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Ian stared down at the gloomy woman in front of him, silent.
Aria Lumines Bell.
One of the few holy-attribute characters in Fanta X Aca. A heroine whose sacred potential was so overwhelming that, raised correctly, she could become a Saintess.
'This is the worst.'
A bitter taste filled his mouth. Aria was the heroine he least wanted to cross paths with. The reason was simple.
Her unstable mental state. In Fanta X Aca, each heroine had specific monetization elements, and for Aria, it was her "mental." Players had to manage her fragile psyche with various items and attention. The root cause was the ostracism and harassment she'd suffered as a child. Just when it seemed she might overcome it after becoming a Saintess Candidate, her mental state erupted spectacularly at some point. The trigger was never revealed in the game, but...
'It was because of Pongpongi.'
Ian recalled the contents of Pongpongi's "Love Diary." The first line of the Aria section was fairly shocking.
—Aria and I are childhood friends.
A fact that had never come to light in the game. The diary recounted their childhood together. It told of Aria, born to a modest family and forever shut in her room, and how Pongpongi, an aristocrat, first approached her. It detailed how he looked after her fragile mental state as they grew up. Earnest accounts of everything he had done for her. What to do when she was anxious, what to do when she was restless. Which board games and fairy-tale books she liked. That sort of thing.
"......"
The diary didn't have a happy ending. The final page was about him confessing to Aria and getting rejected.
'Wasn't that practically NTR?'
Recalling the diary's contents, Ian shook his head. Anyway.
'She was the heroine I most wanted to avoid.'
Her unstable mental state was like a shard of glass — impossible to predict where it would fly. She even desired to forget their shared past. That was more than enough motive for her to push Pongpongi away.
"......"
Which explained why he wasn't pleased about their hands overlapping like a scene from a romantic comedy.
Ian gently pushed her hand away.
"...!"
Aria's eyes went round with bewilderment, but he ignored her. He then took out [The Life of Dave the Hero] and placed it in her hand.
"Sorry."
It was unfortunate, but Aria's childhood friend, Ian Blackangus, was no longer here. This was a sincere apology. He had nothing more to say to her.
◆
Aria dazedly accepted the book Ian handed her.
"Sorry."
She simply stared blankly at his retreating figure before looking down at the book.
[The Life of Dave the Hero]
"...Why."
She couldn't understand. Why? If he knew what this fairy tale meant, why would he ignore her like that and walk away? This was the book you always read to me when I was struggling. So why...?
Plip.
Tears suddenly streamed down her cheeks.
—Sorry
Ian's eyes had been utterly cold. She had never seen them so icy.
'...Without realizing it, I'm depending on him again.'
Aria shook her head. She was the one who had pushed Ian away. She'd made up her mind the moment she rejected his confession.
'Because that was what I wanted.'
She wanted Ian to drift away from her. She wanted to forget her dark past. When he had actually distanced himself, a part of her had even felt relieved.
'But that was...'
That was only because she wanted to forget the past... Yet now he was back, alive, and looking at her with such cold eyes.
'...Was I found out?'
Had he discovered the dark feelings she'd harbored for him?
It's too hard. Everything is too complicated. Her head felt chaotic, as if jagged shapes were stabbing into her brain. Aria's eyes began to tremble violently. It felt like a psychotic episode was about to surface again.
"Are you alright, Lady Aria?"
A priest-knight had materialized beside her and caught her arm. A fellow student from the Clergy Department, and the disciple of a high-ranking Holy Knight within the Order.
"If that Ian fellow has been troubling you again, I won't stand idly by...!"
As he grabbed her arm, a faint blush touched Aria's cheeks.
"N-No, it's nothing."
Aria wiped her eyes. Ian was a part of her past she'd resolved to discard. He seemed different... but that didn't matter. It was a past she wished to leave behind and forget, if possible.
"Th-Thank you. Dave."
"To serve you, Lady Aria, is all I could ask for."
Aria silently looked down at the book in her hands.
[The Life of Dave the Hero].
In her childhood, when she was alone in her room, Ian would bring this fairy tale and read it to her. When she was mentally exhausted, he would always stroke her hair as he read. But she no longer needed the hero from that story. Because Aria was living in the present now. Because she was a Saintess Candidate.
Aria slid the book back onto the shelf.
"Are you truly alright, Lady Aria?"
"Ah...? Yes, yes. I'm fine. I, I should head back to the dormitory now..."
Aria turned and walked away, trailing off the ends of her sentences, just as she used to.
...And then.
The priest-knight who had been following her stopped and turned his head. His blue eyes swept menacingly over Ian's retreating back.
The priest-knight Dave made a vow. He would find an opportunity to deal with that man who so unsettled the future Saintess.
◆
"There was some weird guy hanging around her."
Ian shook his head, dismissing the blond, blue-eyed man beside Aria. A thought more pressing than the safety of a heroine who might get NTR'd had occurred to him.
He approached the library desk. The librarian looked up at him.
"Confession rejected."
She adjusted her glasses as she answered. Wait, was that even an answer? He hadn't said a word yet. Sure, he was genuinely grateful for the good book recommendation, but did people normally confess in this situation?
"What's with that confidence that someone's going to confess to you?"
Instead of responding, the librarian held out a mirror. Pongpongi's face stared back at him.
"......"
Come to think of it, that did seem perfectly in character for the original Pongpongi.
"Ahem."
Anyway.
"I'm not here to confess. I have a question. I'd like to connect to Kirtos."
Kirtos. A mana-based network service available within Lichten Academy.
'I thought it was just a setting for convenience.'
Don't games always have those blatantly convenient settings? He'd always assumed Kirtos was just a trick to implement community features. But while reading lately, he had realized Kirtos actually existed within this world.
"Device required."
"I don't have any money."
"Shameless."
"I was hoping you could tell me where to borrow one. You seem like you'd know."
"......"
The librarian lightly adjusted her glasses with a fingertip. Then she ducked her head beneath the desk.
Rustle, rustle.
After the sound of shifting papers, she held out a sheet as large as a map.
"If a thermal-burn model is acceptable."
"...You're lending it to me?"
The faintest nod.
"...Isn't this yours?"
A minuscule nod.
"Now I feel kind of bad."
This time, she shook her head so slightly it was almost imperceptible.
"Thanks."
"A reward for not confessing."
"......"
He owed Pongpongi some thanks for this one.
After expressing appropriate gratitude to the party in question, he sat down and unfolded the Kirtos terminal.
[Connecting to Kirtos...]
The way the ink etched itself into the paper looked rather antiquated.
"What's this Department Club?"
He touched the first tab at the top. Chat rooms he could access appeared on the page.
"Oh. This is fascinating."
It felt like handling a tablet made of ink.
[Mezai]
[Knight Department]
[Order Membership Inquiries]
[A Gathering of People Who Dislike Mezai]
This time he entered the General Assembly board. It seemed more active than the others, with numerous titles popping up.
[Continental Cat Association <Non-Beastkin, Canine Knife-Kick> (23/50)]
[A Race That Knows Dignity (9/10)]
[↑ These pointy-eared bastards are full of shit lol (3/100)]
......
[Lewd Art Compilation (99/100)]
[Looking for a dorm roommate. (1/2)]
[Shadow Forest Depths 6-Man Party, just need you, go go (2/6)]
[Emilia Fan Club (78/100)]
"Ah, damn."
Human nature made him want to click the room with one spot left. He hastily restrained his instinctively moving hand. Speaking of which, that Emilia Fan Club caught his eye. As expected of the daughter of a famous trading company, she really had that "celebrity" heroine feel.
"And the last tab is..."
It was a familiar "forum" tab, styled like a modern community. It even had a search function. Naturally, this called for some ego-searching.
[Ian] (Search results: 100+)
"Oh."
Quite a lot came up. Most of it was insults. However, some recent posts were different.
[Hasn't Ian been acting a bit better lately? (24)]
With a sense of anticipation, Ian clicked the title. The paper shifted smoothly, ink rising to the surface.
————
- No but seriously, lately his eyes and everything have changed a lot. He even got first place in practicals recently. I feel like something's actually different about him?
[♣︎]: This is clearly an Ian viral marketing post.
↳ fr lol
↳ This Ian fucker took a week off and came back doing part-time jobs to fix his image
[Anonymous 23]: Ian, welcome~
[Bulsabeop Boss]: Ah for fuck's sake, Ian!
↳ Quit hating on him. I'm warning you nicely.
↳ Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?
————
"It's dizzying."
Most comments were insults and suspicion, but it was interesting to see a shift in some people's perceptions. Just as anticipated — when you focus on yourself, others' gazes gradually change too.
More importantly, rumors were starting to spread.
[(new!) Something happened when Ian jumped off the roof? There's gossip about a disciplinary committee (3)]
After checking that post, Ian leaned back into the sofa.
"The disciplinary committee, huh."
From its assembly to its formal convocation, the disciplinary committee took quite a bit of time. That was because every single student at Lichten Academy carried significant clout. It meant both Ian and the culprit had time to prepare.
"If I were the culprit, I'd gather the heroines and make a move."
The reason the culprit went to the trouble of forging four separate suicide notes was obvious from the start. It was a contingency to conceal their identity as much as possible, should the worst-case scenario unfold and the crime face exposure. Plan-oriented and meticulous. That was why he was certain. They would undoubtedly gather the heroines to act together.
"I can exploit that in reverse."
If he could bring just one of the heroines to his side, he could use her as a spy. He felt the need to be more proactive. Conveniently, an academy-shaking scenario was about to begin. Chaos. There would surely be a way to use it.
A corner of Ian's mouth lifted.
◆
Meanwhile.
9 PM. Distinguished names began to appear in the Kirtos connection logs.
[Rina has connected.]
[Sharon has connected.]
[Aria has connected.]
[Emilia has connected.]
But their names soon vanished from the log. It meant a private, anonymous room had been opened.