**Day 23 – Morning – Inn – White Weirdo Pervert**
This morning when we went to wake Haruka-kun… he was gone. Completely vanished. No luggage. Only a single note left behind. No words of explanation, nothing—he just disappeared.
"He's really not here… Probably left last night… Why… Why didn't he say anything…?"
The note read: "Going to check on the idiots. Wait here." So he went back to the forest… And "wait here" doesn't mean "I'll come back." When Haruka-kun writes about returning, he uses "return" or "come back." If he's not coming back… then what? A note this short tells us nothing. He has to say it clearly or we won't understand. Even if he did say it… we probably still wouldn't want to understand.
"Let's go to the forest… to the cave!"
"But… he said wait…"
"We have to go. Otherwise we're abandoning him again."
"Can we even fight? Against people? Against classmates?"
"We can fight… Even if it's against boys… even if we're scared… we'll fight… We have to save Haruka-kun…"
"Even if we can't fight, let's just go… Leaving him alone like that…"
"No! Absolutely not! It says wait, doesn't it? After he saved us, you want to die? I won't forgive that!!"
"But… Shimazaki-chan and the others are going, aren't they? Just them… only them…"
"We're fine with it! We're the ones under Control!! We were put under Control!! So we're okay!!" Shimazaki exclaimed
"Nooo—Shimazaki-chan, everyone—don't you understand why he said wait? The only ones allowed to go are people who can kill!"
"But! Haruka-kun is… alone…!"
"Saying he doesn't want to increase sacrifices… but he himself might become the sacrifice."
・ ・ ・
""""We're baaack—Signboard-chan! We brought souvenirs—… Huh? Class Rep?""""
Odacchi and the others returned…
Pandemonium. Chaos. Total disaster. Everyone talking over each other, incoherent, disjointed, no order, no logic—pure raging storm of discussion, heaven-and-earth-shaking pandemonium, a thousand thorns and ten thousand hardships. This—this is exactly what Haruka-kun meant by "Odacchi and the others' talent for not reading the room at all…"
First, Shimazaki-san and the others burst into tears, apologized, thanked everyone, bowed deeply—and immediately tried to head for the forest. We hurriedly restrained them. The sports-club girls who had somehow already fully armed themselves for departure got tackled too. For some reason Vice Class Rep B was already at the gate ready to leave—we dragged her back. Then we caught Odacchi and the others trying to sneak out pretending nothing was happening. Finally we forced everyone to sit down so we could at least decide on a plan and direction. My head is spinning, but someone has to take charge.
"Huh—?"
"'Huh—?' nothing! Why were you trying to go alone?!"
"Eh~? But you said 'The only ones allowed to go are people who can kill~' right~?"
"""…Yeah, she did say that…"""
Why exactly was this girl ranked number one on the school's "Good Person" ranking? Was it her chest? Did they pick her because of her chest? What part of that is "good"?!
"Shimazaki-san and everyone, calm down. We're all comrades."
"Please! We have to go!! We're alive, we got to see Odacchi and the others again, we got to apologize and say thank you!! So… so now it's his turn… Please! Let us go. We can kill!! We're the ones who can kill!!"
Shimazaki-san and the others already have overwhelmingly high levels. They're genuinely strong. Because experience points are being allocated to them from their Controller. Which means Haruka-kun has been fighting alone this whole time… alone… If it's Shimazaki-san and the others, they can fight even strong opponents. And for Haruka-kun's sake—for the sake of protecting his life—they would kill classmates without hesitation. They would.
Haruka-kun once said "They look at me with crazy believer eyes and it's scary," but it's not "like"—they really are his believers. They offer him frantic, desperate gratitude. Gratitude so intense they let themselves be Controlled without question. In a world that gave them no prayer, no wish, no salvation—he was the only one who did. They believe only in him.
And it's not just the girls—Odacchi and the others are the same. Everyone is ready to fight and kill for Haruka-kun's sake. Maybe it's just resolve for now, and maybe having to reach that point of resolve is already wrong, but still—they are heading to him carrying both the readiness to kill and the readiness to be killed.
"Even so, why do you think he said 'wait here'?"
While pinning down Odacchi and the others—who keep trying to sneak toward the forest without reading the room or joining the discussion—we keep talking.
"Dead weight?" "In the way?" "Doesn't want us to have to kill?" "Doesn't want us to get killed?" "Doesn't trust us?" "We're too weak?" "Thinks we're better off gone?" "Baggage?" "What Haruka-kun is most worried about is us being taken hostage."
""""Nah—we're fine! Our levels are over 70 now, and we're fully armed!""""
Apparently Odacchi and the others ignored all social cues and somehow leveled past 70. They probably power-leveled without reading the room at all. The guild master is called the strongest monster in this world, over Lv 100. With our isekai stat bonuses, Lv 70 should be equal or better. Plus cheats—so probably the strongest in the world right now.
Even so, the so-called strongest monster we can only just barely solo is a Big Green Wolf. That's the same wolf Haruka-kun sonic-boom obliterated, creating the mysterious new phrase "mass wolf body accident" in this world. And he's leaving us behind anyway…
"That means 'protect yourselves here,' right?"
"Yeah. We don't know how many enemy groups there are."
Figured it out from Odacchi's answer, with Library Committee-chan supplementing. That's what it is. In a way, these two are the ones who talked with Haruka-kun the most back in the original world. And that's why he casually dumped a mountain of magic stones that shouldn't even be sellable at the guild to build connections, coincidentally saved the lord's daughter, then the very next day saved the lord himself. Haruka-kun—who was supposed to stay in town—kept "coincidentally" helping. Now he has connections throughout the entire town. If any other black-haired, black-eyed person shows up, information reaches us immediately. With adventurers and soldiers all watching, this town is probably the safest place.
""""So why is Class Rep the only one who's been fully armed from the very beginning?""""
**End of Day 23 (Morning)**