Morning Drama

“It’s not excessive.”

I wanted to give even more if I could.

Honestly, I felt that whatever I gave as a gift would seem insufficient.

“You all have been such a great support to me. Please let me repay you this way at least.”

I added that I absolutely couldn’t have sunk the Tower without the three of them.

And that if I had been alone, I couldn’t have reached the top floor so quickly.

If we had been just a little later… everything would have been over before we could even fight.

Thinking about how another world had started to encroach before the battle was even decided, it was really a close call.

But for some reason, they all just silently stared at me without saying anything.

“Y-You don’t have to join the guild right away. You can answer later.”

I told them that for now, it was fine if they just accepted my gift.

Immediately after, I heard Adrian thanking me.

But for some reason, he also added a voice full of suspicion as he gradually walked toward me.

“Can we really answer later? What if our minds change?”

“Y-Your hearts aren’t mine, so if your minds change, there’s nothing I can do…”

“Then, you won’t be upset if we don’t join the guild?”

“Huh? Well, um… To be honest, I might be a little upset.”

Because he chose to ask only questions that made me hesitate to answer “yes.”

I looked up at Adrian, who was somehow right in front of me now, with eyes half puzzled and half flustered.

What came from the person who slowly opened his mouth was yet another question.

“If you join Lunatic, you’ll continue to see us even after you become an adult. Is that okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay? You’re my friends.”

I tilted my head slightly at the question whose meaning I didn’t understand.

However, at Adrian’s not-really-muttered mutter that followed:

“So, you like us very, very much. Enough to want to keep seeing us in the future.”

“Yes, I like you very, very much. In the future too, I want to keep see—”

I answered sincerely without thinking.

-Beep!

Only then did I notice Iris filming a video right next to me.

In addition, I belatedly realized what I had just said.

“My goodness, to think I’d receive a proposal from such a young child.”

“N-No, when I say I like you, I mean… not that kind of like…!”

I hurriedly poured out excuses with a face that instantly turned bright red, even at his usual simple joke.

Yet they literally didn’t listen with even the backs of their ears.

Rea’s playful voice followed, saying she would join the guild right away if I just said one more thing.

“Say, ‘I want to stay with my beloved friends forever.'”

“R-Rea, you too?”

“Yes. I will.”

What followed was a mischievous statement that if I didn’t say what she asked, she would take it to mean I didn’t like them.

However, perhaps because I was already completely flustered, I couldn’t distinguish well between jokes and serious statements.

The ominous suspicion that they might really be upset wasn’t entirely absent.

So finally, unable to resist for long, I painfully opened my mouth that had been locked by embarrassment.

“I want to stay with my be-beloved friends for-forever…”

I delivered Rea’s requested words in a crawling voice.

Why did I want to hide in a mouse hole as my ears turned not just red but started to burn hot?

I wanted to cry, but for a different reason than when I was being severely scolded earlier.

However, before my pounding heart could calm down, an unexpected suggestion came:

“If you want to be with us, how about enrolling in the Academy?”

“…What?”

Once again, my head filled with question marks.

What followed was a kind of story I hadn’t particularly thought about before.

“Hmm, what did the President say…”

“Experience.”

“Ah, right. Experience. Because there are experiences you can only have when you’re not yet an adult. He said attending the Academy wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

The statement that Reiner himself had directly recommended my enrollment was literally unexpected.

I was even more puzzled considering that a long time ago, Reiner himself had said my Academy life would be difficult.

‘Anyway, you can’t take classes with other kids. Unless you’re isolated and taking classes separately.’

‘Is that Academy President going to make a young child like this an outcast among peers?’

‘There should be limits to risks. What if she can’t control her power and runs wild?’

He had been someone who said I should be isolated for the safety of other students when he argued with Asha about my Academy enrollment.

What happened while I was asleep that suddenly made him change his words?

“Um, Rea. Did the Presi— Did the Headmaster say anything else?”

“Ah, come to think of it. He did say you wouldn’t be a monster kid anymore, but I’m not sure what that means.”

She added that they would also like it if they could see me at the Academy.

Right after that, I noticed that it had gotten dark outside.

“Anyway, we’re not forcing you either, so think about it, Lua. We should get going now.”

“Ah, yes… Goodbye.”

The fact that we had to part already was a little.

No, quite disappointing… But I’d be able to see them often from now on.

They also promised to visit the hospital room several more times before leaving.

After the room suddenly became quiet, I stood silently for a moment.

Then I uttered three syllables to find out the meaning of “not being a monster kid anymore.”

“…Skill window.”

-Ding.

▶ Unstoppable (P)

[Resists all external influences attempting to change entity name: Lua’s coordinates.]

▶ You Are the Shield (A)

[Forcibly overlays entity name: Lua’s skills and stats onto objects upon contact.]

:::DEACTIVATED:::

▶ If Words Come Bad (P)

[Accumulates all damage inflicted on entity name: Lua. There is no limit to the amount of damage that can be accumulated.]

▶ The Response Is Worse (A)

[Delivers all accumulated damage to the target with 2-3 times enhanced power.]

▶ The Bullied Becomes the Bully (P)

[Forcibly designates entities that harm entity name: Lua as public enemies.]

“Deactivated…? What’s this?”

Right after, thinking maybe, I pressed and held the system window for about 10 seconds.

Sure enough, ding.

[When entity name: Lua fulfills all ending conditions, deactivated skills can be reactivated.]

[Achievement rate: 80.12%]

Instead of telling me why my skills were deactivated, it told me the condition to reactivate them.

In other words, to use those 3 skills again, I would need to complete all achievements.

It meant I would have to achieve the remaining 19.88 percent of various minor achievements even after doing all kinds of dangerous things.

“…Isn’t that too much? Just how many achievements are there…”

My first thought was: is it necessary?

I was disappointed that my only attack ability had disappeared, but well, the most dangerous ability had disappeared along with it…

If there ever comes a time when such dangerous abilities are absolutely necessary, I can reactivate them then.

Anyway, right now I’m in a situation where I can’t take even one step outside the hospital room.

-Slide.

“Did you have a good talk with your friends?”

“Ah, Sister.”

Come to think of it, these abilities were worse than useless if I wanted to stay with Asha.

So I decided to feel relief rather than regret.

Either way, what was most important was something else.

As long as this daily life could continue, it didn’t matter whether my abilities had disappeared or not.

“No, it does matter. According to you, Lua, this means we’ll never taste those spicy things again!”

I never expected there would be someone who would despair at the fact that my only attack skill had disappeared.

It was a week after I received the recommendation to enroll in the Academy when the person who was briefly my father came to visit and check on me.

We were just having casual conversations, nothing more and nothing less, when somehow I vaguely brought up the topic of my deactivated skills.

“Even the monsters below the pit had softer punches than our daughter. Have you forgotten your promise to fight with your father to the brink of death?”

Because he brought up a promise that was never made, as if he had been thinking of fighting me again someday.

A bizarre conversation between father and daughter was born that would make anyone who heard it think there couldn’t be a more dysfunctional family.

“Who are you calling ‘our daughter’? Lua is my child!”

“You firebug, you’re not our daughter’s real mother. And what kind of mother puts chains on a child’s ankle? I’d sooner believe you were a stepmother.”

No, let me correct myself.

This is just a morning drama.

The kind with a total mess of tangled family trees.

“Who told the battle maniac to act like her father?”

“I-I didn’t know it would turn out like this…”

“That’s a cowardly excuse.”

What followed was Tana’s deflated voice saying that even she didn’t know what to do anymore, so handle it ourselves.

A world where the snowball effect exceeds imagination was a very dangerous world. In every sense.