Nigel found Inas’s answer less intriguing than horrifying. The number alone was enough to knock the wind out of him.
“990,000?”
“Yes.”
“How many times have you even loop’d?”
“……”
Inas leaned back, as if the very question made him want to vanish. Nigel immediately moved closer. Rhino let out a quiet, irritated whine in protest beside them, but Nigel was far too absorbed to notice.
“Answer me.”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? It’s your own damn life!”
Nigel grabbed him and shook him. He tried to catch Inas’s eyes, but Inas kept averting his gaze.
“Inas.”
“I really don’t know…”
His voice, barely a whisper, flickered like a dying flame.
“I stopped counting. I didn’t want to see the numbers anymore. It’s probably tens of thousands. If you really want a number, I can check.”
“No… That’s fine.”
Nigel shook his head quickly. Inas, usually so unflinching, looked genuinely disturbed—forcing him to answer felt cruel.
“…Haah.”
Nigel rubbed his face with both hands in a dry, restless motion. He’d known Inas had loop’d an obscene number of times. But actually hearing it? That number in real terms? It was overwhelming. Just saying a number that high out loud would take a while—Inas had lived through that many lives. And the way he couldn’t even speak about it lightly made it even more painful.
“Inas…”
If you do something tens of thousands of times, eventually everything wears down—you wear down. Time enough to grind someone into dust. And Inas was still human. Even if he possessed powers that defied humanity, his core remained fragile.
“Nigel.”
Inas murmured, reaching out to clasp Nigel’s hand. His fingers, firmer now than they’d been when they first came here, laced tightly with Nigel’s. Meeting his gaze, Inas let a faint, satisfied smile curl his lips.
“Nigel… do you pity me?”
Not love—pity. The question was strange enough that Nigel didn’t answer right away. He just stared. Inas gently lifted Nigel’s hand and pressed it to his cheek.
“Please do.”
“…You want me to pity you?”
“Yes. Feel sorry for me. Pity me. And love me like that.”
Nigel stroked his cheek, his expression conflicted. The winter wind had left his skin rough—small and insignificant, but still somehow painful to see. No one else would feel that way from something so minor. But love makes even that pitiful.
“Love that begins in pity… isn’t love.”
“Love is love, no matter where it starts.”
Inas spoke with unwavering certainty.
“You already love me, Nigel. Just… care a little more, and take me back.”
“You mean… as lovers?”
“Yes.”
Nigel sighed. This guy. He’d barely held himself back the last time and shattered a chair on the way out—of course he was still aiming to get back together. And the worst part? The manipulation was almost cute. Which was bad. Very bad.
To avoid falling further, Nigel pulled his hand away.
“Don’t say stupid things—”
“Nigel.”
“I’m twelve years old. That kind of thing isn’t happening.”
Inas tilted his head.
“What kind of thing?”
“You know what I mean.”
Nigel glared, flustered. Inas chuckled softly.
“Doing anything with twelve-year-old Nigel? Never crossed my mind. You used to scold me just for teasing you. How far did your thoughts go this time?”
He said it so casually that Nigel’s face exploded into crimson. It wasn’t like he’d thought of anything explicit, but Inas’s words made it sound obscene, as if he was the pervert here.
Inas smirked as Nigel stared daggers at him.
“Fine. I’ll wait. I’m sure you’ll get proper sex ed this time.”
“……”
Nigel felt a cold sweat break out.
What exactly are you imagining…? He really wanted to ask, but he was too scared. Whatever the answer was, it’d be burned into his brain forever.
He awkwardly looked away. He needed a topic change. Any topic change.
“So… at 990,000 loops, you’ve probably done everything there is to do…”
“Nice topic shift.”
“S-Shut up. Just drop it.”
“Should I not explain, then?”
He knew that’s not what Nigel meant. Nigel gave him a dirty look, but Inas let it slide with a chuckle and smoothly moved on as if nothing had happened.
“Alright, back to the real topic… Before I explain, I’d like you to listen without misinterpreting me. Nigel—you’re always my first priority. No matter what.”
“…Okay.”
Nigel had no idea where this was going, but he couldn’t exactly refuse. After a pause, Inas began.
“Falling under Glarus’s influence is a regrettable turn, yes… but from the perspective of Achievements, it’s not entirely a loss. It’s opened up a new path.”
“This the first time I’ve been this deeply tied to the temple?”
“Not exactly. There was a route where you rose to the rank of High Priest…”
“Me? High Priest?”
Nigel looked appalled. He was from the Montstein family—a house that mistrusted Glarus—and he didn’t have the slightest divine power. How the hell would he become a High Priest?
“You’re joking. That can’t be real.”
“Fabrication and effort. Some convenient coincidences helped, too.”
So Inas had engineered it for him. No doubt that particular path had been paved with blood and scheming—not exactly priest-like behavior. The thought made Nigel shudder.
“That really doesn’t suit me.”
“You looked quite dashing in the celibate robes.”
Inas smiled. The way his eyes lit up at the word celibate was unsettling. Nigel refused to ask what he meant by it. When Inas looked disappointed, he quickly moved on with the explanation.
“But this current timeline is the first of its kind. The ‘Messenger of the God’, the sole recipient of Glarus’s revelation.”
“It’s not even real.”
“Even if the revelation is false, if the world believes it’s real, the system recognizes it. If you just lie, you’ll be branded a heretic. Though, admittedly, lying is also an Achievement I’ve already completed…”
“…What the hell have I been doing out there?”
“There were many different circumstances.”
Nigel grimaced. He hadn’t seen it himself, so these unconfirmed stories felt like they belonged to someone else.
“It doesn’t sound like me. Did I really do all that?”
“As I said—people can change drastically based on the situation. Just like you killing me.”
The blunt reminder made Nigel flinch, but Inas stayed perfectly composed.
“Heretic or High Priest, they’re still roles shaped by human hands. But this time, when you met Glarus… That wasn’t something I orchestrated. It was real. Genuine. With the Title of [Messenger of God], something the system itself acknowledges.”
“……”
“Even across all the Loops, this is the first time something like this has happened. It’s a miracle no human should be able to reach. That’s why I’ve been stacking Achievements at a record pace. I’ve already tallied four. With this kind of momentum, we should be able to hit thirty in this Loop alone.”
“Well… that’s good.”
The conversation had gotten weirder and weirder, but the end result was positive. Nigel had been worried things were spiraling—this was a rare stroke of luck.
Would Glarus not have accounted for that?
It crossed his mind, but if Inas completed the Loops through Achievements, even Glarus would benefit. Just like Nigel, it made sense for Glarus to secure multiple backup plans.
“So we need at least 27 more Achievements. There’s no guarantee we’ll get the same situation next Loop, so it’s safest to get them now.”
“Exactly.”
“That won’t be easy…”
“I can’t see every Achievement clearly, but when I come across a similar path, I can often get a rough idea. Would you mind if I used a bit of magic to explain?”
Nigel nodded, and Inas turned to face the air. A window began to form in front of him—an illusion, not the real system.
999,967
Caught the sea dragon Lucimus with a fishing rod.
999,968
Died from poisoning after eating the sea dragon Lucimus.
999,969
Completed the cooking recipe for sea dragon Lucimus.
999,970
Nigel Grau Montstein receives the revelation of the god Glarus.
999,971
Nigel Grau Montstein delivers his first revelation.
999,972
Nigel Grau Montstein delivers a false revelation.
999,973
Nigel Grau Montstein heads to ■■.
999,974
Nigel Grau Montstein’s first ■■?
999,975
?
“As you can see, this is how the Achievement Window appears.”
“…Wait. Is this a real reflection of the actual system?”
“Yes. But… is something wrong?”
Inas looked puzzled as Nigel stared back and forth between the window and him, visibly shocked.
“Lucimus the sea dragon… as in that Lucimus? From the Lucimus Sea?”
“Yes.”
“And… you caught that thing with a fishing rod?”
“Yes.”
How the hell?
If the dark god Edelta had the storm dragon Odelrat, then Glarus had the sea dragon Lucimus. A legendary being who had once helped Glarus fight Odelrat, now said to slumber peacefully in the Lucimus Sea. Unlike Odelrat, who remained sealed, Lucimus would sometimes awaken and aid people in troubled times.
Catching that benevolent beast—and cooking it? That was shocking enough. But the sheer size of Lucimus made the idea of fishing it up utterly absurd. Legends said the creature was the size of a village.
“How did you catch that?”
“I assumed it was impossible too… but I had nothing better to do, so I kept trying. Eventually, it worked. Though it took a lot of prep. You have to catch Odelrat first and use its bones and tendons to craft the fishing rod—that part’s tricky. Hard to do alone, so I had to gather blacksmiths from all over. And the materials need to be detoxified first, of course…”
“O-Okay! Got it!”
Nigel held his head, trying to stay sane, and stopped Inas before he started reciting blueprints.
“…You just prepare the rod and net. You use your hands to cast the line, but you need magic to lift the net. It’s not tasty, though. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Despite Nigel’s protests, Inas still finished the explanation. Was he… proud of it?
Nigel just looked horrified.
“Yeah. I really don’t want to eat that.”
He meant it from the bottom of his heart. Honestly, he’d rather chug Amantasa’s potion again.
