I Finished Saving the World, But Then I Picked Up a Girl With Amnesia - Chapter 8

The one I thought I killed is standing before me.

The devil considered several possible reasons and voiced them.

“Impossible… I’m certain I crushed your heart. Is this an illusion? Or perhaps a substitute golem?”

“Please, don’t joke around. It’s neither an illusion nor a substitute. After all, you did pierce my stomach and crush my heart, didn’t you? So violently, so roughly.”

She pointed to her chest with her index finger.

“It hurt a lot, you know.”

The Sage denied the possibilities the devil suggested.

“Surely, you weren’t resurrected through necromancy?”

“We do have an incredibly skilled, though horribly tasteless, necromancer in our party. But if I’d been resurrected, my corpse wouldn’t still be lying there, would it?”

She spun lightly on the spot, her black robe twirling with her movements.

“I can multiply myself.”

It was a simple explanation, as straightforward as possible.

A third voice spoke from behind the devil.

The strongest Sage in the kingdom, Shana Granple, now stood before him—threefold.

“…Magic, is it?”

“Correct!♡”

With her high-pitched voice, her unnaturally pale cheeks turned faintly red.

The extraordinary power that humans have unraveled and can wield using magical energy is called “magic arts.” It is a power that, with enough talent, anyone can use equally.

However, humanity has yet to fully comprehend the abyss of magic.

A power distinct from magic arts, “magic” refers to supernatural abilities that only the chosen are born with. Unique, one-of-a-kind powers that distort the laws of the world.

────That is what magic truly is.

“A duplication ability, perhaps. Or…”

The devil tried to calmly analyze the nature of the Sage’s power.

But the fact that he was verbalizing his analysis revealed his lack of composure.

“Duplication? Are you still half-asleep at a time like this? I thought I explained it clearly—‘multiplication.’ Even with your poor magical detection, you should already know the answer.”

The devil, mocked by a human, seethed with humiliation.

He ground his teeth and widened his eyes. Impossible. This shouldn’t be possible.

Yet, as the girl had said, the devil’s magical detection confirmed a single truth. The two Sages standing before him and the one he had supposedly killed—all emanated identical magical energy.

In other words—

“Don’t be ridiculous. Are you seriously claiming you can multiply yourself, complete with physical bodies!?”

“I’ve been saying that from the start, haven’t I?”

Another version of her emerged anew.

“My magic is incredibly simple. I can multiply myself and anything I touch. That’s it.”

Two more stepped out of glowing magic circles.

“The things I multiply aren’t illusions. They exist in reality and have physical form.”

“If I multiply food, it can be eaten and digested. If I wanted, I could create exact copies of money.”

Three more descended gracefully from the sky.

“It’s not about logic.”

“Multiplication. Something that was one becomes two.”

“This is simply that kind of power—a power of concept.”

Four more floated into the air, surrounding the devil completely.

“A magic-sealing talisman. It was certainly troublesome.”

“If I had been alone, I might have been completely defeated.”

“But you know… if you’re going to bring out such powerful magical tools—”

“You really should prepare one for every person you’re facing.”

The last five Sages appeared, their magical energy beginning to charge.

“By the way, the maximum number of bodies I can create is 100. It’s a fixed limit.”

“You might wonder why someone like me, who isn’t particularly bright, gets called a genius.”

“It’s actually quite simple.”

“When 100 of me study together, the efficiency is 100 times greater.”

“That’s all there is to it.”

The devil was left speechless.

Faced with a power that far surpassed his imagination, he was utterly at a loss for words.

This magus granted mystery to everything she touched.

This magus herself was a mystery.

Overcoming her disadvantaged origins and, in just a few short years, reaching the pinnacle of magical arts, the remarkable Sage still wasn’t satisfied. She continued her relentless pursuit of knowledge.

She was a brilliance that twisted the very fabric of existence, causing everything she touched to bloom uncontrollably, a lustrous white.

“White Flower in Full Bloom—Mio Blanche.” Shana Granple.

The greatest Sage and magic user who saved the world.

“…”

The lone devil, even in the face of overwhelming strength, managed a defiant smile as he looked up at them.

“…You sure talk a lot. Are you really okay revealing so much about your magic?”

“Eh?”

But none of the countless Sages standing there smiled.

“Because, you see, you’re going to die here.”

If magical energy is an invisible force that resides within humans, then perhaps the emotions that people feel for each other also have a quantifiable amount of energy—this was Shana Granple’s theory.

“Gathering this many of us in one place—”

“It’s been a while.”

“Well, fine.”

“For now, let’s start by disassembling this devil and figuring out where it came from.”

“Shall we?”

“It’d be easier if Necromancer-san were here at times like this.”

“But I absolutely don’t want to rely on her.”

“Yeah, let’s not.”

As she gathered the mangled remains of the devil’s corpse, Shana reminisced about the past.

When she was a child, she couldn’t control her ability to multiply.

Her numbers fluctuated, and she caused him no end of trouble.

Even so, he smiled gently, stretched his arms as wide as he could, and patted the heads of every one of her—whether there was one, two, three, or just one of her again—and held her close.

────Isn’t it a hassle if there are so many of me?

────Not at all. If there are 100 Shanas, I’ll just pat your head 100 times.

“Shana,” he would call her.

She loved it when he said her name.

Love is invisible. Love cannot be measured.

But if, somehow, emotions had a measurable quantity, Shana Granple knew no one who possessed as much love as he did.

So she decided—she would love him. If she could multiply everything, she would use all of it to love him completely.

She loved the Hero who saved the world.

She knew there were others who held feelings for him.

Even so, Shana Granple could say this with certainty:

────My love is the greatest.