A teacher normally shouldn't speak to a student about other students.
Because subjectivity inevitably colors any talk about someone. A teacher isn't on equal footing with students, and if she is someone the students watch carefully, she should be all the more careful with her words. A careless remark could easily influence them.
*So for now, I only gave praise, but...*
She gauged Erica’s reaction inwardly. What she had just said was something she had offered only at the student’s request, and even then she had done her best to hold back from mentioning Kim Haneul’s less-than-admirable feats.
An incident where a rich family’s daughter had brightly illuminated the sports field to confess her feelings, for instance.
Or an incident where a princess from another country had come and demanded Kim Haneul become her husband. Frankly, there were other major incidents that any girl who had caused a suicide stunt to get Kim Haneul’s attention would inevitably know about. But those might draw out Erica’s anger, so she had stopped at an appropriate line and kept them to herself.
But could the reason Erica had asked about him be that she still had feelings for that boy?
Since such curiosity was ill-advised, she shook it off and focused all her attention on what would come from Erica’s mouth.
When a student asks a teacher about another student, it is usually to find out what the teacher thinks of that student before revealing her own counseling concerns.
“Actually...”
The student sitting before her, keeping her promise to speak about herself after hearing about Kim Haneul first, was just about to open her mouth.
*Ding-dong!*
The homeroom teacher froze at the perfectly timed ring of the bell. If only it had rung a little later, she could have heard the student’s concerns.
Had they headed straight here after the alarm signaled the card had been used?
She had told them to spend the money on the card and take their time, yet they seemed to have done nothing but grocery shopping and returned at a much faster pace than expected.
The homeroom teacher remained in an awkward posture, half-risen, neither heading toward the entrance nor ignoring it and sitting back down.
Ignoring the desperate look in the teacher’s eyes that said *if you have something to say, please say it*, Erica’s gaze turned toward the front door. A silent demand to stop lingering here and go open it.
...Resigned to the fact that she wouldn’t hear what she had been hoping for, the homeroom teacher let her shoulders slump and opened the door. There stood girls with both hands full of groceries.
Far more ingredients than what had appeared on the transaction history. Frozen by the surreal sight of students sent on a simple errand returning with ten times as much, she watched blankly as they set the groceries down in the kitchen.
An awkward, chilly current flowed between the two. What had happened while they were out? Why was such coldness radiating from those two who had seemed to be getting along well enough?
Having failed to hear the story she wanted and instead having created nothing but bad air between her students, the homeroom teacher looked on the verge of tears.
*
After Inna cooked dinner with skills surpassing a professional chef’s, it wasn’t long before we headed back to our respective homes.
The teacher had offered to drive us, but contrary to my wishes, Inna said there was no need, so we were forced to walk home. ...I had just wanted to ride in the car and go comfortably.
I walked with my cheeks puffed tight with anger toward Inna, who had made things difficult for me, making no effort to hide them, but as time passed the air inside inevitably leaked out.
Night is black. Though there were streetlights and the glow of marts or apartment complexes, the darkness born from the sun’s absence could not be entirely erased.
And the people brushing past on either side were clothed in black as well, so they appeared before my eyes so suddenly that I startled repeatedly. Naturally, in such a situation I had no choice but to cling to the arm of the beautiful girl who held the only color around her.
“...Hm? Could it be you’re scared of people?”
It’s not that I’m scared of being assaulted in a random attack. Because faces can’t be seen properly, people at night are like ghosts, and that’s what’s frightening.
And even if I really were scared of people, would I entrust myself to a girl who only looks slightly stronger than my weak self?
“All right, leave it to me. I won’t let anyone lay a hand on you.”
Unable to hear my inner thoughts, Inna walked with a determined expression, vigilantly watching in all directions and using her own body as a shield to ensure I didn’t come into contact with anyone. In particular, judging by build, she was especially wary of women rather than men—something that could only be strange.
I had been wondering before: was the probability higher that women were superior espers compared to men? The reason women’s physical abilities were better than I had thought might be related to espers.
While lost in these thoughts, I looked at the window I had deliberately ignored while with Inna. It was a window that did not obstruct my view of what lay ahead no matter how much I covered my eyes, provided I did not properly perceive its contents, and I could postpone reading those contents indefinitely.
I finally focused properly on the semi-transparent window before my eyes and checked its contents.
[The event did not conclude properly. Who benefits from a situation that ended abruptly? Due to the improper conclusion, only the choice regarding your answer to the first question will be partially settled.]
[The current protagonist—Kim Haneul—is searching for the True Heroine, one of his victory conditions. Because multiple dating sims are mixed together, there may be several main heroines, but there is only one True Heroine in this world.]
[Your victory condition, currently designated as Erica, is also to find the True Heroine, clear all of her character scenarios, and see the True Ending with her.]
[A portion of the Counseling Event reward is granted. Clue regarding the True Heroine: she possesses an esper ability useful in all genres in this world, where superpower battle fiction, everyday school fiction, and brainwashing violation fiction are heavily mixed.]
[And another clue regarding the True Heroine is———. As the Counseling Event could not be perfectly concluded, it cannot be provided. Experience many events and obtain successful results to gain information about this world.]
[However, the improper conclusion of the event is not your fault. Instead, the name of the esper ability you possess is unlocked.]
[Ability: Blessing.]
[Ability Description: A certain blessing that protects only its owner until the very end, even if the world perishes. The exact usage or true name of this ability is unknown.]
[Counter: Depending on the degree of affection you hold for another, you cannot block or be protected from damage inflicted by that person.]
That was the end of what I could check. I had more or less guessed it, but it was a blessing specialized in protecting my body.
I didn’t know what it meant that the exact usage or true name was unknown, but the counter told me that my weakness was exactly as the system had warned from the start. Giving my heart to others made me weak.
Honestly, the esper ability of an ex-lover with 57 affection didn’t look very threatening, and while Yoo Inna’s ability at 25 affection did look threatening, the affection level itself wasn’t particularly high.
Since Yoo Inna knew the self-harm keyword at 20, the affection cap had been released quickly, but the odds of Inna also knowing the keyword estimated to appear at 50 were low, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about for now.
More than that, two other things among what the system had told me stood out.
If Kim Haneul’s victory condition was finding the True Heroine, I had been thinking that those from “the world I was in,” or the one who came from it, would be Kim Haneul, as expected.
But if this world had three major dating sim genres mixed together, with things like DLCs and side stories included, the “protagonists” themselves might not end with just one person.
While it was possible that one protagonist could encompass all three genres, generally speaking, rather than a single protagonist personality shifting between violation fiction and pure-love fiction, it was standard to use entirely different protagonists.
I stopped focusing on the system window before my eyes and looked around. No matter how I looked, it was an unfamiliar street. Realizing that rather than gradually growing used to it, unknown roads simply continued, I hastily opened my mouth.
“Where are we going?”
“The closest place from here is my house, so toward my house?”
This was news to me. The girl beside me spoke wearing a bright, guiltless smile.
“Come on, think about it. You said you lost your memory, right? Then wouldn’t there be no difference between where you live and where I sleep?”
The girl spoke as if she had realized something upon hearing my words, which she had probably been guessing since yesterday, and I momentarily lost my words.
I felt like I understood why this girl and the owner of this body had fought. When I first met her, I thought she was somewhat normal, but her logic circuits were completely twisted.
“Even if I were to go to your house to cook, do laundry, or even give you baths~, honestly, you coming to my house is much more convenient and better for your comfort!”
I had thought she only washed my hair and cooked, but Inna did everything from laundry of embarrassing places like underwear to baths?
They say we once fought, but does this even make sense? I had thought only Inna’s logic circuits were twisted, but the thought that I had entrusted such things to Inna despite her starting from 0 affection as a childhood friend I had once fought with made my head spin.
Honestly, whether thanks to [Blessing], the braces on my wrists seemed to be at a level where I could do laundry or shower if I wanted to.
Noticing I was deep in thought, the girl with blackish-green hair pointed to a spot with her finger.
“And most importantly, we’re almost at my house. Are you really going to your house? I’m not taking you this time, you know?”
“Sigh... just for today.”
Tomorrow I’ll sleep separately at this body’s house. And I’ll shower and do laundry alone. I couldn’t understand why the owner of this body had accepted such things from someone she used to fight with, but I had no intention of following the exact steps this body’s owner had taken.
Since the “player” who arrived here first might notice me, I did intend to follow to some extent what this body had done in the past, but that sort of thing was too embarrassing to receive from someone else.
“Okay!”
The girl, unable to know my inner thoughts, answered brightly once again.