The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

“Somehow... it really does feel like a different world.”

That was Claire’s first reaction after realizing that their story was, quite literally, just a “story” in this world.

Should I show them? Or shouldn’t I? The two sides of that thought clashed several times in my head as I seriously debated it. But the only conclusion I could reach was: They’re going to find out eventually anyway.

I couldn’t exactly kick these two out. I had some savings, sure—but who knew how long we’d be living together? In that situation, it would be a bit much to try to put them up in a hotel or a motel and pay for it all.

More than that, they hadn’t even adapted to this world yet. I couldn’t just irresponsibly toss them into some random lodging.

“......”

“Alice.”

“......”

“Alice!”

“Ah, y-yeah!?”

“Please don’t stare up the skirt so hard. It’s ruining your image.”

“W-wait! I didn’t mean to do that!? But like—come on, if there’s a figure with that kind of sculpt, what am I supposed to do!? It’s me, isn’t it!? How can I not be curious about how they modeled this!?”

I said that to Alice, who was inspecting a figure I had rushed to buy the moment it released—since figures like this didn’t come out very often. She flinched and defended herself.

Honestly, I kind of understood. If there were a figure of me, and it happened to be wearing a skirt, I’d be curious about what’s underneath too.

Still... watching Alice stare under Alice’s skirt was... yeah, kind of weird.

The Alice I knew from Chronicles of Azerna was a high-handed, tsundere beauty. She’s not the kind of character who would peek under someone’s skirt. Well—technically, it wasn’t someone else’s skirt. It was hers. But still.

“More importantly, doesn’t that mean you’ve already looked under it? If anyone’s image is being ruined, it’s mine.”

Alice set the figure down with a light thunk. Unfortunately, she placed it so it was facing me, which made the little Alice appear to be scolding me with her eyes, and that left me feeling... complicated.

“Unnie, isn’t there a figure of me?”

I pressed a hand against my aching temple.

Well... maybe this was better than them being traumatized and questioning the meaning of their entire existence. If it were me, and I learned my entire life had been a story in a novel or comic, I’d be completely shattered.

......But come to think of it, they already knew I had rewound time. In other words, their past actions had already been denied once. Maybe it made sense they weren’t that shaken up by this.

Thinking about it again... yeah. I’d definitely done something horrible.

“So, what you’re saying is—we’re not from a novel or a movie, but from a ‘video game’? It’s a kind of play, right? So how do you play it? Do you take on a role?”

Alice asked curiously. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Was Alice always this inquisitive?

“What? Why are you looking at me like that? Is it weird for me to want to hear about the story I’m in?”

“No, not at all...”

Ahh.

After thinking for a moment, I started to understand why Alice looked so excited.

This was a completely different country. No—an entirely different world.

I hadn’t explained the political structure of this place to the two of them yet, but that could come later. The point was, to these two, this world had nothing to do with them personally.

The Fangryphon imperial family didn’t exist here. There was no one they had to be cautious around.

It was probably the same kind of liberation you feel when you travel abroad.

Of course, not knowing how long they’d be staying here was a problem, but still...

“To play through this ‘game’ from start to finish would take at least twenty hours. You can stop midway and resume, but since you two can’t read the writing in this world, it’s not exactly something you can jump into right now...”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“More importantly, how long are you two planning to stay here?”

The tone Alice used wasn’t “Oh, that’s too long, I’ll pass,” but more like “In that case, let’s postpone it for now.” So I asked seriously.

“Hmm? Well, we don’t have any way of going back right now, so... there’s no telling, right?”

“......If you did have a way to go back right this moment, how long would you have stayed?”

I tossed that question back at Claire, who had just spoken.

“...Even then, I don’t think we’d leave right away. I mean, we just got here. I’d want to see what kind of world unnie lived in. Right?”

“I’d probably stay a little while too.”

Alice said that as she looked directly at me.

“......Understood.”

I held back the sigh that was threatening to burst out and gave my answer.

*

I didn’t know how long the two of them would be staying. If things went badly, it could even turn into a matter of years.

That being the case, maybe it was best to start saving money right away.

With that in mind, I pulled out the cup noodles I’d bought.

I’d bought a variety, making sure there were no repeats since I planned to live off them for a few days—but the problem was, these two had never even seen cup noodles before.

The road ahead was long.

If they’d gone back to being little kids, I could at least send them to school. But thinking about how I’d have to teach them everything from scratch already made my head throb.

“It’s s-so spicy...!”

“......”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

And of course, the ones I’d picked were all the spicy kind. Spicy, spicier, and extremely spicy. Technically, what I considered “spicy” was actually the standard level by Korean taste, but for people who weren’t used to eating spicy food, it was clearly very spicy.

I mean, there were foreigners who claimed that even Yuk●jang was spicy in reaction videos.

“Alice, here’s some water.”

Unlike Claire, who had shouted and then immediately started chugging water, Alice was gritting her teeth and toughing it out. When I offered her a glass, she drank it all at once without hesitation.

Honestly, I was seriously regretting only picking spicy flavors too.

......It’s not like I’d eaten anything spicy in a long time either.

*

This was a studio apartment with no bed.

I’d debated for a while about whether to buy one, but since there was a chance I might change jobs, I just picked up a cheap rental and decided there was no point in adding anything too troublesome.

......Still, maybe I should’ve at least bought an extra blanket.

Because I had a habit of tossing and turning before falling asleep, I’d gone for large bedding, both to lay out and to cover myself. But I hadn’t expected guests—so I had no spares.

Maybe I could pull out a summer blanket, but that might be too cold.

It had happened kind of by accident, but in the end, wasn’t this like my little sisters «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» visiting my place? I didn’t want them catching colds.

And so, the three of us ended up lying side by side under one blanket.

There was just enough space that we weren’t touching, but if any one of us rolled over in our sleep, someone would end up halfway out from under the covers.

“......”

No one spoke for a while.

“...Unnie, are you asleep?”

Claire was the first to speak.

“I’m not asleep yet.”

“Me neither.”

Alice added quietly after I answered.

“......”

Silence again.

“I know this might not be the best thing to say given the circumstances...”

Claire broke the silence again.

“But to be honest... I kind of like this.”

“......”

Neither Alice nor I responded right away.

If I were being honest... we still didn’t know if we could ever return to the world we came from. But if we just set that fact aside for now, I think I could agree with Claire.

And—

“When we wake up tomorrow, let’s all go shopping for clothes.”

I said with my eyes closed.

“Blankets too. And we’ll need shoes, underwear... there’s a lot to prepare. Since we’ll be here for a while.”

“I guess we’ll be imposing on you.”

Alice replied with a light laugh.

“There’s no need to worry. You two are my guests, so it’s my responsibility to take proper care of you.”

—And yes.

If it turns out we can’t go back, I’ll be devastated. Alice and Claire probably will be too.

The whole reason we drove out the goddess was because we wanted to live happily together in that world.

But even so... honestly, even if we end up staying here, I don’t think this outcome is the worst one.

At the very least, I’m not alone.

“There’s no need to wake up early, but I think it’d be good to keep a regular schedule. It’ll make things easier if we do go back.”

I said to the two of them.

“Let’s get some sleep. I’ll explain more about this world once we’re outside tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

Claire and Alice answered one after the other.

None of us moved after that. There wasn’t enough space to, really. So I couldn’t tell who fell asleep first.

But I do know that I, lying in the middle, didn’t fall asleep until long after the others.