Softly Adapting (3)
Well.
What a shame.
I'd done it thinking that showing them something this shocking would finally snap everyone back to their senses. But the sickened looks the students fixed on me were mixed with a fear I couldn't quite name.
The woman who had stepped out ahead of the rest to stop me released her grip on my arm and drew back. Her face was every bit as familiar as her voice.
Red hair in a ponytail, dressed in comfortable athletic wear. The muscle and solid lines showing along her forearms made plain just how hard she trained herself.
Novena — a noble of the Bellaros Kingdom, and one of the lead characters in Four Crowns.
Ah. She looked so familiar.
How many times had that face and that free-spirited personality pulled me into finishing her route? The sixth, was it? I remembered seeing quite a few other endings as well.
Novena executed by a hostile power. Novena sold off as a concubine. Novena dying in battle.
Heh. A deliciously twisted thrill rose up through me.
A strong woman, conquest, female corruption… classic combo, right…?
"Did you really have to do something that crude?!"
Oh, right. We were talking.
It took her calling me a second time before I snapped back and met Novena's eyes. Those irises, just as vivid a red as her hair.
Ah, I could fall right into them. Like rubies set into her face…
"Hey! Wait, are you actually out of your mind?"
"Ah, haha, I'm sorry."
I saved her.
I got excited?
"…Haa, I don't even know anymore. Anyway, Your Highness? I don't care about the others, but we should break this up here."
I saved Novena.
I got excited over Novena?
"Yeah. That sounds good."
I succeeded.
Finally, for the first time.
With my own two hands, since coming to this world!
"…You, come with me for now."
"Huh?"
"I said follow me, so follow!"
"Heheh… Okay."
I grabbed the hand of Novena as she shoved her way through the crowd without a second thought, and followed after her. Her hand was rough with calluses, but warm. I had to force my fidgeting fingers still so I wouldn't start stroking her skin on reflex.
Ugh, what a waste. We were both girls, so holding hands a little more shouldn't have been a problem, right? But looking at Novena's rigidly set expression, I didn't have the courage to push it.
Yeah… There would be plenty of chances. I'd aim for the next one…
The path back felt familiar; we were clearly headed for the infirmary I'd come from. Was this already the end of my first real move?
Saving Novena, catching her attention, and walking the campus alone with her hand in mine — the satisfaction was beyond words. Enough to heal every death I'd suffered getting here.
Even so, having cleared every heroine route, my greed knew no bounds, and the result left me a little disappointed. The imperial princess who ruled over the four factions. The saintess of the Holy Autonomous State. The Republic's next president, and so on. How wonderful would it have been to meet them, exchange greetings, and get my face known?
They'd all been in the plaza, and not one of them so much as acknowledged me. Typical of those difficult personalities.
Looking on the bright side, maybe it was for the best. If I'd actually met my favorites face-to-face and spoken with them, I might have fainted on the spot.
"Heh…"
Well, if it was that kind of fainting, I'd take it.
"Crazy bitch."
Novena's curse came right on the heels of my sudden laugh, however she'd chosen to interpret it.
"Heh, sorry?"
Even so, I was happy. She wasn't a cold corpse dying in front of me, so I could take a little swearing.
"Novena?"
"…What. How do you know my name?"
Yeah. The death of this beautiful, kind woman would be nothing short of a worldwide catastrophe. If it meant saving the heroines, I was ready to throw every male lead on the altar as a sacrifice and leap into the fire myself.
The protagonist was already dead —
"Don't die."
I was the only one who could change reality now.
"…Hah, what are you even saying?"
It was a sincere plea. This time the white powder had let me settle things with raw physical ability alone, but luck like that couldn't keep working forever.
I was weak. At best, I'd been used to moving and controlling game characters — borrowing someone else's strength. That a modern person who'd lived a comfortable life could go through death after death and still not go insane was probably already the best I could manage.
Now that the game had become reality, starting training from scratch wasn't going to make me strong overnight. Even with the power to load save files over and over, there was no telling how long my mind would hold out.
…Ah, right. I should keep a diary. If my mind wearing down into madness was a fixed future, I needed to prepare for it.
I stopped short.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay? You didn't actually get shot, did you?"
Novena had stopped in place and taken hold of my shoulder, looking at me with concern. I flushed on reflex and dropped my gaze. Facing a beauty like that head-on was still far too hard.
Whether she noticed my reaction or not, Novena moved on as if nothing had happened, asking a new question in her usual tone.
"You seem to know my name, but if I'd ever met someone as unhinged as you, I'm sure I'd remember. Your name isn't in my memory. What is it?"
"…Uh."
Huh. What was my name?
I was sure I'd heard someone call me. Strangely, I couldn't remember.
"I-I don't know?"
I answered honestly. Even so, I couldn't lie with a face like this. The things I hated most were talking behind people's backs and lying!
"Wow, this girl is seriously something else."
Fortunately, for all her rough language, Novena didn't seem as irritated as she sounded. And so the two of us walked back to the infirmary in the silence that had started with my I don't know?
"What the hell. Why is the door broken?"
"I did that. Is it a big problem?"
"…"
Whether she liked my honest answer or not, Novena clapped a hand to her forehead and shook her head. I knew exactly how she looked when she was truly angry, so she was clearly developing a soft spot for me!
"Hehe."
"There should be a register around here somewhere."
I'd thought she'd only come to check on my condition, but Novena — a first-year, no less — started rifling through the infirmary documents with surprising ease. True to form for the official delinquent girl certified by the developers!
I was so amazed to see that kind of rule-breaking with my own eyes that I kept them wide open, determined not to miss a single one of her movements. As I watched, Novena gave a little twitch and shuddered — apparently even she felt a twinge of conscience about ransacking the infirmary on her own.
…Cute.
Every time her forearm flexed as she searched through the papers, the subtle curve of muscle and the veins stood out. Curves I rather wanted to lick.
"Ahem. Found it. Your name."
It didn't take Novena long. Hidden among the documents was the admission register. Someone had filled it in for me: yesterday's date, along with the symptoms fainted, body ache, and a few other details.
But there was another problem.
"…"
I couldn't read the writing. The parade of characters I'd never seen before left me as dizzy as staring at Arabic or cursive Russian.
What is this. Scary.
They'd given me a save system, but wasn't the bare minimum for transmigrators usually getting their original memories back, having aristocratic manners drilled into the body, or at least being able to read? Why was I this useless even after transmigrating?
I reflexively looked away from the register and started edging backward, only to feel Novena's pointed stare.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
Kind as ever, she seemed to think something was wrong with the register itself and double-checked it carefully. But of course there was nothing wrong with it. It was just a scrap of paper with a name on it.
The problem was… my mental state.
I only realized it then: I had been reading words like my diagnosis and admission date just fine. Right. The only thing I couldn't read was my own name.
I swayed.
"Whoa!! Hey!"
The strength went out of my legs. Was some force acting on me? Or was it a side effect of that powder? I had no idea.
Heat suddenly surged into my head, and I couldn't keep my eyes or my body under control. Just as I was about to collapse and crack my skull on the floor, a firm hand caught me around the waist.
Probably kind Novena, catching me. So at least I wouldn't die a pointless death from a brain hemorrhage or concussion and have to load a save.
I could relax.
No sooner had I let go of the worry than my consciousness started to slip away.
Haa. I'd told her I was fine so many times. Passing out like this made me a liar.
What excuse was I supposed to use?
That was the last thought I had.
A girl student with short pink hair and green eyes. She had a beauty and a distinctive air that would steal anyone's gaze at least once.
But perhaps because of the shock of that first meeting, Novena couldn't simply see Adel as beautiful and lovely.
The girl who, to calm students seized by madness, had shown an even greater madness and pressed a gun barrel to her own forehead. It hadn't been empty theatrics — she'd looked genuinely unafraid of dying —
"…I'm going crazy. Why did I get mixed up with a girl like this?"
Every student present, Novena included, had been left speechless.
How cornered did that girl have to be to try to stop a fight with a stunt like that?
The answer to that question was in the infirmary. She'd fainted at the funeral of her supervising professor, Lutera. Waking up late only to find the students that professor had died protecting about to tear into each other — of course she'd been worked up.
But still…
Was staking her own life over something like that normal?
Novena herself had grown up as the daughter of a border margrave's house and had experience on the battlefield. Even monsters, even bandits who'd lost home and family, clung to their own lives — but Adel hadn't shown so much as a flicker of that.
A cute, fresh appearance. But beneath it, her green eyes held a shadow without a single point of light. Empty eyes, staring into the void as if hollowed out.
Was there something only she knew? It was still too early to say.
The four kingdoms' intelligence agencies and even the imperial princess had formed a joint investigation team, so the truth would come out soon enough.
…Of all people, they had to give that job to me.
There was no choice. For now, all she could do was watch. She'd spotted and subdued the attacker, caught the crown prince's eye, and been ordered to keep her under observation. Until Adel's innocence was proven, she'd have to stick to her every move.
Yes. That was why.
There was no other reason.