Reincarnated as the Sidekick in a Harem Game ～Chaos Unfolded When I Helped the Losing Heroines After the Protagonist Found His Happy Ending～ - Chapter 10: The Battle of the Protagonist

Chapter 10: The Battle of the Protagonist

I had skipped school and rushed over to Najimi’s house. Upon discovering Minato attempting to forcibly harm Najimi, I intervened.

I couldn’t help myself and ended up punching Minato. He flew back, landing on the ground.

“Charaooooo! You! Hooowww dare you hit me!!!”

Minato got up while holding his cheek. Madness colored his eyes. This was not the Minato I knew. The person standing there was not the protagonist of the game OreNaji, but someone entirely different—someone foreign.

“Charao… why?”

Najimi mumbled in a faint voice, her face still marked by fear.

“I had a premonition.”

“A premonition?”

“Yes. It wasn’t logical at all, but I had a bad feeling. I also heard that Minato had skipped school. So I thought maybe, just maybe, something was going on and decided to hurry over.”

I exhaled in relief.

“I’m glad I made it just in time.”

But the timing was eerily too perfect. I arrived when the heroine was about to be attacked by a villain, almost at the last moment. It was like a move straight out of a story—a role that should have been far from my reach.

“Charao! Get out of my way!”

Minato approached me. To protect a frightened Najimi, I stood in front of her.

“I refuse.”

“What did you say!?”

“I can’t leave Najimi alone with you in your current state.”

“Ha? What are you talking about? Move! I have business with that wench! She’s mine!”

“What… did you just say?”

Unconsciously, my voice trembled with anger. ‘Wench,’ he said? What did he think Najimi was?

“Najimi is your girlfriend. Don’t call her a ‘wench.'”

The swirling anger within me spilled out in my words.

“Calling women names, trying to forcibly harm them against their will—that’s not like you, not like the protagonist, not like Minato Minato!”

I pointed my finger at the man who looked like Minato.

“A protagonist who makes the heroine unhappy is disqualified from being a protagonist! The one who should disappear is you, Minato!”

I felt as if something inside Minato had snapped.

“…Annoying. So damn annoying!!!”

Minato started rummaging through his pockets.

“Heh… Charao, I’ve always found you annoying. Always interfering in my conquests, always nagging from the sidelines.”

Conquests… Hearing that word and his behavior, I gained certainty.

“I see… You’re a reincarnator too, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right! A reincarnator, Charaooo!”

Najimi couldn’t keep up with our conversation, and that was fine. This matter had nothing to do with the characters of this story. This was a battle between outsiders.

“But too bad for you, Charao! Look at this!”

What he pulled out from his pocket was a small, foldable knife—a butterfly knife.

“A knife!? Minato… why would you have such a thing?”

In response to Najimi’s question, Minato answered with a malicious grin.

“Gehihi! I thought if you didn’t listen to me, I could use this to threaten Najimi, so I brought it along…Gehihihi!”

…This guy is beyond redemption. I had made up my mind right then. He was no longer fit to be a protagonist.

“If you don’t want to die, move, Charao! If you don’t want to get stabbed by this!”

Despite having a knife pointed at me, I felt oddly calm. Even though the knife he held surely had lethal potential, I wondered why I felt this way.

I had a conviction that I wouldn’t die.

“Go ahead and try it.”

“Huh?”

I took a step forward.

“Go on, stab me with it.”

“W-what are you doing…?”

Minato stepped back.

“If you’re really the protagonist, then go ahead and stab me. You’ll get away with it because you’re the hero, loved by the world.”

Defeating villains is the timeless job of heroes, after all. And most of the time, the actions of a righteous protagonist are forgiven.

Even if the actions are a bit morally ambiguous, self-defense will justify them. That’s what being a protagonist means.

But what if… just what if.

“If you think he’s not fit to be the protagonist of this story, it’s better to quit now.”

“Who— who thinks that I am not worthy?”

I point.

To “you”, beyond the screen. The one reading this story…

“The readers.”

I continued, looking at the bewildered Minato.

“The moment you’re disliked by the readers, it’s over for the protagonist. You’ll lose the love of this story. You’ll lose what has been protecting you—the Compulsion, or maybe it’s better called a correction.”

Compulsion, the force that binds us in this world, has been both a hindrance and a protector.

“Let’s leave the judgment to the readers, shall we? Who between you and me is more worthy of being the protagonist.”

Grabbing Minato’s knife, I pulled it toward me.

“Go on, stab me. If you truly believe that your current behavior is befitting of a protagonist, then you’ll be forgiven for stabbing me.”

Virtue triumphs over vice—a storyline everyone likes. The righteous hero defeats the evil and lives happily ever after with the heroine. If Compulsion, or correction, is working for Minato, then it will process him as the righteous one, trying to defeat me, the villain who interferes with his time with the heroine.

“Come on, do it.”

Y-youu bastarddd! I, I am the protagonisttt!”

Thrust!

“Ugh…!”

A jolt of shock ran through my abdomen, and I staggered, falling to the ground.

“Hiii, ah, no, no, this is… this isn’t what…”

Minato looked terrified, his face pale as he looked at me.

“He, he stabbed himself! I, I— I didn’t do anything wrong… It’s not my fault, right? Right!?”

Minato pleaded. To whom? To the world… no, probably to the readers.

“I, I am Najimi’s boyfriend… He tried to take my girlfriend. He’s the bad guy, right? Right?!”

And then it happened.

Woo-woo-woo-woo♪

“P-Police!? What’s with this timing!?”

“It seems the verdict has been passed.”

I looked up at Minato.

“If the police show up now… haha, that would never happen if you were the protagonist.”

“No… that’s not…”

“You’ve been abandoned, as a protagonist, by this world. That’s why the Compulsion that was protecting you, the ‘correction,’ has worn off. That’s why the story interfered in a way that’s inconvenient for you.”

“No! I am… I am still the protagonist!”

Minato tried to leave the room. With the sound of hurried footsteps, he left.

“Phew…”

“Charao! Are you okay, Charao!”

Najimi, who had been frozen in shock, ran over to me.

“There’s a knife… in your stomach!”

“Yes, I know. It’s okay. Don’t cry, Najimi.”

“Fue?”

I lifted my shirt.

“I had stuffed a magazine under my shirt, in my abdomen.”

Before rushing here, I had prepared for the worst by placing it under my shirt.

“Why… why did you save me? Why go to such lengths?”

Now, dear readers, you might be indignant, thinking how convenient it is to have a magazine stuffed in my abdomen!

But please forgive me, because my actions were…

“I wanted to protect your smile.”