I Am The Game's Villain Chapter 808: Jeanne SS [6]

Jeanne left the stadium without looking back.

She had not even really decided to do it. Her body had simply moved on its own, carrying her out of the arena, through the doors, and away from the noise before her mind could catch up. Even now, as she walked, the sensation of what had just happened still trembled through her limbs.

She had sent him flying so easily.

That was the part she could not stop replaying.

One swing, one restrained swing, and that boy had been hurled across the stadium like he weighed nothing at all. It had happened so quickly, that it frightened her far more than if it had taken effort.

For the first time since her summoning, she felt she had truly glimpsed the power now living inside her.

And she did not like what she saw.

It was no longer something abstract, no longer just talk about divine blessings and heightened strength and a body remade by magic.

There was no denying it anymore.

And the thought that kept rising in her mind, no matter how much she wanted to push it away, was as simple as it was terrifying.

Could she still even call herself human?

The answer came too quickly.

Not entirely.

That frightened her more than she wanted to admit.

Why had she been brought here?

For what purpose had a god reached into another world and taken her?

The answer seemed obvious enough on the surface. Power like this was not given for comfort. People did not summon someone, rebuild their body, and place divine strength into their hands unless they expected something in return. Sooner or later, she would be asked to fight. Against something dangerous. Against enemies she still barely understood.

And when that moment came, would she really be capable of it?

Would she be able to hurt people, kill if necessary, survive what this world seemed ready to demand of her?

By the time she reached the main academy building again, where the ordinary lessons were held, her pace had slowed. The rush that had carried her from the stadium was gone now, replaced by unease coiling in her chest. She walked through the corridors more quietly, her earlier panic shifting into something calmer and more difficult to name.

She had run away.

She had not stayed to watch the rest of the class. She had not endured the stares or the praise or the questions that would surely have followed. She had simply left. Some part of her had thought she was ready, or at least ready enough to begin. But what had happened in that arena had shaken something in her too deeply for pretense.

She knew she had to prepare herself.

She understood that much.

But whether she truly wanted to become ready was something else entirely.

And the crueler thought followed close behind.

Would anyone even give her the choice?

She stopped at a tall window in the corridor and stood there in silence, staring out at the grounds beyond. The light outside was calm, almost ordinary, and for a moment the world looked so still that it felt unreal. Two weeks had passed since her summoning, and yet she still felt as though she were drifting inside some strange dream, one that refused to end no matter how many mornings she woke into it.

Then she heard footsteps behind her.

At first, she thought it would be Aurora.

But when she turned, it was not Aurora standing there.

It was Eric.

The red-haired young man had stopped several steps away from her, leaving a careful distance between them. For a moment he said nothing, only looked at her with that same complicated expression she had noticed before, as though every time he saw her, something inside him was thrown off balance.

But this time there was something different in his face.

No hesitation.

The moment he had seen her expression, truly seen it, whatever uncertainty usually held him back seemed to have fallen away. Jeanne imagined she must have looked exactly as she felt: lost, lonely, shaken in a way she could not hide quickly enough.

And perhaps because of that, he could not remain silent.

He took a breath.

"Jeanne," he said.

She looked at him without answering.

His gaze held hers.

"It’s Jason."

For a second, she did not react.

Then her eyes blinked once, as if the words had struck some place in her mind too stunned to respond at first.

Eric did not look away.

"When I first met you," he said slowly, "I gave you a doll."

Jeanne stared at him.

"It was stupid, I know. And you were already too old to really care about dolls by then." A bitter little smile curled his lips. "But I wanted to start off well with the new sibling I had just gained."

Her breath caught.

Memory flashed through her with clarity, sudden and brightly.

A box in his hands. That awkward expression. Her own confusion at the time. The strange effort of a boy trying, in his own clumsy way, to bridge a distance neither of them knew how to cross.

Eric went on more quietly.

"I still remember how you smiled at me anyway. You thanked me like I had given you something precious."

Jeanne’s blue eyes widened slowly.

Everything in her seemed to stop for a moment.

The corridor, the academy, the other world, the fear still lodged in her chest, all of it receded beneath what he was just telling.

Before she could think, before she could say anything at all, hurried footsteps broke the silence between them.

Then Jeanne moved.

She crossed the space in an instant and threw her arms around him.

Eric stiffened in surprise, clearly caught off guard by the force of it, but only for a heartbeat. Then he looked down at her, and in the next moment he felt her body trembling against his.

She was holding him tightly, as if afraid he might disappear if she loosened her grip.

And very gently, without a word, he wrapped his arms around her in return.

...

...

Outside in the gardens, Jeanne sat beside Eric on a stone bench.

For the past ten minutes, he had been doing his best to explain everything to her.

After the initial shock, after the sudden embrace in the corridor and the flood of emotions that followed, Jeanne had forced herself to calm down enough to listen. Perhaps she had accepted it more quickly than most people would have. After all, he was telling her things he should not have known, speaking with memories that belonged to Jason while wearing a face that was clearly not his. But the more he spoke, the more details he gave, the more that strange impossibility changed into something she could no longer deny.

Eric Scarlett was Jason.

Or rather, Jason had somehow become Eric Scarlett.

And once she accepted that, he began explaining the rest. How he had awakened in this world in Eric’s body. How he had lived here for years already. How, while only two weeks had passed for her since being torn from Earth, more than a decade had gone by for him in this world.

When he finally finished, Jeanne fell silent, processing everything he said.

After a while, she turned toward him.

"Do you remember the last thing you saw?" She asked quietly.

Eric shook his head.

"No," he said. "I don’t."

He had wondered about it many times himself. Maybe he had died. If so, then how? He could not remember. There was no accident in his mind, no pain, no final moment he could point to and say that was it. Perhaps he had simply been taken. Perhaps whatever had happened to him had not left enough behind for memory to hold.

Jeanne lowered her eyes slightly before speaking again.

"Before I was summoned here, you were still alive," she said. "I saw you that morning."

Eric turned toward her more fully at that.

"And I don’t remember you disappearing either," he said slowly.

Jeanne frowned, thinking through it. "Then... were you reincarnated while I was summoned on the same day?"

"Yeah," Eric said after a moment. "The timeline is strange. I’ve lived here for over ten years already, but from what you’re saying... that’s probably what happened."

Jeanne sat with that in silence for a moment, then shifted to the other thing that still confused her.

"You said this is the world of a game?"

Eric gave a small nod. "Yeah. Do you know a game called Princess and Dragon?"

Jeanne thought for a few seconds, searching her memory, but then shook her head.

Eric rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well... it’s kind of a dating sim that I used to play—"

"The one you bought and then spent all your time shut inside your room with?" Jeanne interrupted.

Eric blinked. "Yeah, that one. So you do remember it?"

Jeanne glanced at him, and for the first time since they sat down, a small smile appeared on her lips.

"I remember your mother scolding you over it," she said. "And you never coming out of your room."

Eric immediately blushed.

"W—Well, it was weirdly addictive," he muttered.

Jeanne’s smile deepened faintly. "A dating sim? Isn’t that the kind of game girls usually play?"

"Oh, come on," Eric grumbled, his face growing warmer.

He had been bored. That was the excuse he had always given himself. The game had good marketing, interesting character designs, and somehow it had pulled him in more than he ever meant to admit. Hearing Jeanne say it aloud now, however, made it sound exactly as embarrassing as it probably was.

But Jeanne’s expression had softened completely by then.

That small exchange, trivial as it was, that embarrassed look, that defensive muttering, that same familiar awkwardness he always had whenever she caught him in something he would rather not discuss, that was Jason. More than the secrets he knew, more than the memories he carried, it was that simple familiarity that made her truly believe.

And as she watched him, she felt her whole mood lift in a way it had not once since she had been summoned to this world.

For the first time, this place did not feel entirely empty.

Then, just as quickly, the softness in her expression faded.

"I was summoned here two weeks ago," she said, turning to him with a faint note of hurt in her voice. "And you only came now?"

Eric flinched a little.

"I’m sorry," he said at once. "I just... when I first saw you, I was too shocked. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know if you would believe me." He hesitated, then looked at her more seriously. "Jeanne... I’m not only Jason anymore. I’m also Eric Scarlett now."

Jeanne looked at him for a long moment, then turned her gaze ahead again toward the gardens.

"I can still see very much Jason in you," she said. "That’s enough for me."

The words were simple.

But hearing them sent a warmth flooding through Eric’s chest so suddenly that he almost did not know what to do with it.

That was Jeanne.

His older stepsister, the one he had always quietly admired, the one who seemed intelligent and composed and almost unfairly capable at everything. The one who used to help him with homework, correct him when he was being stupid, and sometimes, without even trying, feel more like a real older sister than he deserved. She was here, sitting beside him now, and in some strange way her presence pulled a part of Earth back to him.

For all the years he had spent in this world, that feeling alone nearly undid him.

A small, bashful smile tugged at his mouth.

Oddly enough, he felt even happier than Jeanne did after finally telling her the truth.

"Our parents must be worried sick," he said.

Jeanne nodded immediately. "We have to find a way back."

Eric’s smile dimmed a little at that.

"You want me to come back with you?" he asked. "I don’t even exist there anymore."

Jeanne turned toward him. "Don’t you want to see your mother?"

"Of course I do," he said quietly. "But... I’m not Jason anymore."

He had a different body now. A different name. A different life built over more than ten years. Even if his memories remained, even if some essential part of him was still the boy from Earth, how was he supposed to return and simply call himself Jason again?

Jeanne seemed to understand that at once.

"It’s fine," she said. "I’ll be there. I’ll tell the truth, and your mother will recognize you."

Then, after a brief pause, she added more gently, "I understand that you have a new life now. But at the very least, you should be able to tell your mother that you’re still alive. In some way."

Eric lowered his gaze for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"Yeah," he said softly. "You’re right."