There was probably nothing more painful than getting stabbed in the foot by the axe you trusted.
Though this situation was more like taking a full-force swing straight at my little toe.
No, fuck.
Where the hell had the handsome friend I knew gone, and why were huge balls attached to his chest...?
That bastard was a man.
He was unmistakably a man even in the DLC.
Where had my friend Dante gone—the one who supported me so well and diligently gnawed every last scrap off the chicken skewers I bought him?
No, damn it, I saw it clear as day in the game.
I married that guy how many times?
It was rated for all ages, so there had not been any outright CGs of me fucking him.
But I had seen more than one line that left that sort of lingering implication.
‘The first thing I see when I open my eyes is Dante’s dazzling white smile...’ I definitely saw lines like that in the game with my own two eyes, didn’t I?
And then she even had his child.
Then whose child was that?
So, hoping that could not be the case, I activated [Insight Eye].
【Dante de Astoria】
◈ Level: 44
◈ The target’s male disguise has come undone.
◈ The target is extremely flustered.
Yes.
[Insight Eye] had kindly confirmed it by slapping me across the face and then putting a bullet in me while saying I was right.
Seeing Dante squeeze her eyes shut, turn away, and try to cover a chest too large to hide with one arm...
I felt like my mind was about to punch through the ozone layer and head for Mars, so I covered my eyes with one hand.
Ah, this was space... No, was that what mattered right now?
Let’s sort this out.
I let out a sigh and slowly laid out these complicated, complicated, complicated... anyway, complicated feelings of mine.
First.
Dante, the male lead of Dawnstar Academia—my friend, my dorm roommate, the guy with whom I overcame hardships and forged our friendship over chicken skewers—was actually not a man, but a woman.
Second.
In the game, she went all the way with the heroine, and there was even a CG at the ending where the heroine gave birth to his child, yet she was not a man but a woman?
Third, and perhaps most importantly.
She was a woman with such massive cold-air bags that it was unbelievable she had managed to hide them with compression bandages all this time?
Had something gone wrong on the way here and gender-swapped her or something?
I slowly glanced to the side.
At the person who, in a way, could be called the root cause of this whole mess.
That girl certainly looked like the sort to stir up trouble.
I had looked at her because this, too, surely had to be one of her pranks, but...
"Sorry, but you’ve got the wrong target this time. This isn’t my fault."
The little girl met my gaze head-on, vehemently denying it as she shook her head hard from side to side.
【Maugis】
◈ Level: @$+/
◈ The target is enjoying herself.
◈ The target feels wronged.
At the first line [Insight Eye] displayed, several blue veins nearly popped up on the back of my hand.
But judging by the second line, she did not seem to be lying.
Then...
"Dante...?"
"If it were that friend of yours, I suppose a prank like this might be possible... But I’m not a succubus. I can connect this side and that side, but I can’t create something that doesn’t exist within a dream."
The little girl answered my question with a shrug.
"Then you’re saying that Dante was originally not a man, but a woman disguised as one?"
A tomboy-type female character with enormous cold-air bags, at that?
"Well... I guess that’s how it is?"
Damn it!
Like something out of a 2000s romance-fantasy novel... Ah, this was a romance fantasy... No, was that what mattered right now?
Wait a second.
Suddenly, what had happened earlier came back to me.
‘Wh-why are you suddenly taking your clothes off?’
The reaction Dante had shown when I took off my shirt.
‘Don’t, don’t ever come in...!’
When I heard moaning from inside the shower room Dante had entered, I tried to go in because I was worried, but Dante had shouted at me not to come in.
I had thought it was a little strange for that to be the reaction of a man who merely had a complex about his body...
But what if Dante was actually a woman?
Once one piece of the puzzle fell into place, I could finally begin to understand all the reactions Dante had shown.
And what had I said...?
‘Dante, want to shower together?’
I was fucked.
Then did that mean I had sexually harassed a woman by asking her to bathe with me?
An imperial princess, at that?
Why were there anti-tank mines like this only among the imperial family...?
"Ah, time’s up."
The little girl muttered as though it had nothing to do with her.
As she did, her body was gradually turning into a glow and disappearing from the bottom up.
You’re really going to bolt alone after dumping this whole mess on me?
"What a shame, friend."
Fuck this.
After looking at my face once and giggling, the little girl held up her index and middle fingers in a V.
Was she making fun of me?
A vein nearly bulged in my forehead at her carefree attitude, but...
"Still, as payment for showing me something rather entertaining, I suppose... I’ll tell you two things before I go, friend."
Two things?
At the sight of her suddenly wiping the amusement from her face and speaking seriously, the veins standing out on my forehead receded beneath my skin.
"First, you can’t retry anymore. Even if you have tickets left in your hand, I can’t send you back like I did with Arghalia. Twenty-eight times was my limit, even if it was a loophole. So don’t go falling over and dying for no reason."
So that really was impossible now?
I had expected a balance patch like this.
Still, twenty-eight times.
Wasn’t that exactly the number of times I had died and come back to life?
That was rather chilling.
It meant that if I had not defeated Arghalia then, I would not have come back to life.
"And second."
As she said second, the little girl folded down her middle finger, leaving only her index finger raised.
"There is no sound in a mirror."
There was no sound in a mirror?
I wondered what absurd nonsense that was, but the little girl’s face was fairly serious.
"The you reflected in a mirror clearly has ears that can hear, but you can’t shake hands with the you in there, and you can’t know their heart. So no matter what kind of fucking mess you make inside the mirror, it cannot have any effect on reality. Therefore, nothing will change."
She folded down her last remaining index finger and made a fist.
"So make the best judgment you can in here. No matter what you do, nothing will change. Well then."
With those words, she turned into a glow and disappeared.
I looked at the door she had created.
Dreamland beyond that door.
Was she saying that, no matter what I did within that Dreamland, it could not affect reality in any way?
Was it a Dreamland like the one I had first entered with a Dream Ticket, the kind that took you to the past?
...Haa. That was not what mattered right now.
I sighed and looked at Dante, who was crouched in a corner.
"...Haha."
She could only have exchanged a few brief words with that little girl.
I did not know how she had tied them in that time, but she was waiting for me with her chest completely wrapped in compression bandages.
She had not put her shirt back on yet, but...
She was forcing a smile in an attempt to smooth things over, though her ears and cheeks had turned an intense carrot red.
But then.
The compression bandages could not withstand the presence of those cold-air bags, and began coming undone, freeing them once again.
"Kyaaaaaah———!!"
A sharp cry burst from Dante’s mouth, abandoning the husky voice of the friend I knew.
Dante hunched over, covering her cold-air bags with both arms, then lifted her head to look at me.
Tears were visibly beginning to gather like dew in the corners of those gray eyes staring at me.
No, so she had been walking around with those cold-air bags hidden under compression bandages all this time?
Was that some kind of magitech?
Haa...
Magitech or not, I did not think we would be able to enter Dreamland unless we solved this problem.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and gave myself a suggestion.
That was my friend Dante.
Just Dante, except instead of firm, massive pectorals, she had two soft cold-air bags attached to her chest...
Tch... No, that was not it.
After finishing my self-suggestion and steeling myself to face this unfamiliar Dante, I looked at her.
Urgh.
There was still Dante, merely with cold-air bags attached to her chest.
But it would be rude to just keep standing here.
I did not know what circumstances she had, but dressing as a man could not possibly be her hobby.
There had to be a reason she was forced to disguise herself as a man.
"...Want some help?"
I nearly bit my tongue.
In any case, I cautiously spoke to Dante.
At my offer, Dante seemed to think for a moment. Before long, she looked at me and slowly nodded.
#
Taking care not to let my hands touch her skin as much as possible, I helped wrap the bandages around her chest.
My gaze kept threatening to drift downward, but I barely stopped it by forcing my eyes upward, shaking my head hard from side to side to cast away my distracting thoughts.
Here I was in space, helping the female friend I had thought was a man maintain her male disguise.
Thinking about it that way gave me such an acute sense of reality that all strength drained from me, but it also helped me get a grip on myself.
"Tell me if it hurts."
Then I pulled the bandage tight.
And then...
"Ahk—!"
The instant the bandage tightened around her chest, Dante let out a moan, apparently in pain.
That single moan shattered my suggestion entirely.
As it broke, I nearly let go of the bandage.
What was this? What the hell was this?
She was just moaning because she was in pain.
It was the same moan I had heard from outside the shower-room door.
It was surely nothing more than that.
I had only learned that she was a woman, so why the fuck did it sound different...?
No, think about it.
I had always thought Dante had an androgynous appearance, sure.
But it was just the Dante I knew, except she had two huge cold-air bags attached to her chest.
There were simply huge cold-air bags beneath the face I knew.
I was looking at the back of her head, yet I could not bear to see her face.
It felt incredibly awkward.
Like realizing that although you knew someone’s face, the person inside had already changed.
Her face, her body, even the information [Insight Eye] displayed about her.
They all said that the woman moaning in front of me was Dante.
But my soul denied that she—no, he—was Dante.
Fuck.
Was this really Dante?
I had not been trying to smell her.
But Dante’s scent, which I had thought nothing of before learning she was a woman, felt different now.
Just as thinking that made all my strength begin to drain away again...
So what?
I seized hold of my scattered mind once more.
And pulled the bandage as tight as I could.
"Ahhngh——!"
Was she really doing this on purpose?
Another moan escaped Dante, but this time I did not stop pulling.
At last, I succeeded in pressing down those huge cold-air bags.
I wrapped the remaining bandage around her chest once more and tied it off, then picked up Dante’s clothes from the floor, shook them out, and handed them to her.
Well, being in space, there was not really any dust on them...
"Th-thank you."
Muttering so softly it was almost a whisper, Dante took the clothes, put them on, and straightened her disheveled outfit.
Once her cold-air bags disappeared, she returned to the Dante I knew.
Only then could I finally face her.
Right.
Even with cold-air bags attached to her chest...
The person before me was still my friend Dante.
Having settled it that way, I was just about to turn my gaze toward the door when...
"...Aren’t you going to ask?"
I felt a faint tug at my collar.
The owner of that touch was, of course, Dante.
Her face, as she barely managed to speak in a trembling voice and looked at me, openly showed her unease.
"Well, everyone has their circumstances."
Everyone had their circumstances.
Like this fierce-looking face of mine...
She must have her reasons. Anyway.
There had to be a reason she dressed as a man.
There was no need to ask.
Besides, unlike a heroine, I had no reason to dig so deeply into it.
I could leave listening to her circumstances and helping solve them to Iris or Dolnesia...
"You..."
Hm?
Suddenly, I felt the hand clutching my collar tug it.
At that feeling, I looked at Dante’s face once more.
"Don’t you find me disgusting?"
I froze at that.
Tears ran down her pale cheeks.
Her eyes, violently trembling with anxiety, looked at me so pitifully.
No, why again?
What was wrong now?
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register