I Picked up a Corrupted Heroine (The Secret Boss), and When I Spoiled Her, She Became Uncontrollably Affectionate With Me

Chapter 24: The Witch of the End Wants to Take Control

“Fwaa… Asta, good morning…”

When I woke up, I heard Ria’s voice right next to me.

I looked down and saw her lying there, using my stomach as a pillow.

“Ria… My stomach isn’t a pillow, you know?”

“But… this way I can feel you the most, right?”

“Is that… how it works?”

“Yeah… And since I couldn’t cling to you during your trip, I ran out of Asta energy. This is me refilling it…!”

After saying that weird stuff, Ria rubbed her cheek against my stomach.

“…By the way, your stomach feels a little softer?”

“Ugh… Don’t say that… Lately, well, ever since I started living with you, I’ve put on a tiny bit of weight…”

“Hehe, that’s because you’re eating healthy meals and sleeping properly…! I don’t mind what you look like at all, Asta.”

For some reason, Ria looked really happy about it.

I feel like she’s turning me into a total slob. She’s been handling all the housework, and she cooks delicious food for me every day…

Thanks to that, I’m starting to get some fat on me.

“Back when I was an adventurer, I had a ripped body with zero fat…”

“Now that you mention it, you used to be an adventurer, right Asta?”

“Yeah, I was originally an A-rank adventurer.”

“A-rank…! That’s the second strongest rank among adventurers!”

Ria’s eyes widened in shock.

“But I only got there by boosting my power with items and gear. That’s how I barely made it to A-rank.”

“Still, that’s amazing! What was it like back then? I want to hear about your adventurer days…!”

“That’s rare. You actually want to know about my past…”

“It’s just… I suddenly realized I don’t know much about you at all, Asta.”

“…Yeah, I don’t bring it up much…”

My adventurer days, huh.

…To be honest, it’s all embarrassing stuff, so I don’t really want to talk about it…

I got reincarnated into my favorite game, and even though I was already in my late twenties in my old life, I got way too excited. I probably acted like a cocky teenager.

Of course that means I created a bunch of cringy memories…

“Ugh, my head… It doesn’t want to remember…”

“A-are you okay…? Did something really bad happen?”

“Well… a lot of things.”

“Hmm…?”

Ria stared at me with narrowed eyes for a while, then—

“—Wait, did you have a bunch of girls around you or something…!?”

“No no no, I didn’t!?”

“But… if you were that kind of guy… I could never accept being the second one… What do I do…”

“R-Ria…? You’re scaring me… but I didn’t have girls around me, okay!?”

“R-right, of course…! By the way, you don’t have any wishes like that, right?”

“………………Yeah, I don’t.”

“What was that pause!? That’s the most obvious lie I’ve ever seen…!?”

“Ahaha… W-well, you know how guys dream about harems, right? But seriously, even if I have the fantasy, I’m completely loyal…”

When I said that, a dark aura started leaking out of Ria.

“…Looks like I’ll have to properly manage you in the future.”

“R-Ria…? This is getting scary…”

“Hehe, make sure you’re ready, okay Asta?”

Ria smiled sweetly. Her eyes weren’t smiling at all though.

—Right at that moment, someone knocked on the front door a few times.

“Uh… Sorry. Sounds like someone’s here.”

“I’ll go check.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Ria walked toward the entrance.

A few seconds later—

“Ehh…!?”

A scream-like voice came from the front door.

Ria came back looking shocked.

“Asta…! You have a noble girl as a friend!?”

A noble… girl?

…Who?

—

Chapter 25: The Witch of the End Gets the Wrong Idea

“Asta…! You have a noble girl as a friend!?”

Ria came back from the front door and let out a scream-like voice right away.

“…A noble girl?”

Do I even know anyone like that…? Someone from the guild maybe?

…Hmm, I have no idea.

“I’ll go see who it is.”

I quickly changed clothes and went to the door, and there—

“A-Asta!”

Standing there was someone I knew. A person wearing fancy clothes that screamed noble, with gentle green hair reaching down to the shoulders. It was—

“Oh, it’s you, Rusty.”

“Jeez…! Your old party member comes to visit and all you say is ‘oh’? Wait, more importantly—”

Rusty walked straight up to me, grabbed my shoulders, and started shaking them back and forth.

“A-Asta! When did you go and have a kid!?”

“Calm down…!”

“How can I calm down…! Who’s the other person? Who is it?”

“There’s no other person… I just picked her up.”

When I told him that, Rusty looked relieved and finally let go of my shoulders.

“Oh, you just picked her up… Your soft heart is still going strong, huh.”

Rusty rubbed his chest like he felt better.

“Why do you look so relieved…?”

“Because I don’t want you getting ahead of me, obviously?”

“Hey.”

Rusty saw my reaction and chuckled.

While we were chatting, Ria tugged lightly at the hem of my shirt and whispered in my ear.

“…Um… Asta, is this person your old party member…?”

“Yeah. Rusty’s a noble, but we used to be in the same party for a long time.”

“…Hmm, I see.”

Ria twisted her mouth like she was unhappy, then…

“So you really were keeping girls around…”

She said something. The next second, she pinched my stomach hard and a sharp pain shot through me.

“Ow, that hurts, Ria… What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Ria turned her face away with a huff.

“…Hmm, I get it. This kid has it rough too, huh…”

“What do you mean, Rusty…”

“Nothing. Anyway, standing here talking is kinda awkward. Can you let me inside? It was a long trip and I’m tired.”

“Yeah, sure…!”

I led Rusty to the living room. The three of us sat down with the table between us—me and Ria on one side, Rusty on the other.

“So… you’re alone today, Rusty?”

“Yeah, the other three are probably still out hunting monsters like usual.”

“…The other three? Rusty, you’re not an adventurer anymore?”

Ria tilted her head curiously.

“Being a noble and all… I quit at the same time Asta did.”

“Hmm… By the way, why did you quit being an adventurer, Asta?”

“…”

That topic, huh…

It’s not a fun story, so maybe I should dodge it.

“—It was after the Stampede. You know, when a huge swarm of monsters attacked the city. That’s when Asta quit.”

It wasn’t me who answered Ria’s question. It was Rusty.

“Hey, Rusty… That story is…”

“You were gonna try to dodge it anyway, right? …Hiding too much about yourself is a bad habit of yours, you know?”

“…”

It’s true that Ria doesn’t know much about me at all… Guess I should just go along with what Rusty says.

“It’s not really an interesting story though…”

Back then I really believed I was the main character. Not in the game sense, but the main character of this world. I mean, getting reincarnated into the world of a game I played… It felt just like the hero of a light novel or manga.

So I worked hard as an adventurer, and I even thought maybe I could end up with Alicia…

But that day—I realized I wasn’t the main character at all. I was just a background character.

A named character who was one of the strongest in the game suddenly showed up. He instantly killed the monster I was struggling against, wiped out thousands of monsters, and became a hero in the blink of an eye.

And he was younger than me.

In the end… even with my cheat-like knowledge, a background character stayed a background character. My heart broke.

After that, I quit being an adventurer and lived like a proper side character as the vice guild master at the Adventurer Guild.

I told them almost the same story, leaving out the game stuff and anything about Alicia.

“…I see. So that happened…”

“Well, it’s a pretty common story. Just a cocky young guy who learned what reality is like.”

Then Rusty looked at me with serious eyes.

“—But I still don’t think you were just some cocky young guy.”

“What’s with that all of a sudden…? What’s up?”

“Nothing. That’s just how I see it.”

“…Boku?”

Ria tilted her head at Rusty’s words.