The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent-Chapter 335

My voice cracked too late, but her eyes still turned toward me.

I knelt beside her, not caring that my clothes were soaking in her blood, and pressed both hands tightly against the gaping wound in her chest.

Screams erupted all around us. I saw knights scrambling toward the direction the gunshot had come from. Above us, petals from the ceremony were still drifting down—fake petals, light and harmless, now falling into pools of blood and turning red.

“Ah... guh...”

Every time Alice tried to speak, blood surged up her throat, choking her words. She was trying to say something—her eyes locked on mine—but I couldn’t hear it. Her throat was blocked with blood, her voice suffocated.

She wouldn’t say “I’m fine.” That much I knew. It was too late for that.

Yes—too late—

Far too—

*

—No. It wasn’t too late.

I blinked once, and suddenly I was back. The night before.

I was alone in my room.

After my Academy enrollment had been finalized, my relationship with Alice had smoothed out. She still snapped at me from time to time, but it wasn’t the same genuine frustration it once had been. Maybe visiting Lutetia together had helped.

Just as I’d started to grow closer to her—Alice had been shot before my eyes.

I lay quietly in bed, mentally replaying that moment.

My memory wasn’t sharp enough to recall every detail with perfect clarity. My eyes weren’t cameras. I couldn’t determine everything that had happened.

I didn’t know exactly where the shot came from. I only knew one thing: it had been fired from a place where the shooter could hit Alice in the heart.

That alone was enough.

There were still more than twelve hours until that moment.

And to me, twelve hours might as well be an eternity.

*

There were many buildings in the Empire, but the location for the Emperor’s New Year’s Address was always the same. From where Alice had been looking, she had faced the Emperor’s podium.

Which meant I had to search every building behind that podium.

“W-Who are you—guh!”

“Just answer my question. Are there any weapons hidden in this house?”

The man burst into tears as I pressed the muzzle of my handgun against his neck. It wasn’t sharp, but it might as well have been a blunt iron rod. Of course it would hurt. Of course it was terrifying.

“N-No! There’s nothing here, I swear! I don’t know who you—”

“You said the same thing last time.”

The gunshot rang out.

That alone was enough to wake someone nearby—or someone in this very house.

“Ggh... urk...”

Blood streamed from the man’s thigh. He couldn’t even form words. I leaned down and whispered into his ear.

“I know there’s a hunting rifle under the floorboards by the window.”

His body froze.

Only his panicked breathing reached my ears now.

I whispered again.

“You have two choices. Tell me the name of the one who ordered the assassination of Princess Alice. Then the next bullet will go through your head. If you deny it again... the next shot will take off your cock.”

“I-I really—”

Another gunshot.

His mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.

No—that wasn’t true. There was a sound. A high-pitched shriek, so sharp it sounded like metal scraping metal.

“You know... I’m not in much of a hurry. I have a way out. Even if you die, I can still ask you again.”

That wasn’t a lie. I could simply erase this attempt and try again with this same man from the past.

“So speak. If you do, I’ll aim the next bullet at your head.”

“...”

He didn’t respond.

He wasn’t dead—but that last shot had broken something in him.

Someone knocked on the door.

*

Another shot.

Now both of his thighs had bullets in them.

“I—I don’t know—”

Maybe the legs hurt less?

*

Only after seven of his ten fingers had been blown off did the man finally open his mouth.

Honestly, those seven shots had been unnecessary.

After I calmly recited the names of his relatives and dropped a bundle of brown hair onto his face, he broke down in tears and finally talked.

His little sister’s life meant more to him than all seven of his fingers.

Even though he’d been ready to shoot and kill a girl around the same age.

Someone knocked again—but the door was already blocked by a dining table. It would hold, for a while.

Not that I planned to escape directly anyway.

“I—I don’t know who it was exactly...”

The man was trembling violently. His face had gone pale. He wouldn’t last long.

But it seemed he was more afraid of dying before he could speak.

“When the gun, the bullets, and the plan were passed to me, it had already gone through several people—”

“Then tell me everything you know about the person who gave you the order. Every detail.”

“I-If I talk, they’ll hurt my sister—”

“If you don’t talk, you’ll die by my hand. At least pray I find the man and kill him for you.”

“...”

And finally, the man described his contact.

What he looked like.

Where and how they’d met.

*

The man was small-time.

And the ones above him—were small-time too.

Some nobles were involved. All of them were tight-lipped.

But even the tightest lips can be pried open with a crowbar.

I turned back time. Again, and again, and again—

Again, again, again—

I kept trying, and eventually, I found the one who issued the order.

And as a result—

“W-Why...?”

“Sorry, Alice.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

I placed a hand on Alice’s shoulder as she knelt in shock, her eyes trembling, and murmured quietly.

“But this was something I had to do. I had to find the edge of what’s possible.”

How far can I go?

That mattered.

I’d never needed to test it before.

But I had to know—if I set the imperial palace ablaze, how would the Emperor react?

Blood. Blood. More blood.

Soldiers and knights lay sprawled in pools of it.

The once-beautiful palace, charred and smoking.

Could I pull this off with my own stamina? The answer: yes. If I minimized movement, focused on my shooting, and timed the explosives carefully.

And if I rewound time again and again to lay traps, adjust my positioning when caught, memorize every patrol path...

If I triggered accidents in the homes of capable enemies to conveniently remove them from the palace, diverted attention with explosions in unimportant areas, and embedded myself among those considered too insignificant to search...

Then yes, I could burn the imperial palace to the ground.

“Sylvia, what the hell...”

I rose, leaving Alice behind, and turned to face the Emperor.

The children were all down.

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“So in the end... my future self did carry out the plan,” the Emperor said.

“This confirms it. Your ability—it’s not ‘foresight.’ This isn’t the behavior of someone who’s merely predicting. Someone who plans based on probability wouldn’t react with this much rage.”

“And someone who shoots their own daughter just to test me doesn’t get to act like they’re above it all.”

I pointed my loaded gun at the Emperor.

“But you’ll restore it all anyway, won’t you? What’s the point?” he said, mocking me.

“If the target survives, what meaning does revenge even have?”

“I’m not doing this for revenge.”

At that, the Emperor closed his eyes. Then with a faint smile, he said:

“I see. You just wanted to see what was possible. To understand how I’d respond if you acted like this.”

I won’t lie—there was anger too.

But in the end, Alice is the one who’d suffer if I let that anger lead.

“Sylvia... please...!”

Even if he’s a monster—he’s still Alice’s father.

“...”

I stood still, finger resting on the trigger, my gun aimed squarely at the Emperor—

*

“So. Even that was part of your plan.”

The Emperor looked down at me seriously, no longer in the center of the burning palace, but back where we had started, with a face full of interest.

“Now that you know, the plan is meaningless.”

“But you still tried to carry it out, didn’t you?”

“You understand why I made that plan, don’t you?”

“You planned to shoot your own daughter just to see how I’d react?”

“I thought the timing was right. A short while ago, you wouldn’t have acted so quickly.”

No. You don’t know me.

Even if Alice and I hadn’t spoken properly, I still would’ve moved for her sake.

Not just Alice.

If any of the characters I loved had been in danger, I would’ve done everything I could to ensure their happy ending.

...I just wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without this power.

“You must have a reason for trying to place Alice on the throne. For someone with your predictive capacity to avoid claiming it for yourself... you must believe you would fall into corruption?”

“...”

I said nothing. Just stared up at the Emperor in silence.

“Hmph.”

He leaned back in his throne and said:

“Very well, then. As you wish. Alice will be safe. I already got what I needed out of this plan.”

The Emperor curled one corner of his lips in satisfaction.

No. That’s not true.

You still don’t know I can turn back time.

Which means... one day, I may carry out a real reckoning.

You’ll be pulled from your throne—without knowing when, or how, or even why.

You won’t even realize it’s happening.

But it will happen.

What you consider “erased” is still etched into me.

You might not remember what happened.

But I do.

Alice bleeding out is still vivid in my mind.

If I want her to turn her back on you—and not flinch even if I do kill you one day—

Then I’ll need to gather every last piece of information and test every last possibility.

It will take time.

...Fortunately, time is the one thing I have in abundance.

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I stared up at the Emperor for a moment longer.

Then turned and walked away.