After being patted for a while, I regained my calm, and lifted my head to look straight at Ursch-kun.
"I love you, Ursch-kun. I really do."
"Yeah, I know~."
Oh, you knew? I see~. Those words made me feel relieved.
My delusional love for the game character, Ursch-kun had been accepted in a positive light.
"This may sound like a contradiction, but I’ve always liked you, Ursch-kun... and now, I've come to properly love you. However, I don’t trust you.”
"I see~."
To be honest, Ursch-kun also wandered a lot and took many mysterious actions in the game... No, that's wrong. That's the Ursch-kun from the game, and not the Ursch-kun before me right now. Forget about the game.
I've already decided to look at the Ursch-kun before me. And when I've come to accept Ursch-kun for who he is, I'll tell him all about myself.
"But, I think Ursch-kun is a trustworthy person."
"Fufu, thanks."
"After hearing your feelings, I thought that it was okay to trust you."
Because Ursch-kun believes that I'll believe him. If he believes me, then there's no way I won't believe in him!!
"I see~. I'm so happy~, that everything went according to plan."
"........."
Oi. Ursch-kun, the good mood we were building is all ruined now, you know? It's ruined to the extent that I want to take back the heartthrobs I felt for you.
"Ursch-kun. With that remark you just made, my trust in you has dropped significantly. "
Rather, you became a "person whom I shouldn't trust too much".
"Fufu. Well then, don't blindly think about me again. Look at me properly, and love the real me. "
You're kind of scaring me. I'm scared. Ursch-kun? Even though it's the usual gentle, healing smile, it's looking pretty dark right now, you know? I mean, I like that smile. I love it. But it's giving me the chills! I can feel my cold sweat from our still-connected-hands!!
"What's wrong? Do you want to stop holding hands? "
"No, I don't."
I firmly deny that. His personality is different from what I expected, but in the first place, I had been absorbed with Ursch-kun, a mob character whose personality was unknown even in the game.
To put it bluntly, I love Ursch-kun’s face!! His actual personality seems kind of bad but even so, I still love him!! I don't trust him, though!!
"I still don't completely trust you, and I don't know if I can fully love even your personality, but your looks are completely my type, Ursch-kun."
Although I didn't trust him, I honestly declared it. However, unlike when I blindly loved him, this is the result of me looking straight at Ursch-kun, and saying my honest feelings. I have a feeling that it'd be pointless to hide it from him, anyway. In fact, I feel that if I did try to hide something, the repercussions would be terrifying!!
"Ahaha~ How honest~. Well, my looks are also a part of me so I'm glad you like it."
Oh, so he won’t get mad at me for that. Should I say that he has a big heart, or…
"By the way, it seems we lost sight of that maid again~. What now? Honestly speaking, I couldn’t care less about her getting hurt or anything as long as you’re safe, Isabella.”
"Somehow, I feel like your response is quite different from earlier..."
"Not really~? I was only helping because you were worried. Can’t say I care all that much about that girl. After all, I don’t even know her.”
As he said that, Ursch-kun gave a soft smile as he normally does. Urk!! What he said was malicious, but his smile is just adorable!! No, I can’t be healed!! Even if his angelic smile is extremely healing, his personality is pure black!! Don't be fooled, Me!!
...There’s no use!! It’s too cute!! I can't help it!! I can't help itttt!! I like it too much, okay?! That face of his!!
"I used to hate my appearance, but if you like it so much, Isabella, then this appearance isn’t all that bad after all. In fact, I think I may even come to like it~.”
Don’t tell me– that smile just now was on purpose?! By giving me a malicious remark and a smile, he was observing how I’d react!! To see if I’d lean towards the remark or the smile!! He was testing to see how effective his smile was on me!!
Alright, I’ll admit, okay?! I went for his smile, okay?! Instead of his malicious remark, I went full-on for his smile, okay?!
As I agonised over Ursch-kun’s smile, he tilted his head, curious.
"Do you really like my looks that much?"
"Yes. I love it so much I could spend the rest of my life staring at it.”
"I see~. If that’s how you feel, then even after knowing how my personality is like, the day you love me in all my entirety doesn’t seem that far off."
"So it’s just the same as before..."
While saying so, Ursch-kun’s smile became much scarier. H-He’s kind of… angry?
"No, it's different. It's completely different. It's completely different from falling in love with me-but-not-me."
A-ah, okay. This is what he’s trying to say, yes? Knowing the real him, and even then still liking his looks, thus deciding to accept him entirely, is completely different from creating a delusion of him as an angel based solely on his looks, and then liking him. Is that what he’s trying to say?
"Yep, that’s about it~."
But I didn’t say anything…
"I can tell by the look on your face, Isabella~."
There’s a limit to that, right? There’s a limit to how much one can grasp by just reading expressions, right?! No, wai–Don't laugh!! It’s seriously too cute so don’t laugh!! I’ll end up forgiving you because of how cute you are!!
It's~so~cute~ ♡
"Why did you burst out laughing?!"
"N-no… I-... I, did... not~..."
"You're laughing so hard you can’t even speak right!! You’re still silently laughing right now!!”
Ursch-kun is adorable when he’s laughing too, but if I kept staring, we’d be wasting a lot of time, so even while he was still laughing, I pulled him along to resume the search for Marie-chan.
I immediately make full use of《Pride》 and 《Lust》. Marie-chan had been walking around absentmindedly so I can’t predict where she’d wind up, but at the very least, she couldn’t have gotten very far with the state she was in.
I take that back, she’s far. Marie-chan, you’re so far away~. So far that I don’t feel like catching up to you anymore~. It seems that we lost more time than I thought. Will you still be coming back for dinner, Marie-chan?
Geez, at this point, I’m only chasing her out of sheer obstinacy. Not because I’m worried, but because I’ve spent so many hours chasing her, that if I stopped now, all that time spent will be for nothing, so yep– sheer obstinacy. But I’m not hurrying like I was before. I can see where she is now after all.
"Why is that person... daydreaming so much?"
"Well, a lot happened 3 days ago with the person she likes, and now she’s being subtly avoided. I didn’t expect Marie-chan, who is normally steadfast and reliable, to be so affected by it that she starts wandering around aimlessly like this.”
"Perhaps all she needs is some time to return to her normal, steadfast self. Let’s leave her be.”
“Ursch-kun, that sounds nice and all, but aren’t you just getting bored from following her around?”
"Of course I am~. From the bottom of my heart, I can say that I don’t give a damn about her or her love problems."
Aaah, I think I’m starting to slowly understand the real Ursch-kun. He’s the type to not care about something unless it concerns those he’s interested in. Don't look at me. Don't look at me with that smile!! How sly!! Ugh, it’s so cute!! I’ll get angry!!
"Geez!! Don't smile at me!! I’ll fall in love!!"
"Isn't it a bit too late for that~?"
"I know!! I'm already in love!! But only the appearance, okay!!"