Chapter 143: Return and Reincarnation

I was back in the white space.

The Creator God and the Goddess of Memory stood before me.

“It seems like you managed to say goodbye.”

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

“So Tina’s fine with keeping her memories?”

“Yes, she told me that she wouldn’t want to forget me.”

“Ufufu, I understand. It’s great that Tina is so wholeheartedly devoted to you, right?”

“Haruto, you said that you would return again to this world, but...I don’t have any plans for that, though? The soul will be worned out if it is repeatedly teleported, so that’s how it is.”

“Ah, I think… that’s probably okay.”

Only the Creator God possessed the power to teleport individuals from another world. Unless the Creator God willed it, I would never be able to return to this place.

However, when I met with Tina again, my conviction that I would return to this world again was super strong.

“Is that so, then good… Well, we do have the option of requesting the God of your world to send your soul here when you die, I guess.”

So there’s such a thing, huh.

Maybe I would return to this place in that way, but I wasn’t sure whether that was true or not, since I couldn’t use my intuition here.

“Supposing you did return here, I won’t be able to give the status of Hero to you again, though. Still, owing to the fact that you have saved my beloved world and the people in it, I will bestow my protection to you, just a little bit.”

“T-Thank you very much.”

“Even though it’s ‘protection’, it’s not something grand, alright? I don’t know when you will return, so I won’t be able to bestow a strong spell on you.”

“That is perfectly fine. By the way, what kind of protection will you grant me?”

“Fumu~ the protection that I will bestow to you is — ah, I won’t explain. Just look forward to it when you return.”

The Creator God then returned me to my previous world after that.

──＊＊＊──

It was the familiar park.

Four familiar people were walking towards me.

Those four — Takato and his friends who fought alongside me around 6 months ago — passed by me.

I had already forgotten the three years I spent in the other world at this time. Takato and his friends’ memories related to the other world were also sealed by the Creator God.

I turned around without any particular reason.

Takato did the same, and he looked at me.

Our eyes met.

The seconds ticked by, then we turned back towards the direction we were going.

“Takato, what happened to you?”

“Nah, it’s... nothing.”

“You’re shaking? Are you okay?”

“I’m good, I think.”

“Y-you’re sweating too much!”

“Dunno…Recently, I’ve been dreaming that I was punched so hard that I lost half of my face.”

“Eh!” (all)

— I heard them talking about it behind my back.

“Losing half of your face, isn’t that too awful?”

I unwittingly mumbled.

I had completely forgotten that I was the one who did that, so I just continued walking towards my house.

I stopped before the crosswalk. A girl who seemed to be around five years old stood on the other side of the road.

She was dressed entirely in black, and her face — I wasn’t sure why, but my memory of her face was hazy.

The pedestrian stop light turned green, so I moved forward.

The girl in black and I passed each other.

She stopped walking on the crosswalk.

I already reached the other side, but for some reason, I turned back again. She was standing just past the center of the crosswalk.

‘Seriously!?’

I started running.

A car was rushing towards the girl with tremendous speed.

The traffic light for the cars was still red, but with how fast the car was going, it’s highly unlikely that it would stop before it reached the crosswalk.

I pushed the girl hard. The girl fell forward, but I managed to push her to the sidewalk. I hope she wasn’t injured....

On the other hand, I —

The car was narrowing the gap between us.

I actually experienced how everything was in slow motion when on the verge of death.

I could see the interior of the car.

The driver was sleeping.

‘$#@!#@$!, he’s sleep driving!’

It’s no wonder that even if I jumped, he never braked.

The lump of metal was just inches away from me, but I averted my gaze, searching for the figure of the girl that I had just saved, trying to check if she was okay.

She raised her upper body from the sidewalk, and was looking at me.

She didn’t look like she hit her head, so I was glad.

That’s what I thought, but —

“Kihi”

A horrifying sound escaped from her lips; full of inconceivable malice that seemed impossible to exist in this world

That was the last scene I saw before falling into the darkness.

── *** ──

I was in the pure white space.

The Goddess of Memory stood before me.

I had regained the memories I had surrendered to the Goddess of Memory before.

I finally understood now that I got the memories back from the goddess along with my own memories.

I was the [Guardian Hero].

The [Guardian Hero] that Tina loved.

And that I had been killed by the Evil God right after I returned to my own world, causing me to reincarnate.

Only a little time passed in my previous world, but a hundred years had already passed here.

“Welcome back, Haruto.”

“Goddess-sama, I…”

“Yes, I can only say ‘condolence’ at this point.”

The goddess was filled with pity as she comforted me. She was probably referring to the fact that I had barely returned only to be killed by the Evil God right away.

She probably thought that I held a grudge against the Evil God.

No, that’s not it.

Right now, there’s only one thing that I wanted to say to him.

‘Thank you’ — that’s it.

The Evil God reincarnated me.

Because of him, I met Tina again.

He allowed me to spend more time with Tina.

He gave me the chance to fall in love with Tina all over again.

That’s why, only gratitude overflowed within me — Nah, that was not true entirely either.

Really, it was super scary when I died, so I was going to say ‘thanks’ to him while punching him with all my force, the next time I meet him again.

Anyway, I was on cloud nine.

The Guardian Hero was Haruto, and Haruto was Halt, and I am Halt.

Yup, it didn’t make sense even if I said it, but I couldn’t help this overflowing happiness now that I know Tina only ever loved me.

Actually, I had been jealous when Tina told me that she loved the Guardian Hero before.

But, that Guardian Hero was me.

I couldn’t stop grinning widely.

“You seem… happy.”

“Yes!”

“Really, then that’s good. Ah, here, I’m returning this to you.”

The goddess then gave two rings to me. They were the rings I made with scarletite.

“Is that really okay?”

“Yes. I just kept it so that Tina wouldn’t recall your name, after all.”

“Thank you very much!”

“And so, my contract with you is now over. Best wishes.”