房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"..."

As the pair entered Zoemi instinctively searched for the heroine – he thought that since she left him another mana potion, she would be more willing to talk than the other day – maybe even willing to confront him and talk about all the reincarnation stuff.

After all, Zoemi was very curious whether or not the other reincarnation also went through the process of talking with the mysterious being made out of light or not – and if so, if it was her wish to be reincarnated into the world similar to a game or was that an accident.

|She's here...!|

The black-haired boy's face lighted up as he spotted the blond-haired heroine – but the problem was, she didn't seem to be sharing his enthusiasm at all...

"...!"

Burushiitto was sitting at her usual place, their eyes met for a moment but the heroine instantly looked down, pale as a ghost clearly on the verge of straight up running away.

"...?"

Zoemi furrowed his brows and tilted his head in confusion.

|She's still giving me the mana potions, why does she look so terrified of me...? Could it be that she isn't the person behind the vials appearing at my doorstep each morning...?|

He thought to himself very much concerned.

After all, the potions started appearing before his face was fixed and the heroine being the one responsible for giving the expensive gifts away was the only reasonable excuse that the black-haired attendant could understand.

If it wasn't her, then who...?

------

"!!!"

At the same time, the heroine was drenched in a cold sweat and could barely stop her body from shaking.

She wanted to get away from the same room as the black-haired attendant but it would be suspicious enough to get her in trouble, no doubt.

|It's him...! Oh god, oh no...! Is he going to attack me...? He seems to know about the game – is this a scripted thing? I've heard about the characters breaking the fourth wall but isn't this too much – and he clearly has his sight set on me...! He didn't want Xeonith to bother me because he is a yandere and wants me for himself...! This sucks so much...! Am I going to end up in a dungeon chained up to the wall as a limbless torso...?! That happened in one of the games I was playing before...!|

Burushi was full-on panicking without even being able to spare a moment to think things over and have a proper talk with the black-haired boy...

...or so it seemed at the start, but when she fearfully glanced at the handsome attendant, looking for a chance to escape the predicament of being in the same room as him - she saw Zoemi looking utterly clueless about her wariness.

Like, he pure kind of cluelessness – like a big puppy who suddenly walked in into a room where his humans are all dressed up in costumes and he can't recognize any of them.

|Wait... after the checkpoint loaded... H-he doesn't remember...!? That means this confirms that the world is literally a game and his previous words are just some scripted lines!! I reached the bad end of his route and he killed me, so the world loaded the latest save file!|

Burushitto gulped down her saliva and forced herself to smile at the black-haired attendant and weakly waved her hand.

"..."

"~!"

Zoemi saw her awkwardly wave and beamed right back with a dazzling smile himself.

"..."

Burushitto started staring holes in her desk and bit his lips so hard that the taste of blood filled her mouth.

|But that means that to survive I must play the game until the end... I bet that if I didn't run out of my room as soon as I came to, he would just come and kill me again...! But since I kickstarted Xeonith's route, he is back to normal...|

She shuddered at the memory of the disgusting pitch-black blade plunging into her chest, cutting through muscles and bones as if they were paper...

|But that means I will have to bear with Xeonith...! That bastard was about to grope me again and who knows what else...?! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! When Surou will come back he will send this guy to...!|

Burushitto trembled.

|What if staying near Xeonith is the only way to stop Zoemi from killing me...? Those aren't the events I know of... what if during one Xeonith will manage to get his way with me...?! No...! No...! If that happens... Surou... Would he even want me back...?|

The blond heroine clenched her fists under the desk so no one could see it and shut her eyes.

She could feel the tears burning her eyes but she didn't want to cry – not in the classroom, not before the lectures even started...

If she wanted to survive, she had to be strong!

----

|She... looks kind of back to normal...? I guess her first reaction must have been caused because I looked quite scary in the shadow armor and all, but I better talk with her about it too...|

Zoemi kept observing the heroine for the rest of the day but she never looked anywhere near as scared as she was when he walked into the classroom, which had to be a good sign,

Right...?

What was even better, was that Burushi didn't actively seek Xeonith, and himself Xeonith never approached her either.

Neither one of them approached the entrance to the Academy's dungeon either...

Why the dungeon entrance was so important you may ask?

In-game having the brown-haired capture target and the heroine meet in the dungeon would automatically start a rather dark event that would trigger one of the bad ends for the villainess.

One of the most dangerous ones too for sure – the event in question was about a rampaging murderer who would end up killing Miriette.

One could say that since the ancient bracelets blocking magic power were gone, then the dark-haired girl would be completely safe as she was strong enough to protect herself – right?

WRONG!

The murderer in question was a rogue transcended ice magician with a grudge against the nobility – especially the high nobility!

As a transcended ice magician he had the upper hand over most mages – and the worst part – he would always attack his victims by surprise.

In case of an honorable confrontation where the opponents know about each other, Miriette would be able to defend herself without any issue whatsoever - to the point of straight-up overpowering the opponent from the ridiculous distance AND height - but the guy in question wasn't going to play fair – not after what happened to him and his family...

As far as Zoemi could recall - the ice magician in question lost his reasoning after his family – two sons, a daughter, and a pregnant wife - were murdered one by one by several assassins hired by the high-noble family from the territory adjacent to his because he refused to sell it to them.

At first, the ice magician in question started his quest for revenge by only killing the responsible ones but his thirst for blood didn't end there – the families of the perpetrators were next, and not too long after that he started hunting even the friends of his enemies...

That couldn't end up good no matter what and sooner rather than later the ice magician just began to find peace in the act of murder and stopped caring for excuses – but still, whoever he killed, he at least made sure that only the people with middle names would end up as his victims.

Still, that world wasn't a game, so reasonably speaking a pair of students walking into the dungeon couldn't possibly be enough to summon the vengeful murderer to the school full of children of the aristocrats...

|...wait... Isn't that so much worse then...? This guy hates nobles and wants to make them suffer just like he did – the Aspakeony Academy is full of considerably easy targets so it should be his aim from the very start...!|

Zoemi realized in horror during the final lecture for the day and instantly his back became drenched in a cold sweat.

|I need to report this to Horeo and Aspakeony...! We have to raise the security levels of the academy no matter what or we will be in big trouble...!|

The black-haired boy thought, remembering how powerful his own father was even with the extremely limited mana at his disposal – if someone wielding the same attribute, but with mana reservoir thousands of times larger would show up...

Would anyone actually be safe?!

After all – the murderer in the game wasn't even captured – he just showed up, killed, and ran away....!