The reason we had gone out, though I only realized it belatedly, was not simply to get something to eat.
Kim Haneul had called me out so we could settle the match we hadn’t been able to finish yesterday, this time in a different format. I had wanted to see that match through to the end as well, so it was a perfect proposal.
After leaving the cafe, we headed straight for a PC bang. It was time to vent the grudge of having been unable to go yesterday and being forced to go to an arcade instead.
The student council president could have been called an uninvited guest in that match, but a true master’s skills are not so easily disrupted just because an intruder barges in.
Aside from the rhythm game, I couldn’t really say I had won any of yesterday’s games, so I intended to give it my all this time. But there was no way I could beat him when he cowardly dragged his lover into it, turned it into a one-versus-two, and disrupted my concentration with his words.
“That woman we passed earlier—do you know her?”
“You seemed close.”
He would suddenly bring up something completely unrelated to the game like that.
“Do you know about the ability Inna has?”
“If you’re asking about Inna’s power, no comment.”
Or he would ask about her power, as if trying to capture Inna.
“What kind of ability do you have?”
“Why on earth are you asking so casually about someone’s superpower?”
And by asking things like that, he got scolded by the student council president before I did. No matter who looked at it, he had thrown everything he had into making me unable to focus on the game so he could win, so of course I had no choice but to lose.
A dreadful defeat. I thought he would immediately start teasing me, but instead, he kept asking weird questions, so I took my hands off the keyboard and said,
“Cut it out. What is this, an interrogation?”
I had decided not to distance myself from him just because he was the protagonist, but it felt awful when he tried to pry things out of me as if he were some detective. Of course, it was fine when I did it.
In my case, I was always worried that others might suspect me of being “possessed,” so I kept my mouth shut at the appropriate times. But that guy asked without restraint, not caring about things like that at all, so of course it couldn’t help but feel unpleasant.
The atmosphere turned awkward in an instant. I thought even Hua Tuo coming back to life would be unable to revive the mood I had killed, but the one who stepped up to bring it back was the boy himself.
“Sorry. I made you feel bad for no reason.”
“...It’s not something you need to apologize for. Just, even if you had some other reason for meeting me, at least don’t make it obvious.”
He got up from his chair, came all the way over to me, and apologized, so it wasn’t as if I could refuse to accept it. Dirty talk like “you suck at games” was an element that made the match more fun, but talking about things completely unrelated to the match killed the excitement altogether.
After that, the boy sat down again, but since he couldn’t focus on the game, I went on to win three times in a row, and the gaming session came to an end.
***
Once the match was over and the sun was beginning to set, the boy came out of the PC bang and looked up at the sky. In his head, the words Erika had said earlier kept lingering.
Even if he had some other reason for meeting her, she had asked him not to make it obvious. Honestly, when he heard that, he couldn’t help but feel a prick in one corner of his heart.
To him, this world was the same as the game he had just played with them. Something he could enjoy, but one day, in order to return home, he would have to quit.
Was it because he had heard that Yu Inna’s ability might have deceived the system? Unconsciously, he had ended up becoming wary of them. Even though there was no way those two, who had been forced apart because of him, could have possessed powers beyond the system.
“So, should I walk you home, or do you two want to go together?”
That was why what came out of the boy’s mouth was, in its own way, consideration. Consideration for the two of them, who would not be able to be together on weekdays.
When the student council president heard those words, she rapidly glanced at Erika, looked straight ahead, then glanced at her again, repeating the motion.
She wanted to go together, but if Erika didn’t want to, she would follow her opinion...! It was an enthusiastic expression that she very much wanted to go together.
In the end, all right of choice passed to Erika. With an expression so calm it was almost composed, the girl walked on while sinking into thought.
“What do you want to do?”
“I...! I don’t mind either way. Please decide as you wish.”
When Erika asked the student council president, apparently intending to hear the other party’s opinion before deciding, the president, flustered, said she would follow Erika’s choice.
“Then I’ve spent a lot of time with you, so I’ll go with her.”
In the end, just as he had expected, Erika declared she would go with the president, then spoke with her eyes. The meaning was that the girls would be spending time together, so the man should disappear.
Though it differed from the true meaning she had conveyed with her eyes, the boy interpreted it that way, said, “Then I’ll go ahead,” and walked away. Only after he had gotten some distance did he stop.
“Come out already.”
Unidentified figures silently stood atop streetlights, walls, and the ground, surrounding the boy.
Even if he had the leg strength to leap over a wall, the encirclement was tight enough that it would be difficult to escape.
Ever since the woman with strange rumors surrounding her had appeared near Erika, he had immediately kept up his guard without letting it down. In dating sims, rumors like that were usually either true or the malicious scheme of someone targeting that woman.
Either way, he had figured they would target the side that split off alone. Not all of them had followed him; some seemed to have attached themselves to Erika’s side instead, but they should have the strength to overcome that much. Even if they didn’t, he just had to finish this quickly and go.
As if they intended to stall for time, the figures continued standing there without moving. Toward them, the boy clenched his fist tightly and said,
“You didn’t follow me just to talk, did you? Come at me. I don’t know where you came from, but I’ll take all of you on. I’ve got somewhere to be after this.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Rather than ‘you,’ should you not be saying ‘you all’?”
The “Radiance” burning from the boy’s fist quietly became a new sun in the city where the sun was setting, illuminating the surroundings.
The boy had many enemies, so with his mind alone, it was difficult to guess whom these people had come to target. The enemies he had made while resolving the stories of heroines from other genres, and of the heroines over the past year.
He had made so many enemies that even guessing would be a waste of time, so who had sent these attackers was not particularly important. In the first place, to his eyes, these things were not even alive.
[Doll A] [Doll B] [Doll C]......
A series bearing the name “Doll.” Just like the woman he had brushed past at the cafe, they gave off the feeling of not being human, and just like that woman, they possessed superpowers.
“If it’s to this extent, it seems like at least the main heroine of some other place has personally stepped in... You’d better focus on me. If you don’t want to lose everything you created.”
Above the unidentified doll that had opened its mouth, the boy raised a hand wreathed in Radiance and smiled with fierce belligerence. At the same time, the battle began.
***
“How unpleasant.”
The student council president, who had taken Erika’s hand as she was about to head home and led her somewhere else, suddenly began giving off signs of extreme displeasure.
Insight through Wisdom. It was a power close to omniscience, yet one that could never truly become omniscience. A power that could know something only when there was information to serve as its foundation.
When she touched Erika’s body, she would find the minute changes in her expression—whether Erika was more displeased than usual, pleased, or indifferent—and by repeating that, she would discover the actions and behaviors Erika might like.
The reason the answer the boy sought kept coming up as Erika may also have included the president’s obsession toward her, so it wasn’t as if it always produced only accurate answers. It was possible to believe incorrect information to be true.
Though considering that Erika’s awakening rate had already risen to over one percent, even the president could not be certain whether that answer was truly wrong.
“Truly.”
An evening walk with Erika. It was something the president had liked since long ago, so she was familiar with what ought to accompany them on this road.
The wind that slowly blew toward them, and the warmth of the hand held together, which they shared. Because she enjoyed them. Because she had wished they would not end.
She noticed that other people were following behind them. It was like noise intruding upon a peacefully continuing performance.
The atmosphere those things gave off was far too loud. The president, who had been memorizing and utilizing the information of every moment she walked with Erika, had no choice but to notice immediately.
‘He must have already known.’
With his strangely outstanding insight, he was probably fighting somewhere else after drawing away some of the attackers.
Even if he noticed in advance, he would not abandon people and run. If he thought of it as his fight, he would fight to the end. Separate from the fact that he had torn Erika and herself apart, he was certainly a good person.
Though today, he had been somewhat strange and had pushed only his own business forward until Erika scolded him.
As if Erika had also noticed the sudden anomaly that had appeared, she quickened her pace. At the entrance of the alley, people wearing black masks were blocking the way. The same was true behind them.
Seeing her former lover stiff with tension, perhaps because she had not yet fully regained her superpower, the student council president tapped Erika’s shoulder and smiled brightly to give her reassurance.
“Don’t worry. There’s no way I’d fail to protect you.”
It was clearly something she could say because she thought of Erika not as a former lover, but as a lover even now.
She was not a superpower user related to combat, but with confidence, she took a pair of black leather gloves from inside her clothes and put them on.
“I’ll win and come back.”
The woman who played the role of a main heroine at the school with the protagonist thus faced those who had followed them.
...The figures, more than twenty of them.