The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 77



76 – Lovesickness

“Heehee, heeheehee.”

Seron laughed foolishly.

“Huuu.”

Seron sighed.

“Hmm.”

Seron hummed a tune.

How many times a day do her emotions change?

I’m just tired of watching her.

But Seron never seemed to get tired.

She looked consistently happy amidst her rampaging emotions.

“Seron.”

“Huu.”

“Hey.”

“Hehehe.”

“Forehead.”

And no matter how much I called, she didn’t respond.

“Seron, what’s wrong with her?”

Isabel looked at Seron with a puzzled face.

Even to her, Seron didn’t seem normal.

“I don’t know. Ask her.”

I didn’t want to ask anymore.

Isabel, noticing my attitude, sat next to Seron.

“Seron.”

When Isabel tapped Seron’s shoulder and called her, Seron came to her senses a little.

“Did something happen? What’s wrong?”

Upon hearing Isabel’s question, Seron wore a blank expression, then soon looked out the window with a dazed face.

“Haah.”

And then he sighed once more.

“Bel, I saw the prince.”

“……There shouldn’t be anyone of royal status at Jerion Academy, right?”

“No, it’s not like that. Hoo, you wouldn’t understand, Bel.”

Seron reacted as if to say, “I pity you for not knowing love.”

Isabel also looked at Seron for a moment before quietly stepping back.

“……You tell me.”

“Just leave it be.”

They say there’s no cure for lovesickness.

I have no choice but to leave Seron alone until he forgets about me.

“That attitude, don’t you know something?”

“Not at all.”

I don’t want to know either.

Thus, time passed under Isabel’s suspicious gaze.

In this scenario, I had a few new tasks.

The first was to regularly visit the women’s dormitory for Iris’s peaceful sleep.

Iris’s nightmares were the most important factor.

I had to sleep with her at least once a week.

Iris wanted me to come every day, but no matter how much, I don’t have the stamina for that.

Every time I entered the women’s dormitory, I was so nervous, the maids’ eyes scared me to death.

The second was to shake off Isabel.

Isabel almost followed me around, trying to take care of this and that.

I underestimated her persistence a bit.

She was desperate to cure me back to my original state.

To the point where people around thought Isabel and I had reconciled.

In the end, I started avoiding Isabel.

The more I did, the more stubborn Isabel became, following me even more persistently, but with my extensive experience as an outsider, I hid well in places Isabel couldn’t find.

Insiders don’t understand that outsiders need time alone.

The third was Seron.

Seron had promised not to come to Boycott with me.

Because it was something said by the person she fell for.

Seron faithfully followed this.

But as time went by, Seron became noticeably gaunt.

The period during which Seron sighed continued to grow.

It clearly showed what it was like when lovesickness was severe.

‘The Last Leaf.’

Seron showed eyes filled with melancholy to the extent that I thought of this.

Her behavior became more reserved, and her words decreased.

This, really, seems like something needs to be done soon.

“Lovesickness isn’t called a disease for nothing. It’s a disease of the heart, so the heart rots away.”

Card, who had extensive knowledge about women, clicked his tongue as he looked at Seron.

“She’ll collapse at this rate.”

And not long after.

Seron really collapsed.

The incident happened during regular training.

A mock battle where opponents were assigned to fight.

Seron, who was absent-minded there, couldn’t avoid the fatal attack of her mock battle opponent.

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Thud!

Seron, who had been flying in the air, rolled on the ground.

“Huh, huh?”

The mock battle opponent looked back and forth between his sword and Seron with a bewildered face.

If it were the usual Seron, she would have definitely avoided this level of attack.

Knowing this, he had made the attack, but Seron couldn’t even fend it off and just fell.

Seron didn’t get up after collapsing.

Everyone looked at the fallen Seron with surprised faces.

While I inadvertently stood up, Professor Beganon hurriedly checked Seron’s condition.

However, her worried face soon returned to normal.

“Hanon.”

At Professor Beganon’s call, I hurriedly approached her.

“Yes, Professor.”

She promptly tossed Seron to me.

“Take this fool to the infirmary. Ask them to give him some nutrients.”

Nutrients.

As soon as I heard that, I looked at Seron with a bewildered face.

Seron, who had fallen in love, had not been sleeping properly and had been skipping meals, leading to malnutrition.

‘Is this guy really an idiot?’

Following Professor Beganon’s words, I had no choice but to carry Seron on my back.

Then, under the gaze of the children, I left the training ground.

Seron was fainting, his eyes rolling back.

I glanced at him and sighed.

All we had was a brief conversation.

But how could that make a person like this?

I couldn’t easily understand.

I took Seron and headed towards the infirmary.

Sunlight streamed through the corridor windows leading to the infirmary.

“Seron.”

I called out the name of the fainted Seron.

“What do you like so much about that guy?”

I knew it was his face.

But to like someone so much just for that, it was a mystery to me.

“What’s so great about a face?”

I don’t know much about Seron.

But one thing I do know is that Seron was born under an unlucky star.

She was always unlucky.

If something special happened, she would get a stomachache or get hurt somewhere, and if she prepared something diligently, it would fall apart as if it was never meant to be.

That’s why Seron’s nickname was “the unlucky one.”

Seron’s personality became sharp and eccentric because of that bad luck.

Nothing ever went her way, so she couldn’t help but become eccentric.

Creak-

As I opened the door, the characteristic smell of disinfectant from the infirmary hit me.

It seemed the nurse had stepped out for a moment.

‘She’ll be back soon.’

I laid Seron down on the infirmary bed.

After roughly taking off his shoes, I covered him with a blanket.

“Ugh, ugh.”

Seron groaned.

He was still half-asleep.

“Prince.”

Yes, your prince is here.

Seron’s complexion was noticeably poor.

As I stared at him, I slowly brushed my bangs back.

“Tsk.”

Clicking my tongue, I closed the curtains properly.

Then, I pulled the bandage of the curtain.

As I did, my height gradually increased, and my hair began to turn white.

From Hanon, I reverted to the form of Vickerman.

As Vickerman, I pulled a chair and sat next to Seron.

Then, I gently stroked Seron’s forehead.

It was still well-maintained and smooth.

Seron’s expression relaxed a bit, perhaps feeling the warmth.

At the same time, her eyes began to open faintly.

Seron blinked.

Soon, as her eyes met mine, they gradually widened.

“Pr-Prince!?”

Seron exclaimed in shock.

She tried to get up but winced in pain from the earlier blow, letting out a groan.

I watched her quietly and then leaned back in the chair.

“Seron Parmia.”

When I called her name, Seron’s shoulders flinched.

She opened her eyes wide as if wondering how I knew her name.

“I heard about you from an acquaintance. They said you’ve been looking gaunt and unwell lately.”

Seron’s shoulders flinched again.

She mumbled and moved her lips hesitantly.

“And they said you seemed to be looking for me.”

She lowered her head deeply.

Seron’s ears turned bright red.

Watching her quietly, I asked Seron a question.

“Why were you looking for me? I don’t think we have any particular connection.”

At that moment, Seron flinched once more.

She clasped her hands and trembled slightly.

Seron raised her head with a trembling face.

Her eyes quivered pitifully.

Seeing that, I felt puzzled.

Because she looked hurt by my words.

“…Yes, I thought you wouldn’t remember.”

Seron smiled a little sadly.

Seeing that smile, my eyes slowly opened wide.

I had vaguely thought that Seron’s attitude was just because she was attracted to my face.

But that wasn’t the case.

‘…Was there a connection between Vickerman and Seron that I didn’t know about?’

Third-rate villain, Vickerman Niflheim.

Unfortunate girl, Seron Parmia.

Both are minor characters in the Flame Butterfly arc.

Naturally, there isn’t much information about them.

As with any game, you can’t fully flesh out every single extra character.

So, they both just appear as passing characters.

But now.

A relationship I didn’t know about has been revealed behind these extras.

I have lived as Hanon until now.

Therefore, I did not consider much how the relationship with Bikamon was connected.

And in the part that I couldn’t consider, an unexpected mistake eventually came out.

‘But.’

Seron seemed to not even know my name.

But can this be called a relationship?

“……Sorry, I’m not very good at remembering things. If something happened, could you explain it to me?”

At least if we didn’t even know each other’s names, it means the relationship wasn’t deep.

Then there is a way to get out of it somehow.

When I asked Seron, she bowed her head a little shyly as if recalling an old event.

“It was the day of a party hosted by a noble lady.”

Nobles often hold parties for socializing.

At that time, it was Seron’s first time attending a social party.

Her debut at a social party.

For this, Seron dressed up very beautifully.

She prepared a gift for the lady who hosted the party and properly learned the party etiquette.

But Seron was unfortunate.

On the day she finally arrived at the party venue.

A carriage collision occurred on the bridge where her carriage had to go, causing a delay.

The bridge was a one-way road, and she had to wait in the carriage for a long time.

By the time the collision was finally resolved and she crossed the bridge to enter the estate where the party was held.

It started to rain.

The rain poured down like a torrent and showed no sign of stopping, turning the ground into mud.

Not long after, the carriage wheels got stuck in the mud while passing through a construction site and couldn’t move forward.

In the end, Seron had to get out of the carriage and walk through the muddy road with an umbrella provided by her maid.

No matter how hard she tried to use the umbrella, the rain seeped in.

The shoes she had worn so beautifully were ruined by the mud, and the hem of her dress was stained with mud and rainwater.

She looked so pathetic that she couldn’t be seen as a lady invited to the party.

With such a miserable appearance, Seron arrived at the party venue, holding back her tears.

But the party was almost over by then.

The maid tried her best to clean Seron’s dress hem and shoes, but she couldn’t enter the party hall looking like this.

In the end, Seron sat on the terrace of the party hall, holding the wet gift box.

When Seron arrived at the party hall, the rain miraculously stopped.

No luck.

Not even a bit.

She had begged her father for a new dress, makeup, and personally chosen gifts for her first debut in the social world, but nothing went right.

It was always like this for her.

A series of oddly unlucky events that were too trivial to complain about to others.

If she were outright unhappy, she could at least express her grievances, but only these ambiguous misfortunes frequently occurred.

It was when Seron was sitting there, sulking.

“Hello.”

Between the moonlight that came through the clearing clouds.

White hair shone beautifully with the moonlight.

“Isn’t the moonlight pretty?”

It was there that she met her prince for the first time.