Supporting Character
The morning classes had ended.
The announcement crackled from the speaker fixed to the ceiling. Listening to it left me with a hollow, empty feeling deep in my chest.
It had already slipped away. The entire morning session had vanished in what felt like the blink of an eye.
"...What did I even hear?"
I had never been the type to focus well in class, but today there was truly nothing left in my head. Not even the usual scraps. Normally I could at least remember a few key points. Now it felt as if someone had yanked me out of the flow of time and dropped me four hours into the future.
In short, my condition was far from good.
"Hello?"
"..."
"Excuse me. Hello? Are you ignoring me right now?"
In the middle of that confusion, someone beside me kept pestering me with words.
"...Elice."
"Oh, so you weren't ignoring me after all?"
Elice Axstra. The woman who normally refused to come anywhere near me for fear of strange rumors was, for some reason, staring at me today with an expression that only made her more irritating.
"Just so you know in advance, I'm not in a good state right now."
"I already know. I came precisely because of whatever put you in that mood."
"..."
"If that weren't the case, I would have no reason to approach you so openly in front of everyone."
Hm. The woman in front of me was clearly a lunatic. Nothing else made sense. How could a normal person produce thoughts like that?
...There's no way.
No. There was no way. I couldn't exactly claim to be normal myself, but at the very least this woman could not be. If she counted as normal, then normal people simply did not exist in this world.
I nodded to myself at that neatly arranged conclusion. Elice glared at me with a look of pure displeasure.
"What is that? That unpleasant little nod of yours?"
"I already told you. I'm not in a good state right now."
"I didn't realize 'not in a good state' meant your mind had gone strange rather than your physical condition."
Elice managed to call me a mental case in the prettiest possible way.
"...So what's your business? Like you said, the fact that you and I are even talking like this is already weird."
My already fragile mental state would only get worse if I kept listening to her, so I decided to hear only the point and send her away.
"Ah, that's right. I still haven't told you why I came looking for you in person."
"..."
"It's nothing major. I just came to ask if you'd like to have lunch together today."
"...Pffft."
I had let my guard down at the words "nothing major" and taken a sip of water, only to spit it out the moment the rest of the sentence landed.
What? Have lunch together?
My head was already full of the desire to refuse, but I decided to observe the bare minimum of courtesy and ask for a reason.
"...Why?"
"A reason? Does a beautiful woman need a reason to ask the man she likes out on a date?"
Elice smiled like a fox that could bewitch every man in the world.
...I should have skipped even the bare minimum of courtesy. Now that I had heard something like that, I no longer felt obligated to hold back.
"Stop talking nonsense. I told you I'm not in a good state today."
"Hmm, that didn't work. The book I read yesterday said it would."
"...I'm just going to eat alone."
"Ugh, fine. You're such a boring person."
"..."
Sorry for being so boring.
Elice let out a sigh, as if conceding defeat, and continued while staring at me with a sulky expression.
"It's nothing else. Like I said earlier, I'm curious what you and your little sister were doing this morning."
"...Why would you be curious about that?"
"Hmm. I wonder if I should even tell you this."
Elice looked like she was wrestling with something. Uncertain. Debating whether the words she was holding back should be spoken here and now. After a long moment she seemed to reach a decision. She glanced around carefully, then opened her mouth.
"She left early today."
"Who? Aria?"
"No. Not your little sister."
Not Aria? Then who on earth had left early—
The thought cut off right there. More precisely, someone had walked through my mind and severed it.
Ah. That person.
"...Elena."
"Yes. Elena Brilliant. After meeting your little sister this morning, she left school immediately."
I had expected it. But expectation and the actual sensation of it always felt different.
Elena Brilliant.
Among the heroines of the original story, she was the one most often judged to be the true wife—the final heroine of the novel.
"She's your fiancée, you know. Doesn't that make you feel anything?"
"...Not yet, I suppose."
In the original, she was the former fiancée of Rian Tryce. They had been engaged, but the original Rian's scoundrel behavior showed no sign of ending. Unable to watch any longer, Duke Brilliant himself had driven the engagement to its end. That was the original story.
A story that had not yet arrived—but one that was not far off.
"I told you yesterday, didn't I? The Brilliant family is gathering evidence of exactly what kind of person you've been until now."
"...I know."
"Is that the reaction of someone who 'knows'? You still don't seem to understand. You're about to get dumped."
Elice still looked at me as if she couldn't comprehend me at all, her face tightly furrowed.
"I said I know, Elice Axstra."
"..."
"You don't need to emphasize it. I understand perfectly well, so leave it at that."
For someone who had known about the breakup long before transmigrating into this place, the news carried no particular weight. The model student Elena Brilliant and the scoundrel Rian Tryce ending their engagement—that was fixed destiny. A fate written into the original that no one could overturn.
Of course, someone might say: Why can't you overturn it? You read the original and transmigrated, yet you can't even change one predetermined event? And you still call yourself a transmigrator?
Well, they wouldn't be wrong. In ordinary transmigration stories the protagonist rewrites the fate set for them by their own power. But that assumption was rotten from the start. The very premise was wrong.
...Because I'm not the protagonist.
I was not the protagonist. Not the splendid transmigrator who rewrites destiny and saves the lives of those around him. I was nothing more than a single extra villain.
It was only natural. A pathetic human who couldn't even change his own reputation or image could never be the protagonist of this world. I had tried. I had failed. That was all. No one could refute that fact.
Elice was staring at me the way one stares at a strange person.
"...You're a weird one. I try to worry about you and you make a fuss."
"..."
"Whatever. Fine. If the person involved says he doesn't care, I won't concern myself with that side of things either. Happy?"
"...Thanks?"
I wasn't entirely sure this was a situation that called for gratitude, but looking at the dissatisfied expression on Elice's face, it somehow felt like the right thing to say.
"Anyway, since you say you don't care, we'll set that aside. Shall we get to the main point?"
"...Haa. Fine. Since I'm the one freeloading a meal, I should at least answer your questions."
For the record, I was already outside, having lunch alone with Elice exactly as she had planned. If Elena hadn't been involved—if her name hadn't come up—I would have refused on the spot. I kept sighing at the unfortunate situation, but once I was already out here there was nothing to be done.
The moment I effectively gave my consent, Elice's eyes lit up and she began firing questions.
"Good. Then would you start by telling me what happened with your little sister this morning?"
"Sure. There's no real reason I can't talk about it. You know I usually get to the classroom early, right?"
"Of course. There are even students who deliberately arrive late because of you."
"...I didn't know that."
That was completely new information. Without meaning to, I had been causing trouble for people. Maybe I should start coming late from tomorrow. But then I wouldn't be able to claim the seat at the very back.
I was seriously considering how to spend the mornings of the year I had left at most when Elice prodded me, as if that detail were irrelevant.
"Is that important right now? Just answer already."
"...There's nothing particularly important. I went into the classroom early like always, and unlike usual, that kid was already there. That's all."
"Your little sister?"
"Yeah."
"That much matches what I expected. And then?"
"That's the end of it."
"...What? That's the end?"
The instant she heard the answer, Elice glared at me by reflex. But I had spoken only the pure truth.
"Yeah. The moment she saw me she asked why I went to the hospital yesterday, so I just answered."
"..."
"I told her my wrist had been tingling, so I went, and the hospital said it would be fine if I rested."
A clear, conclusive truth. The middle parts had been completely omitted, but in the end not a single lie had been mixed in. What did the process matter? Results were always what counted most.
The woman in front of me, her face beginning to flush with anger, did not seem to share that view. At least I thought so.