Part-2 Ch-06 Ep-02

“Nagase-san, I thought you loved Ichinose-san. Is that not the case?”

“Gohh!” 

That day, after school.

I had gone to Seishuku-san’s classroom, and at the very first thing she said, delivered without the slightest restraint, I choked and sprayed the coffee milk I had been drinking from the paper carton.

“Ah, of course, I mean Love, not Like,” she added, forming a heart shape with her hands in front of her chest. Because she did it with a completely straight face, the whole scene felt strangely surreal.

It really is impressive that she’s dating Asahina-kun while being like this.

I hurriedly glanced around the classroom, and she responded as if she had read my thoughts.

“It’s fine. Everyone’s already gone home. It is opening ceremony day, after all.”

“ESP?”

[T/N- Extrasensory Perception.]

“No, it’s probably just that Nagase-san is easy to read.”

It felt like she was calling me simple-minded, and my shoulders slumped.

By the way, Maki is currently waiting for me in our own classroom.

The look on her face when I told her to go home first, how instantly dejected she became, was too painful for me to bear.

That’s why I want to end this conversation as quickly as possible, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

“Why did you think I like Maki…?”

“Ah, good. So that part was correct.”

Seishuku-san let out a relieved sigh, pressing a hand to her chest.

When I followed up with, “Um, since when did you notice…?” she replied, “Since enrollment. I kind of felt yuri waves?” using some incomprehensible technical term, so I gave up pressing further.

Come to think of it, this person is the president of our fan club.

“So, going back to what you said earlier.”

“Ah, that. I want you to forget what I muttered in the hallway earlier…”

“Yes, but I thought perhaps that because Nagase-san knows about this world and about yourself, you’re unable to take a step toward Ichinose-san.”

“…What do you mean?”

The way Seishuku-san quietly replied, “Exactly what it sounds like,” didn’t feel like she was joking or lying.

In that case, there was only one phrase that matched “this world” in my mind.

“By any chance… are you wary of me?”

She placed her index finger against her chin and tilted her head slightly.

The gesture itself was cute, but in reality, it made it even harder to read what she was thinking or how much I could trust her.

I had thought she was mysterious before, but she was truly elusive. But if Seishuku-san is also a reincarnator…

“I think it’s natural to be cautious. But maybe I can help you resolve the problem you’re facing right now.”

“…”

“Let me change the question a little. How do you perceive this world, and how do you perceive yourself, Nagase-san?”

I thought for a long time, then tightly closed my eyes. This world, which I had never confided to anyone before. What I was trying to do. My feelings toward Maki.

There was a small part of me that wanted someone to listen, rather than carrying everything alone. And if I was going to talk, I wanted it to be with someone who understood the situation at least a little, someone who might even cooperate.

Honestly, I couldn’t think of anyone more suitable to confide in than Seishuku-san.

I swallowed hard.

“---This world is the world inside an otome game. And Maki is the heroine of that game. There are capture targets, and the story is about Maki falling in love with them and dating them… I think. And I’m someone who reincarnated into this world, a support character who exists to move things along so that Maki ends up with one of the capture targets… something like that…”

“…I see…?”

Seishuku-san’s eyes widened, and she blinked several times after hearing my confession.

Huh? Wait a second.

That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.

It felt like there was a question mark hanging at the end of her words. What exactly is going on?

“Wait, what’s with that reaction!? I only told you because I thought you were a fellow reincarnator! So I was wrong after all!? You don’t believe a single word I just said!”

“Ah, um, no, that’s not it… Let’s calm down for a moment.”

I involuntarily grabbed my head and shouted, and she hurried to soothe me. My emotions wouldn’t settle, so I collapsed face-down onto the desk in protest. Or rather, I couldn’t lift my face because I was too embarrassed.

“…Right. Of course you wouldn’t believe a story like this.”

“I do believe you. I believe you. Or rather, when it comes to this world, our interpretations are almost the same. But there are parts where our understanding differs slightly, and that’s actually the important part.”

“…Differs? In what way?”

When I slightly raised my face from between my arms, Seishuku-san was frowning with a troubled expression.

“Um, please don’t get angry, but hear me out.”

“Okay.”

“You said earlier that you reincarnated, right?”

“Yeah. I have memories of a previous life where I played a game very similar to this world, and memories of getting into an accident.”

“Ah, I see. So, Nagase-san…”

“Yeah.”

“…You believe that you were originally a human being?”

“Huh?”

Startled, I shot to my feet without thinking. The paper carton on the desk tipped over with a loud clatter. Seishuku-san was staring straight at me.

“If we assume that this world was created based on a game world, then generally speaking, everyone who exists here would be programmed beings. Do you recognize that?”

“Uh… yeah, well… that would make sense…”

To be honest, that was something I had deliberately tried not to think too deeply about.

Because Seishuku-san standing right in front of me, Maki, my dad, my mom, I didn’t want to think that all of them were something created.

But if we were born into a game world, then me, Maki, Kagami-kun, everyone else, we would all be beings created for the sake of the game.

When I nodded, Seishuku-san nodded back.

“In that case, wouldn’t it be strange for Nagase-san, who claims to have been human, to exist here? As in, your soul entering programmed data?”

“But I do have memories of my previous life. And I played the game that this world is based on.”

“Memories, yes.”

“Yeah. Memories.”

“…This is difficult to explain, but I think those memories exist because personality data from the domain you were in before was reused. I’m the same.”

“…What do you mean?”

And with that, she began explaining, one by one, everything she knew.