【Killed Shadow-eater Beast. Acquired dropped skill: Insubstantiality LV1.】
【Insubstantiality LV1 Effect: Upon activation, ignore physical and elemental attacks for 5 seconds. (Usable once per day.)】
System notifications flashed in the corner of his vision.
Under normal circumstances, obtaining such a precious life-saving skill would have filled Greg with wild joy.
But at this moment, he was clearly in no mood for celebration.
The instant the battle ended, he paid no heed to the three upperclassmen who were still frozen in shock and confusion. Instead, he strode straight over to Silvia, his gaze behind his mask locked onto her.
“Silvia...”
He spoke, his voice muffled slightly by the mask, delivered in a deliberately flat tone. “You wouldn't... happen to actually be an airhead, would you?”
“A-An airhead...?”
Caught completely off guard by his sudden question, Silvia blinked her pink eyes in utter confusion and tilted her head slightly.
“Are you... talking about me?”
Seeing her completely oblivious, downright innocent look, Greg took a deep breath, forcing down the turmoil of complicated emotions surging in his chest.
Damn it... Don't think I'll easily forgive you this time just because you're cute!
Do you have any idea that your slip of the tongue just now might get me tied up with that pain-in-the-ass woman?!
He stepped half a pace closer. Even through the mask, Silvia could feel an overwhelming, invisible pressure.
“Yes, I mean you!”
Greg's words tumbled out at an unconsciously accelerated pace:
“We explicitly agreed beforehand that we were going to keep a low profile and hide our identities on this trip—that's a vital tactical principle! But what did you do? Right off the bat, in front of three total strangers, you yelled out my full name! Do you know what that's like? It's like the two of us going to rob a bank together: I painstakingly pull on my ski mask, disguise my voice, plot out the getaway route, and make sure everything is flawless, only for you to suddenly look straight at the security camera the moment I draw my gun and shout, ‘Senior Greg, let's make our move!’”
Greg put on an expression of pure anguish. “This isn't just some minor blunder! This is taping a photocopy of your partner's ID right onto the vault door, complete with their home address! What awaits me next isn't just a stern lecture, but a full-package experience of rotting in prison, picking up the soap, and utter social death, my friend!”
His vivid, impassioned rant finally drove the gravity of the situation home to Silvia.
Her delicate face flushed beet red in an instant as embarrassment and anxiety washed over her.
Still, a tiny thought flickered through her mind: Robbing a bank is a bad thing, but what Senior Greg just did was clearly a good deed saving people...
Yet Senior Greg always seems so adamant about keeping himself hidden. Maybe... there's a deeply important reason behind it, which is why he can't let his identity slip so easily?
The moment that thought occurred to her, her guilt grew even heavier.
She lowered her head, nervously wringing the hem of her clothes. Her long pink hair draped down, concealing part of her blushing cheeks. Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, laced with deep regret and helplessness:
“I-I'm sorry... Senior Greg... I-I was too careless... I didn't think it through... I'm really, truly sorry...”
Greg: “...”
Looking at Silvia in this state—resembling a little fluffy pink animal that had done something wrong and curled itself into a ball waiting for its master's punishment—she exuded a pathetic yet overwhelmingly cute vibe that practically screamed, “I know I messed up, please don't be mad at me.”
He felt a sudden, sharp squeeze in his heart, as if it had been gently grasped and wrung.
Damn it... Does this girl have zero clue how lethal she looks right now?!
Calm down, Greg, stay calm!
You're a man who cleared 81 playthroughs!
You should have built up total immunity to this level of cuteness ages ago!
That's right, I'm immune!
So I absolutely cannot soft-heartedly forgive her just like that!
This is a matter of principle!
He pumped himself up internally, trying desperately to steel his expression into a stern scowl again.
However, when his gaze landed once more on Silvia's downturned, glistening pink eyes and her trembling eyelashes that resembled fluttering butterfly wings...
“Haha.”
An extraordinarily gentle and forgiving smile spread across Greg's face. His voice instantly softened, carrying an almost soothing warmth:
“It's fine, really. Don't take it to heart. Just be a bit more careful next time. I don't actually mind that much.”
...Dammit! Where are my principles?! Where is my resolve?!
Greg, you absolute coward!
He roared furiously inside his head, utterly despising himself for caving in like a spineless wimp within seconds.
Meanwhile, hearing that he not only refrained from further blame but even comforted her in such a soft tone, Silvia felt a huge surge of warmth and gratitude well up in her heart.
Senior Greg... really is so gentle.
Even though I made such a terrible mistake, he wasn't angry at all and even comforted me...
His thoughtfulness and tolerance caused her affection for Greg to shoot up another notch, completely out of her control.
“Thank you, Senior Greg!”
She lifted her head, a bright, genuine smile blooming across her face once more. The anxiety in her pink eyes was replaced by deep emotion as she nodded vigorously.
“I'll definitely be careful next time! I'll never make the same mistake again!”
On the surface, Greg maintained his smile, but inside, his heart was bleeding.
Sigh... No wonder so many guys back in my college dorm joined the ranks of simps one after another. Turns out some traits are genuinely untaught instincts, hardwired directly into human DNA!
On second thought, however, what was done was done; the water was already spilled.
Rather than continuing to put pressure on Silvia, one of the main heroines, it would be much more practical to find an opportunity later to give those three minor background characters a stern warning, ensuring they kept their mouths shut and didn't spread word of his identity or today's events.
That was a far more sensible corrective measure.
Realizing this, his self-loathing over his spineless simping faded somewhat.
After all, even though the heroines in this story were more troublesome and vicious than the next, their looks were undeniably right up his alley.
Were it not for that, no matter how great the gameplay was, he would never have had the sheer willpower in his past life to grind through 81 playthroughs to reach so many endings.
Rate on N.U.
