I stared blankly at the message floating before me in the darkness.

[Ken Feinstein has died.]

'I... died.'

The system has never lied to me.

So, the message it's showing me right now must be true.

I am dead.

In the end, I fought hard to envision a happy future, only to die futilely at the hands of the final boss of this game.

'Are they all okay?'

And as my consciousness floated alone in the darkness, I found myself strangely calm.

What happens after death?

Do I return to my original world?

Such concerns didn’t cross my mind at all.

The only thing I thought about was those three women.

Raphne, Emily, and Mary.

The last time I died, it had been a calculated death, and I had been able to verify their safety afterward, so I hadn't been too worried.

But just now, I had died and left the three of them facing the final boss of the game, General Commander Valburke, and the former Demon King, Arleus.

What concerned me now was only their safety.

'If only... I had done something differently.'

And then, regret flooded in.

What could have been the right choice?

It was clear that those two were summoned by Zeri’s machinations.

Should I have killed her?

Regret surged as I played various scenarios through my mind.

What if I had done this, or that?

But all of those thoughts were nothing more than ‘what-ifs.’

Now that I was dead, there was nothing I could do.

Here I was, a bodiless consciousness floating in the dark, alone.

This disembodied mind couldn’t even cry.

All I could do was pray in my heart that the three of them were safe.

At that moment.

“...Hey.”

From somewhere.

“Why are you giving up so easily?”

I heard a voice.

“...Who is it?”

The voice was familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Where was it coming from?

Right, left, up, down—it was impossible to distinguish anything in this void.

It was a strange voice, as if it were resonating from within my entire body.

And soon, I realized whose voice it was.

It was...

“You’re not dead yet.”

It was my own voice.

“You're not Ken Feinstein, remember?”

The voice spoke with a mocking tone, scolding me as I wallowed in despair.

“But from now on, you’ll continue to live as Ken Feinstein.”

As if to push me forward, the voice seemed to wake my despondent mind.

And like magic, a single point of light began to glow in the dark and empty space.

A warmth I hadn’t felt before I died— I realized that this was life itself.

“This is... a sort of repayment, you see.”

The voice continued, as if feeling embarrassed.

“Repayment?”

I was confused; I couldn’t think of anything that fit.

I couldn’t place anything at all.

But the voice answered, sounding cheerful.

“I experienced a level of happiness I never could have without you.”

It thanked me, using my own voice.

It was such a strange experience.

But the question remained.

Had I really made someone so happy?

It felt like I had always lived just for myself.

Running to lose weight was what led me to meet Raphne.

Making an item to save her.

Protecting Mary from the rain when she was scared of it.

Saving Emily when she was on the brink of death.

Losing weight to become stronger.

Proposing to the three of them so I could be happy.

Everything.

It was all for my own sake.

I wanted to be happy.

“So this is me paying you back.”

The voice, almost as if saying a farewell, spoke gently.

A warmth filled the body I didn’t even have.

Wait—this is what a body feels like? So warm?

It took dying for me to realize it.

Death is cold.

But life...

It’s so very warm.

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I heard was Raphne's familiar scream.

"Dieeeeeee━!!"

As my blurred vision slowly focused, I saw the purple miasma flickering under the night sky.

I tilted my head slightly to the side and saw Raphne, rushing toward the dark knight Valburke while shouting.

Raphne moved like she was teleporting, shifting her position in an instant as she swung her spear at Valburke.

No matter how strong he was as the demon general, it seemed even he struggled against her frantic attacks.

The moment he let his guard down, Raphne’s spear struck his armor, and he staggered from the impact.

Arleus, standing behind them, looked on at Valburke's struggle with disdain.

And in that moment, I realized:

'I'm alive.'

But I didn’t move hastily.

Instead, I remained lying on the cold grass, maintaining my composure.

I knew I must have been dead just moments ago.

Raphne's frantic state was evidence enough of that.

Where was everyone else?

I didn't need to turn my head to know—one presence was right next to me.

"No... please... don’t... Please..."

It was Emily's voice.

Her healing magic was radiating warmth, enveloping my whole body.

It seemed she hadn’t given up, applying her healing magic to my body that had gone cold.

I then focused on finding the other presences.

Where was Mary?

As if to answer my question, a flash of blue ice exploded somewhere in my field of vision.

It was Mary's ice magic.

She was fighting.

Her opponent was Zeri.

It seemed Mary was holding Zeri back, preventing her from helping Valburke take down Raphne.

The two of them were evenly matched, each leveraging their magical abilities.

Mary unleashed waves of ice magic, while Zeri used her signature spatial magic to evade attacks.

And in turn, she responded with simple but lethal magic strikes.

Chaos.

If I had to describe the situation in one word, that was it.

I had died.

Arleus was trying to get the demonic sword from my body, battling the others.

He believed I was dead.

Even as I opened my eyes and looked at him, Arleus, with a bored expression, kept watching Valburke and Zeri’s struggle.

He looked at them with disdain, clearly finding it pathetic that they couldn't finish Raphne and Mary.

It was a posture filled with arrogance, completely unaware that anyone might dare attack him.

That arrogance and carelessness—

"...Ken?"

—will be your end.

"Alive..."

━Paaaaaah!━

As I slowly rose to my feet, Emily’s voice trembled in shock.

But now wasn't the time to share a joyful reunion with her.

With all the strength I had cultivated in my body, I pushed off the ground.

Like a bullet fired from a rifle—

Shwoooooosh!

My body flew straight toward Arleus.

‘...So this is the world Raphne sees.’

Extreme tension and focus made it feel as if everything around me had slowed down.

Maybe having just died and coming back made my body sharper.

Though I was moving faster than I ever had in any battle before, my mind was calm.

Valburke, blocking Raphne’s attacks with his greatsword.

He noticed me when I passed by, turning his head hastily.

Zeri, who had just teleported behind Mary using spatial magic, also spotted me and quickly used her magic again.

Arleus only noticed me when Zeri, who was mid-fight, suddenly appeared beside him.

He glanced at Zeri, confused by her sudden presence.

And at that very moment, I took out the demonic sword Tirfione from my pocket and swung it at his unprotected nape.

That blade was a legendary sword made to slay the descendants of the Demon God.

As the blade neared, it seemed as though divine light, like that of a goddess descending to earth, wrapped warmly around it.

Thus, the demon king with whom I shared so much ill-fated history—

As his arrogant expression began to shift into one of shock—

His head flew through the air.

Thud, thump, thud.

His head rolled across the field like a soccer ball bouncing off a goalpost.

As if by magic, the surrounding purple miasma vanished.

And an eerie silence fell over the entire area.

The silence was first broken by Raphne, who had been fighting frantically.

She stopped her shouting, and as her previously hollow eyes fixed on me, they suddenly brightened, as if she were waking from a nightmare.

"KENNN━!!"

She abandoned her fight against Valburke and threw herself into my arms.

Valburke, who had been her opponent, stared blankly at the fallen body of his master.

Unlike Raphne, who woke from her nightmare, Valburke now seemed to be lost in one of his own.

His entire body trembled as he looked down at the fallen Arleus.

"You..."

His voice was a blend of shock and rage, and it came at me like a curse.

He raised his enormous greatsword and directed it toward me.

"How dare you━!!!"

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