In the original story, The Mule Route is about her development—not about her capacity as a handler of magic but about her personal growth.
Quite a few players don’t much like her at the beginning, but many of them start to change their minds as the scenario progresses.
It indicated that they’d seen her develop as a human being.
Complaining on and on next to me, Mule was teary-eyed and completely different from the proud character I’d seen in the game.
The person standing in front of her was a girl who had previously lived at Fraum. Mule had tossed out all her belongings and kicked her out, and she was glaring at her with eyes filled with resentment.
“Apologize,” I said.
“A-are you kidding?! Why do I have to apologize?! It was her fault!! I’m Fraum’s dorm manager!!”
“Whether you’re an aristocrat or a president, or a stray cat with a fish in its mouth, you apologize when you do something bad. Now apologize to her.”
Seeing that I wasn’t about to compromise, Mule gritted her teeth.
“Why do I have to listen to you?! I am Mule Esse Eisbert! I haven’t stooped so low that I should listen to what a male like you tells me to do!!”
“Forget it. It’s useless.”
The senior student—I could tell she was a senior by the color of the bow in her hair—shook her head and said, “Good grief.”
“Do you know how many students this creature has kicked out of the dorm to date? She has zilch intention of feeling sorry about that. She just goes on and on about how she’s an Eisbert, puffs out her chest, and then tries to live her life the way she wants.”
“Don’t sound so high-and-mighty! It was your fault! All I did was tell you to respect me as your dorm manager! I pointed out to you that you had an attitude issue, but then you argued about it, so I kicked you out of my dorm!”
The senior student shrugged, and I sighed.
“Dorm manager. Keep that up, and no one will be left at the dorm.”
“…Humph. Who needs them?”
Mule turned the other way and whispered, “Solitude gives people strength. I will be alone from the beginning to the end. It’s easier if no one stays near me, and I must fulfill my duties as the youngest daughter of the Eisbert family. Otherwise, neither my mother nor my sister will look at me.”
“Huh! It’s also disgusting that you always act like the victim that way.”
“Wh-what?! H-how dare you?!! Say something useless like that one more time, and I will pound my fist into you for every dumb remark you’ve made!!”
Oil and water, yin and yang, ice and coal. All these were incompatible.
The two girls stared at each other head-on, and I lifted Mule in my arms.
“H-hey! Y-you!! L-let me go!! Wh-what the heck are you doing?! Who do you think I am?!”
Fidget, fidget, fidget.
I managed to fend off Mule’s fist as she flailed around in my arms and bowed my head in apology to the senior student.
“I’ll eventually have her give you a proper apology. Won’t you come back and live at Fraum again when she does?”
“Why does a person like you want to do so much for someone like her?”
I gave her a big smile.
“When a beautiful flower blooms, you want others to see it, right?”
“Put me down, you rude male!! It’s a little high up here and scary!!”
“It looks to me like the season for you to bloom is long gone.”
After saying goodbye to the student who left laughing, I lowered our dorm manager to the ground as she continued flailing in panic.
Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing… Her arms kept going round and round and reminded me of a wind-up doll.
“Cut the crap! I’d kick you out if you weren’t a special designee!”
“Okay, sorry! Hey, it would be your loss if you kicked out a special designee like me, so will you stop talking big?”
“You’re the one who’s talking big and threatening me!! What are you pouting about? Stop it. It’s irritating! And what are you looking at?! You’re too good at getting on a person’s nerves!”
I looked up diagonally to the right and exhaled through my pursed lips when Tsukiori came right on schedule and waved.
“Good morning, Hiiro. You sneaked into my room this morning, unlike the typical pervert who comes at night, so does that make you different?”
“Why do you have to confirm me as a sex offender as soon as you see me?”
Tsukiori smiled and spread out her arms.
“Come to me.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I pushed our dorm manager toward Tsukiori, and the tiny girl fit perfectly in her arms.
“Whoa! What was that for?! Let me go, you slug!!”
“There, there, you did well. Good girl.”
A goofy smile appeared on my face as I watched the two girls hugging.
The night before, I had begged Tsukiori to help me with my carrot-and-stick strategy.
To encourage our dorm manager’s development, I would be the stick that scolded her, while Tsukiori would be the carrot that comforted and spoiled her.
The natural consequence would be that she would hate me, the stick, and like Tsukiori, the carrot.
The yuri girl would receive divine, amber-colored rain to grow and eventually unfurl her beautiful petals. I would contribute while predetermining a self-imposed dust chute to get out of their way.
They could leave the rebounds to me. I would pound anyone to hell and back as many times as needed.
While we were at it, if the dorm manager could spread bad rumors about me, then my popularity among the others would also sink. Mule gradually grows as a person, and with Tsukiori’s involvement with her, the story progresses along The Mule Route.
It was a brilliant plan, like hitting a hundred million birds with one stone.
This…is how a person needs to use his brain.
“Sakura Tsukiori! Wh-what the heck do you think you’re doing?!”
Mule’s face was beet red as she escaped from Tsukiori’s hold and pushed her away.
“Huh? But Hiiro asked me to—”
“Heeeeeeeeeeeeey! Look over there!”
I set my hands at waist level and shouted, somehow managing to get their attention.
Panting, I beckoned to Tsukiori.
“What’s the matter, suddenly letting go of your chi like that?”
“It’s best to scream when you want to change the subject. The success rate is pretty high. Anyway, that isn’t the issue here. Why did you suddenly betray me? I was shocked. I felt betrayed in a flash. Do you really have red blood flowing through your body?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re way past the stage where you get extra marks for being honest.”
I stopped Tsukiori from messing with my hair as she usually did.
“Stop that. Stop playing with my hair, trying to make it curl and keeping it in place.”
“Uh-uh.”
“You’re also past the age where it’s cute for you to disagree. What was the point of my tearful persuasion yesterday? Give me back my tears. That was definitely a gallon-class outpour.”
“But I’m not interested in her. I’d be happy to help you if you wanted me to spoil you, but…I’m not motivated here.”
As usual, our main character wasn’t excited about starting something with Mule.
When will this girl’s love switch go on? That was all we needed to put the final touch on the invincible Sakura Tsukiori, who chased after heroines around the clock.
As I lamented in my mind, our dorm manager stuck her head between us.