Chapter 63: Unfamiliar Things (2)
This isn’t good enough, more more, perfectly, completely—I must become the reliable self everyone imagines.
“…Therefore I must remain the same as I always have. Both in my homeland and with my younger brother, I have managed that way. There is no reason I cannot do it here.”
Grace slowly laid out her inner thoughts.
Because if she complained of weakness, everyone would worry.
Everyone was kind people, so if she showed weakness they would surely help her.
——She could not allow that.
She, who had been able to do nothing, was supposed to pile even more luggage onto the junior who had accomplished what she herself could not?
There was no way she could do such a thing.
Therefore she had to keep up appearances so as not to make them worry.
No matter how painful it was for her, that pain belonged only to her. She had no right to push it onto everyone.
For someone as useless as herself, this was fitting.
“Therefore you as well, please do not mention me to Lea—”
“——Hah? What the hell kind of bullshit are you spouting, are you an idiot?”
Hah?
Grace looked back at me with a blank face. I glared.
“Frankly, even I, who only just met you today, can tell you’re at your absolute limit. The reason the people around you back home aren’t calling you out is either because they think if they carelessly show concern you’ll just force yourself even harder, or because you’ve already forced yourself past the limit.”
Someone like me figured it out, you know? Someone who only met you a little while ago and isn’t particularly sensitive to other people’s feelings.
There’s no way the family and comrades Grace spoke of wouldn’t notice.
Everyone noticed long ago. They noticed, but touching it carelessly might make it worse, so they were probably thinking of gradually making her rest.
But she somehow learned the fact that her precious best friend was spending time with an ugly Monster Villain.
The result was the figure in front of me—Grace running full speed with a cast on a broken leg. Even if it was starting to heal, doing something like that would obviously make it worse.
——Therefore I felt guilt.
If I hadn’t existed, Grace could have healed her heart together with everyone.
Like in the original, she would have fiercely attacked Alter.
Of course Leas and Zero Ko probably wouldn’t have been saved then—but it was still true that my existence had destroyed the heart she had been holding together by a thread.
Therefore I couldn’t leave it alone. I didn’t want to.
I threw away the feelings of “I’m not suited for this” and “I want to dump it on someone else” and looked back at Grace.
I fumbled with my phone in my right hand, sent Zero Ko a message—If I screw up, cover for me—then provocatively curled the corner of my mouth.
“——Well, isn’t it fine? Your so-called allies and family look like hopeless garbage who aren’t even worth leaning on.”
“——Eh?”
For an instant she couldn’t understand what had been said to her. Mouth half-open, she looked back at me.
The verbal violence from a direction she had never even imagined had turned her mind blank.
Grace, who had been staring blankly at me, narrowed her eyes sharply and clenched her teeth.
Ah, right—if you’re going to provoke, aim at the surroundings, not the person herself.
If I threw abuse at Grace herself, I could already see the future where she just nodded “Yes, that is correct.”
“——Correct yourself.”
A flat voice desperately suppressing emotion.
But her eyes were red, red, shining like flames.
If I weren’t an ordinary Earth-raised civilian, she would have drawn her sword long ago.
The temperature in the room rose. Even though no heater was on, gradually, gradually.
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? Even when a comrade whose mental state is completely wrecked asks for help, all they think is ’luggage,’ ’burden,’ right? Then seeking help is just a waste. Keep up the act as much as you want—no one’s going to notice anyway.”
There was no reply.
Not because there were no words to return.
Blood had rushed to her head and she simply couldn’t form words. It was almost strange that she hadn’t thrown a punch.
She was restraining herself—she couldn’t punch an ordinary person with no combat ability.
Therefore, perfect timing.
I smiled as if looking down on her and piled it on.
“You yourself would find it annoying if a comrade came asking for help, right? So you assume the other side feels the same, right? What’s wrong with that? Including Leas, you’re all a circle of garbage at the same level. If you understand that, just get along without expecting anything—”
Grace’s eyes went wide and she swung her fist.
Even without transforming into a Sacred, the punch roared with a heavy gō sound that, if it landed, would have taken my consciousness in a single blow.
“——My family!”
But right before it connected.
She stopped the fist. Even so, anger—hatred even—seeped into her eyes as she glared at me.
“My family, my friends, my comrades! Are all good people far too good for the likes of me, precious, and precisely because of that I, for everyone’s sake—!”
“——The people you called precious definitely feel the same way about you, you idiot!”
Ah, I was truly angry.
Because these people had worked far, far harder than the likes of me.
Completely different from me—someone who became a Monster Villain with nothing accumulated, who can only remember the erotic parts of the world I played in my previous life.
And yet, why was her self-evaluation this low?
“The other day I was eating with Leas. That’s why I know—you’re Leas’s senpai, right? Your connection with Zero Ko probably came from that too.”
In the original game I didn’t really know what kind of relationship Leas and Grace had. At most that they were senpai and kouhai who got along well; I’d skipped almost all other information.
But the Leas who spoke about Grace at the family restaurant the other day—truly looked happy, joyful, and even restless wanting to meet her soon.
“Leas is! The kind of softhearted person who would sincerely rejoice if someone she only just met was saved! There’s no way she’d think it’s better for someone she called precious to suffer in silence rather than lean on her!”
“Therefore I, like this—!”
“Don’t you dare say you’re ’keeping up appearances’! When even the likes of me can see through it, there’s no way someone who’s known you for years would be fooled—use some common sense!”
You can’t show a weakened form?
You can’t make her carry any more burdens?
Rather, that girl is the type who would take more damage from shock if you didn’t ask for help.
I can already see the figure of her sinking while thinking “Was I not even worth leaning on…?”
“So.”
I pushed aside the fist still frozen in front of me and looked straight at Grace, whose eyes were wavering in confusion.
“Lean on your comrades and family a little more. In a situation like this, the other side suffers more if they can’t be relied on—you’ve managed properly until now, right? Have a little more confidence.”
When someone precious is in this tattered state, if you try to lend strength they instead force themselves and look like they’ll collapse.
Therefore you can only watch from afar—but that kind of thing is painful for the one watching too, isn’t it?