A hideout of ＜Parade＞ built in a secret place in ＜Spellage＞.

There, Janus muttered to Lena as if he was in trouble while lying on the sofa.

“Anyway, if you leave him alone, he’ll be annoying.”

“You mean Oz?”

“Yes, because that bastard always shows up at my place and disturbs me. Anyway, this guy’s luck is often a plague because he’s born with it. Which one is out of luck this time?”

“Little luck is something both of them have in common, so it’s fine to say that the one who loses has the worse luck.”

“That too.”

At Lena’s calm words, Janus giggled and affirmed, then replied with a straight face.

“Or both.”

When both fail, not when one succeeds.

Janus sighed as he assumed the situation.

“Anyway, it’s clear that we have to stop that bastard. I’m sure he’ll come to disturb you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you tell me to go without turning around.”

“If you do, I will be grateful. Because you’re the only one who can stick with that child and come back intact.”

Janus said with a nuance that if it was Lena, he could definitely survive.

“Nothing. Well, I don’t know if Oz-sama really wants to kill me.”

There was no way the soft-hearted Oz would kill Lena anyway.

Furthermore, since Oz’s means of attack is magic, it is difficult to subdue Lena. There is such a thing as compatibility.

“Then I’ll ask you for Oz.”

“Yes, ah! By the way, there were some of Oz-sama’s colleagues, so what should we do?”

“colleague? Lesis’ sister?”

“No, a cute cat and a cold-looking but stupid witch.”

“Um… … . You mean the one from Tenebris and Harbart’s daughter?”

“You remember it well.”

Janus shrugged his shoulders at Lena’s gaze, as if he was bothered to remember all those things one by one.

“I remembered. Send the low-level members in one pile. As long as you keep your mind off it, it will be enough.”

“Are you determined to put all your energy into it?”

“Because I decided to.”

Regression made Janus sick of repeating the same experience.

The subject of the return is Oz, but since he is also the same existence, he repeats the same return.

And for some reason, at the point of return, the memories Oz experienced also flowed into Janus.

Janus will not lose as long as he has the overwhelming advantage of information.

‘What… … . This time, he relied on luck, so I can’t say for sure… … .’

The element of luck began to play a heavy role in the fight achieved only through information, experience, and training.

And that luck was to the point of swallowing even Janus’ plan.

‘So this plan must succeed.’

Just as Oz threw the dice, Janus also threw the dice.

Showdown with Salem.

It cannot be guaranteed even if Janus uses his skills, information, and personal connections. No, let alone a guarantee, the probability of losing is quite high.

So it’s a gamble.

“You may know, but the decision is tomorrow, Lena. Do you remember?”

“Sure.”

Lena waved her hand as if to stop nagging.

Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to me, I asked Janus.

“By the way, why is it tomorrow? If Oz-sama is the variable, wouldn’t it be better to wait until he returns?”

Lena couldn’t help but wonder why she was willing to take the risk.

“I don’t think he even noticed that we were there anyway, isn’t that comfortable?”

Oz didn’t notice that ＜parade＞ was here.

There are no plausible movements, only repeating the one-on-one meeting with Salem.

If I had known they existed in the first place, I wouldn’t have left my colleagues alone like that.

“There is a reason why this has to be tomorrow again.”

“For what reason?”

“Because tomorrow will be the most emotional time for Salem.”

“Yes?”

To Lena, who seemed to ask what that meant, Janus replied with a somewhat bitter expression.

“Tomorrow is my mother’s death.”

“ah… … .”

Lena nodded as if she had just remembered.

“Is tomorrow your birthday?”

“hahahaha, it’s my birthday… … . I wouldn’t know if it was the day Oz was born, but wouldn’t it be a little different based on the day I was born?”

“That is also true.”

Ozu’s birthday is the anniversary of his mother’s death.

It was that his mother had died giving birth to Oz.

That’s why Oz doesn’t know much about his mother. The same goes for Janus.

All he knows is that Salem loved her madly.

Aside from Oz, the trace of her, isn’t she someone who loves even Janus, who can be said to be a fragment of her?

“Now then, shall we prepare for the march? My instigators.”

Janus, who had been thinking about his mother, whom he didn’t even know her face for a while, said that as he got up from the sofa.

Beneath his feet were the shadows of five people.

* * *

The [King of Darkness] and the half [Agent on the other side]. Salem Sudra had arrived in a deep forest.

“Looks like it’s time to clean up.”

He murmured as he removed the messy vines with his cane.

Only Salem can enter this space.

He did so with little authority.

The space itself was isolated with a technique he had learned from an elf he had met by chance in the midst of numerous regressions.

It is different from the general magic system, and it does not depict someone’s life like transcendental magic.

This magic invented in a completely new way must be the magic prepared by the elves to hide the world tree.

“Whoa… … .”

So, if there was anyone to manage this forest, it was only Salem.

He showed a different side of the king, such as pruning trees and pulling out weeds.

Yes, this forest is not only allowed to enter this forest, not ‘Salem Sudra’, the [King of Darkness], but only ‘Salem’, a man who loved only one woman foolishly.

“… … .”

After crossing the forest like that, Salem, who finally arrived at the destination, hesitated slightly.

There was a small cabin.

It is a sight that makes one side of the heart shudder whenever you see it.

“You’re gone.”

He muttered as he entered the empty cabin.

Of course, there was no reply to that greeting.

sigh-

After entering the cabin, Salem smiled bitterly as he ran his finger across the dusty desk.

“I guess I should start cleaning.”

Salem moved diligently.

If you used magic, it would have been instant, but it wasn’t like that in the house.

It was a promise made to his wife, who could not use magic.

“… … Am I too old?”

Salem sighed as he saw his lack of stamina.

Even though he worked hard on self-management, it seems that he couldn’t overcome the flow of time.

As I sighed and finished cleaning, it was already evening.

“I’m glad I still have a lot to tell you this year.”

After finishing cleaning, Salem sat down in front of the first desk he found.

There was a diary on the desk, and Salem immediately opened it.

“… … .”

Salem began to read the first page of the diary carefully.

-We arrived at a world that we only see in cartoons or novels. Wizards really exist and fly through the sky with magic. Super excited!

Looking at the diary written in dainty handwriting, Salem naturally smiled.

As if he could see someone’s face, the focus of his eyes was somewhere far away.

-I started to be called the ‘Witch of the Forest’ after blindly using modern civilization and bragging about it to people around me. I honestly like it. Doesn’t it look kind of mysterious?

The beginning was someone’s explorer.

– Today, again, I fell in a place where there was nothing.

-It seems that this world has a particularly severe rejection reaction. Still, it’s bad luck, so I’m patient with it. The long-awaited fantasy tour isn’t over, so let’s leave after a while!

It’s someone’s adaptation period.

– Today, people from the country of Spellage came and tried to kick me out. Do you know if I’m going to leave?

-Fortunately, it wasn’t a coercive method. It seems that the owner of this forest wants to pay the use tax. The response is strangely realistic, so it reminds me of the landlord of the house I lived in before.

It was someone’s daily life.

-This time, a person who looked high came. I don’t like it because the impression is ferocious.

Salem burst out laughing at the passage.

It was the subject of his appearance.

Unfortunately, it seems that the first impression was not good.

-A person who sees through people’s minds surprisingly well. However, if you deliberately answer ‘I don’t like it!’, you’ll put on an expression that you don’t know why. Do you really have mind reading?

At that point, Salem was still repeating countless returns.

The first meeting and the first meeting after that.

I’ve experienced countless first encounters and tried my best to be kind to her.

Because I could already tell that she came from another world when we first met. Salem, who was a wizard, couldn’t help but be interested.

Repeating the first meeting over and over like that, becoming the second meeting like that, and repeating the second.

I spent a lot of time with her.

It had to be.

that’s what it would be… … .

“You were so capricious.”

One day, when I brought a package of fruit, he shouted that he liked bread.

When I brought a bag of bread after returning like that, I was such a difficult person who shouted that I like fruit.

Salem worked hard to match her attitude.

Even though there was no reason to try so hard, maybe he did that.

Because when we first met, we might have already fallen in love.

-The person who always acted as if he knew everything, was considerate, and understood my heart better than anyone else, confessed to me with gibberish.

And when Salem realizes his love and confesses it.

To the unsightly confession he brought out with a restless and anxious appearance even though he could have returned several times.

-I accepted it without realizing it because I felt that the mask of the perfect figure I was looking at was peeled off.

she agreed.

Salem’s clumsy and even unsightly confession, which was like a mistake of a lifetime, was a huge success.

– That person has a child.

And the two of them paid off.

At this point, the diary’s handwriting had already matured a little, but the innocence was still there.

After that, the contents of daily life, happiness, and expectations were written.

– If the name is a boy, it will be ‘Oz’. If it was a girl, I decided to call it ‘Dorothy’. It seems that the fairy tales of our world that I told him seemed to like him.

Wizard of Oz.

A fairy tale she told.

As stated in the diary, Salem liked the fairy tale.

It was because I could understand the feelings of the characters in the fairy tale.

‘Because you were a wizard who made me look like a normal person.’

Salem was exhausted from countless returns. You could say it was worn out.

Only a sense of duty remained and I lived for work without inspiration.

Salem’s life returns.

The countless repetitions of life were his life and his magic.

But after meeting her, everything changed.

As if a ‘scarecrow who wanted to be smart’ finally got a brain.

『The wizard who thought he knew all the answers began to think hard.』

Like a ‘heartless Tin Woodman’ who finally got a heart.

『The sorcerer’s heart, which had only been cold, started beating wildly in front of her.』

As if a ‘cowardly lion’ finally gained courage.

『The wizard who lived without fear somehow stepped forward in front of the fear he felt for the first time.』

It would be nice to say that his life was rewritten because of meeting her.

The three transcendent magics thus created became Salem’s pride.

-I’ve been feeling tired lately.

flinch!

As Salem recalled that thought while reading his diary, he stopped turning the page for the first time.

His hands were heavy and trembling, as if they were carrying regret.

“Whoa… … .”

Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every moment he chewed his regrets.

to accept regret.

That was a new way of life for a man named Salem.

-Today I vomited blood. I’m worried about whether there will be a problem with the child.

Salem was busy trying to cure her illness.

He mobilized all the knowledge he had, set out to find the fruit of the World Tree, and turned back countless times.

The more certain it becomes.

“… … .”

That her illness is incurable.

That’s why Salem followed her disease step by step.

If you can’t cure the disease, you just have to go back to the point where you didn’t get the disease in the first place and avoid getting it.

Yeah, I thought so… … .

– Please don’t turn back time.

she said.

This disease is said to have been acquired before having a child.

If you return to the time before you got this disease, the child will also disappear.

It can’t be.

Surprisingly, she saw right through the fact that Salem was a regressor who had gone back countless times.

“Ugh… … .”

Salem held his breath and sobbed as he watched the shaking handwriting and the bloodstains in places.

although it is already a thing of the past.

When I was reading the diary she had written, sadness came along with the happy memories of that time.

Salem, who had sobbed and turned the pages for a long time, soon stopped his hands and closed his eyes tightly.

“With you… … .”

The last chapter she wrote.

last trace.

– Thank you for loving me.

“Promise… … .”

-Thank you for listening to my request. Salem. So please Oz.

As she read the diary, Salem, who had been sobbing, lifted her head again as she looked at the sentence she had written for the last time.

“… … I will protect you somehow.”

Then she raised her pen to the blank page in her diary she hadn’t filled in.

“I’ve talked a lot with that stupid son this year. It was mostly small talk, but… … . You’d prefer something like this.”

Salem once a year.

As if writing down a letter, I filled in the back of the diary she had written.

The child she wanted.

I wanted to convey it in some way to her who can no longer be seen.

“When I found out that the guy who looked at me with interest every time he spoke was tricked… … . He made a hilariously funny face.”

Salem smiled lightly as he filled out the Exchange Diary for her.