WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Picked Up the Protagonist’s Heroine ◈
Chapter 2: The First Heroine
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“Why did you reject them all?”
The junior who had watched me play from behind spoke up.
She was the one who had made the cute-girl dating sim, and the one who had made me play it.
Tilting her chair back, she looked at me as though I were something strange.
She wore a black skirt and was crouched on her chair in a dangerously precarious position.
Was I really that little on her radar? It stung a little.
“The story said the protagonist saves the world. If the world is ending, does romance matter? What a weird game.”
“What do you mean, weird? This is how they normally are! It’s an ordinary cute-girl dating sim!”
Which was exactly why it was weird...
Ordinary people did not consider dating sims ordinary in the first place...
Had she expected normalcy after naming it What If I, a Commoner, Enrolled in an Academy and Cute Girls Liked Me Way Too Much?!
“I didn’t see any event CGs, so I’m asking. It’s not an adult game, is it?”
“Well, you’ll find out if you play it again.”
“I definitely have no intention of playing it again.”
“And we’re adults, so what’s the problem?”
“There are plenty of problems, aren’t there? This sort of thing is a club activity...?”
“Don’t call it ‘this sort of thing’!”
“You said it yourself just a moment ago.”
Well, the truth was, none of the romanceable heroines were mature older-sister types, so I had not pursued any of them.
It was simply a matter of preference.
I preferred the Academy teacher to the younger heroines.
A woman whose age did not begin with a three did not look like a woman to me, though in special cases, I could make an exception for someone in her forties.
Still, telling that to my junior would likely endanger my social standing, so I had blamed the game’s story instead.
Putting aside my slightly different tastes, anyway.
Because I had no interest in the heroines, I had even tried dropping out of the Academy altogether. Yet every time, Laward died in bizarre ways.
He was hit by a carriage going around 10 km/h, or a wound from being hit by an apple became infected and killed him, and so on.
The game system went out of its way to kill Laward in the most pathetic ways possible.
Laward had to graduate from the Academy no matter what.
They had probably not implemented events with other characters, so they forcibly kept him at the Academy.
It was a game-like solution, if nothing else.
“Honestly, you’re supposed to pursue cute girls. What do you mean, pursuing the mastermind? I only told you to play it because I wanted to know your taste in women...”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Nothing. Anyway, congratulations. It’s the only ending where the protagonist saves the world. A hidden ending.”
She spoke dryly as she pushed up her glasses.
No.
It wasn’t as if I had wanted a hidden ending.
“It’s a hidden ending that only appears when every heroine’s affection is at its lowest. Getting the hidden ending on your first playthrough is a talent in its own way.”
“It’s a happy ending either way. If you choose a heroine, you waste your time fooling around with her while neglecting the mastermind, and the world ends.”
“You can still die beside the person you love most. No matter how much of a hero you become, isn’t that more romantic than dying alone? An ending where you spend your final moments with the person you chose just before the apocalypse!”
She enthusiastically clasped her hands together.
Hm.
Her tastes weren’t normal either.
Back then, I had held my tongue because I did not want to add fuel to my fired-up junior’s excitement. But now, I could say it with certainty.
Definitely.
“It was just a bad ending.”
* * *
The slums.
A slave trader’s hideout.
A boy struggled against the ropes binding him.
It was Laward, the protagonist.
His unkempt black hair seemed to represent the harsh life he had led.
His tanned skin looked as though it had been stained by the rough, dark shadows of the slums.
The golden eyes barely visible through the hair covering his face were like gold bars found in a mud pit.
Knock, knock.
At the sudden sound, the two slave traders watching Laward raised their heads.
As though rehearsed, both men looked toward the door at once.
“Who is it at this hour?”
“No one followed us, right...?”
They whispered as quietly as possible.
Knock, knock.
The knocking continued.
“Tsk.”
“Go chase them off already.”
The slave traders reluctantly approached the door.
Slowly, with daggers hidden behind their backs.
Creak.
One of them opened the door a crack and faced the unwelcome visitor.
“Hey, you’ve got the wrong place. Get lost.”
He bluntly addressed the hooded man beyond the door.
“I’ve come to bring good tidings.”
The hooded man, on the other hand, caught the door with one firm hand as he spoke brightly.
“Do you believe in the Goddess?”
“A preacher...?”
The slave traders inwardly sighed in relief and loosened their grips on their daggers.
It happened occasionally.
Fanatics would suddenly knock on their doors and demand that they believe in a god.
“In the fifth verse of the Chapter of Blessings, the Goddess said...”
“She probably said it was your mom.”
The slave trader irritably tried to shut the door.
Crunch.
The fingers gripping the door through the gap held firm.
“You really should believe.”
The hooded man held the door that the slave trader was pulling with all his might using only one hand.
“What kind of strength is this...?”
Clatter!
The door flew open, and the hooded man forcibly entered the hideout.
At the same time, the slave traders realized.
He was no ordinary preacher.
At this point, they had no choice but to stop him.
“I told you that you had the wrong place...”
They gripped their daggers again and charged at the hooded man.
“I told you that you had the wrong place, you bastard!”
The instant they rushed in with all their might, the hooded man strangely clapped his hands in delight.
“Ah, wonderful! You wish to meet the Goddess right away! In that case...”
Hummm.
Hot light blazed from both of the hooded man’s hands.
“I’ll send you there quickly, in one blow.”
Crash!
When the hooded man’s fist struck the slave trader’s face, his head burst apart with absurd ease.
It happened in an instant.
Literally one blow.
“Ugh, aaaagh!”
Seeing that sight, the other man screamed and thrust his dagger forward.
At the hooded man’s side.
It was a surprise attack aimed at his blind spot.
But.
Whoosh!
Without even turning around, the hooded man reached out.
Though he had launched a surprise attack, the hooded man’s hand moved before the slave trader’s dagger.
Slice!
As the light-drenched knife-hand passed over the slave trader’s neck, his head fell cleanly as though cut by a sword.
Thud.
The headless men collapsed in an instant.
Trickle.
The sound of blood trickling was the only sound in the hideout.
Step. Step.
The hooded man.
Daywin.
Walked across the bloodstained floor and approached Laward.
“Do you believe in the Goddess?”
Laward, pale as a sheet, frantically nodded.
‘Good.’
Since he had killed the slave traders who insulted the Goddess, Laward might have taken it to mean that he would be killed too if he did not believe.
But the result was what mattered.
Daywin had searched the slums across the country before finally finding Laward.
At last, he had reached the protagonist and inserted himself into the game’s scenario.
Unlike before.
Unlike the harem route.
‘Now, I only need to plant faith in him.’
The protagonist would become a paladin.
“...Thank you for saving me.”
Laward, still tied up, painfully bowed his head.
“You should not thank me.”
Daywin looked down at him and spoke in the most serious tone he could manage.
“If you wish to offer thanks, pray to the Goddess. The Goddess led me here.”
He lied with a solemn expression.
“The Goddess gave me a revelation that a boy in need of help was here.”
In truth, it had not been a revelation. He had only managed to find the place because it appeared in the game’s opening.
According to the Act One scenario, Laward was supposed to escape on his own, then be discovered by a passing Academy teacher who recognized his talent and enrolled him in the Academy.
But Daywin had interrupted that flow.
It did not matter if it was a lie.
It did not matter if the result was manufactured.
Now was the time to give Laward an experience that transcended common sense and reason.
To instill faith deep in his bones.
“The Goddess... knows things like that?”
“What an insolent thing to say. The Goddess knows all.”
The words Daywin had never said before felt like thorns on his tongue, but he endured.
Soon, it was time to deliver the final blow.
“Yes, Laward.”
Daywin spoke the boy’s name.
Since he said it before they had even introduced themselves, Laward flinched as expected.
‘Now you’ll ask how I know your name.’
“How do you know my name...?”
‘Just as I thought.’
Daywin slightly raised the corner of his mouth beneath the hood’s shadow.
“I told you. The Goddess knows all.”
Laward looked up at Daywin with an entranced expression.
He was falling for a fantasy-world cult.
“The Goddess commanded me to save you.”
Judging by his expression alone, he had already been won over.
“How can I repay this kindness...?”
“Pray. Repent and worship.”
Then.
“Become a paladin.”
It felt as though lightning flashed through Laward’s mind.
His eyes widened.
“Become the sword of God.”
Each word Daywin spoke made Laward’s gaze shake violently.
It felt as though an inescapable destiny had entered his life.
Moreover, Daywin looked like a divine apostle to Laward.
He had lived a life far from faith, but he had vaguely heard myths related to the Goddess.
Stories of angels in particular.
Stories of faceless angels descending into the human world to save the poor and suffering.
He had always believed they were impossible fantasies, but now...
Laward witnessed one.
He could testify to it.
Daywin’s deeply drawn hood cast his face in shadow.
Furthermore, behind his head floated the halo that marked a paladin wielding divine power.
The round ring of light backlit Daywin.
With his face hidden by the hood and the backlight, Daywin looked more than enough like the faceless angel from the myths.
‘That story... was true.’
As Laward’s misunderstanding began, Daywin pulled out a scrap of paper and scribbled something on it.
“Take this.”
He handed over a copy of Scripture along with the scrap of paper.
“Once you have taken the Scripture to heart, send a letter to this address. I will teach you the path of a paladin.”
Daywin barely held back the laughter threatening to escape and traced a holy sign before Laward’s forehead.
* * *
“Young Master, a letter has arrived. It’s another letter from Laward.”
Just as the head steward said, a letter lay on the desk in the study.
When I opened the envelope and took out the letter, I saw Laward’s painstaking handwriting.
『To my honored teacher.
I hope you have been well.
This is Laward, offering his greetings.
As spring arrives and all living things return to life, I sincerely pray that health and happiness may always be with your household.』
For an uneducated kid from the slums, his greeting rivaled a principal’s address.
Had he practiced just to send this letter?
Since that day, I had kept in touch with Laward and taught him the process and fundamentals needed to become a paladin.
I had merely taught him a lowest-tier F-rank spell, yet he had started calling me by the burdensome title of teacher.
『Thanks to the material and moral support you have provided, I took first place in the Academy entrance examination.』
“First place, huh.”
No matter how things went, the protagonist was still the protagonist.
If I had not sent him to the Academy at all, he would not have formed ties with the heroines... But then the world would somehow kill Laward.
It would kill him in some absurd way.
I had no choice but to push him into the Academy.
『Graduating from the Academy with outstanding grades grants one the privilege of joining the Royal Knights.
Even so, as you instructed, I will volunteer for the Paladin Order.
Like you, I wish to become an apostle of the Goddess and help those in need.
I will never forget the grace you showed me when you saved me that day, until the day I die.
I will study and strive even harder.
Respectfully,
Laward』
“Heh, heh.”
I covered my mouth and suppressed an unseemly laugh.
“At last. At last, I succeeded.”
I had searched the country for Laward, steadily supported him, and planted faith in him.
As a result.
The protagonist had entered the paladin route.
Paladins regarded not only marriage, but even the passions in their hearts, as terrible sins.
A paladin who failed to remain pure committed a grave sin by that fact alone.
Only those who defied human instinct were acknowledged.
The more I thought about having walked that path, the more self-pity I felt.
I’d worked hard holding myself back all this time.
That bastard who married five cute girls would now become a paladin in my place.
He would bear the task of saving the world.
Along a solitary, noble, lonely path.
With this, Laward’s romance routes were practically sealed off.
Everything was going according to plan.
* * *
“I heard the Goddess called Laward out behind the old school building?”
“The old school building? That’s... the confession spot.”
“The Goddess.”
That was the nickname of Ester, a first-year student in the Academy’s Magic Department.
It was a fitting nickname for a girl whose overwhelming beauty was beyond description.
“Didn’t you get it wrong? Laward didn’t call Ester out. It was the other way around?”
“Don’t you know anything? You’re close with Laward. Didn’t you spar with him before?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know that bastard. That worst life-form in humanity...”
Rumors spread quickly, and Laward promptly lost even the few friends he had.
“It might not be a confession. It makes no sense for the Goddess to have a man she likes.”
Unable to endure any longer, the male students ran to the old school building.
When they got there, Ester really was standing in a secluded place behind it.
Ester.
Her silver hair drew every eye.
Her subtly orange-tinted eyes resembled the dawn.
Even the slightest smile from her red lips, which stood out against her luminous pale skin, seemed to change the air around her.
Whenever her alluring gaze beneath long lashes swept past them, every male student mistook it for her looking at him.
Even an illusion was enough.
Perhaps because of that, countless male students had called Ester out to the old school building ever since she enrolled. Every one of them had their hearts half-shattered against her ironclad defenses.
But now.
“Yes, I am saying that I am interested in you.”
She confidently told Laward.
The girl who had only ever received confessions was confessing herself.
“You took first place in the entrance examination, didn’t you? I have been interested ever since. I felt there was much I could learn from you. Besides, you are the only man who does not call me the Goddess. So, what is your answer? How long do you intend to keep me standing here?”
Unlike Ester, whose embarrassment showed despite her efforts to hide it, Laward wore an indifferent expression.
It was strange.
Normally, he should have looked surprised or happy, but Laward’s face remained dry and stiff.
And perhaps.
He even looked displeased.
Ester was flustered by his unexpected reaction, but she tried not to show it.
“Well, I suppose so. A woman like me has just said she is attracted to you. I understand if you are flustered.”
Ester swept back her hair and put on a confident expression.
At that moment, Laward strode toward her.
“W-What is it?”
As the distance between them suddenly closed, she blushed and took a step back.
‘Other students are watching... If we date, w-we should start by holding hands...’
She had naturally assumed her confession would succeed, but this sudden leap ahead was outside her expectations.
Just as she began to feel her heart flutter at Laward’s unexpectedly aggressive attitude...
“People certainly call you the Goddess.”
Laward opened his mouth.
“Yes. It was not my wish, but I cannot deny that I receive much attention. So you should consider it an honor...”
“How dare you.”
In that instant, Laward’s eyes sharpened.
“You do not know your place.”
“...Excuse me?”
“You are nothing but lowly flesh, yet you dare be called by Her holy epithet. It is blasphemy. You disgust me.”
Laward looked down at her.
He glared at her with contempt.
“You would do well not to appear before me again. This is as far as my forbearance goes.”
Laward turned away with cold eyes.
According to the game’s scenario, two choices would have appeared during the old school building event.
Accept Ester’s confession.
Reject Ester’s confession.
Choosing the first began Ester’s principal wife route. Choosing the second led to the harem route and Ester’s losing route.
But Laward chose a third option.
Crush Ester’s heart.
He had gone beyond the choices.
Laward had met Daywin and developed deep faith.
To him, Ester only seemed irreverent.
She was vulgar for harboring lust in a place of learning.
Meanwhile, Ester covered her lips with a trembling hand.
She stood blankly for around three seconds before her large eyes slowly filled with tears.
Her facial muscles had not yet caught up with reality, but spitefully, her tear ducts reacted on their own.
“Eh...?”
Ester, the first heroine.
For the first time in her life, she experienced the humiliation of being dumped by a man.
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