The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 27: Victimization

"..."

"..."

"..."

Finally breaking the deathly awkward silence that had descended, Evangel muttered.

"m-my books..."

"..."

Scratching the back of his pitch-black hair, Ren looked at her, coughed, and awkwardly said.

"Ah...sorry."

"..."

No, hey? Was she really the victim here?

I could have just died! I had literally just seen a different version of myself die...wait, how did I do that?

As I recalled my bloody and battered body...the feeling of myself slowly losing consciousness and succumbing to death, my body involuntarily began trembling.

W-what was that!?

Putting aside the matter of me seeing a vision of a different version of myself hit by Ren’s light beam tragically die, I alternated glances between the two, who were just ignoring me.

Somehow...I felt in the wrong for wanting to express my rage at almost dying upon seeing Evangel’s tragic expression, her eyelids dropped and lips puckered.

Was I... attention-seeking!?

No...surely not, right?

At a loss for words, I just opened my mouth, no sounds coming out.

Eventually, I managed to spit out, my voice still trembling not just from Evangel’s sadness but from the fact that...I had just watched myself die!

"Hey...YOU J-JUST ALMOST KILLED ME!?"

"ah..."

His head snapping back to face me, Ren glanced at me with surprise, as if I had never even been there in the first place.

After a moment, Ren said, simultaneously with Evangel, who had turned her head to face me upon hearing my voice as well.

"D-don’t lie, I saw you trying to attack her."

"...why did you come in here like that again!?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Now, all three of us had asked questions, and none of us had any answers whatsoever.

Ren glanced at Evangel with a surprised expression, I furiously looked at Ren, and Evangel looked at me while pointing at my hand.

Looking at Evangel for confirmation and then at me, his eyes narrowed and eyebrows raised, Ren eventually said.

"You weren’t doing anything...?"

Not even giving me the liberty to respond, Evangel responded, her voice back to robotic and monotone.

"He was just showing me something, and even if you thought he was...I would beat him ten out of ten times. So that entrance was completely unnecessary. Look at those poor books..."

Hearing Evangel’s rebuke, Ren coughed once again, clearing his throat, and glanced at me.

"It seemed I was w-"

"You bitch."

Not letting him finish his sentence, I rushed forward and furiously threw my palm at his stomach, intending to push him down.

However, despite his expression not even changing to one of surprise yet, Ren’s body instinctively moved to the right, avoiding my hand.

Gasping for air as the images of my destroyed lungs appeared in my head, I lunged forward at his body like a tiger.

"You b-bastard, I-I’m g-going to k-kill you."

Once again, Ren’s body instinctively stepped backward, my arm barely missing his stomach.

As I continued running toward him, Ren sprinted forward, looking over his shoulder and desperately saying.

"Look, no one was even hurt! Just the books! It was an ac-"

"I SAW MYSELF DIE, YOU ASSHOLE!"

Standing at the opposite edge of a circular table, Ren waved his hands up and down.

"I’m sorry, I swear...I just th-"

Interrupting him mid-sentence, I yelled.

"YOUR THOUGHT ALMOST KILLED ME!"

As I stepped right, Ren stepped left on the other side of the table, and vice versa.

Without skipping a beat, I ran toward him clockwise around the table, and he went the other way while still bumbling.

"LOOK, I’M SORRY, ALRIG-

"IF YOU’RE SORRY, THEN LET ME CATCH YOU!"

"LET’S STOP PLAYING TAG AND TALK!"

"THERE’S NO TALKING. JUST LET ME HIT YOU, AND WE’RE EV-"

"NO! LOOK, IT WAS A GENUINE ACCIDENT!"

"..."

Unbeknownst to Ren and me, as Evangel gazed at the two of us chasing each other around the circular table, a smile slowly formed on her face.

Looking at Ren with a grin, Evangel slowly picked up one of her precious textbooks and threw it accurately forward, watching it land right in front of Ren’s feet.

"For the books."

Tripping over the textbook that had appeared beneath his leg, Ren glanced at Evangel in shock as he fell face-first toward the ground.

Even his reflexes couldn’t account for her sudden action.

Catching up to Ren in less than a second, I raised my fist...and surged it toward his defenseless back.

*BANG*

As Ren somehow instinctively rolled to the right, despite his eyes not even seeing my attack, my fist hit the wooden floor, causing a surge of pain to explode in my right arm.

"AHHH"

"I DIDN’T MEAN TO DODG-"

"HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT!?"

Lying on his back with his face now meeting mine, Ren frantically yelled back.

"STOP! WE CAN TA-"

Enraged, I stretched both my arms downward, trapping Ren’s lying body in between them so he couldn’t roll away.

"WHEN I’M DONE WE CAN TALK!"

Placing my left hand on Ren’s shoulder, preventing him from moving an inch, I once again raised my now bleeding right fist, watching Ren’s trembling blue pupils with pure ecstasy flooding through my body.

At that moment, a terrifying thought suddenly appeared in my head.

"I-i think I understand Lily now..."

Never in my world had I felt such excitement.

*BANG*

Ren simultaneously raised his right arm to protect himself, his right knuckle meeting mine.

As a surge of pain exploded through my body once again, I didn’t even care and retracted my right hand, pushing down on his left shoulder with my left arm even harder

As I raised my fist once again, a devilish smile appeared on my face.

Looking at my face, Ren couldn’t help but pause for a moment, flashbacks of his previous life surging through his pain.

Recalling Lily walking toward him with a potion in her hand, with the same smile as the person above him, Ren’s reflexes slowed for just a moment, a primal fear flooding his body.

And then...

*BANG*

As my fist connected with the right side of his chest, I exploded into laughter, pure joy coursing through my veins.

I HAD DONE IT

I HAD HIT HIM!