062. Sharing Secrets
062. Sharing Secrets
To be honest, Velvet School Life! is a game with a pretty special meaning for me.
I could go on and on trying to tug at your heartstrings, but to keep it short,
in this world, I'm an orphan with no parents, just like Jin Yu-ha.
So from a young age, my life was the dull cycle of work and home, rinse and repeat.
The closest thing I had to a hobby was cooking,
but since there was no one around to eat it, all of it just went into my own mouth.
In other words, my life was so tight that I didn't have the time for so much as a single friend, let alone a lover.
Just as I was wearing down from that cold reality and starting to wonder if this was really living,
the game I stumbled across was Velvet School Life.
A world bursting with color, where characters with all sorts of charm trade bright, cheerful jokes with each other at the academy.
To me, back then, it honestly felt like a whole new world.
Sure, the setting was dark, but they never lost their courage or their smiles.
Within the game, the one playing it—me—was the Player.
In other words, I was just a Sponsor, watching over them from behind and rooting for them.
Even so, seeing them grow without giving in to reality,
seeing them face seemingly insurmountable enemies and overcome them,
and seeing them shake off their past selves and take flight, shedding their cocoons like butterflies—
all those scenes gave me comfort.
Some people might sneer and say I'm just overly invested in a stupid game, but hey, who gives a damn?
That's how deeply I was immersed in the world of Velvetsra.
The thing is, though, at the end of the day, it's a pretty-girl collecting game.
The core loop is pulling characters from the gacha and raising them.
If you pull mindlessly, you inevitably end up with characters you never use.
But I really hated the idea of just leaving the characters I'd pulled to gather dust like that.
'It feels like I'm ostracizing them just because I don't need them.'
So, I established my own principle.
Unless a character I truly, desperately want shows up, no pulling on the character gacha!
Gacha is for materials and gear only!
And once I've pulled a character, I have to raise them and find a use for them, no matter what!
That was the playstyle I stubbornly stuck to while enjoying the game.
Of course, I didn't use Jin Yu-ha, even when I pulled him.
Anyway, so what about now that the game has become reality?
'Temporarily add a party member, and then when they're no longer useful, tell them, "We can no longer work with you, So-and-so"?'
Maybe if I hadn't brought them into the party in the first place, that'd be a different story. But those words are something my principles would never allow.
"It's people I'll be with until the end... Ahem! But is there a reason you'd go so far as to say that?"
Shin Se-hee cleared her throat and asked me.
Of course, from her perspective, using someone and then discarding them would probably have been the most natural thing in the world. So it was only natural she'd ask.
'...Rather than droning on and on here, trying to play the sympathy card, wouldn't it be better to just give them a rational reason?'
I took a moment to collect my thoughts, then opened my mouth.
"First of all, it's because of our party's reputation."
"Reputation?"
"Yeah. Right now, no one knows our party's name, but we're going to become pretty famous down the line."
At that, everyone nodded as if in agreement.
We'd just worked together in the tutorial boss fight, so they'd had plenty of time to grasp the kind of synergy they could produce.
"And once that happens, whether we like it or not, all sorts of gazes will follow us."
"......Ah."
"The vast majority of them will probably be positive, but this world isn't made up solely of people who approach you with good intentions. And then there are the Demonized Humans."
Shin Se-hee's face hardened.
This part, in particular, would probably hit closest to home for her.
It's also tied to her Personal Story, which will come out later.
"There might be people who try to temporarily join our party to somehow break it up from within, or who try to settle in and dig their heels in. Even if someone doesn't join with those intentions from the start, people around them might approach them."
I looked at Kang Do-hee, Lee Yu-ri, and Im Ga-eul in turn as I spoke, alongside Shin Se-hee.
Im Ga-eul seemed a little flustered, hearing all of this on her very first day joining us.
Well, yeah. If we fought a tutorial boss together, that makes us a party. No backsies.
"So I want to form the party only with people I can trust. My people."
"Yes, I understand."
Shin Se-hee nodded.
"And the second reason is that our party's growth rate is going to be a bit fast."
This part is unavoidable.
A party led by a Player inevitably gets involved in incidents all over this world.
No matter how little Growth Materials you have, if you keep hunting those things down, the experience points are bound to pile up naturally.
"So in terms of efficiency, too, we need people who are optimized for our party from the start, rather than people who just come and go temporarily."
Well, even with this explanation, they probably aren't fully convinced.
Because either way, recruiting other characters is definitely more advantageous in the early stages.
So, mixing in a little sincerity, I opened my mouth.
Ahem!
"And lastly... It's just because that's what I want. Erm, I'm not sure how this will sound..."
When I actually tried to say it, I hesitated a bit.
But the topic was already on the table.
A man, once he's spoken, has to finish what he started—even if it means kicking the blankets in frustration all night.
"I think... I'm the kind of person who finds it a little hard to just casually meet someone and part ways. To be honest, it's kind of forced, but could you try to understand this part...?"
Feeling awkward for no reason, I scratched my cheek.
"......."
"......."
"......."
"......."
I stole glances at them, trying to gauge their reactions.
The party members were staring at me with blank expressions.
'Tch, was it too forced after all...?'
My face flushed hot with embarrassment, and I shooed them away.
"Alright, a-alright then, everyone, dismissed! You all worked really hard today! Classes start again tomorrow! See you tomorrow!"
* * *
They left Jin Yu-ha's place.
The women didn't say a word as they walked together.
Lee Yu-ri recalled the moment a little while ago, when she had visited Jin Yu-ha's room for the first time.
'...He definitely said he was poor, right from the first time we met.'
Camela Forest.
When he'd asked to join them there, he'd given the reason that he didn't have the money to live at the academy.
And once she'd confirmed his skills, she'd thought there was no way someone with that kind of ability could actually be poor.
'I thought it was just an excuse, to protect me...'
But today, she'd seen Jin Yu-ha's shabby clothes, and that single moving box sitting there all alone with nothing else.
Even that box was far too pitifully small to call personal luggage.
Even she, whose own circumstances weren't great, had packed a considerable amount of stuff.
'...Could he have been in debt?'
Maybe he'd had such a massive debt that he couldn't pay it off unless he did dangerous Black Hunter work.
'It does seem like he's paid off all his debts by now, though...'
But then, if she thought about it that way, it was strange.
If that were the case, he should be more than ready to invest in himself and enjoy his freedom now.
So why had Jin Yu-ha readily handed a highest-grade Magic Stone to an upperclassman he'd just met?
And why had he been so desperate to look after her—someone he'd also just met that day?
'And this, too...'
Lee Yu-ri looked at the tattoo that had appeared on the back of her hand and sank deep into thought.
Had there ever been a person like that for her?
As she tried to think back, her thoughts suddenly drifted to the place she sent money to every month.
"......Family."
The word slipped out of her mouth involuntarily.
Everyone's eyes turned to Lee Yu-ri.
"!?"
Lee Yu-ri clapped a hand over her mouth in panic, but once a word was out, there was no taking it back.
Shin Se-hee, who had been staring intently at Lee Yu-ri, spoke up.
"You're all probably wondering, aren't you. Why that man treats all of you so specially."
As she spoke, Shin Se-hee's voice dropped low, sounding slightly choked.
"And there were probably a lot of parts of the process that didn't make sense to you, either."
Those words neatly pulled out what had been on everyone's minds.
They slowly nodded their heads.
"I know the reason, but it's difficult for me to tell you myself. It's related to Jin Yu-ha's secret. And it's all the more true because I only found out by chance. Please hear it from him yourself, later."
Shin Se-hee swept her gaze over the group gathered around her.
Lee Yu-ri, Kang Do-hee, Im Ga-eul.
'Since Jin Yu-ha can see the future, they must be special beings in the predetermined future he's seen.'
And in that future, originally, she probably hadn't been included.
He'd shown an inexplicable, fierce rejection toward her from the very beginning, after all.
Shin Se-hee bit her lip without realizing it.
'Even so, Jin Yu-ha said he would trust me.'
A surge of jealousy welled up inside her.
But Shin Se-hee clung fiercely to those words and forced her heart to calm down.
"But there is one thing I can tell you right now. This is also personal information, so I'm a little reluctant, but... you might make a mistake without knowing it."
A long time ago, when she'd first made up her mind to win Jin Yu-ha over.
She'd done an investigation into him.
Of course, that investigation had been a complete mess, wrong in every single detail.
But there was just one thing.
One fact she'd been able to verify properly.
"Jin Yu-ha's parents, when he was very young... they were attacked by monsters and... passed away. Both of them."
Those words were more than enough to plunge everyone into deep shock.
A heavy silence descended.
"......So that's why. That's what it was."
"Ahh, so that's... what it was..."
Lee Yu-ri and Kang Do-hee nodded as if it all finally made sense to them, belatedly.
"Ah!"
At that moment, Im Ga-eul suddenly gasped.
"I, uh, what do I do?"
"Huh?"
"I, I... earlier, I told my hoobae that he had a lot of mothers...!"