The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 75



74 – What?! Seron’s Condition…?

Morning school time.

To join Hania, I went to the front of the women’s dormitory, and as always, she came out walking with Iris.

Iris had been suffering from insomnia lately, and her face looked tired.

As soon as she saw me, she raised her hand smoothly.

Like a steel empress chasing warmth.

But again, I couldn’t hug her here.

When I shook my head, Iris wiggled her fingers regretfully.

“Hanon.”

Then Hania approached me slightly.

“Can you change into my appearance one more time?”

My eyes blinked.

“If you mean changing appearance, you mean when I transformed into you last time?”

“Yes, that one.”

“It is possible.”

My gaze reached Iris.

“It’s because of Iris, isn’t it?”

“`

“……Yes, that’s right. Lately, she hasn’t been able to sleep at all.”

Iris, who had slept well while holding me last time.

It seemed like she was trying to rely on that.

“Alright.”

I have to manage Iris’s nightmares too.

If she falls into a nightmare, it would be more troublesome than this.

“Wait, let’s go together!”

At that moment, Isabel appeared.

She approached us with trembling legs and stood beside us.

“Isabel, what’s wrong with you?”

When Hania asked curiously, Isabel glanced at me.

Then, with a slightly awkward expression, she scratched the side of her head.

“I was, um, doing something with Hanon this morning.”

She kept clearing her throat, embarrassed that she ended up like this while training as a member of the martial arts group.

Hania looked at me and Isabel alternately with a dumbfounded face.

“……I felt something was off between you two. When did you become like that?”

Hania’s eyes looked strange.

“It just happened somehow.”

Isabel made an excuse while watching my reaction.

“But we’ll keep doing it from now on!”

When she showed her determination, Hania had a bewildered look on her face.

“……Wouldn’t it be better to stick to your duties as a student? What if something happens?”

“Huh? Isn’t it good if something happens?”

What Isabel meant by something happening was muscles.

But what Hania meant by something happening was more significant and precious.

“Well, it is good, but still……”

Hania, with a bright red face, made excuses here and there.

In the end, Hania bit her lip, unable to find the right words.

“……Isabel, you’re bolder than I thought.”

“Am I?”

“`

The conversation between the two doesn’t connect at all.

“You trained with Hanon this morning, didn’t you?”

Then, to make their conversation connect, Iris stepped in as the savior.

Hania turned sharply to look at me, and I shrugged.

I had figured out what the conversation was about halfway through.

It just looked fun, so I left it alone.

Hania’s gaze was sharp.

It seemed like I might get a jab in the ribs later.

“Oh, we’re going to be late. Let’s go quickly.”

So, I promptly started walking.

* * *

After the commotion in the morning, Isabel’s eccentricities continued.

First, Isabel sat next to me.

Thanks to that, I had Hania on my left and Isabel on my right.

Seron was pushed to the far corner.

She looked at me with a face that couldn’t comprehend the situation.

I had the two prettiest girls in the class on either side of me like flowers in my hands.

It was a natural reaction.

“Isabel, why are you suddenly sitting with that guy?”

“What kind of wind blew?”

When break time came, the girls flocked to Isabel to clear up their doubts.

Then Isabel glanced at me and said,

“Still, you have to help someone who’s sick.”

Before I knew it, I had become the sick person.

“…Isabel, you have such a kind heart.”

“Well, he is quite a sickly kid.”

For some reason, the girls understood that.

Why are they understanding?

Are they trying to pick a fight?

Anyway, Isabel continued her eccentricities after that.

Whenever there was a sparring class, he would come to me first and invite me.

He would follow me even during lunch and guard my side.

If I momentarily lost track of the lesson due to daydreaming, he would show me his book.

He was just incredibly enthusiastic.

Is this what it feels like to have a childhood friend who looks out for you?

I can somewhat understand what Lucas’s life was like.

Lucas’s occasional clumsiness was undoubtedly largely due to Isabel.

But it wasn’t just the girls who started reacting to Isabel’s actions.

“Hanun.”

As I was about to leave the bathroom after finishing my business, some guys appeared to block my way.

They were second-year martial arts students like me.

Because I had such a bad image with the girls, no guys bothered to mess with me.

They would just look at me with pity as I got pushed around by the girls.

But today, for the first time, those guys blocked my way.

And they all had menacing faces.

“We understand that you got into a relationship with Hania. We’ve always respected your skills and efforts.”

“But still.”

No.

These weren’t menacing faces.

They were faces of sorrow and grief.

And unbearable anger.

“Not Isabel too!”

“What the hell did you do? You two were enemies until recently.”

“No matter what, there are some lines you shouldn’t cross. This is too much!”

I looked at the shouting guys with a bitter smile.

The tears of blood flowing from their eyes didn’t seem like someone else’s problem.

The kids gathered in the martial arts class were in their prime.

Most of them had never even built a relationship with a girl.

Unlike ordinary noble children, the noble children who entered Jerion Academy had been desperately training without time to be distracted by girls.

At this age, just making eye contact could make them fall in love.

Children like that face beautiful girls in the class every day.

Especially in the case of Hania and Isabel, both of them treat everyone kindly, regardless of gender.

Of course, if you’re a guy, you’d fall in love with them at least once.

But somehow, I ended up being in the middle of those two.

Even if the boys who had unrequited love felt bitter, there was nothing to say.

But what is the reality?

With Hania, it’s a thorough contract relationship.

All we do is hold hands and stick together.

Hania’s expressions of affection are all directed towards Iris.

Isabel is my rival.

Right now, she’s trying to heal me, who is hurt by Nikita’s matter.

But in reality, it’s far from what the kids think.

However, this fact does not appear in their eyes.

To them, I just look like a scoundrel who seduced the two idols of the school.

“…Yeah, I’m sorry.”

I had no choice but to apologize to them.

It also hurts my heart to see the delicate feelings of unrequited love break.

At my sincere apology, the boys pursed their lips.

They know well that it’s embarrassing to argue about this.

So they didn’t say more and turned away, swallowing their tears.

“…Be happy.”

“Since it has come to this, make them both happy with all your might.”

“Be prepared for the day when tears are seen in either of them.”

The boys left like that.

Still, they weren’t bad guys.

They just wanted their unrequited love to be happy.

Damn, I’m the one who should be crying.

Others cry for me instead.

“Lightning sweet potato.”

As I came out of the bathroom, Seron, who had passed by the boys, called me.

Today, too, Seron’s forehead was shining.

It seems he cleans it well every day.

Come to think of it, Seron’s name never came up among the boys.

Is he not even considered a romantic interest?

Feeling somewhat sorry for him, I patted Seron on the shoulder.

“I’ll buy you a juice or something.”

“What’s this? Why do I feel bad?”

Seron brushed off my hand from his shoulder and wiggled his finger.

When I lowered my posture to see what he was doing, Seron spoke quietly.

“Recently, I had a strange experience.”

“Did you finally blind someone with the beam from your forehead?”

“Do you want to die? Seriously!”

I should stop joking around.

“So, what happened?”

“You’re in the student council, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Recently, there are students planning a boycott.”

It seems the news has reached Seron’s ears as well.

He must have come quickly to tell me, thinking he should inform the student council.

In the meantime, I tilted my head.

“Seron, you don’t have any friends besides me to hear news from, do you?”

When I hit the mark, Seron bit his lip.

From that action, I sensed something.

“…You were invited, weren’t you?”

“Well, uh, I didn’t join.”

Seron has unintentionally become a lone wolf.

Originally, either I or Card would often hang out with him.

But recently, Card seems to have been assigned a spy mission and rarely shows up in martial arts class.

As for me, it goes without saying.

The two top girls of the martial arts caste are guarding my side.

Wrinkled Seron couldn’t even talk to me.

When I looked at Seron with pitying eyes, she made an angry face.

“Why are you looking at me like I’m pitiful? It’s really annoying.”

“It’s okay, Seron.”

“Ugh, please don’t make that face like you feel sorry for me because you don’t know love. It really pisses me off.”

I patted Seron’s shoulder again.

And she shrugged it off.

So harsh.

“Ugh, I should get a boyfriend or something. This is ridiculous.”

“…You, a boyfriend?”

“Oh, come on, if I set my mind to it, I could get a boyfriend in no time.”

“Yeah, in some world, maybe.”

A world where Seron Parmia is popular.

…Does that exist?

“It does. It does! I’m waiting for my prince, you know?”

“What prince.”

“The most amazing person in the world, who doesn’t resemble a lightning sweet potato at all.”

“It’s amazing that you can imagine such things with your poor imagination.”

Seron started cracking her knuckles.

“Lightning sweet potato, you haven’t been hit lately, have you?”

Watching her, I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t remember being hit by you.”

And then Seron lunged at me.

Of course, I dodged everything.

My dodging skills are getting better by the day.

Now I can avoid all of Seron’s clumsy punches.

“Ah, just get hit!”

“Why would I get hit?”

Seron huffed and then sighed.

It seems she finally gave up on hitting me.

Then she glanced at my neck.

Where are you looking?

“What is that? That pendant, I’ve never seen it before.”

Ah, it must have slipped out while I was moving vigorously.

I hurriedly tucked the pendant back in.

“It’s like an asset for the future.”

“It looks expensive. Are you planning to sell it?”

“Something like that. I’ll use it when making a deal with someone.”

Seron looked at me incredulously and took a breath.

“Anyway, there are some people planning to boycott the student council. I haven’t heard the details, but be careful.”

“Yeah, and don’t get involved just because there’s a handsome guy. Don’t follow them.”

“Hmph, do you think I’d follow someone like that? If I did, I’d be an idiot.”

Seron, who claimed to have high standards.

And that day.

I encountered an unexpected scene.

Abandoned building, third floor chemistry lab.

From noble mtl dot com

There, Seron, who had followed Ailing, was shouting at me, who looked like Bikamon, with a face flushed red.

“I-I’ll join the boycott!”

Seron was an idiot.