CH 72

[The Relationship of the Reincarnated People]

Showing me around the academy must be just a façade.

And that guess of mine is right on the mark, after quickly showing me around various places, Amanai invited me to an empty classroom.

When he said, “Can we talk for bit? You can even practice-swinging while we’re at it,” I thought, isn’t this guy too quick in understanding me? But since I can have some practice-swinging, I decided to at least listen to what he wanna say.

“First of all, about the incident at the opera house. I’m sorry for behaving in a threatening manner.” (Amanai)

I’m so surprised that I even almost unintentionally drop my sword at Amanai who lightly bows his head.

Putting aside whether I’d forgive him or not, I don’t even remember anything he should be apologizing for, but anyways, this is the first time in my life that I met someone who admitted his fault so straightforwardly.

To realize his own mistake and apologize without being told by anyone…could this be the difference in our humanness…!?

“Other than that, I have something to talk to you. Will you please listen to me?” (Amanai)

S-so humble!? Moreover, this guy still has his head down!?

It takes me more than 10 seconds to stop my arms from swinging, of which speed was so quick as though representing for my impatience.

To Amanai, who still doesn’t raise his head in the meantime, I say, “I’d listen to you for now, so raise your head.”

The eyes of Amanai who has raised his head is so straightforward. Coupled with that handsome face of his, I feel like I can see a halo behind him for some reason.

Anyways, before the protagonist-sama who took a seat at my offer, although rude, I decide to keep practice-swinging while listening to him.

“First of all, on top of the talk about the future, I want to properly tell you about my stance again.” (Amanai)

“Hadn’t you told me that already? You said you wanted to stick to the original or something.” (Sakurai)

“I hadn’t tell you the reason or the likes, right? That’s one of the things I want to talk to you about.” (Amanai)

Having said that, Amanai begins to talk about why he is so obsessed with sticking to the original.

In this game, ‘Amanai Hayato’ is, without a doubt, the protagonist.

Narratively speaking, without him, this world would not be able to overcome the many difficulties that await it in the future, and without him there would be no happy ending.

Because there are many problems and enemies that cannot be solved without the power of the protagonist and his friends.

That being said, ‘he (a different person)’ was born as the protagonist.

The protagonist is a protagonist only if he has the mentality, the power he has is only an extra, if anyone can become a protagonist as long as they have power, the story itself won’t come into existence.

With that essential inside changed, he can no longer be said to be a normal protagonist.

And if the protagonist is not normal, an abnormality will occur in the story as well. If so, there is a high possibility that reaching a happy ending like in the original would end up becoming impossible.

“Happy endings, no matter which, are endings that the people who had created the game deemed as the good ones. Especially in the royal road-like Frontier Academia, there will hardly be any casualties.” (Amanai)

“In short, if an anomaly like you were to move as you please, the divergence from the original might become severe and that might results in extra casualties. So you followed the correct scenario to reach the happy ending, huh.” (sakurai)

“I don’t care if I’m the only casualty of that divergence. But if left alone, the walls that protect the nation would be destroyed, monsters would flood in, and many would die.” (Amanai)

After saying that, Amanai sighs, relaxes his shoulders and faces downward as though he’s a little exhausted.

“My parents’ house is in the grain-producing region, you see. It’s very close to the outer wall because we have to pull a lot of water from the outside.” (Amanai)

His father took care of the fields from morning till night, and his mother served homemade baked sweets while looking after the children at home.

The village mayor taught him letters and calculations with the few books in the village, and an old granny in the village told him various adventure tales in front of the fireplace.

The knights stationed to protect the farmland were also kind and looked after him in various ways such as training him daily, teaching him common sense in this world, helping him with his admission procedures to the adventurer academy and so on.

It was a peaceful village society where all the villagers on the farmland cooperate to raise the children, forming one whole community.

The daily activities that were hardly depicted except for the important points in the original game, and the affection that was poured on him were more than enough to make Amanai got attached to the people.

“In the bad ending, the people are trampled down by the monsters that entered through the destroyed wall, and the story ends without any depiction of what happens afterwards. Perhaps, the knights somehow settles it, but when I thought that those people might be included in the list of casualties…I felt sick.” (Amanai)

He couldn’t leave them alone. He couldn’t think of them as game characters and ignore them.

And in his hand is a name tag that reads ‘protagonist’.

Therefore, Amanai pretended to be the protagonist and started moving as the protagonist.

He convinced himself that even if Amanai Hayato couldn’t do it, ‘Amanai Hayato (Protagonist)’ could.

He believed that if the protagonist sticks to the original, the flow of this world will head toward a happy ending.

“That’s why I moved according to the original game, I want to reach a happy ending as in the original game.” (Amanai)

“Ah˜…but that, might no longer possible, right?” (Sakurai)

“Yeah, thanks to you. That’s just a joke; I think that in all likelihood, there’s another reincarnated person in Black Sword. So I figured that as we are both reincarnated people, we should have a little talk about the future.” (Amanai)

From the smile that Amanai makes while saying so, I catch a glimpse of something like tiredness.

That might be natural, as from his words, Amanai has been acting the part of the protagonist this whole time.

It must be quite stressful to keep acting the part of a character that one think is far different from one’s normal self.

(Rather, he should have more confidence in himself.)

Aside from Amanai’s thought, what concerns me is his low self-esteem.

Sure, the original protagonist and Amanai Hayato in front of me are two different people, but hearing his story, his simple innate goodness is not that different from that of the original protagonist’s.

The original protagonist, Amanai Hayato.

Aside from the fact that his character’s name can be changed, his lines are not many and his personality isn’t that strong, but he’s a character whose innate goodness can be glimpsed from the choices that appear in the game.

He reach out to those who are in trouble or are facing unreasonableness as long as they’re within his reach. On top of that, he goes to battle not for people whose faces he doesn’t know, but for his loved ones.

He is just a normal good-natured young man who is a little more courageous than others.

If I have to point out his special characteristic, should I say his very being itself is sorta like a bug? Not only is he fully capable of mastering all kinds of combat techniques and magic that appear in the game, he can also master other technical skills as well.

And he has a natural sense which allows him to acquire the skills used by his opponent during battle, albeit with low probability.

He can defeat Babi, whom I fight in the Netherworld, and the executives of the Black Sword, including their big boss, alone if he prepares well.

He can even solo the last boss, who is twice as strong as the endgame content enemies, which are giant monsters that can be mistaken for monsters that appears in tokusatsu programs, albeit requiring some luck. That’s how outstanding his talent is.

By the way, with well-trained comrades, he can fight endgame content enemies for 3 times back to back.

…Oh and, the upper limit of his and his comrades’s level is 100 from the beginning, to boot.

“You guys all have sky-high talent, so just gimme a piece of it, damn itt!!!!!!!!” (Sakurai)

“W-what’s with you suddenly!?” (Amanai)

“Do you know! That other people! Have to cross-dress while serving customers! To release their level upper limit! Where the hell’s the fairness in this world!!” (Sakurai)

“Calm down, calm down! Just where does that come from anyway!” (Amanai)

Now let’s get back to the main subject.

With all being said, in the end, the reason why both the original protagonist and the current Amanai fight is because they don’t want to see their loved ones hurt.

Even if he said he’s just acting the part of the protagonist, since that part of them is the same, then he’s not less than the real one.

His body, overflowing with talent, is that of the protagonist’s himself, so if he acts with his head held high, the result should come along with him naturally.

Therefore, he don’t have to be so pessimistic and think that since he’s not the original protagonist, things would go down in the worst direction if he were to act on his own accord.

…Ah, no. When I recall the matter with Higaki and Iris, I come to be unable to say he can act as he wants or the likes.

Alright! Let’s continue the talk without touching this subject!

“So, what exactly do you mean when you say about the future? Black Sword’s been destroyed anyway, there should be nothing to worry about, no?” (Sakurai)

“Even if you said destroyed, the one that’s been defeated is only Luisina, right? I believe that there’s a reincarnated person like us among those who escaped. I’m wary of that person.” (Amanai)

The most probable reason why the opera house incident was moved forward to April was because there was a reincarnated person like us in Black Sword. Amanai seems to think that possibility is high.

And since they were trying to make an event that was detrimental to the nation successful by moving it forward, they’re highly likely to be taking hostile stance against him.

“One of the sponsors of Black Sword is the academy’s vice-principal, ‘Milia Heikkila’. Those who escaped might have chosen the academy as the place to lay low.” (Amanai)

Milia Heikkila, the vice-principal of Adventurer Academy.

She is one of the sponsors of Black Sword who appears in the final stage of the original game story, a prime-aged female character who tries to adopt demonization technology because she is worried about the deterioration of the quality of her students.

She is a person who uses her position to divert some supplies and money to Black Sword, gets information about adventurers who wouldn’t cause a problem even if they go missing by interacting with her former students, and pass that information to Black Sword.

Black Sword abducts adventurers based on that information and uses them as guinea pigs; she is also the cause of the capture of the female adventurer who is Luisina’s mother.

That said, Milia is only one of their many sponsors, and she only ever appears in events such as the entrance ceremony during the game.

Even when the fact that she is their sponsor got exposed in the final stage, the player only got notified that she is among one of the people arrested by the knights during the cornering of Black Sword.

Sure, we can’t rule out the possibility that the escaping members of Black Sword have relied on her and is hiding safely in the academy, but taking the other sponsors into account, the possibility of that isn’t high to the point of certainty.

“This world has already begun to diverge drastically from the original. If those guys continue to cause troubles in the meantime…” (Amanai)

“So you want my cooperation?” (Sakurai)

“If possible. It’d be reassuring to have a reincarnated person who have knowledge of the original game on my side.” (Amanai)

“That depends on the time and situation.” (Sakurai)

I immediately answers Amanai’s proposal. Amanai’s and my priorities are too different after all.

The thing that Amanai cherishes is something that I’m not interested in. Leveling, which is the purpose of my life, is only a means for Amanai.

Sure, there might be many parts where I, a reincarnated person, can help with in the story (battle) that Amanai will spin from now on.

However, if I have to time to cooperate with someone, I’d rather go leveling. I’m not going to go out of my way and get myself involved.

But if Black Sword’s action seems going to directly hinder my leveling, I’ll cooperate with him.

Because I have experienced in the Netherworld that it’d be better to have a lot of force if you wanna beat someone up.

“So, if they do something that hinders my leveling, I’ll voluntarily beat them up, and we can cooperate at that time. But if they don’t, I’m not going to bother with them, and go leveling.” (Sakurai)

“I thought you would say that. Anyway, I can have a peace of mind now that I know you won’t be hostile to me.” (Amanai)

“Well, I’ll lend you an ear like this in my spare time leveling. On account of our relationship as reincarnated people.” (Sakurai)

For me, the merit of fully cooperating with Amanai is small, but if Amanai is defeated, things might get troublesome.

So long as he’s not hostile to me, I’ll accommodate him a little. I will at least lend him an ear.

“Thanks, well then, it’s about time for me to go. The afternoon is free training time, so you can do anything you want, like, say, exploring the dungeon or studying.”

“Aight˜. Well, I’ll go look around.” (Sakurai)

“Then, if something’s up…you can normally, normally talk to me.” (Amanai)

Amanai, who randomly emphasized ‘normally’, stands up and leaves the classroom.

I keep practice-swinging as I see him off, and after a while, I peek out to the corridor and, seeing no one’s around, I withdraw into the room.

And while recalling my first interaction with Higaki,

“I wonder why, I’m kinda deeply moved finding out that Amanai’s a decent guy…” (Sakurai)

I mutter so, digesting what can be called a decent conversation with a decent person.