CH 166

[The Saved Heroine]

“Madeline…”

As I was calming down the panicking Andrei, Madeline showed up.

“Well… I can pretty much guess what’s going on with Andrei.”

“R-really?”

“He must be unsure how to interact with Jarvis after learning that she’s a girl or something along the lines. In fact, he may have even… fallen in love with her?”

Spot-on.

She was impressively sharp as ever.

“Y-yeah… you’re right. But how did you—”

I shut my mouth then.

Madeline had a crush on Raul both in the original storyline and in this world.

In the original storyline, Raul and Eureka’s relationship didn’t go well and she became a part of his harem, but in this world, their relationship went swimmingly and her love was unrequited.

Asking her advice on the subject of love affairs made me… well… hesitant.

…Then again, even factoring that out, she already had a lot of problems on her plate, mainly regarding her family.

Don’t worry, leave Andrei to me.

Just as I was about to say so…

“Listening to your exchanges at the tournament, Jarvis didn’t seem to look at him in a romantic way at all. Ah~… but she did seem to trust him a lot, as a friend. He is fighting a tough battle here.”

…Huh?

She was kind of… no, extremely enthusiastic about it?

What’s more, she accurately pointed out the core of Andrei’s problem without me explaining.

She might be the helper we needed.

As I was carefully choosing what to say in my head…

“Barrett.”

“! W-what’s up?”

“Are… trying to be considerate of me?”

“Ugh?!”

“I was right, huh.”

She caught me in an instant.

I became flustered, wondering if I had made her feel uncomfortable. “Well, uhm” I tried to look for an excuse while making stupid gestures, but…

“Really… you’ve changed.”

…Madeline said with a small chuckle.

“I’ve heard rumors about you even before I entered the academy.”

“…I feel like I shouldn’t ask what they say.”

“You’d best not… but just so you know, they’re as bad as you imagined—no, maybe more than twice as bad.”

She might be trying to be considerate, but that was damaging enough.

“But well, let’s put that aside. Right now we have to help with Andrei who looks like his world is about to end here.”

“Y-yeah…”

It was very refreshing to interact with her like this… she was now so different from herself in the original storyline.

Had she gotten over Raul and her family?

If so, it was safe to say that the way the incidents had been resolved not only had a positive impact on Jarvis, but also on Madeline.

“Barrett?”

“…It’s nothing. I think it’s time to bring Andrei back to his senses—can you help me?”

“No problem♪.” Madeline smiled brightly and cheerfully.

While we cheered up Andrei, we promised to help him get together with Jarvis within a week.