If the alternative was to see her fighting back tears on the field of battle, I’d much prefer to put a smile on her face and make her my ally. It was time to exercise every ounce of persuasion I had and forge a new path forward for the two of us. How hard could it be? I had a lot of practice making my dreams a reality in the game of life.
“Why? Because when I see a girl crying, I want to hold her and tell her it’s going to be all right.”
The dam finally broke, and a single tear trickled down Mary’s face.
“Don’t say that, Aoi. I have to do this on my own.”
But as she said that, she buried her face in my shoulder and tightened her arms around me. This wasn’t making a whole lot of sense to me, but I decided to respond to her actions, rather than her words.
“You’ve had a really hard life, haven’t you? I won’t tell you to give up, and I won’t tell you to tough it out on your own. I was thinking, instead, maybe we could get through it together.”
I knew I wasn’t making things any easier on her. Far from it. But I was going to see my choice through to the end.
“Please, Aoi, stop. I have to stay strong!”
The tears were streaming down her face now.
“I worked so hard. I traveled wherever they sent me, and I forced myself not to cry at night until I thought I couldn’t feel anything anymore. Why must you be so cruel to me? I don’t even have any parents to tell me I did a good job. Why must I keep suffering alone? Why, Aoi?!”
Mary’s anguished cries echoed around the guardian room. She had been aloof since the day we met, but there really was a warm, human girl underneath that iron armor. My next step was to tell her she’d done a good job. You know, this was a lot easier in games, where you just clicked one of like three choices and your character said a whole prepared monologue. I, on the other hand, was stuck winging the whole thing. Man, if only the real world had retries.
“You’ve worked hard for a long time, and you’ve done a great job, Mary. Thank you.”
I slowly stroked her hair.
“Ah... Waaaaaaaah!”
The cutesy wailing caught me by surprise. Mary’s arms tightened, crushing me against her. Seriously, her grip was so tight I was worried I was gonna crack a rib. But I endured and just kept stroking her hair as she cried.
“...”
Ten minutes passed before she finally settled down. She’d finished crying, but neither of us knew what to do next.
“Aoi, would you please say something? I’m about to die of embarrassment here.”
Mary’s forehead was still firmly pressed against my chest, and I was still stroking her hair. I noted with interest that her ears were bright red.
“Uh, let’s see. Umm. That was really cute?”
It was all I could think of.
“I’m going to kill you, and then kill myself.” Evidently that was not what I was supposed to say.
“Honestly, Mary, I’m really happy that you let me hold you while you cried. I think it’s way better to let someone give you a shoulder to cry on than to just bottle everything up. Don’t you agree?”
“Are you sure? To be honest, it felt wonderful. If you truly don’t mind it, I might just keep doing it.”
Mary looked at me in surprise, her eyes shining with hope. Just one more little push now...
“I never thought you’d say that. Fortunately for you, I’m totally into spoiling people.”
I had a little sister, though she wasn’t grown up like Mary, and I’d spoiled her rotten for her whole life. I loved it. And more importantly, I wanted to see Mary happy.
“If you say so. Then, do you mind holding me a little longer? I feel safe like this.”
“Do you mind if I contact the guys on the surface first? They’re probably starting to get worried.”
“No. This is Mary time.”
“All right then.”
Firmly reprimanded, I held my ground, my arms still wrapped around Mary. I couldn’t see her face, with her forehead pressed against my shoulder and her arms wrapped around me, but I was just relieved she wasn’t crying anymore.
“Thank you, Aoi. I think I would like some time alone now.”
After a bit, Mary calmed down and left me behind. I took a seat on the floor and pondered. Did I clear the event? Somehow, this one had been even more exhausting than the time we’d fought. Finding the route where Mary stayed with me had left me completely spent. For the longest time, I’d just been asking her to stay every chance I could get, but that had clearly been going nowhere. I’d finally found the right approach.
Whew. I was tired, but I had no regrets. In fact, I was ecstatic that I’d finally landed on the true route. But just as I went to stand up and breathe a sigh of relief...
“...?!”
I looked up to see Fez, Donnel, and Carla, all peering at me through a little crack in the guardian’s door that Mary had just used to exit. All three of them had the most insufferable grins I had ever seen. I straightened up in surprise, and they all waltzed into the room.
“Now ya’ve done it, Aoi. Another wife? You’re as bad a criminal as me, I swear.”
“Aren’t you the lady-killer? Now, Boss, how much are you gonna pay me to keep my trap shut?”
The guys came up on either side of me and each threw an arm around my shoulder. I was never going to live this down. Actually, Donnel’s fur was kinda warm and soft, but his smirk ruined everything.
“Yeah, yeah, how much ya gonna pay us, Aoi?!”
Carla, did you really have to sound so excited about blackmailing me? Fez and Donnel got too into it, and I ended up decking both of them. Unfortunately, I hit them a little too hard and knocked them both unconscious, which meant I was forced to drag them up to the surface, as I tried to force out a smile for Carla. Donnel and Fez should both have been at the village, which meant they must’ve come running here out of concern for us, but I was sure hell would freeze over before they would admit that.