A heavy rainfall. Thunder resounding in every direction, paired with the sound of a torrential downpour.

As if to put a damper on Stella's day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Not only that, but since they weren't in the Great Forest yet, it meant that they'd have to make their way through the rainfall.

It wasn't really a problem since they were in carriages, plus the fact that Onii-chan, Erofu nee-chan, and both Ena and Eos were good with magic. But...

"Dammit, Rudy." Eris clicked her tongue from up ahead and said, "You didn't tell me the rain was going to be this bad."

Right. The problem was that Eris nee-chan was driving the carriage and their horse was getting spooked by the rain.

Though considering that the water outside was already halfway up the horse's leg, Stella didn't blame it.

But still. What kind of crazy weather did this world have? Arcadia's micro climates made sense because Onii-chan was Onii-chan, but for the rest of the world to be like this... Did the spacetime things mess up the weather that bad?

Stella sighed and then sat back down in her chair, idly stroking her new puppy's fur.

Since the weather took a turn for the worse, Toni and Sena (whose full names were apparently Minitona and Tersena) had huddled up together in the center of the carriage beneath a blanket and cried themselves to sleep.

Stella had wanted to talk with them a bit more, but she decided it was better to let them rest. Especially since they had been dumbstruck at how Stella suddenly understood them.

As for Miko... The blonde-haired girl stared at Stella with her pink and blue eyes and said, "Are you tired, Stella?"

Stella shook her head. "No. Are you?"

Miko shook her head as well and said, "I'm fine." She smiled and looked out the window. "This is actually pretty exciting."

Stella gave Miko a blank stare and said, "How sheltered were you to think a thunderstorm is exciting?"

"Well." Miko frowned and said, "...I've only been out of Millishion twice. The first time was with Miss Therese when assassins were after me, and the second was when Mister Pierre showed up in my room with Miss Therese to take me away. Ah, I think your father was there too."

"...Are you the secret NPC princess that the hero has to recruit or something?"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing." Stella sighed and leaned back in her chair, staring out the window.

Watching the torrential rain and water splashing past, Stella got reminded of her earliest memories. At least, her earliest memories as 'Stella.'

She absently stroked her new puppy's fur and muttered, "A hero, huh?"

She had joked about it before, but... maybe it was true? Aki always talked about stories where the main character was sent to another world after getting hit by a pickup truck. And in that world, they became super strong and ended up being the hero to defeat the demon lord.

Considering how Stella died and her current life, she definitely fit the bill of that sort of 'hero.' But at the same time, it didn't make sense.

After all, there was Onii-chan.

Stella was smart. She was top of her class in her past life, and she was confident in figuring out how magic worked here if she had enough time. She was also confident that she could create a whole new magical system.

But Onii-chan was even crazier.

He put himself down a lot and was fairly humble, but Onii-chan was an insane cheat character.

But that didn't make sense if Stella was the hero like how those two girls and the magical spirit puppy was saying.

The Sacred Beast born from the Sacred Tree would emerge when the world faced a crisis. Then, it would set out alongside a hero using its great power to save the world.

It was an old story. Similar to King Arthur drawing Excalibur or those old games with the Mana Sword.

But one part didn't fit in that story.

Stella glanced towards the other carriage and muttered, "Onii-chan..."

'...You aren't going to become the Demon Lord I have to beat, are you?'

-RNG-

"Achoo!"

Rika rolled her eyes and handed me a handkerchief. "I told you to take better care of yourself. If you somehow die and leave me to run this kingdom by myself, I'll figure out a way to kill death and drag you back."

I took the handkerchief from Rika, wiping my nose, and then smiled. "Thanks, Rika. Love you too."

"...Should I get the marriage certificate?"

"Kidding, kidding. At least wait until I get a proper wedding ceremony for the others." I rubbed the back of my neck and said, "...Really don't want to have to figure out how to do a continental time reversal to undo the aftermath of that cat fight."

One of the problems of having women who could destroy entire continents head over heels for you...

I shook my head and then leaned back in my chair.

After Rika sent that message, I made some quick arrangements and warped back to Arcadia for an emergency meeting.

...Sylphy had seemed a bit upset about that and pouted some more, but my loyal son threw himself on the sword for me and helped deal with his mother.

Which meant being mercilessly teased by Sylphy while his sisters... half sisters? Whatever that relationship was, Eos and Ena watched on without helping.

Either way, my family was going to continue on their way to the Great Forest while I sorted out things back in Arcadia for a bit. Hopefully they didn't mind the intense downpour. And hopefully Eri remembered to get help from Wata to get rid of the rain instead of deciding to try to recreate the Water God style to pair with her fire dragon sword technique.

...Anyway.

I swept my gaze around the room.

My office was pretty much unchanged from when I left it. My bed was off to the side. My desk in the middle of the room with my chair behind it. Stacks of my research papers and books lying on the ground next to my desk... And a few new bookshelves to organize things.

There were also a few more minor touches here and there that were barely noticeable, but were signs that Rika used the place pretty often.

A faint scent of violets hanging in the air, a cup of fancy black and gold pens, a box of paperclips carefully sorted and stacked instead of chained up like I left them...

I shifted my gaze back to Rika, seated across the desk from me.

Was it because the time scaling was still a bit off between the Magic Continent and the outside world? Because she went to go explore some distortions? Or was it just because she was rapidly recovering her full mana potential after I helped her get her Demon Eyes under control?

Either way, Rika looked a bit different from before. She still wore a typical secretary outfit, mostly a tailored black suit and dress with heels. But she had filled out a bit more and gotten a bit taller. Her violet hair had also grown longer, and she had taken to keeping it in an intricately braided side ponytail.

If before I left she looked like a teen, she was definitely a young woman now. Though considering that she technically was centuries old and was only young because she respawned after death, maybe that shouldn't be too surprising?

But putting apart the fact that she looked more mature now due to her appearance... She definitely was giving off overworked salarywoman vibes with the dark circles under her eyes.

Seeing that made me feel a bit guilty.

Rika noticed and then waved her hand. "Don't worry about me. You can't escape taking responsibility at this point anyway, so I'll keep working to keep the place afloat."

I frowned and said, "Don't die of overwork. If you do, I'm definitely going to embarrass the heck out of you and take pictures of you doing stupid baby things."

"As if I'd let that happen." Rika crossed her arms and said, "The Demon Empress has to maintain some dignity, doesn't she?"

"...Mom and Mama Lily are going to be so disappointed in me when they get back."

Rika laughed. And then she stopped and then looked towards the picture sitting on my desk. "So what do you think we should do?"

I shifted my gaze to look at the picture as well and frowned.

It was a crater somewhere in the mountains of the Magic Continent. An obscure area that was out of reach for all but the most ambitious and powerful adventurers. There, a ruined castle was shrouded by a dark miasma.

Apparently, there was also a magic formation covering the area, but that couldn't be seen in the picture.

However...

"So you're saying that the dark miasma started to show up recently and that Ruijerd recognizes it as Laplace? And that the magic formation created by Perugius to seal the Demon God away is breaking?"

Rika nodded and said, "Yes. And..." She hesitated and looked at me.

I blinked. "What?"

"...Rudy. If you were offered Laplace's powers, you wouldn't take it, would you?"

"Of course not. Plus, there's nothing that guy can offer that I would want."

Not to mention that if Laplace's powers... well, Demon God Laplace's powers. If those were the same as that weird inverted mana I used when I was younger, it was definitely something to stay away from.

I had just gotten over my edgelord phase. I was *not* going to go back.

Rika stared at me and then let out a relieved smile. "...Of course you wouldn't. You aren't Magic God Laplace."

"That's right- Wait. Is now about the time that Magic God Laplace appeared in your time?"

Rika nodded. "No one knows exactly when... but the timeframe seems to be roughly the same."

I tapped my fingers on the side of my chair and frowned. "Now the question is if that's a fixed point in time or if it's variable, huh?"

From Pierre's cryptic comments about messing with fate and divergent timelines, it seemed like time wasn't absolute. We weren't operating on world lines with fated events, at least.

Well, not absolutely fated events.

But there were still major events and common themes that seemed to play out.

The metastasis event didn't happen here, but we got a spacetime rend across the world that was effectively the same. And come to think of it, I think Rudeus mentioned that his first encounter with Dad after the incident resulted in a big fight. That still happened here.

So the events wouldn't necessarily play out the same way in terms of detail, but the broader strokes...

"...Hey Rika." I shifted my gaze back to her and said, "What exactly was the first thing that Magic God Laplace did after he made his appearance?"

Rika frowned.

"If it's too painful, you don't have to tell me."

Rika shook her head. "No. It's not that. It's just... Now that you mention it. I... believe that there were rumors from fleeing humans that he made a brief appearance in the Milis Continent for a while before he started conquering the Magic Continent. And if I remember right, there were rumors that Perugius appeared as well. But that man never showed his face after Magic God Laplace started gathering his forces, so... I'm not sure."

"...Yeah. Let's go fix up that seal."

I had enough potential doppelgangers running around these days between Pierre and whatever parallel alter versions of me were hiding out in distortions. I did *not* need a lookalike Demon God showing up and ruining my good name before I even had the chance to reunite with the rest of my family.