Fake Saint of the Year

Translator: Tsukii

Editor: Evelet

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 73: World Line Divergence

“First off, let’s summarize what we already discussed. Let’s call the scenario that only you guys know, where Elrise was an ugly villain, ‘Scenario A.’ Then we call the scenario people of this world know from the game, with Elrise as a fake beyond real Saint, ‘Scenario B.’ From my point of view, my last life on the other side developed as ‘Scenario B,’ so I was able to write it as a story here. Therefore, from my point of view, ‘Scenario A’ never existed from the beginning.”

Yamoto drank her melon soda as she said this.

The World was neither changed nor rewritten; such a thing had never happened in the first place. 

It was only Elrise and Fudou Niito who thought this had happened.

After her explanation, Niito asked about things that piqued his curiosity.

“You said that the story you saw on the other side turned directly into a game. But ‘Kuon no Sanka’ is a multi-ending story with several romanceable heroines. They cannot all be the story you supposedly saw, though…”

“Ah, that’s just prediction. I’ve merely imagined things like ‘Perhaps if Vernell had done this then it would have ended up like that.’ What actually happened on the other side of the world is the Elrise route. That’s why I set up the game so the Elrise route is the Grand route1 where the True END could be reached.”

Apparently, every route but Elrise’s was speculative. That was why Niito could see them without problems. If his limitations were to prevent time paradoxes by preventing Elrise from procuring information about her own future, then he shouldn’t be able to see other routes.

Everything but Elrise’s route was merely Yamoto’s imagination. 

Niito previously thought other routes were other possible futures but it seemed he had been gravely mistaken. 

They were not even possibilities but merely imagined. That was why he could see them.

“I will say that at least it wasn’t mere prediction. I have some kind of special ability or something… since my previous life, I’ve been able to predict quite accurately what will happen in the near future.”

It was quite an amazing ability, but in the end, a prediction was still a prediction. Niito drank water to soothe his throat and continued speaking.

“So this ‘Scenario A’ is merely a product of our delusions?”

“It’s highly possible, but… there is also another possibility. Let’s change the topic for a bit; it often happens in SF2 where people change the past. There are three main possible results. You know what those are?”

“That’s sudden. Well, since the past changed, won’t the future also change?”

“Yes, that’s the first pattern. DoraXmon and TermiXXtor are among this group3.”

She suddenly changed the topic, but he answered with the first thing that came to mind anyway.

Then Yamoto nodded and approved of this as one of the possible outcomes.

“Next would be if ‘even the change is included as a part of what had already happened,’ right?

For example, if one went back and saved someone. Then later, when said person went back to the future, and it turns out the person who saved that person back in the original past had been oneself, or something like that. It’s a pattern where even the change is included as the final result of what happened.

The English novel Harry XXtter includes this type of time travel.”

“Yes, that’s the second type. Well, that work just got a new release recently and it made this turn into the first pattern though4.”

Ijuuin spoke of other possible results as Yamoto nodded in agreement.

“Finally, there is ‘even with the past changed, nothing changed in the current world’… In other words, it merely made a parallel world as a result, I guess.”

“Yes. This is the Pattern C. Dragon XXll is considered this5.”

“I don’t get your point here. How does this relate to our situation?”

While they did respond, they didn’t get what she meant to say. 

It wasn’t like they came here to talk about SF.

Yamoto raised her finger toward Niito and calmly said, “The greatest difference between Scenario A and Scenario B is Elrise. My thought is that the world where you see Scenario A might really exist somewhere out there. Let’s call the worlds where things went according to Scenario A Fiore A and Earth A. We’ll call the time I spent in another world and the current world we live in as Fiore B and Earth B.” 

As she said that, she put a piece of paper on the table, and drew 4 circles. 

On the upper left circle was written Fiore A, below it was written Fiore B, and on the right side she did the same thing, labeling the circles with Earth A and Earth B instead.

“First we begin here. This is where we can write down the things that we assume happened.”

As she said that, Yamoto pointed to Fiore A with her ballpoint.

“In this Fiore A, there is another me from my past life who is not me. This version of me obviously had seen “Scenario A” as that was what happened there. Then … I reincarnated to this point.”

She draws an arrow from Fiore A to Earth A.

“Here ‘I’ wrote ‘Kuon no Sanka’ according to what I had seen before. It became the ‘Scenario A of Kuon no Sanka’ that both of you are aware of… this is just imagination, but I think for some reason, Elrise managed to observe scenario A. In fact, her actions were sometimes done as if she knew what awaited although she shouldn’t have known it by then.”

Niito knew the reason.

Yamoto might not know, but from this “Earth A,” there should be an arrow pointing to “Fiore B.” 

Yes, most likely Elrise, who was originally from Earth A, reincarnated in the Fiore of the past. 

Then, due to clear differences between her and the original Elrise, the actions she took made the World diverge, and “Fiore B” had been born because of it.

“Because of Elrise’s actions, it seems that reality branched, so “Fiore B’ was born. Then, just like before, my past self from “Fiore B” was reincarnated and became the version of me on Earth B who wrote about Fiore.”

 “…I see, so this means that the scenario we knew was the scenario from another timeline.”

As they talked, Niito started to review and draw conclusions based on what he knew. 

Elrise had been reborn from Earth A. There was no doubt about that. 

If that hadn’t been the case, then she wouldn’t have thought to “change her actions” to begin with.

In the first Scenario A, there was hatred for the Evil Elrise. Everything sprouted from there, so without a doubt, it all began on Earth A.

And there was Niito himself who was part of the soul that failed to reincarnate correctly. He must have started on Earth A.

As he thought about it, Niito remembered that one time his coat was in a different location than where he had placed it.

…I see. So the transfer did happen! To me alone! Perhaps I got dragged by Elrise, who I had considered a part of my original self, into the “B” timeline!

The moment of transfer did happen; perhaps when she was reincarnated. 

Elrise’s soul became a part of Fiore in the past and changed things as a result. 

Then, after he disappeared from Earth A and became Erise, the world changed… to Earth B, and he fused with this world’s version of himself.

This seemed like the most likely scenario. In the beginning, Fudou Niito on Earth A had died, and his soul was split into two parts.

Most of the soul became Elrise. Dregs of what remained of the soul, which failed to reincarnate, were transferred to the parallel world’s Fudou Niito. We both possessed pieces of the soul and we were both reincarnated.

That’s why the coat moved even though he did not remember ever moving it. 

Most likely, it was supposed to be there in this world… and he had overwritten this version of Fudou Niito. That’s why he had no idea.

As for Ijuuin… as expected, he had merely been dragged into it. Originally, he only knew about “Scenario B,” but since Niito contacted him, the world forcefully matched his recognition to Niito’s. 

But… it made him think.

Well… in the end, it’s all just a guess… In the first place, things like multiple worlds and timelines are beyond human understanding… It only made my head hurt to think about it. Anyway, in conclusion, it’s not that Elrise entered the game world, but that there is a game based on what happened in that other world.

After all that had happened, it turned out that was all he knew for sure. 

He was unable to find the correct answer regardless of how he searched for it because there was nobody out there he could ask who would be able to answer. 

That’s why they could only think that “it might go that way” and make assumptions about what would happen.

But one thing was for sure. It was that the other world definitely existed; it was not a mere thing inside a game.

Hey, my other self (Elrise)… it seems that the other side is reality without a doubt. So you better stop thinking of it as a mere game. If you don’t… I think you will come to regret it.

It was not something he could say though. 

As he thought that, Niito expected that even so, she might pick a path she wouldn’t regret.


Hyahha— Time for the decisive battle!

Several days had passed since Vernell had gotten confused and confessed to me. Finally, the time had come for the underground infiltration operation.

Well, it would be dangerous.

I managed to avoid answering Vernell by telling him my remaining lifespan and it went so well I wanted to praise myself.

Well then, according to Perverted Glasses Bastard, he told the Witch that the Octopus tactic was successful. The Saint had left the Academy and let her guard down, so it was the best time to execute their plan. 

Also, it seemed that he was about to reach the limit of how long he could pretend to be Diaz.

Well, I was also about to reach my limit, too. 

I was still clinging to the Saint’s title now, but we never know when Vernell would tell people, “she is actually a fake.” 

Vernell might let something slip by mistake. So I wanted to end it already and give the title of Saint back to Eterna.

What happened after was none of my concern. If I survived, I would run away at night and live lazily somewhere, and after I died, I would live lazily in the afterlife. 

Once the fact I was a fake Saint became known, everyone would say, “What, so she is a fake, now die,” so nobody would feel sad about my passing.

Regarding the content of the infiltration operation, Vernell’s group needed to begin by pretending it was a special lesson so they had a reason to be underground. 

It seemed that the Witch-san sent a message “just in case, send some hostage who is close to the Saint and can be used against her underground.” 

It was convenient for us because the greatest difficulty in our plan had been how to send an infiltration group without raising suspicions. 

So we used the hostage excuse to send Vernell’s group underground, to pressure the Witch there.

Meanwhile, I would use Magic Vacuum to seal Witch’s Teleport. Afterward, I would also go underground to beat the Witch and Alfrea would seal her. 

Lastly, I would leave a letter revealing my identity as a fake Saint and run away at night.

If all went well, everyone would go, “Real Saint Eterna Banzai!” and that would be the Happy END. 

If the seal failed, I would drag the Witch along with me to the afterlife and it would still be fine.Fuh… there was no way this plan could fail. We were winning now.6

“For this operation, it all depends on your ability. But definitely don’t think that you need to throw your life away to ensure that it happens. Your role is merely to make the Witch consume her mana to the point where she is unable to use Teleport. Once you are done with that, escape without hesitation… Do you understand?”

If anyone here except me died, even if the Witch was defeated and peace came, it would still be a great failure for me.

My goal was a Happy END where everyone survived. This was all that needed to happen. 

Therefore, I reminded them to not think of doing their duty at the cost of their own lives.

“YES!”

“Hey, can I eat Mount (a pudding) before we go?”

Everyone but two people replied properly.

The person who didn’t read the atmosphere and asked for pudding was Alfrea. 

What was First Saint again…?

The other person who did not reply was Vernell, who seemed to have a deep expression on him.

“Vernell-kun?”

“Ah, ye, yes! I will do my best!”

As I called him he hurriedly replied, but did he really mean it?

Please, you are the main force here. 

Please don’t get distracted in a weird place and fail midway.

This is not a drill. Okay? Do it properly!

Don’t lose your focus in front of the enemy even by mistake, okay!?


A/N:

“So… what does that mean…?”

If we use Dragon Ball as an example, World A was the Despaired Future, World B is the main plot world.
The Toriyama Robo from World A got eaten by Gatchan and somehow reincarnated on Earth.7

Then he turned the Despaired Future into a story and “Dragon Ball which only depicts a Despaired Future” was born.

The modern world Yamcha read that and was reincarnated into that world, then did many things which turned that world into World B.

(Who is Trunks? I don’t know who you are talking about?)

In that story’s World B, Toriyama Robo still ended up getting eaten by Gatchan and died, then was once again reincarnated on Earth and wrote the story. But since that Toriyama Robo only knew World “B” that had already changed due to the reincarnated Yamcha, the story turned into that one instead. That’s what usually happens.

“Propheter’s Lifespan”
As Propheter said in chapter 50, “My lifespan drew near,” they also had a lifespan unlike the Saint and the Witch. It was just that their lifespan was very long. So even without transferring their position and therefore their lifespan, they would still eventually die.

Well, even if that was not the case, the title probably only passed to a fellow Turtle with the same species on World A.

Q: Then what about Fudou Niito of World “B”? What happened to him?
A: He was overwritten by Fudou Niito (A).

Q: What happened to the original Pizzarise soul?
A: It was repelled from her body and born as a different person instead. By the way, there’s no plan for her appearance in the story.8

Want early access to Fake Saint and Executed Sage? Support the translator on Patreon! Also, check out their latest project, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer. It’s a Rance fanfic, sort of like a prequel to the main story.

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ClemCa
ClemCa
2 months ago

Ok so we got the full explanation. The author neglected one possibility in their explanations, which is localized causality.
Let’s say reincarnation is an event.
The first event is world B’s turtle reincarnating. They write the game, which leads to world A reaching the event of the MC going to world B.
This causes the location of the reincarnation to change, as well maybe even the timing of it.
A different but similar event is triggered, getting back to world A.
However, this time, the difference in game story didn’t impact his inevitable death, thus his reincarnation is an already triggered event, which is ignored.
Essentially, this possibility’s rule would be that events could only be triggered once. I call it limited causality as causality can be ignored for things the world has already “seen”.
You could imagine it as a turing machine running and rewriting itself, except it will ignore loops after their first iteration.

Ars
Ars
8 months ago

I understand litteraly nothing

Catman48
Catman48
11 months ago

Elrise should work as a flag maker. She would make a killing out of it.

Eternal perspective
Eternal perspective
1 year ago

Thanks for chap
Basically flash point divergence with reincarnation cross world in a nutshell.

Tbh I was expecting TL note to be setting flags banzai ! There

SoulsTogether
SoulsTogether
1 year ago

Ah…we are nearing the end game people. Nearing the end of this novel!

I’m really going to miss reading this. Maybe this will be one of the rare novels that I actually choose to reread?

Again, thank you for everything author-sama and translator-sama.

ISMA
ISMA
1 year ago

Man time paradoxical things are so interesting but so confusing at the same time.

Who Knows?
Who Knows?
1 year ago

Yooo!? I was actually right about my guess for once!? So it really is separate version of Fiore and Earth, and Elrise is just remembering the game from the original Earth he was from, and now he’s in the alternate version of Fiore and just visiting the alternate version of Earth that diverged because of her changes in Fiore?

Dem, actually feel proud of myself for once. After all the ridiculous and utterly wrong guesses I made in other novels, lol

Last edited 1 year ago by Who Knows?
Min
Min
1 year ago
Reply to  tsukiisite

Sad, I thought pizzarise was the fake witch chara.

JustinK
JustinK
2 years ago

Fudou got sth similar like the reading Steiner…

tsukii
tsukii
1 year ago
Reply to  JustinK

yeah, not that it mattered much to him, who is at death door.

Bob
Bob
2 years ago

I think I understand everything except why Ijuuin remembers Scenario A. Wouldn’t it make more sense for him to just not remember the original story of the game? It would be a lot less work for “the World,” imo. Also, the idea that the main character remembered the exact moment he switched worlds because a jacket fell down is… Well, that kind of thing doesn’t generally stick in your memory, unless there was some super important reason why the jacket absolutely couldn’t be on the floor.

tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  Bob

force of habit. you will find something really wrong if u don’t find thing u usually place on certain location

maybe so niito not all alone?

Eternal perspective
Eternal perspective
1 year ago
Reply to  Bob

Ijiin was necessary cuz info on the previous world should not leak to elrise. So if he hypothetically met ijin with memories,he can give spoilers on the future. But if his memory didn’t have anything in the first place and he couldn’t access it then wasn’t it pointless?

Also the jacket means that at that point in time when he overwrote that world the world B niito was standing there wearing the jacket, when he suddenly got corrected to be be world A niito at the computer.

Hououin
Hououin
2 years ago

Basically stiens gate and niito being okabe….. just niito got the reading stiener after his soul got divided and the other part(Elrise) able to switch between world lines to get the other part of soul(niito)…..
But i dont got that how did fiore turtle got the info about elrise this clearly….maybe she is the turtle…..as she has prediction power….

Last edited 2 years ago by Hououin
tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  Hououin

maybe tamaki dreamt that side of world and make it plot?

Canelé
Canelé
2 years ago

Elrise B is already Niito himself… I think the Q/A instead added to confusion. There was even a statement from Elrise herself that before she knows she reincarnated the old Elrise (B) is just like Niito if he didn’t know the world is a Galgame

Sao
Sao
2 years ago
Reply to  Canelé

I think what the author is trying to say is that during birth, Niito repelled her soul

tsukii
tsukii
1 year ago
Reply to  Sao

yeah, we never got to know who she become, though

tsukii
tsukii
1 year ago
Reply to  Canelé

As mentioned above, by the time Elrise born, Pizzarise soul got expelled and born as someone else. but the memories of plot didn’t get restored until part of Niito soul transferred enough to Elrise.

Gitami
Gitami
2 years ago

Wasn’t she drinking coffee just before and the topic immediately followed the ending of the previous. Now she’s on melon soda.
Thirsty creature she is.

tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  Gitami

hey, the bill is on ijuuin, so of course she would abuse that fact

HentMas
HentMas
2 years ago

haaaaa… the author ruined it by trying to explain his “multiverse-timetravel-theory” it doesn’t explain halve the things that happened, it’s just convoluted bs that’s meaningless to the story, the inclusion of paradoxes is simply put boring… they may be an interesting exercise to fantasise about but in the end they are meaningless to the actual plot.

Butterfly effect theory, parallel timelines theory, multiverse theory, for practical uses, it just means “I remember things were different” they were different, he’s the “singularity” did we really need all this?

Oh well, I’m sure there’s people that enjoy those kinds of things, I just found the repeated explanation of the exact same concept with multiple examples that contradict each other and don’t really explain the particulars of how things work in this world kind of dragged on and boring, I genuinely skipped most of it because it’s not something new, it’s irrelevant and doesn’t even explain things.

tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  HentMas

well, everybody had different taste, and author somehow feel compelled to explain

like you say, it might better to keep it simple instead going through convoluted explanations, but author might think they need to explain that both world line are real, just difference of elrise

Bunnyman13
Bunnyman13
1 year ago
Reply to  HentMas

It explains things, multiple explanations were required since it gave us an idea about how things happened and the thought process of different characters.

Nothing was too convulated that one cant understand.

tsukii
tsukii
1 year ago
Reply to  Bunnyman13

People priorities varies, so are their understanding. maybe some people just thought this info dump not necessary

Oyashiro
Oyashiro
2 years ago

Thanks for the chapter!! I guess they really did consider all the possibilities. Of course, the author (and the Will of Earth) tried to avoid a scenario similar the one in Steins Gate. Lol

As for Evil Elrise, I honestly thought that Niito had the same soul as Elrise this whole time, since Magic is often related to the soul and stuff. I guess the compatibilities and spiritial talents were similar enough to Elrise. Lol

tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  Oyashiro

we were sorry to inform you that Niito and pizzarise are different people

well, they need to prepare for answer for mystery, although I’m not sure whether people would be convinced by it

Lcto
Lcto
2 years ago

Pizzarise lmao

tsukii
tsukii
2 years ago
Reply to  Lcto

poor(?) soul who erased to be replaced by a dude