Chapter 31: You All Are Wearing Him Down

The Adventurer’s Guild’s “Mental Health Consultation Desk” was enveloped in an absolute-zero silence.

“Nagi-sama. From now on, I will support you in everything.”

Saint Serafina’s declaration was far too gentle, filled with affection, and—decisively insane.

The three girls surrounding me chewed on the meaning of those words for a few seconds before simultaneously erupting with tremendous hostility.

“D-Don’t screw with us!!”

The first to snap was the A-Rank swordswoman, Lise.

She bared her canines, gripping the wooden sword at her waist as she glared at Serafina.

“You just showed up out of nowhere. What do you know about Nagi?! Nagi saved me, and I need him! I care about Nagi the most, so don’t try to monopolize him all on your own!”

A straightforward shout with her emotions laid bare.

However, Serafina did not break her perfect smile, looking at Lise with pitying eyes.

“Yes, I understand. You are extremely terrified of being abandoned by him, aren’t you?”

“Eh…”

“That is why you raise your voice to draw his attention, clinging to him because you constantly want him to look at you. The wild fluctuations of your emotions and your dependency are terribly wearing down his spirit.”

Lise flinched, her shoulders jumping as she found herself at a loss for words.

“…I would appreciate it if you didn’t lump me in with that emotional swordswoman.”

Pushing the shaken Lise aside, Fran stepped forward, clad in her dark blue robe.

Tapping the floor with the tip of her staff, she countered in an extremely calm, highly logical voice.

“I am not imposing a chaotic burden on him like she is. I logically manage his daily rhythm, providing optimal rest and nutrition. My existence is indispensable for maintaining his system.”

“Are you not simply forcing your own obsessive compulsions onto him?”

Tilting her head slightly, Serafina ruthlessly cut down Fran’s words.

“Your ‘management’—unable to feel secure unless everything goes exactly as planned—is robbing him of freedom and peace of mind. Binding him in the name of rules and suffocating him… You are no different.”

“…?!”

Fran’s expression froze, the words of her rebuttal catching in the back of her throat.

“…You sure spout a lot of nonsense, Saint-sama.”

The air suddenly chilled, and the flaxen-haired girl’s eyes shifted to a shade as sharp as ice.

The night thief, Luna. Crossing her arms, she fixed a cold, ruthless glare on Serafina.

“The daytime idiot and those two are definitely a handful. But we have completely secured his safety with a two-shift day-and-night system. There are no gaps in this shift schedule. We are providing him with ‘practical benefits’.”

“A twenty-four-hour surveillance network. …That is not protection—it is merely restraint.”

Serafina cast her eyes down sorrowfully.

“To be constantly watched by someone, never having a moment to relax… do you know how much that chips away at a human heart? Far from protecting him, you are wearing him down with that heavy pressure.”

Silence…

The guild’s counter fell completely quiet.

The three of them stood there, unable to utter a single sound.

It was no wonder.

Serafina’s observations matched my own clinical psychologist assessments without a single margin of error—they were a perfect, indisputable “truth.”

(Stop it… Don’t go reading the medical charts in my head without permission…)

Pressing hard against my stomach, I was on the verge of crying in my heart.

It was true that they were a handful, heavy, and exhausting. But I knew that their hearts wouldn’t be able to handle having it thrust directly in their faces, which is why I had been taking my time, trying to untangle them slowly.

However, Serafina showed no mercy.

“You all cling to him, steal his time, and terribly exhaust him.”

Swaying her pure white vestments, Serafina handed down a decisive sentence to the three girls.

“The level of affection I have for him is on a completely different dimension from you all, who merely use him to fill your own anxieties.”

“A different… dimension…?”

“Yes. I ask for nothing in return.”

Serafina clasped both hands in front of her chest, taking a posture of prayer.

“It does not matter if he never looks at me. It does not matter if he never loves me. I simply want to heal him so that he gets hurt no further, and support him unconditionally.”

That was the ultimate shield.

For the three girls who were just made acutely aware of their own selfish desires (wanting to be together, wanting to be seen, wanting to manage), the Saint’s goodwill—asserting that she “asks for nothing”—was an absolute justice they could never shatter.

Lise bit her lip in frustration, Fran’s hand trembled around her staff, and even Luna could only click her tongue and look away.

“…Have you understood?”

Taking their silence as “agreement,” Serafina wore a perfect smile.

And then, she delivered the final words that completely froze the air in the guild.

“Therefore, I will support him. I will protect him from all of you who are wearing him down—and I will monopolize him.”

An excessively ruthless declaration of monopoly, woven with a voice full of affection.

Faced with the “100% well-intentioned madness” packed into those words, even the battle-hardened adventurer heroines had no choice but to take a step back.

Staring at the “worst possible savior” who had just fully materialized right before my eyes, I tasted a sense of despair unlike anything I had ever felt before.

The three girls who depended on me were being eliminated by a Saint who depended on me.

It seemed the “Mental Health Consultation Desk” had just plunged into an irreversible singularity.