Special Privilege
"……"
I glanced around, trying to read the room.
Bianca, beaming with a bright, sunny smile. Alice, wearing that same "smile" with her brows faintly furrowed. And Rebecca, staring at me with her usual deadpan expression.
The four of us were huddled together on a picnic blanket spread across the rooftop.
How did it come to this?
I'd made a lunch date with Bianca, so when the period rolled around I tried to casually slip through my classmates and head up to the roof. Alice, though, latched onto me like she'd been waiting for it and whispered, "Where do you think you're going?"
And so she followed me. Which is how we ended up here.
Honestly, I could have shaken her off with a white lie and a burst of physical ability. But after yesterday — vanishing into the Otherworld without a word and nearly getting Alice killed — I'd decided to keep her in the loop on anything that mattered. So I just told her the truth, and that was how this four-way summit came to be.
"Alright, Alice. This is the Student Council President and the Vice President. You saw them yesterday, right?"
The whole atmosphere seemed to be orbiting me, so I figured I might as well do the introductions.
Bianca placed a hand over her chest and bowed her head.
"A pleasure to meet you."
The motion sent her ample chest swaying, and Alice's gaze snapped toward it like a drawn blade.
"A pleasure."
Rebecca offered a curt nod, her face as expressionless as ever.
"President, Vice President — this is Alice. My childhood friend."
"Hello."
Alice dipped her head, twin-tails swaying.
And then the silence settled in.
Bianca and Alice traded a peculiar look. Rebecca just blinked at me.
Okay. What exactly am I supposed to do here?
I'd always found a way through in the Otherworld. Sitting on this rooftop, I couldn't even form a thought.
Alice was the one who broke the quiet.
"President. What exactly is your relationship with our Jojun?"
She put a sweet, pointed stress on the word "our."
"The Savior and I help each other. That's our relationship."
Bianca answered with an easy smile, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Alice's brow twitched.
"And why do you call him Savior?"
"Because that's what he is. Jojun is the only one who can save this world. Therefore, he is the Savior."
Alice narrowed her eyes, looking at Bianca the way you'd look at someone who'd joined a cult.
"Ah — Alice, about that."
Time for me to step in.
Yesterday had been too chaotic to explain anything properly, but right now it felt like the right thing to do. So I laid out a reasonable amount of the truth. That I could predict this world's "future" to a certain extent. That I'd been chosen by the world itself, which was why my growth defied all common sense.
Alice's eyes went wide. She spent a long few seconds putting it together, then nodded as if it finally made sense.
"So that's what it was."
A lot was packed into that one sentence. She was probably connecting every insane stunt I'd pulled — and the impossible strength behind it — to what I'd just told her.
"Then what do you think of Jojun, Bianca?"
The question came out of nowhere, blunt as a thrown brick. I swallowed without meaning to.
Bianca answered as if it were nothing at all.
"And you, Rebecca?"
Alice flicked a glance sideways and put the same question to her.
"If the President feels that way, then so do I."
Alice listened to both of them, let out a long breath, and turned a look of pure grievance on me. I coughed into my fist and found somewhere else to look.
"Yesterday, I realized something."
Her voice was calm. Almost flat.
"That among the four people sitting here, I'm the most useless."
"Alice, what are you—"
I started to protest, but she lifted a hand and pressed her fingers over my lips.
"That's probably why you left me behind in the Otherworld."
She wasn't wrong that I'd left her behind because it was dangerous. But that scenario had been a natural disaster. A sudden, vicious turn with no time to grow into it, and a hell-mode spread of demons Alice simply couldn't have handled.
"Honestly? I want Jojun all to myself."
Her eyes flashed, a flush rising in her cheeks.
"I want him to look only at me. I want him to love only me. But I don't have the qualifications for that. Not yet."
She said it like she'd already made peace with it.
"So I don't really have any right to tell anyone what they can or can't do."
"Does that mean you're giving us your blessing?"
Bianca asked it with a bright little smile.
"Blessing, permission… that's all just my own greed talking."
She sighed again and shot me another resentful look.
"No! You're the Savior's first woman. We're the ones who should be thanking you."
"Thank you."
Bianca and Rebecca both offered Alice a soft, genuine smile of gratitude.
Alice declared it without a shred of hesitation.
"Then I suppose I'll have to work hard as well."
"I will do the same."
Just like that, a warm, almost sisterly atmosphere bloomed among the three of them.
What… what is this? The mood just flipped like a switch?
"Then I can just call you big sis, right?"
"Call me whatever you're comfortable with."
"No, you're a third-year. I'll call you big sis. Please just speak comfortably with me."
"Are you sure? Still…"
And now they were chatting among themselves as if I weren't even there.
Please include me.
I sat there for a while, watching the girls talk with the most pathetic eyes I owned.
Once the giggling wound down, they finally remembered I existed.
"Ah! Shall we eat, then?"
"Sorry, big sis. I didn't know Jojun was coming up here today, so I didn't pack a lunch."
A sharp glare stabbed into me.
I'm sorry!
"It's alright. I packed enough for four, just in case."
Bianca lifted an enormous lunchbox from behind her and beamed.
And so our cheerful rooftop lunch began.
"So, Savior. Are there any 'anomalies' coming?"
Bianca asked once we'd cleaned every last scrap from the lunchboxes and settled into a lazy rest.
"No. Not for now. After the Otherworld wraps up, you usually get time to power up, and…"
I dug through my memory for the third scenario.
"The Inter-class Tournament comes first. The incident hits after that."
The third scenario after the Otherworld was the Inter-class Tournament. Clear the Class Ranking Battle and the Otherworld, and the game gave you room to grow at a decent pace.
"So this is the stretch where we focus on raising our own skills."
Ero Ability Shooters wasn't a game you beat by clearing scenarios alone. Like I'd said from the start, there were side quests for secondary weapons and rare quests for latent abilities scattered all over the place. You used these in-between stretches to grow, or the next scenario would chew you up.
"Is everyone free this weekend?"
This was exactly when a veteran player like me got to shine. The exclusive privilege of someone who'd actually played the game — hogging every fated encounter for himself.
Everyone nodded.
Good enough.
I was already looking forward to the weekend.
The dungeon clear rewards themselves wouldn't be much use to me. Most of what dropped — weapons, skills — was built for shooters and ability users.
But…
What if they'd patched the items they'd planted inside the dungeons, too?
I let out a dry little laugh and shook the thought away. That was just being greedy.
A bright, cheerful chime rang out across the rooftop. Lunch was over.
"Aww~"
Bianca looked at us with her lips pushed into a reluctant little pout.
"Could we meet again at this time tomorrow?"
She offered the question lightly. I grinned.
"Of course. From now on, the four of us eat on the rooftop. Every day."
"Yes, big sis."
"Kyaaah!"
Bianca let out a full girlish scream of delight and, not knowing what else to do with herself, threw her arms around Rebecca.
"We'll be going, then."
"Okaaaay~!"
Alice and I hurried back to class so we wouldn't be late. Not long after, she and the rest of the class filed off to the auditorium for afternoon lessons, and I was left sitting there alone. I spun my sword in a lonely little circle and started walking toward the Virtual Training Combat Building.
Wait. Hold on. Could I even grind levels without Angel?
I hadn't gotten a single reward for taking down the Flame Demon yesterday, and once Angel vanished, nothing came through at all. What the hell was going on that she still hadn't shown up?
The missing rewards were one thing. Now I was starting to feel lonely without her.
Companions, huh.
Maybe Angel and I really were the real thing.
Pop!
A familiar sound effect bloomed in the air beside me, and a tiny blonde with fluttering white wings appeared right on cue.
"Player!"
That bright, sparkling voice.
"Angel!"
Were we actually in sync? Showing up the exact moment I started missing her!
"Where have you been, you little gremlin? I missed you."
Angel swiped a hand across her nose and grinned.
"Well. I was a little late 'cause I went on another rampage up in the Celestial Realm. For you, obviously."
"What happened?"
"So, here's the thing…"
She picked up with a smile so smug it was practically glowing.
"You know that skill I gave you last time — Spirit Ground? That's actually an ultimate. It burns a lot of Causality."
So it really wasn't an ordinary skill. Even I had to admit that a technique capable of designating any target was broken beyond reason.
"I went to war with the Management Team over it, but I won in the end!"
"You did?! That's my Angel! So what did you bring me?!"
The reward for killing the Flame Demon! What did you get for beating down a Count-Class demon in the second scenario?!
"Ah… well, what I actually brought isn't that big, per se…"
Her voice trailed off.
"What are you talking about?! Angel! I took down a Count-Class demon! How can the reward be small?!"
"The skill itself is already a Causality bomb. Add the penalty for me smuggling it to you, and it comes out to almost the same amount of Causality you earned from killing the Flame Demon."
"You have got to be kidding me!!"
Those Management Team bastards!! They dump a goddamn Count into the second scenario and then they don't even pay out?!
Okay, fine. I'd already snatched up Spirit Ground and now I was asking for more, so maybe I was being a greedy pig.
But so what?! Their whole goal is for me to get strong enough to beat the Demon King, and that alone fills their Causality quota, right?
These greedy pigs will suck every last drop of Causality they can get!!
"Anyway, Player. You've got two options to choose from."
Angel held up both index fingers.
"One is stats."
She wiggled the finger on her left hand.
"The other is a weapon."
She wiggled the one on her right.
There was nothing to think about. She'd already said the reward was small, and a weapon you'd eventually replace couldn't compare to stats that lasted forever. Stats. Obviously stats.
I opened my mouth to say it — got as far as the first syllable —
And Angel's eyes flew wide, bloodshot veins crawling across those tiny irises as she rolled them hard toward her right hand.
Uh.
I pursed my lips and quietly let the word "wea—" slip out instead.
Angel's big eyes bounced violently up and down.
Yeah. This felt familiar.
Looks like Angel had landed another huge one.