Living long enough, I never thought there would come a day when I’d wear something like this.
No, in fact, is it even right to call what I’m wearing now “clothes”?
The basic premise is that it’s functional swimwear for swimming… but still, revealing as it is, it feels like one wonders if it should even be called clothing when you think about the meaning of clothes.
There isn’t enough room to properly contemplate what clothing really is, so I won’t write much about it.
“…”
I stood silently with my head bowed deeply.
I never imagined a day would come when the absence of anyone staring at me would feel this frightening… someone might ask, does it even make sense for a medieval fantasy game to have a beach?
I don’t know about that stuff.
It’s just that if the game creators made it, then it exists, right? Arguing whether it makes sense for that era or not is meaningless, isn’t it?
And… in a game with plenty of cute characters, events where you wear swimsuits and play at the beach seem pretty plausible, don’t they?
After all, it’s an RPG, but at its core, it’s a story-based game.
‘I didn’t expect I’d end up wearing something like this!’
Some might say, “Why are you so uncomfortable just because you’re wearing a swimsuit when you can’t see or hear anyone anyway?”
That’s true in theory.
Since I can’t sense anyone looking at me, I shouldn’t feel embarrassed, right?
I know that in my mind, but human emotions aren’t so straightforward.
Firstly, the fact that I can perceive even if I can’t see around me is the problem.
It wouldn’t feel so embarrassing if I couldn’t sense anything at all, but I can feel Uriel and Stella looking at me like I’m cute.
And…
‘Why is Evan staring at me like that?!’
I can feel Evan’s strange gaze too.
The more he looks at me, the more I inexplicably feel embarrassed, and without realizing it, I use both my hands to cover my body even more.
‘Why do I feel embarrassed in front of Evan…’
Feeling embarrassed when Uriel and Stella look at my body isn’t much different, but there’s something distinct about the emotions from their gazes.
To be honest, it’s not that surprising when Uriel and Stella look at me with cute expressions since they are both female, and over two years of being in this body, I’ve fully acknowledged how cute my body appears.
Even if I’m detecting my face with Divine Power, even setting that aside, when I first customized this body, I designed it to look undeniably cute to anyone who saw it.
Thinking about it from another angle, showing such a fragile, cute girl’s appearance to them while enduring so many deaths has been shocking.
‘Given this body, showing them such death scenes would have been pretty shocking…’
Even if I were an adult, showing someone a cruel death would be shocking to those who inhabit this world, but showing them as a young girl enduring various forms of death likely causes immense mental strain.
Hmm… I haven’t personally experienced it, so I can’t fully understand, but moving on.
The story might’ve drifted a bit, but to summarize: My appearance undoubtedly looks like a doll, with a level of cuteness and beauty that would make anyone say so.
So…
‘I guess I understand…’
At first, I was flustered by the thought that Evan was sneaking glances at me and didn’t know what to say, but I decided to let it slide.
Evan is a guy, so he might sneak peeks at a cute kid wearing a swimsuit, right?
Wouldn’t he?
That’s what I want to think.
It’s just a small hope of mine that Evan isn’t into that kind of thing.
My deflated demeanor was perceived differently by the two, and they began nervously praising me with embarrassed voices.
“Wow, she’s incredibly cute!”
“Hmm… I don’t know how to describe it… Evan, don’t look.”
“What, what am I not supposed to look at?!”
“You’ve been staring at Aria ever since we got here. Do you think I didn’t notice?”
Huh…!
Since it wasn’t anyone else but Stella saying this, it really snapped me back to reality.
Lately, it seemed like Evan hadn’t been approaching anyone, so I was worried that their relationship hadn’t progressed.
Judging from my experience as a fan, when someone says things like that to a boy around their age, it’s 100% because they’re jealous of another girl.
‘Hmm…’
For some reason, it makes me feel good.
Maybe it’s because I’ve realized that Stella actually likes Evan. Even if the two aren’t together, I’ve always subtly hoped for a harem scenario in some way. The fact that someone likes Evan makes me feel as though my character is happy, which, in turn, makes me feel good.
Evan isn’t my character, but I feel a familial kind of connection, like I need to be responsible for him in some way.
‘Stella, you…’
You’ve been pretending otherwise but you’ve actually liked Evan, haven’t you?
‘You must be so embarrassed~’
She hasn’t realized her own feelings yet, but it won’t be long.
The day will come when she acknowledges her feelings, and that will surely be the day they grow closer.
‘Hmm…’
Evan is quite lucky, really.
With Stella and Uriel, both main heroines in the game, and both incredibly beautiful, he’s managed to secure these two flowers with both hands.
Well, not just two hands.
There’ll be more to come, right?
‘Not entirely sure why he was looking at me… but I can understand it somewhat.’
Maybe he actually wanted to look at Stella but felt he’d get caught if he stared directly, so he pretended to glance at me instead while sneaking peeks at her.
To me, doing something like that will earn him more disdain than good, but if that’s what he wants to do, I don’t feel the need to interfere.
If he’s going to look, he should do so openly rather than pretending to look at me while sneaking glances at Stella and Uriel.
I can’t even see anything with my own eyes, and it’s already making me sad. Watching this guy who can see clearly with two functioning eyes, not look at the two beautiful flowers but at someone who hasn’t even bloomed yet—me—it makes me so angry.
I’m embarrassed, but I’m not backing down just because of that…
Since there’s nobody looking anyway, I’ve decided to stand up boldly.
‘This is revenge.’
This is purely revenge.
Even Uriel, who’s so kind, would surely look at Evan with disdain if she realized he’s been looking at my body.
Wouldn’t it ruin any chances for a romance triangle?
He’s the one who rejected the opportunity.
While I sincerely hope they all find happiness, I don’t want them to do so at my expense.
I haven’t even been able to date a girl, and I’m already feeling down.
Revenge must be taken.
I slowly took my arms away from covering my body and awkwardly adjusted my hands.
As I confidently exposed my body and turned slightly to Evan, like I was showing off to him, I heard flustered voices from the two.
“A-Aria?!”
“Showing yourself so boldly like that…”
Ah, as expected, this kind of reaction.
What’s wrong with that?
“[Even though I might be clueless, I can tell just by looking at you all that I’m not all that feminine, right?]”
How could I not realize that!
“[In fact, I think you might be paying more attention to Sister Uriel or Sister Stella instead. Thinking about that made my embarrassment disappear.]”
“…”
“Umm…”
Uriel and Stella looked at me with strange expressions.
They looked a little sad.
Or maybe frustrated…
What’s wrong?
I turned to Evan out of the corner of my eye, but even he looked at me with an expression that said he found me somewhat pitiful.
No, it’s not that… does he feel something else?
It’s a complex mix of emotions, so I’m not quite sure.
“[Hmm…]”
Let’s move along, it’s getting a bit long standing here like this. Shall we go inside?
“[G-guys, let’s just go into the sea…?!]”
Since continuing this way didn’t feel right, I pointed towards the sea and shouted for everyone to come play with me.
While I tried to change the atmosphere this way, their gazes towards me remained unchanged.
…
What exactly is going on…?
Did I just say something really sad?
Not really, as far as I can tell.
Geez, this feels so suffocating!
I almost snapped and was about to ask why they were acting this way, but I managed to hold myself back.
It’s quite embarrassing that my carefully maintained mask almost broke because of something like this.
Sigh.
