“Won’t you regret it?”
The moment we closed the door at the request office, Inna put a hand on my shoulder and said that. It was phrased like a question, but it was closer to a threat that I would regret it.
Which made sense, since the answer I had given in there was that I would not go with Inna.
She could protect me, the blessing currently protecting me was one she had placed on me, and the only person who could move with me whenever I wanted was Inna.
Choosing her could be called the right choice, since crossing her made things dangerous. But by the same token, there was a high chance I would be dragged around by people who had seen and planned far more than I had.
Yu Inna, and Kim Haneul.
Judging by the scenario, the two did not seem to be on particularly good terms, but if I moved on the board they had laid out, I would spend my entire life struggling to escape their tricks, let alone meet the true heroine.
Even if it meant taking a slight detour, the path that let me escape their expectations would be the truly correct one.
“A student council officer is coming out to help me, so I doubt there’ll be anything to regret.”
But if I revealed this rebellious streak from the start, Inna might take back the blessing she had given me before my protection recovered, so I spoke as if I was appropriately oblivious to the fact that she might retaliate against me because of this choice.
The moment I said I would not move with Inna, the vice president made a proposal.
Since the requests themselves were originally something the student council was supposed to handle anyway, if I simply chose a request, one of the officers whose schedule and conditions matched would attach themselves to me and help.
That was how she put it, but in reality, it would probably be more like I was helping them. Still, that was only a gain for me as well.
Just because I had no protection did not mean I could sit around resting, not knowing when I might hit a bad ending. I had to move even without protection, but moving alone without it made me uneasy.
In my old world, I had gotten around just fine without protection because I was confident I could run away from attackers. In this world, however, there were plenty of people with terrifying supernatural abilities I could never beat with my fists alone, so I needed some suitable means of protecting myself.
Thinking of it that way, having a student council officer with me was truly perfect.
I could take requests right away without needing to rest, I would not owe Inna a debt, and I could even be protected.
The timing was so good that it made me wonder if someone had interfered.
I had confirmed last time that the vice president was a fan of the student council president, so if someone had interfered, it would not be Inna or Kim Haneul’s side, but the student council president’s side.
Unlike Inna and Kim Haneul, however, the student council president was strangely trustworthy.
Was it because this body and she were lovers?
“What the heck! If you were done, you should’ve told us. We barely came out after hearing you two talking. Well, in the end, you two talking among yourselves was pretty much the same as calling us, so I’m not mad. Don’t worry too much.”
While Inna and I were having a staring contest, a door opened beside us, and someone who appeared from there hugged my body tightly.
Since she hugged me from behind, I could not see her face. But between the soft sensation pressing against my back and the fact that only one of Inna’s friends liked hugging me like this, I could easily figure out who it was.
“So, what were you talking about?”
Sora seemed curious about the contents of our conversation, but we looked each other in the eye and tacitly agreed not to discuss this topic in detail.
Inna, who had an abnormal obsession with me but had yet to reveal that sinister side to me, someone who claimed to have lost my “memories,” seemed to decide on her own to hold her tongue. I also found it a little awkward to say in front of Inna’s friends that I had chosen to go with a student council officer instead of Inna.
All the more so because I thought they would absolutely never take my side. I had already had enough in “that other place” of people I thought were my friends taking someone else’s side instead of mine.
When we both had reasons not to say anything, there was no way Sora would get a proper answer. After waiting briefly for our reply, the woman tilted her head and smiled.
“As long as the talk ended well, that’s fine. Let’s go back to the classroom and rest while chatting.”
Chatting was resting? That was the first I had heard of such a thing. Was talking with people not supposed to continuously consume an unquantifiable amount of mental strength?
So that was what resting was. I had thought pretending to be a girl was relatively easy, but a single statement from a woman who could be called “the real thing” was on a completely different level.
So this was a real woman.
Was this what it meant to be [real], something I could not imitate?
“Yeah, I’d rather chat with you all anyway.”
Unlike me, who was frozen in shocked horror, Inna grabbed my arm and stuck close to me, pretending to be friendly.
“Did you know they installed a bread vending machine on the second floor? Now we can just buy something there without going all the way to the store.”
And Gain told me information that was actually useful.
If we kept gathering to eat like we had at lunch today, and Inna did not bring a lunchbox for me too, I could just buy bread from there and eat with them.
While school-life pro tips useful to me were flowing automatically from the mouth of Gain, whom I still presumed to hate me, I heard unbelievable news from her.
“Oh, come to think of it, apparently a transfer student might be coming to our class tomorrow.”
“A transfer student?”
Perhaps they had not expected me to be interested in a transfer student, because their gazes focused on me for a moment. Had “Erika” been the type not to care that much about other people, too...?
I was a little flustered by receiving their concentrated attention, even if only for an instant, just because I had said one word about a transfer student. But soon, they took their eyes off me and continued the conversation.
“I heard someone saw them in the faculty office, talking all friendly with our homeroom teacher, and eavesdropped. Well, the only person who’d do that kind of thing is that girl from the newspaper club. You know, the one who’s close with Kim Haneul.”
In a dating sim, the appearance of a transfer student was practically an expression that another heroine was about to appear.
If she appeared at the beginning of the second year rather than the first, she was either a heroine who would show up briefly as an event and disappear, or someone who was openly central to the story.
Between the person who brought that story, who seemed to be Kim Haneul’s informant, and the news that a transfer student was coming, for these things to happen the very next week after I entered this place—it did feel like the story was finally flowing properly, but—.
“Oh, Daseul? She pokes around here and there, so I do worry about her a lot.”
As long as I did not know what role I had in this world, I could not help feeling complicated.
I was not the true heroine. The goal the system had set for me was to see the ending with the true heroine, and it would not lie to me about the true heroine.
But calling me the main heroine did not fit either, because the woman in charge of that role already existed. As this body’s ex-girlfriend.
This body was probably a heroine, so I suspected it was a sub-heroine, but for me to be considered simply a sub-heroine, the density of incidents since I possessed this body felt a little too high.
“Anyway, are we going out to hang out today?”
“Mm, I can, but she probably can’t. She’s going out with a student council officer to resolve the things students submitted as their worries.”
Even while I was briefly lost in thought, they chatted in a friendly atmosphere. As Inna said, I had something separate to do after school.
I had to complete missions that would increase my chances of finding the queen of the school. I was also greatly looking forward to the student council officer I was supposed to meet after school today.
What kind of person was this girl I suspected to be a heroine? Looking forward to that with a cheerful heart, I returned to the classroom.
The distinguishing trait of heroines was that their traits did not overlap. Since there was already a heroine obsessed with me, the heroines who appeared next had no choice but to be normal.
Unless this dating sim belonged to the category commonly called a psych ward because it threw in insane heroines, that is.
When I thought about the things Kim Haneul said he had experienced, that was probably unlikely.
—Because the things he experienced seemed like the sort of things an ordinary dating sim protagonist would go through.
*
In Korean-style dating sim school settings, instead of a public morals committee, there was something called the guidance department. They were students who made people follow the rules, yet were closer to being on the teachers’ side.
In the reality I had lived in, the guidance department had not even been on the teachers’ side.
“Hey, we’ll tell you if the teachers are coming, so you know what to do when it’s over, right?”
“Of course. Have I ever taken care of you guys in a way that disappointed you?”
Unable to stop lamenting the sight of the guidance department helping students commit crimes instead, back then I submitted to the teachers the recorder I had left near the deserted place where I was being bullied. There was even the heartwarming incident of the guidance department receiving guidance from the teachers.
Though afterward, somehow they found out, and retaliation came straight back to me—.
The point of this story was that a dating sim was a dating sim because it was different from reality.
If an actual real-life guidance department popped out, it would only make everyone awkward. Just like now.
“Hey, you wait long? Get on. We’re going to the destination on this.”
...No, maybe it was just me.
Hair that looked dyed gold, with black ends. A bloodstained wooden bat slung across her back. A black outfit that might have been biker gear, and a yellow armband on her arm that read Head of Guidance.
The fierce-looking woman sitting on the motorcycle patted the rear seat with her hand.
...It seemed like she was talking to me, but I did not answer. Her appearance, a full 180 degrees away from the head of guidance I had expected in a dating sim, was a shock in itself.
Should I have just come with Inna? Was this what she meant when she said I would regret it?
“Haaah? You ignoring me?”
Inna’s prophecy had been correct. —I was regretting it right now... She had not been threatening me. She had merely foreseen the future and given me advice, yet I had failed to believe her.
Swallowing my tears inwardly, I had no choice but to get on the back seat of the motorcycle the delinquent woman wearing the mask of the head of guidance had indicated.
[Head of Guidance Riki]
[Role: Sub-Heroine]
[Ability: Struggle.]
The nerve to ignore a woman whose ability even sounded strong had long since vanished due to the loss of my protection... If only I had not lost my protection, I would at least have asked, “Me?”
The coward inside me saw her and had a PTSD episode, so I could not say anything. I had no choice but to obediently put on the helmet she gave me and go along with her as she took the motorcycle wherever she pleased...