I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

Based on the original, I already expected that the three men were the heroes.

Now that two of them were concluded as a junk car and nuclear waste, there was only one person left who could be trusted.

Amongst the three, Constantine was relatively the sanest.

However, I couldn’t meet him because he was bound to the temple.

Even during the Empire’s Foundation Day celebrations, he appeared briefly at the ceremony and disappeared, so there was no time to observe him.

I heard that even after the religious war in the Empire came to an end, civil wars were still happening everywhere, so they were busy suppressing it.

It was best to get him out of the way before he awakened.

But frankly, considering the genre of the novel, I had no expectations that he would give up.

In the original, he was busy trying to get a hold of Claudia amid his busy schedule. The paladin seemed to be high enough in ranks to be able to do so.

And you know.

‘I think Lucas, Benjamin, and Constantine have already joined hands.’

Based on our conversation with Benjamin, it seemed like they had already decided on the cost, and it was impossible to communicate with each other.

If I based it on the original novel, it was too early to make such a judgment.

But the original. Wasn’t it the story that I have been trying to destroy with all my might ever since I intervened? It was funny to think about it now.

There was no public enemy in the novel to stand against the male heroes. Even if they were, they were no match.

…… Just ruin and kill him.

‘Such a hellish personality.’

Anyway, with the male heroes, there was no dialogue or compromise to the enemy in advance. If the other party seemed like a threat, they just killed them.

I recalled when they first started to collaborate in the novel.

It was the moment when ‘Felix’, who revolved around his younger sister, became too annoying for them.

They judged that ‘Felix’, who interfered in everything related to Claudia’s relationships, wasn’t an opponent they could deal with by simply alienating or killing him.

But now, the heroine, who triggered their crazy possessiveness no matter where she ran, decided to isolate herself.

The premise of, ‘I can’t approach Claudia since she’s not coming out of her house due to Irene Amber’ seemed to have changed things.

As a result, all the men who held hands first pointed their arrows at me, not Felix.

If Felix had only heard of the hint indirectly through Benjamin, he might have been seriously attempting to learn magic resistance right now.

Since I had no talent for magic in the first place, I couldn’t do it.

‘It’s the truth.’

It’s like a madman rushing into a tornado to go against Mother Nature.

Even though I never regretted my choices, I occasionally had doubts.

‘By the way, sir. I can’t see the answer. Is the solution I’m writing down correct? I didn’t use the wrong formula, did I?’

However, there was no such thing as a teacher who could give me the answer.

If there was no visible answer, there was no choice but to prepare as much as possible.

Just as always.

* * *

First of all, I hired people who were not related to the Chamberlains and were tight-mouthed.

Then I set up a business in their name. An entity that only existed on paper.

The name of the business was ‘Getchu¹‘.

It contained my strong will to help Claudia sign a contract with an independent spirit.

Anyway, I was thinking of buying Camoli Island from the authorities in Upper Mendello through the business, Getchu.

I wondered if it was necessary to do that. But I decided to take the precaution in advance to eliminate any risk of being caught by the imperial family.

It was better to be well prepared. There’s nothing wrong with being careful.

To summarize the process, I heard it roughly went like this:

“Give us the island.”

“Managing Camoli Island is an honor given to us by the imperial family. Even if it is now private land, how can you ask us to sell you the island? You are trying to insult us!”

…… However, it was too much money to refuse.

The deal was established! We successfully closed the deal with the Mendello authorities.

I imagined the transaction scene while eating ice cream. Of course, since this was a fantasy world, it may have been slightly different from the delusions in my head.

‘It was that simple?’

Thanks to their willingness to hand it over, we would be able to summon the spirits with ease, but it ended so quickly that it felt futile.

Since they prevented anyone from entering the island, I thought that they would never sell it. But sure enough, money made the world².

‘Maybe money was their goal in the first place.’

As far as I could see, the Mendello authorities had no idea of the existence of the spirit.

Instead, they were afraid that if the news spread about the revival of nature in Camoli Island, the Empire would change their words and seize the island at the flip of their palms. If that happens, they wouldn’t be able to receive enormous support from the Empire anymore.

In other words, they couldn’t see the forest since they were busy looking at the trees.

They were not interested in why the island was suddenly purified, or what happened, so they quickly sold it off.

Therefore, the possibility of Mendello’s authorities summoning a spirit was completely eliminated. And, at the same time, the probability of an independent spirit increased.

With this, the business, Getchu, became one step closer to the value of its name.

‘It’s Chloe’s independent spirit!’

I clenched my fist while sounding like a Pokémon trainer³.

Now the key was to bring Claudia to the island.

* * *

“How do you talk to a man?”

“What?”

Claudia, who was stirring a parfait with a dessert spoon, turned her head toward me.

She had a suspicious look on her face. She never expected such words to ever come out of my mouth.

“You just have to talk?”

After Claudia said that, she pulled her feet out from the pool and came up to me. Water droplets dripped from the bottom of the new, thin chiffon dress she was wearing.

“There’s no other way to talk to a man, is there?”

She looked puzzled. It was as if she didn’t understand the point of the question.

Well, that’s true.

At her answer, I sighed and pressed my forehead against the table as if to go to the ground⁴.

I know you only have to treat people as people, but it was too hard to talk to a man.

It would be fine if they actually had business with each other. Or, even if the other party had a unilateral contract⁵, the conversation was possible.

Regardless of being in a girls’ middle school, girls’ high school, or women’s college, you couldn’t help but have some form of social life.

But to say, ‘Come on, get close to a man your age.’ The moment you attempted it, you would turn to stone, and your mind would go blank.

As I laid down, I gazed meaninglessly at the massive pool of blue waves.

The place where I was right now was a place full of adventure and mystery. It was a newly opened water park by the Chamberlain, made to welcome the summer.

On one side, a magical waterfall was pouring cool water, and on the other, there was a wave pool and even a water slide.

I just said, ‘You can slide into the water’ in passing, but Claudia added it without a second thought.

This place, which was full of new things every day, was somewhere you would never feel bored.

While listening to the unfamiliar sound of the water in the pool, I decided to take another chance.

“How does Chloe usually talk to the opposite gender?”

“Even if I don’t speak to him, he comes to speak to me on his own…….”

Haha, that’s very helpful advice.

Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember seeing a portrayal of the heroine trying to get along with men. Even if she just breathed, she would be able to get a male friend.

“Rin, you’re talking to my older brother casually now, aren’t you?”

Oh yeah. I do have one. A male friend!

Felix was four years older than Irene, but he was one year younger than Kim Hee Soo, my original body. For friends, age didn’t matter in the first place.

‘How did I get to know Felix?’

For a moment, I searched my memories of the past.

In order to get close to Felix, I……. Well, I didn’t really make any effort? All I remembered was his constant efforts to get close to me, who was constantly on guard and growling…….

It seemed that I got the point wrong in the first place. It’s not about how you talk. It’s about whether or not you made a good impression.

Since Felix had a good impression of me, whenever he saw me, he would talk to me a lot.

Was it because I had a good relationship with his beloved sister?

So, should I target the man’s sister first?

‘No, that can’t be.’

I groaned as I racked my brain⁶.

Claudia, who was tilting her head with an innocent expression, was suddenly surprised, and her gaze changed.

“Do you have someone you like?”

“No way.”

Firstly, to be able to like someone or not, I had to have someone. Moreover, so far, there was no reason for me to like or love someone.

Love cells? It’s already been a long time since they died in me.

“I just think he’s a good man…….”

“A good man?!”

I was planning to bring them to our side, and I was about to explain, but Claudia cut me off in the middle.

“Who’s this b*stard…… No, who is he?”

Chloe, did you just try to curse at the man?

She looked like she was about to shout but took a deep breath and returned to a calm voice.

I had no choice but to hesitate about how I should introduce him.

Well, actually, he was a minor character who could help us avoid death.

But I couldn’t be honest about it because he was a person who had no contact or relationship with me in the first place.

“That’s not what I mean. I just have a rare feeling that he’s a good person, so I want to get to know him.”

In this novel, it was hard to find such a person with this concept without blood or tears. So if possible, I wanted to attract him to the same side.

In this case, before he met the same tragic fate as the original.

“Chloe.”

But not too far away, we heard Felix’s voice. It was a distinctive soft tone that was sweet and light.

We turned our heads at the same time. Felix approached us at a leisurely pace and stopped near the palm tree where we were before he spoke.

“Mother’s calling for you.”

“Huh.”

Claudia exclaimed, ‘Why now!’

She had a disgruntled expression, but she sighed as she thought she couldn’t help it.

“Let’s talk again later.”

She declared war with a voice filled with an indomitable will to find out who I was talking about no matter what and then disappeared.

Oh, well, it looks like she didn’t like it.

Whether she liked it or not, it must have been surprising since it was the first time I had expressed interest in the opposite gender.

Felix took the outer garment from the servant waiting beside me and put it on my shoulder before asking.

“So who is he?”

You heard it.

When I lifted my head, I noticed that the smile on his lips was a little stiff.

Although it looked calm and still, it was just like the night sea where you didn’t know when you would be engulfed by the waves.

* * *

T/N: Thanks again for your patience everyone! (It’ll be a mass upload of last week’s and this week’s chapters so please enjoy the 4 chapters!)

I didn’t repeat any footnotes that I made previously (hopefully you’re all okay with that!). Anyway hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters ’cause things ramp up…! (In case you didn’t notice it, the chapter title is: The heroine’s brother has changed) ఠ_ఠ

^{1. This is an intention name derived from the slang “I get you”.↩}

^{2. If something ‘makes the world (go round)’ it means it is very important that many ordinary events cannot happen without it.↩}

^{3. A Pokémon trainer is someone who catches, trains, cares for, and battles with Pokémons! (If you don’t know what Pokémon is, Google it. You won’t regret it! ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩↩}

^{4. To ‘go to (the) ground’ means to hide from someone (similar to how a fox would escape into a burrow).↩}

^{5. A ‘unilateral contract/agreement’ is one-sided, requiring only a pre-arranged commitment from the offeror. Typically used to make open or optional offers. The offeror promises to pay for specified acts that involve the other part e.g. insurance. The insurer = offerer, who promises to pay a certain amount if something occurs under the contract’s coverage. The offeree = the insured, who promises to pay the premium to maintain the plan and report accidents in order to receive insurance.↩}

^{6. To ‘rack your brains’ means to think very hard and carefully about something.↩}

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