Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/822139843121925685/episodes/822139844267423096
“…Huh? Um… Senpai? What… do you mean?”
Karen’s eyes flickered slightly, betraying her agitation.
Ah… I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I.
“Karen… could you roll up your sleeve?”
“Huh… wh-why?”
Karen looked flustered, trying to pull away from me.
—But I tightened my hold, refusing to let her escape.
“If you can’t do it… does that mean you have something to hide?”
“N-no, that’s not it… It’s just… embarrassing, I guess…”
Karen looked away, as if embarrassed.
Not only is she good at lying, she’s also a skilled actress, Karen.
“Karen, you don’t have to act anymore. Just now… I caught a glimpse. Of the sleeve.”
“……”
The next moment—Karen stopped resisting, her eyes resigned.
“…Ahaha… I should’ve hidden it better with makeup, made sure it couldn’t be seen…”
Her usual energy had vanished from Karen.
What was hidden inside Karen’s sleeve?
—It was a wound, like she’d scratched her arm repeatedly with her nails.
I’d caught a faint glimpse of it when I hugged Karen.
“Karen… You’re still hiding something from me, aren’t you? Something so painful you can’t bear it and end up hurting yourself…”
“…N-no. This… This is because I kept secrets from you, Senpai, and the guilt over hurting you…”
Karen hugged her right arm, as if to hide the injury.
“…I see. Yeah, if it was just that wound… I probably would’ve thought the same.”
But.
There was a crucial contradiction in Karen’s behavior.
It was… about her attitude after I revealed I was a reincarnator.
“—Karen’s attitude… was just too baffling to me.”
“Baffling…? Wh-what do you mean?”
“…There are several things, but the biggest one is how overly cheerful Karen’s attitude was.”
I still remember Karen’s words from that time.
When I revealed I was a reincarnator… Karen was the most troubled and broken out of the three of us.
And yet… just a few days later, Karen appeared before me with a bright attitude, as if nothing had happened.
She looked so innocent, the kind of sight that made you smile just looking at her.
At first, I thought she’d recovered… but over the past few days, I recalled a certain piece of information about Karen.
[—Karen is exceptionally skilled at lying and acting due to an incident in her past.]
This was a line from her character description within the game.
Applying this, Karen’s unnaturally cheerful attitude lately meant—
“It was… acting, right? Karen was prioritizing my mental state, trying to put me at ease.”
Then, Karen answered, keeping her eyes downcast.
“…Yes. I thought if I looked gloomy, Senpai would worry… so I acted cheerful.”
Then… Karen tilted her head in puzzlement.
“By the way, Senpai. How does the fact that I was acting connect to you having other worries…?”
“…No, it connects. …Because Karen was prioritizing my mental state, right?”
“…?”
“Hey, Karen. If that’s the case… couldn’t you have handled it differently?”
“…”
“If you were thinking about my mental state, you wouldn’t have just obeyed the reincarnator and avoided asking me about the ‘All Heroines Death Ending’… and then gone completely silent afterward. Shouldn’t you have explained things as soon as possible, via email or phone or something?”
Besides, Karen knew from Tsukino that I’d been struggling terribly lately.
Yet… she kept leaving me alone.
“There are too many contradictions in Karen’s actions… That’s why I thought it. That Karen still has something she’s hiding.”
I said this while staring straight into Karen’s eyes.
She looked away, seeming unsettled, and fell silent.
After a moment of silence, however, Karen opened her mouth as if giving up.
“…You’re sharp, Senpai… Really…”
So she was hiding something after all…
“Karen. Won’t you tell me? What exactly are you thinking? What’s troubling you…? I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“…You’re too kind, Senpai.”
Karen stared back into my eyes… then narrowed them faintly.
“Normally, you’d be angry with me right now… Yet you say you’ll help…”
Then, Karen buried her face in my chest again.
“Ugh, I… I didn’t want to rely on you anymore…”
She murmured in a trembling voice.
“Karen…”
“Hey, Senpai. The worry I’m hiding… it’s really nothing major. Something Tsukino-chan or Yukina-chan wouldn’t even notice… A tiny worry and wish. But… I… couldn’t give up.”
“No, I’ll just say it plainly…?”
Karen looked back at me with moist eyes—
“I wanted to be properly judged by you, Senpai. Because otherwise… I thought I wouldn’t even be allowed to fall for you.”
—She slowly began to speak the truth.
From the day I confessed about my reincarnation… until now.
What she had thought, what she had done.
And then—finally, she took out a notebook.
The notebook with “Death Loop Notebook” written on its cover.
–
–
If you enjoy our content, feel free to donate, Thank you in advance !