Chapter 1: Yamada’s Solitude
I had distanced myself from the members of the Hero Party, centered around Ryuguin. I wanted to continue the story from that moment onward.
But honestly, there wasn’t much of a story to continue. I had lost the ability to trust women, and I had no intention of trying to do so again.
After all, nearly half of the human population in this world is female. The source of my brain’s trauma was lurking everywhere, and just thinking about it made me feel like I was losing my mind.
In the depths of my heart, Inspector Zenigata was roaring, “Who stole Yamada’s sanity points!” But the truth was, half the world’s population was like Lupin, and even my inner Inspector Zenigata was dropping his handcuffs and facing a situation that could only be described as a disaster.
Yet, I couldn’t help but think that all of this was my fault. The misunderstanding that “Hey, maybe she likes me?” was the root of my troubles, and jumping to the conclusion that “Wait, could this be mutual feelings?” was a foolish mistake.
What? You find it surprising that I honestly admitted to liking them?
Well, of course. I was just an average high school student with a Love Deviation Value of around 40. I was the kind of pathetic guy who could fall for anything, even if the wind blew in the right direction, or develop feelings for a bucket of spilled water.
Just a brush of fingers when passing a handout would send my heart into a strange arrhythmia, and a simple smile from a girl would have me gasping, “Yamada, did you just run a shuttle run?” My pulse and breathing would go haywire.
Given that, it was no wonder that when I received obligatory chocolates from classmates, I would think, “Does she like me?” with a creepy grin, or when a girl next to me reluctantly showed me her textbook, I would abandon the lesson to indulge in my delusions of a romantic comedy.
So, it wasn’t strange at all that I developed feelings for the girls I had shared my life with for so long.
To avoid repeating the same mistakes of falling for someone due to misunderstandings, I had to avoid contact with half the population and, ultimately, escape from this society altogether. My mind was consumed by such absurd thoughts.
Thus, for me, there was only one path left to walk.
The last option that remained was to live a complete hermit life, far removed from the world’s affairs.
As my excitement and anger began to subside, what emerged was a wave of negative emotions like fear and regret. Once they surfaced, they took over my heart, and no amount of reason could dislodge them.
“I’m in deep trouble! I’m in deep trouble! I’ve messed up!” I shouted as I dashed through the night.
I was just a high school student who had hardly ever been in a fight. Even though I had been battling monsters since my summoning, that was a completely different matter from confronting other humans. The thought of decapitating someone from my hometown weighed heavily on my heart.
“I’m in deep trouble!”
Like a broken projector, my mind replayed endless flashes of Ryuguin’s severed head, Mika trembling, Ange in shock, and Eris with a pale face, tears streaming down.
“I’m in deep trouble! I’m in deep trouble! I have to disappear somewhere! But!! But where the hell do I go?!”
At that moment, I was driven by a compulsion that felt almost like an obsession to escape to some distant place.
Driven by something, without knowing my destination, I ran without eating or drinking, ignoring fatigue, until I finally reached a mountain.
At the southernmost tip of the Arcana Kingdom lay Hermit Mountain, known locally as the Hidden Mountain.
It was a dangerous place that even the locals hadn’t dared to enter for a long time.
The name came from the fact that no one who bravely ventured into that mountain ever returned—meaning they had vanished without a trace.
Of course, I stepped into that mountain without knowing a single thing about its dangers. This was a reckless move; I was underestimating the mountain entirely.
I had completely forgotten about securing a water source, food, dealing with the cold and fatigue, and all the essentials for survival.
I had conquered the so-called most difficult labyrinth over a long period, and I thought that the harsh environments and traps within the dungeon were nothing compared to this. But that was a huge mistake.
The scale of the mountain was far too grand compared to the dungeons I had returned from. I had ventured too deep, losing all sense of direction and location.
It was only then that I realized how difficult it was to escape from the mountain I had entered.
“Whatever happens, happens!”
“Maybe I can make it!”
“Namusan!”
These phrases were almost 100% death flags. If anyone uttered such lines, you should never believe them.
Just look at modern Japan; university students who say, “Maybe I can make it!” usually end up repeating a year or squandering their living expenses on gambling like slots or mahjong.
And characters who casually say, “Whatever happens, happens!” are bound to mess things up, while those who mutter “Namusan” are guaranteed to fail at what should have gone smoothly.
In other words, you could think of these phrases as cries when pulling some low-probability gacha.
With that in mind, I—
“Whatever happens, happens!” I shouted, tossing a yellow and red speckled mushroom into my mouth.
My body felt like it was burning, and sweat poured down like a waterfall, but it was probably just my imagination.
“Maybe I can make it!” I encouraged myself, plunging my head into a small pond I found and gulping down the water.
My stomach had been rumbling ever since I drank, but I hoped it was just my imagination.
After muttering “Namusan,” I stuffed my mouth full of sweet, gooey fruit.
What happened to me next was as clear as day.
I lost consciousness, clutching the fruit, as I envisioned the words “←to be continued” alongside some familiar background music, and in that fading moment of awareness, I thought I saw a White Girl.