"What...? Whaaaaaaaat!?"
"Master Hugo is... a Reincarnator!?"
"Wait, what do you mean? I don't understand any of this!"
Zenon, Claire, and Yui all reeled in shock at the revelation.
After looking at the three of them—shouting, confused, and utterly flustered—Hugo turned his gaze toward Ryuga, the only one who hadn't budged. He gave a small, wry smile.
"You noticed, didn't you?"
"More or less," Ryuga replied. "Even with the 'memory loss,' you remembered things you shouldn't have, and I've felt something was off for a while. Seeing your behavior lately, I started to suspect this might be the case."
Hugo chuckled softly and nodded. He’d let his guard down around his roommate more than once, and looking back, his actions had been anything but normal.
"I'm sorry for keeping it a secret," Hugo said to the group. "I just didn't know how to bring it up. The timing was never right."
"That’s impossible!" Zenon stammered, still visibly shaken. "It can't be! Hugo is a character from Luminous History! You can't be a Reincarnator!"
"My situation is different from yours, Zenon. It’s a possession-style reincarnation. I ended up in the body of the hated villain noble. Does that make sense?"
In response to the trembling Zenon, Hugo began to explain his past life and everything that had happened since, just as Zenon had done.
He told them how he had been an ordinary hero otaku named Yugo Kurei.
How he had been stabbed while protecting a child from a slasher, only to wake up as Hugo Clay in this world.
He explained that since he couldn't share those circumstances with anyone, he had resolved to live as Hugo—to become a hero who could make everyone smile, a dream he’d been unable to fulfill in his first life.
His friends listened, unable to hide their astonishment at the bizarre truth.
"So Master Hugo's personality didn't change because of memory loss," Claire whispered, her eyes wide. "It was because... quite literally, he became a different person."
"To think such a thing was even possible," Zenon muttered. "I was convinced his personality had shifted simply because I had ignored the game's scenario."
Both Zenon and Claire stared at Hugo, finally understanding the source of the radical changes they had witnessed.
Hugo felt a pang of guilt for dropping such a bombshell now, but Yui spoke up, voicing the question that weighed most heavily on her mind.
"Um, Hugo-san... or should I say, Yugo-san? Which would you prefer?"
"Keep calling me what you always have. It doesn't bother me."
"Right. Well... does Fee know? Does he know you're a Reincarnator? And if you aren't the 'original' Hugo-san, then what happened to the real one?"
Hugo went silent.
It was the one thing he feared most, a question he couldn't dodge forever.
Fee didn't know that he wasn't his real older brother.
The boy didn't know that the brother he respected so deeply—the one who had saved him in the past—had been replaced by a complete stranger.
Hugo also had no idea where the original soul had gone.
What would Fee think when he learned the truth? How badly would it break him?
The mere thought terrified Hugo.
"I know that's important," Ryuga interjected, cutting through the heavy silence. "But even if we intend to tell him the truth, nothing can start until we get Fee back from Dogma and her group. Now isn't the time to be agonizing over it. Right?"
"Yeah... you're right."
Hugo felt a surge of gratitude toward Ryuga for ending that line of questioning, yet the guilt remained.
As he wondered how he could ever make amends to his brother, Claire spoke up.
"But that still leaves a mystery. Why didn't the Flame of Judgment react to Master Hugo?"
"Maybe it's because while we were created as protagonists from scratch, Hugo was already a person of this world in Luminous History," Zenon speculated. "Without knowing how the flame actually identifies us, I can't be sure, but there are plenty of possible reasons."
Zenon shared his theory, then turned a piercing gaze toward Hugo.
"Regardless, Hugo... did you really not realize this was a game world?"
"I had no idea," Hugo admitted. "I never played Luminous History. Honestly, I didn't even know it existed."
"You didn't know about Luminous History?" Zenon's jaw dropped. "Wait a second! It was a massive hit! It was a social phenomenon! There were TV commercials running every single day! What kind of life were you living to not have heard of it?"
"Hey, I'm telling you, I've never heard of it. Besides, shouldn't I be asking you and the other Reincarnators that? I’ve been making Nichiasa references this whole time, and none of you noticed. Are you guys just the kind of otaku who don't care about that stuff?"
"Nichiasa...?" Zenon blinked. "What’s that? A manga?"
"What? Nichiasa is Nichiasa! You know, the hero programs on Sunday mornings! You must have watched them when you were a kid!"
"No... I have no idea what you're talking about. I watched hero shows as a kid, sure, but they were never called 'Nichiasa'..."
Something wasn't adding up. Both Hugo and Zenon felt the disconnect.
As the two of them tilted their heads in confusion, wondering why their common sense didn't apply to the other, Ryuga muttered to himself as the pieces clicked into place.
"I see. So that's it."
"What do you mean 'that's it', Ryuga? And don't you dare tell me 'don't ask me'! We're in the middle of a talk here!"
Hugo and the others immediately turned to look at the roommate who had clearly just had an epiphany.
Ryuga met their gazes and gave a calm, simple answer.
"It's quite simple, really. Hugo and Zenon are from entirely different worlds."