"Haaah... Haaah..."
For some reason, I couldn’t breathe properly.
My focus was slipping, and even the world in front of me was blurring.
The moment I saw Honjo-san’s [Raziel] drawing me fighting Midir, the memory of fighting Midir in the world of Dark Souls automatically flashed through my head.
"H-Hieta...?"
"Boy...?"
Itsuka-kun and Honjo-san were saying something, but it sounded muffled, like I was underwater, and I couldn’t make it out.
Why? That question flickered through my mind, but the cause was obviously me.
I’d faced the Nameless King directly in the virtual world too, so why was it that just seeing Midir in a picture made me react like this?
"Uuup...!"
Just as that question was about to deepen, what I’d eaten surged back up from inside me and struggled to come out.
"B-Boy!?"
"Hieta! Pull yourself together!"
Even through my unfocused vision, I could see my HP dropping.
That meant my mental state was severely unstable, so if I wanted to calm down quickly, I needed to drink Estus.
"...Ngh!"
But drinking Estus while in such a bizarrely bad state was difficult.
Every time I tried to bring it to my mouth, my trembling hand kept spilling the Estus somewhere else.
Even so, I somehow shoved it into my mouth like I was forcing it in and absorbed the energy inside.
"...Huu."
Once I somehow grabbed hold of my wavering mind and recovered, my focus gradually returned and I could start seeing my surroundings again.
The two of them looking at me with worried eyes, and [Raziel] lying far away.
And my own hand, which had apparently flung [Raziel] away, now looking less like it was sweating and more like the flesh itself was melting off.
"Hieta! Are you okay?"
"...Yes, I'm fine."
I brushed off Itsuka-kun’s concern, picked up the fallen [Raziel], and checked the picture drawn there.
Crunch!
"......"
The drawing still showed me fighting Midir, but this time I didn’t lose my mind like I had a moment ago.
It was just that I’d gripped the thing too hard, so the paper of [Raziel] had gotten a little crumpled.
Probably because I’d drunk Estus, I’d managed to hold out to some extent.
"B-Boy? You're okay, right?"
"Ah, yes. Sorry, Honjo-san. I suddenly acted strangely."
"N-No, boy."
Thankfully, Honjo-san didn’t seem angry at my behavior or anything like that.
Relieved by that, I returned [Raziel] to Honjo-san and thought things over for a moment.
So, why exactly did I, no, why did my body react to Midir?
I had met both Midir and the Nameless King directly and even fought them, but why had I shown no real reaction when fighting the Nameless King in that virtual space?
"...Ah."
I could roughly guess the reason.
I’d beaten the Nameless King several times even when playing Dark Souls as a game.
Sure, he was a hidden boss, but he was still part of the main game, and beating him wasn’t all that hard.
If you lured out his patterns properly, the Nameless King was surprisingly easy.
That didn’t change even when I encountered Dark Souls as reality.
But what about Midir?
That guy was in the DLC, and not even the DLC’s main boss, but a hidden boss.
So for someone like me, who didn’t go back to DLCs much once I cleared them, I hadn’t fought Midir all that many times.
On top of that, by the time I was in NG+8, his HP pool had gone so far beyond the line it was ridiculous, you only really did proper damage to his head, and the field was so wide that once the boss moved, you were busy chasing after him. There wasn’t much reason to go there.
He did give a lot of souls, but I just couldn’t be bothered.
And once that became reality, how many times do you think I died?
Thinking back on the battles with the Nameless King and Midir, I’d died to the Nameless King around ten times, but to Midir I’d died so many times I couldn’t even count.
And the ways I died varied wildly too: torn apart, trampled, burned all over by his breath, bitten to death, and even beaten to death by the humanity that appeared when he entered phase two.
"...No wonder I reacted like that."
By the end, my body may have stopped feeling pain, but that didn’t make the pain I’d felt before disappear.
I’d gone on without thinking about it all this time, and then I’d just seen that picture so detailed it could be mistaken for a photograph, so it probably acted like some kind of trauma.
"Haa..."
"...B-Boy. You really are okay, right?"
As I sorted out my thoughts and let out a long sigh, Honjo-san asked after me again.
She probably felt guilty because this had happened after she’d tried to force me to reveal my past.
"I'm really fine."
I didn’t know I’d end up like this either, so there was no way she’d have known.
So I had absolutely no intention of getting angry at Honjo-san over it.
"But boy, this might be rude to ask, but what was that dragon?"
"...Why are you asking that?"
"How should I put it~ It was so realistic, like it was a photograph of something that actually existed."
This woman was surprisingly sharp.
Of course, like she said, what was drawn on [Raziel] was detailed enough to be mistaken for a photo, but to figure that much out from just that was impressive.
"...Well, it was just a boss I saw in a game. What happened just now was basically a kind of trauma from dying to him a lot."
But I couldn’t exactly spill my past to someone I’d just met, so I gave a vague answer.
I had actually seen Midir in the game, and I had also met him in reality and died to him a ridiculous number of times, so it wasn’t a lie.
"Really? I was sure the boy wanted me to draw something from your past. Why did a game scene come out?"
But Honjo-san didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, and she stared at me while muttering to herself.
The desire to solve that mystery right away was practically spilling out of her eyes, as if she was wordlessly pressuring me to give a proper answer.
"How would I know that?"
How the hell would I know that?
First of all, I wasn’t even [Raziel]’s user, so if I somehow knew that, wouldn’t that be incredibly suspicious?
"Fair enough."
She must have thought there was no way I’d know the reason either, because she said that and let it go.
"I do have a guess, though..."
Actually, I did have a guess.
One or two, in fact.
"What is it?"
"I, uh, am really, really terrible at drawing."
One was that I was truly, horribly bad at drawing, and the other was that I had never drawn anything that could be called a "character" in this world.
I didn’t say the second one, because it seemed like it would turn into a headache.
...If the all-seeing angel knew I wasn’t actually a person from this world already, maybe she’d know, but since she wasn’t mentioning it, it was probably better to assume she didn’t know for now.
"You were good at coloring earlier, though?"
"Coloring is fine, but when I try to trace the lines, it gets weirdly distorted."
"How does that even make sense...?"
Itsuka-kun, who had known me for quite a long time, couldn’t believe my ability at all either.
Honestly, even I knew it didn’t make sense as I was saying it, but what was I supposed to do about a talent that was practically a curse?
"Boy, can you draw something right now?"
Apparently unable to believe it at all, Honjo-san sat down and told me to draw a picture with my own eyes on it.
The subject was to be Honjo-san herself, sitting right in front of me.
"I can try, but..."
I would draw it, but the result probably wouldn’t be very good.
I’d experienced firsthand what happened whenever I tried to draw something in the world I was originally born in, so there was no way I could suddenly become good at drawing now.
"Ooh..."
"Uh..."
There was a time when I thought that too.
No, why is it drawing well?
"This is... top-notch, isn’t it? And you said you couldn’t draw? Wow~ If this counts as bad, then you’re basically telling other manga artists to go die."
"...Why is this happening?"
It was a truly shocking turn of events.
That curse-like talent had suddenly reversed itself and produced a top-notch drawing, so how could I not be shocked?
In my original world, I was a total clumsy-handed disaster that everyone else recognized too, and in Dark Souls I had never drawn anything because I had no time to waste on such things.
And in this world, I hadn’t drawn anything because I already knew I was bad at it.
I did draw for art class since I was in high school, but back then I’d really just done it half-assed.
If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have slacked off.
"Hieta, you! You were a fraud!?"
"I didn’t know either!?"
I didn’t know I could draw this well either.
Was my skill being applied in this direction too?
Then why wasn’t Intelligence making me smart, I wondered, but that was probably because it only increased the power of magic, so maybe that made sense.
"How is this possible?"
I could feel the value of stats all over again.
"With this level of skill, and you never drew anything...?"
"W-why are you looking at me like that?"
"Boy, do you want to work under me!?"
"W-what?"
Honjo-san’s eyes sparkled as she suggested I work under her.
"B-but I’m a student?"
"You’ve got [Ratatoskr], so that’s fine! Besides, if you’re in the position of having to攻略 spirits anyway, wouldn’t it be better to spend a long time with me?"
It was oddly convincing, so I couldn’t really argue.
Honjo-san was definitely a spirit, and from the standpoint of having to deal with spirits, spending a long time with her might actually help.
As long as my favorability didn’t drop in the process, that is. If I was careful with my behavior, it shouldn’t go down.
In fact, helping her with work might even raise it.
"Uh, then..."
After a brief moment of thought, I gave my answer.
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