“Iris!!!”
“Hyek?!”
The moment I saw her blood, my mind went blank.
Before I knew it, I was running towards Iris.
I snatched her arm that was stabbing her leg with the small knife, causing it to fall to the floor. Her trembling eyes finally met mine.
“Wha… What are you doing…?”
“What the heck is this?!!”
As I yelled at her, Iris tightly shut her eyes to avoid my gaze.
But I couldn’t let her off the hook like that. I continued to press her with a heated voice.
“Iris. I’m asking you, what on earth are you thinking?”
“Th-That is… I accidentally… Hehe…”
“Accidentally?”
I was taken aback.
Is this really her excuse right now?
What I saw was clearly her self-harming.
“……”
“I-I’m fine, really! You don’t need to worry about me…!”
When I fixed my blazing eyes on her, Iris spoke to me with teary eyes.
“I-I really am fine..! You don’t have to think about me…!”
After finishing her sentence, Iris quickly turned her head to escape from me.
But there was no way I was going to let her go like that.
I grabbed Iris by the hand and halted her steps.
“Where are you going? We’re not done talking yet.”
“Ugh…”
Iris, who had been trembling, began to shout at me with tearful eyes.
“J-Just don’t worry about it!! We’re not close anyway…!”
“……”
“My heart hurts so much because of you!! It feels like my heart is going to tear apart…!”
“Iris.”
“I-I know I did something wrong, but… If I don’t do this, it’s just too hard… Ugh…”
After saying that, Iris covered her eyes and started to cry.
I could only stare at her for a moment, dumbfounded.
I had no idea.
I never imagined that being rejected would throw me into such deep shock.
I thought I would only feel a bit sad.
But it seemed the wound ran deeper than I had expected.
‘…The original Iris never cried like this.’
The Iris in the novel certainly…
…Oh.
I see.
The original Iris didn’t cry from the pain of unrequited love.
That’s because she had never experienced heartbreak to begin with.
Iris had kept her feelings bottled up for her entire life. Eventually, she resigned herself and buried her feelings.
Did that version of Iris ever find happiness?
Even though I didn’t get to see the end of the novel, I couldn’t imagine she ended up with someone.
She probably lingered near the hero party, feeling bitter.
I couldn’t exactly say I was close with Iris, but I wanted her to be happy.
As one of the readers who felt sorry for her, I didn’t want to see her sad like she was right now.
Not just Iris, but I wished for all the characters to be happy.
Because this place was no longer just a story to me—this was the world I truly lived in.
Once I had that thought, everything seemed clear.
‘…I’ll help her.’
I wanted to make Iris, who wasn’t happy even in the story, smile.
I wished she could walk around laughing like the other heroines.
As I resolved myself and lifted my head, I saw Iris trembling and sniffling.
“Iris.”
“Pl-Please don’t worry about me. I don’t want your pity… Ugh.”
“Iris—”
“I d-don’t want to hear it..! I appreciate the concern, but… If you really care about me, please leave…!”
“…”
..This isn’t good.
The atmosphere was utterly unmanageable.
It seemed like I needed to lighten her mood first.
‘But how do I do that…?’
Surprisingly, a method came to mind quickly.
Having once lived as a man, I understood Iris’s feelings well since she liked women.
‘…Although I’m a little hesitant.’
It felt uncomfortable to touch someone still, but with Iris, I thought it might be alright.
She was pure and delicate. It shouldn’t be a big deal, right?
‘Besides, I’ve already been through this once…’
“Huh… Ugh…”
I took a short breath and held Iris’s hand, which was still trembling from crying.
“Iris.”
“Ugh… I said don’t pity me…”
“Do you want to touch my chest?”
“I d-don’t need…”
Iris blinked and stared at me blankly for a moment.
“Eh.”
Her tears came to a complete stop.
*
– I’m really okay, Ariel.
“Not a single thing looked okay, Iris…”
I cautiously looked in the direction Iris had left.
Throughout the day, Iris’s condition was truly not good.
She wore a sad face that obviously had a story behind it.
‘I wish she would understand the heart of those who worry…’
Maybe because she was the saintess, my friend was as nice as could be.
She never wanted to trouble anyone.
Perhaps the reason she didn’t share her struggles with me was that she didn’t want to worry me.
But as long as I was awake, I wouldn’t let that happen.
I couldn’t just leave my friend’s pain to go unaddressed.
And someday, I was going to become the great wizard that surpasses the great sage.
I was someone who would join the hero party and contribute to defeating the Demon King, leaving my name in history.
In that sense, it was only natural to worry about Iris as a friend and as a member of the hero party.
“This way, right…?”
Actually, I had secretly cast a tracking spell on her while Iris wasn’t looking.
Considering she entered a dark alley to avoid people, the reason she was suffering this much must be there.
‘…Could she possibly be getting threatened?’
Thinking it might be possible sent a chill down my spine.
For someone to do such a depraved act in this academy, especially to a saintess like her.
‘…Wait for me, Iris. I’ll help you.’
So I stealthily followed the direction Iris had taken.
In the back of a seemingly gloomy space, I suddenly heard a woman’s voice.
“Huh… Ha…”
It sounded like someone was stifling their moans in pleasure.
The sultry groans echoing from that dreary place heated my heart.
“Iris..!”
Had she really fallen under some threats?
What kind of crazy person would dare touch a saintess?!
I suppressed my anger and dashed toward the alley from where the sounds came.
That scumbag.
I would never forgive him.
I would rain meteors down on—
“Haang..! Huh…”
“I love you… I love you…”
“Ha… Huh… Iris… That’s enough now…”
“Just a little more… Hah…”
“……”
“……Huh?”
The powerless sound escaping my lips came out like a deflated balloon.
But what lay before me was shockingly shocking.
A beautiful woman, who seemed to be in a sensuous mood, with her eyes closed, biting her own fingers to stifle her moans.
Opposite her, there was Iris, groping her two forbidden areas like she was molding clay.
“Ha…! Huh…”
The black-haired woman trembled in her body once.
My eyes shook as if an earthquake had hit.
The kind friend who never knew how to smile at others and always sacrificed herself.
The foolish girl who put others first no matter the cost.
But who was this woman with such a lustful face, squeezing another’s fruits?
“Iris..?”
W-What is she doing?
You can’t just touch those areas recklessly.
And… it’s with another woman.
Is such excitement okay?!
But no matter how much I tried to wipe my eyes and look properly, the one caressing that beautiful woman was undeniably Iris.
‘This is strange… this is all so strange!’
I couldn’t process the bizarre scene unfolding before me.
Just touching a chest was already inappropriate, but with another woman?
My brain felt like it was flipping upside down.
“HuH?! Ah… Iris, don’t touch that?!”
Ultimately, I had no choice but to leave Iris behind and flee the way I came.
After running like crazy for a while…
“Hah… Huh…!”
Once I emerged back into the crowded academy courtyard, I finally felt like I could breathe.
I stood still for a while, trying to steady my breathing, but my mind remained blank, and nothing came to mind.
For some reason, my body was slowly heating up.
Thump-thump—thump-thump—
‘Why.. why is my heart racing like this?’
The heart pounding inside me was continuing to beat fiercely even after some time.
It must have been from the run.
Yes, that was definitely it.
The reason my heart raced was surely because I had been running so fast.
The reason my hot breaths were coming out was also definitely from exhaustion.
There couldn’t possibly be any other reason.
…
“….I didn’t get a wink of sleep.”
The shocking memories of yesterday kept me awake all night.
Thanks to that, I spent most of the day training struggling to keep my head up.
“Is something wrong, Ariel?”
Iris, gazing at me with a concerned expression.
Where had the haggard look from yesterday gone? Her complexion had returned to a healthy glow, and a warm, bright energy surrounded her.
She had come back, back to the original version I knew.
But for some reason, I couldn’t look at her the same way as before.
“You don’t seem well. Should I treat you?”
…That’s your fault.
The words almost slipped out of my mouth, but somehow I managed to hold them back.
Telling her I had seen everything wouldn’t gain me anything.
I had thought long and hard about Iris’s actions throughout the night.
But no matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn’t understand my friend.
In the end, I concluded, ‘Perhaps Iris didn’t receive proper education when she was younger.’
But even so, I didn’t have the confidence to persuade her.
After all, I hardly knew much about love myself.
‘What if Lily could help?’
Maybe Lily could persuade Iris.
She was a hero.
If the hero said something, wouldn’t the saintess change her mind?
With that resolve, I set off to find Lily to ask her to talk to Iris.
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