Path of the Extra

”Do not worry. I promise you this. Go save Azriel, and once I am free of these chains, I will make both Caleus and Lioren pay.”

”...”

?

...?

...Huh?

”Lumine?”

Lumine looked at Celestina.

[The ??? Skill, [Redo], has successfully been activated.]

”A-ah...”

Lumine stared at Celestina.

At the words she had always spoken.

At the panel hovering in front of his eyes before it vanished.

And then he understood.

He had gone back in time.

Again.

”Y-Yel... Yelena...”

He did not even look at his own body. A moment ago, Nol had carved through him as if he were nothing more than meat. Yet Lumine barely registered it. Still dazed, still shaking, he searched for Yelena.

Then his foot stepped into blood.

He looked down at it for only a second.

Then his eyes rose again, frantic.

”Yelena! Yelena!”

His voice tore out of him, desperate. Desperate just to see her again.

Yelena did not hesitate.

The instant she heard the panic in his voice, the pain buried inside it, she jumped down. This time, her body was unharmed. Whole. Alive.

”Yelena!”

She rushed toward him, concern twisting across her face.

”Lumine, what’s wrong?”

”Yelena..!”

”W-wah!?”

She did not even have time to understand what was happening before Lumine threw his arms around her.

He hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe.

”E-e-eeeeh!?”

Yelena stiffened, her face flushing as the air was slowly squeezed from her lungs. Her head grew light. Her thoughts blurred. And somewhere, in the middle of the dizziness and the suffocation, a strange little part of her thought that it felt... nice.

Because Lumine was holding her as if letting go of her would kill her.

”Lumine...”

Then Celestina’s voice came from behind him, hesitant and uncertain, as though Perplexity itself had taken hold of her tongue.

Lumine heard her—and felt the marrow in his bones turn cold.

”I... I cannot help but feel an inexplicably strange sense of déjà vu... Before this current display of your peculiar behavior—and your complete lack of embarrassment regarding the fact that you are suddenly hugging Yelena for some utterly incomprehensible reason... had we not already experienced this exact conversation once before..?”

No way...

Lumine must have misheard her. There was no other reason for his muscles to go so tense—aside from the obvious shame of being caught hugging Yelena by the heiress of the Frost Clan.

Slowly, he forced his body to relax.

Then he felt Yelena’s warmth in his arms. Felt the soft rise and fall of her breathing against him.

And immediately realized what he had done.

’Oh, crap...’

Lumine glanced down.

Yelena’s face was buried in his chest, but the tips of her ears, peeking out from beneath her hair, were bright red.

His entire face went red with them.

’I... I must look like some kind of weird pervert...!’

His social status might as well be dead now!

”U-um...”

He could feel Celestina’s sharp gaze boring into his back. He did not dare turn around and look at her. His body had locked up completely, unable to move, unable to let go of Yelena.

Perhaps the only saving grace was that, for some reason, Yelena was not moving an inch either.

”Won’t you answer my question, Lumine?” Celestina asked. ”Or are you going to keep strangling your girlfriend?”

He flinched.

Her words had somehow become sharper than her glare.

Lumine immediately released Yelena, realizing how tightly he had been holding her. He took a step back and saw her face, flushed to an impossible degree, as she swayed slightly with a dazed, absentminded expression.

Celestina stared at them.

”Seeing how the two of you react to simple physical affection, I suppose you are not dating yet. Either that, or you only just started.” Her eyes narrowed. ”Seriously, are you two little kids?”

Were her words getting sharper?

No.

Sharper was not the right word.

More... annoyed?

It had to be his imagination.

”Tch... showing off how lovey-dovey they are in front of someone single...”

Lumine did his best to pretend he had not heard her mutter that in an incredibly irritated—and oddly envious—voice.

With an awkward expression, he turned around. At the same time, he patted his own body, only now noticing that he was whole again. His body was no longer torn apart. No longer cut into pieces.

His lips twitched.

Celestina, meanwhile, averted her gaze as though the sight of the two of them made her want to vomit, yet at the same time, she was pouting.

”W-what did you mean by what you said just now?” Lumine asked carefully. ”About the conversation...?”

Celestina looked at him.

Her expression turned unreadable.

For a moment, she said nothing. She simply watched him, silent and still, as an awkward, charged tension began to settle in the air. It crawled under Lumine’s skin and set his nerves on edge.

Then she spoke.

”...Are we repeating time?”

”...”

She knew.

Lumine’s lips sealed shut. He could not open them. He could not speak.

The shock of Celestina’s words had stolen every thought from his head.

How...? How does she know?

”Everything was fine,” Celestina said, ”until that determination in your eyes was suddenly extinguished. Then your expression changed, and you started bleeding from your nose.”

Lumine brought his fingers beneath his nose.

When he pulled them away, there was blood on his fingertips.

”Then you started panicking,” Celestina continued, ”frantically searching for Yelena as though you did not even understand where you were.”

Her gaze did not leave him.

”You are a bright kid, Lumine. So I know you are not insane—unlike most men I have unfortunately come to know.” She paused, her voice growing quieter. ”It felt as though you had been somewhere else. As though you had experienced something. A lot of things, perhaps.”

Lumine said nothing.

”And your eyes are different now. Much sharper than they were only seconds ago. Almost like my father’s or my mother’s. Or perhaps someone closer to our age, like Azriel or Lioren.”

She sighed, then gave him a faint, wry smile.

”But I am only saying all of this to support my ridiculous theory, because I have absolutely no real basis for why I feel this way. That theory being... that you are somehow traveling through time.”

The wryness faded.

Her smile became sad.

”Seeing your reaction, perhaps I am wrong,” she said softly. ”Perhaps you really are someone who has simply lost his mind.”

A brief silence passed between them.

Then Celestina looked at him again.

”Or perhaps I am right.”

Lumine could not answer her.

Instead, his gaze drifted toward Yelena, who was finally beginning to calm down. She met his eyes, still not entirely grounded—until she noticed the blood.

Her eyes widened.

The flush vanished from her face at once.

A handkerchief appeared in her hand, and, strangely enough, Yelena said nothing. She simply rose onto the tips of her toes, leaned closer, and gently wiped away the blood that had spilled from his nose.

’What should I do...? No... to begin with... how could she know? And she isn’t being killed... So does it only happen if I reveal that I went back in time, which results in me dying and being forced to go back in time again? Is it possible to confirm in some other way that I went back in time? But as she said, she is simply trying to find reasons for why she believes I went back in time. But... Yelena, who has the Unique Skill [Instinct], could not even sense anything wrong after I went back in time... yet Celestina can...? What does that mean? Are her instincts, when it comes to things related to ’time,’ simply superior? Or... is it because she can naturally sense things like this because, according to Nol, she is the human most loved by mana?’

The moment he thought of Nol, his teeth clenched.

’Nol...’

To think that Nol was...

That Nol was a traitor.

’Demon...’

How had he known that thing was a demon?

Did demons even exist?

But gods existed. This scenario existed. So, really, how far-fetched would it be for demons to exist as well?

Lumine almost wanted to laugh.

’So now I have to figure out how to deal with Nol and a demon too...? No... I can’t... I can’t... it’s too much... I can’t win like this all on my own... it’s hopeless... Is... is maybe the only way for me to escape this hell to abandon everyone?’

”Lumine?”

Celestina’s voice pulled him back.

’What the hell am I even daring to think...?! I can’t leave them!’

Yelena was still looking at him, worry clear in her eyes. Seeing that expression, Lumine forced himself to look reassuring, even though he felt anything but. Then he turned back to Celestina.

’S-should I risk it? But if I can’t even confirm what she is thinking is true in a roundabout way, and I end up going back in time again... then maybe she won’t realize it next time.’

”...You can’t tell us, can you, Lumine?”

”...!”

”Huh?”

Lumine’s eyes widened.

Both he and Celestina turned to Yelena.

She was looking back at him with a knowing smile, one hand lightly tugging at his sleeve.

”You want to tell us, but for some reason, something is restricting you. Right?”

’Ah...’

Even if Yelena could not sense anything wrong with time itself, she could definitely sense that something was wrong with Lumine.

Even without [Instinct], she knew him better than almost anyone.

And with Celestina’s strange question, coming at a moment when they were supposed to be focused on saving Azriel, Yelena had not needed long to piece the puzzle together.

Lumine’s strength left him all at once.

He collapsed to his knees.

”Careful, Lumine!”

Yelena immediately crouched beside him, catching and supporting him as he breathed out shakily. More and more relief spilled from his chest, almost too much to contain.

”Are we not supposed to talk about it?” Celestina asked carefully. ”Will there be consequences? Consequences you do not want?”

Lumine looked at her, his lips pressed into a thin line.

Celestina looked uncertain as well. Hesitant.

It seemed that, from his reaction alone, she was beginning to believe her theory more and more.

Lumine did not know why Celestina had suddenly sensed that something was wrong with time.

But he was damn grateful for it.

’I’m scared...’

’I don’t want to die.’

’I really don’t want to die.’

’I hate it. I hate the pain. But... I have to risk it.’

’I have to gamble with my life if I want even the smallest chance of winning.’

And so, with fear filling every part of him, Lumine slowly moved.

Yelena and Celestina watched him with absolute focus, their eyes catching every shift in his expression, every trembling movement, every breath.

Then Lumine shook his head.

A second passed.

Then another.

Then another.

Five full seconds crawled by.

Nothing happened.

”Haaaaaa...!”

Lumine released an enormous breath of relief.

’I’m alive!’

A smile of pure, helpless joy spread across his face.

Celestina and Yelena looked back at him, half confused and half relieved themselves.

’So that means... as long as I don’t specifically tell them that I returned in time, I can still communicate with them!’

From their expressions, it seemed they had understood the reason for his relief as well.

’No... I need to be more certain.’

’Is it only a problem if I tell them verbally?’

The moment he realized there might be a loophole, the gears in his mind began to turn.

And with that came greed.

Greed for every possible way he could exploit this small opening in the loop that had trapped him.

Lumine did not hesitate.

His fear was still there.

But boldness moved faster.

He quickly looked between the two girls and asked,

”Do either of you have a pen and paper?”