"Sabine, they don't have good impression of me right away. It's impossible to work together with them," I turn my head back to Sabine knowing full well what Pearl is thinking right now. And she must be telling her party members that I'm an evil man.
According to Cornelia, I know full well how far the protagonist is currently. I'll just call him Roland.
He entered the academy as an extremely talented commoner despite never properly trained at all in anything. He was just a hunter so he was slightly stronger than average people. That was enough for him to pass the entrance exam.
And then, his fame grew. Because after every entrance exam and the students have been confirmed to be accepted to the academy, they will be appraised for their talents. And everyone is shocked to see how unfair the world is in public. Especially after seeing his talents.
Two talents. Genius in swordsmanship and genius in magic. That's basically overpowered.
There are many results in appraising talent. Like talent in this or talent in that. But the result of his appraisal started with geniuses for both talents. Not talent in swordsmanship and talent in magic. Which means even among the talented people, he has more talent. As long as he puts a lot of effort, he can surpass anyone.
This is why I was desperate. If even this guy whom I played in the game until he reached a very high level still had difficulties in defeating the final boss of the game, what about the demon in the trailer? The one I conveniently called the Demon King.
And that's how I was so desperate in getting stronger and also simulating many events that could happen in my head. That's why I thought of even sacrificing millions people if I have to as long as I can protect my family. Maybe that's why Pearl is judging me as evil.
Anyway, in the past half a year, Roland has enough time to build up his fame in the school. He was strong enough to be respected by the students and instructors. And the three party members here are those who respected him through various situations. Like bullying, discriminating against lower-class, or other things. The common story.
So these four have bonded together to be in a party. These party members should be permanent until the end of the year unless something happened. Like a character event. But in the game, the character events can happen any time. Could be in the first-year, second-year, or maybe later. So I don't know and I don't care because my goal is not him defeating the final boss of the game but for the most disturbing future I expected to happen to be prevented or taken care of as quickly as they arrive.
From the look of it, Pearl seems to be telling her party members that I'm a bad guy. It's obvious from how they look at me.
"I think it's best if we leave now. Julian, let's go back to the inn," I grab his hand and ready to leave right away. There's no need to take another mission after completing one.
But my fate with the protagonist has been decided by his action right away. Roland stops me from grabbing Julian's hand and blocks me from him.
"What's your relationship with the boy?" Roland asks.
So, because Pearl sees me as evil and Julian as good, they think I kidnapped him. Well, I can't really complain about that. But there's no need for me to explain it to him. We're not friends.
"Better than your relationship with the boy," I say while pointing at Julian's face who is about to cry.
"Huh?"
Roland and his party members are shocked as if this shouldn't be happening. But it is. Julian is crying in the guild and everyone in the guild sees this.
"Waah! Let go of me! Let go of me! Miro! Help!"
The trauma of being forced away by strangers made him cry so loud. He was recovering well supposedly. But of course he didn't expect some random stranger would grab his hand out of nowhere.
"Wait, don't cry! I'm a good person," Roland says.
"No good person would say that he's a good person. That's not how you introduce yourself. Being good or bad is the label other people placed on you not for you to say yourself," I say.
"But I'm not a bad guy," Roland insists.
"Then why did you grab a child's hand and made him cry?"
He's still not letting Julian go. If this goes on, I should use force to let him go. But then the door to the guild opened and someone enters. It's Cornelia.
Seeing that Roland is here, it's normal to think that class is already over. And since Roland and Cornelia are in the same class, her class should be over as well.
I told her that she should be an adventurer and increasing her rank. I guess today she wants to take a mission.
And then she sees us. Roland and I are in the center of this commotion while Roland is holding the crying Julian's hand. And she instantly gets angry.
"How dare you make my brother cries!?"
Without hesitation, Cornelia shoots a Fireball at her own classmate. Just like how Julian got traumatized after being abandoned by his parents, Cornelia was also traumatized with how stupid she was. And then this happened.
The Fireball is flying toward Roland's body. He's about to dodge it but if he does, Julian will get hit because Roland has released Julian's hand. So I grab him by his collar and make him stay still for the Fireball to hit him.
"Let me go! Argh!"
And the fire hits him. I also received some damage because I was holding his collar but this is fine. I don't know how fast his reaction would be if I let him go. Julian's life is at stake here. If he dies, it's highly likely that Cornelia won't follow me anymore.
"Hey! How dare you do that to Roland!" the big guy in heavy armor, Owen, grabs his heavy mace ready to fight. But the scout, Lola, stops him.
"Stop it! If he didn't grab Roland the Fireball would have hit the kid!" Lola shouts.
"Oh, someone has good eyes," I say casually as I let go of Roland's collar. He was hit but Cornelia didn't use her full power so he should still be fine. And because he's a genius mage he should have high fire magic resistance.
Roland's body falls to the floor and Julian quickly runs to his sister.
"What's with the commotion?"
Then someone from upstairs looks down at the commotion. I should just tell him straight. He should be the guild master of this branch in Dahlia or something.
"That man grabbed a child's hand and the child's sister threw a Fireball at him," I say.
"That's not true!" Pearl shouts.
"Then what's the truth?"
That's pretty much everything that happened. It's the truth. No lie at all.
"Everyone who is involved, come to my office right now!"
So Roland and his party, me, Julian, Cornelia, and also Sabine walk upstairs to enter the guildmaster's office. There are only a few chairs in the office so I sit on the sofa with Cornelia and Julian. Roland and Owen choose to stand while Lola and Pearl sit on other chairs. Sabine is preparing teas for us.
"There should be no reason why someone should cast offensive magic inside the guild's building. So, tell me what really happened," the guild master speaks in a low tone. He's angry.
"He doesn't look like a respectable man and he's suspiciously hanging around with a kid so I tried to separate them," Roland explains quickly trying to prove that he's innocent.
"Forcefully. You grabbed a child without his consent and everyone saw that. You made him cry his sister instantly attacked you with her magic. You could have dodged it but if you did the magic would have hit the child and an even bigger mistake would happen. You can ask the receptionist if I speak the truth or not," I say pointing at Sabine.
Everyone is looking at Sabine who nods at my statement.
"It's true. For no reason at all, that man over there grabs the boy's hand and asks what his relationship with the boy. And the boy cried," Sabine explains.
"Lady, you shouldn't use offensive magic in public. But I won't blame you. The fault lies within him," the guild points his finger at Roland. Roland can only look down because he's really at fault here.
Just how much evil did Pearl judged me to be for him to make an action and no one stopped him? Am I really that evil?
Him and his party really can't say anything here. It's all totally their fault. And I enjoy seeing them like this.
I loved how there were options in the game. That made the protagonist's real personality decided by the player. But in real life, his personality is shit. Not that he's evil. He's just a total idiot.
"W-well, we didn't know that he's Cornelia's brother and they're related," Roland tries to prove his innocence.
"That doesn't explain why you should grab a child in front of his guardian. You suck at explaining."