The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent – 150
EP.150 Rolling Stone (1)
A week had passed since the start of the second semester. Fortunately, nothing unusual had happened. The masked woman had vanished once again, my abilities had returned to normal, and as a result, I had no major issues attending classes.
I was back to rewinding time as usual to study, understand, and absorb the material… The lessons contained a lot of practical knowledge necessary for navigating this world, so there was no harm in making sure I fully grasped them.
"In other words, not even a goddess can turn back time. This world is governed by strict physical laws. Sure, things like magic exist, but in the end, their effects can't escape the boundaries of physics."
That was the explanation given by Ada, our physics and mechanics instructor.
I listened absentmindedly.
Well, that was a reasonable perspective. Even if the physics of this world weren’t as advanced as the 21st century I had come from, and even if theories about time branching into parallel worlds were non-existent here, it was only natural for people to assume that time couldn’t be reversed.
After all, in both this world and the one I came from, no one had ever successfully turned back time. Not a single person. And just as heliocentrism replaced geocentrism with the progress of science, if I couldn’t scientifically prove my ability, there would be no way to explain it to others.
So, I had no intention of arguing with her statement.
However, someone else did.
"Uh, Professor?"
Johannes.
He wasn’t an important character in the original story. Even in this world, he wasn’t particularly noteworthy. We had never really interacted. I only remembered him because he was in my class and because I had memorized the names of the more prominent NPCs from the original work.
That said, I did recall one key detail about him. He was a devout follower of the Goddess.
"It doesn’t make sense that a divine being would have something they can’t do."
"Oh?"
Ada, however, didn’t seem particularly interested in his challenge.
She had mentioned once that she had been teaching here for ten years. Having started in her early twenties, gotten married to become "Baroness Strange," and continued working as a teacher even after, she had likely fielded this kind of question countless times before.
"Yes, exactly. For example, in the scriptures of the Goddess Church—"
"—There’s an example of time being rewound? Like winding back a clockwork spring?"
Ada interjected nonchalantly, shutting down Johannes before he could continue, then shrugged.
"Let me ask you something. Do you think winding back a clock’s spring is the same as reversing time?"
"Uh… no, not exactly, but…"
"Neither do I. Even if the world functioned like a clockwork mechanism, and even if the Goddess wound it backward, time itself would still flow. The hands of the clock might move in reverse, but the passage of time wouldn’t actually change. To the Goddess, time would still be moving forward. The events may have been reversed, but that doesn’t mean the timeline itself has shifted backward."
"Uh…."
Johannes glanced around, searching for an argument before hesitantly speaking.
"But in that case… wouldn’t it be the same as turning back time?"
"From our perspective, sure. But not from the Goddess’s. The positions of the stars, the grains of sand that had fallen, the flowing water—those might all return to their original state. But absolute time would still be moving forward. The Goddess, who rewound the clock, would still feel time passing outside of it."
Johannes tilted his head in confusion.
Honestly, I kind of agreed with his sentiment.
*
I was slowly building a conversation with Mia Crowfield.
We had never been particularly talkative with each other to begin with, but I couldn't just leave things as they were.
Besides, I had liked almost all of the original heroines. Of course, that included Mia Crowfield as well. While I could never approve of her parents, who were the worst kind of people, Mia herself was a character who never forgot what her family had done and worked hard to overcome it.
I liked Claire, Alice, Charlotte, and Lottie—all of them. Even the commoner heroine I had yet to properly meet.
There was only one heroine I truly didn’t like.
"My name is Sophia Bianchi. Starting this month, I'll be studying with all of you. I look forward to it."
A girl with long, violet hair and matching violet eyes bowed slightly toward the class as she introduced herself.
There was a natural elegance about her, though it was different from the dignity exuded by Alice or Charlotte. Hers carried less pride and more humility.
If I had to put it simply, rather than the refined air of royalty or nobility… it was closer to the grace of a clergyperson.
Yes.
The girl standing before us was none other than the heroine from the Papal State. One who was supposed to appear next year, according to the original story.
I had to exert every ounce of control to keep my shock from showing. If Alice had seen my expression, she would have reacted in one of two ways—either with an incredibly serious look or by bursting into laughter. Maybe even both at the same time.
"Sophia is from the Kingdom of Velbur. With the Empire’s approval, she’ll be studying here alongside you all," our homeroom teacher, Carolyn, explained as she stood beside Sophia.
That was a lie.
Sophia Bianchi was from the Papal State. But officially, only clergy were considered citizens of that nation. Most of them were orphans taken in from other countries.
Among those orphans, the ones with exceptional abilities or deep faith typically became clergy, while the rest lived as monks or nuns in name, though they were practically just citizens who spent their days in prayer.
Sophia Bianchi had demonstrated remarkable talent from a young age, which allowed her to become a priestess.
And she enjoyed her position.
She was someone who found cutting people down to be fun.
That meant…
Sophia’s violet eyes turned toward me. The moment our gazes met, her eyes curved into crescents, forming a warm, seemingly innocent smile. A gaze designed to lower the defenses of those who saw it.
…Yes, that was exactly the kind of character she was.
A character tailor-made to appeal to middle school edgelords. The type who would emerge from a battle covered in blood, laughing maniacally.
A concept that reminded me of the cringeworthy personas my friends and I played around with back in middle school.
…God, I really didn’t like her.
*
Sure, if those middle school syndrome powers were real, it wouldn't be just a phase. But for me, it's just a game, so I can't really relate with it. After all, she wasn’t a real person.
Besides, this character was one of those who got heavily pushed by the story early on, hyped up as ridiculously strong.
There was even an event where every major character introduced in the first game had to lose to her at least once in a one-sided battle. And the way she won was especially infuriating. It wasn’t a hard-fought victory or anything. No, it was always something along the lines of, "Oh my, did I go too hard on you?"
Sure, the series didn’t carry over stats between the first and second games, but still—wasn’t that a bit much?
She did later regret some of her actions and eventually joined the party, but that awful first impression never really went away for me. If anything, I leaned more toward disliking her rather than just being indifferent.
And yet…
"Sylvia."
She kept approaching me so familiarly, as if we were close, which made me extremely uncomfortable.
If only she had shown up as an enemy at first, like in the game, I could have openly expressed my dislike. But—
"Shall we eat together?"
"Do you have any plans after class?"
"Oh my, are you going to a café? May I join you?"
She was so bold about it that I had no way to refuse. At least with Mia Crowfield, it had been obvious that she felt uncomfortable around me at first, so I could act cold in return. But Sophia wasn’t like that.
"Sophia."
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who found her presence unsettling.
Alice, who had somehow ended up sitting at the café with us, called out to her.
"You said you were from Velbur, right?"
"Yes, from Lutetia," Sophia answered with a smile.
"Oh, really?"
Hearing that, Charlotte studied Sophia Bianchi carefully.
A foreign student transferring in with the Empire’s approval—into the noble class, no less—meant she had to have some level of status. That should have made her someone Charlotte would have at least heard of.
"But I've never seen you before."
A reasonable doubt.
"I'm not very skilled in social gatherings," Sophia replied effortlessly. "And my family only holds a knightly title, so I never had the opportunity to meet a princess like yourself."
That was a perfect response. It left no room for suspicion.
"…I see?"
Though still a bit doubtful, Charlotte let it go for now.
"Lady Bianchi."
"Please, call me Sophia."
She responded immediately to my call.
"…Lady Bianchi, have we met before?"
Ignoring her request, I got straight to the point.
Sophia Bianchi’s violet eyes curved into crescents once again as she smiled.
"Not at all. Never."
…She answered with complete confidence.