Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

How much time had passed? In this empty cell, I had no way of knowing. There was a guard, but no food had been brought to me.

…Or perhaps it simply wasn’t time for a meal yet.

The guard wasn’t slacking off—on the contrary, he was vigilant, making sure I couldn’t escape. There was no way out. And, as before, he refused to respond to me. At the very least… I just wanted to know how Fraus was faring.

It felt like quite a bit of time had passed, and yet strangely, I didn’t feel hungry. Nor did I feel sleepy. The guards had changed shifts multiple times, presumably for rest. In this prison, it felt like the only thing required of me, as royalty, was to keep my cool.

Just as I was thinking that, the guard suddenly collapsed. Startled, I looked over—and from a place where there should have been nothing, a humanoid figure appeared. A girl, her features so flawless she seemed godly. No, this girl had become a god.

“Have you come to laugh at my misery?” I asked.
“Oh, not at all. I just thought I’d have a little chat, since this may be our last chance.
After tomorrow, it seems we won’t be able to talk anymore.”

Finis said this casually. I was the one who had brought about Makoto’s death. And I was the one who had dragged him from a peaceful world into this one—his suffering was because of me. And now, I was the one imprisoned. Yet she spoke with such honesty, I could only assume she truly meant what she said.

…I had my thoughts about that.

It might’ve been easier to be mocked and scorned. But I knew—Finis was probably the only person in this entire country who would still speak to me like a human being. So I couldn’t afford to push her away.

“There’s nothing for me to say.”
“Figures. You’re just someone who got swept up in events and ended up imprisoned. At this rate, you’ll die without ever knowing the truth—so I figured I’d tell you everything I can. That’s the official reason, anyway. To be honest, I just came to kill time.”
“You seem to be telling the truth…”

To come all the way here just to pass the time, what could she possibly be thinking? But she was no longer human. I no longer doubted that she’d become a God. Whether god or not, it didn’t matter—she was the only one left who could give me the truth. No matter how humiliating it might feel, I had no choice but to make use of her.

“So, what would you like to ask first? I’ll answer anything, so long as time allows. But I tend to get lost in speaking, so you might want to be careful with how you phrase your questions. You might hear things you’d rather not.”

Finis spoke lightly, as if joking. But in my current state, I couldn’t think of anything that I would be better off not knowing. The certainty of the world’s end. The deaths of the royal family. The disappearance of Fraus. The people who wouldn’t even speak to me. What else could I hear that would make this worse?

“Then, let’s start with you. Could you tell me more about who you are?”
“Sure. I suppose you don’t know why I became Finis, or how it happened, do you? But it’s not that complicated. I was killed by Ichinari, and the others who came with me were destined to become slaves of the Fraus Kingdom. Right before I died, I was almost certain that this was how things would unfold.”
“Yes… I understand why that is.”

Maybe the reason Makoto had sensed it just before his end was perhaps because he saw my face. I could now admit that I had let my guard down in that moment. But even if Makoto had realized it then, there was nothing he could’ve done. Normally, at least.

“So I died, satisfied that I’d gotten my revenge… and that’s why God picked me up. Apparently, I was to go collect the spirits before the world collapsed. Why was I chosen? Probably because I held no real attachment to this world and so wouldn’t do anything foolish to it. When you give someone immense strength, you wouldn’t want them acting on selfish whims, right? So, in short, I died satisfied. I didn’t want to come back to life. In that sense, I suppose we’re both victims of bad luck.”

The moment I realized that she was telling the truth, I felt something rise within me. The feeling of not being able to say anything.

“You interfered with everything, and now you say that?”
“That’s simply because your goals clashed with mine. If you hadn’t targeted the spirits, we never would’ve had to fight. Am I wrong?”

She wasn’t wrong. I only lashed out because I had nowhere else to aim my frustration. The moment Makoto returned as Finis, my plans were already ruined. No—perhaps they had been doomed since the day I was born, given the collapse of the world.

And no one would build plans accounting for people to return from the dead as supernatural beings. At this point, I could only chalk it up to misfortune.

“Well, I did have some feelings about the heroes, so I won’t deny I played around a little. But I’ve done nothing to affect the current situation. You could say… it was inevitable.”

So this was the thing I would have been better off not hearing. In other words, the current situation wasn’t Finis’ plan. It was my own doing. My fault. If she had said it was her fault, I might have found some small comfort in that.

But I had never really believed it was her doing in the first place. So it didn’t sting at all.

“I am cursed with bad luck, aren’t I… So then—what’s become of Fraus now?”

I had only asked about Finis out of curiosity, to gauge how much of the truth she was willing to share. And now I was certain—Finis was willing to tell me everything, without a single lie. Because to someone who would die tomorrow, the truth made no difference.