[Affection toward target: 57(70)]
If 57 was the current affection this body had for that woman, then was the 70 beside it the affection cap that had appeared before?
With Yu Inna, it had only shown affection rising, but this time it was even kindly showing the upper limit of how far the number could simply go. This woman was clearly loved by the system.
Come to think of it, it said that once the affection cap reached stage 1, I could view the profile.
When I stared intently at her in order to see her profile, the main heroine wore a pained expression and avoided my gaze.
No, I could understand being flustered if she thought I was suddenly glaring at her, but was there any reason to look that pained?
The answer to that would be here. I slowly read the window that had begun to appear before my eyes.
[Heroine Name: Lee Seora]
[An old lover whom you met in middle school, grew close to, and began dating. You grew distant from Lee Seora after she started dating ???, and that became the reason you caused a self-harm incident at school. At present, she believes the reason you do not return her greetings is your sense of betrayal toward her, and she is using her abilities to the fullest to devise a secret plan to break through this awkward situation.]
[Lee Seora’s method of capturing you is orthodox romance: using Wisdom to see through you yourself, avoiding what you dislike and doing what you like. Be warned that once you end up in bed, you will be unable to escape due to her Insight into Weak Spots, and she may grasp all sorts of things about you through Wisdom.]
An old lover, but we grew distant because she started dating ???
Then was this woman taking my gaze as an interrogation from someone who had once been her lover?
Regardless of what this body’s past had been, and regardless of whom this woman had come to date, I was pleased with her.
I didn’t know exactly who ??? was, but in the end, didn’t it mean she was dating someone?
In dating sims, there were often cases where heroines dated each other.
It was something that happened because there were people who found yuri intrusions arousing. As for me, a man like an iron wall who did not easily give himself to others, the chances of me giving my heart to the heroines were practically nonexistent, but I still had to prepare for the unlikely. After all, the worst-case scenario always happened the more desperately you wished it wouldn’t.
But the main heroine had abandoned me, someone presumed to be a heroine, and was dating someone else—and she even felt guilty toward me. It only took a little thought to realize how safe and favorable this situation was.
Because in a dating sim, there was only one person likely to be dating the main heroine.
The protagonist of the dating sim.
There was no way I would harbor ill will toward this woman when she had already made the person I needed to be most wary of fall in love with her.
Since this woman must have been bewitched by the protagonist’s demonic charm, there was no need to be cautious around her.
Rather, after reading her profile, I understood. She had made it so I no longer needed to be wary of the protagonist; if 57 affection was the sacrifice, it was cheap.
Now that I had become a woman, I had feared falling under the protagonist’s or the main heroine’s demonic charm, but there was absolutely no way I would fall in love with people who were already dating someone else.
My heart had been beating wildly, as if I had lost my reason the moment I saw her, but I could be that certain about my own feelings.
“…I apologize for speaking to you so casually.”
“No, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it.”
If anything, I was grateful to her for removing a dangerous explosive. Since this woman only knew the previous me, even if I showed my gratitude, it would only confuse her, so I couldn’t explain it properly.
Still, perhaps she took my words as forgiveness, because she stealthily glanced at me and gently wrapped her hand around my wrist. Her index finger slowly traced the lines on my wrist.
“The scars are still there. Back then, I should have said right away that it was all a lie, just like you told me, and run straight to you. I’m sorry I couldn’t. I thought you would be fine… but I suppose I was mistaken.”
“I’m telling you, there’s no need to be sorry at all.”
Seeing the woman unable to meet my eyes directly, I felt a faint sense of regret. Her straight, slender waist, breasts that looked like they would never let a baby go hungry, and her slightly catlike, haughty eyes, along with golden irises that were beautiful even at a glance.
All of it was my type. To the point that I felt a little envious of the protagonist for making a woman like this his.
Though in a world where I must not fall in love anyway, there was no chance I would fall for this woman even if I died and came back to life.
“Th-that sly fox…!”
“Hold back, Inna. Hold back. The student council president is talking to the person responsible for that suicide-threat commotion. If we butt in, we’ll get scolded later. She has to make up with her like that so she won’t have another fit about killing herself later.”
“No, the sly fox isn’t that one!”
At the voices of Inna and the students holding her back, I realized that the woman’s outfit, which I had simply thought was a school uniform, was a little different from everyone else’s.
On the silver badge pinned at her chest was the word President.
It told me what position this woman held at school.
“Student council president?”
“…Yes. When I was elected, both you and I were too confused and conflicted to talk about it. Thanks to your help, I became student council president and have been handling work in that capacity. There are still many things I am not used to, so I cannot proudly call myself the student council president, but…”
No, in truth, I had only asked because I didn’t even know what year I was in.
It wasn’t because I thought she didn’t seem like a student council president, or because I was questioning her for not telling me she had become one.
When I found that my wrist had somehow slipped free from her hand, I stroked my chin with my left hand.
Stroking my smooth chin, which had no beard at all, I sank into thought.
Then, roughly speaking, am I a second-year? I’ve heard that there are times when a first-year becomes student council president and times when a third-year does, but usually, even just to depict competence, the student council president often ends up being a second-year. Since I never dug that deeply into dating sims, it’s only a guess.
The question of what year I was in would be answered once I arrived at school anyway, so there was no need to think about it too seriously.
When I gave up on the question of what year student I was and lifted my head, Lee Seora was there, bending at the waist with her lips brought near my ear.
…My heart nearly dropped.
“…I’ll keep my promise with him and come back to you soon. If you still have feelings for me, please wait just a little.”
“A promise?”
The woman’s casual speech, having thrown off politeness, did not feel awkward; it came sweetly and was pleasant to hear.
To a degree that was on a different level from the heroine whose talent had been her voice, even though her voice had seemed special, it had not particularly been that pleasant to listen to.
However, the important keyword of a promise with someone I assumed was probably the protagonist kept me from continuing to be absorbed in her voice.
At the warm breeze mixed with her breath seeping into my ear, I shuddered slightly. At the same time, I understood why, in a world setting without fighting, this woman possessed something called Insight into Weak Spots.
…I prayed this dating sim was not rated 19+.
“Yes. A promise that he would find a woman bearing a certain role.”
The word role, which appeared in the promise she had likely made with the protagonist.
Was it just my imagination that it was the same as the role attached before the words Extra or Heroine floating above people’s heads?
Just as I was about to ask more about the promise she had made with the protagonist, I heard a familiar voice.
“Over there~. Your boyfriend is coming.”
Yu Inna had somehow shaken off the people restraining her and spoke in a slightly sarcastic voice, low enough that only the nearby woman and I could hear.
Boyfriend—did she mean the protagonist?
Lee Seora and I turned our heads in every direction, but naturally, there was no boy anywhere with the word “Protagonist” floating above his head.
“Lies~. It’s not right for someone with a boyfriend to be all friendly with another girl. I was preventing a misunderstanding that could spread to others, so you should be grateful, right? Come on, let’s go together.”
At Yu Inna’s attempt to naturally take my hand and leave, Lee Seora quickly grabbed my hand on the opposite side.
“If you have even the minimum amount of conscience, you should not be doing this. You have no right to hold Erika’s hand.”
“Excuse me, I don’t think someone with a boyfriend has any right either, so let go?”
A fight between Yu Inna, who seemed popular among the students, and Lee Seora, who was called the student council president.
Since that fight took the form of tugging at my hands, I had to experience the pain directly.
If you’re going to fight, let go of my arms and do it, you bastards.
Part of it was that my body had weakened, but these women’s physical abilities felt stronger than adult men’s. Just as the pain felt so real that it seemed my arms might be torn off and a groan was about to escape me, something strange happened.
[Pain threshold reached — Ability unlocked.]
I didn’t know what had happened. Something like white lightning flashed before my eyes, and the pain of my arms being pulled had disappeared before I knew it. The women who had been holding and tugging at my hands had somehow let go.
An incomprehensible phrase: Ability unlocked.
The women released my hands with different expressions.
Lee Seora wore a relieved expression, while Yu Inna bit her lip with a somewhat frustrated look.
“Yes, remember it well. Whether it is the malicious ability of someone trying to dominate your mind, or those trying to torment you physically, if you wish it, you can reject them all.”
Her words sounded as if she knew that I currently could not use my ability, and that she had pulled my arm this time to help me become able to use it.
With those words as her last, Lee Seora glanced at Yu Inna and me, then opened her mouth.
“Then I will be going on ahead.”
Having returned to polite speech, she walked ahead in the direction of the school.
With such an elegant bearing that it was hard to recall the way she had first approached my side and cautiously spoken to me.