Chapter 17: This Feeling Is, Without a Doubt, (False) Love!

Man, breakfast was incredible.

We spent the night in a nomadic settlement. During our stay, they prepared our meals for us—specifically, yesterday's dinner and today's breakfast.

By the way, nomadic cuisine is quite unique. Since they don't practice agriculture, there are hardly any vegetables or fruits. Their meals mainly consist of livestock meat and dairy products. Their livestock includes ordinary animals, but there are also magical beasts.

In my five years of traveling, I never had the opportunity to encounter people living a nomadic lifestyle. Needless to say, I certainly never experienced it back when I was in Japan. That's why all those dishes had such incredibly fresh and unfamiliar flavors.

The way they cooked the meat itself seemed rather unusual, but I could more or less figure it out by comparing it with various techniques I already knew. The dairy products, on the other hand, were extremely fascinating. Just what did they do to give them such a rich, deep flavor? And I'm not talking about what they did during cooking. The differences must already begin at the stages of milking, preservation, and processing.

Once we've dealt with the magical beasts and established friendly relations with the nomads, I'll ask them to teach me. Hmm, what if I offered to teach them the cooking techniques I learned in the desert as payment? There are probably plenty of ways they could apply them to their nomadic lifestyle.

My cooking skills are already quite high. But there's still a long way to go. I have absolutely no intention of stopping my pursuit of improvement. Maybe becoming a chef after returning to Earth wouldn't be a bad idea. I wouldn't be able to use the ingredients from "Chaos," but many of the techniques I've learned could still be put to use on Earth. None of it would go to waste.

...Anyway. Those were the kinds of thoughts running through my mind as I walked toward the place where we'd be hunting the magical beasts.

The battle strategy had been worked out by the nomads, who were a warrior people, together with Padron. So even though we were on the eve of the decisive battle, there wasn't really anything for me to think about.

To be honest, I was bored.

Then Pisca came over toward me and Rune and asked:

"What are you two, nya?"

...Hmm? Hmm, hmm?

I see. In other words:

He's mine, so don't you dare lay a hand on him! (Interpretation)

That's what this was!

Ah, youth. Come on, Rune, if you're not careful, that thieving cat is going to steal your position as the main wife.

"What does, that mean?"

Rune tilted her head at Pisca's question. Yep. She didn't understand a thing.

Well, at present, Rune's emotions haven't fully developed. It will probably be quite some time before she can properly handle something as complicated as romantic feelings.

There are many things I think about when it comes to her. I feel sorry for her, and I sympathize with her. But I'm going to prioritize my own objective.

...Both my hands are already full with myself and my little sister. I'll leave rescuing the princess to Harukawa Kizuna, the protagonist. Let us hope for a future in which he manages to go beyond his "calculations."

But please, let that kind of development happen after I've returned to my original world!

If it happens before then, I have a feeling Rune's popularity is going to shoot through the roof!

Once I'm back in my original world, I'll wish for their happiness as much as you want!

But if those two try to reach their happy ending before I return, I'll do everything in my power to get in their way!

Oops, my thoughts got sidetracked.

For now, I suppose I'd better throw the troubled Rune a lifeline.

"Ah... Rune lost her memories from before. So even she doesn't know anything about herself."

It's safe to assume that Pisca came over to investigate the mysterious Rune and me, while I'm hiding my true identity as a spirit.

It happened sooner than I'd expected, but it was one of the developments I'd anticipated.

All right, time to start role-playing with the goal of becoming the number-one favorite character.

"I see, nya... I'm sorry for asking something so insensitive, nya. I'm sorry, nya."

"It's okay. I don't mind. I forgive you."

The purpose of her question was probably to see whether I'd become flustered when confronted with a straightforward question. Not a bad tactic. Under normal circumstances, that is.

Rune doesn't have any memories to begin with, so there was no reason for her to become flustered.

And as for me...

I wasn't going to get flustered either. In this "Chaos," there are plenty of people capable of seeing through Kuroi's racial disguise ability using some incomprehensible mysterious power. The Vampire Queen and the Black Knight are good examples. Those two are seriously ridiculous. They can see through a disguise powered by the strength of the stars with nothing more than a "gut feeling."

So, throughout my five years of traveling, I've received questions like this countless times. On top of that, I've repeatedly visualized myself role-playing so I can keep it up at all times, and at night I've continued practicing my acting within my mental world. Thanks to that, even when I'm interrogated like this, I can respond calmly.

This is... right. Why don't I answer her directly, too?

I'll mutter something meaningful while putting on an expression that suggests I have some serious circumstances behind it.

"As for me... yes. I know very well who I am. And I know about my abnormality, too."

"...No, that's not, nya. I didn't mean to, nya, insult you or anything like that, nya."

I'm actually just an extremely ordinary person whose species happens to be unusual. But still, the word "abnormality" is convenient. Its scope is vague, it doesn't specifically refer to anything, and yet it gives off a slightly dangerous impression, doesn't it?

Without revealing a single piece of concrete information, it creates the atmosphere that I've "confessed to a secret I'd been hiding" while making it seem like I have some heavy circumstances weighing on me. As a result, the person listening naturally starts to feel sorry for me and becomes unable to press me any further.

As expected, Pisca looked troubled and apologetic. A smile slipped onto my face because things had gone exactly as planned... Wait, no. That's bad. That's a full-on villainess move.

I wouldn't be able to rank first in a social game if I went down the Mine Fujiko route of scheming from the shadows with an evil smile and betraying everyone at the end.

So I immediately changed the smile that was beginning to appear. I couldn't completely erase it, so I changed its direction instead. I transformed it from the smile of a wicked woman into the gentle smile of the kind older girl next door... the sort of smile someone gives while watching over a younger child's mischievous antics.

Basically, I'm putting on the face of someone who understands, saying, "I know you didn't ask that because you meant any harm～."

"Of course it's only natural that you're wary of me, Pisca. Everything about me is made of lies."

"...Made of lies, nya? What does that...?"

I'll throw in a little more information while I'm at it.

After showing a gentle side, I follow it up with a statement like "everything about me is a lie," which obviously suggests that I have some incredibly heavy circumstances behind me. This also earns me some pity points by making it seem like this isn't something I actually wanted for myself...

Come to think of it. Wasn't there a line in some nationally popular manga about how women become beautiful by arming themselves with secrets? I don't remember it very well anymore. Come to think of it, I haven't read manga in five years. I'll read plenty when I get back. Ah, but first I need to study everything I've forgotten. Ughhh.

Anyway, let's put the studying aside for now.

In reality, I feel like there's quite a bit of truth to the idea that lies make women beautiful. A slightly dangerous woman with a secretive side has a mysterious allure, doesn't she? You have to know where to draw the line, since too much turns you into a villainess, but used as a little secret ingredient, it can be quite effective.

...Oops, dangerous. I almost forgot. Getting too dark is a problem, too. I'd end up becoming the designated serious character.

Characters who are too serious are difficult to use during festival events and the like.

If I'm going to go wild in swimsuits or Halloween events, I need to have some comedy compatibility, too.

And so...

"So please don't worry. I have no intention of harming the person you care about."

"Nya nya nya!? No, that's—That's not what this is about, nya!"

Romantic-comedy compatibility activated!

I'll act like someone who is perceptive when it comes to people's feelings, cheering on their romances and giving them relationship advice.

This way, I'm showing both the management and the players that I do have proper everyday-comedy potential, too～!

Finding the perfect balance between serious and comedic elements is the hardest part.

For now, this much comedy is enough. Since I've decided to play the mysterious character during my first year, after all.

All that's left is to keep exuding my serious side. Then the balance will be perfect.

"Besides. Someday, I—"

There's no need for acting here. I'll put my greatest passion into these words: my desire to go home.

No matter how much I hone my acting, it's still only acting. It can never match the authenticity of genuine, unfeigned emotions. That's why I occasionally mix in my true feelings like this.

I'd heard something about how it's good to mix a certain amount of truth with a certain amount of lies... Wasn't that a con artist's technique?

"...No, it's nothing."

Then I'll hurriedly cover it up as though those words had accidentally slipped out.

If someone has a normal sense of common knowledge, they shouldn't pry any deeper than this.

...Although there was that completely insane knight called the Black Knight who tried to force the answers out of me while I was tied up with rope! That woman seriously pisses me off!

"I see, nya. ...Thank you, nya. I feel like I was able to relax a little. If you get too worked up before a battle, it can lead to a major mistake, nya."

Pisca was trying to bring the conversation to an end through a somewhat forced transition. It seemed she'd understood that she shouldn't pry any further.

Thank goodness Pisca wasn't wired the same way as that lunatic knight and actually had some common sense. Really, thank goodness.

...At the edge of my vision, I saw Harukawa Kizuna and the others turning around to look toward us.

I see. We must be getting close to our destination, so they were probably about to call out to us so everyone could regroup.

In that case, it's time for the finishing blow.

The theory-crafting squad, do your best.

"Rune. Pisca. Please take care of Harukawa Kizuna. He's a little... no, he's quite dangerously reckless in some ways."

FWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Little kitten Pisca, who is still stuck at the shallow level of her first love! And childish Rune, whose emotions haven't fully developed yet!

You're going to challenge me for the position of main wife using romantic feelings, aren't you?

Then I'll counter that with love!

Love is something you give, while romance is something you seek... right? I don't really know, but it's something like that.

If you two love Harukawa Kizuna and act on those feelings by thinking, "I want him to notice me," "I want him to know me," or "I want to get closer to him"...

Then I'll play the role of the woman who steps back because she loves him!

"Nya? What does that...?"

"Ah, Harukawa Kizuna and the others are calling us over. It looks like we're almost at our destination. Let's hurry, you two!"

An act of wishing for his happiness without asking for anything in return.

If you keep up an act long enough, it becomes no different from the truth.

And if that's the case...

This feeling is, without a doubt, love!!