C32

Chapter 32: Reo & Shigumin Side

Wednesday, a little past 11 PM.

Today, too, I was hunting in Asuon with Reo all day long.

Since it's right in the middle of the 5th-anniversary event, logging in for long hours in itself isn't unusual. Even I am playing all day like this.

But Reo was different. Even though it's a weekday, he's been logged in since morning. He said he skipped school yesterday. And today, too, he hasn't gone to school.

Just because an event started, keeping up with Asuon to the point of skipping school—Reo had never done anything like that before.

I know he loves Asuon. Since we've been playing together for three years, I know at least that much. Even so, this is weird.

As for that Reo—

He was continuing to hunt as usual.

Except, his movements were clearly strange.

No sooner did it look like he defeated the enemy right in front of him than he swung his sword at nothing, and the next second he released a spell in a completely random direction. Still trying to continue hunting, this time he started spinning his character around and around in place.

...What is he doing?

I typed a name into the chat box.

Shigumin: 'Reo'

There was no reply.

Before I knew it, Reo was surrounded by low-level mobs and getting beaten to a pulp.

Shigumin: 'Reo'

Still, no reply.

I pulled a poison smoke bomb from my inventory item slot and threw it at Reo's location. The poison smoke bomb exploded, and purple smoke spread all across Reo's surroundings.

Only then did Reo's movements stop.

Reo: 'What?'

Shigumin: 'You were acting weird, you know?'

Reo: 'What was?'

Shigumin: 'Everything'

Reo: '?'

I think it's a critical condition.

Is he sleeping?

Or has he turned into a zombie from playing games too much?

Either way, he doesn't look like he's in a normal state.

Shigumin: 'Why don't you sleep?'

Reo: 'I'm fine'

I see. It looks like he's not fine at all.

Anyway, to rescue Reo, who was currently getting beaten to a pulp, I wiped out the surrounding mobs all at once.

Then, Reo didn't budge an inch on the spot.

Shigumin: 'Did you fall asleep?'

Reo: 'I'm awake'

Apparently, his insides are barely maintaining consciousness.

Why is he in a state that bypasses sleepiness like this?

Let's ask him a bit.

Shigumin: 'It's during the event, but isn't this overdoing it?'

Reo: 'You think so?'

He's skipping school both yesterday and today. I wonder what the reason is.

Shigumin: 'By the way, why are you skipping school?'

For a while, there was no reply.

And then.

Reo: 'Fake confession'

?????

What is he saying?

I took a deep breath once, calmed down, and decided to ask a bit more.

Shigumin: 'What do you mean?'

After a while, a chat reply came back from Reo.

Reo: 'I skipped school because I got a fake confession'

(Reo got a fake confession? Wait, then does that mean he accepted that confession? That Reo? Reo who's betting his life on Asuon? ...No, that's weird. Did the other person turn out to be a super gorgeous girl who struck right at the bullseye for Reo? No, but...)

Not enough information... Let's ask a bit more.

Shigumin: 'Did you like the person who gave you the fake confession?'

Reo: 'Not really'

(I understand even less... What on earth happened for it to turn out like this?)

Shigumin: 'But you accepted the confession, right?'

Reo: 'Yeah'

Shigumin: 'Why?'

After a while.

Reo: 'Because I knew it was a fake'

(...He accepted it knowing it was fake. Then why did he accept it? It's not like he liked her, and it's not like he thought he was genuinely confessed to. Even so, he went out of his way to accept it. ...Was there a reason? And after that, he's skipping school. If so, could it be... accepting the confession and skipping school were connected from the start?)

Thinking up to that point, I finally arrived at a single answer.

Shigumin: 'So, you used it?'

For a while, there was no reply.

Eventually.

Reo: 'In a game the other person started with malicious intent, I just rode along with rules the other person didn't expect.'

As if to say there was nothing more to talk about, leaving behind just one long reply, Reo started hunting again.

◇

"Pfft..."

Laughter leaked out involuntarily. I leaned back against the chair's backrest and cast my eyes toward the stock price chart on the monitor placed beside me.

The numbers were moving quietly.

He really is unusual...

To think of using a fake confession to play a game—that idea is way too out there.

Normally, people wouldn't come up with something like that.

Pretending to have a wounded heart so you can skip school, right?

But Reo has been unusual since way back, and he's a thorough rationalist.

...Though right now, from playing too much game, his consciousness seems to have completely floated off somewhere.

Reo and I are the same age.

We met around the second year of middle school.

We met at some hunting grounds and before I knew it, we were hunting together.

At first, that was all there was to it.

But as we played together for a while, I started feeling a strange sense of affinity toward Reo.

He's similar to me.

He hates useless things, and has no interest in things he doesn't need.

He doesn't care much about other people either.

Plus, he's smart.

That's why being together with him wasn't tiring.

One day, while the two of us were playing like that, Shino-chan called out to us.

Shino-chan: 'If you'd like, wanna join our guild?'

Hearing the guild name, I liked it.

Reo was the same.

That's why we joined 'selfish'.

Ever since then, for three years.

Reo and I have always played together.

Even though I'm like this, I don't go to school right now.

Instead, I take classes online.

It's not like I never go outside.

If I feel like it I go out to buy sweets, and if I need something I go outside normally.

It's just that I don't go to a place called school.

For me, that's all there is to it.

The reason why it turned out that way isn't anything major, either.

Just that a somewhat troublesome thing happened.

◇

Ever since I was little, I was often liked by boys.

It wasn't rare for me to be confessed to.

But honestly, it was annoying.

Even if someone I don't even like directs affection toward me, it's just a bother.

That didn't change even after entering high school.

In fact, after entering high school, it increased even more.

One such day, I was confessed to by a boy who was popular even at school.

Of course, I turned him down.

The problem was that boy's childhood friend.

A terribly noisy girl in the same class.

When that girl found out I turned down the confession, she started getting involved with me, dragging her entourage along for all sorts of things.

At first, it was really trivial stuff.

But little by little, it turned into explicit harassment.

At first, I ignored it.

Because dealing with them was just a bother.

Even so, it gradually started getting annoying.

That's why I changed my approach a little bit.

To let the other person get even more carried away, I deliberately showed openings.

And then, I gathered evidence of the harassment bit by bit.

I gathered more than enough evidence, detailing not just the contents of the harassment, but also when and where it took place, and submitted it to the school.

Naturally, it became an issue.

Ultimately, that noisy girl got expelled from school.

After that, I don't know what happened with the childhood friend boy.

And I used that incident as leverage to stop going to school.

Even if you don't go to school, you can study.

If so, there's no need to deliberately go to a troublesome place.

That's how I chose my current life.

Reminiscing about such things, I casually glanced back at the screen, and Reo was sprawled out flat on the ground.

...Seriously, what are you doing.

Watching Reo sprawled out, I thought.

Could it be that Reo intends to become like me, too?

Since his brain is insanely good, he probably won't have any trouble with studying.

If so, from now on we might be able to play together even longer than before.

Right from the morning, all day long.

Thinking about that, I started looking forward to it just a little bit.

Shall I teach him about stocks, too?

If it's Reo, he'll probably learn it right away.

Besides, I should exchange real-life contact info with him soon.

I called out to Reo, who was sprawled flat on the ground.

Shigumin: 'Reo, give me your LINE'

It took us 32 chapters, but we've finally reached the entrance of a romantic comedy!

We've stepped back in time a bit, but it's a necessary part of the story, so please bear with me.

With that said, I've posted an illustration of Shigumin in my recent notes.

If you're curious, please go check it out!

And starting from the next chapter, the stage shifts to the adult side.