A Slip of the Tongue
"Ugh, blegh..." I clutched my throbbing head and churning stomach. I really should have known when to stop. Maybe it was because Aileen and I had similar tastes in games, but we clicked surprisingly well. We played without any track of time. By the time I finally noticed, it was well past three in the morning. I should have stopped right then and there when I looked at the clock. But it was always just one more turn, just one more quest... and before I knew it, the night had vanished, and the morning sun was warming my skin. I'm... I'm going to die...
"Counselor, are you okay?"
"No... I think I'm actually dying..."
"You should've taken a break. I feel perfectly fine."
"I couldn't do that!"
"Whoa, you startled me."
"An opportunity like this doesn't come around often!"
I had plenty of friends who liked gaming. After all, kids of my generation had grown up playing online games. However, very few of them enjoyed co-op games meant for just two to four players. How many games had I bought because they looked fun, only for them to sit in my library, completely untouched? Opportunities to play together like this were rare. I had to seize the moment. Even if this was the price I had to pay.
"Urgh."
"Well... no matter how fun the game is, this is a bit much. I have class, so I'll head out first, Counselor."
"Goodbye..."
Ah, to be young. If I said that out loud, I'd probably get scolded by someone older than me—mostly the headmaster. I could practically see him jumping up and down, yelling about how I was still young myself. But seeing her so full of energy after pulling an all-nighter made it impossible not to think that way. I used to be perfectly fine after staying up all night when I was younger, too!
Being transported to another world was fun, having special abilities was great, and being able to help the characters I loved was wonderful. But if there was one thing I absolutely hated, it was this: my stamina was utterly pathetic...
Suppressing the muddy, sluggish feeling in my brain—that bizarre cocktail of post-all-nighter euphoria and crushing fatigue—I looked around. Ugh, why is it such a mess in here? I knew we'd made a bit of a mess while gaming, but was it really this bad?
"Ugh, I need to... clean..."
"Just go to sleep first."
"Ah, Orca... When did you get here...?"
"Last night."
Last night? I hadn't even heard her come in. I really must have been completely absorbed in the game. A wave of self-loathing washed over me at the realization that, as someone who was supposed to be a role model for the students, I had just shown her my pathetic self staying up all night over a video game.
"You really love games, don't you?"
"Ah, yes... a little..."
"A little?"
"...A little too much."
It was incredibly awkward. I never imagined I'd be hanging my head in shame in front of Orca like this.
"Whatever. I have to go to class too, so just get some sleep."
"Ah, I'll just clean this up and then—"
"Did you not hear me tell you to sleep right now?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Orca scooped me up and tossed me onto the bed.
"You can clean it up later, so just sleep. You can't even keep your eyes open."
"Ah..."
"I'm leaving. Rest up."
I watched Orca leave the Counseling Room without a single backward glance. I tried to push myself back up to tidy the room. No matter what, leaving it in this state felt wrong. But within seconds, I realized something: no matter how much effort I exerted, my body refused to move. The bed seemed to possess its own gravitational pull, dragging me down with an irresistible force. I need to get up. I need to get up. Even as the thought ran through my mind, I remained paralyzed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Finally, I gave up on everything and closed my eyes. Oh my god... I'm so sleepy...
It was so cozy. A blissful sensation, like floating gently through the clouds, enveloped my entire body. I wanted to stay wrapped up like this forever. My body felt incredibly comfortable, but in stark contrast, my mind felt remarkably clear. ...Wait, clear?
"Ah!"
Startled by a level of alertness that shouldn't have been possible, I bolted upright in bed. There was no way I should feel this refreshed.
"Aaargh! My leg!"
In my frantic rush, I failed to notice the clutter scattered at the foot of the bed and tripped, crashing hard. Ugh, if only my chest weren't so big...! Why does it have to be so uselessly huge?! No, wait, that wasn't the point. What time was it?! Forcing down the pain throbbing in my leg, I scrambled to look at the clock. The hands pointed to four in the afternoon.
"I-I have to go to work...! I'm screwed...! Ah."
Wait, wasn't I already at work? Technically, I had just spent my entire shift fast asleep... right? It wasn't even because of some emergency; I had literally stayed up all night playing games and then slept until 4:00 PM. If I get caught, I'm fired! I rushed toward the door of the Counseling Room to lock it and make sure no one could walk in.
"...?"
There, stuck to the door, was a slip of paper.
[ AWAY ]
...I didn't remember putting up a sign like this. Did I? Well, I couldn't be sure. I was fairly certain I hadn't, but now was not the time to sweat the small stuff. It was already past four. I hurriedly began tidying up the Counseling Room.
"Phew..."
Fortunately, cleaning didn't take very long. In fact, it was so easy it felt almost effortless. Looking out at the sky, which was already beginning to darken just as I woke up, I let out a long sigh.
"What a way to start the morning—well, afternoon. I wake up and immediately have to do manual labor."
To be fair, I had been working incredibly hard lately. I was helping Anastasia look after the children, and I'd given some advice to the Princess and the Watcher to help them reach the top. Orca's psychological issues were being managed reasonably well, and I had even managed to run into Aileen—whom I thought would be the hardest to meet—and become gaming buddies with her. At this rate, wasn't my progress incredibly fast? Perhaps as a rebound from all that stress, my desire to slack off had flared up, leading me to play too hard without considering my physical limits.
"Hmm, but if I want to keep building rapport with Aileen, this is really the only way."
The problem was that there wasn't much else I could do right now. The Princess and the Watcher had to act with extreme caution, so no major incidents would break out just yet. As for Orca... aside from keeping her from causing trouble, there wasn't much to intervene in. That left Leo and Aileen. Leo, perhaps because he was a classic protagonist type, tended to have his events clustered around major plot points. Furthermore, since his main quest was linked with Aileen's, if I wanted to make a move, it was best to do it alongside her. In other words, the only thing I could do right now was grind Aileen's affection points. ...Some might argue that we were already pretty close, but that was a misconception. To her, I was likely nothing more and nothing less than a convenient enabler who helped her slack off legally. Anyone who played the game would know... she had a strong tendency to avoid deep relationships with others. To put it in dating sim terms, Orca was a character you couldn't even talk to without meeting specific prerequisites, whereas Aileen was a character whose affection level would absolutely lock and refuse to rise past a certain point unless a specific condition was met.
"Hmm, what should I do?"
The conflict surrounding the Princess and the Watcher was a massive event where people would literally be ground to dust. So, if possible, I wanted to resolve Aileen's issues before that struggle began. Even though she had shackled herself by her own choice, she was incredibly powerful. If she lent them her aid, she would undoubtedly be an immense asset. As a child, her talent with the sword was so extraordinary she was hailed as a prodigy. According to the developers, if she had diligently continued her training, she would have already been at the level of the world's strongest character by the start of the game. Well, such hypotheses were meaningless now. She had only held a sword for about a year during her childhood and hadn't touched one since. Yet, the fact that she was still whispered about as a "genius sword prodigy" made me wonder just how shocking her display back then must have been. Honestly, I was a little curious. ...Ah, my thoughts were drifting. In the end, Aileen would only start interacting with others and pick up the sword again once that specific condition was met... but the problem was that this condition was completely random. What did I mean by that? It meant her main quest would only trigger after hearing her drop hints about her past during a random encounter in battle. There was a pity system in place, so it would usually trigger by the mid-game at the latest. Of course, there were always those incredibly unlucky players who never got the random encounter even after a whole in-game year, forcing them into a bad ending. They said the odds of that happening were like winning the lottery in reverse. Talk about terrible luck.
But this was reality, not a game. I couldn't just sit around waiting for a main quest to trigger via some random encounter. I might end up like one of those unlucky players and go a whole year without it starting. But how was I supposed to trigger it? In the game, her dialogue was the quest trigger, so players just waited for it. But now that this was reality, forcing her to recite those lines wouldn't magically start a quest. What mattered wasn't the dialogue itself, but the catalyst that would make her take action.
"Hmm, it's not like I can just tell her I know where her father is right now..."
"...Counselor, what did you just say?"
"Huh?"
Hearing a voice that absolutely should not have been there, I blankly turned my head to look beside me. There stood Aileen, wearing an expression just as dumbfounded as mine, staring right back at me.