NOVEL NEXT chapter 8
8
Chapter 2: Forbidden Love 1, Passionately Discussing Gal Games
“Hideyori-kun, let’s play!”
I hear Emi asking to come over to the house.
“Oh my, welcome Emi-chan,” the aunt says, inviting her into the house.
Strange…
I have no intention of interacting with the game characters, so why do they come over from the other side?
Is this the coercive power of the game?
“Look, Hideyori, Emi-chan has come to play.”
“I’m here~”
“Please go home…”
I was playing Smash Bros, which I recently got from my uncle, but Emi’s arrival forces me to stop.
Because I only have one controller.
And I want to play more games.
In a few months, elementary school will start.
Once school starts, I won’t be able to live a life of just playing games all the time.
Before I was reincarnated, I was all fired up about graduating from games and getting into romance…
I wanted to be reincarnated as Takeru Jumonji, not Hideyori Akechi…
In “Breaking the Chains of Sorrow,” there are tons of cute heroines!
Even Emi, a side character, has a pretty cute face.
If you’re talking about the heroines, there are even cuter and more beautiful ones.
I wanna meet them so baaad!
I wanna marry my favorite so baaad!
I’m not as bad as the main Hideyori, but I’m starting to get a little annoyed with the protagonist Takeru…
That guy, despite being incompetent, is super popular.
Why does Hideyori only have Emi’s shadow as a woman?
And since I’m controlling it, Emi’s favorability is zero.
I guess Emi’s favorability in front of me is probably zero too.
“Hideyori-kun, you’re playing games again?”
“Uh… isn’t that fine…”
Ever since we played in the park, Emi has been inviting me to hang out more and more.
Something feels off…
Sure, the game’s Hideyori was always with Emi.
But that’s only because I was manipulating her will with a gift.
However, I never intended to bend Emi’s will with a gift.
Something feels twisted.
I wonder what kind of events are waiting if she comes to my house with zero favorability. What if it’s maxed out?
“But look! I got a controller to match game-loving Hideyori-kun!”
“Eh? You bought a controller?”
“Yeah. Mom just bought me the controller.”
“You bought a controller just to play games at my house…”
What kind of parents, I thought to myself unconsciously about Emi’s family.
“Yeah! It’s fun!”
“Is it fun to have a controller that’s not even connected?”
She’s the type of girl who can have fun just sitting on a swing or climbing up a slide.
Just holding the controller is supposed to be fun.
“But Hideyori, you have a variety of games, don’t you?”
“Yeah, every year the dating sims are hot.”
“Dating sims?”
Currently, I’m playing Smash Bros to relieve stress, but originally, I’m a dating sim gamer.
However, no matter which game store I searched, the game “Breaking the Chains of Sorrow” didn’t exist.
Nor could I find anything on the internet under that name.
“There are a lot of girls drawn here, huh?”
“That game, you see, has this shy young lady who’s just so adorable! At the start of the game, she greets you with a bow, saying, ‘Um… I’m not very good with men, sorry…’ But by the end, she’s telling you she loves you. Hyaah, I love it too!”
I couldn’t buy the PC version, so I had to settle for the console one.
Ah, the young lady trope is great!
“…It’s not fun.”
“Eh…?”
A girl who gets excited just climbing up a slide saying it’s not fun is kind of scary…
What happened!?
“What’s wrong, Emi!?”
I’m getting worried, wondering if she caught a cold or fell ill.
After touching my forehead, I touch Emi’s.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a temperature difference…
“What’s wrong, Hideyori?”
“No, I thought you might have caught a cold…”
“That’s what you do in times like these.”
“Eh?”
Emi lifts her bangs and presses her forehead against mine.
Emi’s face is right in front of me.
Where does she learn stuff like this…?
“…”
“…Isn’t Emi’s forehead getting warmer?”
“Hau…”
Emi quickly pulls away.
I started to worry if you had seriously caught a cold.
“Where do you learn to say things like that…?”
“On TV, the one mom was watching…”
*Sigh*
I take a deep breath to calm my fluttering heart.
Even children not yet in elementary school have such knowledge?
The world of dating sims is terrifying…
If someone told me a kiss could cure a cold, I might just fall for them unconditionally…
“Hideyori-kun, why did you think I had a cold?”
“Well, when someone who always says ‘fun’ suddenly says ‘not fun,’ what else would you think?”
“But, Hideyori-kun, you said ‘like’…”
“Eh?”
Emi shows me the game package.
It’s a game about a boy who transfers to a school exclusively for young ladies.
“Yeah, yeah, the girl on the far left, she’s supposed to be shy, but she’s all aggressive with kisses and cuddling! ‘You are special to me’… I mean, come on, that’s irresistible!”
“…Not fun.”
“Eh? Why?”
Emi seems out of sorts today.
Does she really hate playing indoors that much…?
Maybe Emi, with her indoor face, is actually an outdoor person.
“Look, look, isn’t this girl on the left cute?”
“…Not at all. It’s just a drawing.”
“That’s a taboo word, taboo!”
No good…
I can’t find a way to gloss this over with Emi.
Even this game feels like a world of drawings…
“Look closely. You might not get the inner cuteness, but check out the illustration! This girl, she’s the ‘tearful beauty mark’ character. Beauty marks near the eyes are cute, right?”
“Beauty marks near the eyes…?”
“Yeah, yeah, girls with beauty marks near their eyes are just unconditionally cute, right?”
“Eh? Is that so?”
“Having a beauty mark near the eyes makes a girl a hundred times cuter! I absolutely adore it!”
“Th-that’s… embarrassing to say…”
Right, I can’t talk about this with my uncle and aunt.
But I’ve been starving for a friend to share my passion for gal games with.
Ah, I’d forgotten this is what it feels like to gush about your favorite character!
I wonder if my otaku friends from my past life are doing well…
“The beauty mark near your eyes is cute too, and the way you express your affection is super charming.”
“Don’t say that! You’re making me blush, Hideyori-kun!”
“Mint-chan is the best!”
“…Huh?”
“Eh? Why is Emi’s mood swinging so high and low?”
It’s because I’m practically an old man inside, I just can’t grasp the feelings of children younger than elementary school students…
I need to dive deeper into gal games to understand the hearts of girls.
One more round, I’ll conquer Mint-chan’s route.
“I’m going to throw this game away…”
“Wait, Emi-chaaan!?”
I tried my best to stop her, but it ended up being forbidden to bring out such games in front of Emi…
What a pity…
Next time, I’ll buy an otome game and get excited over the cute female protagonist.
Emi should be happy with an otome game, I think.
I vow to have it ready for next time.