The Last Two Options ①

Author’s comments:

Updates resume. Summarising recent events in three lines:

The reincarnators have a explanation meeting!

D-san makes a mischievous announcement!

A great battle between Kuro and Shiro breaks out!

Kushitani Asaka’s point of view.

「Eh!?」

Wakaba-san’s neck was broken by the man wearing black armour who suddenly appeared. That alone wasn’t enough for the man in black, as he disappeared with Wakaba-san. Just for an instant, while the man was disappearing, a different landscape could be seen in the background. I’d guess that’s the Space Magic teleportation spell I’ve heard about. Space Magic is rare, so I can only guess as I’ve never seen it before though.

But, none of that matters. For now we gotta be concerned about Wakaba-san’s safety.

「Eh? Eh?」

To my side, sensei’s eyes are darting about in confusion. I’m probably showing a similar reaction to sensei’s from the viewpoint of others. That’s just how sudden that event was. Why did that happen to Wakaba-san? Who is that man? Where did Wakaba-san and that man go? Is Wakaba-san okay? There was so much to consider that my thoughts were scattered. On top of that, I was already somewhat confused due to the Divine Word that we’d heard just before.

A, anyway, I gotta do something. But… what should I do?

「……Sensei, that book.」

The first thing that came into my wandering eyes, was the book that Wakaba-san had handed over to sensei just now. Immediately after we heard that Divine Word, that man attacked Wakaba-san. Considering the timing, it can’t be unrelated. In addition, when sensei asked Wakaba-san what the meaning of that Divine Word was, she handed over that book instead of replying. Without doubt that book contains some kind of hint to overcome this situation. Maybe that was wishful thinking, but I couldn’t think of a better way to deal with this abrupt incident.

「Please lend it to me.」 「Ah, sure.」

It seems that sensei is taking longer to recover than me, as she is still in a daze. Because of that, she easily did as I asked and handed the book over. I immediately open the book and scan through the contents. It’s not like I can speed read, but if I activate the Thought Acceleration skill to the maximum extent, then I can achieve something similar. I’m the type who prefers to read books without rushing, but now’s not the time for that. By reading this book, our understanding of the situation will change.

「……You gotta be kidding.」

However, contrary to my wishful thinking, the book did not contain anything that would help break our current situation. Instead, the result was that a much more difficult problem was thrust before us. At least though, this does confirm the reason why Wakaba-san was attacked by that man.

「Sensei. For now, let’s go downstairs. Let’s gather everyone, then……」

This is not a problem that I can keep to myself. I gotta gather all the reincarnators and solicit their thoughts. Though just soliciting their thoughts won’t solve anything though…

After all, there’s things like whether the world will be destroyed, or which of two options to take to save the world. Either of those two options require great sacrifices. Saving the world means choosing one of those two. One option is to sacrifice half of humanity. The other option is to sacrifice god. There’s no way I can keep such heavy facts to myself is there. You sure have left us with a troublesome gift, Wakaba-san. While she bears no responsibility for the world being on the verge of destruction, I still want to vent some complaints to Wakaba-san.

It seems that Wakaba-san has chosen the option of sacrificing half of humanity. In which case, that man who attacked is a person who stands in opposition to that choice. I think that means he is a person who has chosen the option of sacrificing god. That he took those actions after hearing the Divine Word. This means that two factions had already formed without our knowledge, engaging in various secret maneuvers beneath the surface to save the world huh.

Speaking of which, I look around for the other person who should be in this room apart from sensei and I. That girl called Felmina who seemed to be a subordinate of Wakaba-san. However, while she was here until recently, there’s no longer any sign of Felmina in this room. She may have gone to inform people from the same faction that Wakaba-san had been attacked. In which case, it might be accurate to say that conflict between the two factions has already begun.

……What can we do?

During the battle between the elves and Wakaba-san’s side, we were kept out of the loop. I have the confidence to say that despite appearances I am quite outstanding as an adventurer. Despite that, there was nothing I could do during that battle. When we heard that the Imperial Army was attacking the elf village, we were blinded by partisanship and simply accepted everything we were told. So what could the likes of us do in the middle of a battle to decide the fate of the world?

……I can’t come up with any answers. In the first place, we are under no obligation to participate in this battle. In my case, I’d want to just turn tail and run away from such an insane battle. However, even if I run away, this battle will still decide the fate of this world. The future will be greatly affected by who wins. So is it really possible to stay uninvolved in the end? I don’t know.

Either way, I don’t think I can come up with a solution by myself. I gotta share this story with everyone and discuss it.

I take sensei by the hand, and leave the room. While holding the book left by Wakaba-san firmly in my hands.

Translation notes:

“The Last Two Options ①” – it appears that this is the first in a series of side story chapters focusing on how the reincarnators in general respond to the situation. Note that the previous chapter was called “Two Options” and this effectively follows on from that styling.

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