Diverging Bonds (4)
Time passed, and Friday arrived.
Walking the academy grounds alone as the sun began to sink, a tangle of complicated thoughts crowded in on me.
Four Crowns — the original game this world was based on. No matter how vast and celebrated that masterpiece had been, it was nothing compared to reality.
Take the supporting cast, for instance. Characters whose faces had barely been drawn in the game now possessed their own thoughts, their own pasts. And that was only the beginning. The unexpected events that had started cropping up one after another — the growing distance between Novena and me — all of it had to be chalked up to the circumstances of this reality.
Right. I had to admit it: blinded by the save system, I had been taking things a little too lightly. My entire approach had amounted to little more than I got isekai'd?! Well, good things are good things! Let's enjoy this!
Strip all of that away, and I was nothing more than an ordinary, thoroughly unremarkable modern person with no real abilities of my own.
"Did you see the notice? The purge operation got set for tomorrow."
"Yeah, pretty much what everyone expected, right? The real question is which squad you end up in when they assign teams."
"Better to play it safe, don't you think? Honestly, it's a hassle either way."
Even as students clustered in twos and threes, chatting and enjoying their ordinary lives, I remained as isolated as a deserted island.
"Haha…"
I really was nothing, wasn't I?
Novena, who had always approached me first. Hino, who had put up with my deranged personality. With both of them gone, all that remained was the rumor hanging over me — the suspicious commoner who got into the Academy on special admission — a label that put distance between me and anyone who heard it.
Ah. I want to die.
Most of the other heroines still had conditions I hadn't met yet, so approaching them was out of the question. As for the Imperial Princess or the Saintess — their status was so elevated that a commoner like me would be committing a crime just by looking at them. There was no way to even arrange a meeting.
I found myself missing the abilities of Lutera, the original protagonist of this world — the one I had played as.
Well. Nothing for it. From here on out, I just had to do what I could.
"Hey, Celia."
"Huh? Aderua? What are you doing here at this hour?"
With no network of my own to lean on, the only person I could turn to for help was the classmate who had spoken to me first — Celia.
"How did you even find me?"
Classes had long since ended. Tracking Celia down had meant asking directions from one Republic student after another, late into the afternoon. The looks I'd gotten along the way had been distinctly unwelcoming, but at least those students hadn't turned aggressive the way the other nobles did.
Thinking about it that way, the truth was obvious: as a commoner with no backing, the Republic was the only faction I could even approach.
"Celia, you've heard, right? About tomorrow's purge operation."
"Oh. Of course I have. Wait — did you only just find out?"
"…Huh? Wasn't the notice posted today?"
Celia tilted her head, frowning as if she couldn't quite make sense of what I'd said.
"Wait. Don't tell me nobody told you?"
She made no effort to hide how strange she found it.
"Ugh, everyone is seriously the worst. Not a single person passed the news along to our Aderua? The Investigation Committee already put word out that the purge would happen around the weekend, so everyone knew and had been preparing for it."
So it came down to the backing problem again.
And that wasn't all.
"Ah! Aderua, so what are you going to do about squad assignments? The other noble brats have done nothing but ignore you. Come with us. Okay?"
Celia's words barely registered. My mind was full of Novena and Hino.
There was no way those two hadn't known something Celia knew. And yet neither of them had said a word to me.
Was that really all our relationship had been worth?
Haha. I'd been the only one getting excited, the only one happy about it.
In the end, I had no choice but to accept that fact.
"Hmm? Heeey? Aderua, come with us. Since you're already here, we can have some tea too. Oh! I'll introduce you to my other friends. Once you meet the kids from our Republic, you'll really like them. Unlike those arrogant nobles, none of them talk behind our Aderua's back."
I nodded blankly.
Celia beamed all over again, linked her arm through mine without the slightest hesitation, and set off. Whatever had her so pleased, she chattered away in a bright, endless stream, looking thoroughly delighted.
I, on the other hand, felt nothing much at all.
Looking back on it now — was that how I'd come across to Novena and Hino? A penniless commoner with no principles, throwing myself at every girl I met and acting like we were close.
I knew full well that the memories I carried were nothing more than a single playthrough of a game, things that had simply passed me by… but the heart doesn't take orders from the head. I couldn't shake the gloom settling over me.
"Our Aderua is pretty strong, after all. You took down that rude muscle-pig in one go, right?"
"…Yeah. I did."
"My friends told me — after you left, a bunch of people started spreading useless gossip. Calling it an unfair duel, saying you'd used a curse, that kind of thing."
Why was she telling me this?
I was exhausted.
The reality of being hated like this — of it being only natural — wore me down until I was sick of it.
This was even worse than the lonely life I'd lived before. I'd wanted nothing more than to walk toward the heroines, and instead they had put distance between us.
If I took the heroines out of the picture, what was left for me?
"Um, Aderua? Are you tired? Was I being too much? We can do tea another time, if you want."
…So.
Like Celia here, currently arm-in-arm with me — I needed to put in more effort to close the gap, didn't I?
If Novena and Hino could hear what I was thinking right now, I'd want to tell them not to ignore how I felt.
I shook my head hard, clearing away the useless, ugly thoughts crowding in. Then I tightened my hold on Celia's arm, drawing closer still, until the space between us shrank and she startled.
"A-Aderua?"
"No, I'm not tired! Actually, there's something I wanted to ask."
"Huh? Uh, okay, go ahead."
So I'd use whatever I could use. Whatever her motives, Celia seemed genuinely fond of me — that much looked real.
I wiped away every trace of the distance I'd been trying to keep, behaved as freely with her as I once had with Novena and Hino, and set about confirming the things I needed to know.
"Do you know how the assault squad assignments work?"
"That's what you were curious about? Yeah, I should have told you before you even had to ask."
Celia's information network was better than I'd expected. Her constant attempts to act overly familiar during the conversation grated on me — but showing my irritation or walking out over something that small would have been foolish. With solid sources to back it up, I was able to confirm most of the information I wanted.
The purge operation, for example.
Fortunately, unlike the many situations that had started going off-script, this one seemed to be unfolding exactly as it had in the Four Crowns I knew.
The objective: wipe out the masterminds behind the Academy attack. To keep the cartel from escaping, every stronghold had to be hit at once, in a single coordinated strike. Thanks to the Investigation Committee's involvement and the mobilization of students, manpower wasn't an issue.
The Academy had announced that four squads would be formed based on student preference.
Alpha Team. Beta Team. Gamma Team. Omega Team.
Each had a different target, which made the choice a critical branching point — in the game, which team you joined reshaped the entire story and its difficulty. As I recalled it, Novena chose Alpha Team and Hino chose Gamma.
"Well? Aderua, what do you think? Come with us on Beta Team. I heard it's an outer sector, so there's lots to see on the way. And you don't have anyone else to go with, right? Hmm?"
Well. Celia wasn't entirely wrong. The stronghold Beta Team would hit was nestled in the forest, and the scenery really was worth looking at.
But…
Right now, I had no other choice.
Given the nature of the game, every branch produced its own inevitable casualties. No matter how perfectly the player performed, something would go wrong on the other teams. On Normal or Hard difficulty, that might have meant nothing worse than injuries or students leaving the Academy. This was reality. And it was based on Lunatic Difficulty, with only three save slots — nothing to take lightly.
In other words, with no way of knowing who would die, the only route that could keep every major character alive was Omega Team.
To save Novena, Hino, and the rest of the heroines, I had no choice but to join Omega.
"…Celia."
"Hmm? Have you finally decided?"
At my quiet call, Celia — who had been watching me with a blank look — lit up and met my eyes.
Using her like this kept making me feel guilty, but it wasn't as if I could read her true intentions either. I steeled myself and pressed on.
"There's something I have to do. Can you help me?"
"…Hmm. Something you have to do."
In an instant, the look in Celia's eyes went cold.
It wasn't my imagination. A sticky, searching gaze swept over my face in a flash, as if she were reading every line of my expression. At last I understood the chill that had run through me every time we met.
…Had she been looking at me like that all along?
Why?
"Well, it's not like we're strangers. We're good friends, aren't we? If our Aderua is asking, of course I'll help."
A cold sweat slid down my back.
She was back to her usual kindly act, but I could no longer afford to let my guard down around her.
"Of course, I can't exactly help for free. Our Republic believes in equality, so I have to take everyone's opinions into account. Why don't we start with what you need?"
I'd expected her to set conditions. Of course I had.
Haa. If only there had been another way. If I could have gotten help from Novena or Hino, this would have been so much simpler. And yet here I was, reduced to begging for aid with my back against the wall.
I clenched my teeth.
All of this was for the people I cared about. If I showed this kind of effort enough times, eventually someone would acknowledge me. Holding onto that thought, I laid out my request with deliberate calm.
"I want to join Omega Team."
"And your goal?"
"For this purge to end without any problems. That's all."
To save everyone, I needed to be part of Omega Team — the mobile special detachment. But a special detachment wasn't something just any unskilled nobody could walk into. Each of the four factions filled a fixed quota of seats, which meant I needed someone's help to get in.
Maybe the sincerity of the request got through. After a moment's thought, Celia nodded.
"Well, no one's been selected yet, so it's doable. Mind if I state my conditions?"
"As long as they're not too unreasonable…?"
She wouldn't ask for anything weird. Right?
"Heh. Don't worry so much. It's nothing big. Would I really make an unreasonable demand of a friend? I just want our Aderua to hang out with me more often. Will you be my best friend?"
Uh.
Was this… a confession?