An unknown amount of time later, a young boy, who was wearing clothes that were covered in numerous scratches and was lying unconscious in a tree, began to slowly awaken. He soon pulled himself up into a sitting position and slowly pried his eyes open…

Fate: “Ughhh…”

Placing his hand on his head due to the intense headache, Fate’s eyes that had refused to open themselves, now shot open, widening as they scanned the body that had been at the brink of death when they last saw it. 

The broken and bent right arm that had throbbed and ached was now perfectly restored. The left arm and hand’s burnt skin had been paved over with a layer of smooth, almost baby-like flesh. The various cuts and bruises he had incurred across his body from his flight through the trees had now closed up and disappeared. And, taking a deep breath, Fate was able to savor the air that filled his lungs, as the scent of the night time forest passed through his nose and mouth…

Fate now began to poke and prod his body, trying to make sure that this wasn’t some wonderful dream. He proceeded to pinch his cheek and...

Fate: “Ow!”

A wide smile began to spread across his face, even as the cheek he had pinched began to turn red, as tears welled up in his eyes…

-I’m...really...I’m really...I’M ALIVE!!! 

Fate: “Hahahahahahahaha!!!~”

Even though he could still be in danger, Fate raised above his head and laughed as if his life depended on it, the joyful tone ringing throughout the forest as several birds shot into the sky, obviously having been startled. 

However, Fate didn’t pay attention to this, as he had now pulled himself onto his feet, shakily balancing his legs on the branches below him. Soon, he was back on his feet, but it was then that he noticed something…

[Crunch!]

Below him, he now discovered, much to his disgust, small piles of shed skin and several places where the tree’s bark had drunk his blood. Examining the skin closely, Fate concluded, quite easily given their proximity to him, that the skin fragments that now lay beneath the leafy canopy had come from himself. 

-Wait...but it wasn’t like the green potion...I didn’t feel the burning, the energy...it spread and then it was...gone…

Fate shuddered, wondering, as he looked down on the collective remains of his injuries, what would have happened if the potion had truly ceased as he thought it would have, before he lost consciousness. Tears, not of joy, as they had been before, began to fall from his eyes as he collapsed onto his knees, the salty, sparkling droplets soaking into the blood-stained branches…

-...What was I thinking…? I almost...it was almost in front of me again...the darkness...What would have happened...if I actually...died, again…?! 

He slammed his fist into the tree, causing some leaves to fall onto him, before tucking his face into his knees and beginning to sob…

It was true that if the potion hadn’t worked, if Jacob, or even Liza, had for some reason lied to him about the contents of the bottle...it would have been his end. His mind now began to analyze every single scene in his battle against the boar, discovering tens of escape options that he had had available to him, but that he had completely ignored.

Why had he fought? Why had he attempted to attack the boar when it was seemingly stuck, instead of taking the opportunity to flee? Why had he put any trust in what Jacob had given him, or believed that the elderly servant wouldn’t take this opportunity to kill him and pass it off as a failed escape attempt, much to the pleasure of his masters?

-F***!!! I’m such an incompetent...ARGHH!!!!

He began to pummel a nearby branch, digging his fists into its thick body with every punch, as he cursed himself over and over again!

-I’m such a moron!!! A f***ing loser, who couldn’t just run!!! A loser who couldn’t even make a decent escape attempt for all the years he was shut in a storage closet with a massive window!!! A f***-up who didn’t just try to increase his magical abilities, in order to blow this entire f***ing mansion to hell, instead of just exercising!!! An jackass, who couldn’t just kill his annoying little sh*t of a brother when he first met him!!! An idiot who couldn’t just blow up the boar from a safe distance when he had the chance, or run away from it while it was faking being stuck!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid…!!!

『SHUT UP!!!!!!』

Fate’s pummeling of the tree ceased, and he writhed on the branch floor in pain, clutching his ears, despite knowing full well that it wouldn’t stop the ringing in his head! It took a while for the last remaining trace of the furious shout to leave his mind, but he was soon grasping the flickering, copper ring as hard as he could…

『Dumbass, you could barely break through the surface of a stone wall before, and your strength degraded after my fight with Jacob, so I really doubt that you can crush my vessel with what power you possess! Also, don’t start b*tching at me for pulling you out of your drunk-crying-level pity-party!!!』

Fate felt a vein appearing on the top of his forehead, as his face became extremely red and he bared his teeth at the ring.

Fate: “Why shouldn’t I be angry at you for screaming at me?!!”

He now turned his anger from himself, towards his doppelganger in the ring, unable to let go of his hate. However, the response he received was scathing…

『You’re the one that decided, even if it was by instinct, that you would BLOW YOURSELF UP and nearly got yourself killed instead of running the f*** away when you had a multitude of chances to do so!!! Don’t push your baggage onto me, when you weren’t thinking sh*t through before you did it!!!!』

 Fate’s anger and loathing now turned to shame, as his eyes became hollow pits and the life seemed to drain from his body as he slumped to the ground. However, his ring-bound doppelganger didn’t seem to be done yet…

『Also, stop dragging yourself down with all this unnecessary crap, you and I both know that there was too much of that from you in your past life! You need to stop thinking about what you could have done, once it's too late to change!』

Fate raised the ring to his face, as the blue light from the red gem illuminated his eyes…

『I’m not saying to not look back on things, but don’t look back just to take a massive sh*t on yourself for no reason other than to do that! Instead, try to think about what not to do! You and I didn’t ask for this life! Hell, we didn’t think it existed beyond parallel worlds and fantasy novels! So, my expert and sage advice for you is...STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF AND START CONSIDERING SH*T IN A WAY THAT MEANS I DON’T NEARLY GET TURNED INTO MOLTEN SCRAP!!!!!』

Lowering the ring, it could be seen that Fate’s eyes, although still displeased and somewhat devoid of life, now contained some strange sense of clarity…

-He’s right...this isn’t the time to cry for my mistakes...I mean, I’ll still probably do it...but in my room, like most sad, lonely people! What I need to focus on now is…

『To make sure that that crafty, son of a whore boar is actually dead!』

Fate: “To make sure that that crafty, son of a whore boar is actually dead!”

-Hey...wait a second...don’t put words into my mouth, asshat!

『It’s not my fault that the idea is so appealing to you! Now, go vent your issues on what is most likely a fried carcass that can’t be turned into pulled pork, and, most importantly, get revenge for getting pushed to the point where I almost got killed again!!!』

Fate now turned to the direction he had flown from, a look of determination now residing in his eyes as he began to peel himself away from the branches he had collapsed onto, and, once he was on the ground, he began to run through the path filled with broken branches, towards his battleground! 

-Oh, wait! I almost forgot something!

『What?』

Fate stopped running, now standing still, with a serious expression on his face, as the forest’s breeze passed through his short hair…

Fate: “I...don’t know where my dagger is…”

『...』

It seemed as though his return to the ‘circle of battle’ would have to wait just a little longer…

...