Vidar still remembered that day.
A day he will never, ever forget.
It was around the time when the people who had bothered him by showing up, claiming to hold a punitive expedition, were getting on his nerves to the point of being annoying.
It would have been a lie to say he didn't want to kill them all, but Vidar knew well by now. He knew that the reason the Forbidden Forest had become quiet was that he hadn't committed any wrongdoing for nearly a thousand years.
He didn't want to get into any more trouble. That was all.
The stars were exceptionally beautiful that day. Just like the day he met that nameless child, completely different from the tedious, endless days of the hot spring.
Vidar quietly strolled through the depths of the forest where humans dared not set foot.
And he saw a strange girl.
[It’s not a particularly special forest, unlike what I expected...]
A small girl was crouching in front of the lake, looking around.
The girl repeatedly muttered to herself, wrote something in a small notebook, and got lost in her own thoughts.
Vidar just stared blankly at the girl, as if he had been in a massive shock.
It was because he had a powerful intuition, the reason for which even he could not understand the reason.
It was that kid.
What he's been waiting for was that little one.
That is what he longed for endlessly for thousands of years, without even knowing their face or name.
[Is it because it’s not the right time to meet yet...? Still, I thought there might be a chance.]
The little girl muttered words that were incomprehensible, but such things did not register properly.
He just wanted to get closer.
He wanted to approach and strike up a conversation. He wanted to offer a warm greeting, just as humans usually do. Even if it would be incredibly clumsy.
And he also wanted to ask. Did you happen to know that there was someone who had been waiting only for you for such a long time...?
But strangely enough, Vidar could not get even a little closer to the little girl. It was because his body had frozen stiff as if by magic.
[...So, in the end, it means I have to conquer the rest to see it. For now, there’s nothing I can do.]
Meanwhile, the girl brushed off her bottom and stood up from her seat.
"No. Don't go. Don't make me wait again. Please don't leave." Words he wanted to spit out rose to the tip of his throat, but Vidar could do nothing. It was no metaphor. It felt as if a massive wall were blocking him.
And it was that moment.
[Ack, my notebook!]
With a splash, ripples rose over the calm lake. A small girl, barely reaching her waist, wasted quite a while in front of it, and eventually left with a tearful expression.
Only after the girl disappeared like that was Vidar able to move again.
He stared blankly at the path where not even the girl's shadow was visible, then suddenly shifted his gaze to the lake where ripples remained.
Then he stretched out his hand.
Soon, a faint black mist settled on the lake at his fingertips, and not long after, Vidar took the girl's notebook in his hand with great ease, unlike the girl, who had struggled to do so.
Presepe could not have known. She truly never dreamed that the notebook he had lost back then would travel through time and cause the worst possible situation like this.
And unfortunately for Presepe... that notebook was still in Vidar's grasp.
"...You damn bitch."
Vidar, with an unbearably cold face, took out an old notebook from his pocket and spat out a curse.
"In the end, it was all just a stupid thing to do."
Vidar still had not forgotten the terrible feeling he experienced when he first read the contents of this notebook.
Far from forgetting the emptiness, anger, resentment, murderous intent, and desire for revenge, those emotions became even more vivid with each passing day.
From Vidar's perspective, it was only natural.
- The world of <Presepe in a Cage>
Looking at the contents of the notebook, it was even more so.
- Presepe: Vanessa and the dragon Nidhogg's daughter. The reason she is not a half-monster human is that she has to be involved with the Demon King.
Everything was predetermined. The past, the present, and the future. And even his very existence, growing lonely and sick while waiting for her for thousands of years. The loneliness that felt like a disease, the solitude, everything.
- The Demon King Vidar gave advice to the pregnant Vanessa, and before she died, Vanessa left a dying wish to Presepe to "go to the Forbidden Forest." Secret Mode, foreshadowing for the true male protagonist.
If he had killed that woman back then, he could have killed Presepe in her womb along with her.
- You can meet Vidar after completing the endings with Dietrich, Ivan, Siegfried, Noah DeVern, and Attar Hanan. If you see the conclusion with Vidar, you might be able to escape this world and return to reality. To where I originally lived.
[If you are the Demon King, and if you feel wronged just as you told me earlier...]
The true male protagonist, Demon King Vidar, is a being who has lived for thousands of years and is likely still in the west of the Forbidden Forest.
[If you were to meet a being who designed their life that way.]
Because he set it that way.
[...Will they try to get revenge?]
The sound of teeth grinding came from between Vidar's tightly closed lips.
It was all her fault. Being given a life he didn't even want and having to struggle. Having to live like this, as this kind of being.
What he had to endure living without even being able to die for those thousands of years that were so terribly long.
Solely to meet you.
At best, just to meet someone like you!
But the most disgusting thing was that he didn't know if what young Presepe had written had actually come true.
The fact that he gave the information that the child could live without being ostracized if sent to the Forbidden Forest, and the fact that he did not kill Vanessa in the end.
Vanessa must have left a will telling her to go to the Forbidden Forest, just as that girl had written. Using that as a clue, Presepe came all the way here to find him.
The setting of this world was gradually collapsing, but the basic framework was still holding its ground.
[How did you get here?]
[I walked here.]
[It must have been under control.]
[There wasn't a single person guarding it.]
[Wasn't there a fence? It wasn't an ordinary one; it was imbued with divine power, so it wouldn't have been easy to climb over.]
[It was broken. As if the church statue had been completely shattered.]
Otherwise, there is no way she would have come to the Forbidden Forest so nonchalantly, just to show off once again.
[Does monster blood flow in Presepe?]
[...I wish you would tell me first if Presepe knows this.]
The reason for asking Fenrir such a question was simple. He had to verify it. Just how much Presepe truly knew about the Demon King. And whether she was still aware that she could only leave this world by meeting and connecting with Vidar.
Vidar resorted to all manner of tricks to break the established rules of a world that was destined to unfold as set. Just as Presepe repeated her life to see the endings with the male characters.
It spread bugs by presenting bizarre choices to the male characters and made them find themselves.
He tried to bring about change by using the insignificant Fenrir to incite murder.
[Maybe I'll know if I go there once.]
The same applied to sending Presepe to the monster's umbilical cord in that manner. It was to make her face Siegfried, the only one who hadn't developed a bug, and to sow even more confusion.
However, sometimes doubts would arise.
Like those stupid people who only move according to the settings, won't I also waver at some point?
...What if I fall in love with Presepe? What happens then?
In the end, the answer to that question also came down to one thing.
He has to tear down all the established settings of the world.
Because Vidar was also a being with assigned settings.
Like other male characters. And completely different from Fenrir.
Because if he breaks his own settings designed to love her, and thus never end up with her, the only way for Presepe to leave this world will completely disappear.
Still, he thought things had been going quite well so far...
Was it still not enough?
No, it didn't matter anyway. In the end, everything would turn out the way Vidar wanted.
"..."
Vidar's blue eyes narrowed into long, narrow slits as he glared at the notebook. As he released the force he had been suppressing, two thick horns shot out without hesitation, and his beast-like fangs and claws regained their true form.
However, besides that hideous appearance, something never seen before also rose above Vidar's head.
It was a window of likeability.
Soon, a small book rose from his outstretched fingertips along with black mist.
Something Presepe had never seen properly even once.
Book of memories.
The book of memories, whose code had been deciphered long ago, opened without any particular issue.
As he slowly gazed at the illustrations of Presepe, who met such an endlessly continuing and painful ending... Vidar bit his dry lips in a voice that was beyond sinister.
“You in this world.”
As if Presepe were listening.
"You can never get out."
That way, you too will be able to feel at least half of my pain.
Because you will be able to understand what it means to live without any hope, unable to even die.
Because then you will be able to understand what it means to have to endure an endlessly long time just to meet someone!
"..."
Soon, the black mists enveloping Vidar poured out endlessly. They filled the cave and engulfed the lush forest.
And not long after...
Along with acrid smoke, fire began to rise. All over the place.
The screams of pain from creatures that could be animals or monsters were heard, and everything burned pitch black.
Vidar's gaze, as he began to burn the entire forest, remained fixed on one spot.
An illustration of Presepe crying out while shackled and trapped inside a large, cage-like iron cage.
He stared at the painting for a very long time, as if determined to turn Presepe back into that state again.
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