Volume II Extra 3.2

Translator: Adam Seacord
Editor: Weasalopes

“It’s not every day you ask for my advice.”

“Usually, we’re the ones seeking advice.”

At a cafe near the Adventurers’ Association, Haruna had chosen a time when Hiroshi and Mio were busy to speak to Tatsuya and Makoto.

“Now, it’s not like I don’t have a good guess, but what’s something you wanted to talk about… in private?”

“I don’t know how I should act around Hiroshi-kun…”

They both nearly blurted out “just like you always have,” but kept it in. It was a pointless answer, since Haruna was speaking to them because she couldn’t do that anymore.

“…What do you mean, how?”

“Nothing like this has happened before. I’m not sure about anything, anymore…”

It seemed that she didn’t have anything straightened out herself, either. Makoto and Tatsuya patiently waited for Haruna’s follow-up, as she desperately struggled to find her words through fighting with her unreasonable emotions.

“When I’m near him, I can’t stop thinking about it, I can hear my heart pounding, and I can’t keep it cool… And when we’re not together, like now, I keep wondering what he’s doing, or if he’s gotten into a mess with some girls, or something… I can’t stop thinking about that kind of stuff. I can’t concentrate on anything.”

“…Never thought I’d hear you say stuff like that…”

Tatsuya blurted out his brutal, honest reaction after hearing a straightforward problem of a girl with a crush. As for Makoto, she was a loss for words at Haruna’s completely earnest concern.

“It’s weird, right…?”

“I think you’re way past that stage, Haruna.”

“Way past it?”

“Urm, how do I put this?”

Tatusya struggled to phrase his opinion, as it completely relied on his subjective observation. Whether she knew it or not, Haruna had began thinking of Hiroshi that way after their battle against Barold. To be honest, he only saw her as a girl in love by the time they had left Wulls. He had thought that she was way past this stage. Furthermore, his understanding of Haruna was that she was the kind of woman to keep those feelings with her as she discovered and acted upon the best course of action for both her emotions and situation. He never thought he’d be sought out for advice about something like this.

“It’s hard to explain, but normally all that would have happened way before this, and most people notice that they’re in love when it does. From what we saw, we thought you already knew and had made your decision.”

“Really?”

“Like I told you before, most everyone close to you knew that you had some sort of romantic feeling for Hiroshi by the time the carfuffle at the castle was done.”

“It’s not like you were telegraphing it, but anyone with a good eye saw that you were always thinking about Hiroshi, Ann and Myuzzel were saying how impressed they were that you can act natural when you saw him that way.”

“Didn’t expect you to be doing it subconsciously, no, Ma’am.”

“The silver lining’s that you didn’t know you were in love, huh… How complicated can you get…”

Seeing Tatsuya and Makoto kind of holding their temples, Haruna could only awkwardly smile. For someone who had never experienced love, their points were exactly connecting.

“I think you get it now, but…”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be here…”

“Right…”

Tatusya and Makoto’s tribulations continued. If the object of her adoration wasn’t Hiroshi, all they’d have to do was have him hear this conversation. In this case, it wasn’t that easy.

“I don’t think ‘what do you want to do?’ or ‘what’s the best outcome for you?’ is going to mean anything…”

“Not even worth our breath…”

“I know what’s the best, right now…”

What was the best outcome? Anyone with common sense and empathy could figure that out, but love, alas, was not that easy to conquer. If only Haruna had some semblance of experience in this department, she might have been able to keep her emotions bottled up until Hiroshi’s condition would improve. But, unfortunately for her in more reasons than one, this was her first crush, one that had spectacularly manifested after her unknowingly building up her emotions higher and higher. That powerful energy could not easily be controlled, even with Haruna’s logical reins over her emotions. The truly unfortunate fact, though, was that she had to fall in love with Hiroshi (without even knowing) who couldn’t trust any form of romantic feelings directed toward him.

“I know full well that its immense pressure for Hiroshi-kun just to be on the receiving end of it, but…”

“Well, yeah, it’s only natural you want your crush to understand you, and to even have physical contact.”

“If only, if only it wasn’t Hiroshi…”

Everything would have been settled long ago if it wasn’t Hiroshi. Worst of all, Hiroshi was dependant on Haruna in a certain way, but clearly had no romantic attraction toward her. Even that dependance was nothing that would cause him trouble if Haruna were to disappear. It was just a social issue, after all, if Haruna were to leave, he would just own who he was, and go become a hermit in the mountains.

Of course, Haruna was only the woman that Hiroshi trusted not to harm him, no matter what. He must have had considerable trust in her as person-to-person, but as long as his phobia remained unconquered, even Haruna (if she were to set off a huge red flag or two) would be kept at a distance.

“It’s not his fault he’s got this phobia, so there’s no sense complaining about it to him.”

“In the first place, Hiro isn’t obligated to fall for Haruna just because she’s into him.”

“That would have been better, at least she would have had a chance. We’re not just talking about Haruna, but no girl can even get to the starting point with him.”

“You said it…”

“I don’t know who she was or what she did, but whatever girl destroyed him that badly has none of my sympathy.”

Makoto was starting to get irritated at the increasingly distasteful revelations. The most annoying was all that, even after spending this much time together, and feeling like they had built a significant relationship of trust, Hiroshi could easily categorize them on the same level as the girl who built his phobia. Since there was no sense in complaining about it to Hiroshi, they could only be mad at the root of his phobia.

“Keep it down for now, Makoto.”

“I know. It pisses me off, but me flipping out now isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Even if you enacted some revenged on that ex-classmate of his, that might only distance Hiro.”

What was the point in bickering about something that happened before they even knew Hiro, when they could not have done a single thing about it? It was more important to give Haruna their opinions on her romance as constructively as possible.

“Let’s get back on track.”

“Right. So, what should I do?”

“Please, Tatsuya. I’ve got close to no experience in this field. I wouldn’t know what to do in this mess…”

“You say that, but all I got is that Haruna should hold in as much as she can, and help Hiro get over his phobia. She can’t even get to the starting point without doing that.”

They had to come back to this, at the end of the day. And if Haruna could have done that, she never would have needed their advice at all…

“Why does it feel like a deadend…”

“Any normal tactics would only hurt her prospects…”

“Erm…”

At the end, all Haruna discovered from speaking to her (slightly) more experienced friends were how convoluted Hiroshi would be to build a relationship with, and the fact that the fire in her heart burned even brighter in spite of, or precisely because of that fact.