“Rekka, can I borrow your shower?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Sherlyn had come from overseas, so she was resting at my place for now too. Chelsea had tried to take her back to her place, but she smoothly turned her down and chose to stay at my place instead. Well, Chelsea’s apartment was a few stations away like Hibiki’s was, so I guess it was easier to just stay here. Thanks to Satsuki and the Laputian king, we’d returned in town not too far from my house. And it was a good thing, too. I was exhausted from our time-traveling, high-flying, water-racing adventure.
“And to think I still have school tomorrow. I want to rest, but my attendance...”
It was a difficult decision. I really wanted a break... This was probably why Chirika had said I was lacking diligence, huh?
All things considered, this was the first time I’d ever had to part ways with a heroine for good. While there had been heroines who lived in space or other worlds, I could still go visit them whenever I wanted.
But, well, considering all the stories I get caught up in, I guess something like this was bound to happen eventually. Really, it was more amazing that all the heroines I’d rescued so far came together like they did.
Why were there so few farewells with the heroines anyway? I think R said something about how her story prevented them from leaving in the middle, right? Wait... In that case, why did I part with the heroines this time? Unless...
Just as I was pondering deeply about such things, the doorbell rang.
“Ah, a guest.”
“It’s fine, Harissa. Let me get it for once.”
I stopped Harissa from getting up and headed towards the front door.
“Coming! Now, who could it... be?”
The sight that awaited me when I opened the door was...
“Long time no see, Rekka.”
“It’s been a while.”
“It has, boy.”
The politely bowing Nyanyan, a gently smiling Chirika, and the king of Laputa all greeted me.
▽
For now, the four of us moved to the living room. Harissa was quite surprised to see them, but Rachelle had a hungry look in her eyes, so I tied her up with a rope and left her in my room on the second floor before she got too annoying.
At any rate... the three people sitting on the sofa were no different than when we last saw them just a short while ago. If anything, the only thing that had changed was their outfits; they were now all dressed in modern clothing. The Laputian king was even on a Segway instead of her flying sphere.
“...All right, please explain what’s going on, Your Majesty.”
“Oh... You want us to explain it?”
“You seem the most knowledgeable, after all.”
“Very well...” Sandwiched by Nyanyan and Chirika on the sofa, the Laputian king nodded once. “We used our cloning technology to transfer their memories and put them into cold sleep... only to wake them in the modern era.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because they requested it, of course,” she replied, glancing over at the girls in question.
I followed her gaze.
“Is that true, you two? But why?”
“Because we wanted to see you again,” answered Nyanyan. “After parting ways with Rekka, we Atlantians were taken in by the people of Shangri-La.”
“Really?”
“Yes. We were foreigners to the people of this land, so it wasn’t easy for us to settle here. But after we’d helped them, the people of Shangri-La were happy to welcome us there, so we staked out some land and made a life for ourselves with them.”
“Wow... But could all the Atlantians really fit in Shangri-La?”
“It’s another dimension, so to speak, so it was a much bigger world than you might expect.”
I see. Apparently what I saw of Shangri-La was only a small part of it.
“That’s great.”
“Yes. Without Atlantis, I was able to cast aside my title as king and simply work together with everyone to live happily.”
Nyanyan lowered her eyes slightly as she recalled those days. Her face looked exactly like it had when I last saw her, yet she seemed so much more mature.
“That was how I was able to fulfill my duty, but I still had one last regret I couldn’t shake.”
And that was probably her wish to see me again, I guess.
“That was when I asked the king of Laputa, who I remained friends with even after I moved to Shangri-La, and had her make a new body to copy my memories into. She then put me to sleep until your time period rolled around so I could come see you after you returned from Atlantis.”
“I see... Well, I guess I understand things from Nyanyan’s point of view now.”
I looked to Chirika next. When she noticed my gaze, she simply raised an eyebrow.
“But what about you, Chirika? You returned to your time period, right? So what made you go back to the Laputian king?”
“My reasons were the same as Nyanyan’s,” Chirika answered readily with a smile. “Let me tell you about what happened first. When I returned to my original time, there was no legend of the Gold Yaksha, and the princess was safe and sound.”
“I see. That’s great.”
“Indeed. After that, I intended on serving her until my body crumbled to dust... But one day, the princess dismissed me.”
“Dismissed?”
“To put it simply, I was fired.”
“Huh?! But why?”
Despite my surprise, Chirika continued to talk with a peaceful expression.
“She told me I was always looking off into the distance and thinking of someone else. The princess had already wed by that time, so my duty as a bodyguard was mostly ceremonial. She said that she was freeing me to go search for my own happiness.”
So that’s what she meant by a dismissal. I was relieved it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
“And so, I relied on my memory of that time you were taking photos of the mountain to find the Great Library of the Heavens, and I had the king of Laputa accommodate me.”
“I see.”
I mostly understood what was going on after hearing them out, though I still had some questions.
“But aren’t the two of you rather young? Based on your stories, you both were much older when you went back to the king of Laputa...”
“Don’t mention age,” Chirika said with a sharp glare, making me shrink away.
“Cloning doesn’t copy the age of the body at the moment of cloning. It takes the genetic information from one’s cells and grows a new body through cell division. From there, the body can be put into cold sleep at any age,” Nyanyan explained carefully, clearing up my questions for now. “We wanted to reunite with you as the girls you knew.”
“Indeed.”
Their appearances were identical to how they looked when I saw them last, yet there was something serene about the both of them now. Perhaps that was the effect of the lives they’d lived and all the experience they’d accumulated in the meantime. Incidentally, the two of them were both freeloading at the Great Library of the Heavens right now. They were learning everything they needed to know about the modern era from the king of Laputa.
“Come to think of it, is the Great Library of the Heavens still disguised as a mountain? Where is it?”
“Roughly 30 minutes south of here.”
“Oh, that’s nice—wait, that’s really close!”
There were quite a few mountains in the countryside, but... to have a beast sealed underground, a former flying island camouflaged as a mountain, and a vampire’s estate not too far away... That could only happen in this town.
“And so...” There, Chirika abruptly cleared her throat. “Now that you’ve reunited with us like this... Don’t you have something to say?”
“Yeah, I’m definitely glad to see you again.”
“That’s not it. Isn’t there anything else?”
“Well, uh...”
“What about to
me?”
For some reason, Nyanyan joined the conversation, and the both of them looked right at me. I could tell they wanted something, but I wasn’t sure what.
“Erm... Would you like to stay for dinner? Harissa’s cooking is delicious.”
“Raaaargh!”
“Urrrrgh!”
The two of them instantly fell off the sofa.
“Hey, you! The first thing you have to say upon seeing me after I’ve been pining for tens, no, hundreds of years is praise for another woman’s cooking?!” Chirika immediately stood back up and grabbed my collar with all her might, lifting me up.
“H-Hey, it may have seemed like several hundred years to you, but we were separated for less than an hour to me!”
“See? That’s why I told you it’d be more effective to wait three days. Chirika just had to insist on coming to see you as soon as possible,” Nyanyan said with a sigh, causing Chirika’s face to turn bright red.
“But you wanted to see him just as much! And don’t reveal things like that!” she yelled loudly as she repeatedly hit Nyanyan.
But it was my turn next. The still-red Chirika then violently pointed a finger and a glare my way.
“And you! Just why do you think I came here to see you in the first place?! You should be able to tell that—”
Just as Chirika was about to shout the last half of her sentence, the living room door opened with a clack as Sherlyn walked in, having finished her shower.
“Oh? Nyanyan and Chirika... The king, too. What are you all doing here?”
“Hold it right there, Sherlyn! Put on a shirt first!”
She’d managed to get a bottom on, so how come she was only wearing a towel draped over her shoulders on her upper half?!
“What? But I get hot after I take a shower...”
“Just do it!”
I pushed Sherlyn down the corridor while trying to avert my eyes. After a few minutes, she returned with clothes on, and we rehashed Nyanyan and Chirika’s stories for her.
“Hmm...”
As she dried her hair with a towel, Sherlyn gave the two girls a knowing nod. They both looked away.
“Well, I was hoping to cunningly steal a certain treasure like a phantom thief, but I guess this means I have to give up for today.”
“What treasure?”
Was there anything in my house that was worth stealing to a phantom thief? Don’t tell me she wanted my wallet...
“Your chastity.”
“Bwuh?!”
The words that left Sherlyn’s mouth made everyone other than the Laputian king nearly jump out of their seat. And then there was R, of course, who was her usual self.
“Sherlyn! What are you saying?!”
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that you caught my eye. I’m the type that likes to take the things I want, you see.” Sherlyn laughed heartily, without a care for the incredible glares that were being directed at her. “Hmm, I wonder if I should move to this area too. Are there still free apartments in the building Chelsea lives in?”
For some reason, Sherlyn began pondering her plans for the future. Was it just my imagination, or was the temperature in the room gradually rising? I was at loss, cold sweat dripping down my back, when all of a sudden I heard a loud stomping from the next floor and then someone running down the stairs.
“I have detected a large amount of love energy and descended! Now, where is it?! Show me that lovely scene of carnage!”
It was Rachelle. She’d apparently been able to rip right through the rope with her freshly replenished love energy.
“Hey, wait a minute, Sherlyn. I’ve waited 500 years for this, you know? You should at least give me the first go.”
“In that case, I’ve waited a thousand years longer than you, Chirika! If you’re going to talk about order, shouldn’t I go first?”
“Isn’t it first come, first served?”
“Aah, yes! That’s it! Premium love energy is flowing into meee!”
My living room was gradually descending into chaos...
“Hey, Your Majesty...”
“What?”
“Could you put me into cold sleep, too? Maybe until winter break?”
“Being sly like that won’t help you, boy.”
The king bluntly rejected me, and all I could do was look up at the ceiling and sigh.
—Fin—
Afterword
And so the legend continues... into the end of the twelfth volume of this legendary battlefield love comedy. To the Namekos continuing from volume 11, long time no see. To first time readers buying all 12 volumes at once, welcome! Nice to Nameko-meet you. What did you think of the stories that transcended time and space in this volume? I wanted to do something like this before, so being able to actually do it made me very happy, although it ended up kind of dense as a result... (*sweats*) I hope you were all able to enjoy it too.
Next, acknowledgments. To Mr. Nao Watanuki: we’ve almost reached 30 heroines, but thank you for designing such charming girls again this volume. The main heroines are lovely, but the minor character of the king of Laputa was my personal favorite.
On another note, the editor for this volume changed from Mr. Nanbu to Mr. Kinoshita. To Mr. Nanbu: thank you very much for supporting I Saved too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse all this time. To Mr. Kinoshita: I have a weird pen name, but I’m looking forward to working with you on the series from here on out.
And to all the personnel in the HJ Bunko editing and sales departments, the bookstores that put this book on the shelves, the readers that picked it up, and everyone else who has taken part in Little Apocalypse before, please accept my sincerest gratitude! I hope you’ll continue to support it.
I plan on bringing you volume four of Boku to Kanojo ga Geboku de Dorei de Shuujuu Keiyaku (from Fujimi Fantasy Bunko) next. I’ll work hard so that both series are enjoyable for everyone in the future too! Let’s meet again soon.
This is the illustrator, Nao Watanuki, here to take up a section of the afterword!
Your draft for this volume is the Gold Yaksha himself. His design was based on lion costumes, but in the final version he got a little rougher with a focus on the demon mask.
Boboza, however, was exactly the same as his draft. I quite like how detailed he ended up. His hand covers (?) match Nyanyan’s and are very seaweed-like. I hope he does his part to lead Atlantis justly!
Nao Watanuki
[Bubble] To Mr. Namekojirushi and all the editors, thank you for your hard work! I was saddened to learn that, as of this volume, the head editor would be changing. Thank you for your guidance all this time. I hope you will continue to watch over us from afar at your new workplace too. I’m sure Mr. Namekojirushi already did, but I’d like to take this chance to welcome the new editor too. I look forward to working with you from here on out!
Sorry my personal message got so long this time, but lastly, I’d like to thank the readers. I hope we meet again in the next volume!
It’s hot out there, but stay healthy!
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Copyright
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12
by Namekojirushi
Translated by Mana Z
Edited by Megan Denton
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 Namekojirushi
Illustrations Copyright © 2014 Nao Watanuki
Cover illustration by Nao Watanuki
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2014 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is publishe
d by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2019 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
J-Novel Club LLC
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: February 2019
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12 Page 17
