“Are you sure it’s okay to come with someone like me…”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure my father and mother will understand.”
Zenon was leaving the Luminous Academy that was rampant with schemes and plots, and traveling to better understand this world. And Claire followed him.
He worried about how the parents of a young lady of the noted Rouge family would feel about their daughter taking a temporary absence from school to travel with a boy, but Claire seemed unconcerned.
Claire was polite and ladylike in the game, but it seemed she was also pretty active and had a bold side.
As he actually spent time with her, talked to her, Zenon was happy that he got to see a new side of her, treating her as a person and not a game character, and he smiled awkwardly.
“So where are we going? Surely you have a destination.”
“…First, the Yum-yum Mountain. I want to apologize to the people that died because of me.”
This time, it was Zenon who answered Claire’s question… Expressing the first thing he felt he needed to do.
They were just game characters, they were just background characters, he thought without much consideration as he hurt them and encouraged his partners to kill. He wanted to apologize to the people of the Yum-yum Mountain, and Claire nodded silently as she looked at him in profile.
“And after that… I’ll have to think about it. I’m lacking a lot. I’ll have to do what I can to find it.”
“I understand. Then I will accompany you. I also lack a lot.”
“…Thanks, Claire.”
“Fufufu…! There’s no need for that. I’m your fiancee.”
Zenon felt Claire’s kindness, who never abandoned him no matter how far he fell and stayed by his side, and thanked her.
He did not want to further burden her, the person who always smiled brightly to him, and thought he had to grow as he walked towards the Yum-yum mountain.
“Speaking of going on a journey… It’s almost time for a field trip in school. Although ours won’t be a field trip.”
“Ah, yes…! Did you want to go with your friends?”
“It’s all right. I’m sure this will also lead to my growth.”
They would be leaving school for a while, but surely a lot would happen in their absence.
Zenon knew about this field trip arc in the game, and of course, the incident that occurred in it.
Would Shian and the others be able to beat this event and the powerful enemy that appeared in it?
If they lost, what would happen to this world… Zenon wondered with worry, but Claire whispered silently while facing forward.
“…I’m sure some sort of incident will happen, but it will be all right. Mister Yuugo and the others are there…!”
“Yuugo…”
Hearing that name darkened Zenon’s face a little.
Yuugo Clay, the name of the person whose life Zenon threw into disarray with his selfish actions… Looking back, he felt bad about it.
Thankfully, his interference made things better than they would otherwise be in this case, but had things gone in a different direction, he might have cornered him sooner and hastened Phi’s death.
He felt ashamed for riling up the other students and making it so he was persecuted, and felt how he shined bright because he did not let himself get dragged down by this pettiness and stuck to the right path. He agreed with Claire, nodding.
“Yes… I’m sure it will be all right with Yuugo there.”
At the very least, he saved him for Rush’s attack.
He changed Ryuuga’s hatred-dominated heart, saved Raiha, and took down Zaraki with his friends.
Surely… he would not lose to the enemy in the next scenario.
Even though the story had deviated from the original scenarios many times at this point, he smiled as he imagined Yuugo overcoming whatever hindrance the reincarnated students threw his way. And Claire giggled next to him.
“What is it, Claire?”
“I’m just thinking that Mister Yuugo’s moves are finny…”
Claire ran for a few steps and jumped in front of Zenon.
Then she showed strange movements, and ended with the word Yuugo used when he deployed Blaster.
“Henshin! Like that, right…? It’s not necessary for activating Blaster, but I found it funny when I thought about how he does it every time…!”
“Yes, that’s true…”
He did do that, thought Zenon as he nodded a few times.
As he saw his fiancee perform those moves, he responded.
“What is that all about? I don’t get it at all…”
“It might be a ritual to enhance fighting spirit. He is a strange person in many ways after all…”
Both walked as they talked about the hero who saved them.
And as they were completely unaware that they were touching upon the truth of this world, Zenon left on a journey.
It would take a while for him to find the answer to the question that was brought up casually.
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