Time to Run
In this fantasy world, ever since I arrived here, I’ve had several goals set for myself.
The first was to live peacefully.
As the second son of a marquis family, that was supposed to be incredibly easy.
I didn’t need to inherit the title, there were no succession disputes to fight over, and I had plenty of wealth and status to simply eat and live well.
…No, I had thought it was easy.
All of that, though.
I never realized that the moment I faced those mysterious natural disasters, everything would be swept away.
No, not mysterious natural disasters—mysterious natural disasters.
“……Elia, back off a bit. You’re making it hard for me to walk.”
“I’m fine. How about you, Ian?”
This is bullshit.
I swallowed the foul words all the way up to my throat and forced a smile that felt completely fake.
By now I knew from experience that siding with anyone here only ever led to getting the short end of the stick.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Fine? That’s because the ones asking that question are the ones who are bullshit.”
“……Could you at least speak nicely?”
To keep pace with me as we walked, Elia and Selene had been pushing themselves hard from behind. At the cold, cynical voice coming from there, they both turned their heads.
The woman with the icy expression let out a snort and hurled it at them. Elia muttered under her breath and turned her head the other way.
“You, too, as if you wouldn’t have grabbed your hair and started fighting if that one wasn’t here.”
“……What do you mean by ‘I too’?”
“The hero over there is the same, isn’t he?”
Ah, my head hurts.
I didn’t like women who hated women—statements like “three women together and the glass shatters” so much—but if I left them be, I had a feeling my own head would crack first.
So I tried to redirect my thoughts elsewhere.
…How far had I gotten?
Ah, right.
My second goal was simply to make everyone happy.
Including me.
Every person living in this world to be happy.
That was the thought that crossed my mind the moment I realized this world was a damn romance-fantasy novel.
Do I think of this world as a novel?
I couldn’t dismiss twenty years of living here as nothing more than the pages of some book.
Everyone in this world, every single one of them, weren’t just pawns moved around by someone else’s thoughts. They were real people moving according to their own wills.
That was why I wanted everyone to be happy.
Maybe.
If it wasn’t for thoughts like that, I might not have ended up like this.
“S-Stop fighting….”
“H-Huh? Now you want to act nice? Why didn’t you pull out your sword and charge in like before?”
A sigh escaped me as the fight between them finally caught fire.
I quickened my pace to get away from the spot as fast as possible, and a voice echoed inside my head.
Mother, how troublesome.
Please.
What am I supposed to do to make this stop?
It was such a hateful moment from the past me.
“Waaah! Run!”
“I-Ian! Wait for me!”
“……”
I picked up the pace, weaving between the women chasing after me.
I had to run.
If I had kept following that steady thought of leaving the main characters of this world alone, none of this would have happened.