My Kind and Proud Junior
The sixth heroine.
This wasn’t some romance reality show, yet a sixth one had just popped out.
My stamina could barely handle five as it was.
A sixth.
The sixth man.
Though in this case, it probably wasn’t a “man.”
No, wait.
Sixth man… that rang a bell.
The opposite of man is woman.
But if she was in the same vein as the five heroines, it wouldn’t be “woman” so much as “girl.”
Purely an age issue.
She might not even be an Academy student.
Could be someone older, right?
Was it possible that my kind and proud junior—the one who made this game—had seen right through my tastes and added a mature heroine?
I had never, under any circumstances, told my junior that older-sister types were my thing, but the possibility existed.
After all, this had originally been an Academy game, and several female teachers appeared in it.
They all had expensive-looking illustrations just like the other heroines, and quite a few lines of dialogue to boot.
Even the school nurse in the game, Akikira, had been the guardian of both Rebecca and Laward.
Would they really have poured that much care into the illustrations, dialogue, and settings with no intention at all?
I didn’t think so.
On top of that, this unfriendly game had, for whatever reason, hidden the newly added heroine under the notation “????”, and that—
“…Four characters.”
That might be the answer.
Normally it would be “???”, just three question marks.
Now then, let’s think of the four-character names I know.
Teacher Grace.
Teacher Akikira.
“That’s it…!”
Coincidentally, both teachers’ names were four characters long.
There was still a chance.
The Daywin Ending was real!
“You look somehow happy.”
On the train ride over.
Veronica, sitting next to me, glanced my way.
“Do I?”
“Yeah. You look like you’re in a good mood. Something nice happen?”
“Something nice, yeah.”
“What is it?”
“There is such a thing.”
“What the…”
She let out a short sigh and turned her head away again.
“Grinning to yourself all day… somehow it puts me in a bad mood…”
“They say laughter is contagious, but I guess not for you.”
“I’ve got a strong immune system. Unfortunately, I’m negative.”
Did you get some kind of vaccine or what?
“For all that, you don’t look like you’re in a bad mood either. Did the Silver Knight help?”
“Yeah. Thanks to her.”
I flinched at those words.
Wasn’t she the type who never said things like that so freely?
“It was short, but I learned a lot.”
“Is that so. I’ll look forward to it, then.”
“You can look forward to it. I’ve got a secret weapon now.”
“Secret weapon? What kind?”
“I said it’s a secret. Not sure if I’ll get a chance to use it, though.”
Looks like we’d both picked up secrets.
“I hope I can meet her again. The Silver Knight.”
Veronica said it softly.
The Silver Knight, Kaineation, had flown off with Blash and wasn’t here.
They had decided to reinvestigate the sewers the Death God Cult had used as their hideout.
“Come to think of it, you and the Silver Knight seemed similar.”
“In what way?”
“The way you fight, I guess. Something like that.”
“……”
Well, of course.
I had inherited it, after all.
With that, the conversation lapsed for a while.
On the way to the marquisate I slept some and organized my thoughts.
Yes.
Organized.
I needed to take stock at this point.
So far, twenty endings had been locked.
Excluding the hidden ending, there were thirty total.
Two-thirds.
I continued the mid-term review in my head.
Current score.
Each heroine had five endings apiece.
Let’s think about the ones I’d blocked so far.
Esther: five.
Lucia: two.
Amelia: five.
Rebecca: four.
Veronica: four.
Remaining endings: one for Rebecca, one for Veronica, and three for Lucia.
Five left.
The remaining endings for Rebecca and Veronica were the true endings, meaning I still hadn’t fully cleared them.
Their affection was already high, but not maxed.
The two heroines who only became available relatively late, from the second semester onward.
My junior who made this game had personally said their capture difficulty was high, so Rebecca and Veronica were still a bit lacking.
And Lucia.
She acted like her affection had already hit ninety-nine, but if you looked closely, her progress was the slowest of all.
The three endings that still weren’t locked proved it.
I hadn’t really dug into Lucia’s story in any sustained way, but…
On one hand it was already overwhelming, and I was a little scared of what she’d turn into if I locked them all.
But the problem wasn’t Lucia.
Besides the heroine-specific endings, there were five harem endings.
Excluding number thirty, Paradise, the other four were landmine endings.
The endings where Esther, Lucia, Rebecca, and Amelia went dark still—
Not a single one of them was locked.
I had no idea why.
They should have locked already by now.
For example, the Esther Hellfire ending was the one where I became one of the Five Lanterns of the Death God Cult and used Esther to burn the entire world.
In that case, the moment the whole Hasgard family survived, it should have locked on the spot, right?
I hadn’t become a villain, and Esther—though only for a limited period—had become a member of the Order.
In game terms, it was like getting a limited “Esther Nun Outfit” skin with a two-year duration.
Same for Amelia’s and Rebecca’s landmine endings.
Kairon hadn’t gone bad, and the fox was dead.
The situation had changed.
And yet the endings still weren’t locked.
Still.
Was there still a chance the heroines would go dark?
Certainly, according to the contents of the Ending Preview, the clear conditions weren’t just that.
Affection.
The affection of the other heroines—excluding the one at the center of the landmine ending—had an influence.
The condition to open a landmine ending was “raise every heroine’s affection except one.”
So if I maxed all five, that should do it.
Then the landmine endings would become completely impossible.
I mustn’t forget.
The ending conditions didn’t apply to me. They applied to the protagonist, Laward.
If I pulled every heroine’s affection toward myself, the affection directed at Laward would naturally hit rock bottom.
And that was the condition for the hidden ending.
“Hmm.”
Looking to the side, Veronica had already leaned her head against the window and drifted off.
Was Veronica the only heroine without a landmine ending?
Among all the heroines, Veronica had the worst personality, if anything.
That the only one with zero chance of going dark was Veronica…
Maybe once she fell for someone, she fell the deepest.
The man she chose once, she never doubted.
Never wavered.
Her immune system was really low.
At least when it came to love.
I wrapped up my thoughts there.
This was a game that had only told me I’d entered it at the very, very end, after all.
I knew it was unfriendly, so thinking about it might not change anything.
My goal didn’t change either.
The hidden ending.
I was running toward that alone.
“Welcome back, Karma-nim!”
When I returned to Houndry with Veronica, Lucia greeted us cheerfully.
I’d been thinking about her the whole train ride, and now I ran into her right away.
“It took longer than I expected!”
Lucia said, looking back and forth between me and Veronica.
“There was an unexpected accident.”
“Accident?”
She tilted her head to the side with a soft plop.
“When you put it that way, it sounds like the two of you got into an ‘accident’!”
“What are you talking about.”
“W-what are you saying, Lucia!”
When Veronica and I spoke at the same time, Lucia’s head tilted the other way with another plop.
“Huh…?”
And uncharacteristically for Lucia, she made a flustered face.
“That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
Her voice dropped a little too.
She should have been in a manic state right now—no, full condition.
“I-I’ll go unpack my things.”
At that moment Veronica held out her hand to me.
“Sure.”
When I handed her the bag, Lucia’s expression changed again.
“Karma-nim was carrying Senior Veronica’s bag for her?”
“Huh? Yeah. Well, I was looking after the jewels…”
“Ah…”
Lucia cut me off and smiled sweetly.
“Yes.”
“Huh?”
What kind of reaction was that?
Cutting me off wasn’t like Lucia.
I’d thought she was in a bad mood, but then she smiled at the end.
What on earth?
Tap—
When Veronica dusted off her shoes and went into the hideout, Lucia’s expression returned to normal.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re back. Shall we start with a meal? Or a bath first? Or maybe…”
“…Huh?”
What was with that cliché-loaded line.
“Shall we go to the Academy?”
But the last option was completely unexpected.
I had been secretly hoping…
“Why the Academy all of a sudden?”
“Ah, right. Karma-nim wouldn’t know. Laward has disappeared.”
“Laward… what?”
“Yes, he’s gone. I just heard the news a moment ago and was wondering if I should go look for him.”
“What do you mean.”
I felt all the strength drain from my body.
Laward had decided to keep training at the Academy grounds even during break.
The only times he went out were when he went to the chapel.
We’d promised that.
“That… can’t be.”
Even though I tried not to show the panic, my voice wouldn’t come out properly.
I’d been doing so well up until now, and he suddenly disappears?
“Are you going to look for him with me?”
“Of course.”
I ran straight to the Academy.
Arriving at the Academy in a hurry.
Where should I start looking?
The training grounds?
“Ah, I already checked the training grounds.”
“You already checked?”
“Yes, because Laward is always there. I started looking there, but when I couldn’t find him at all I gave up and went back to Houndry. That’s when you returned, Karma-nim.”
Is that so.
Starting with the training grounds made sense, of course.
But earlier she’d said she just heard the news?
Lucia seemed a bit flustered, so her words didn’t quite add up.
“Shall we check the classrooms?”
“Yeah. We’ll have to look everywhere first.”
We looked around for quite a while, but there was no sign of Laward.
Since it was break, the only students wandering the Academy were those staying in the dorms, so it wasn’t as crowded as during the semester.
Even so, Laward was hard to find.
“Lucia, how did you hear that news? And why do you know about Laward’s business?”
“Well, during the break I helped a little with Laward’s training. It’s the only time I have energy to spare, and staying still felt like a waste!”
Damn. Worst case.
While I was gone, Lucia and Laward had gotten closer.
The protagonist and the heroine had gotten closer, and now that protagonist had disappeared.
Had Lucia caused some change in Laward’s feelings?
Any man would develop affection after spending even a day with Lucia, but this was Laward.
That Laward—the Laward I had completely remade into a different person—had ended up changing after all?
“Only this place left. It’s a good place to hide alone, so maybe he’s here.”
The last place we arrived was the PE equipment storage room.
“Karma-nim, go on in.”
Lucia led the way inside, and I followed her.
Then.
Bang—!
For some reason the storage door slammed shut with a loud noise.
Come to think of it…
This storage door, once closed, couldn’t be opened from the inside…
“Phew.”
Lucia let out a deep sigh.
“I’m sorry, Karma-nim.”
And she suddenly apologized.
“I couldn’t take it anymore, so I lied.”
“Lucia…?”
“I’m a woman too. I can tell with my eyes closed that the atmosphere between Senior Veronica and Karma-nim has subtly changed.”
“Lucia, what are you talking about…”
“I don’t think this can go on.”
Lucia took the storage key out of her pocket, slipped her finger through the keyring, and spun it around.
Right, the key.
If there was a key, you could open it from the inside—
Crunch!
Lucia clenched the key in her fist and crushed it.
When she opened her hand, the key—now metal powder—scattered like sand.
“What… are you doing right now.”
“I’m using my last resort.”
Tap, tap.
She dusted off her hands as if it were nothing.
“Lucia, you’ve crossed the line. I can understand the lying, but you shouldn’t have lied that Laward disappeared.”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll take the punishment.”
Lucia walked lightly forward.
“Then, will you punish me here?”
Ah.
At that moment, I realized.
The reason every landmine ending was still open.
It was clearly because of this crazy heroine.