The Protagonist’s Party is Too Diligent – 81
EP.81 Suspicion (1)
Whether she was a character planned for a sequel or one who was never intended to appear in the game, it was clear that Lena Meyer posed a significant threat to me.
First of all, the fact that the Governor had specifically requested the Emperor to admit her was very concerning. The Governor was a character who had only been briefly mentioned in the game, and I had never met him, so I had no idea what his personality was like or how he judged me. The Emperor, on the other hand, was a person whose true intentions were impossible to discern, even when meeting him in person.
At least I knew the Emperor’s portrayal in the game. I knew how he viewed the world and its people, how he regarded the Empire’s citizens and nobles, and what his plans were for utilizing them. Because of my presence, he was acting much more docile than in the game, but he was still someone to be wary of.
So, what kind of person was Lena Meyer?
A bit stiff, with a soldier-like manner of speaking. Yet, she had a youthful and attractive appearance.
…She didn’t look like just an extra to anyone.
Oh, of course, even if she had been an extra without a dedicated model, everyone here had different appearances. The village shopkeepers, the market merchants—they all had different faces. But even so, there weren’t many people who stood out as blatantly as she did.
Lena Meyer, with her strikingly strong character design, was the first I’d seen among the supposed “extras.” The fact that she was a year younger than us also made her seem like a character who could reasonably appear in a sequel.
…Yes, there are plenty of characters with a cool demeanor, but not so many with an ice-cold beauty vibe.
I quietly observed Lena Meyer’s room through binoculars. The spot I occupied was the same as when I had observed Mia Crowfield previously.
I hadn’t brought a gun this time. Though Lena was suspicious, she wasn’t someone I felt needed eliminating. Honestly, even if she were a target, I’d find it disturbing to be tasked with killing someone younger than me.
So, I figured it was necessary to investigate her properly before deciding how to handle her. Whether or not to push her away could be a matter to consider afterward.
Although, in reality, it wasn’t likely that peeking into her room through a window would reveal anything significant—
—surprisingly, I did notice something odd.
There, on the bedside table in Lena Meyer’s room, was a stuffed doll. A doll as large as a human torso, which I hadn’t seen among her belongings when she moved into the room. She must have hidden it when she brought it in. If she had stashed it inside a storage trunk, she could have easily brought it in without anyone noticing.
I recognized the doll’s appearance easily. It was the character I had once considered using for my concept, “Digger the Dog.”
…To be honest, it wasn’t exactly a cute character.
Mascot characters from my world were meticulously designed to suit 21st-century tastes. Round, soft, and squishy characters were popular. Or ones that looked a bit odd and made you laugh just by looking at them. The characters I considered “cute” were those kinds of characters.
But here, it was like the early 20th century in terms of the timeline. The character industry was just beginning to emerge, and all the “characters” from this era in the original game were designed with early 20th-century tastes in mind.
Digger the Dog had a long body and very thin limbs. In the cartoons, his limbs moved limply as if he had no joints, probably to make even his movements look comical. His face, based on a brown puppy, was deformed to be somewhat cute, and his round body made him good for hugging. Of course, the limbs of the doll would hang limply.
And Lena Meyer was lying face down with her face buried in that doll’s body. She was probably taking a nap.
I silently put down the binoculars. Then I ran my hands down my face.
…So, she was keeping up a “concept,” too.
Yes, it did feel a bit like that. For a character supposedly devoid of emotions, her emotional changes were too easily noticeable. The anticipation behind her expressionless face, the way she acted as if she immensely respected me over the past week…
That meant, even if the expressionless face was an act, her respect for me was likely genuine.
I silently screamed and rolled around on the rooftop. Thankfully, I had laid out three ponchos on the ground just in case, so my clothes didn’t get dusty.
The problem wasn’t that our characters overlapped. If Lena Meyer was truly a cool beauty, I could gradually change my character over time to create a distinction. Or, if Lena Meyer maintained that character until the end, it wouldn’t have been a big issue if I also stuck to the cool beauty concept.
The problem was if Lena Meyer revealed her true personality. If we assumed Lena Meyer was a character from the original work, it was inevitable for her true personality to be revealed.
Because it’s a classic trope!
She might laugh at a silly joke, or her expression might soften while eating something sweet. Or perhaps, someone would barge into her room and catch her hugging that oversized stuffed animal.
Then, in utter embarrassment, she’d try to keep up the act, offering clumsy excuses that no one would believe, and eventually, her character would crumble, revealing her as the “adorably soft” type. Exactly. That was the scenario I had planned for myself.
So, what if Lena Meyer revealed her concept before me?
…Then, my own act would look redundant and ridiculous.
Realizing this, I stopped rolling on the ground and shivered. Goosebumps prickled down my spine.
The emotional impact of “Oh, she was just a normal girl?” and the disappointment of “You too?” were entirely different. The former was a fate and cliché of subculture characters, but the latter was the downfall of a nerd pretending to be normal.
Moreover, the reaction to a girl you just met and talked to for a few days would be different from someone you’ve known and talked to for ten years. If there was only one of us, people might just accept it, but if both of us were like that—
—There was no question which one would be more embarrassing.
“No way.”
I muttered unconsciously.
Lena Meyer’s concept must not be revealed before mine.
If I had known this would happen, I would have bought the dolls in advance and prepared all the lines! I kept postponing it because I wasn’t ready, and now this. If she’s a character meant for a sequel, she should appear in the sequel! Why is she already here?
Though there’s no proof she’s a sequel character!
I quickly rolled back into position and grabbed the binoculars.
“Huh?”
Lena Meyer, who had been lying on the bed, was now standing. Not just standing, but at the door. She was slightly opening the door, indicating someone had come to visit.
Once again, chills ran down my spine.
If someone outside entered Lena Meyer’s room—
They would see the large dog doll on the bed and the small porcelain dolls on the desk. Lena Meyer would have to explain herself, and that would be the first step in the cliché of a seemingly cold character’s concept collapsing.
I jumped to my feet.
There was no time to retrieve the ponchos on the ground. This was more urgent. I hurried down the stairs as quickly as possible.
*
These days, Sylvia Fangriffon was acting suspicious. Then again, Mia Crowfield had always found Sylvia Fangriffon a bit odd.
After their conversation in her room last time, Mia had stopped following her. There was nothing to gain from it. Following someone who could single-handedly turn the tide of a battlefield wouldn’t provide any solutions. Besides, Sylvia was the kind of person who, even in a closed space with someone clearly hostile, could calmly hand over a handgun.
…In a way, it was unsettling how Sylvia seemed oddly trusting of Mia, even exuding a sense of quiet confidence in her presence.
Moreover, Sylvia had given her a valuable gift: the blue marmaros stone. Without it that day, Mia might have ended up seriously injured or worse. Even Charlotte, who’d been the one to first suggest taking on that particular task, had apologized to Mia directly, acknowledging the extreme danger involved.
So, Mia had started to believe that Sylvia Fangriffon was perhaps someone she could cautiously rely on. Yet recently, she’d noticed that Sylvia’s gaze towards Lena Meyer had grown cold. Her eyes, lacking any visible emotion, studied Lena as though observing her. And no matter how hard Mia tried to shake it, she couldn’t ignore the sense of danger radiating from Sylvia. Which led to Mia impulsively standing in front of Lena Meyer’s door the first weekend after Lena transferred.
After a brief hesitation, Mia decided it would be best to say something. She couldn’t reveal everything, but she could at least offer a warning. After all, Lena Meyer was just a foreign exchange student who had no idea about any of this.
Mia took a deep breath, then knocked on Lena Meyer’s door.