of him. It can only be said that like a master, like a servant, they all like to be sarcastic.
"But looking for external forces, even Xiao Lin can't stop the sausage hunter. Who should I ask for help?"
"Hey, give you another chance to reorganize your language. Whose fault is it?"
"...I'm sorry. I was so complacent that Master Xiaolin had no time to take care of this. I'm really sorry!"
He bowed his head and apologized simply.
This is the fact. If he hadn't been so panicked that he forgot to leave a message and Xiaolin arrived late, Satila would have been saved, the docile kitten would not have exploded, and the capital would not have turned into a land of ice and snow.
"But I can't put all the blame on you, Natsuki-kun, and I was also careless. After all, no one thought that even if the head and heart were destroyed, the sausage hunter could still launch a sneak attack before he died. Carelessness Yes, no flash!"
"Yeah, if Xiaolin wasn't there for that monster, I would really be helpless."
The two of them unanimously expressed admiration for the terrifying vitality of the gut hunter.
"No! According to what you said, Xiaolin, can't you just deal with Elsa? Is it necessary to find more powerful helpers? Besides, where can I find helpers? Even Xiaolin, this is my third time. Found it!"
"That's all. What if we meet? And isn't there a powerful helper who can defeat Parker with one move?"
"No, no, no, it's not such a coincidence."
"Haha, you can't say that."
The man had a strange smile, as if he didn't want him to look for it, but just wanted him to remember it.
"Also Natsuki-kun, there is one thing I hope you will remember."
"What?"
"My magic cannot resurrect you, so you have to remember that this (time) line will be completely erased after your death. This is something that has never happened. Can you understand it?"
"Ah, probably."
Power takes priority over magic, so when he dies he returns to the original fruit stand, rather than continuing this timeline again when he is resurrected.
In addition, Satella and Parker cannot be resurrected. Because they were half-elves and elves, resurrection magic could only work on corporeal bodies... to be precise, people whose bodies would not dissipate.
"Okay, you can go."
"oh!"
The triangular-year-old boy was full of enthusiasm, but when he was about to set off, he suddenly asked a question.
"Xiao Lin, why do you want to help me?"
"It's sympathy. Because Natsuki-kun, you, like me, are bound by something called a blessing but actually a curse... or something, it's actually a lie."
"Huh?"
His eyes were about to burst into tears, but when he heard what the other party said, he held back the tears.
"Nazuki-kun, do you still remember that thing?"
"Well...it's just a line, with my name at the front, and Xiaolin, the one with your name at the back?"
"Yes, that's the root cause."
"No, no, no, I don't understand the reason at all, okay?"
"It doesn't matter, you don't need to understand. After all, it's too troublesome to explain with your IQ."
"Hello!"
The triangular-eyed boy was very resistant to the ridicule of his reliable senior. But thinking about it carefully, it seems that it is indeed the case.
Forget it, let's not worry about it. After all, there is still a big thing waiting for him to do to save thousands of people.
"Then, I'm off."
"Have a nice trip, Natsuki-kun."
The next moment, a head took off instantly.
"Ah, I didn't expect my back to look like this."
This sentence came to mind before the boy closed his eyes, and then his consciousness was shrouded in a thick black fog.
The warm sun shone down on him, dispelling his coldness. Opening your eyes again, the surrounding ice and snow kingdom has transformed into a colorful world, and the motionless ice sculptures have become living people.
Hehe hehe, hahaha——
He covered his mouth and couldn't help laughing.
Then, he raised his hands and shouted loudly under the astonished gazes of pedestrians on the street and the owner of the apple vendor:
"Sir Subaru Natsuki sets sail again!"
"Just watch, I will definitely pass the level this time for you to see!"
(End of chapter)
