Route 1 : Severance End = When the king offered him to choose his reward, Ark made sure to coldly get his revenge by sending the 4 girls to the most hellish places of kingdom and killing the hero with his own hands, but never managed to truly move on from HER death.
The saddest ending but the vengeance felt so sweet.
It's felt simple and easy, but not truly satisfying.
I totally understood why you said it's the bad end, but I can fully agree either, just depends on the perspective since quite a lot of reader seemed to like it the most.
Route 2 : Mending end = after trying to move on when the king offered him to choose his reward, Ark learnt the ugly truth and manage to repair his relationship with the 4 girls. It will never be fully restored like it was before, but it can at least works like that.
The most realistic ending I guess, and the one with the better lesson you can get out of it.
So not the ending I like the most, but I still think it is the best one.
Route 3 : Winning end = because Ark didn't lose HER and learnt the truth earlier, he got his revenge against the hero, repaired his relationship with the 4 girls and had a happy romance with HER. Potential harem Ending.
Probably what the end of the manga will resemble the most.
The most satisfying and unsatisfying ending at the same time for me.
I'm happy for Ark and the outcome of it feels like it's the true end since like you said everything important is resolved there, but at the same time I'm not fully satisfied on the way everything got resolved (or rather almost everything. The hero disappeared disabled, but still had his brainwashing power so...).
It ends to quickly for me to feel a true conclusion, and I think more could have been done (example, I would have like that Ark end up fighting the hero before gaining at 50% because he didn't managed to shut his mouth about it when the hero provoke him about HER, resulting in a hard fight won because Ark would have enduring long enough to get the 50%. I think it would have been a good conclusion of Ark character journey of persevering until getting the good thing in the end).
Hope the manga gives me more since it seems to follow a similar story.
I like it but it is the one frustrated me the most.
Route 0 : Pure world end = The true end according to HER. A happy harem ending without HIM but without HER either.
If it has been the only story, it would have been so bland, and I also think that route could have been better better by focusing it's story on the relationships between the characters and more meaningful interactions between them.
But after seen Ark getting emotionally destroyed for three routes, it just felt so good to see him having a happy and easy adventure. (
And the fact Ark ended up marrying and so banging the false hero's little sister is just the perfect icing on that cake)
My favourite one.
Extra route : Goddess treat = a little selfish wish for someone who worked really really hard. Potential harem Ending.
A quick chapter or every is happy (except maybe Narufe...)
It's hard to not like this one.
Dark route (a route not in the story, but pretty realistic that came from a comment about a world where SHE didn't manage to reach the party in time) : The game over =
- Ark either left the party and/or died before the hero party killed the 8th Dragon.
- The hero got either incapacitated and released later his brainwashing skills or got killed by the hands of the Demon lord because he failed to release the true power of the holy sword.
- the 4 girls got either killed the hero because they blackout middle battle when they released his skill in the battlefield or lived long enough to realize all the bad shit they done while brainwashed.
- the world ends up destroyed by the demon king
It just show how much the summoners and the hero (and even the HER) have screwed up on a worldly scale.
Am I the only one who would participate on a crowdfunding to make a visual novel out of this story ?