“Were you watching everything go down?” I asked.
“Hm? Nah. I just heard stuff from one of your acquain—oh, look at the time.”
The cat from earlier jumped on my right shoulder. It now dug its claws into my scalp, clinging fast. It even bit me, as if hurrying me along.
“Yowch! Knock it off!” I howled at it and then froze. “Hold up. Could you be…?”
Before I finished my sentence, Marie grabbed my arm. “We have to get going now, or you won’t be able to come back at all!”
Angie and the other girls rose to their feet and joined Marie in dragging me along.
“We’re going!” said Angie. “I don’t want to live without you! And if you insist on staying, I’ll stay with you!”
I shook my head furiously. “No, you can’t! Then you’d die too!” I couldn’t let that happen. I wanted her and the others to go on living.
“I’ll stay as well,” Livia declared, annoyed with my attitude. “We can live happily here, can’t we? I hope you remember that I promised you I would never let you go, Mr. Leon. I meant what I said.” It was just like her to make an announcement that verged on yandere.
Noelle seemed a little taken aback by Livia’s threatening statement, but she reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Let’s all just go home, all right?”
The four practically carried me out of the house. I mean, picture it—they hoisted me up like some animal they’d slaughtered and were taking home for dinner. Wasn’t that crazy?
“You guys are treating me like a slab of meat!” I cried.
Marie paused for a moment to wave back at our parents, who came out to watch us go. “See you soon!”
See you soon… The words echoed in my head. Aha. I knew it. She probably thought she hid it well, but I saw right through her. What a troublesome sister you are.
“My apologies for the rush,” Angie told my parents. “But I swear to you, I’ll make your son happy!” That was the kind of line I’d expect from a guy declaring his intentions to a girl’s parents.
“I-I want to find happiness with Mr. Leon as well,” Livia threw in nervously. “S-so please let us have him! On second thought…I guess we already took him. Sorry!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of your son!” Noelle threw in casually, ever the most relaxed of the bunch.
Was it just me, or was that also something the guy should be saying? They were being surprisingly assertive.
My parents waved back at the girls, watching quietly as they carried me off. I stared at them until they were specks in the distance. Before I knew it, we reached the gate leading to the other world.
“Hurry!” Marie shouted at the others. “We’ll be in big trouble if we don’t get through and close the gate quick!”
They finally lowered me to the ground, ready to dash for the other side of the gate. From this side, we couldn’t see anything—it was all darkness—but I could tell that even one step through would send us to the other side.
Livia and Angie grabbed both my hands, trying to drag me along as they ran for the gate.
“Leon, hurry!” Angie said urgently.
“Everyone’s waiting!” Livia chimed in.
I yanked them back and wrapped my arms around them. Leaning close, I whispered in their ears, “Thank you for doing so much for a guy like me. But this is goodbye.”
“What?”
“Um, Mr. Leon…?”
While they were still too surprised to react, I shoved them through the gate. Livia threw her hand toward me, clutching at empty air, her face frozen in shock. I watched until she and Angie disappeared into the darkness.
Noelle stood wide-eyed behind me, as if she couldn’t comprehend what I’d just done. I grabbed her in my arms and leaned toward her ear. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“Leon?!”
I shoved her through the gate after the others. At least now the three were safely back on the other side.
Marie was standing far enough away that she didn’t hear what I said to them. Still, she was angry at me for wasting precious time. “Hurry up! I told you, there’s no extra time.” She made no move to exit herself, though—just rushed me along. “Go!”
“I’ll go after you do,” I said.
“What? Don’t be such a chicken! You’re a man, so act like one and charge on through. It’s cowardly to use a lady to test the waters.” Marie kept avoiding my gaze. She was easier to read than she realized.
“No,” I said. “In times like this, it’s a guy’s job to shut up and stay behind.” I grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the gate.
Marie was dumbfounded at first, but soon her face crumpled into a look of despair. “What’re you doing, after I went through all this trouble…?! I was going to stay behind and close the gate!”
I knew it.
The gate was pulling her in. She struggled against it, clawing at the empty air. “You have to live! I…I was pretty much the one who killed you last time! I swore to myself that, this time, I’d save you!”
She’d tortured herself with this the whole time? I’d never asked her to sacrifice herself for me. In fact, that was the last thing I’d have wanted. What could be scarier than being indebted to Marie? Nah, better for her to go back and enjoy her second chance at life.
“Dummy. What big brother would let his little sister save him? I don’t want to be that lame. Hurry up and go back. For your information, I forgave your role in my death long ago.”
She was still fighting to stay, so I planted my palm on her forehead and forced her backward.
Tears sprang to her eyes. “I hate your guts, you—” Her voice cut off as she disappeared.
I guess she does have a cute side, putting her life on the line to save me.
“All right, then. That just leaves you.” I turned back to the cat, who’d watched silently as everything played out. “This is the gate from the afterlife to the living world. From what I know about how these things work, you can generally only close the door from the afterlife side. Who’d have thought I’d experience closing the door on an otome game world?”
The dark-gray cat transformed into a robotic sphere that floated in the air, its single red lens staring at me. It had been Luxion all along. “So you realized who I was,” he said.
“Of course. Your claws freakin’ hurt, by the way.”
The two of us faced each other in front of the door, but only one of us—Luxion—needed to return.
“You’ve got to leave too,” I said. “Angie and the others will be fine as long as they have you to take care of them. With you there, I won’t have anything to worry about.” I knew he’d protect them for me. Between us, I wasn’t the important one; Luxion was, as the game’s cheat item.
“Unfortunately for you, I refuse. My master has already passed away, so no master is currently registered into my system,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why would you refuse?”
He glanced at the darkness on the other side of the gate. “Do you know why I fought?”
“Because you wanted to exterminate the new humans,” I said.
“No, I had no interest in that.” He paused momentarily. “Correction—I lost interest in that.”
That was news to me. For the longest time, it’d been all he ever seemed to talk about.
“I wanted you to survive. That was why I fought,” he said. “Master, it’s time for us to say goodbye.”