Agung pressed his ear closer to the wood, the cold surface a sharp contrast to the heat of his anxiety. There was one detail that had been gnawing at him since he stepped into this high-tech fortress of a house.
"Eli? One more thing," he called out, his voice dropping to a low, intense whisper. "The 'me' who was here before... the one who left three years ago. Did he have it too? Did he have the quadrillion dollars? Did he have the power to pull crystalline roses out of thin air? Or was he just... a normal man?"
He waited, holding his breath. If the previous Agung had been a literal god and still walked away, then there was no hope for a slightly chubby otaku with a heart full of guilt.
On the other side, he heard the sharp rustle of the parchment as Eli tightened her grip. The silence stretched for a long, agonizing ten seconds before she spoke, her voice sounding strangely hollow.
"No," Eli said, the word clipped and sharp. "He was a successful man, yes. He was a brilliant producer, a man who built an empire with his mind and his passion for our music. But he was human. He bled when he cut himself. He stayed up late worrying about the bills for the theater. He didn't have 'Creation Magic.' He had hard work."
She paused, and Agung could almost picture her leaning her forehead against the other side of the door.
"If he had a quadrillion dollars," Eli continued, her voice trembling with a hint of suppressed bitterness, "maybe Maki wouldn't have had to go back to the hospital rotations to keep this estate running. Maybe Umi wouldn't have had to sell her family's dojo land to cover the 'disappearance' taxes. You show up with infinite wealth and god-like powers... but the man we loved only had us."
Agung felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.
"So I'm an upgrade in power," Agung murmured to himself, "but a downgrade in soul."
He looked at his hands again. The golden sparks of the Creation Magic felt like a mockery now. He was a "cheat code" character dropped into a save file where the previous player had actually earned everything through blood, sweat, and tears—before throwing it all away.
"He didn't have the magic," Agung said louder, his voice gaining a sudden, firm edge. "But Eli... that means he didn't have the excuse I do. He chose to leave a reality he built. I was forced into a reality I don't deserve. If I have this power now, I'm not going to use it to be a 'producer.' I'm going to use it to fix the damage he caused by being a 'normal' man."
"A quadrillion dollars can't buy a father's presence, Agung," Eli replied, though her tone had shifted from cold to contemplative.
"Maybe not," Agung countered, his mind racing. "But it can buy the best legal team to recover the dojo land. It can buy the hospital Maki works at so she never has to pull a double shift again. And the magic... the magic can make sure those kids never have to see a shadow in this house again."
Suddenly, the lock on the door didn't click, but he heard Eli move.
"I'm going to take these papers to the others," she said. "If you're lying about being from another world, Nozomi will know the moment she touches the ink. But if you're telling the truth... may God help you, because Maki is going to be even angrier that the man she actually loved is officially 'dead' and replaced by a magical otaku."