I Was Reincarnated as the Villain in an Eroge, but I’ll Live Honestly ~Because the Protagonist Was Useless, I Ended Up Making the Heroines Smile and Somehow Built a Harem~ - 33

Chapter 33: Freya’s Story Part 2

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“Pa-Papa, um… Do you have a moment?”

“Hm? What is it, Freya? Did something happen with that damn brat?”

My father stopped the hand holding his quill and looked over at me with a face drained of color.

“N-No! That’s not it! And to begin with, Noah isn’t a bad person like that!”

“………………Huh?”

Hearing my words, my father froze. He stared at me blankly with his mouth hanging open, and from the sheer shock, the quill slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. Black ink spread across the carpet.

“Pa-Papa! If you stain the carpet, Lottie is going to scold you—”

“That’s not what matters right now! Listen, Freya. When a bad person does something good, they only do it to make themselves look good, you know?”

Hearing him say the same thing as Lottie, I let out a wry smile. And perhaps he didn’t like that reaction, because my father puffed out his cheeks like a child. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but laugh softly again. That only made him puff his cheeks even more. It kept going like that.

After somehow calming him down, I was finally able to bring up the real topic.

“U-um… Papa, I have a favor to ask.”

“No. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Oh, come on, it’s fine! Please! You’re not usually this stubbornly dismissive.”

I shook his shoulder several times as I pleaded, while he looked away with his cheeks puffed out. Reluctantly, my father finally listened to what I had to say.

“Yesterday, Noah came to apologize. He’s really turned himself around, and he’s working so, so hard now.”

I paused there and raised my voice just a little, wanting him to understand how I truly felt.

“So I want to support Noah! As the Present family, couldn’t we accept his apology…?”

Knowing I was asking for something unreasonable, my voice gradually grew smaller. Still, I felt that if anyone could do something about it, it would be my father. He might not realize it himself, but he had pushed me forward. So this time, I truly wanted to push him forward in return.

Because I felt that the image of who I wanted to become lay beyond chasing after his back…

“………………”

My father remained silent. He stared straight into my eyes, as if trying to weigh the true meaning behind my words. The air felt heavy, almost suffocating. Then, after a short while…

“Would you mind telling me your reason? It seems that thanks to that damn bra—him, you managed to look forward again.”

“……Eh?”

Before I could ask how he knew—

“That’s because I’m your father, Freya. I knew you’d been dragging the failure at the dance party with you this whole time. You found your own answer, didn’t you?”

“Y-Yeah…”

Could a parent really understand their child that deeply…? Papa really was amazing.

“I hated people who looked down on the Present family. I thought, why do you have to say such nasty things? If you have time to insult others, you should use it to work harder instead. I kept looking down on them like that.”

I didn’t think everything about that mindset was wrong, and even now, I still felt that people who only spoke ill of others were the ones in the wrong. But still…

“I think I was a little arrogant… I never even tried to understand those people. I just looked down on them…”

Now that I had ended up in the same position, I understood. There were people who could easily do things that required immense effort from me. That misery. That helplessness. That despair. The sadness of trying to bridge that gap… I could finally understand that. 

“Papa, I think you already sensed this, but ever since I failed at the dance party, I really haven’t tried hard at anything, have I?”

“That’s not—”

“No, it is. I really was like that…”

From the day I failed at the dance party until today, I hadn’t been able to walk forward properly. As I recalled everything up to now, my hands clenched tightly.

“Because…Because… It’s true… I kept sulking, thinking, ‘Must be nice to have talent,’ and that trying hard was pointless…”

Thinking about how I dismissed others’ efforts so selfishly made me feel ashamed.

“But Noah was different. Even after failing worse than I did, he didn’t make excuses. Even while crying, he still tried to move forward.”

That back of his looked so incredibly cool. I think that was why I was able to realize it.

Special people aren’t cool just because they’re special. People who desperately try to move forward are what’s truly cool.

“The Noah I saw that day was just as cool as you and my brothers…”

I still remembered the soft evening breeze brushing against my cheeks. The sting in my nose, too. The colors, the warmth, the softness of the air that moment—I remembered it all vividly. That was why I was able to think about moving forward again.

“I want to become someone who can encourage others just by showing them that I’m working hard!”

My father listened quietly and gently to my words.

“So please, Papa! I know I’m asking for something unreasonable, but couldn’t you accept Noah’s apology?!”

After letting out what must have been his umpteenth sigh of the day, my father finally said—

“…Alright.”

“──! Th-Then!”

“Yes. Let’s officially announce that the Present family has accepted the apology from the distinguished Maycraft family.”

“Thank you, Papa!”

“It can’t be helped… Even though it annoys me that that brat was the trigger, you went this far to convince me. I have to acknowledge it.”

Then he added one more thing.

“Freya, don’t forget this one thing. This is an investment in him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Once the official announcement spreads, surrounding nobles will judge that the Present family ultimately cozied up to a marquis house.”

He paused and stared straight at my face. This was a test, whether I could properly grasp what ‘investment’ meant.

“U-Um… Because we were the ones who broke off the engagement, our relationship with Noah’s family is strained… Yet we accepted the apology… Oh!”

Something clicked.

“If Noah succeeds in the future, then our choice back then was the right one! The Present family will be seen as wise for accepting his apology!”

My father nodded with a smile.

“That’s right. And to add to that, it also means the Present family has done the marquis house a favor.”

“I see… Then it’ll be fine for sure. Noah is really incredible! He’ll prove that our choice was right in no time.”

“By the way—just by the way…”

“Hm? What is it, Dad?”

“What do you think of that brat? No, no deep meaning. It’s just that your evaluation of him is unusually high, so I got just a little… Just a tiny bit curious.”

There was no way that tone meant “just a little.” This time, it was my turn to sigh.

“Listen, Papa. It’s true that I respect Noah. I think of him as a friend, but that’s all.”

When I said that firmly, my father visibly relaxed.

“I see, I see… Right… Phew, that’s a relief. If you had said you wanted to get engaged to that brat again because of this—”

“E-Enga—what?!”

The moment I heard the word “engagement” with Noah, my voice cracked.

“U-Um… F-Freya?”

“Well, I mean… S-sure, Noah is cool, and his rank is higher than ours, and his swordsmanship will only keep improving, and honestly I wonder if someone like me would even be a good match—h-hey! Papa, why are you making me say things like that?!”

As I rattled on at high speed, my father stared at me in stunned silence.

“…Pa-Papa?”

“…Enough.”

“H-Huh?”

“I said enough! Aah—my precious Freyaaaa!”

After that, I somehow managed to calm him down while he shouted things like “It’s all his fault” and “My beloved daughter!”

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As I was leaving my father’s study, something occurred to me, and I asked him a question.

“Hey, Papa. By the way, do you know why Noah failed the knight qualification exam?”

“Ah, that would be—”

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