Episode 6: Conflict as the Main Heroine

———One who is given everything.

My childhood friend Lute is, in one word, such a person.

From an early age, he had been blessed by the people and powers around him, and it was never because of any effort on his behalf.

He was also very naive.

His own standards are the norm for him, and he is so stupid that he considers everything that goes beyond a normal person’s common sense to be “normal”.

However, at the age of thirteen, he finally became aware of that fact that he was ‘abnormal’.

When he was selected for the task to defeat the Demon King, he realized that his power wasn’t something normal for someone his age.

So, he had to leave the village to embark on his quest.

It was a long journey and he didn’t know if he’d be able to return home safely.

This made everyone back home look lonely at him leaving, but not me.

It was because I wasn’t good with someone like Lute.

He was too reserved, even though he was my childhood friend, and he also acted as if he was the center of the whole world at all times.

He thought of me as a convenient girl with a very narrow perspective on the things around him.

Sure enough, Lute invited me on his journey too.

The reason was because he didn’t want to leave me, and he even spouted such falsehoods such as “You need me” and “You’d be no good without me.”

(Ah, I really hate this guy.)

I wondered if it was a good idea to force a girl to go on a dangerous journey with someone like him, but everyone in the village listened to Lute’s wishes and affirmed to him that I’d be with him the whole way.

It was as if a mysterious force was at work, making sure I had no choice in the matter…

I couldn’t refuse.

If I chose the wrong words and said, “But I refuse,” all that awaits me is disappointment and condemnation from everyone around me.

I had no choice but to join the journey as Lute’s first companion, and I don’t know what HE misunderstood, but he confidently said, “I knew you would come with me!”

I got goosebumps just thinking about the fact that I still had to spend the remaining part of this journey with him.

A few years later, we arrived at the Demon Lord’s castle and so I thought back on my journey to the way here.

I couldn’t feel any response at all regarding that though.

It was all just too easy.

It was too convenient from the very first day of the journey.

When we arrive at a town, we are given preferential treatment, if we go to a back alley, we are sure to encounter a girl in trouble, Lute slaughters the demon with a single blow that can only be defeated by a hundred people, the girl come with us, she falls in love with Lute for no reason whatsoever, he increase our funding just by talking to the great people above us, he gets a mansion, the king of the land likes him and so on…

He was too kind on a journey to overthrow the Demon King.

I could sleep in a soft bed every day, it was more like we were on a sightseeing trip rather than going to face a world ending calamity…

And before I knew it, I was also being called the strongest sorcerer in the world, which makes no sense at all.

Unless the process was blown up by some kind of ability of mine, this kind of development should not be possible by any means at all.

There were occasional problems during the journey, but they were really nothing serious at all.

And yet, every time Lute would get depressed as if he was cornered by the dangers around him, he tells everyone around him about how unhappy he is and asks for sympathy when it’s really no big deal at all.

It’s called bragging about your misfortune, Sir.

And that’s not all.

The number of girls accompanying us on the trip had increased to an unimaginable degree.

They were all lovesick maidens who were in love with Lute from the moment they saw him.

In addition, for some reason, all of the girls seemed to have some sort of competitive spirit towards me, and they thought I was cheating in their love affairs.

I have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’m not going to say anything stupid though.

It must be something about Lute after all.

If I ever cooked, they’d say, “You learned to cook just for Lute, as expected of a childhood friend!” and every time I get stronger, they say, “You’re not just being protected, you’re getting stronger to protect Lute!” or sometimes they say something like “You’ve been around Lute, so you’re human of course.” It’s like I’m treated as an accessory at times.

You’d be convinced before you could even deny such claims.

If you ask me whether I’m sad that they were jealous and avoiding me, I’ll be honest.

I don’t want to compete with them at all.

I just want to be close to him for the journey, nothing else.

Just being by Lute’s side, fate did not allow me to do anything else for the entire journey.

After defeating the Demon King, I would finally be released.

Now I can finally live as I please in this peaceful world.

“I’ll go to the magic academy, and Dorothy will go with me too, of course!”

Then, yet again, a mysterious force was at work.

I couldn’t resist him, so I entered the magic academy with him.

In the course of the journey, a childhood friend and a person Liza had talked to many times before she fell in love with Lute, had enrolled in the academy.

He was a boy that I had been interested in for a very long time.

I’ve been curious about this boy for a long time, because when I heard Liza’s story, I was convinced.

———The one who gives his all.

He’s just an ordinary boy with no power whatsoever, who waited for his childhood friend to return and tried his best to catch up with her in the meantime.

The very antithesis of someone like Lute.

I want to know more about him, I want to get even closer to him.

Maybe he is the ideal man for me.

I had to act quickly, and so I looked for him as fast as I could.

And then I saw him, the way he was devastated after that event.

The face of despair caused by being betrayed by the person he liked… That’s right.

Liza loved the boy.

But that was in the past for Liza, and now she only looks at Lute.

I felt guilty looking at him, even though it wasn’t about me.

The boy’s grief was painful to me, even from afar.

And yet, everyone around me still thought I was… me.

They thought that I was still Lute’s personal property, as it was from the beginning they said.

I couldn’t forgive that.

I had to do something to turn the boy around and change him for the good.

After school in my second year.

I went back to the school building under the watchful eyes of Lute, and waited in the hallway for the boy to stay in the classroom———