episode_0050

Yesterday, I spent the whole day by Dain Adamas’s side, so my body was in top condition. On top of that, I had a good night’s sleep as usual, so my mind was also very clear. When both body and mind are in top condition, it’s only natural for the heart to become strong as well. Today, both my physical and mental states were at their best, perhaps the best day of my life so far.

“Let’s try to raise the success rate of the curse removal to at least 50%.”

With determined ambition, I opened the door to the hospital room, and Mei Luina’s third day of treatment began.

“[User’s will confirmed. From now on, you can hear the target’s inner thoughts within a certain distance.]”

Now, the notification window that had become so familiar appeared in one corner of my vision and disappeared, simultaneously creating a sensation of connection in my mind.

The sensation of this mental connection varies from person to person, but among the three, Mei Luina’s connection feels the smoothest. Maybe she’s the most human-like among the three? Anyway, she seemed to have the least resistance to the connection.

The other two feel rougher and more jagged. Yeah, like right now. Rough and jagged like this… Huh?

“What is it?”

The connection with Mei Luina wasn’t as smooth as before, and instead of feeling like I was connecting with Dain Adamas and Mir Ryuin, it felt even more rough than when connecting with those two.

Because Mei Luina had always accepted my connections so smoothly, my momentary confusion burst out involuntarily.

[What’s wrong? Is there a problem?]

My unintentional outburst of confusion went straight into Mei Luina’s ears, and I heard a question in an unprecedentedly rough and sharp voice.

What’s going on? Why is she acting like this?

Mei Luina was undoubtedly a clear-cut personality disorder, someone I never wanted to meet in society, but she was definitely not the type to openly reveal her emotions like this.

In the front, she was hiding her emotions, but in the back, she was venting to an emotional trash can, which was terrifying. Even when she was venting to that emotional trash can, she didn’t do it openly, she did it in a roundabout way.

[“I’m asking you right now, Stacy. What’s the problem?”]

She wasn’t the kind of person who would stand there openly showing that she was upset and asserting herself like this.

What happened? Nothing happened. There shouldn’t have been anything wrong. I even left the speaker for her as she wanted, so she wouldn’t feel lonely like last time, and I’m not late. In fact, I came in earlier than the last treatment day. Why is she acting like this? Is today that day? No, S-rank Awakened individuals don’t come on that day either. I heard that they have the ability to control contraception and pregnancy at will.

Mei Luyina’s suddenly sharp attitude left me too bewildered to say anything.

Of course, I had nothing to say, but there were things I wanted to say about this bewildering situation.

“What’s the problem? The problem is you suddenly going nuts.” That’s what I wanted to say. But because I couldn’t say such a thing to Mei Luyina, I just kept quiet and said nothing.

[Ha, I laid the groundwork for you to speak up if there’s a problem. Yet, in this situation, you can’t say anything? Fine. If you’re a decent person, you shouldn’t be hesitant to admit your mistakes when you’ve done something wrong. The best response when recognizing a problem is a sincere apology, but at least you didn’t deny your mistake, so I’ll consider that close enough to the right answer. Be grateful for my generosity, Stacy.]

As I remained silent, Mei Luyina poured out some strange words as if she had been waiting for it.

It made me briefly wonder if I had really done something terribly wrong, as she rambled on out of the blue, as if I had committed a huge fault against her.

······But I hadn’t? Seriously, I hadn’t done anything at all?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t recall any significant wrongdoing that would make Mei Luyina suddenly lose her temper like this.

Actually, I hadn’t done anything wrong at all.

Placing a hand on my chest and pondering once again, I found no hint of an answer. I was so bewildered that the words I couldn’t bring myself to say earlier— “What’s the problem? Your sudden outburst is the problem”—almost burst from my throat.

But as expected, the disparity between Mei Luina and my strength was evident. Being an adult with dreams for the future, I forcibly held back what I wanted to say and cautiously asked her, who was visibly irritated, “Um, Mei Luina, if I’ve done something wrong, could you please tell me properly? It’s quite disconcerting to have you act like this all of a sudden after we meet.”

[Disconcerting? All of a sudden? Fine. If that’s what you want to hear from me, I’ll tell you properly. What exactly has Stay done wrong?]

It was a rather straightforward question considering how cautiously I had intended to ask, but fortunately, Mei Luina chose to express her anger in a torrent of words rather than rebuking my direct manner. If it had been the Mei Luina of old, she would have likely retorted to my statement about being disconcerted with something like, “Are you implying that you’re disconcerted because of me? Is this somehow my fault?” But now, it seemed more important to her to explain the reason for her anger to me and then demand something from me rather than engaging in pointless arguments.

I don’t know why she suddenly flew off the handle, but as a humble F-rank, I had no choice. I quickly tuned into Mei Luina’s wishes, as obtaining freedom through treatment as soon as possible was the most crucial thing for me. Therefore, I lent an ear to her voice.

[······Why didn’t you tell me I’m cute while you told Mir Ryuin?]

“Excuse me?”

Even though I clearly listened, her words made me doubt what I heard, causing me to momentarily freeze. However, Mei Luina had already let loose her grievances, and once she started, there was no turning back, not even for my brief interjection.

[Why don’t you say I’m pretty, but you said it to Mr. Dain Adamas? Are you saying I’m not as cute or pretty as Mr. Mir Ryuin and Mr. Dain Adamas in terms of my moans, reactions, face, and body? Is that what you mean? Am I inferior to those people?]

“Wait a moment. I mean…”

“What do you mean wait! I know everything! Mr. Stay only favors me! You’re discriminating against me! Even when you were treating Mr. Mir Ryuin, you said it was boring to just touch his chest! I remember everything! In the end, the protagonist of sex is with… with Vojii… and anal! That’s what you said!”

“Well, that’s… That’s true.”

I did indeed say that. Even now, I still think the main characters of sex are Vojii and anal.

Unexpectedly, as I reluctantly acknowledged the truth, Meiruina continued to express her accumulated dissatisfaction as if she were venting her sorrow.

“But only I get my chest touched because you said it was boring! You only touch my chest! Others sincerely hit so hard that their buttocks and wrists hurt! They embrace tightly after pressing against their whole body! They stroke their heads and call them cute and pretty! They praise them! But you discriminate against me!”

“Um. Well, you see…”

After directly facing Meiruina’s outpouring of grievances, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really such a big deal that she didn’t get her buttocks slapped or receive a hug from me. However, aside from my personal feelings, her dissatisfaction was surprisingly valid. I’m not sure what constitutes favoritism in terms of what I give and don’t give, but… I still don’t know if feeling jealous about not getting my buttocks slapped and hugged is warranted. Anyway, objectively speaking, Meiruina had enough reason to feel discriminated against in my treatment.

I directly said that my heart was empty and the protagonist is a loser, so it’s unreasonable for her to claim she didn’t discriminate against me.

I wondered why Mei Luina suddenly acted like this, but after hearing her, I understood.

Once again realizing that having a conversation first when conflict arises is the shortcut to healthy conflict resolution, I opened my mouth to apologize to Mei Luina.

“Miss Mei Luina, I’m sorr…”

[Huh, huhuh. Huiing.]

“…Are you crying now?”

But just before I could apologize, I heard a truly sorrowful sob from Mei Luina, and I swallowed the words of apology and asked her.

“St-Stay discrimin… discriminating only against me… huk, huiing. Only… only hating me… ughhh…”

Whether it was my worried question or not, Mei Luina, convinced that I hated only herself, began to cry and mumble nonsense without even a forced laugh.

Although I could let everything else slide, I couldn’t overlook what Mei Luina had just said. I approached her, grabbed her shoulders, and firmly spoke.

“Miss Mei Luina! What nonsense are you talking about? Why would I hate only you!”

I hate all of you! Do you think I’d just let it go when Dain Adamas and Mir Ryuin subtly try to avoid me?!

I tried to add these sincere words, but unfortunately, I was cut off by Mei Luina once again.

“…Is it, really? You don’t hate only me?”

As Mei Luina’s crying stopped and her voice sounded like that of a child asking, I skipped the intermediate process in my mind and summarized only the conclusion in response to her question.

“Yes. I absolutely don’t hate only you, Mei Luina.”

Upon my response, Mei Luina suddenly regained her composure and seemed to have achieved what she wanted.

[Hehehe. Well then, prove it! Show me the ‘Infinite Spanking Counter Using the Elasticity of Soft and Bouncy Bread’ and the ‘Full Body Close Contact Embrace’ that you did to Mir Ryuin and Dain Adamas!]

Why does it always end up like this?