Maydare Volume 3 Other Side - Airi, This World is Not My World.

 

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My name is Airi.

I am a girl from another world who descended as the Savior of Maydare.

“...Haa, it hurts.”

Since the day of the alliance conference, I had been in a daze on the bed of my room, the covers pulled over my head.

I had been like this for a while now.

I was convinced that this world was the ideal story I created.

I believed that. I never doubted it.

I thought that everything was just the way I wanted it to be.

I wanted to think that way because I didn’t want this world to feel “real.”

I was left with a fluffy, happy feeling, like I kept dreaming the dreams I wanted to see every day…

That was why I had always treated everyone in this world as if they were characters in a story. 

But, I was wrong.

Makia had said it. This world wasn’t the world of The Story Where I Will be Happy.

That was the (tentative) title of the story I was writing.

The only person who knew that title, which expressed my wish as it was, was my dead friend.

Is Makia really…Oda-san?

“...Makia…”

It took me a little while to accept Makia’s words.

At first, I tried to convince myself that they were just deceptive words from an evil witch, but now that I was aware, I was realizing it little by little.

Ah, this world really was reality. It was real.

Because the story was becoming more and more different from what I thought it was going to be.

No, it was always different from the beginning. I was just always interpreting things conveniently.

“Airi.”

There was a knock on my door, and I heard Gilbert’s voice calling me.

Gilbert. The third prince of the Kingdom of Ruschia.

He was a hard-headed but classically beautiful and mature man who adored me.

“Don’t come in!”

I refused to let him enter my room.

It wasn’t just Gil. The other Guardians were also kept away as far as possible.

My Guardians, who I once treasured so much. I began to reject them because I began to understand that they were “real men.”

They weren’t characters that existed in a story, painted with fantasies and ideals, but real, actual men.

Real men were terrifying. They were disgusting.

I probably thought that way because of the men my mother brought into our home…

I was able to talk pleasantly with boys my age and interact with them in an outwardly normal way. However, something would trigger a sudden dislike for them. For me, men were like that.

It was even the same for all my Guardians as well.

Until now, they had been ideal characters in a story who only cared about me, but now that I knew this world was real, I could feel their existence more rawly.

There was something about them that I couldn’t deal with.

“...Airi, please accept my apology. I didn’t know you had been tormenting yourself so much and kept making you carry the burden of being the Savior. If you want to quit being the Savior, I won’t disavow that. I will take full responsibility.”

“...”

Gil was saying something through the door. He was very desperate.

If I said I wanted to quit being the Savior, the world would surely condemn me. I think Gil, who was a Guardian as well as a prince of this country, would suffer the most.

Gil continued to talk on the other side of the door, in a somewhat agitated tone.

“But, I do not know how to return you to your original world. There may not a method in this world. All the Saviors of the past have stayed in this world. …His Eminence, the bishop of the Vabel state, said so according to the records of the past.”

“...”

Hmm, I see.

It’s not that I really wanted to go back to my old world. I still hated that world.

But there was no meaning in staying here any longer. That’s why…

“Airi. Will you listen to me one more time?”

I felt that Gil’s tone had changed slightly. It sounded nervous, yet there was a strong will.

Without knowing why, I listened to him, with the covers over my head.

“Even if you are no longer the Savior…it won’t change my feelings that you are the loveliest being in this world.”

“...”

“I swear to protect you for the rest of my life, so, will you be my consort?”

“...Consort?”

I raised my head slightly.

I thought about the meaning of that for a moment.

“What are you talking about? That’s ridiculous.”

And then, I spat out a rejection.

The person Gil fell in love with was the Savior me.

The sparkling, special girl from another world.

Now, I was just a sulking woman who had come to grips with reality and lost all motivation.

I wasn’t fit to become the protagonist of a story by any means.

“In the first place, I like Thor better than you, Gil.”

I said that, knowing it would hurt him.

“...I see.”

After a short silence, that was all I heard from the other side of the door. Even though it was through a door, I could hear Gil’s expression in his voice.

And then, Gil left.

Weird Gil. Why did he suddenly propose to me? 

A prince confessing from behind a door. It was too weird.

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