Whether they were supposed to appear in a sequel or were never going to be in the game from the start, one thing was for sure.
Rena Meyer was definitely a significant threat to me.
First of all, it was troubling that she was a student specifically requested by the governor to enroll at the emperor’s behest. The governor was just a character that passed by in the game, and since I had never met him directly, I had no clue what his true personality was or how he would judge me, and the emperor was someone you could never truly understand even if you met him face to face.
At least I knew the level the emperor was portrayed in the game. I could see how he viewed this world, each individual, and how he planned to utilize the subjects and nobles of the empire. My existence seemed to have made him move much more gently than in the game, but he was still someone to be wary of.
So, who exactly was Rena Meyer?
She had a somewhat stiff, soldier-like way of speaking. But she had a youthful and attractive appearance.
…Anyone could tell she didn’t just look like an extra.
Ah, of course, even if she were an extra without a distinct model, here everyone was an ordinary person with different looks. The shopkeepers in town, the merchants in the market, all had unique faces.
But still, among those people, not many stood out ‘obviously.’
I had never seen anyone with a character presence as strong as Rena Meyer among the extras.
The fact that she was a year younger than us was also noteworthy, and no matter how I looked at it, Rena Meyer was a character that wouldn’t be out of place in a sequel.
…Yeah, I vaguely remembered there being cool dere characters, but no cool beauty characters specifically.
I silently observed Rena Meyer’s room through my binoculars.
The place I was currently at was the same spot where I had watched Mia Crowfield before.
Naturally, I didn’t bring a gun. I had a slight suspicion of her, but I didn’t feel the need to eliminate her.
Honestly, even if I had to eliminate her, I’d feel uneasy about killing a child younger than me.
So, I thought it was necessary to properly investigate this person named Rena Meyer. Deciding whether to push her away could wait until later.
I honestly didn’t expect to gather any significant information just by peeking through the window—
—But surprisingly, I discovered one thing.
In Rena Meyer’s room, there was a stuffed doll placed at the head of her bed.
That gigantic doll, as big as a person’s upper body, was luggage that Rena must have seen while moving in.
She must have hidden it somehow. If she had put it in the storage closet and brought it all in at once, she could have avoided being seen by anyone.
The appearance of that doll was easily recognizable. It was the character ‘Digger the Dog’ that I had previously considered using as a concept.
…To be honest, it wasn’t that cute of a character.
In the world I lived in, mascot characters were thoroughly tailored to the tastes of the 21st century. Round and seemingly soft and squishy characters thrived in popularity. Alternatively, they were characters that looked a bit odd, making you laugh for no reason.
Naturally, the ‘cute’ characters I had in mind were also these kinds of characters.
But here, we were talking about the early 20th century.
The character industry had just begun to take its first steps, and all the ‘characters’ appearing in the original work were aligned with the early 20th-century aesthetic.
Digger the Dog had a long body and very thin limbs. In cartoons, its limbs looked as though they had no joints, flailing about, which was probably by design to make its movements appear comical.
Its face was a brown dog based character and was deformed enough to be decently cute, and its round body seemed nice to hold. Of course, its arms and legs would hang limply, but still.
And Rena Meyer was nestled against that doll’s body, face buried in it.
She probably was taking a nap.
I quietly lowered my binoculars.
And I wiped my face with both hands.
…Were you also a concept?
Yeah, it did feel a bit like that. It didn’t quite fit the image of a completely emotionless cool beauty character, as the changes in her emotions were too apparent. There was a sense of anticipation behind that blank expression, or the way she had been acting as if greatly respecting me for the past week…
What this meant was that even if her blank expression was an act, there was a high chance she genuinely respected me.
I let out a silent scream and rolled around on the rooftop. Fortunately, I had laid down three ponchos on the ground, so my clothes remained dust-free despite my antics.
It wasn’t a problem that my character overlapped with hers. If Rena Meyer had truly been a cool beauty, I could have slowly changed my character’s qualities over time to add differentiation. No, if Rena Meyer maintained that character until the very end, it might not have been a big deal for me to stick with the cool beauty concept.
The problem was if Rena Meyer got her true personality revealed.
If Rena Meyer was a ‘character meant to appear in the original work,’ then it would be obvious for that personality to be exposed.
Because it’s a cliché!
She might laugh at a trivial joke, or her face might occur with a smile upon eating something sweet suddenly, or someone bursting into the room catching her with a giant stuffed doll in her arms.
She’d be extremely embarrassed, trying to come up with all sorts of pathetic excuses to maintain her character, but no one would believe her, and eventually, her character would completely crumble, turning into a ‘cute character.’
That’s right.
I was pretending to have a character concept.
So, what if Rena Meyer had her ‘concept’ revealed before mine?
…Of course, everything would turn into a ridiculous backflip of me being embarrassed about my concept being exposed.
Thinking that far made me stop rolling on the floor and give my body a little shudder.
Chills ran down my back.
The feeling of ‘What? She was just a normal person too?’ and the feeling of ‘No way, you too?’ are completely different. The former is the fate of subculture characters and a cliché, while the latter is a breakdown of a regular person’s cosplay.
Moreover, the reactions toward someone you’ve just met and someone you’ve spent ten years talking to must differ. If only one of those was true, people might let it slide, but if both were present—
—There wouldn’t even be a need to think about which was more embarrassing.
“No way.”
I muttered without realizing.
Rena Meyer’s concept must not break before mine.
If I had known this would happen, I would have bought the doll in advance and prepared all the dialogues…!
I postponed this because my mind wasn’t ready, and now look where it got me.
No, if she’s a character meant to appear in the sequel, then let her show up during the sequel! Why is she interfering already!
There’s no proof she’s a sequel character anyway!
Quickly, I rolled back to my position and grabbed my binoculars.
“Hmm?”
Rena Meyer, who had been lying on the bed, was now standing.
Not just standing; she was by the door.
With the door slightly ajar, it seemed someone was coming to visit.
Once again, chills ran down my back.
If someone outside walked into Rena Meyer’s room—
They would see the large puppy doll on her bed and the small ceramic dolls on the desk.
Rena Meyer would have to explain it, and that would be the first step of breaking the concept of a character that looked cold on the surface, leading to the cliché of character breakdown.
I leaped up from my spot.
There was no time to collect the ponchos on the ground. This was more urgent.
I hurried downstairs as quickly as I could.
*
Lately, Sylvia Fanggriffon had been acting suspiciously.
Well, to Mia Crowfield, Sylvia Fanggriffon always seemed suspicious.
After talking with her in the room last time, I stopped shadowing her. There was nothing to gain, anyway.
Following someone who could turn the battlefield upside down alone didn’t seem to promise any solutions.
Moreover, she was someone with the courage to openly pass a gun to a person who was clearly hostile toward her in a space just for the two of them.
…That strange attitude with a weird trust in Mia was perplexing.
Additionally, she was the one who gifted a valuable-looking blue Marmaros to Mia Crowfield. If it weren’t for that, Mia Crowfield would definitely have been in serious danger or dead. It was a level of risk that Charlotte, who originally wanted to receive that commission, personally apologized to Mia Crowfield over.
For that reason, I thought maybe she could be somewhat trustworthy.
However, recently, Sylvia Fanggriffon’s gaze toward Rena Meyer had been quite unfavorable.
There was no visible emotion in her eyes as she observed, but Mia Crowfield couldn’t shake off the ‘danger’ sensation.
Because of that, on the first weekend after Rena Meyer was transferred, Mia Crowfield impulsively ended up in front of Rena Meyer’s room.
Deciding after a moment, she thought it was best to talk about it. Though she couldn’t lay everything out, at least a warning to be careful would be necessary.
After all, she was an international student totally unaware of those things.
Mia Crowfield took a deep breath and knocked on Rena Meyer’s door.
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