Record

In a previous loop, I created one very useful technique.

Its name: the Leila Network.

The purpose behind its creation was to prevent any potential signal tracing.

The method involved using my unique ability as a kind of relay.

In practice, I connected a camera to the Leila Network and then watched the Commander's bedroom in real time.

Its usefulness had already been proven beyond any doubt.

*But… that's not the true face of this technique.*

Just as the first antibiotic was born from a mold spore that drifted in by chance —

perhaps great inventions are sometimes born from accidents.

Hidden within the Leila Network was a truly astonishing function.

I first discovered it two days after the regression point.

It was the moment I was transferring footage from the camera to my terminal.

The battery of the hidden camera had apparently reached its limit at the worst possible time.

Midway through the download, the camera simply switched off.

— Oh no, I haven't finished saving it yet!

The Leila Network only connects devices, after all.

The footage is stored in the device's own memory.

Like one party pressing the end button while a call is still connected —

the download should have stopped as a matter of course.

— Wait, why is… the footage still downloading?

And yet, astonishingly, the download did not stop.

A bizarre phenomenon, as if a computer that hadn't been turned on was operating on its own.

I analyzed the technique thoroughly to find out why, and eventually discovered that the Leila Network stores the data it handles internally.

And immediately, my exceptional mind conjured up an idea.

What if, instead of building the Leila Network from scratch each time —

I designed it to load from its most recent state?

The fruit of that effort… had now revealed itself before my eyes.

"Ha ha, aha ha…. Ahahaha! It's here! It's really here!"

It was there.

Data that shouldn't be able to exist.

No — data that should never have been allowed to exist!

*The recorded footage from the previous loop is still here…!*

Even when I traveled back through time alongside the Commander —

the information inscribed in the Leila Network remained exactly as it was before the Regression.

In other words, I could retrieve the recorded footage from the previous loop completely intact.

My brain felt like it was boiling with the sheer disbelief of it.

The rush was like pulling a lever and watching profits multiply tenfold.

Overwhelmed by the swelling emotion, I clutched my own head and even shed tears.

"Ah, ahh… this, this can't be real…."

This was nothing short of a revolution.

Being able to carry over information from the previous loop?

The implication could be interpreted simply as this:

Something that had been physically impossible by any means —

I could now peek at the world that existed after my death!

What name should I give to the feeling I was experiencing right now?

I was so overjoyed that I felt like I could stride down the street completely naked.

"Phew… calm down…. I still don't know if there are any problems yet…."

Of course, there was no reason to relax until I'd actually opened it.

Something could have gone wrong in the process of carrying it over.

Stay composed. Composed… no, how was anyone supposed to stay composed about this.

Honestly, I had been far too curious for far too long.

Just what kind of reaction had the Commander shown after I died?

What expression had he worn, standing over me, completely cold and still?

But no matter how much I thought about it, there had been no way to find out.

I was already dead — what was I supposed to do, check somehow?

Was I going to claim I wasn't actually dead and open my eyes again?

So I had given up on it, accepting there was nothing to be done….

But with this — with this method — it was unmistakably possible.

No, it had already succeeded.

I had overcome the Regression and brought back evidence from the previous loop.

If this wasn't a miracle, what else could you call it?

"Haaa…. Should I… take a look…."

*Gulp.*

I swallowed without thinking, and my heart began to pound.

I picked up the terminal with the Leila Network active.

Then I pressed my fingertip against the charging port, sent a current through it —

and made the terminal's screen play the saved footage.

For a moment the screen flickered and crackled with instability —

and then a video surfaced on it.

*This is… the perspective from when I installed the camera.*

The footage was showing somewhere rather dim and dreary.

A narrow, damp-looking space with white walls on all sides.

Unless my eyes were deceiving me, this was unmistakably a shelter.

On the screen appeared a certain lovely young woman —

navy-blue hair, golden eyes, a neat and composed face.

Lumia's one and only Adjutant, Leila… that is to say, me.

[ "Hmm… can you see it properly?" ]

The me in the footage adjusted the camera angle this way and that, then looked down at the terminal and glanced back at the camera once more.

Perhaps I'd decided the framing was satisfactory enough.

I gave a single nod and left the room without a second thought.

That must have been when I'd installed the camera in advance, about half a day earlier.

Naturally, for quite a long while after that, the footage showed nothing but an empty space.

Since it wasn't normally in use, not a single sound could be heard.

I manipulated the playback bar and skipped forward in hour-long jumps.

It wasn't until I passed the five-hour mark that something changed.

[ "…!" ]

[ "Kiiieee…!" ]

A sharp, piercing crack and a faint, distant shriek.

That was probably the noise from my fight with Midir.

The camera shook unsteadily from the aftershocks of the battle.

And then, fast-forwarding from there by a few minutes —

the firmly shut door of the shelter was finally wrenched open.

[ "Leila…!" ]

[ "Hah… hk…!" ]

The ones who appeared were, of course, me and the Commander.

He carefully set my limp body down onto the bed —

and the expression on his deeply furrowed face was absolutely delightful to behold.

Was his mind beginning to erode from watching me die?

The Commander in the footage was visibly falling apart in a way you could feel just by looking.

Breathing in ragged gasps, sinking into despair, the focus draining from his eyes.

To put it plainly: a magnificently wrecked expression. Mmh, oh my…. For a Commander, no less….

And just as the Commander's heart was crumbling, on the verge of breaking completely —

just as I was climbing higher and higher, about to reach the very peak —

the me lying there bleeding did something utterly unnecessary.

[ "I'm sorry for being late…. Commander. I… remembered." ]

"Ah, ahh! What are you doing!"

I found myself scolding my past self without thinking.

It felt exactly like being interrupted by a mid-roll advertisement at the most critical moment.

Gritting my teeth, I stared intently at the terminal screen.

The Commander, on the verge of falling, barely managed to stop himself.

What he was looking at was my tear-streaked face, apologizing for being late.

Yujin wore an expression that looked, somehow, like salvation.

"Hmm…."

And just like that, the mood deflated completely.

To make it worse, the one who'd ruined it was me, with my own hands.

There was no one to even be angry at. Ah, the timing had been absolutely perfect, too.

I let out a small sigh and lightly skipped through the footage.

It had been necessary to keep the Commander from breaking down completely.

But there was nothing particularly entertaining about rewatching this part.

What mattered more was the last moment I remembered —

the scene where I took the Commander's hand and made a promise about next time.

[ "Next time, I'll definitely… remember…." ]

Here, I had used Sentiment to put myself into a state of suspended animation.

My body growing cold, my breathing stopping, my heart slowing —

at a glance, it wouldn't be strange at all to mistake it for death.

Fortunately, the footage didn't cut out.

Since I was still alive, and I'd fed plenty of current into the camera —

it seemed my unique ability had continued without interruption.

Now then — what reaction had the Commander shown upon seeing my corpse?

I sincerely hoped he'd shown something delightful.

I swallowed hard and fixed my gaze on the screen.

The Commander in the footage gripped my hand tightly in both of his.

Then he squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head, as if in prayer.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds…. Two full minutes passed and his posture didn't change.

"…Huh. That's it?"

Honestly, I was a little annoyed.

He cares about me that much, and he can't even cry in front of my corpse?

After everything I was expecting — wasn't that a bit much?

But thinking it over carefully, it wasn't strange.

I had stuffed him full of hope that we'd meet again next time.

If anything, grieving here would have been the stranger reaction.

Still, even so, this wasn't exactly what I'd been hoping for….

As I sat there tapping the floor with my foot in mild disappointment —

the footage suddenly erupted with noise and the door swung open.

[ "Commander! Are you safe?!" ]

[ "…Inspector." ]

[ "Ugh…. That person is…." ]

The one who appeared was none other than Lute.

Her entire body was a mess of blood and wounds —

but it seemed she had somehow managed to deal with Midir.

She was breathing in rough, ragged gasps as she checked on the Commander's safety.

Soon her gaze drifted to my body lying on the bed.

Technically it was a state of suspended animation that only looked like death —

but Lute, having confirmed the severity of the injuries, took on a somehow darkened expression.

An unexpected gain.

I paused the footage for a moment and captured Lute's face.

[ "The Erosion Species I just fought had wounds on it. They were probably carved there by Leila. The fact that she's in the shelter must mean…." ]

[ "…." ]

[ "Ugh…. I said something unnecessary. Please stay here safely. I'll go resolve the situation outside as quickly as I can." ]

There wasn't any particular connection between Lute and me to speak of.

And yet she was clearly grieving over my death.

Perhaps she felt a sense of kinship from belonging to the same headquarters.

But even at those words, the Commander didn't move an inch.

Like someone too busy sorting through the thoughts in their head.

He kept holding my hand tightly even as Lute departed.

Several minutes passed in the footage like that.

Just as I was beginning to wonder when he would ever move —

the Commander slowly raised himself and reached toward my body.

*Ew. Commander, don't tell me you have that kind of taste?*

Fortunately, it was nothing of the sort.

As if wanting to send me off looking presentable —

he laid me in a proper position and wiped the blood from my face.

Right. There was no way the Commander would have that kind of taste. I believed in him.

[ "…I'll come to meet you." ]

There was a single pistol prepared inside the shelter.

It was a sidearm kept purely as a last resort for self-defense.

But the Commander aimed it at himself without a moment's hesitation.

A natural, unhurried movement, as if he had not a single regret.

And the moment the gunshot rang out, the footage cut off.

The camera should have still had battery remaining.

Perhaps as time rewound, the entire timeline had been rendered as though it never existed —

or perhaps the cause was that I had regressed alongside him at that very instant.

It seemed I had no way of confirming what happened after the Commander died.

Well, I'd set that part aside to think about later.

My impression after watching the footage up to this point was this:

"Hmm, it was… less exciting than I expected."

Well, that was unavoidable, I supposed.

At this point in time, the Commander would have had no reason to grieve my death.

His head must have been completely full of thoughts of meeting me again in the next loop.

Haah… in the 1st and 2nd loops, it would have been genuine.

But those feelings wouldn't be coming back.

What a shame. Truly. It felt like losing something irreplaceable….

Going forward, I should make sure not to forget to record the precious moments.

"Phew…. Still, it's a memento. I'll keep this footage in permanent storage."

The data preservation of the Leila Network was closer to temporary storage.

It was something like data sitting in a working memory area.

If I used the network again, it would probably be overwritten by new footage.

So how could I preserve this permanently?

I had one good idea.

*Dedicate a portion of my unique ability's domain exclusively to data storage.*

When time reverses, everything that existed in between is undone —

but the way my unique ability is utilized has a property that persists.

So I intended to use it as a kind of memory.

Of course, this would permanently consume a portion of the ability's domain —

which meant there was a possibility the output of the unique ability itself would decrease.

Like only being able to fire four bolts of lightning instead of five.

But that was more than worth enduring.

Data that survives even through a Regression without disappearing —

what in the world could be more important than that?

*The name…. I'll call it something fitting — Memory Corridor, perhaps.*

Good. That makes it complete.

With this, my memories with the Commander would remain with me forever.

If the data grew too large, my power would weaken proportionally —

but I could just delete whatever wasn't important when that time came.

"Fwah… all done! Satisfied, thoroughly satisfied!"

Having completed the new technique, I threw myself onto the bed.

I'd wrung my brain to its absolute limit using my unique ability.

I wanted to lie down for a bit and let it rest at its leisure.

Not that I intended to sleep, of course.

I wanted to prepare the Sentiment as early as possible.

I still had to do the work of carefully embedding needles into my body later.

Maybe I'd lie down for just ten minutes before getting back up?

I lay on the soft bed and turned on the terminal.

And I replayed the beginning of the earlier footage once more.

"Ten minutes is enough time for about one…."

Even by my own assessment, it seemed like my brakes had completely failed —

but this wasn't really my fault.

It was Leila's needlessly sensitive body that was to blame.

Yes, yes. Just a short rest, then back to work.

Just for a moment, just once….

Perhaps because I wasted so much time like that —

it wasn't until dawn was breaking that I finally completed the Sentiment.

I was newly grateful, all things considered, for the resilient body of a Valkyrie.