[AAA City Female Ghost: New members? There are actually new members joining this group?]
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: Oh, new members? Welcome!]
Watching those two suddenly surface to welcome the newcomers, Anthony couldn't help but let a faint look of surprise cross his face.
He thought it over for a moment, then decided to set aside what he'd been working on and take stock of the situation first.
After the beating they'd handed DIO, the gains on his end had been substantial. The most pressing item on Anthony's to-do list right now was confirming exactly what he'd walked away with — and laying out a plan for what came next.
But it wasn't so urgent that he could justify ignoring new group members entirely.
Besides — with his [The Angler] ability, if the newcomers' worlds turned out to be interesting, his development strategy might need to be adjusted around them anyway.
Looking at the new IDs… "Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren." That one had to be from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Given that it was the departed — well, that was almost certainly Himmel. No question there.
As for the other one — "The Demon King's Strictest Father" — Anthony thought about it for a moment, and the answer clicked into place.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Had to be.
When you thought about it carefully, he was the only one who fit the description. Never mind actually coming back to life — if Yoriichi so much as twitched a finger from six feet under, Muzan would have a full-blown anxiety attack and blast himself several kilometers in the opposite direction.
Still… these world choices weren't bad at all.
Anthony clicked his tongue thoughtfully, then typed:
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Welcome, both of you. Please read the group rules when you get a chance — appreciate your cooperation.]
............
In the vast expanse of endless chaos, it was as though a single spark of true spirit had alighted upon Yoriichi Tsugikuni's soul.
And so, within a world of crystalline clarity, his consciousness slowly stirred back to life. But what greeted his eyes was not reincarnation — it was a vivid blue chat group screen, floating before him.
After a brief moment of disorientation, Yoriichi felt his memories come rushing back like a tide.
Decades spent hunting Muzan. Decades without result. Even in his final moments, he had failed to fully erase that plague upon humanity from the face of the earth.
In his twilight years, already ancient and worn, he had ultimately been unable to give his elder brother — the one who had fallen into demonhood — the dignified end of a blade.
His last memory was the moment he swung that final strike at Kokushibo. He had been too old. He could manage only that one slash… and precisely because he was too old, the blow had been enough to grievously wound, but not to kill.
Whenever Yoriichi looked back on those memories, he always felt the same thing — as though there were so many things he had left unfinished.
If he were asked to sum up his entire life in a single word, the first one that rose to the surface of his heart was this:
Regret.
Regret for everything he had set out to accomplish — and ultimately never seen through to the end.
And it was in that very moment of reflection that Yoriichi noticed the words appearing on the chat group panel — typed by [Lord of the White Holy Throne].
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Welcome, both of you. Please read the group rules when you get a chance — appreciate your cooperation.]
Group rules?
Yoriichi blinked, then searched the interface with some unfamiliarity — and after a long while, finally found the so-called rules pinned at the top of the announcements.
"A chat group that captures wandering souls from across infinite dimensions… something like this actually exists?"
"Numerous functions… and the ultimate goal is to resurrect all group members?!"
Yoriichi murmured under his breath — and then, as his eyes reached the final line of the group rules, they went wide.
Resurrection?!
[The Demon King's Strictest Father: Is everything written in the group rules actually true?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Ah, you're asking about the resurrection part, I take it? That much you can certainly believe — I'm living proof of it.]
In that instant, even Yoriichi — a man of ordinarily serene composure — felt wave after wave of emotion surge through him.
Could something like returning from the dead actually be real?
If so — then the unfinished business he had left behind… perhaps it could still reach its conclusion.
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: For more details, you can ask Mr. Anthony @Lord of the White Holy Throne — he's knowledgeable about everyone's worlds, and I'm sure he could explain things more clearly than I could.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Ahem — I'm here. You're Yoriichi Tsugikuni, correct?]
Out on the Primordial River, Anthony had been sitting on the toilet — and feeling that he really couldn't keep lurking in silence any longer, he stepped forward to speak:
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: As you've already seen — the situation with our group is essentially this: we're working toward a perfect ending where every member gets to be resurrected. Everyone who ends up here has, broadly speaking, some desire to come back to life.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: You want to finish things with Muzan, am I right?]
[The Demon King's Strictest Father: As you say. That source of all evil — no matter what it takes, it must be exterminated.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Alright then. I'll send you two files — one is a summary I put together on the group's current situation, and the other covers the story of your world as I know it. Have a read through them first.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Once you're done, check the group's ability enhancement function to see what conditions are required for your resurrection, then let everyone know — that way we can start figuring out how to help you.]
[The Demon King's Strictest Father: Understood.]
With that, Anthony sent the two files to Yoriichi — and then watched as Yoriichi promptly went offline, clearly diving straight into digesting the information.
Though, of course, there was still one person in the chat group who hadn't said a word.
Anthony scrolled through the chat log, waited a while, and then typed:
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren — you've been lurking this whole time. I'm sure Sir Himmel has a fair grasp of things by now, yes?]
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: Yes, the files were very clearly written, and the group rules answered most of my questions.]
Without asking Anthony how he'd known his real name, Himmel answered with characteristic straightforwardness.
Apparently, while Anthony and Yoriichi had been talking, Himmel had already sorted out the full picture on his own.
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: It really is something remarkable — my consciousness simply woke up out of nowhere. I can't feel anything around me, and yet this screen lit up right before my eyes…]
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: That said, Mr. Anthony — I don't have any particular urgency to be resurrected. Thank you for the kind thought, though.]
As expected.
Reading Himmel's message, Anthony understood immediately.
This fell entirely within his predictions. In fact, if Himmel hadn't said something like this, Anthony would have found it strange.
Because in every sense of the word, that was just who Himmel was.
It wasn't that he genuinely didn't want to be resurrected — the man's feelings toward Frieren ran far too deep for that. But the reason he'd said what he said came down to one simple thing:
Resurrection, on its own, could not fix the root cause of his regret.
Fortunately, Anthony knew exactly how to handle this.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: There's no need to be in any rush about it.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: What if I told you — that after you're resurrected, there's a way to completely resolve the lifespan problem? A way to let you, a human, live just as long as an elf?]
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: ?]
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: Wait. Hold on a moment.]
[Warrior of Sinseoki-Frieren: Is it too late to take back what I just said?]
____
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