Chapter 3: Square 2: The Die Carries Death
"Stoooooooppppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!"
A scream echoed throughout the town.
People nearby turned around wondering what was going on.
"...Huh?"
Before I knew it, I was sitting on that same bench again.
I had definitely been in that back alley just moments ago, but the scenery had suddenly switched.
I couldn’t understand the situation at all.
"...Was that last part a dream?
No, there’s no way that was a dream!!"
Just to be sure, I rolled up my pant leg, but there wasn’t a single wound.
Yet I was certain a blade had been deeply stabbed into my calf.
Even my stomach, which had hurt so badly, felt completely fine now.
"...What the hell... is going on?"
There was no way I could survive having a blade swung down at my head.
The sensation I felt right before death, of my skull being split open, proved that the previous attack hadn’t been stopped short.
"Now that I think about it, my watch is still here.
Did they not mess with my belongings?"
I hurriedly opened my wallet... and found 50,000 yen inside.
"Huh? Didn’t I just give the tavern a 10,000-yen bill?"
...But no matter how many times I counted, it was back to exactly 50,000 yen.
I really couldn’t make sense of it.
As I was about to clutch my head in confusion, I suddenly remembered the strange words I had seen several times already.
"...Return to Start. Does that actually mean something?"
Return to start... go back to the beginning... meaning back to the bench?
Coming back after dying... no way...
I glanced down at my watch.
The current time was 10:16.
I checked my smartphone too, and the time matched.
"...Should I test it?"
"Are those punks from before still here!?"
My shout rang through the entire tavern.
All eyes in the store turned to me at once, and I froze for a second.
Then the men sitting near the entrance stood up.
"What’s your problem, kid?
Looking for a fight? Get lost, you’re in the way!"
This was the same man who had laughed while smashing my head open earlier.
"It’s you! All three of you!
You just beat the shit out of me, or rather, killed me...
Don’t you remember anything!?"
Even as I said it, my face was clearly twisted with rage.
I didn’t expect a proper response.
The man stepped forward and threw a punch straight into my abdomen.
"What the hell are you getting cocky for, you weakling... nghiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaah!!!"
Blood sprayed out like a fountain from the fist that sank deep into my gut.
The man in front of me writhed in agony.
"I already saw that attack.
...Ow, ow, that actually packs a punch."
I pulled out the nail-studded wooden board I had hidden under my shirt and threw it at the punk.
"Wait, you bastard!!!"
An enraged roar came at me, but I was already running.
I burst out of the tavern and deliberately ran deeper into the alley.
No matter how familiar they were with the area, with so many corners it was easy to break line of sight.
I turned at a T-junction, threw my phone down one path, and hid in the other.
A few dozen seconds later, the thugs with bright red faces from anger came chasing after.
"Hey, which way did he go?"
"Didn’t see.
But there’s trash scattered weirdly.
He definitely went this...."
Crash!!
The sudden sound of breaking glass echoed.
The men looked at each other and ran toward the noise.
But that glass sound was just an alarm playing a recording I had made on my phone earlier.
At this point, I should be safe.
"...They left, right?"
While checking my surroundings, I stealthily picked up my phone.
Losing my smartphone in such an unknown place would be bad.
"Still, those guys really didn’t remember me at all.
Normally if the person you killed showed up again, you’d freak out and yell ’zombie’ or something..."
Their reaction was completely like meeting me for the first time.
Something was definitely wrong.
"Could this be... time leap?
No, but that’s..."
"Found him!"
When I turned around, there were the same men again.
Damn, I stayed here too long.
I ran at full speed without looking back.
"Wait, you piece of shit!!!"
The angry shouts from behind gradually grew distant.
It seemed they had been drinking quite heavily.
Against staggering, drunk opponents, I was clearly faster.
I thought I could escape, only for a sharp pain like a needle to shoot through my shoulder.
"Guh... what the....
I touched my shoulder; it was wet.
...This was blood.
"D-Did I just get shot!?"
It throbbed painfully, but I could still move.
It was dim and hard to see, but the attackers had stopped and were saying something.
The next moment, something flew from deep in the passage, glowing blue.
"Whoa.... Close one... Wait, this is water!?"
The old wooden box where I had dodged was completely soaked, as if doused with a bucket of water.
While I was checking that, the passage glowed again.
"What the hell is this!? That’s no water gun!
Anyway, get outside!"
I ran while using a nearby metal trash can as a shield.
Water kept flying at me, but it didn’t seem strong enough to pierce metal.
If I could just make it outside...!
"Alright, I’m out... ah."
Right in front of me were the hooves of a horse.
It was a carriage.
I had jumped out right in front of a carriage running at full speed.
The merciless kick from the horse smashed my skull faster than I could blink.
『Return to Start』
The white, blurry text appeared on the back of my eyelids.
"...Aghaaah!? My head... doesn’t hurt?"
The impact of my head being crushed still felt faintly warm.
This definitely wasn’t a dream.
"...Right, what time is it now?"
The smartphone screen showed 10:15.
It was earlier than when I had checked before.
"No doubt about it... I went back."
I stood up and stared at the bench I had been sitting on.
"So this bench really is the ’Start’ square."
In other words, when I die, everything resets and I return here.
"It’s like a game continue.
A game... a game!?"
Come to think of it, when I fell from the apartment building, I heard something like that.
I’m pretty sure it said "Game Start."
If it’s a game where you return to start when you die, there’s only one possibility...
"...Sugoroku?"
But there were no dice or squares to be seen.
"Can I roll a die somewhere?
Then move my piece forward... Wait, what!?"
A completely ordinary six-sided die appeared out of thin air, with only the number 1 painted red.
It materialized in a rather stylish way, almost like being born from flames.
This seemed like a clue to understanding the current situation.
"...Um, should I roll it?"
I tried rolling it toward the ground for now.
The die bounced several times and stopped.
...1.
"What the... guh....
『Return to Start』
The familiar text appeared on the back of my eyelids again.
"...Gah!? Did I die? Did I just die!?"
I touched my body, but there were no wounds. I was completely intact.
But I definitely felt my body explode like an overinflated balloon.
Either way, it definitely wasn’t a normal way to die.
"Why? ...The die?"
I didn’t understand. For now, I decided not to bring out the die anymore.
The moment I thought that, I felt something foreign in my hand.
I fearfully opened my fist, and found the die in my palm again.
"Hey, no way... Does just saying ’die’ make it appear?"
As I said that, another die appeared in my palm.
"Eek.... D-Disappear! Vanish! Blow up! Annihilate! Delete! Release! Deletus! Balus!"
When I opened my tightly shut eyes, the dice in my palm had vanished like mist.
"Haa... haa... It disappeared? That scared me..."
I probably shouldn’t say the word "die" at all.
Well, it’s not a word I’d say casually anyway.
"But it really does disappear when I say ’disappear.’ Should I test it again?
...I don’t want to, but it’s better than leaving it unknown.
I need to know how to deal with it. ...Oh, right."
I braced myself, held my palm as far from my body as possible, and shouted:
"DICE!"
One die appeared.
"So it appears even if I change the wording.
I don’t know how many variations work, but I’ll be careful. Next..."
After thinking for a bit, I cupped both hands like a bowl so the dice wouldn’t fall and said:
"Double dice!"
Just as I expected, two more dice appeared in my palms.
"So I can summon multiple at once.
Is there any use for this?
...Whatever. Disappear!"
All the dice in my hands vanished. "Disappear" seemed to work fine.
I had been worried what would happen if I said "Balus."
"Hey! You there!"
A sudden angry shout came from behind.
I reflexively turned around to see a man dressed like a soldier standing there.
He was a bit shorter than me, a heavily muscled middle-aged man.
The kind of person you definitely shouldn’t piss off was glaring at me, clearly furious.
"Y-Yes? What is it?"
"You’ve been using magic in the middle of town and causing a commotion!
Stop doing things that make the residents anxious, you idiot!"
His earth-shaking roar reverberated through my whole body.
The volume was so loud that nearby birds all flew away at once.
"I-I’m sorry!
I’ll be more careful from now on!!"
"Hmph. Don’t make our job any harder."
He didn’t show up when I was screaming and crying in the alley earlier.
That’s completely neglecting his duties.
Of course, I couldn’t say that out loud no matter what.
Come to think of it, he mentioned something about magic earlier, didn’t he?
"Magic... huh."
I wanted to say there’s no such thing, but mysterious dice appearing from my hand, the ridiculously powerful water gun the punks used, and on top of that, this time-leap mechanic called "Return to Start."
"A country... no, a world with magic."
Foreigners who all speak Japanese for some reason.
Currency that circulates is yen for some reason.
Carriages instead of cars.
Everything I saw and heard was abnormal.
Even if people called me crazy for reading too many novels, that was the only explanation I could think of.
"So this is... isekai reincarnation?"
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