Subaru Natsuki was not meant to be important.
Anos Voldigoad understood that the moment he examined the human's existence properly. No divine lineage. No latent authority. No talent worth recording.
And yet—
"He persists," Anos said quietly.
Subaru stood alone in a side street, knees weak, breathing uneven. The danger had passed, but his body refused to calm. Something fundamental had changed, and every instinct he had screamed it at him.
Usually, this was the part where he died.
Usually, there was darkness.
Then a restart.
But time had not turned back.
Subaru clenched his fists. "I'm… still here," he muttered. "No checkpoint. No reset."
Fear crawled up his spine.
Anos approached, footsteps steady, unavoidable.
"You were designed as a correction mechanism," Anos said. "A disposable observer forced to repeat failure until the world approved of the outcome."
Subaru looked up sharply. "You— you know?"
"Yes."
The word landed like a verdict.
Subaru swallowed. "Then why— why does it feel like it's gone?"
"Because it is," Anos replied. "Return by Death relied on an authority that no longer functions."
Subaru's chest tightened. "So if I die now—"
"You die," Anos finished calmly.
Silence.
The truth crushed harder than any monster ever had.
Subaru laughed weakly. "That's… messed up. That power was hell, but it was all I had."
Anos looked at him without contempt.
"Incorrect," he said. "It was all you were allowed."
He turned away.
"You are not a hero. You were never meant to be. You are a variable introduced to compensate for a broken system."
Subaru stared at his back. "Then what am I now?"
Anos paused.
"A human," he said. "With one life. The way it should be."
Subaru trembled.
No prophecy.No resets.No special destiny.
Just consequences.
For the first time, Subaru felt something terrifying—and real.
Freedom.
Anos continued walking.
"You may follow," he said without looking back. "Or you may break. The world will not bend for you anymore."
Subaru stood there for a long moment.
Then, shaking but determined, he took a step forward.
Not because fate demanded it.
But because he chose to.
Above them, unseen, the narrative rewrote itself.
The protagonist slot collapsed.
And the story fully accepted its new center.
Anos Voldigoad.