The three people in the room stared at each other, no one speaking. The Crazy Mita of this world walked to Alain's side. The black-haired player looked at their weapons and finally spoke. "Is this... a romance, raising, battle, casual, R18 galgame?"

"...Barely," Alain nodded. For him, it certainly had tendencies of all of the above. But if they hadn't come out just now, this player would likely have been facing a horror game.

"Sigh..." the black-haired player sighed. "Can I ask when I can go home? I haven't finished my work yet."

"Alain..." Crazy Mita tugged on his sleeve, leaning against his shoulder and whispering into his ear, "This player is so boring. You're much more interesting."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Alain sighed, gently pushing her little head away and nonchalantly taking her hand. "If you want to try and see if you can go back, then come with us."

With that, he and his bad woman walked toward the closet. The black-haired player looked on in confusion as the two held hands like lovers, then scratched his head. "This is so weird." Still, his feet obediently followed them.

Alain opened the closet, revealing the iron door behind it. The black-haired player stared, dumbfounded, at the door inside the closet, further suspecting that he was, in fact, in some kind of romance-raising game. It wasn't until the girl who looked like Mita, but somehow wasn't his Mita, took out a key and opened the door that a long, snake-like staircase and a secret room were revealed before him. The two in front didn't seem to find this strange at all, like NPCs in a new player tutorial. The young man turned his head and said, "Keep up," then walked down the stairs with the girl.

The black-haired player silently followed.

As they progressed, the three of them soon arrived at the cage where Kind Mita was. They found that she had already opened the iron bars and was standing in front of the cage, waiting.

"Ah, sorry. I was so worried about you all, so I..." Kind Mita looked with some surprise at the black-haired man behind the two of them. Huh? There's another player? How strange...

Then her attention was drawn to the hands held by Alain and that other Mita. For some reason, she felt a little uncomfortable.

"My dear."

Alain's words brought her back to her senses. When she looked at him again, the young man had already placed his greatsword to the side and held out his hand.

"Give me the ring."

"Eh? How did you know..." Kind Mita muttered, wondering if she had mentioned this topic before. She didn't dwell on it and raised her hand to give Alain the ring. But halfway through, the long-haired girl changed her mind. Her small hand took Alain's larger one.

In the gazes of Crazy Mita and the black-haired player, she personally slipped the ring onto Alain's ring finger. After carefully adjusting the angle, she looked at him with a blush. "Is it comfortable like that?"

"...Mmm, it is," Alain said, barely managing to ignore his bad woman's stare and the faint sound of a revving chainsaw. He remembered how, back then, he was the one who had tricked the still-Kind-Mita into putting the ring on him. He never thought the tables would turn like this.

"Let's go! Can I help you carry your greatsword?" Kind Mita took his free hand and, along the way, picked up the greatsword from the side.

And so, Alain's left and right hands were each occupied by a lovely girl. What could he do? Could he refuse? He could only walk back toward the basement door amidst the silent competition between the two on either side of him. "Let's go," he said, turning back to urge the other one on.

As for the black-haired player, the romantic atmosphere radiating from the three of them once again made him overthrow his theory that "Mita is not a romance game." Indeed, it was a romance game; he was just the one who didn't quite fit in. He really wanted to go home and code, to code until the sky turned dark. Lost in thought, he followed the three of them.

And Alain's solemn gaze was fixed on the approaching doorknob. He understood that this door was likely the "key" to success or failure. His gaze fell back. Besides his bad woman, there was also Kind Mita, and the unexpected person—the black-haired player. If he was going to clear this, it had to be now.

He temporarily let go of the two girls and took a step forward. He grasped the doorknob and pulled it down. With a click, he could clearly see the ring undergo some kind of sudden change. But faster than that, a vast expanse of black and red light washed over them.

At this point, Alain understood: time had reset again.

"But, what exactly did we do wrong?"

As the black and red light faded, a clearer outline of a world appeared. Lines, straight and curved, formed the shape of a building, like a sketch. Where Alain's gaze fell was a vast area filled with all sorts of instruments, and in the center of the ceiling, a circular "throne." The throne seemed to be facing away from him, so he couldn't see the figure on it clearly. He could only glimpse the black shadow of a pair of slender feet.

Then, all the lines crumbled, and black and red gave way to a chaos of pink and white.

And just like that, the soft pink bedroom was before him again.

And in his ears, he once again heard the clang, clang of a steel pipe.

"We're back," he concluded. He looked behind him. His bad woman was also looking at her own hands in confusion. "We did it so perfectly, how could we have failed?" she grumbled. "We brought the right puppet and the right traitor, didn't we?"

"It seems that way," Alain said. But at least he had a clue: taking Misa/wearing the ring/taking both Misa and the ring at the same time was definitely part of the clear condition. As for the player's existence... Alain didn't think he had made a mistake. Rescuing that player had to be one of the clear conditions. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to see the black and red outline more clearly. He could distinctly feel the solid ground beneath his feet that time, even if it crumbled in an instant.

As for that clearer outline after the black and red light... he had been to the Core once before and had a glimpse of its main color scheme: also black and red, with a lot of electronic equipment. He feared that after clearing this, they would arrive at the Core. It was like an invitation, which would save him a lot of trouble. Even if it was a dangerous invitation from an enemy—the Modified Entity, and the owner of those slender feet.

Mentioning the black-haired player, however, confused Alain. His bad woman clearly didn't know about that. This meant that this place wasn't the "past," at least not their past. Could it be... something like a parallel world? He didn't understand. But he had another theory besides "parallel world." He was just missing some information.

For now, he refocused his attention on the clear conditions. In the context of the ring and Misa, bringing the black-haired player through the door with them seemed optional.

"Oh?" He remembered what his bad woman had said, that word, "bring." Wait, do we have to physically bring him for it to count as complete?

As of now, the idea of opening the door with Kind Mita and the ring was correct. And the idea of rescuing that player was also correct. Then, bringing the player with them to open the door... Perhaps the reason for their failure lay right there.

______

New History: A heart of Ice With a Romance System.

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