@Angelo Gabrini Maybe he will give them something sweeter after the main story is concluded. Granted, I don't know how it could be happy if most of the people die in the world.

Also, like other people have commented on, yes, it's been stated numerous times in the story that Liaris Freese is directly related to his feelings for Ais, so if he were to fall in love with someone else, it would go away.

Vol. 17 even straight up addresses this since Freya is trying to gaslight Bell into thinking his feelings for Ais are just part of his "fake memories", which will destroy Liaris Freese, and allow her to Charm him.

It also doesn't contradict with Freya's actions in either of the two stories. Freya is unhinged and desperate in Vol. 17, breaking her beliefs all to essentially try and brainwash Bell to keep him by her side, even if it means he will no longer be "pure", while Freya in the What If isn't broken by the rejection in that timeline, so her naturally losing the obsession makes sense, plus probably because it's specifically Ryuu he's with.

@Vanesakroger21456

Denial. Plain and simple. That's all this is, you're in denial.

The What IF makes clear that 1. Bell loving anyone but Ais is a betrayal of his character, and 2. that it indirectly dooms the world by deactivating Realize Phase, meaning that there'll be nobody strong enough to handle the dragon. Both things that I have been saying all along and both things that you and many others have argued against because you want Bell to end up with Ryu.

Too bad. There's no more room for debate (not that there ever was, really). This is Oomori making it clear for the billionth time, in terms that bear no confusion.

@Angelo Gabrini Rem/Sloth IF also means that everyone else in the Emilia Camp dies, along with everyone in the Crusch Camp, the White Whale and the Great Rabbit both continue to wreak havoc in the world, all the Sin Archbishops continue to run loose, Pandora stays on the loose, Satella remains sealed and cursed, and basically all the things that Subaru would've done to help and save the world don't get done.

I'm a huge Rem fan, but the whole reason it's Sloth IF is because Subaru is choosing to be lazy and have his own little oasis of personal happiness as the world collapses around his ears. That's also the reason I made that exact comparison between these two IFs myself-- both of them require massively OOC decisions from at least one of the protagonists, and both of them end up wrecking the world as a direct consequence. As @InversePrime noted, the only true difference is that this Danmachi IF is a lot less subtle about it.

Bell did say in Vol 1 SS that elves are his preference but he never straight out admit before that the type of girl he likes is a blond.

@ThatRabidPotato

Yes I know that, like I told InversePrime above, both of you are missing my point. I wrote that comment with the intent that Ryuu fans could have their "happy ending" instead of being smacked with "everyone dies because OEBD the end"

It just feels really awkward to me coming from an author that struggles to kill off characters and generally has everything be a happy ending, not to mention it alienates a considerable portion of the fanbase both LN reader and anime only. I'm not saying that the IF shouldn't have had a bad ending but there should've been a smarter way of dealing with it

@AP24

I swear I remember reading someplace where Bell admitted that

I don't know why, but I had a good laugh about it. I wonder if Oomori really had that in mind when he decided to do the what-if...

@Angelo Gabrini

Bell’s preference being blond girls is never mentioned in the LN volumes. Well, the part about elves being his preference is only mentioned in SS and Drama CD so maybe you saw the blond part in somewhere other than LN volumes too.

NGL this was so bad of a what if story that I thought it was a joke or fake news

It seems to be true and it just makes me so baffled? Why make a what if story for Ryuu that basically implies that the world is doomed because he chose Ryuu?

Ryuu fans are clearly looking forward to this what if story so why insult them? The author could've just wrote a happy ending with them married and having kids and all would be great. It's not canon, so the author could've wrote whatever happy ending and it wouldn't matter. Ryuu fans could have at least get to see what them being together would've been like.

It just feels dumb to purposely write a bad ending and basically say that if Bell doesn't end up with Ais then the world is doomed!!!

I'm a Bell x Ais fan but now I feel sour on the ship because it feels like he HAS to be with her rather than him wanting to be with her.