Just Because I Have Narrow Eyes Doesn’t Make Me a Villain!

TN: Thank James Baily for the chapter.

*Arte POV

“Huff, huff…”

“Are you okay?! Oh no, your body is covered in sweat… Help! There’s an injured person here. A healer!”

I returned from the battlefield, enduring the mind-numbing pain.

Thankfully, even amidst the chaos, an unknown superhuman noticed my poor condition, allowing me to receive healing quickly.

They must be busy just trying to block those spiders.

A mixture of gratitude and guilt welled up, creating an indescribable emotion.

“Is it this child?”

“Yes. Her condition seems serious. Sorry, but I’ll have to leave her with you for a bit.”

“Go on. Come back safely.”

“I can’t guarantee that. The situation is worse than I thought.”

With each inhale and exhale, with each movement of my body, pain surged from my side.

As I tried to catch my breath and endure the pain somehow, the woman who lifted the clothes Siwoo covered me with was horrified.

“…Bruises? Is there a traitor? Could it be those criminal bastards…!”

…Traitor? Criminal?

Using my mind, dulled by the pain, I tried to understand what this woman was saying.

Ah, I see.

The spiders’ attacks wouldn’t leave bruises.

If there were holes or wounds on my body, sure, but bruises.

It would be reasonable to think I was beaten by the people around here.

“… It’s not like that.”

“Tell me honestly! What did those guys…!”

“I said it’s not that. …I found the target. The villain hiding here. That’s who did this to me.”

“…!”

I hurriedly spoke to stop the woman, who looked ready to rush over and grab someone by the hair when I told her who had done it.

“Right now, Siwoo is probably holding off that person…no, that monster alone. We need to clean up here quickly and call for others…”

Siwoo is holding off that guy alone.

Saying those words out loud was painful, so I bit my lip hard.

Looking down at my body, my side was bruised blue to the point I didn’t think it would be healed to its original condition.

However, the pain slowly subsided.

But even now, as the pain gradually lessened, my heart was still throbbing and crying out in agony.

“…Is that child going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. He said he would be fine, but…”

…Pathetic.

I felt pathetic for needing Siwoo’s help just for this level of pain.

If it were him, he would have easily brushed off this kind of pain as nothing.

Despite having fought many times before, being cared for like this after taking a single attack made me feel so pathetic.

Before, didn’t I make a fuss about needing to raise Siwoo as a hero?

How arrogant of me.

“Don’t be too heartbroken.”

“Pardon?”

“Your face is filled with sorrow. Usually, kids like that tend to make poor choices. Do you think you abandoned that child and left?”

“… Isn’t that the case?”

“Who knows? If that’s what you think, then that’s what it is… That’s enough.”

She nodded her head, looking satisfied, and patted my side.

I reached out my hand to stop her, expecting pain, but the pain was already gone.

“Sometimes it’s okay to do what you want.”

“But…!”

“Well, it might be a bit awkward to say this, but… he’s someone precious to you, right?”

Someone precious.

I unconsciously tried to nod my head but hesitated for a moment as it seemed she wasn’t saying it in a simple sense.

Is she talking about love?

“…I don’t know.”

“Is that so? But what about the other way around?”

“What?”

“He stayed alone in such a dangerous place to help you, didn’t he?”

Ah.

I realized what the woman in front of me was trying to say.

I realized it.

“So even if you don’t think that way, that child might not think the same.”

Come to think of it, it was always like that.

Siwoo was always kind and caring towards me.

He protected me even when I suddenly had a panic attack at home.

It must have been uncomfortable for him to have someone else invade his personal space at home.

But he was still considerate of me.

Now that I think about it, at some point, the frequency of Siwoo looking at me increased.

I thought he was looking at me out of concern, worried that I might be overwhelmed with anxiety.

Of course, that might be part of it, but…

Does he love me?

“Then at the very least, you should give an answer to those feelings, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Then hurry and go. You said you have to kill all those terrible things to help him?”

I watched the back of the woman as she smiled at me once and ran off to find other injured people.

Love.

Something I never thought about. No, maybe it was something I knew but ignored.

The moment I became aware of it, I recalled the countless things I had experienced so far.

Siwoo spent most of his time with me.

I thought I was keeping an eye on him, but was it actually Siwoo who wanted to be with me?

Thinking about it again, I realize he spent a particularly long time with me compared to Amelia and Dorothy.

I thought the heroine race hadn’t started yet.

But was it actually already over long ago?

“…”

I could feel my face gradually heating up.

How did Siwoo feel about all the actions I had done so far?

Because I just trusted Siwoo.

Because I thought I wasn’t the heroine.

Maybe it was because I was an outsider, and Siwoo was the only one I could trust.

The images of my countless actions came to mind one by one, making me feel distressed.

What could Siwoo be thinking?

I couldn’t fathom his inner thoughts at all.

“…Ugh!”

But the embarrassment was short-lived.

Even with my face flushed red, I had to move right now.

Because to help Siwoo, I needed to deal with those guys as quickly as possible.

As I untied the clothes he gave me, I shot threads at a building and entrusted my body to it, just like I had seen in a hero movie before.

When I arrived at the dormitory, wasting threads due to the unfamiliar action and nearly using up all the clothes, I hurried to my room, not even caring that I was running around the dorm naked to change clothes as quickly as possible.

Then I opened the door and hastily changed clothes.

“…Ah, that.”

While doing so, I suddenly looked around the room and realized there were no unfamiliar objects.

Those are the things Siwoo cherishes.

Those are the things we bought together.
Looking at the room Siwoo and I shared, I realized.

All this time, I had spent most of my time in this world with Siwoo.

“…”

Watching over Siwoo, being with Siwoo, living with Siwoo.

If I consider coming here as being reborn, wouldn’t more than half of my life have been spent with him?

That thought suddenly came to me.

After changing into all my clothes, just as I was about to leave the room while wearing an extra layer of clothing for movement…

I felt my body trembling.

Was I unwilling to fight right away when my body had barely healed?

However, instead of succumbing to that trembling, I stroked my bracelet once.

The precious item Siwoo gave me.

“… It’ll be fine with this.”

If it’s dangerous, Siwoo will come to help me.

Because he will always be by my side.

As the trembling gradually stopped, I threw my body to move back to the battlefield.

The cold wind cooled my heated body, but my heart was still burning passionately.

I acknowledged it.

Because there was nowhere left to retreat.

I admitted it. The bracelet Siwoo gifted me provides much more reassurance than having a transcendent being like the Author attached to me.

…I had fallen for Siwoo.

I admitted that the feelings Siwoo harbored for me and those I harbored for him were no different.

I couldn’t help but admit it.

Maybe I had already fallen for him long ago.

***

“Damn it, there’s too many!”

“It’s endless…”

“Commander! At this rate, the front line will collapse! We’re forcibly holding it together, but this is the limit!”

“…”

The Commander anxiously bit his lip.

No matter how disobedient they are, they’re still his subordinates.

He had managed to keep them alive somehow, but even that was reaching its limit now.

Were they lacking in dealing with that endless amount?

“I thought we could hold out for about three more hours…”

“Are you crazy?! We’ve already endured for a long time! This much is already a miracle!”

Lionel’s lightning, rampaging more than usual, saying he needed to protect his daughter, decorated the sky.

Following the path of that lightning, the monsters were destroyed, but only for a moment.

They filled back up in an instant as if nothing had happened.

“…Hmm.”

They can still fight more.

He could feel that they weren’t out of strength yet.

He thought they could hold out for about three more hours because he judged these guys to have that much skill.

The problem was not physical strength but mental.

Facing those endless waves that keep pushing in no matter how much they block them, everyone started to have some doubts.

Can we block them?

Can we really survive here?

No one showed it outwardly. Because they know their mission and are prepared to die here.

However, no matter how much they tried to ignore it and put in the effort, they couldn’t prevent the morale from falling.

Retreating would be the right choice.

Give up on this place, regroup further away, and fight again.

The numbers have decreased to some extent.

If they regroup about five times, they can wrap this up.

…But his mouth wouldn’t move.

Because to retreat, they needed to leave some troops behind to buy time.

Troops to defend this place and buy time.

And buying time here was no different from telling them to die.

But the Commander forced his unmoving mouth to speak.

Because that was what he had to do.

Because he was in a position to make the decision to cut off the few for the sake of the many.

“It can’t be helped. Retry–”

Crunch.

Just as he was about to order a retreat, having hardened his resolve…

The countless spiders at the front started getting sliced apart all at once.

“Wha-What the…!”

“…This is our chance.”

The girl descended from the air, hanging on a single thread.

Everyone looked dumbfounded, unable to grasp the situation, but only the Commander could understand everything instantly.

Because that was his ability.

…To catch the culprit behind this situation, they needed to resolve this place as quickly as possible.

Reinforcements were also coming.

He made a swift judgment.

They had to see this through here.

“Reinforcements are coming! It’s a unit of ability users specialized in mass destruction! Everyone, just hold out a little longer!”

“Waaaaaah!”

Perhaps because they saw many spiders being sliced apart in an instant before their eyes…

He could see hope blooming in their hearts once again.