The Consequences of Aggro
"Hmm."
Getting all the way to the restaurant had been the easy part—
"How long are you going to sit there agonizing? Just pick something you want to eat already! Or what, you want me to choose for you?"
Seeing the menu in person, the prices were so far beyond imagination it was almost funny. Roughly speaking, everything cost about what I'd expected… with an extra zero tacked on at the end.
Which meant the money I'd lifted from Burgang's pockets was basically pocket change.
These—these insane bourgeois freaks!!
It wasn't like the country had gone bankrupt and gold coins were worth paper. Why was the cost of living inflated to this degree?!
Damn it.
I'd been so satisfied after cleaning out Burgang's fat wallet. Turns out it was grandma's emergency cash all along.
"…I-I'll have this. Let's order!"
"That's not even a main dish."
What I'd landed on after scanning the menu was an appetite-whetting soup and garlic bread. The selection was so unexpectedly creative that even Hino looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Hey. If you're broke, just say so. I'll cover it."
Even Novena was looking at me with pity now—but I had no intention of backing down!
"I-I'm fine! Look at me! I'm a light eater, okay?"
A commoner like me letting two people treat me at a place like this could easily be taken as freeloading off their wealth. And I wasn't about to throw away a perfect chance to treat them either.
"Look. That's not the point. Do you actually have money or not? If you're going to starve yourself just to buy us dinner when you're broke, I'd rather pay myself."
"H-how do you even order here? Do we call a waiter? Or is there a call bell…?"
"Stop dodging my eyes and answer me!"
Sharp as ever, Novena.
But I was the stubbornest of stubborn mules, the kind whose will didn't break even after dozens of deaths. To redirect her stare, I turned my attention on Hino, who was nodding off in her seat.
"Hey. You seriously falling asleep in a restaurant? Have some dignity. Wake up."
"…But I have to recover my mana somehow."
"When did you even use mana?"
"Mm. From earlier until now. Continuously."
"Hey, I'm losing my mind here! Both of you, answer properly for once!"
While the two of them wandered completely off-topic, a waiter approached the table. I placed the order, endured the faintly pitying look he gave me, and only relaxed once he was fully gone.
Heh.
No need to look so sad. This was still way better than killing hunger with lukewarm water from an Academy fountain. And just watching the two of them across from me, chatting in those beautiful voices, was enough to fill me up.
Ugh.
How could even their voices be that pretty? Their vocal cords were probably gorgeous too.
"So? How was my duel? I fought well, right? Right?"
"Ah—yeah. You talked a big game. What the hell were you thinking?!"
"…Huh?"
My question made Novena suddenly explode.
"You left Burgang in that state and you think the Yungtoa family is just going to sit still? Even if they don't show it on the surface, they'll do every underhanded thing imaginable to get revenge behind the scenes! Are you actually insane? What kind of retaliation are you trying to invite?!"
Ah.
She was worried about me.
That precious reaction made a silly grin slip out even though I knew I was being scolded.
"But it felt good, didn't it? Come on, admit it."
"Ha… you absolute maniac…"
He'd put on that armor claiming he needed protection even for a duel against a "worthless commoner." In front of me, juiced up on powder and moving that fast, it was nothing but a solid iron lump. All I had to do was focus pistol fire on the joints until there was a gap wide enough to drive a dagger blade through. How was I supposed to see a weakness that exposed and not hit it?
"Mm. You did good. Perverts can die."
As if she understood exactly what I was thinking, Hino gave a lazy little nod of approval!
Ehehe. That praise was so worth it.
"Right? That muscle pig was all over Novena too! He won't be able to pull that crap anymore!"
"You… don't tell me you did it because of me?"
"Eheheh, touching, right? You wanna praise me?"
"W-what are you even saying?! Have you completely lost it? And Hino! You shouldn't be praising that kind of thing either!"
Novena scolded me with her mouth, but she couldn't hide the way her eyes spun flustered through empty air or the flush rising in both cheeks.
Ah. This is sex.
"I only won because of you two! So don't hold back—eat as much as you want. Me treating people isn't exactly a common event, you know?"
"Haa… fine. I'll gratefully accept."
"Mm. It's a menu I like."
"Is that so? How did you even know what food I like?"
Heh heh heh.
That is a trade secret.
I pressed my lips shut and said nothing. With this, I could carve a mysterious mastermind image into the two of them, who until now had only thought of me as easy. Maybe I could even build an entire concept as some terrifying underworld information broker?
I might look like a fragile cotton-candy girl, but I'll have you know I've cleared this nightmare of a game over a hundred times. I'm a veteran.
"Eat your food and stop staring!"
Novena reacted like my gaze gave her the creeps—but she had no idea. There was something far more creep-worthy she didn't know.
I, the collector of countless service scenes. Thanks to that, I had completely memorized the types and colors of underwear Novena was likely wearing!
"Eheh… eheheheh…"
"…"
What I liked best was the bright red competitive lingerie that clashed so hard with Novena's image. Even that intense color couldn't hide the presence of her defined muscle, and the unbalanced harmony it created was unbearably—
"Hey. Adel."
"Ehehe… yeah?"
Ah. Crap.
I'd sunk way too deep into the fantasy. Having demolished my tiny portion of soup and garlic bread in seconds, I'd had nothing left to do with my hands.
I didn't know how long they'd been watching, but Novena and Hino were both staring straight at my face.
"Uh… um…"
Getting attention from people I liked was normally a good thing. So why did my spine feel this cold, and why was the mood this unpleasant?
The two of them exchanged some kind of whisper, then Novena poked Hino in the side.
What on earth were they about to say?
—Gulp.
Saliva pooled uselessly in my mouth.
"Ahaha, f-food's getting cold!"
I tried desperately to change the subject and turned my head to escape their eyes—
"Adel."
"…Yeah?"
Hino's voice, colder than usual, made it impossible to ignore her.
"My body isn't well."
"…Huh? Wh-where?! How is it not well?!!"
No way.
Did Novena know something? Was that why the two of them had been whispering and gone so serious?
Had the story progressed without me noticing?
Every stray thought vanished and my head went blank.
Among Hino's bad ending routes, there was one where she was poisoned by political enemies of the Military State. She hadn't done anything wrong—she was simply murdered for her father's notoriety. A horrific route. And because the poison was magically crafted to eat away at mana circuits, recovery methods were nearly impossible to find. Even if she survived, she'd live with permanent disability—essentially rat poison for a mage.
Was there anything I could do for her right now?
Since when?
Would it be better to just load an old save and fix the problem from the past?
"Mm. Mana shortage. It's not a serious illness."
Ah…
It wasn't a big deal.
Thank god.
Only then could I quietly lower my trembling arms and focus on what Hino was saying.
"There's family business that requires me to use magic. Is there any medicine that would help with this? …Mm. Something like a stimulant."
Medicine, huh.
"Give me a second. Let me think."
The conversation had been so alarming that I rubbed my cold hands together while I thought.
Something Hino could take. Something that would actually help.
Off-the-shelf products from ordinary shops would do more harm than good. Her family could already obtain most rare elixirs, so I needed to name something the world didn't know about yet.
But…
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't recall a single elixir useful for illusion magic itself that could be obtained this early in the episodes. At best there were a few that expanded mana capacity, and I had other uses for those. If I had to pick one thing, it was the Growth Powder I'd been shoveling down by the handful.
Haa.
What was I supposed to do?
If I gave Hino the Growth Powder, she would absolutely show explosive growth. She might even feel the effects more clearly than I did.
But…
If I handed over my one and only source of strength—my one and only possibility—what would I even be able to do going forward? Just sit there powerless, watching the heroines suffer until I lost my mind?
If Hino wanted my body, I would hand it over without a second thought. But the Growth Powder was something I needed to protect her and the other heroines.
…It was definitely not because of how blissfully good it tasted.
Yeah. So I had no choice but to lie—breaking even my own resolution never to lie.
"There is something decent, but I can't get it right away."
"…There is? I only need a little."
Ahh.
Seriously, what do I do?
"Come on. What's the point of being friends if you won't help a little?"
Hino's request was nothing like her usual self. On top of that came Novena's pressure. Under both of their stares, I felt crushed by a heartbreaking sense of pity.
M-maybe just a little would be okay?
The Growth Powder restocked every time I cleared an episode quest, so one packet…
"I can pay."
…No. Still no.
Something felt off. That instinctive itch crawling up my spine since earlier. I couldn't prove it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Hino was lying about something. The way she was acting—like she already knew I had one specific thing she wanted—was too suspicious to ignore.
Her eyes kept nervously flicking between my hands and my pockets.
…Don't tell me she was sliding into the absolute worst route—the drug addiction route?
When I stared straight into Hino's eyes, I caught a faint, unreadable tremor.
No!! Drug corruption is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not allowed!!
"No!! There's nothing like that! Don't even think about putting it in your mouth!"
"…Adel?"
"Don't just eat random things! You can't pick up anything that looks like medicine and swallow it! Don't take what other people give you either! If something feels weird, spit it out, and if your body feels bad, just go get a blessing! Y-you can't just trust silver spoons and detox magic!!"
"Adel, calm down."
"Absolutely, absolutely not!"
Drugs existed in this world too. Every character whose mind collapsed had their own distinct drug-ending route.
Take Hino, for example.
Disgusted by the ugliness of human nature, she would turn to drugs out of curiosity just to forget reality. Then she would fall into the hands of people selling them in her territory, sink into addiction, and end up trapped in a hell where she traded her own body for an endless supply.
So—
"Adel. Let's go outside. Calm down."
"I seriously can't deal with this! What's wrong with you today?! Come here!"
The two of them came up beside me while I was still shaking, draped their arms over my shoulders like they were escorting a prisoner, and hauled me out. Over their shoulders I couldn't stop seeing that terrible future.
To keep from ever watching that ending, I had to make sure the heroines never even learned the first letter of the word "drugs."
No—I had to make sure they never got near them at all.
…The cleanup operation this week.
After the operation ended, I now had one more place I needed to visit.