Chapter Eighty: Past Mistakes
The dark clouds looming over Chuan Ye City began to slowly dissipate.
It seemed to symbolize the tail end of a storm.
However, the red star that hung high in the night sky still existed.
Yet its brilliance had diminished to an incredibly faint glow, flickering slowly in the night like an exhausted flame.
The starlight filtered through the gradually dispersing clouds and bathed the earth, the pooled water reflecting the weak light, illuminating the scene before Nagi.
In that instant, Nagi’s thoughts were suddenly pulled deep into her memories by a strong sense of familiarity.
Before her, the figure of Amamiya overlapped with a vague image from her dream.
Instinctively, Nagi thought that the End was once again pulling her into that illusory dream.
Because the only one who would call her “Little Hikari” was her mother from her previous life.
—And that person had long left this world.
In this life, after being reborn as Nagi, she had once attempted to return to Minase Island as a child, wanting to sneak a visit to her mother from her past life.
It was then that Nagi learned of her mother’s death in her former life.
That apology, which should have been spoken, was never uttered, even with the arrival of a second life.
And at this very moment.
The girl before her displayed an expression Nagi was familiar with.
A sharp pain stabbed at Nagi’s chest.
In shock, she noticed the lingering star-like gaze in Amamiya’s eyes, the crimson false starlight flickering weakly.
Though the End devoured the fragments, the ritual had not been interrupted.
The girl before her still resonated deeply with a certain soul.
That soul was none other than Amamiya’s mother—who was also Nagi’s mother from her past life.
Now, she should perhaps be referred to as “Amamiya Tomoko.”
……
……
In the original plot of “Hoshi Hiki.”
The protagonist “Hikari” was a child born into a single-parent family, relying on her mother and living on Minase Island.
Until the plot reached the point where an ability user team invaded Minase Island, burning everything and everyone on the island to the ground.
After everyone besides the protagonist “Hikari” perished.
The prologue of the game officially began.
This was the inevitable tragic beginning in the original work.
However, this fate did not occur in this world.
As a reincarnator well-versed in the plot of “Hoshi Hiki,” Nagi had done everything she could in her past life to stop all the tragedies from the original work.
Nagi fully utilized her understanding of the worldview and plot of “Hoshi Hiki,” preparing to counter that ability user team since childhood.
Perhaps because of this, the relationship between Nagi and her mother Tomoko became extremely distant.
For the young “Hikari” who had just reincarnated into this poorly written game world, everything before her was merely virtual data and programming.
At that time, she held onto a “results-oriented” mindset, ruthlessly using everything around her, solely to pursue efficiency and success rates.
Even her own mother “Tomoko” was just one of the tools to be exploited.
Though Nagi ultimately succeeded in preventing the tragedy of Minase Island, the cost was deeply wounding everyone around her.
Among them, the one hurt the most was her own mother.
Nagi had not realized at that time that, for Tomoko, as her only child, she was her sole support in this world, her reason for continuing to live.
But Nagi neglected her feelings.
The child she treasured was merely an unpleasant little one who had been “scheming” since she was young.
On the night when the ability user team attacked Minase Island.
Flames erupted all over Minase Island, and alarms resonated throughout the entire island.
Yet the Nagi of her past life ignored her mother, who was desperately searching for her, solely pursuing and obtaining the power of fantasy monsters.
Until in front of her mother, she unleashed abilities beyond what any ordinary person could possess, retaliating against the invaders one by one.
From the game’s perspective.
That was undoubtedly a huge success.
Nagi had finally changed the plot direction of the “poorly written work,” saving Minase Island, which would inevitably be destroyed in the original, as well as saving her family.
But in front of her mother, she had become a devil.
A devil who killed without blinking.
When Nagi finally used the power of Garuda to prevent the destruction of Minase Island.
What awaited her was her mother’s face filled with terror.
On that rainy night.
Her mother’s hysterical cries echoed in her ears.
And her words, like a sharp blade, pierced deep into Nagi’s heart.
Only then did Nagi realize that this world was not the virtual game she believed it to be.
Every person, every life here, really existed, with their own emotions, hopes, and pain.
However, Nagi understood this far too late—
At the cost of “losing” her only relative in this world.
She comprehended what true “homecoming” meant.
It was at that moment.
Nagi of her past life lost her footing in this world.
She became a superfluous existence.
Since then, Nagi had never seen her mother again.
She left Minase Island with Garuda, concealing her identity, solely to prevent anyone else from being harmed because of her.
And it was from that time onward.
Nagi first incorporated “saving everyone” into her plans.
Perhaps it was because of these regrets that the End would recreate that past she shared with her mother in her dreams—that time she once believed to be the happiest.
Nagi had always thought.
That on that rainy night, her mother had completely forgotten about her, that she no longer held a place in her heart.
Yet now, the woman before her recognized her the moment she opened her eyes.
Her call seemed to bring everything back to the past.
“No… you have the wrong person…” Nagi forced herself to suppress her emotions and tried to remain calm.
“Is that so…”
Amamiya Tomoko softly replied.
She slowly raised her hand, reaching toward Nagi’s face, gently brushing away the droplets on her cheek:
“Then why are you crying?”
Amamiya Tomoko quietly gazed into the familiar eyes of the girl before her.
Although no matter how she looked at this beautiful girl with long black hair, she could not possibly be her once beloved child.
But the girl’s gaze and the aura emanating from her felt remarkably familiar, compelling Tomoko to call out to her.
The latter’s reaction suddenly brought Tomoko back to that rainy night years ago.
She had said words that no mother should ever utter to the child who had saved her, saved the entire island, her only child.
Even if it was a misunderstanding.
Even if it was just a dream.
Tomoko felt she had to speak the words that had been tangled deep in her heart—
“I’m sorry, Little Hikari, I am an incompetent mother…”
