What was I supposed to say in this situation?
I looked at the headmaster with strange gaze. Above her, numerous heads peeked curiously.
The rescued childrens.
From the number of it, I was the last one.
'You're late?'
'No that doesn't sounds right.'
'Aw come on, this isn't the time to be acting your communication problem up.' I wanted to hit myself in head to my mouth that refused to open.
"Student 37,777, Mochizuki Ren? This is where you have been?" Headmaster raised her eyebrows at my action.
I nodded at her.
"Where is the demon that took you?"
She is talking about Mad Scientist. That was to be expected. After all, above all the demons who attacked the academy, he was the most dangerous.
"He went away."
I wasn't lying, but the pressure she was emitting made me feel the urge to confess the entire story.
I couldn't. I wouldn't survive the contract if I did.
Thankfully, she didn't suspect me.
Or was she giving me a way out? Her actions strange, she suddenly changed the topics.
"You're doing alchemy?"
I nodded weakly.
The violet of her eyes deepened as if staring straight at me.
After a long, excruciating silence, she finally spoke up,
"Very well. My child, wait on the roof. It's safe up there."
Before I could respond, magic wrapped around me, and I lost a sense of gravity.
Along with the successful potions I've created, I was brought up to the hole in the roof by the telekinetic power of her.
Below, the Headmaster had already disappeared on her journey to retrieve what she could steal in this palace.
A sigh of relief escaped from my mouth at her disappearance.
Strangely ever since my encounter with Mad Scientist, I had been on guard against those with authority.
- - -
Feeling the change of atmosphere, I sucked a deep breath.
Fresh air and blue sky.
I slowly took in the change in my surroundings, and couldn't help but be moved. After all, I was indoors against my will for seven days.
Just as I was adapting to the changes, students surrounded me curiously.
Two girls and a single boy.
Aside from that, two familiar faces, one near us and the other watching from afar.
'He isn't here? Oh well, I guess he did well in the prologue.' I thought about the game protagonist.
I exchanged glances with the four rescued students. Compared to them, with battered clothes and untidy looks, although my uniform was still a mess, I looked much better due to showering.
"Ah? Hey, mister, wait a bit. Why is a two-out-of-ten at best walking around like nothing?" I heard an annoyed voice, speech mixed with criticism, coming from a cute blonde girl.
Alice Wonder. She was cute and tiny like a hamster, but her mouth was so poisonous. Although not as small as the headmaster, her head barely reached my chin when we came face-to-face.
I opened my eyes wide at her words and couldn't help but mutter. "You're rating me that highly?"
"Haa? Why are you reacting positively? It's so cringe!"
I stared at her blankly, not knowing how to react in this situation.
"Why don't you say something?!" Alice Wonder screeched with a high-pitched noise before Alicia Solenne, one of the familiar faces, tried calming her.
"Now now, although he looks fine, I doubt he had it easy," Alicia stared at me.
Precisely, my hair.
She approached me and whispered. "What happened to your hair?"
I whispered back with a serious look. "I wanted a successful school debut, so I dyed it…" and jested.
She stiffened at my sentences, the corner of her eyes twitching, silently resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"Hey, why is Irysis that far away?" I ignored her reaction and pointed at the girl staring at us from afar.
"She's feeling guilty because of her mistake back then and supposedly her 'special constitute' that gives misfortune to everyone around her."
'Irysis told Alicia about her unluck this quick!? Is it because they survived danger together and became friends?'
'Attraction of calamity' or what I call it, was a secret Irysis didn't want to tell in game because she thought if people knew it, they'd avoid her, and the game did a great job proving it true.
It didn't take a month in-game before her classmate started avoiding her like a plague.
"What should I do…?" I murmured at Alicia's ears.
Though I received a strange look from her at my replies. "You knew about it?"
Deep down, I knew the perfect answer from the game.
Reassure her that it wasn't her fault.
That it was my decision to go and save her, that I won't hate her and avoid her because of a few accidents, and pat her head like what her father used to do to her before her mother died.
I would've done that if I were a player, but I didn't have the confidence to do it with the current me. I would only count it as sexual harassment if an unsightly person like me did that.
At my pitiful sight, Alicia sighed to herself, not bothering to interrogate me further. "What else, go reassure her! Are you going to make a girl cry?"
The three rescued students stared at us curiously.
Tsukumo Jin fidgeted with the dagger.
Nanami Akari had put away the phone that was in landscape mode and stared at us with a deep thought.
Meanwhile, Alice Wonder—after losing interest in me—pestered her, begging her to do a stream collab with her.
'Ah shit, I was already conscious about human eyes in my previous life, you guys had to stare at me right now.'
There was no way I wouldn't feel those eyes with my heightened perceptions.
I chanted inwardly as if to hypnotise myself. 'They don't care. They don't care.'
With beating hearts, I vanished on the spot and appeared near Irysis, who was looking at us.
In the blink of an eye, Irysis' pale body that seemed to collapse with a wind came into full view.
"I… I…" she stuttered on words.
Then, her enchanting crimson eyes started tearing up.
"I'm so-…"
I interrupted her.
"Why are you so far away from us?" with a behaviour as if I didn't notice her guilt.
"Let's go," I reached out to her with an open hand, waiting silently for her to reach back.
I've always wondered while playing the game.
Why does the victim had to feel guilty over the incident their bad luck caused?
You're just someone who wants to help someone within your power. Even if you had an ulterior motive of 'bonding' with them through that method.
That feeling itself isn't a crime to have.
'So don't cry.' I waited for her to reach back.
And I apologized inwardly that this was the best action I could do.
"A… but I haven't told you yet…! That, if you touch me you'd be affected by a huge bad luck…!" she said weakly.
Wanting to extend her arm, yet not fully having the courage to do so.
A gentle air flowed through my nose, a bloodstream gathering at my fingertips slightly dying it red.
Not a single word escaped through my mouth despite the thousands 'corrects' in my head.
I merely remained motionless. Neither denying what she said nor encouraging her.
My answer remains the same.
Irysis stared at my hand. Her pupils shivering, she began reaching out her hand with half hesitation before grabbing it.
Then she finally burst into tears, wiping it with the other hand as she allowed me to take her to the group.
Did I do well? Did I ease you a bit? I asked myself inwardly, feeling the gap between reality and the game.
Anything that was easy to do in the game suddenly became the hardest thing to do right now.
We were warmly welcomed by Alicia, who smiled at us.
Widening my eyes at the hand that was still warm from holding Irysis' arm, I quickly retrieved it with a "Sorry."
Irysis's face flushed, and she tried replying out of consideration, but my heart throbbed in too much pain to make clear of it.
'Embarrassment? No… this is too weird!' without a single pause, I soon detected a strangeness in my body.
Pain stabbed through my chest, every heartbeat sending signal to the brain.
'Something is wrong…!' My fingers dug into my uniform.
[You have awakened Hidden Attributes]
A cold mechanical voice rang out, sending a chill down my spine.