No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

======[ Friede and Hilde ]======

A man’s confession is unpleasant.
For a woman, it’s a little better.

The two words Hilde blurted out filled Friede with ecstatic confidence. The certainty that she had a chance.

What kind of chance, you ask? Need I even say? Ever since returning to her original body, Friede had only one desire.

‘That’s enough…!’

Friede couldn’t hide her overwhelming joy as she lifted the corners of her mouth in a big smile.
The thing she feared most was that Hilde might not see someone of the same gender as a romantic target… No, more than that, she feared she might even be repulsed by it. But those worries were completely dispelled.

‘Thank goodness. I’m really relieved…’

A sense of relief.
Friede didn’t show it outwardly, but inside, she felt deeply at ease.
Now she could scrap the ‘last resort’ she’d been keeping in the back of her mind just in case Brunhilde hated the idea of dating someone of the same gender.

She had thought of it as a kind of insurance but didn’t really like it either. It was a method she’d only resort to at the very, very end.
What Friede wanted was to naturally develop an affectionate relationship with Brunhilde, not to force responsibility on her after making a mistake or to confine her and paint her with her own colors.

So, perhaps it was the fastest and easiest route, but she didn’t want to think about it, hence the name ‘last resort’.
However, now there was no longer any reason to keep such a drastic method in her mind.
After all, Brunhilde confessed casually. She preferred women over men. The path to mutual affection was wide open.

In fact, Hilde didn’t just say she was indifferent to men and women, but rather that women were a bit better. It was enough to leave Friede overwhelmed with joy.
Just because a woman doesn’t have a disgust for love between women, doesn’t mean she herself likes women.

If Hilde’s mindset was closer to indifference than disgust, a lot of time and effort would have to be spent to change that indifference into interest and preference.
But surprising enough, it seemed she already had some interest.

In other words, Friede’s existing plan of ‘subtly frequent contact leading to dense skinship becoming commonplace’ was no longer necessary.
‘Honestly, it was embarrassing to call it a plan in the first place.’

Dense skinship, as if that was a fitting term. It had been days since their reunion, and their progress was merely to the point of a knee pillow.
It was almost like handling a baby. A long road lay ahead.

But now…
Friede realized she no longer needed to go around in circles.
Hilde had just said she preferred women a little over men, but Friede’s mind was already reinterpreting that statement to mean Brunhilde loved women.

Therefore…
“Hilde,”

After much thought, Friede finally spoke. She was ready to share the words she’d tucked away in her heart.
“What do you think of me?”

Once out of her mouth, this sentence could not help but turn their relationship into something entirely different.
Had it not been for the joy bubbling in her heart and the influence of alcohol, she would have never brought up such a personal question at this moment.

“Uh… um, w-wait, what do you mean…?”

Had Brunhilde, who was usually so oblivious, finally begun to catch on to something?
Seeing Hilde awkwardly stammering out a confused response made Friede burst into a small, involuntary giggle.
Was it the alcohol? Her mind felt as cloudy as a puffy cloud. The anxiety of potentially being rejected faded, replaced by a hopeful expectation.

Friede swallowed hard and decided to respond firmly.
“What do you think of me?”

What does she think of me?
That was Friede’s attempt at self-appealing.
If she was going to beat around the bush, wouldn’t it be better just to confess outright?
Friede had once thought so too.

In her days in another city, she’d seen firsthand the mess a careless confession could create from a third-party perspective.
In the middle of the street, a man thrust a bouquet at a mysterious woman, confessing his love.
Friede thought it was a truly romantic scene and wished for a chance to do the same someday. But… the disaster that followed changed her mind.

‘He really got rejected badly. She called him a bothersome pest for confessing out of the blue.’

That memory still lingered.
The woman who received the bouquet didn’t look touched; instead, she showed confusion and irritation, berating the man for his audacity to confess the first time they met.
‘Confessing love isn’t the beginning of a relationship but rather a final confirmation, isn’t it…?’
The man couldn’t even fight back, taking a beating with words, staring longingly at the woman’s retreating figure.

Not knowing much about love, Friede learned something from watching the scene.
Ah, that’s how not to confess.
A love confession should come only when you’re sure it will be accepted. Just as a last confirmation.
That was the life-changing lesson Friede had learned that day.

Remembering it well, she opted to ask how Hilde thought of her instead of making a direct confession.
Little did she know, in her inexperience with love, that her phrasing held the same meaning as a confession.

◆◆

“…….”

On the other hand, Hilde realized right away what kind of feelings Friede harbored.
‘How do you think of me? You mean it like that, don’t you…?’
There was no way she could miss it.
Though she lacked experience in romance, there were all those indirect lessons she’d learned before the switch, stored in her mind.

Knowledge gained from novels, comics, movies, and games.
So, the moment she heard Friede’s words, Hilde was shocked to see her worst fears becoming reality, frozen in disbelief, her lips moving wordlessly.
‘Friede sees me like that…?’

Disbelief.
“Uh…”

A soft sigh-like sound escaped Hilde’s slightly open lips.
It was a feeling of shock as intense as when Gerda hit her in the back of the head, if not more intense.
Though she had been coyly evasive in her speech, the question held a crystal-clear intention.
The feelings Friede had for her were unmistakably clear.

Hilde realized.
The reliable force and trustworthy ally she viewed as simply a cute friend, Friede, actually wished for something more than friendship.
This was truly something she had never even imagined happening.

‘What do I do…? What am I supposed to say?’
How was she to respond?
For Hilde, who rarely found herself at a loss for words and had never been confessed to, this was an unanswerable question.
“Uh… what do I think of you…?”

So, instead of answering Friede’s question, Hilde echoed it back like a parrot.
“…Yes, that’s right.”

With that hesitant response, Friede chuckled, sliding off the bed toward the sofa that Hilde lay on.
‘No, wait, why are you coming closer…!’
Without even realizing it, Hilde propped herself up, burying her back into the sofa’s backrest.
Like a small creature backed into a corner, she believed this might free her from the utterly awkward situation.

Creek, creak.
Friede approached her step by step. Her small bare feet pressed lightly against the wooden floor, causing slight creaking sounds.
Hilde’s pupils shook violently. A different kind of tension enveloped her than when facing a strong opponent, but the intensity remained the same.

And finally, Friede stopped right in front of her.
“…Please answer me.”
Those slightly relaxed golden eyes met Hilde’s blue ones directly.
Hilde thought the reflection of her own face in those golden eyes looked a lot like a frightened rabbit.

“What do you think of me?”
In reach of a mere outstretched hand, Friede again asked her question, staring straight at her.
Her cheeks flushed, possibly due to the drink, and rather than the scent of sweat, a light scent of soap wafted from her skin, thanks to her recent bath.

“…Uh…”
Hilde was lost in thought, her lips moving slightly, eventually stuttering a response.
“Friede, you’re, um… an ally, right? My most trusted ally… A cute but dependable friend…”

That was a candid answer.
“…So, just an ally?”
It wasn’t exactly a response that would help her escape the situation.