Chapter 22 - Pretending It Never Happened
"Father!? Hey, Father!? What did you see!? Why are you on the verge of death!?"
Shaken by the shoulders vigorously by Angelica, I stared at Ayako-chan.
The typical library girl type.
Semi-long black hair, surely never dyed once. Skin pale all year round.
Bad at sports. Bad at talking to people. Her voice is small.
And yet, her chest pushing up the apron from inside was voluminous, and today she wore a vertical-stripe sweater in her casual clothes.
For Ayako-chan, who embodied the "ideal reading girl" that men dream of, to have such a fetish... even so, that's a bit much.
"This is too cruel."
Thinking back, Ayako-chan said her ideal man was someone like her father.
...I see. So I resembled her father when he was young.
No wonder the shop owner here was so sweet on me. If I looked like her husband when he was young, of course she'd dote on me.
"Father... are you crying?"
I forced my strengthless knees to move, standing up awkwardly with a creaking motion.
It was like forcing a machine that hadn't been oiled in a long time to operate.
"Are you okay, Nakamoto-san?"
Ayako-chan, who had risen from the register, pattered over.
Eep.
D-don't come near me, you pervert!
I almost let out a scream with high feminine energy.
When Rio's Status Appraisal showed her fondness, I felt a kind of happiness like, "Hey, I've still got it."
But this time, I feel nothing but pure terror.
"Father, what is this woman? A new type of demon?"
"...Don't worry. She's harmless. She possesses no magical power at all. Even if she tried to manipulate evil spirits, her MP is zero."
"Then what is she...?"
"Just an ordinary person with a twisted heart. No doubt about it."
"But being detected by the perception skill means she's as depraved as a demon or undead, right? Is she a person with such a messed-up mind that she gets crammed into the same category as them? It's theoretically possible, but..."
"Is this some kind of game talk?" Ayako-chan peered into my face.
"...Um, if you're feeling unwell, would you like to rest in the back room? I have medicine too."
"I'll pass. It's not that serious."
The way she pronounced "medicine" in katakana was scary.
"It's just gout. Don't worry about it. Occasionally I get attacks and can't stand up."
"...My father has gout too. So you have it too, Nakamoto-san... you're similar..."
For a moment, I felt an ominous light flicker in Ayako-chan's eyes.
No way. I don't want to stay here any longer.
As I whispered "Let's go" to Angelica, Ayako-chan called out to stop us.
Was she about to strangle her love rival on the spot?
I stretched out my arm to shield Angelica, and the crazed bookstore clerk said in a thin voice.
"That person over there, you have quite a different atmosphere today, don't you?"
"Over there" probably meant Angelica.
While I was frozen, Ayako-chan continued.
"How was it? That book. Was it of use?"
The person she was talking to was not me, but Angelica.
As for Angelica herself, she had a look of complete confusion.
"Me?"
"Yes. You came the other day too, didn't you? Thank you."
Had her daddy issues spiraled into full-blown madness?
Listening to the mismatched conversation, I stood there dumbfounded.
She's so cute, yet she's already this far gone at this age.
I want to save her, but even a Hero can't do it. You can't change a person's heart.
"Last week you came dressed like an old man, but today you look normal... Can I ask what kind of relationship you have with Nakamoto-san? No, just out of curiosity..."
Feeling danger, I pulled Angelica and left the store.
It was still the height of winter, and the outside air was cold.
My whole body was drenched in sweat, rapidly losing body heat.
For me, who had saved the world itself, to be driven this far in that short time.
"What was that girl all about?"
I advised Ange that it was a world she didn't need to know about.
Though I wish I hadn't known either.
I felt utterly exhausted.
"Let's rest."
I staggered and guided Angelica to a nearby hamburger shop, where I decided to take a break.
I used the restroom, rehydrated, and killed time chatting.
"Scary, though. Even though she's an ordinary person, she was emitting evil aura comparable to a high-rank demon, beep-beep-beep."
"Beep-beep-beep is the sound, huh."
"The perception skill... like, a map-like thing appears at the edge of your vision. The location of evil beings flashes. Like, beep-beep-beep."
"Huh, that's kind of interesting."
So Angelica's skill was also game-like.
It was completely "enemies displayed on the map in the upper right corner."
"If they're strong or their Attribute is close to pure evil, it goes beep-beep-beep. By the way, that girl just now, when I got close, it went beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep! A bright red dot flashed rapidly. Red is the color of malice. The redder, the more evil. Usually, demons show this color, but sometimes violent criminals turn red too. I heard it takes a death row inmate to barely show light red, but hers was blood-red..."
Had I been going to a store staffed by such a dangerous person for months?
Now I felt a chill.
"By the way, when you used your perception in my room, what did you see? There must have been a bunch, right?"
"My father's room? Hmm... Somehow, it spread out from me. And it was really scary."
"Centered on you, Angelica?"
"Yes, yes."
Angelica nodded vigorously.
"Like surrounding me, white dots radiated outward, whoosh. White is the color of spiritual bodies."
Surrounding Angelica, huh.
It seemed I was right to use Sacred Circle at that time.
A magic-repelling circle that fully protects the space within a three-hundred-meter radius around the target.
With that, there's no need to worry. I've dispelled it now, but I'll cast it again once the exploration is over.
"But maybe my skill's accuracy has dropped. Reacting to just an ordinary person..."
"No, I think it's perfectly functional. It correctly pinpointed an evil existence."
"Huh, why are you suddenly praising me?" Angelica looked happy, and I slid the menu in front of her.
"Let's order something."
"It'd be dull to just drink water and leave," I said with a smile.
Angelica had been fidgeting for a while.
She seemed restless, bothered by the smell of cooking in the shop and the sight of other customers eating.
"Is it okay?"
"A bit early, but let's just have lunch here. You're hungry from walking, right?"
"Grub, grub."
Angelica started humming another strange song.
Seeing her excitedly scanning the menu, I thought she was still just a kid.
"...I can read the letters, but it's full of proper nouns and I don't understand the meaning..."
"Oh, right. That would happen."
I remembered it happened to me a lot when I first went to the other world.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, I explained to Angelica what each food was.
Angelica ordered a cheeseburger set, and I ordered a teriyaki burger set.
When the food arrived, we cut our burgers in half and exchanged one half.
Once ready, we took big bites.
"This way we can enjoy both flavors."
Angelica smiled with a bit of pickle at the corner of her mouth.
It seemed I had sauce on my chin too, so we were even.
Treating a girl to a meal felt good. Even though it should have been an expensive expense, it didn't bother me at all.
My money was decreasing. Instead, my heart was being filled.
I ordered an extra oolong tea for Angelica, who was scared of the carbonated drink and wouldn't touch it.
Another expense. Even that made me feel cheerful.
...This is fun.
If I had stayed in Japan, would I have spent holidays like this with a wife and kids?
At my age, my children should be small.
I'd probably order a set with a toy for that child.
Even though it would be junk they'd get bored of soon, I'd watch them desperately collect it with gentle eyes.
...That kind of life might have existed.
A possibility that was now forever out of my reach, lost.
Well, it's fine.
My life is trash. The wreckage of a Hero stained with sin. I don't want to start over.
But Angelica isn't like that.
She's still young and hasn't sullied her hands with any wrongdoing.
This girl can still grasp her own future on her own.
A future where she's united with a man her age and has children.
For that, I need to give her an ID.
We finished our slightly early lunch and left the shop.
—Threaten Gondo.
A yakuza should know how to obtain IDs illegally.
Even if he didn't, I'd make him do something.
I'd use any means. I'm ready to break the law and not hesitate to use violence.
I've decided to be Angelica's guardian. She's my family, my daughter.
I'll protect her. I'll be a good Oyaji. I'll devote myself to my daughter.
By doing that for Angelica, those past failures will become as if they never happened.
—As if they never happened?
What was that?
Was that fleeting, nasty thought my true feelings?
Was I saying that by spoiling Angelica, I was falling into the illusion of making amends to those who had died?
"I'm the worst, aren't I?"
I muttered to myself, my breath fogging up.
Ah, yeah. I knew that much.
The affection I felt for Angelica wasn't born from desire or love, but from regret.
It was almost no different from an old man who wasn't popular in his school days dressing up a young woman he bought with money in a sailor uniform.
I wanted to regain lost possibilities through Angelica.
The possibility of myself who might have become a good father.
I gritted my teeth.
So what? If it's for this girl's sake, the motive doesn't matter.
"Father, you're making a scary face."
"It's nothing, Ange," I answered.
I'm your Father-in-law, after all. There's no way I'd scare my daughter.
The only ones I scare are villains and monsters.