Chapter 36

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 36

Chapter Title: One Alternative

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Instead, here's one alternative so you won't feel lonely even if I'm not by your side.

"To even get into this hospital room in the first place, they'd have to pass through the on-duty room where I am. Do I really need to?"

"If an Awakener strong enough to break into this special room without permission shows up, there's nothing an F-rank like me can do but get invaded."

Taken? I've never had May Luina in the first place, so how could "taken" even apply?

I was just about to voice that fundamental question when I reconsidered—yeah, resisting did seem necessary.

If I just stood by without resisting while the three heroes under my care got kidnapped, those terrifying monsters from the Central Intelligence Department would surely hold me accountable.

And the price they'd demand for that accountability would be my life. So if I'm going to die anyway, it made more sense to put up a fight and maybe get lucky enough to survive.

If I could say I'd resisted fiercely, even sustaining serious injuries, but failed due to the limits of my abilities, even those bloodless, tearless, emotionless monsters would have a hard time pinning blame on me.

"Mm, alright. I just realized that after putting you in a knockout climax, I won't have much else to do anyway. Beats going back to the on-duty room to zone out or wasting time on HeroTube videos. Might as well just hang out here with you, May Luina."

"Yeah, got it. I'll do that from now on."

I had no idea what part of my words made her so happy, but May Luina's voice lit up with delight as she giggled like a schoolgirl.

Startled by that clear, refreshing laugh—the first I'd ever heard from her, one that made me question if this was really the May Luina I knew—my hand paused on her soft, squishy cheek.

"......Sigh."

Yup, this was the May Luina I knew. Absolutely. That familiar, bitchy bitchiness. This was her.

Earlier, when she'd greeted me with that pitiful whine, then demanded I touch her cheeks out of "anger" just because I'd glimpsed her soft, jiggly mega-boobs during the treatment preview, it had felt a bit off.

Asking me to touch her cheeks as an apology? How does kneading cheeks count as atonement?

As far as I knew, kneading cheeks to soothe anger only worked if the kneader and kneadee were at least at the flirting stage.

But May Luina and I? We weren't even close to flirting—we lived in completely different worlds, our status gap wider than heaven and earth.

So when she told me to knead her cheeks to calm her down, it threw me for a loop. But thinking back, her imprint was vividly etched on her cheeks too.

True to her status as the most perverted slut among the three heroes Stay was certified to handle, May Luina's cheeks were erogenous zones as well.

Yeah, touching an erogenous zone would calm her anger. That made sense.

A lingering doubt remained, but I managed to convince myself and kept dutifully kneading her soft cheeks with my fingertips—squish, squish, mash, mash.

And now, hearing her flip out just because I'd paused for a second, I finally pieced it together.

Of course she didn't have feelings for me or anything ridiculous like that. She just wanted her erogenous-zone cheeks touched, so she ordered it. Dodged a nightmare there.

With my mind eased, I resumed kneading May Luina's cheeks with renewed sincerity.

Now that the cheek-kneading had resumed, May Luina seemed satisfied, ending her tantrum and letting out a pleased snort.

She asks "just for politeness," but how am I supposed to answer comfortably? She's totally insane.

Still, no reason to make it uncomfortable when she said to answer casually, so I did.

"Ever since I decided to do rotations and spend full days on you all, nothing's really changing."

"And honestly, workload-wise, just sitting here staring at your face beats running errands in the emergency room by a mile."

"Plus, the treatment itself won't take that long anyway. Dedicating full days during the treatment period? That's no big deal for me."

Her voice had darkened for a split second at the mention of "rotation," which startled me, but by the end, it was bright and shadow-free.

Close to the right answer. Good thing.

Since I'd confirmed her mood had lifted enough to make her voice cheerful, I brought up something I'd held back earlier because she seemed upset.

"Oh, and about that thing you were crying and begging for earlier—prioritizing your treatment first? You know that's just not feasible, right?"

Right after ordering me to knead her cheeks, May Luina had randomly burst into tears and started whining nonsense at me.

Something about how since I met her first, she should get treated first. Total bullshit not worth hearing.

I'd brushed it off with a mental "What the hell?" but swallowed my words back then because she looked so unstable.

Now she seemed in a good mood again, and not crying, so I could say it.

"I'll just chalk it up to your emotions being unstable. We signed a contract to gather all three and treat you fairly—how could I suddenly cater only to you? So let's pretend I never heard that..."

"Yeah?"

By this point, though I'd never really expected anything, I was even more disappointed in May Luina's humanity.

She wasn't the only one in this state—two comrades shared her fate—yet she could be this selfish.

Moreover, what she was saying completely ignored my position.

If the others stayed comatose while only May Luina woke up, and the remaining two revived after her, they'd surely resent me—and that grudge would spell a horrific end for me.

So I pulled my hand from her cheek, got serious, and opened my mouth to tell her to cut the crap.

"May..."

But after hearing May Luina's raw sincerity, I had no choice but to swallow my words.

As she said, being stuck as a vegetable, unable to do anything of your own will, and left utterly alone—that would drive any normal person mad.

And now that I'd appeared as a solution, it was natural for impatience to build on top of their inability to cope with this nightmare.

Listening to her, I started to understand why she had no choice but to say something so selfish.

"Still, no means no. The three of you have to wake up on the exact same day. That's how we decided it."

But understanding didn't change my prior decision.

No matter how tough it was for May Luina or how horrific the situation for the three, what mattered most to me in the end was my life and my dreams.

"Instead, here's one alternative so you won't feel lonely even if I'm not by your side."

But even so, a mere F-rank like me couldn't just flat-out reject May Luina's desperate plea. So, with the hand I'd lifted from her delightfully squishy cheek, I stroked her smooth silver hair and offered her the alternative.

"So you can feel like I'm always right there beside you even when I'm not. I'll leave a speaker by your bedside. It'll stay connected the whole time. We can't really talk, but you'll hear my voice, so you won't get bored."

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The alternative was a Bluetooth speaker setup, so she could listen in real-time to whatever I said while treating the other two on days she was alone.

"I'll keep the call connected while treating the others, so just listen to my voice. That should make it better, right?"

For something I'd come up with on the spot, it was a damn good idea.