Oh God! Oh God!

  Why me?

  "What’s wrong with you?" Maxi asked, tilting her head slightly.

  "...Nothing," I muttered. "I hate my life, that’s all…"

  "Uh… eh… That sucks?"

  She moved closer and, without saying anything else, gave me a couple of soft pats on the head. Like she was comforting a wounded little animal.

  That only made things worse.

  When practices start, she won’t be there to comfort me. Which is basically a dagger to my poor little heart.

  …And on top of that, the damn mission had already been activated.

  "Seriously, are you okay?" she asked ter. "You’ve been pale all day."

  "Huh? Ah… yeah…"

  I took a deep breath. Paused for a second and lowered my voice.

  "...I don’t know if you saw, but Carlotta, Fisalia, and Clementine are in the same practice as me…"

  "Oh. That’s rough for you."

  Then she thought for a moment.

  "You know? I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I still can’t figure out how you managed to make everyone hate you. In a bizarre way, it’s impressive. In a bad way, obviously."

  "Wow, thanks for the crification!" I shot back sarcastically. "It’s not my fault! Carlotta thinks I wanna steal her arrogant fiancé, and Fisalia—who the hell knows what I did to her! …Well, Clementine does have reasons to wanna punch me…"

  I blushed a little remembering her gigantic chest the first time we met.

  "I’m serious, I didn’t do anything that bad to deserve this level of hate toward this gorgeous dy standing right here. Sh*t… what do I even do now?"

  Seriously, I don’t wanna get stabbed, turned into a voodoo doll, or whatever Fisalia’s bad ending is, which I absolutely do not wanna remember.

  "Well, you should start thinking about how to make them not hate you. You can’t fail the Practices," she continued. "I don’t know… maybe make peace? If you keep going like this, you’ll probably get stabbed during practice."

  My face lost all color.

  That possibility was… terrifyingly pusible.

  "...I was joking."

  "That does NOT sound like a joke!"

  I sighed.

  "Even so, you should try. You should already know this, but Lady Fisalia and Carlotta were the ones who made that whole scene at the mall. Maybe if you manage to calm them down, they’ll leave you alone…"

  "I doubt it…"

  And judging by the way her face twisted slightly; that beautiful face that rarely showed such clear emotions. It was obvious she didn’t fully believe her own suggestion either.

  Let’s see… the mission’s already been unched, so whether I like it or not, I have to fulfill what it says.

  Now the million-dolr question is… what the hell does Carlotta—and possibly Fisalia—have pnned this time?

  If this keeps going, eventually I’ll be forced into one of the game’s endings.

  Either one of the neutral endings that end with me—Kathryn—fighting one of those crazies in a duel.

  One of the “good” endings (good my ass) where you end up with one of the Heroes.

  Or… a bad ending. My death.

  Whichever it is, I have to find a way to avoid that!

  But… how?

  I’ve tried staying away from the heroes, but that’s not working.

  As I walked down the polished tile hallway, with gears on the walls—which I insist are a damn public safety hazard—the mechanical sound of the gears made me think again about what Maxi said.

  Thinking about it calmly…

  Maybe. Just maybe. It might actually be feasible to try getting along with them.

  I’m not saying we’ll become besties or anything. But maybe I could clear up the misunderstandings with the vilinesses, make them stop feeling obligated to attack me, and maybe then the system wouldn’t be able to assign me missions anymore… maybe?

  I mean, I’m not an expert in this stuff… so I don’t know how realistic that is.

  But like my beloved dad always said: never say never!

  So I decided to make a mental list of the reasons they hate me.

  First, the one who seems to hate me the most—with borderline homicidal intent toward my person: the beautiful Carlotta.

  Reason number one: she thinks I’m stealing her idiot fiancé. Which I find especially rude.

  I mean, yeah. The guy in question is attractive, that’s undeniable. A beauty way below his fiancée, if you ask me; but still, that’s an achievement in itself. But I’m not interested in him even one picometer. Not one nanometer. Not one subatomic particle of his being.

  Besides, I’ve literally suplexed him multiple times for harassing me. So I have no idea where that crazy girl got the idea that I’m some homewrecking cat.

  Reason number two… well… that one is kinda my fault. Groping her so often and pulling “pranks.”

  But in my defense! I didn’t do it out of my own will. It was the system.

  And that should be it.

  As for Clementine… it’s more of the same. She thinks I’m interested in Elion. Yeah, he looks like a sleepy puppy, which makes him adorable. But he’s not my type. Also, he’s way too tall. And that’s not my thing… and well… if I earned her hatred by exposing her chest like that in front of the guy she likes… I thought it was a good idea at the time.

  Am I really that stupid? Damn it.

  And stly… the most mysterious one.

  Fisalia. No damn clue what I did to her.

  No, seriously. What the hell did I do?

  From the very first time we met, she was already aggressive toward me. And just to crify: that was also the first time I interacted with her hero, Audren.

  So I don’t have any real foundation to work on my retionship with that elegant and dangerous albino.

  "Ryn, are you listening to me?"

  "Huh?"

  Suddenly, Maxi was shaking me like a sack of potatoes.

  "What?! What is it?!"

  "What do you mean what is it?" she said. "You almost kept walking. I thought we were going to eat together at the restaurant."

  "Oh… sorry. I was spacing out. My bad."

  "What the hell were you thinking about…?" she sighed. "You know what? I don’t wanna know. It’s probably something stupid. Let’s just go eat."

  I smiled and followed her.

  Well… that really shows how seriously I’m thinking about this whole making-peace-with-those-crazies pn.

  …Right?

  Ouro