The Hidden Truth
I jolted upright in shock. “Y-you! What the hell are you doing?!”
Rachel looked up at me with a perfectly calm expression. “Friends.”
It sounded like she was saying she did this because we were friends. Just what kind of common sense did this woman operate on?
When I didn’t respond, Rachel tilted her head. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… Never mind. Just don’t do this again, okay?”
“Men like it when women sleep in the same bed. We’re friends. You don’t like it?”
Damn it. Maybe I should have at least looked up a bit of her heroine strategy guide. I still couldn’t get a read on what kind of character she was. It was incredibly disorienting to suddenly be entangled with someone I was never supposed to get involved with.
I let out a deep sigh and climbed out of bed. “No, it’s fine. Thanks for waking me up.”
A faint smile appeared on Rachel’s usually expressionless face. Was there something wrong with her intelligence? Was this some kind of airheaded beauty concept? At least the time was about when I usually woke up, so it wasn’t a huge inconvenience. I was just startled, that’s all.
I started to change clothes and go about my usual routine, but Rachel just sat on the bed watching me with wide, unblinking eyes.
“What are you doing? I’m going to change.”
“Yeah. Want me to help you get dressed?”
Her sudden bold offer left me speechless. “Didn’t your family teach you anything at home?”
Rachel stared at me blankly for a moment before answering. “This is the first time I’ve ever made a friend.”
“......”
“So I don’t really know. Is it wrong to help a friend get dressed?”
What the hell kind of person was she? I stared at Rachel for a long moment, then sighed. “Men and women aren’t supposed to show each other their naked bodies unless they’re lovers or married.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s embarrassing.”
“I’m not embarrassed.”
“Well, I am. So get out. I need to change and go to class.”
“I’ll wait until you change and we can go together.”
Why was she sticking to me like this? I glanced at Rachel. Her face was like an expressionless doll. No emotion could be read from it at all.
I was finally starting to get it. She was a ditzy girl with zero common sense whose only real strength was raw physical power. I briefly considered pushing her away firmly, but there was a chance this cat-like girl would get genuinely hurt and never approach me again. That would let me return to how things were supposed to be, but since there was likely a Demon lurking around her, I couldn’t risk it. I had to keep her close for now.
“Alright. We can go together.”
Rachel’s face brightened at my words. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Eat together too?”
“Sure. Let’s eat together.”
“Sleep together too?”
“No. We sleep separately.”
“Why? You’re warm and it feels nice.”
“Are you my lover? My wife? No, right? Then men and women shouldn’t sleep together.”
“Then become my lover.”
“It’s not that simple… Anyway, no. We’re not sleeping together.”
Rachel’s face fell into a gloomy, dejected expression. Seeing such a beautiful girl look so sad made my heart pound, but I forced myself to stay calm. It was only because of the Demon. There might be someone corrupted by a Fragment of Corruption near her. That was the only reason. I just had to act like her friend until I could dig up more information.
“First, let me change. We’ll go to class together after.”
“Okay.”
Rachel was like an obedient silver cat. If she had a tail at her waist, it probably would have been wagging. She trotted out the door with light steps.
Only after watching her leave did I finally notice that the entire door to my dorm room had been ripped off its hinges.
“M-my door?!”
“I wanted to come in but it wouldn’t open. So I pulled it off.”
Rachel watched my reaction carefully. “Was that wrong?”
“........”
Never mind. What was I even expecting from her? I firmly told her never to rip my door off again, then called a maid to have it repaired. Just how had she managed to tear off a door that thick and heavy? A ditzy, muscle-brained, common-sense-lacking idiot girl. That was the one thing I’d learned about the heroine Rachel despite never having paid her much attention before.
And going anywhere with Rachel was the absolute worst.
She had zero ability to read the room. “The professor is talking. Stop clinging to me.”
“We’re friends.”
“Friends don’t do this.”
During class she kept trying to press herself against me and rub up on me, which was incredibly awkward. When mealtime came, she piled her plate high with her favorite meat dishes and handed it to me. When I told her I couldn’t eat that much, she looked downcast and then proceeded to devour everything on both our plates by herself. So she was a big eater on top of being a ditzy, muscle-brained idiot. That seemed to be part of her heroine package.
Even when I went to the training hall to practice Stingray and Mountain Shaker—applying the feedback I’d received from the instructors to raise my enlightenment—she kept wandering around me like a cat begging to play until I eventually had to give up on training altogether.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this toward me?”
“First friend. They said I should treat you preciously.”
When she said that with such an innocent, clueless face, what was I supposed to say? I’d planned to talk with her during evening free time after classes ended, but at this point I had no choice. I started a conversation, carefully steering it so that neither the suspected Demon near her nor the Evil Dragon Cult would catch on.
“On the first day, you approached me because you wanted my Iron Lion’s Greatsword, right?”
“Yeah.”
“When I said I wouldn’t give it to you, you suggested we become friends.”
“Yeah.”
“Approaching someone with an ulterior motive isn’t what friends do.”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “We’re not friends?”
“Of course not. The word ‘friend’ only works when two people have an equal relationship with no expectations. But you want something from me, don’t you? So we’re not friends. You still want this greatsword, right?”
“Yeah.”
I spoke carefully so she wouldn’t get suspicious. “Can you tell me why you want it? I need to understand your reason before I can keep being your friend. I’m worried you might try to take it from me by force.”
“I won’t do that.”
“Then why do you want the greatsword?”
“That’s……”
Rachel hesitated. “Mom told me not to say.”
“Mom?”
“Yeah. Mom said not to tell anyone.”
A small crack had appeared. A clue.
“So you’re not going to tell me?”
“Yeah.”
“I see. Then there’s nothing I can do. You still want my sword, and that makes me anxious. Friends aren’t supposed to make each other feel that way. So I don’t think I can be friends with you anymore.”
Rachel looked shocked. “Y-you won’t be my friend?”
“If someone who wanted your stuff was always next to you, would you feel comfortable?”
“That’s…… I could just take it home. Once we get closer I could invite you to my house and show Mom the sword……”
Bingo. She really was a ditz. She fell for such an obvious ploy and started spilling information immediately. I gently coaxed her further.
“You want to show the sword to your mom?”
“Yeah. Mom said she needs a divine artifact. A faded one. One that smells like blood……”
“Why does she need it?”
“I don’t know. But she said she needs it. She needs a divine artifact. She fought with Dad a lot about it. She needs a lot of them but Dad couldn’t get them. Mom got locked up. I cried a lot.”
The puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.
“Mom was suffering every day. She cried saying she needed a faded divine artifact. So I thought if I showed her one, she’d feel better…… If you became my friend, I could show her a faded divine artifact. Then Mom might get better……”
Rachel looked at me anxiously. “Can’t you keep being my friend? I want to show Mom your sword. I think it would make her happy.”
Obsession with a faded divine artifact. Father locking up Mother. Constant crying. Even though Rachel’s wording was imprecise, the description was more than enough.
‘It’s clear someone is in the middle of turning into a Demon. Thankfully the fact that she was “locked up” suggests she hasn’t fully awakened as one yet.’
For some reason different from the original story, Rachel’s mother was becoming a Demon. That must have triggered an event that never happened in the original route, leading to this current situation.
‘If I’d left it alone, it could have turned into a disaster.’
The Catel Marquisate was a prestigious knight family. The lady of the house couldn’t possibly have ordinary skills. If she had completed her transformation into a Demon, a massacre could have occurred. Rachel herself might have been seriously hurt.
Still, this was fortunate. If she was still in a semi-Demon state and hadn’t fully transformed, I could cure her. The so-called Boss Rescue Route. It required more preparation and was harder than a normal subjugation, but the rewards were much more generous if successful.
Besides, while Rachel was a bit strange, she wasn’t a bad person. Building a good relationship with the Catel Marquisate wouldn’t hurt either.
Alright. The new boss would be tackled via the Rescue Route.
“So that’s why? I thought you were trying to steal my sword.”
I answered with a bright laugh. Rachel’s face lit up immediately.
“Then we’re still friends?”
“Of course we’re still friends. And a friend can’t refuse another friend’s request. Okay. I’ll visit your mother soon and show her my divine artifact. That should make her feel better, right?”
Rachel’s expression brightened even more. “Yeah!!”
“But you have to keep it a secret from Mom. Understand? Think about it. Getting a surprise gift feels much better than just receiving one normally, right? So keep it hidden until I visit your house. Got it?”
“Yeah! I understand! So when are we going to my house?”
Less than a month after entering the academy and I was already facing a semi-Demon boss fight. My fighting spirit was boiling like crazy. What incredibly fun content! The realistic difficulty was pure joy.
I quietly calculated. A semi-Demon that hadn’t fully bloomed yet. But the Evil Dragon’s dark mana would already be spreading throughout her body. To clear the Rescue Route, I needed to at least master Stingray and Mountain Shaker, plus prepare various consumable strategy items. Considering the time needed, it would take at least two weeks.
“If I skip classes right at the start of the semester, the professors will hate me. I’ll come visit your house in two weeks on the weekend. We can show Mom my divine artifact then. How’s that?”
Rachel’s face bloomed into a radiant smile. Even though she usually looked like an expressionless doll, when she smiled she was truly beautiful.
“Yeah! Good!! So in two weeks?”
“Yeah. I’ll come visit then.”
Rachel beamed and clung to me. “You really are a good friend!”
Her goofy grin was… just a little bit cute. But now wasn’t the time to sit back and admire how adorable she was.
I was a veteran of this game. A professional who had faced every kind of Demon there was. My calculations told me that taking on a semi-Demon boss this early with my current specs meant I had to move fast. There was a lot to prepare.
Still, a new boss in Karnadan. Just how long had it been?
‘I’m so excited I might lose my mind.’
Two weeks suddenly felt unbearably far away.