Chapter 32: Black, White, and Gray
No matter if he is the hero or the last boss, there is no way he can survive after being kicked in the vital point. And so, Leon is still in the process of recovering from the injury.
”Well... it\'s understandable. He\'s a boy, too”
At lunchtime. I sat down on a chair in the cafeteria and murmured somewhat sympathetically.
I am sitting at a rectangular table for four. Urza is sitting next to me, and Jean and Arisa are facing us.
It\'s been a week since then, and still Leon has not come to school. Thanks to the absence of the irritating hero, my school life continues to be peaceful.
Ciel Uranus, his childhood friend and the heroine, still stares at me, but she doesn\'t seem to want to get involved because she did not even talk to me.
Furthermore, the purchase of Urza seems to have had a positive effect on the people around me.
The charm of this little oni seems to have eased my villainous look, and more and more of my classmates, including Jean and Arisa, have started to talk to me.
I feel that I have been able to blend in with my classmates, albeit only a little.
Despite all the commotion this girl has caused, I am once again glad that I bought Urza.
”This meat is... delicious, desu~no!”
Urza was eating a lot of food next to me after I had already finished my meal.
Perhaps it was because of her race as an oni-jin, Urza was a very big eater contrary to her appearance. I was always amazed at the way she happily ate a meal for five people.
Arisa, too, who was sitting opposite to Urza, shouted excitedly as she watched her stuff a mountain of meat into her small body.
”Aww, Urza-chan, you are so cute when eating. You look like a hamster with a cheeks stuffed with food. You can eat this one too, it\'s delicious, you know!”
”Mwah... Thank you, desu~no”
Urza took a bite of the cupcake offered to her.
Since a while ago, some of the girls, including Arisa, have been feeding Urza with desserts and sweets.
Urza looked unhappy at being treated like a child, but her appetite got the better of her and she reluctantly accepted them.
As I watch Urza chew with her cheeks full, Jean, who is sitting on the chair opposite me, opens his mouth.
”Anyway, that brave guy, he didn\'t come today either. Is he still feeling down?”
”...It seems so. A kid kicked his groin and almost made him unable to have children. If it were me, I\'d be traumatized too”
”Uh... yeah”
Jean\'s face is drawn and he holds his crotch with his hand.
Although he was not involved in the situation, that was a spine-chilling shivering scene. It was no wonder that Leon, the person concerned, was down.
”But... he\'s an idiot too. Trying to take someone else\'s slave. I wonder what he\'s thinking”
”......”
At Jean\'s words, I sip my tea in silence.
I had the same question.
Leon is certainly the type of hot-blooded protagonist whose sense of justice goes out of control, and he often acts on his emotions without thinking.
But I never expected him to do something so stupid.
”He\'s an intuitive fool, but I thought he was smarter than this. I don\'t know what\'s gotten into him”
I don\'t think Leon is the same person today as he was in the game.
Legal issues aside... trying to rescue a child from slavery was a very good-natured Leon-like action.
The only difference is that this is not a game but a reality.
The protagonist is not bound by the rules, but follows his own will. In the world of manga or games, this may seem unprecedented and attractive. However, if it were someone close to me in the real world, he would be a very troublesome person.
They would deny and try to take away what others have obtained by legitimate means, based on one-sided and unreasonable reasons such as a sense of personal righteousness. It was not a pleasant experience for those who were actually victimized.
I mean, in reality, it is not as simple as dividing the world into good and evil. There is a gray area in the world that is neither black nor white. Even the people on the gray side, who are not right but not wrong, are painted black by the hero\'s subjective viewpoint, which was a nuisance in itself.
While thinking about this, I open my eyelids with a depressed sigh and lift the corners of my mouth sarcastically toward Jean.
”...He\'s too serious and clumsy. There are things in this world that need to be overlooked and ignored. Isn\'t that what \'social skills\' are for?”
”Well... you\'re probably right. Although Brave is an idiot, I don\'t think he\'s a bad guy”
”I agree with you. I hope we can understand each other one day”
I gulp down the rest of the tea in one gulp.
Next to me, Urza had received the third cupcake and threw it into her mouth, which was covered with a sticky cream.