Vol 2 Chapter 21 – The Four of Us【Vol 2 — Youth in the Midst of Calamity】

A sharp pain jolted me awake. The ceiling above me was one I didn’t recognize.

I was lying in a bed inside a small, clean-smelling private room. Wincing against the pain shooting through my body, I pushed myself upright and looked to the side.

Right there beside me — very close — were Aria, Sophia, and Elena.

“Whoa!”

I flinched back in surprise.

“Thank goodness!”

Without a second thought, Aria and Elena — everyone except Sophia — threw themselves at me.

A flash of searing pain tore through my body.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

Neither of them budged.

“Onii-chan, Onii-chan…!”

“Uuu… Will……”

Tears streamed down their faces as they called my name, and all I could do was stand there, baffled.

What in the world had happened?

I looked to Sophia, who was standing nearby — she glanced away, looking somewhat awkward. But the madness and volatility she’d had when she declared she would kill me — that seemed to have vanished from her. Probably.

So I felt reasonably at ease when I spoke to her.

“Uh, um… Sophia… Nee-san. Where are we?”

“Will-kun. This is a hospital. You were in really serious danger, Will-kun.”

Serious danger — that would be the Dragon’s dying breath I’d taken head-on.

So they carried me here, I guess.

Honestly, how am I even alive? I was sure I was done for.

“Will-kun, I… Can I have a moment?”

Sophia said it with a sidelong glance at Aria and Elena, who were still clinging to me and sniffling.

“What?”

I still had my guard up, but I gestured for her to continue.

Sophia gave a small nod, dropped her gaze slightly, and spoke.

“I know it’s pretty low of me to say this now, but… I think I lost my mind a little.”

A little wasn’t exactly the word I’d use.

“I never imagined you’d feel that way, Will-kun. I thought that as long as you looked at me, only me, I didn’t need anything else…

And when I heard what you were saying to Lucas-san — when you thought we were unconscious — I thought, so that really is how he feels…”

“…Huh?”

Wait — the way she’s saying this, it sounds like Lucas’s spell didn’t actually put them to sleep.

Seeing my expression of total confusion, Sophia added:

“Oh, something like that wouldn’t put me to sleep. I was curious what you were planning, Will-kun, so I pretended.

I just found out a little while ago, but apparently Aria-chan and Elena-chan did the same thing.”

She said it like it was nothing.

Sophia and I both quietly looked down at Aria and Elena, still pressed against me, sniffling.

…You’ve got to be kidding me.

Something resembling a fear I’d felt once before bloomed in my chest.

No matter what I do, I’ll never be a match for these girls…

“…I love you, Will-kun.”

She murmured it softly, then reached past Aria and Elena and laid her hand on me. The way she touched me was gentle — like she was handling something that could break.

Aria and Elena, jostled aside by Sophia, widened their eyes for just a moment — and then I felt it: a sharp, stabbing killing intent erupting and spilling outward.

My body went rigid.

“I love you, Will-kun. And I want you to love me — to love your Onee-chan. I want you to love only me.

Anything beyond that, I don’t need. It’s just in the way.

So a Will-kun who couldn’t love only me — I thought he shouldn’t exist in this world. I couldn’t bear it.

That’s why I thought I had to kill you.”

Sophia gave a soft little smile.

“—…”

“Well, of course, after that I’d die too.”

Sophia lifted her hand from me and turned to face Aria and Elena.

“But then I found out that you, Will-kun, feel just as strongly — that you want all four of us to be together.

…And when you were about to be killed by that Dragon, when you shielded us and looked like you were going to die — I thought, Will-kun really can’t be allowed to die.

If I’m only going to end up wanting to kill you out of desperation… then it’s so much better to use whatever it takes to make you fall in love with me instead.”

Sophia tilted her head toward me with a little “Right?”

I couldn’t make my stiffened body relax.

Sophia raised both index fingers, pointing one at Aria and one at Elena.

“For instance — or rather, I could just kill both Aria-chan and Elena-chan.”

But she immediately lowered her arms.

Aria and Elena hadn’t so much as flinched.

“But that wouldn’t mean anything, would it? What I want is Will-kun — all of him, heart included.”

Sophia’s expression softened, and she pulled the two of them into a tight hug.

“But that’s the same for Aria-chan and Elena-chan too, isn’t it!”

Aria and Elena both grimaced — the look of someone being told to finish a dish they already knew would be absolutely revolting.

Sophia kept smiling cheerfully — but if you looked closely, her eyes weren’t smiling at all. The moment I noticed that, a chill ran down my spine.

Sophia released them. The moment she did, Elena broke free and came straight back to me, wrapping her arms around me again.

“Onii… chan…”

“Elena…”

Sophia watched the scene with that same smile — the one that never quite reached her eyes. My skin prickled.

“Oh, don’t worry, Will-kun. While you were unconscious, we had a proper talk.”

Sophia glanced between Aria and Elena — Elena had pressed herself against me once more.

Aria hesitated for just a moment before she spoke.

“You know, Will. I don’t actually want to fight with Sophia-chan or Elena-chan. I love them both.

But even so.

If someone tries to whisk you away all on their own — that’s a different story.”

The air in the room seemed to freeze over.

But it lasted only a moment.

“So — “

“Hm?”

When Aria raised her eyes again after briefly looking down — in that instant, I felt whatever had been stretched taut in the room all this time finally peel away. Whatever had been quietly squeezing my heart simply dissolved.

In a word: the room felt safe again.

“We all talked it over, and we decided — no more of that.”

Aria said it with just a hint of dissatisfaction.

I didn’t quite follow what she meant, and my confusion must have shown. Without meaning to, I turned my eyes to Sophia, looking for an explanation.

“Will-kun, I love you. And to put it simply — I want you all to myself.

But I was made to understand that’s not what you want.

It’s really such a bother.

And Aria-chan and Elena-chan feel exactly the same way.”

Sophia paused there.

“…So —

We’ve decided we won’t try to claim you all to ourselves anymore.”

Sophia smiled. Unlike before, it felt like a real smile this time.

I looked at Aria — she was pouting slightly, turning her gaze from Sophia to me, but the volatility she’d carried that day was gone.

Elena, even as all of this was being discussed, hadn’t budged at all — still holding onto me without a care in the world.

And yet — I couldn’t shake a nagging sense of wrongness. It was too convenient for me — were they actually serious? My heart wouldn’t let me believe it.

So what came out of my mouth was pure, unguarded doubt.

“…Is that really okay with you?”

“You’re the one who said it.”

She had a point.

“We don’t love the idea of not having you to ourselves either, Will-kun. But we don’t want things turning into that again.

Because I love Aria-chan and Elena-chan too.”

I looked at Aria, who was still clearly not thrilled about the whole thing.

“I… I love Sophia-chan and Elena-chan too.

And more than anyone — I love Will.”

She forced the words out, then turned away with a sulk.

I looked down at Elena, who had been holding me tight this whole time.

“…Elena just wants… Onii-chan to stay by Elena’s side, always, always, always, always — to be with Elena and look at Elena. That’s enough…”

It sounded like she’d pulled the words straight from her heart, and before I realized it, my hand was stroking Elena’s hair. Elena let out a soft, happy sigh and pressed her face even deeper into me.

I lifted my gaze in disbelief, and Sophia’s eyes met mine. She wore an expression that said See? Told you so.

That look hit me somewhere deep in the chest.

“You want to be with the three of us, don’t you, Will-kun?

You love us, don’t you?

— All three of us… you love us, don’t you?”

That question drove straight into my heart and wouldn’t let go.

I hesitated for just a moment.

The fact that I can’t answer immediately — even now — is so pathetic it’s almost funny.

But if they were saying that…

If that madness that day had been born from their feelings for me — if, even after everything that happened, they still thought of me more than anyone and loved me as naturally as breathing —

I nodded — deliberately, with full conviction.

Because they were just that wonderful.

“Aria, Sophia, Elena. I love the three of you — and I know with complete certainty that will never change.”

It had been fifteen years — and a little more — since I’d come to this other world, and things had gotten complicated, to say the least —

— but here, now, my harem had come to be.