The Affairs of Two (3)
The dining hall of the Agra mansion.
There, Kyle, Emily, and I were enduring a rather painful breakfast — all because of Mela and Layla.
"...."
Layla had been off for the past few days. No matter the situation, she was the type to rise early, straighten her clothes, and present herself immaculately. Yet today she'd overslept, her eyes were faintly bloodshot, and even her expression was vacant — a far cry from her usual self.
Is she doing something at night?
It seemed connected to that strange behavior I'd noticed not long ago, but unfortunately I had nothing to go on. When I'd played the game, the mansion had already been a ruin by this point in the timeline, and the city itself had been pure chaos — a completely different situation from now. There was simply no way to know what events might be running.
In circumstances like these, I ought to look into it.
We'd be leaving the city in a few days, but it never hurt to know. Who could say? I might even turn up something unexpected.
Clink. Clink.
"...."
Mela wasn't doing well either. Under ordinary circumstances she stuck to Layla's side like glue, yet here she sat at a seat well removed from her. On top of that, the two of them were carefully avoiding each other's eyes — something had clearly happened between them.
Is that why she's been locked in her room all day?
The questions kept piling up with nothing to answer them. Frustrated, I glanced toward Kyle, our party leader — only to find him and Emily both staring back at me with pleading eyes.
What? What am I supposed to do about it?
"Hey, you're the party leader. Do something."
"Well, yes, but you're closer to those two than I am, Hex."
"What kind of nonsense is that…"
I was about to tell him to quit spouting garbage when an important fact suddenly struck me.
Come to think of it, ever since I possessed this body, Kyle's spent almost all his time with Emily.
With full support from me, Layla, and Mela, he'd raised his relationship with Emily to lover-level affinity at record speed — but the price was that he'd never had a chance to raise his Affinity Levels with the rest of the party. The bizarre result was that I, Hex, now had higher Affinity Levels with them than Kyle, the actual protagonist.
"We're counting on you, Hex!"
Beside him, Emily was giving me the same look of absolute trust. That was the gaze of Affinity Level 3 at work.
…How did it come to this?
This is starting to feel familiar.
An ominous thought drifted up from the back of my mind. It was a pattern that showed up constantly in corruption-type adult games — the kind where you could only save one heroine and had to abandon the rest. The player would refuse to give up, try to save every last one of them, and end up watching a bad ending where everyone was lost and all that remained was despair.
"Ugh."
Why am I thinking about that…
I shook my head hard and turned my eyes back toward Mela and Layla. Looking at the two of them still in such rough shape, I felt the need to step in myself. Leave them alone like this and there was no telling what kind of corruption event they might get swept into.
People of Mela and Layla's caliber wouldn't fall easily, sure — but corruption events in this game didn't only trigger from combat defeat. The place was packed with events that dug into a character's personality regardless of combat power. Just look at Emily's case. Those criminals had planned to assault her while she was doing charity work for the poor. After she beat them, did anyone honestly think they'd just walk away clean?
Those were the kind of scum who killed people without a second thought. They'd have taken a child hostage for sure.
And with a heart as soft as Emily's, that would have been the end of her. Looking back, I was glad I'd gone with her. In the same way, Mela and Layla could run into trouble independent of their own abilities — so keeping their mental state in good shape was essential.
So who do I look after first?
I watched Mela, still eating with her head bowed low. Things had been going well between us lately; handle one event right and her Affinity Level might even hit 3. Besides, I still needed to ask her about Galatea's adult goods shop, so proposing an outing to Mela wasn't a bad option.
Or should I use this chance to raise my Affinity Level with Layla?
Among the party, Layla currently had the lowest Affinity Level with me. Later on, as Talon-related events progressed, I'd often need to persuade her — and for that alone, I needed the level higher. On top of that, Mela's naturally high wariness meant she was good at avoiding danger, whereas Layla, who was clueless about the ways of the world, could fall for even a simple trap.
All right.
Decision made, I rose from my seat.
"Hey."
"Hm?"
Layla turned to me with eyes full of exhaustion. For a second I wondered if I'd chosen wrong, but there was no helping it now.
"Kyle proposed we expand the supply list while we have the chance. I'm heading to the market to look into it, and I'd like your help."
"Huh? With me?"
"That's right. The crises we'll face going forward are likely to involve demonic energy, so your opinion on that front would be…"
"Sure. Fine."
I'd fully expected at least one refusal, but Layla accepted with a limp ease that left me deflated. I'd prepared several lines of persuasion just in case she turned me down… well, this worked out better.
Come to think of it, ever since that Talon dungeon last time, Layla's attitude toward me had softened a little. Maybe this outing would even push our Affinity Level up to 2. With that thought, Layla and I headed out into the streets —
completely failing to notice Mela watching our retreating backs with a distinctly displeased expression.
"Ugh, why do I have to deal with this…"
Emma was a member of Talon. Assigned to evaluation and results reporting for the plan to neutralize the Agra family, she had been positively glowing just a few days ago.
Yes! This job's pure gravy.
While other faceless operatives had drawn the hard, dangerous assignments — ambushing Via Agra, laying waste to the Agra family mansion, destroying the magic workshops — Emma's job had been nothing more than watching and writing things down. "Simple" barely covered it; of course she'd been thrilled.
But once every single one of those operations failed, the difficulty of her work skyrocketed. Evaluation and results reporting meant she now had to identify causes of failure and propose improvements.
"What am I even supposed to write?"
How was someone who'd only observed from the outside supposed to know why things had failed? All she knew was roughly, the hero's party showed up and ruined everything. And improvements? Please.
If I write "please improve personnel resource management," I'll get chewed out, won't I?
With that thought, Emma was listlessly wandering the area around the incident sites when her eyes went wide.
That's…!
A large man and a large-chested woman were walking past. The hero's party that had reduced this entire plan to scrap.
That thug was Hex, and the big-chested one was Layla.
A smile crept onto Emma's lips. If she played this right, she might be able to coast through the improvements section entirely. She was trailing after them at a careful distance when, turning down an alley, someone called out from behind her.
"You there."
"Yes? Me?"
She was currently playing the part of an innocent village girl. So she turned with a pure, guileless expression — and found a tall figure standing there. A man with an eyepatch over his left eye.
He's handsome.
Emma flushed slightly as she asked,
"Is something the matter?"
Is he interested in me? I'm busy, but a little while wouldn't hurt, right?
That was what she was thinking when the man spoke.
"If Talon keeps watching him this openly, the bastard may get thoroughly on guard."
"…I'm not sure what you mean by that."
Even at the word Talon, Emma tried to play dumb with perfect composure — until sudden, unbearable pain twisted her face.
"Ghk…!"
A dagger was already buried in her chest. Ordinarily that alone would have killed her, but a black mage of Talon who had received a demon's power was stubbornly hard to put down. Emma tried to fall back and fight — only to find her body wouldn't answer. More precisely, she had no sensation in either arm.
Why…!
The arms she'd meant to form a seal with hung limp; the mouth she'd meant to chant with was clamped shut in the man's grip.
Crunch.
He twisted the dagger still lodged in her chest, and Emma poured blood as her life ended.
Thud.
Her body crumpled where it stood. The man drew the dagger free of the corpse, shook off the blood, and tucked it away. Then he watched Hex's receding figure in the distance.
With a soft rustle, the man's form was swallowed into the shadows and vanished.