I'm Not the Hero! Volume 3, page 6
I love this world so much!
Whoever had made this world truly got it. They’d kept in the things you can only do in a game, but also made sure it functioned like a real world so you could do all the things you couldn’t in a game but should be able to if the game world was real. Which was why I was going to change the ending of this cursed event and overcome the trauma of my past.
It’s time to rewrite history!
I stared into Lily’s watery eyes and spoke words of condemnation rather than love. “I know what your secret is.”
He gave me a confused look. “What?”
Of course, I’d expected that reaction. It was one of the many possibilities I’d predicted when mulling over my revenge plan for hours and hours. Nothing he did would be able to stop me.
“Lily Harmonix. Class: Bard. Starting Level: 5. You’re skilled at performing, singing, and dark magic. You also possess the unique skill, Lorelei Voice.”
Lily looked visibly shaken as I listed off his traits. “Y-You’re mistaken! It’s true that my voice has special properties, b-but I’ve never done anything bad to...”
I ignored Lily’s prattling. Nothing he said would save him. “You were born in Rinesta, and are 19 years old. Both of your parents used to travel. Your name, Lily, was the name they originally planned to give their first child, but your mom had a miscarriage. You were bullied for having a girl’s name, which was what eventually led you to cross-dressing.”
Confusion crumpled Lily’s bewildered face as he completely lost his cool. “Cross what? I-I have no idea what—”
“You can drop the act now.”
“What act?”
“I know the truth! You’re actually a guy!”
Lily looked completely flabbergasted. “Wh-What are you saying? You must be under some misconception! I-I mean just look at me; would a man have breasts this large?”
Lily must have been getting really desperate if he was saying things like that, since they weren’t the kinds of things the ideal woman he pretended to act like would ever say. However, that was precisely the defense I’d been waiting for.
“Aha!”
I wordlessly grabbed Lily’s “breasts.” They were far softer and more voluptuous than any real boobs could possibly be, cementing my suspicions.
“S-Stop! Please!”
You just don’t know when to give up, do you?
My eyes narrowed. “I’ll prove here and now those boobs of yours are fake!”
Lily let out a shriek as I brought my hands up to his collar and grabbed hold. Undoing the buttons of his blouse one by one would be too much of a pain, so I used Rex’s relatively high Strength to just rip it right open. But what I saw then caused me to do a double take.
“Huh...? What?! How?”
There were no pads underneath Lily’s shirt. As impossible as it was, his unrealistically big and soft boobs appeared to be one hundred percent real.
“You monster...” Lily whimpered, bringing me back to my senses. She was blushing to the tips of her ears as she crossed her arms in front of her to hide her exposed skin.
I stared at her in horror, a low noise of denial tearing from my throat. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew very well what I needed to do next.
“I’m so sorryyy!”
It seemed I’d managed to overcome my trauma of years past only to replace it with an entirely new one.
❈❈❈
“So, you’re saying you were told by someone that I was actually a man pretending to be the perfect woman and that I was going around deceiving other people for my own benefit, and you actually believed that?”
“Y-Yes!” Lily gave me an incredulous look. I couldn’t really blame her; my story sounded ridiculous even to myself. But still...I couldn’t believe that Lily really was a girl.
“A-Are you really not a guy, Lily?”
“I’m not!” Lily exclaimed, looking offended.
She definitely seemed like a genuine woman, but...it didn’t make any sense. When I’d first met Lily in this world, our initial conversation had convinced me she was a man here as well.
“H-Hold on! Then why did you look so surprised when I said I knew your secret?”
“Because I was hiding the fact that my voice was special and that I could use dark magic.”
I let out a choked noise. She has me there. In fact, she looked way more shaken when I mentioned her abilities than any of the other subjects we spoke of.
At first I’d assumed her response was part of the act, but in retrospect I could see she’d probably been truly afraid.
“Th-Then what about your older sister who was never born?”
“I told you before, I don’t have any siblings! And as far as I know, my mom never had a miscarriage. She got pregnant with me around the end of her journey and my parents moved to Rinesta after that.”
“B-But then why did you lie about being old enough to drink?”
Her brow wrinkled. “That wasn’t a lie, though. I turned twenty a month ago.”
“What?!”
All of my arguments are being shot down one after another!
Clinging to my last ray of hope, I said, “W-Wait, but didn’t you say you were bullied because of your name? Wasn’t that because you were given a girl’s name as a guy?”
That had been the main thing that had convinced me Lily was a guy in this world too. Had Lily truly been a girl, then she wouldn’t have been bullied for having a normal girl’s name. So far Lily had been able to provide reasonable explanations for all of her other words and actions, but this wouldn’t be as easy to explain away! However, she just gave me a puzzled look.
“I did? I don’t think I was ever bullied for— Oh!”
Lily nodded, as if suddenly remembering something. Then she took out the instrument that she’d used multiple times during our little dungeon exploration session—her harmonica.
Don’t tell me...
Lily smiled bashfully and said, “I wouldn’t say I was bullied, exactly, but the other kids did tease me for playing the harmonica when my last name was Harmonix. But it was because of my last name that I started to get interested in music in the first place, so it wasn’t all that bad.”
The only thing that stopped me from screaming, “Seriously, the punch line was you were teased about your last name?!” was the knowledge that the real Rex would never be so uncool.
I was out of ammo. Everything Lily had said made perfect sense. But it was still so weird! At the very least, the Lily in BB had undoubtedly been a man. There was no room for debate there. Both Lily’s fans and haters had dug deep to find all the story events related to the character that they could, either because they liked him as-is, or were hoping to find something to support the theory that he was lying about being a guy. However, even if you continued Lily’s storyline past the reveal, there was absolutely nothing that suggested it was a double-layered deception and he was actually a girl after all. Furthermore, most of his events had no real branching choices. You couldn’t trigger any event where you got back at him for tricking you, and if you wanted him in your party you instead had to shower him with goodwill even after the way he’d treated you. Eventually you’d get a scene where he said, “Ugh, you’re a hopeless pervert. Honestly, the thought of traveling with you disgusts me, but I suppose if you really want to serve me that badly, I’ll come with you. You’ll make for a nice footstool at least.” Even after joining your party, Lily’s personality never changed, and he didn’t really get any other events.
If this world worked the way the game did, Lily would have absolutely been a dude here as well, I thought. But somehow that reality hasn’t come to pass.
“I see you still don’t believe me. In that case, I have only one thing to say.” Lily brought her face closer to mine. She didn’t look angry anymore; in fact she looked as though she almost pitied me.
“What?”
“This isn’t a story, and the kind of person you described can only exist in fiction, not reality.”
I crumbled to my knees. She was absolutely right. Her words finally cleared up my confusion.
I see... It all makes sense now.
I’d still been treating this world as a game, which was why I hadn’t thought too deeply about Lily’s situation. But if you took a more meta view of this world, and thought of it as a universe that followed consistent rules, you could see the problem with Lily’s backstory. In fiction, you occasionally encountered characters who pretended to be the other sex. In games and light novels especially, they were all over the place. But of course, such people typically didn’t exist in reality—which was why Lily, who’d mostly lived according to the womanly build and voice she’d been given in the game, had ended up being a woman in this version of Braves and Blades.
This world might be based off of the game world of BB, but it was still a real, living breathing world. It was just like how in the Maze of the Immortals, the skeletons had only spawned once instead of infinitely. Most things were identical to how they’d been in the game, but anything that was too far removed from reality was adjusted to fall in line with the rules of the world. People who looked and acted and sounded too much like the other sex had simply had their sex swapped. As a result, Lily Harmonix was a woman in this world. Actually, considering her age and the fact that she didn’t have an older sister, it was highly likely that in this world she was the older sister the male Lily in the game was supposed to have had. Which meant the person I’d been trying to get revenge on this whole time didn’t even exist in this world.
“Do you believe me yet?” Lily asked.
I nodded despondently.“Yes. Sorry, I must not have been in my right mind.”
But just as I apologized again, I suddenly realized something. Hang on, doesn’t this mean I’m in a really bad spot?
Since Lily was really a woman, what I’d done to her was assault. Furthermore, Lily had been recording it all with her crystal, so there was irrevocable proof of my actions.
If she wants, Lily could screw me over just as badly as in the game! It’d probably be even worse this time. Cold sweat started pouring down my back.
“Umm, Rex. I have a request.”
“S-Sure, what do you need?” I braced myself, preparing for the worst.
Seeing my terrified expression, Lily chuckled. “Would you be willing to hire me?”
“Huh?”
That was not what I’d been expecting. Seeing my wary expression, she continued, “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you,” and gently embraced me, pressing my face into her bosom.
“Uh, Lily?” I had no idea what was going on.
“Poor Rex. You must have been at your wit’s end if you believed such a ridiculous story.”
“Huh? What?”
“Don’t you remember what you told me that evening you got drunk? You hated how people were putting you up on a pedestal, but you couldn’t afford to rely on anyone else for your mission, or go back to your hometown of Japan. You’ve worked so hard all by yourself this whole time.”
My face went pale. Holy shit, how much did I tell her when I got drunk?!
“But it’s okay. I’ll support you from here on out.”
“W-Wait, Lily...” I trailed off, my protests dying in my throat.
“I’m not like Recilia, who ties you down and tries to control you; or like Veteram, who works you to the bone; or like Mana, who idolizes you so much she doesn’t see the real you.” Lily looked up at me, her eyes full of kindness. “I and I alone am your one true ally.”
My thoughts were a mess, and the softness of Lily’s boobs wasn’t helping me think any more clearly. However, there was one thing I was certain of.
She’s the kind of girl who gets easily duped by shitty guys, isn’t she?
And so, on that day, I gained the most valuable pawn I could have ever hoped for.
Interlude: The Intersection of Light and Dark
“Where are you escorting me to today, brother?” Recilia asked, her expression as flat as always.
Despite her lack of emotion, I’d spent enough time with her now that I could pick up on the more subtle shifts in her tone to gauge her mood. I could tell she was teasing me with the way she glanced at me, and also that she was in quite a good mood.
Ever since she saw that kiss mark on my cheek she’s been pretty pissed, so this is a nice change of pace, I thought with relief.
I’d been planning on having a longer discussion with her to clear up that misunderstanding, but when I’d told her there was somewhere I wanted to take her, she’d immediately brightened up and given me a warm smile. I felt like I’d wasted my time steeling myself for this confrontation, but at the same time I was ultimately glad she was willing to hear me out properly.
“I’m taking you to a restaurant called the Wyvern’s Perch,” I replied, and Recilia visibly perked up.
“Isn’t that the restaurant famous for its high-class food?!”
“Yeah.”
When BB had been a game, it hadn’t particularly mattered whether the food of a particular establishment had been good or not, especially since restaurants didn’t have any real mechanical benefits, and existed mostly to flesh out towns. So I hadn’t really paid too much attention to them. But while I didn’t care that much about restaurants, if this brought a smile to Recilia’s face, it was worth taking her there.
“Th-That’s a surprise. I didn’t think you’d invite me to such a nice place, brother. U-Umm, is it all right for me to go dressed in these clothes?” Recilia asked hesitantly.
“We’re adventurers—I don’t see any problem.”
If I recalled correctly, part of the setting lore was that adventurers’ formal wear was just their combat clothes. As a result, a lot of the important characters that showed up in the game wore their armor about town, or when they were giving speeches, and so on. I suspected the real reason things were like this was because it would have taken a lot more time and money to prepare sprites for every character in different outfits, but regardless I was grateful that was how this world worked.
“Umm, I’m pretty sure it’s right around this corner... That’s it, right?”
“Hmm, it certainly does exude a refined aura. I never imagined I’d visit an establishment like this with you brother, but since we’re here, I’d like to—”
Recilia broke off, her smile freezing in place. I followed her gaze and immediately spotted the cause.
“Hello, Rex! And you must be the sister I’ve heard so much about! It’s nice to meet you!”
Standing right outside the restaurant was Lily Harmonix, the other person I’d invited to today’s meeting. And she was dressed up even more than usual.
❈❈❈
“So, care to explain what’s going on here?” Recilia asked, her words dripping with venom.
“Well, like I told you before...” I trailed off at the look on her face.
Recilia’s good mood had evaporated instantly when she spotted Lily. She seemed even more put out than she had yesterday morning. I’d assumed the reason Recilia had been in a bad mood was because she’d mistakenly believed I’d gone out to fool around with prostitutes that night. Furthermore, since Recilia had been insistent that I consult with her before doing anything, I’d figured I could introduce her to Lily, who’d agreed to work with me, and clear up the misunderstanding in one fell swoop.
“You shouldn’t be so hard on him, sister,” Lily said with a smile.
“I don’t recall giving you permission to call me ‘sister,’” Recilia retorted coldly.
Oh no...
I hadn’t expected them to be this incompatible. While Recilia was always like this, Lily was acting more aggressive than usual. She still had the same cheerful smile as always, but she was clearly taunting Recilia on purpose.
“I understand you’re afraid someone might steal your beloved brother away from you, but isn’t it about time you grew more independent?”
“D-Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not afraid! Besides, we’re not even...” Recilia suddenly trailed off and glanced back at me. “No, never mind. It’s nothing,” she finished, calming down.
“Is that so?” Lily cocked her head, looking a bit disappointed that Recilia had backed down so quickly.
I, of course, knew what Recilia had been about to say. Her brother wasn’t me, but Rex. However, I had no intention of revealing that to Lily, and it seemed neither did Recilia.
“C-Calm down you two,” I interjected. “Now that we’ve introduced ourselves to each other, let’s get down to business.”
I’d originally wanted the two of them to get to know each other better before discussing work, but at this rate it looked like their relationship would only deteriorate.
“Like I explained to you before,” I continued, “Lily’s going to be helping me gather information from here on out.”
While I had a lot of game knowledge, I was still just a regular person. In a world without the internet, I had no way to efficiently collect information. Fortunately, Lily did. She wasn’t particularly skilled in combat, but she was far more sociable than I was. She was much better suited to this job than Recilia too. However, it seemed Recilia wasn’t happy with my decision.
“Will this girl really be able to help? She doesn’t know the first thing about you, brother.”
“Well I do know about ‘Japan.’”
“What?!” Recilia turned back to me in shock, and I furiously shook my head.
“Ehee hee hee,” Lily started giggling as she watched my panicked reaction. “Don’t worry, I simply heard Rex mention it when he was drunk; I don’t know the particulars of his situation.”
Recilia shot me a withering glare, and I silently mouthed an apology. But frankly this was a problem with Rex’s body, and not my fault.
“But...” Lily continued, “even if I don’t know everything, I believe I can still help. Besides, being willing to support someone even without hearing all of their secrets is proof that you truly care about them.”
“I don’t like her,” Recilia said, pouting. But she didn’t protest Lily joining our group any further, which meant she must have accepted her at least. In fact, she looked a little relieved that we’d be getting more help.
