Chapter 50: Well, I'm Going My Own Way, Though

Now then. Kizuna-kun should be in the middle of pulling off his savior routine by now, right?

I can't forgive him for stealing the spotlight from me... though, well, that's only about thirty percent serious.

He's the protagonist, after all. A game isn't going to be very entertaining if the protagonist doesn't get to shine. Terra also said that if WF itself lost popularity, achieving my goal of saving my little sister would become more difficult.

In that sense, it's not a bad thing for him to be making a name for himself.

All I have to do is make an even bigger impression than he does.

However...

To be perfectly honest, I've been fading into the background lately. I did have one major selling point in the form of the T² humanoid mobile weapon, but in the end, that was Tetoma's selling point. Our votes would just eat into each other's shares.

Plenty of fans of robot series love the pilot characters, but there must also be a lot of people who love the robots and battleships themselves. I imagine that tendency is even stronger among people who build model kits.

Sometimes, you might not like a pilot's personality at all, but absolutely love their machine.

Anyway, my point is this: even if someone thinks T² is awesome, that doesn't mean they'll necessarily vote for the beautiful girl piloting it, Tierra-chan.

And so...

I need to stand out even more, but... there probably won't be any more opportunities for me to shine in this place.

In a situation like this, a mobile gacha game would probably depict two scenes unfolding simultaneously. But the main storyline would still follow the side where the player is, with everything else treated as a bonus.

Our desperate battle would get a brief description, and that would be the end of it.

Even so, there was a reason I hadn't gone over to Kizuna-kun's side despite the circumstances.

One reason was that I'd come up with the idea of the T² powered suit, but there was a-n-o-t-h-e-r reason, too. A crucial reason that I absolutely couldn't ignore.

"It's been quite a while... Do you think Kizuna-kun and the others are all right?"

I carefully chose my words as I spoke.

From here, I had to steer the conversation toward the outcome I wanted.

"...Honestly, I don't know. I trust the guy, but persuading those elves, who were so stubborn in the first place, isn't going to be easy."

"If they can just get the elves to sit down and talk, Kizuna-dono will surely succeed. But if they are driven away by force before that happens, there will be little they can do."

"Nya?! That would be bad, nya!"

Padron-kun voiced his concerns, while Nanashi-kun offered an accurate assessment.

Naturally, Piska-chan, the side heroine who absolutely adored the protagonist, grew worried.

"I'm going to go help him, nya!"

"You lovestruck cat! Even a savage like you is a valuable fighter right now! If you leave, we'll have even fewer attackers!"

...And so, Piska tried to rush off to help, but Padron-kun stopped her.

Our current mission was to hold the defensive line and not let a single mechanical soldier through. However, the mechanical soldiers prioritized attacking targets they considered threats. In other words, if they didn't recognize something as a threat, they'd simply ignore it and continue toward the Great Forest.

That meant this was effectively an offensive battle.

We had to keep attacking without letting up, constantly using attacks powerful enough for the mechanical soldiers to recognize us as threats.

And in that regard, there was actually one completely and utterly useless member of our fighting force.

"...Judging by the state of the battle, that would be me, right? If someone were to leave."

"Well, yeah. Tierra-san's healing helps us hold out in a prolonged fight, but at this rate, we're slowly losing ground. If the most important thing is to get the elves to evacuate, then Tierra-san should go join Kizuna."

Something Padron-kun didn't know was that the elves' main fighting force consisted of those tree soldiers—the tree-like enemies.

That made me an exceptionally good match for them, too. My twin swords, 『Funeral』 and 『Rebirth』, which governed reincarnation, were completely ineffective against machines. But against plant-type and other living enemies, I could mow them down like weeds.

No matter how I looked at it, I was the fighter who should be heading to the forest.

"And the idea is to help them achieve their objective as quickly as possible, right?"

"Yeah. That way, we'll be able to withdraw, too. I'm counting on you, Tierra-san."

However, if there was one problem...

"I won't be able to heal any of you anymore. Will you be all right?"

If there was one problem, it was that I wouldn't be able to heal everyone anymore, just as I'd said—but t-h-a-t w-a-s-n-'t i-t.

"Thanks to Tierra-san always healing us, we've still got piles of the medicinal herbs and potions we prepared before setting out. If we don't use them now, they'll just go to waste."

Man, Padron-kun really was a good guy.

It was obvious that we were in a tough battle, and he was fighting like a lion as one of our main attackers. Naturally, he must have been exhausted. Medicinal herbs weren't going to be enough to heal him.

He understood that prolonged combat would be difficult without my mysterious healing powe-e-er. And even knowing that, he was still considering the overall state of the battle and encouraging me to leave.

"Nya... All right, nya. I'm counting on you, Tierra."

『Encouragement. Pilot Tierra. Return safely.』

"...Mom. Don't... overdo it."

"I wish you good fortune in battle, Tierra-dono."

"Of course. Leave it to me. You all stay safe, too. ...And Rene, I'm not your mom, you know."

However, my leaving this place meant that a certain person of concern would finally be free to make his move.

That's right. The important problem I'd been worrying about all this time was...

...that I'd be giving him the opportunity to make an incredibly cool entrance.

As I withdrew from the battle and headed toward the Great Forest, I thought about him.

There really wasn't much that needed to be said about him.

If I had to sum him up in one sentence...

...he was a case of chuunibyou—the delusion of being an impossibly cool, dark, mysterious character—that had somehow become reality.

His name was Akuru. Akuru Ilmphis.

He was one of those must-have characters, the kind who appeared as a recurring supporting character and kept showing up all over the main story.

He was none other than a healer so powerful