Chapter 22

“if you are tired, haniel, you can rest.”

“it’s not that i’m tired, but my back is just a bit weak…”

“oh.”

as i slurred my words, ardal let out a small exclamation. instead of continuing his words, he reached out to me trying to sit on the seat and helped me get up. the carriage began to slow down while he tousled his disheveled hair. as ardal said, we must have arrived home.

someone knocked on the carriage door from outside and carefully opened it. ardal got off from the carriage first and reached out to me. i placed my hand on his outstretched hand. ardal wrapped one of his arms around my waist and pulled me down. the way ardal helped me down was too much to call it an escort. i thought as i looked at ardal, who embraced me as if he were dropping off his lover.

i think this is a bit of an overkill…

while the knights were watching, i looked at the other people who noticed ardal’s behavior as he wrapped his arms around my waist. thankfully, they didn’t seem interested in ardal helping me down and hugging me.

no, most of them had their heads down, so they didn’t even see us properly. only the knight who opened the door saw our actions and looked at ardal and i back and forth, frowning.

the knight closed the door, examining the carriage carefully. the knight’s sharp eyes made me wonder if there were any traces of our relationship in the carriage. however, ardal wasn’t even interested in the knight.

he held my hand, ignoring the knight who was looking in the carriage. he smiled calmly and led me into the garden. the garden, of course, was still neat. i headed home with ardal, looking at the lawn that was kept neat even without maintenance.

when i arrived at the door, ardal received the key from me and opened the door. holding the door open, ardal asked me.

“may i join you?”

“well…”

i was worried because i didn’t know how my actions would look in [haniel’s house]. is there anything that seems strange? i’m just trying to find a way to log out so it doesn’t matter if we go in together, right?

even though the system window appears a lot, it’s only visible to me, and i don’t think he saw anything particularly strange. after a short thought, i nodded.

he followed me into the house with a crooked smile. it was quite funny to see such a large man, who was big enough to easily hold me with one arm, obediently following every word i said. ardal, who followed me inside, gave a small smile as he closed the door.

“haniel, why don’t you wash yourself first?”

“do i smell?”

as soon as we closed the door, ardal recommended it to me. after he finished speaking, i put my nose to my collar and asked, sniffing. there was no way this body could smell, but i did it just in case. it didn’t smell. rather, all i could smell was a fragrant scent. it was a characteristic i had as a reverse harem character. i didn’t get dirty.

“as i put my nose to my collar, ardak shook his head.

“it’s not haniel’s scent, but my scent… that’s all.”

“ah.”

ardal’s face turned red as he calmly shook his head and replied. as he said so, he seemed to think of something. for example, something like what happened in the carriage earlier.

looking at ardal’s blushing face, i whispered softly.

“then i’d be happy.”

as i smiled with my nose buried in my collar, ardal covered his face with his large hand. unlike when he grabbed me by the waist, i went in front of him, seeing him embarrassed.

aww, he’s so cute. i shuddered as i saw ardal act this way.

unable to hold back my emotions, i hugged ardal’s waist. as i hugged him and rubbed my head against his chest, ardal sighed and put a hand down to wrap his arm around my shoulder. his other hand was still covering half of his face.

“i like ardal’s scent, but i’ll go back and wash up.”

“ugh.”

as i whispered softly into his arms, ardal removed his hand and hugged my head. i took a deep breath as i buried myself. ardal stiffened his body. i moved my center of gravity forward and clung to his arms.

ah, how comfortable.

unlike me, who hung on comfortably, ardal awkwardly hugged me and brushed my hair with his rough hand. as he slowly stroked my hair, i heard a small ringing sound.

when i opened my eyes and turned my head to the side, the system window shone as if asking for attention.

[as ardal’s favorability increases, the incident “the leader’s anguish” will occur.]

[increases ardal’s favorability rate.]

[increases the likelihood of unlocking “ardal’s resolution”]

[please note that excess favorability during the event may lead to a dead ending.]

ah geeze, what is it this time?

holding ardal’s solid waist and feeling content, i read the system window and frowned.

why is there a dead ending if there’s excess favorability?

i pursed my lips and loosened my arms around ardal’s waist. as i untangled myself and walked away, ardal lowered his hand sadly.

it seems that if the incident will progress from “the leader’s anguish” to “ardal’s resolution”, i’ll end up with the dead ending. are they planning to kill me because they don’t want to send me to the empire? considering ardal’s character, it seemed possible enough. i thought that there would be an ending where i could not betray the holy land or send myself to the empire, but then kill myself.

i forgot for a moment that this game was trash. plus, most of the endings aren’t happy endings.

if ardal were to kill me, he would stab me with a sword. this time, i set the sensitivity to 100. checking the large sword hanging from ardal’s waist, i glanced at my body.

if he stabbed me, it’d hurt a lot… i can’t even lower the sensitivity while this run is in progress…

stories about the side effects of virtual reality games came to my mind. stories about people who died of shock while playing a game with the sensitivity set to the maximum or those who suffered from mental trauma because they couldn’t escape from the shock after finishing the game came to mind. it was a rumor that there were no definite victims, but it may have really happened. just because i didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

okay, let’s find a way to log out… log out, lower the sensitivity and try again…