Sword in Hand, Blackmail
Iren crouched on the stairs, clutching her trembling hands. He didn’t look at me. Even though I reached out first. What happened? Weren’t we something like lovers, even if it wasn’t official? Did he really lose his memories? Or maybe… this is only natural.
“I… pretended not to know back then…”
It’s embarrassing. It fills me with regret. But yes, I once let go of his hand. Because of that, he died horribly, and from that day on, my life completely fell apart. No matter how much I beat the ground in remorse, the dead don’t come back.
“Is this… my punishment…?”
To be honest, without his help, I wouldn’t have survived academy life at all. For some reason, the current him seemed to be rejecting me. Could I really get through this without his support? I’m just a fool who can’t do anything alone.
“I hate it… I absolutely hate it…”
I abandoned him. I fell apart in a world without him, and eventually died miserably. I can’t bear a future where he never looks at me again.
“I’m scared… Someone, please help me…”
My legs shook uncontrollably. I bit my nails with my teeth—a habit I hadn’t done once since becoming an adult.
“This time I won’t do that… okay? So just once, stay with me… I’ll do everything well for you…”
In the deserted stairwell, I muttered to myself like a madwoman.
“I can’t lose him again… I absolutely can’t…”
I steeled my heart and stood up. If he won’t look at me, I’ll make him look. If he tries to avoid me, I’ll stay by his side so he can’t escape. And we’ll return to how we used to be. Without fail. Without fail.
Let’s think this through. In this run, Irene and I are clearly meeting for the first time. A first meeting with favorability at 80 makes no sense. From what I remember, the stairwell event only raised it by about 3. So there are roughly three possibilities.
First, a bug. Second, some kind of system correction. Third, inheritance from the previous run.
Personally, I really hope it’s not the third. I’d take the first one any day.
“If all four of them inherited the previous run…”
That could turn into actual hell. They’d obviously obsess over me in some way, demand to know why I wasn’t acting like the previous run, or maybe even try to kill me for being crazy.
“Thinking about what Irene said earlier…”
If it was in that context, it makes sense.
“What if she really regressed with her memories intact?”
If she has memories, how far back? The immediate previous run? No, I can’t assume that yet. My gut says it’s most likely the third option, but I need solid verification.
“For now, I should attend at least one class.”
It’s a class I could skip, but knowing Irene’s personality, she’ll definitely be in the classroom. Right now, gathering information is more important than running away.
I got up and headed straight for the classroom. As expected, Irene was sitting there—in the back seat between the hallway and the window, my favorite spot. When she spotted me, she smiled softly.
“Welcome. Was I a bit harsh earlier?”
“Didn’t really bother me.”
“Hehe, thank you. Here, sit down. It’s your favorite seat, isn’t it?”
Irene stood and gave up the seat as she spoke.
“My favorite seat? How would you know that?”
I threw out an aggressive question I wouldn’t have asked just moments ago.
“What do you mean? We’ve been together for a very long time.”
“A very long time?”
“Yes. A very long time.”
So the third hypothesis is correct. If it is, what do I do?
What do you mean, what do I do? Just keep pretending I don’t know.
I have no idea what might happen if I act like I remember. The best move is to keep playing the fool who has no memories of the past and knows nothing.
“You’re saying weird things. Anyway, I’ll sit here.”
“Not at all.”
Irene stood up and took the seat right next to mine. We waited quietly for class to begin, until—
“By the way, Ihan.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re testing me, aren’t you?”
The gentle expression Irene had worn the whole time vanished. Her eyes suddenly gleamed sharp and icy. The intensity in her gaze alone was enough to make me tense up. It was an expression I had never seen in all the time I spent with her.
“Testing what?”
“There’s no need to play dumb. Be honest with me.”
“…To be honest, you keep saying strange things and showing all this interest in me. It’s pretty uncomfortable.”
“No. That can’t be. Our relationship isn’t that shallow.”
“I’m telling you I’m uncomfortable, so why—”
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll come to like me again soon enough.”
“Like you? That’s not something you say to someone you just met. Or are you flirting with me?”
“So that’s how you want to play it. Yes, you could call it flirting. Until you look at me again, I’ll adjust myself to you.”
“I doubt that’ll ever happen.”
“That remains to be seen. Just watch. We’ll see how it goes.”
With that, Irene’s face smoothly returned to her usual gentle smile. The change was shockingly fast.
“Hmm…”
This has become incredibly troublesome. For whatever reason, Irene seems determined to obsess over me. If getting involved with her led to nothing, that would be one thing. The problem is that as a heroine of this world, she drags all kinds of incidents along with her.
This is dangerous. I can’t get entangled with her any further.
If things continue like this, my peaceful and free academy life will be under threat.
I need to steel myself properly.
No matter what happens, I have to be fully prepared so I can run at any moment.
After finishing the afternoon classes, I lay on my dorm bed and thought things over. The conclusion was simple. Irene has her memories. The question is how far back they go, and whether the other three are in the same state.
“But why is she obsessing over me?”
She was going to throw me away in the end anyway. Why obsess now? To avoid the bad ending she’s supposed to face?
“That’s pretty shameless.”
It is shameless, but I don’t particularly want revenge. That would be too much hassle. All I want is to live without getting involved with them.
“Let’s just keep pretending I don’t know.”
If I keep playing ignorant, she’ll eventually get tired and give up. With that naïve thought, I lay in bed killing time.
I didn’t know it then. If simply pretending not to know was enough to make her back off, it wouldn’t be called obsession in the first place.
The eventful first day passed, and my second day at the academy began. First period was divine power practice. Nothing special—just a class that ended with measuring our divine power. Of course, Irene, who’s in the same class, would be there too.
When I arrived at the training ground in my training uniform, I immediately spotted Irene sitting on a bench. Everyone was looking at her. That was only natural. Her divine power was overwhelming enough for her to be considered the next Saintess.
One strange thing, though—
“Why isn’t she sticking to me?”
Irene, who used to rush over at every chance, was being unusually well-behaved today. She was even chatting noisily with other students as if showing off.
“This feels ominous…”
That ordinary behavior actually made me more nervous. It felt like she was plotting something bad.
“Alright, let’s begin class!”
In the end, I couldn’t shake the unease as class started. As expected, it was time to test our divine power. Students stepped forward one by one and poured their power into the measuring device.
I received an appropriately average result. I have overwhelmingly more experience from countless regressions, but at this point in the timeline, my specs were just ordinary.
And then came the long-awaited turn—Irene’s.
As she stepped forward, the corner of her mouth seemed to twitch. She stood in front of the device and, the moment she poured in her divine power—
FLASH!
A brilliant white light burst from her fingertips. The amount was overwhelming, bright enough to illuminate the entire area.
However—
“That’s enough. This should be plenty, Miss Irene.”
The professor raised his hand to stop her. But Irene didn’t stop. Instead, she poured in even more divine power, as if to show off. The light grew large enough to cover the entire training ground. The old measuring device couldn’t withstand it and shattered into pieces.
The real problem wasn’t just the quantity. The divine power she was emitting was extremely unstable. The once steady light began to flicker dangerously. It was practically a rampage. At this point, it wasn’t divine power anymore—it was a time bomb.
“Wait! What are you doing!”
The professor, startled, tried to approach Irene. But the closer he got, the more she ramped up her divine power as if telling him to stay back. In the end, no one could get near her. No one could stop her.
The professor hurriedly began evacuating the students.
“…No way.”
A scene from the past flashed through my mind. In the early days, Irene couldn’t control her divine power well. Whenever her emotions fluctuated or her output grew too high, it would run wild. I always helped her through it.
Breathe slowly. Don’t push the divine power away—sink it down. You can do this. I’d calm her with words like that. Later, after I’d accumulated more skill across the runs, I would even place my hand on her body directly to stabilize the power.
The Irene standing there right now, wielding a divine power bomb with a sinister smile, was clearly doing exactly that.
Help me.
If you don’t help, I’ll let it explode. She was blackmailing me. Deliberately. This was a scheme to drag me out.
I was about to ignore it and pretend I didn’t notice when—
“Ah, ugh?”
Irene let out a flustered sound. Unlike before, her face had gone deathly pale. Her fingertips were shaking, and her pupils were trembling.
“Ah.”
I realized it instantly. She had lost control. She tried to wield divine power with the senses she had as a Saintess, but her current body couldn’t keep up.
Irene’s eyes twisted as if she were about to cry at any moment.
“H-Help me…”
Her voice didn’t reach me. But I could clearly see the shape of her lips.
“This crazy bitch is for real!”
I’m going to lose my mind. Seriously…