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Even while Dina published a game in Japan and continued to send information to Ruphas’s avatar, she frequently went back to Midgard.

The reason behind this was to observe the Demon King, Orm.

Originally, he was supposed to leave the stage once Ruphas was overthrown. However, for some strange reason, he acted out the farce of beating back the heroes.

As a result, it was only natural for the Goddess to have some misgivings about him. In the end, Dina was given the order to observe the Demon King.

For Dina, who was undertaking activities in Japan, this order turned out to be a miscalculation that she could not feel joyful about.

Even more annoying was the fact that the Sun Ouroboros’s avatar developed an ego of its own and started acting as a subordinate of the Goddess.

By this point, Pollux, Parthenos, Taurus and Aquarius had already commenced with the act of sealing the ouroboroses. Nevertheless, it was not as if they could completely keep everything under control.

There were chances that the ouroboroses would whimsically create avatars, and there were also chances that those avatars would have egos of their own.

It was just that the worst-case scenario had come to pass.

In other words, on one hand, Dina had to show that she was properly observing the Demon King, whilst on the other, she needed to hide the fact that she had betrayed the Goddess.

Calling her a double agent… would have been an understatement.

When she was amongst the demons, she had to completely act as a faithful servant of the Goddess. At the same time, she had to come and go between Japan and Midgard.

Yet there was also a positive side of this miscalculation. Because of it, she was able to meet with the Demon King, who was also rebelling against the Goddess, and establish a cooperative relationship with him so that they could use each other as covers.

Exactly… the Demon King was already aware of Dina’s new identity. He was already aware of it, yet he allowed her to continue playing around.

After all, he knew it would profit him more this way.

And on that fateful day…

It was the Goddess’s suggestion to implant an alternate ego into Ruphas.

By implanting a random person from Japan, who would have been living in complacency due to a long period of peace, Ruphas would become an entity who would be easier for her to control, turning her into a chess piece for the Goddess.

Yet not even the Goddess could have guessed that Ruphas had long integrated into Japan and hidden herself using a clone.

Ruphas and Dina used this opportunity to their advantage and blatantly copied the memories and ego of Ruphas’s avatar, retrieved the fragment of her soul and returned it to Ruphas before bringing her back to Midgard, successfully summoning her back.

In other words, the true identity behind Ruphas at that point was… the real Ruphas herself, who was playing the role of “someone else who was possessing Ruphas”.

That was why she showed no hesitation when she needed to fight other people. That was why she did not feel agitated even after taking the lives of others.

It was only natural that she felt no sexual urges towards other women, and the way she spoke was only fixed to how it was because, subconsciously, she did not want to lose sight of herself.

And in the end, roleplaying was roleplaying… as long as there was some external stimulus, the actor would wake up.

For example, I’m sure you’ve experienced dreams before. In those dreams, have you ever found yourself in a setting which was otherworldly and could not have existed in reality? Or, alternatively, a dream where you became a character in your favourite game or fictional work?

And at that time, did you notice that you were playing the role of that character without feeling out of place?

After you woke up and regained your rationality, you might have asked yourself, “What was that dream? As if something like that is possible.” However, even if such a massive turnaround happened afterwards, during the time you were experiencing the dream, you would not have considered the whole situation to be strange in any way. However weird it is, when you are within a dream, you would think of yourself as yourself.

Of course, there are times where you may notice that you are dreaming even while you are within a dream.

Nevertheless, in most cases, you wouldn’t recognise that you were inside a dream.

Even if what was happening was such a ridiculous situation that you would instantly know it was a dream if you were awake, you probably wouldn’t question it until you actually woke up.

In that case, would you say that the you inside the dream is not yourself?

The answer to that was, again, no. Although you had to unconditionally accept the setting and act all throughout the dream without questioning the situation, you were still yourself.

Ruphas could be said to have been in such a state. Long story short, Ruphas had been dreaming of “someone who took possession of Ruphas”.

But in the end, what had happened was analogous to being half-asleep or daydreaming. As a result, by fighting against strong opponents such as Benetnash, she could not help but gradually open her eyes.

At that time, she momentarily woke up fully, but noticing that it was not yet the right time, she forcibly went back to sleep and continued roleplaying.

Yet her sleep had definitely become lighter, thus, she was returning back to her real self.

All of that was in accordance with Ruphas and Dina’s plans. It was in place to deceive the eyes of the Goddess.

For example, if Ruphas had resurrected back on Midgard in her complete state from the beginning, the Goddess would have moved the ouroboroses without even giving her time to gather her allies.

To prevent that from happening, Ruphas needed to purposefully act like a clown.

But that was now over. Now, the Twelve Heavenly Stars had all been gathered and her preparations were complete.

All that remained was for her to remove the obstacles and gain the right to challenge the Goddess.

As such… Dina completely removed all effects caused by the memory perception skill that she had cast on Ruphas.

*

I woke up from my dreams.

Although it turned out to be quite cliché, the way I (ore) – no, I suppose there isn’t any reason for me to continue roleplaying.

The way that I (watashi) am right now feels just right.

I don’t have the sensation of having roleplayed as someone else nor do I feel like I’ve become someone else.

My memories didn’t get cut off midway but continued seamlessly. Whether it be before I was sealed, while I was daydreaming or in my current state, all of them are me myself. I had never become someone else.

I went to sleep at night, had a dream, and in that dream, I played out the role of myself in a slightly different setting without any questions, then I was woken up by someone because it was morning. I suppose it’s something like that.

Until now, I was worried that I might be taken over by Ruphas and I would stop being myself, but all of that feels so stupid now.

Now that everything has been unveiled, it turns out that it was all a one-man show that I had been playing by myself. I was roleplaying myself while being terrified of myself.

If I may say so myself, how laughable I was. Truly comical.

“– Ahh… yep. I had a good sleep. It’s not every day that I get to experience being so invigorated.”

“I’m sure it was. After all, you were sleeping for over two hundred years.”

The way that I spoke was no longer fixed as it previously was. Now that I had completely registered myself as myself, if it was something as measly as the way I spoke, I could change it however I wanted on a whim.

Besides, the way I spoke was like this from the beginning. If I had to pick a point to fix, then it would just be about the first-person pronoun that I used.

“Thanks for everything that you’ve done until now, Ophiuchus. You did well in fooling everyone and completing your task in its entirety. I doubt anyone else could have done what you did… Let me express my gratitude.”

“Your words are wasted on me.”

You did well… Those were the only three words that I had in mind.

Dina had successfully deceived me, successfully deceived the world, successfully deceived the humanoids, successfully deceived the demons and successfully deceived even the Goddess herself.

She managed to feed me information little by little and guided me to the truth by making me doubt her. She managed to prevent the annihilation of the humanoids by manipulating the demon race, and while she was at it, she even managed to evade the supervision of the Sun Ouroboros.

By carefully timing her actions and moving around ostensibly, she was able to make Terra suspicious of her, allowing her to run away from the demon race. This must have been to get away from the watchful eyes of the Sun Ouroboros.

She then matched Pollux’s movements and ran away without anyone else suspecting that she would do so at the time, and whilst pretending to lay low, she moved herself to a world where the Goddess was not looking. Finally, after directing me to where she went, she successfully managed to wake me up.

Image from Light Novel Volume 7

For now… I guess I’ll check my own status once.

[Ruphas Mafahl]
Level 4200
Species: Flugel
Class level
Warrior 200
Sword Master 200
Archer 200
Gunner 200
Grappler 200
Champion 200
Monster Tamer 200
Alchemist 200
Ranger 200
Strider 200
Acolyte 200
Priest 200
Esper 200
Psychic 200
Mage 200
Sorcerer 200
The Archenemy 1000

HP 4 405 000
SP 99 999
STR (Strength/Attack power): 80 580
DEX (Dexterity): 38 025
VIT (Vitality) 53 170
INT (Intelligence): 65 370
AGI (Agility/Speed): 65 034
MND (Mindpower): 45 045
LUC (Luck): 49 194

Equipment
Head: __
Right Arm: __
Left Arm: __
Body: Long sleeve shirt & Jeans
Foot: Fashionable leather boots
Others: A jumper

Good, no changes compared to before I was sealed.

Although I was worried that I might have become a bit rusty, it seemed that it was a good thing I was still exercising even when I was daydreaming.

Without a doubt, I was in my best condition. If it’s now, I felt like I could destroy even the Sun just by punching it.

Although I had an urge to test things out, I was currently in Japan. If I did something like that, the whole place would perish just from the resulting shockwave.

As a result, I decided to hold off on the enjoyment of having a test run until I got back to the other world.

When I turned back to look at the two of them, Dina was smiling even though she was sweating profusely and Benet had her arms crossed while looking at me with a battle-ready expression.

For now, I decided to undo the skill Alkaid. There was no benefit to be had from releasing my power where I was.

“…… fuuu.”

Dina sighed out loud as if she was feeling a sense of relief.

It seemed that when I had my power released in my serious state, those in my surroundings could not help but feel unnecessarily intimidated from the pressure I gave off.

When I looked down at my arm, the bracelet that I was wearing in order to seal my abilities had cracks running through it.

From the looks of things, it was unable to properly rein in my full power and had broken instead. What a wasteful thing I had done.

Well, I supposed it would be fine if I fixed it later.

“Honestly, I don’t get the full story… but long story short, everything was in the palm of your hand. Everything that happened during that battle two hundred years ago and onwards.”

“I (watashi) do feel sorry for fooling you. But back then, I had no other option but to do what I did. If I had ended up winning, the Goddess would have moved the ouroboroses in order to reset everything.”

Two hundred years ago, I broke my promise to settle everything with Benet and acted as the loser.

However, by that time, I had already been cornered. Even if I had won the battle, it was already in a state where nothing would have been left.

Assuming that I had won at that time… the Goddess would have awakened the ouroboroses and all lives on Midgard would have perished.

If that had happened, it would have been my loss. A victory where nothing remained on hand was essentially no different from a loss.

As such, at that time, I had no option but to lose and leave the stage. Furthermore, I could not have had the powerful force known as Benet disappear along with me as collateral damage by getting her involved.

“… You… your first-person pronoun…”

“Yeah, I’m back to how I used to be. After all, I’m not a king or anything of the sort anymore. I’m starting again as just Ruphas Mafahl.”

Until now, I had been referring to myself as “I (ore)” in my mind and had been voicing “I (yo)” when I talked.

But in the end, it most likely turned out that way because I was unable to properly balance my mind and my body.

The “me (ore)” that I had been acting as and my vanity as a ruler that had subconsciously seeped into my identity after a long period of time entangled with each other, resulting in that strange outcome.

But all of that was over now. The current “me (watashi)” was no longer “me (ore)” nor the Supreme Ruler (yo).

Now, I was just an individual from the flugel race who was being a sore loser and came back for a second round, even though I had already lost once and gotten off the stage.

So it did not seem like a bad idea to go back to how I originally was. Back to when I was fighting as just an individual adventurer.

After actually seeing from the perspective of a third party, I understood something. That after I became a ruler, I was too hasty.

I chased after ideals for no reason other than to reach those ideals. I didn’t bother to turn around and look at those around me. And if it was for the sake of reaching my goals, I employed any form of atrocity without any hesitation or remorse.

Although I had previously said this already… it was only natural that I was betrayed.

Just the fact that I was able to notice all of that meant that I had benefited from having gone through this entire farce.

“By the way, Ophiuchus… or would you prefer to be called Dina instead?”

“Whichever is fine.”

“I see. Then, Dina… did ‘that person’ finally show their tail?”

“Yes. Just as my lady predicted they would.”

When I heard Dina say that, I reflexively smiled.

In unison, Dina also smiled as she brushed her hair back.

It seemed that the act of devoting ourselves to being clowns had paid off.

All thanks to that, we were able to make that certain individual drop their guard.

As a result, that individual had committed a mistake that they would not be able to weasel their way out of.

As such, all we had to do now was capture them.

“Now then…”

I brushed aside the hair in front of my face and faintly smiled.

The Twelve Heavenly Stars had all been gathered. We had traveled throughout the humanoids’ domain and met up with Megrez, Merek and Mizar.

We had almost reached our goal. There were only a few enemies remaining.

No, from the very beginning, there was only really one entity that could even be called an enemy.

As for Benet… although we were technically on opposing sides, she was more of my friend than an enemy. So I didn’t count her.

Anticipating my next words, Dina showed a nervous expression and Benet smiled whilst baring her fangs.

I then opened my mouth as if to live up to their expectations.

“Should we go and buy some food and games from this world before we go back home?”

– The two of them fell down at the same time.

“Hey, wait a minute, Ruphas-sama, you did not just do that!? You were so charismatic and about to say something like a major boss just then!”

“Mafahl, are you fooling around, you *******?”

Although the two of them had started ranting at me –

Aaaa, aaaa, I don’t hear anything.

Charisma is meant to be broken. Even that certain vampire from a certain fictional work said so.

Besides, it isn’t often that we come over to this world.

We haven’t even bought any souvenirs for the people in the other world.

On top of that… yeah, now that I’ve regained my memory, it turns out that I’m technically not a citizen of this world. In other words, I haven’t technically eaten any Japanese food other than the hamburger we had a short while ago that was from this world.

Now that I think about it that way, you get what I’m saying, right? I just have this irresistible urge to fill myself.

Huh? You’re saying I haven’t changed at all compared to before I regained my memory?

… Just leave me alone. Honestly, I’ve always been like this.

Image from Light Novel Volume 7