The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

And surprisingly, there was still more to let go of.

Thinking back on it, the girls around me were actually quite reserved for teenagers.

Then again, they had been raised as nobles, royalty, or imperial family members.

Even Claire—who had the most energetic personality of us all—was from a baron’s household.

In fantasy novels, barons are often treated as the lowest of the five noble ranks, but in reality, a baron is still a landowner. It's by no ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) means a low-status family. Claire had simply been naturally lively. She’d still received a thorough noble's education.

So in a way, I might have been the only one who’d really shown her true self over the past few months.

I’d revealed my home, dropped my stoic mask, exposed my hobbies... even gone through situations I never want to remember again.

Looking back, I was the only one who had fully let myself be seen.

Everyone else still had plenty they hadn’t said.

The first to step forward with some honesty was Claire.

“......”

We all stood, silently, staring at the poster Claire had taped to the wall.

“Claire, what is this poster exactly?”

Charlotte had been scrutinizing it for a while with a serious expression before she gave up and asked.

It was a promotional poster for a gym. A woman with an incredibly toned body was posing in it—not just standing in a sports bra, but wearing a button-up shirt left open in the middle, like some kind of body profile shoot.

She was muscular—but not bulky. She had a defined, elegant figure with visible abs.

“Who I want to become,” Claire answered, with utmost sincerity.

“...Where did you get this poster?” I asked.

“Ripped it off the wall downstairs.”

I rubbed my forehead. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“Go put it back.”

“What? But we agreed to be honest about what we want!”

“Yes, but stealing things is still not okay.”

Sure enough, the edge of the poster was torn. She’d clearly pulled a public advertisement off a wall.

More importantly—when did she sneak out?

I glanced around at the others. Mia avoided eye contact.

...So it was when they went out together last time? I remembered Mia carrying a bag that day. Now that I looked closer, the poster did have a few fold marks.

“Huh? But that place had a ‘No Advertising’ sign. It wasn’t even supposed to be posted there. So taking it—was that bad?”

“...Still not okay.”

I wasn’t even sure what the legal situation was. Which made it worse.

Not that we could go put it back now—we’d be the ones caught this time.

“...I’ll buy you a new one. Find something else you like and we’ll put that up instead.”

“But I really liked this one...”

“......”

“...Okay, unnie.”

“By the way, with all the exercise you do, how come you don’t look like that?”

“Hmm... I don’t know, no matter how hard I train, I can’t get a body like that.”

Claire tilted her head thoughtfully.

Well, her main workouts were cardio, right?

She burned the most energy when we went out to wide-open fields and she biked or ran. I’m no trainer, but I had heard that too much cardio could lead to “muscle loss” or whatever.

Not that I ever listened long enough to get the full explanation.

“If that’s the physique you want, you’ll probably need to go to a gym.”

As I said this, still examining the yet-to-be-removed poster—

“Oh? Then want to go with me, unnie?”

“I don’t have a hobby of torturing myself.”

“...You say that, but when you had your powers, you got shot and stabbed on the regular.”

“That was something I had to do to win.”

I answered firmly. Claire mumbled in protest.

Still...

“...Yeah, seems like there are still things we want to do but haven’t said out loud yet.”

We weren’t about to walk around in trunks and T-shirts like guys do, or sleep in just underwear—even if girls do say that kind of thing, the bar between us was still high.

But something like this—expressing yourself with a poster—was fine, I think.

Sure, we each had our own rooms and decorated them a bit. But we hadn’t hung up posters or collected idol CDs or anything like that.

“I’m the one managing most of the money, but the bulk of it came from all of us. I’ve said it before, but really—you should feel free to use it however you like.”

To be honest, I hadn’t bought that lottery ticket because I expected to win. I just wanted us to move somewhere nicer.

And before they came along, I barely bought tickets at all.

After I said that, the others looked more serious than usual.

*

A few days later.

Our filming with the TV station was pushed back a bit. We were going to meet once more for a final discussion, and then they’d schedule the actual shoot inside the house.

We hadn’t mentioned it on our own stream yet.

During that time, nothing huge happened to us—but...

“......”

Actually, maybe more changed than I thought.

Not long after we said, “Let’s just do what we want,” a few packages arrived at the house.

One was a fairly large box. The other was smaller, but long and oddly shaped—thin and rectangular.

When I brought them in and looked toward Claire, she shook her head.

Our house was still decorated with leftover Halloween and Christmas stuff, so I’d thought maybe she ordered something for New Year’s—but apparently not.

“Oh, that one’s mine,” Alice said, dragging the big box toward her.

“You said to do what we want, right? So I bought this.”

When our eyes met, Alice’s cheeks turned red.

Clearly, whatever was inside was not something ordinary.

“...Th-this one’s mine.”

Mia picked up the thinner box. Her face was bright red too, which confirmed that hers was also something very personal.

That one was probably a poster.

But the big box from Alice? I was curious.

Knowing we’d see the contents anyway, Alice opened it—still blushing furiously.

Inside was—

“...What the hell is this?”

Claire looked horrified.

And that was rare for Claire.

“In front of the TV, we only have a figure of me and a figure of Sylvia, right? I thought, why not get figures of everyone here? Not all of them are out yet, but...”

“So you got a bunny girl figure!? And it’s even bigger than the other two!”

“Well, this version of your figure happened to be the one that was available...”

“Then just buy a used one of the old designs!”

Claire cried out.

Sure enough, it was a very revealing design—based on “Pre-Reversion Claire,” the one she hated the most.

Even that version at least wore pants.

“You’re laughing!? You’re seriously laughing!? You were blushing just a second ago!”

“Well... seeing your reaction kind of... reassured me.”

That did it.

Claire lunged at Alice.

“Please don’t run around too much. You’ll disturb the neighbors downstairs.”

Charlotte sighed, pressing a hand to her forehead.

The two immediately switched to a silent chase, tiptoeing at full speed.

Seriously though... Alice definitely had otaku tendencies. If she lived here for a few more years, I bet she’d start watching seasonal anime religiously.

And Claire, too. She’d been watching magical girl shows with Mia.

Which probably meant most of us had that side in us, to some extent—

“...Why are you looking at me like that?” Charlotte asked, puzzled as our eyes met.

...Maybe not Charlotte?

She’d come from a world eerily similar to the one in the game. I assumed that meant she’d have an affinity for this kind of stuff, but now that I thought about it—maybe not.

“What’s that you’re holding?” I asked, turning to Mia.

“Oh, this? It’s a poster!”

Using the box cutter Alice had just used, Mia opened the long, narrow box.

Inside was a poster printed on fabric, rolled up like a scroll.

A tapestry, I think it’s called?

Of course, the image was of a magical girl. I didn’t recognize the series.

Still, it looked perfect with Mia holding it.

“Are you planning to hang it in your room?”

“Yep!”

Charlotte smiled at Mia’s bright answer.

...Now I was really curious.

If Charlotte ever did get into fandom culture...

What would she become obsessed with?

Might be fun to find out.