The Misbuttoned Button

“Ugh, my head hurts…”

I glared at the paper densely filled with handwriting.

Nothing changed, and as my headache only worsened, I sighed and crumpled the paper.

…Honestly, I thought helping students wouldn’t be this difficult.

No matter how much I thought about it, I could only conclude I’d made a wrong judgment.

I never imagined things would get this tangled…

I know all the backstories, settings, and future events of the Playable Characters.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I might know the students better than they know themselves.

However, the aspects I hadn’t considered turned out to be more significant than expected.

“Hmm, during this period Orca would… I prevented any major incidents. Is she okay? The Princess should be fine too…?”

I hadn’t accounted for timelines.

In other games, I might not have needed to worry about this. Usually games only have one protagonist.

After all, when web novel protagonists fall into game worlds, they often only focus on the original single protagonist.

Maybe I could have done it that way too.

But in my current situation, there are five-no, five Playable Characters here.

It’s not like they’re acting separately in different worlds… They share the same location and timeline.

Since games focus intensively on the character chosen by the player, others get slightly more attention than NPCs but still aren’t properly highlighted.

What do I mean?

…Let me give an example.

There’s an episode where five students who despise Demon Possessors gang up to attack Orca.

This appears fairly early in the story and has quite high difficulty.

The problem is that other Playable Characters keep moving even during this episode.

While Orca gets caught up in the attack, some students continue their ordinary lives as if nothing happened, while others might have crucial story developments happening simultaneously.

There were even cases where two events unfolded simultaneously during the same period…

Well, that’s just the nature of games with multiple protagonists.

But now that this game has become reality, that very characteristic has become my biggest headache.

“I can’t properly know when which incident will happen…!”

The timing is ambiguous.

Games aren’t usually extreme about tracking time… Unless they’re mystery or time-loop genres, most describe time vaguely.

Like “one spring afternoon when flowers begin blooming” or similar.

This makes future predictions impossible.

I know roughly what events will occur and how students would resolve or fail them without my intervention.

But when?

With so many variables already, the impact I’ve made just by appearing here is considerable.

…Take Orca’s attack incident I mentioned earlier. The timeframe for that has already passed.

Just this morning, while calming my complicated thoughts after the Watcher’s visit, Orca suddenly told me:

Lately strange guys keep picking fights one after another, and she doesn’t know why.

Orca just briefly complained and moved on…

But hearing that, I became certain. Those were the perpetrators of Orca’s attack incident.

Exactly five students as she described. Their appearances also matched what I knew.

…But why did they only complain verbally instead of attacking?

Because they couldn’t underestimate her anymore.

The Prologue. The fight between Orca and Leo.

The outcome was programmed for Orca to lose no matter what. She couldn’t win.

Naturally, all stories were written assuming Orca’s defeat.

But what was the result here?

Leo lost. …Moreover, student opinions suggested he looked pitiful getting beaten up.

In other words:

The five students who originally should have attacked Orca after underestimating her post-Prologue defeat.

But they didn’t attack. Why?

Because contrary to the Prologue, Leo couldn’t defeat Orca.

Instead of looking down on her, she became even more intimidating.

So even if dissatisfied, they couldn’t consider attacking.

Her fearsome reputation as a Demon Possessor remained unblemished.

They lost the motivation to think “Hey, maybe we can take her.” The opportunity vanished.

…Well, that much is understandable.

It’s slightly regrettable that Orca lost one opportunity for growth, but it’s not irreplaceable.

It wasn’t an episode for mental growth anyway-just one that wounded her heart.

Now, here’s a question.

When you’re already struggling to patch up a complex timeline full of holes… What happens when it gets twisted beyond recognition and even existing episodes disappear?

Ta-da! Total confusion!

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out when events will occur.

“Sigh…”

I give up.

Just… Let’s not do this anymore…

Trying to be too perfect always leads to exhaustion. Yeah.

I’ll just judge based on general atmosphere and situations.

Considering how basing future predictions on the game seems meaningless now anyway.

I tried listing timelines to prepare after yesterday’s incident, but it only made things more daunting.

Button the first button wrong, and all others follow suit.

And I didn’t just button the first one wrong-I buttoned it backward.

Like a rolling snowball, I started feeling that the single incident of putting Orca to sleep would grow enormously.

“My head hurts… I wanna play games…”

Maybe because I did something unusual that yielded no results?

My whole body felt drained, like wearing soaking wet clothes.

People really shouldn’t do things they’re not used to.

Though it might be because I tried planning despite never having done it before, my head felt like it would cramp.

Alright, let’s call it a day.

I’ll put a “Closed Today” sign on the counseling room door.

I’ve almost caught up on game progress since Haze broke my laptop and reset everything…

Maybe I’ll enjoy myself today.

You have no idea how sad I was when it broke right as I was progressing through a story I’d been curious about.

The game kept dropping hints about the protagonist’s father throughout my life, and my saved data vanished right before resolving it…

Since Orca started sleeping in the counseling room, I even brought headphones.

If I just enjoy myself now…

“Hello, Teacher-nim.”

“Eek?!”

Just as I smiled happily thinking about gaming.

A voice suddenly spoke by my ear, startling me so badly I jumped up and fell over.

“Oh dear, my apologies. I didn’t expect you’d be this startled…”

A silver-haired girl covering her eyes looked down at me.

Anastasia. …Why is she here?

Though her eyes were covered, I could feel her concerned gaze.

“Wh-wh-when did you…?!”

“Around when you said ‘My head hurts… I wanna play games…'”

“You should’ve knocked!”

“I did. When there was no response, I thought you weren’t here. But when I tried the doorknob, it was unlocked.”

Fortunately I wasn’t seriously hurt, but I rubbed my reddened head from the fall.

It hurt terribly-I wanted to grab my head and roll around-but something more important demanded attention.

…Surely she didn’t see?

I wanted to believe she couldn’t have seen since I grabbed the paper while getting up, but this is a world with mana, demons, and hypnosis.

Unable to be certain, I asked her with a trembling voice:

“D-did you see…?”

“Don’t worry, Teacher-nim. I won’t tell anyone you like games.”

“…Thank you.”

Thank goodness.

Seems she didn’t see the paper’s contents.

I couldn’t hypnotize Anastasia right now.

…Not impossible, but currently unfeasible since I need to earn some trust first.

Getting caught liking games was slightly embarrassing.

And getting caught right when declaring I’d play games at school?

That’s practically red-handed evidence of being a Salary Thief.

Admittedly damaging, but she’s not one to lie. She really won’t tell anyone. …Right?

“…So why did you come? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“I skipped. They permitted it when I said the Church had urgent business.”

Retract previous thought.

Now I felt like I might die from anxiety.

Using the Church as an excuse to skip class? Unbelievable.

I felt like I was seeing a side of her I never knew.

“I wanted… counseling.”

“…”

My face stiffened.

…Though my notes weren’t very useful, one thing was certain:

She shouldn’t have worries serious enough to request counseling.

At least not at this point.