I don't want to

"I want you to stay away from Sophie!"

'This man...'

I could somewhat see his point of view, and how it could make sense for him to not be around his woman if Zero didn't stop with his little tantrums. However...

Pretending to resign, I responded while putting on a sad smile,

"Alright, I'm not exactly sure as to why I should do that, but I'll do so if it makes you feel better. Then I'll talk to Sophie about why..."

"No! You can't tell her!"

'And this is where his plan starts to crumble.'

Sure, I could understand his intent, at least I thought I could if he had seen Zero in action at the club. Just exuding our pressure because we saw the princess in tears shouldn't have been enough for this kind of reaction, but if he saw how we mutilated our opponent, it was somewhat justified.

However, there were two things that made his way of thinking extremely faulty. The first thing was Sophie herself. In what world would she accept Arthur making decisions for her, and keeping her safe by working in the dark? That wasn't the way of a dragon, and it was absolutely not the way of that bad-tempered giantess.

Secondly, and most importantly, the one he was talking to wasn't some normal guy. This was Saint Zero, the one who would ultimately stand by his side to save humanity at some point. There was no way I would allow him to distance himself from us, even if it meant acting a bit. We were destined to be together.

"But... If I don't tell her anything, wouldn't she think it was strange for me to suddenly avoid her?"

Naturally, the innocent Zero wouldn't be able to find a good way to subtly avoid her, so in his mind, this was the only way for Arthur to get his wish.

Putting his hand on his forehead, the hero appeared to have a hard time thinking of how to deal with the youth in front of him, who hadn't even tried to fight his demand.

"Haaa... Just... Just don't be near her?"

"But we will have combat practice together? Also, Stella and Sophie seem to be getting along quite well already, so isn't it very likely that I might accidentally meet her when hanging out with Stella?"

Stupefied at how Zero interpreted his words, to literally never be near Sophie again, I just had to hope that he would come to the conclusion that I thought a hero would in this situation.

"Just... Shit! Damn it, Zero!"

"W-What? What did I do wrong?"

'And how long do I need to act like this for you to get the point? Zero is just an inexperienced youngling who hasn't had enough experience in the real world to know how to act! So, come on, hero of the allied races, show your sincerity!'

"Haaaa... Fine! Forget what I said! I have another idea instead."

'And there we go.'

Looking as confused as I possibly could, I pretended to not have any idea of what was going on.

"Arthur?"

"I'll teach you. I'll make sure to be around when you are meeting Sophie and if you do something wrong, I will correct it. I'll see you later..."

With quick steps, not wanting to deal with Zero any longer, I felt a smile emerge on my face.

Sure, it was somewhat ironic for the incredibly socially awkward hero to be the one to teach Zero how to act, but it didn't matter much.

What did matter was the fact that the hero had now latched onto Zero, meaning not only did I get a chance to oversee his development, but I also gained another chance at influencing his decisions.

"Zero...!"

Leaning back into the bed, I felt quite happy with how all of this had ultimately played out. And just when I was about to close my eyes, a cold voice rang out from the door. A feminine voice that I had expected to visit sooner but had probably been busy cleaning up things after the attacks, as well as dealing with defensive measures at the academy.

Desperately, I had my eyes closed, not wanting to see the woman I was sure would be less than happy with my little act at the club.

"Zero... You do realize that I know you're awake?"

'Nope! I'm super asleep!'

"Haaa... Fine. If you don't open your eyes in three seconds, I will have to assume that there's something wrong with your body. Hmm... Maybe a bucket of ice might wake your body up?"

"I'm awake..."

Opening my eyes, I was met by the sight of a pretty pissed-off woman with her arms crossed, looking at me with cold eyes. "Oh, really? Then I guess there is no need for that ice."

Sitting down beside me, she still looked at me like a parent that was about to give a sermon to her child, not letting up for a second. "Zero, you do know that what you did... You acted like a fool."

"I'm sorry..."

"How can you act so recklessly? With your condition... How can you just risk your future instead of hiding? There were two strong bodyguards there, you could have just stayed in that room and waited for help!"

She wasn't exactly wrong. The two strongest bodyguards had stayed with the princess to make sure she was safe while the weaker ones had gone on to subdue the attacker. But that would mean I would risk losing the hero this early into the play and it was too early to lose a key actor.

"Jessica?"

"Sniff... You... How can you not understand? Your life is not just your own anymore! And I'm not talking about you having to fight for everyone in the future. After just these few weeks, you already have people who care about you, who want you to live!"

'Uh-oh...'

Listening to her talking like this with tears in her violet eyes, the young boy inside of me woke up, bringing with him an intense sense of sadness and sorrow. Luckily, at this point, I had gotten pretty proficient at holding him back, but it was impossible not to let it affect me.

"Jessica... I'm sorry... Sniff... I'm really sorry..."

"Then why don't you do something about it?! Why do you have to continue to act like this?!"

Now her voice had increased in pitch, but she wasn't about to stop scolding us yet.

"Your friends cried for you! Dr. Smith is using every single second of his free time to try and find a way for you to live! And... I don't want you to disappear either! Does that mean nothing?!"

"You don't know anything!"

'Zero?'

Without me even knowing, Zero had grabbed the wheel, unable to take any more of Jessica's words, unable to just sit here without retorting, now raising our voice back at her.

Surprised by the uncharacteristic way of us acting, our teacher flinched, "Zero?"

"How can you sit there, talking about all of these things when you don't know anything?! I don't want to die! Shit! I... Sniff... I don't want to die... Guh! I DON'T WANT TO DIE."

Soul-tearing torment was devouring us from the inside out, as I could fully feel the desperate will to live coming from the part of myself that was destined to disappear.

"Ugh! I-I-I w-want t-to live... But that isn't an option! That has never been an option for me! But you're right... Arthur is right... I should have never tried to get along with anyone, I should never have let anyone know..."

"No, I didn't..."

"Don't worry, Jessica. Sniff! I'll... I'll go back to the church... tomorrow..."

"That's not..."

"It's for the best. Maybe I was never meant to be here in the first place. Maybe I was meant to stay in that room... until the demons attack..."

*Slap!*

A sharp pain resounded through my head as Jessica's hand flew across my face. Stunned by her sudden action, I couldn't even react before two arms circled their way around our neck.

"Sniff! That's not what I was saying! I didn't mean that at all! It's okay to be sad, Zero. It's okay not to bear this on your own. But you have to understand that even if the future is set in stone, you still have people around you in the present."

"I-I... Aaaa...."

"It's okay, Zero. We are still here. You aren't alone anymore. And no matter what happens in the future, we will be by your side."

"Aaaaaah...! I-I-I also w-want to live! Ugh! Gaahhh!"

"Sniff! It's... It's going to be okay... Dr. Smith... Mikael will surely find a solution..."

As James, I didn't even care about trying to stop Zero anymore, I just allowed him to use our body to cry as much as he needed to. After all, wasn't that the least I could do for him?

Because ultimately, I was the reason why he was brought into this world, and I was also the reason he was going to leave this world.

'How can one day be so long?'