TalentPlus!: Talent + Effort = Strongest Capture Target!!!

Title: Coping Mechanism

Chapter 1: Prologue

Hi, me again. As you can see, I'm making another one of these "journals" but I'd rather call it a diary now. This time, however, I am writing with a different purpose. The last time I wrote, the purpose was to record my growth and such, but this time I will focus more on everything else that happened during the past few years instead of the actual training since as you can see from the title, this diary is meant to keep my SAN points above zero and not dip into the negatives. Anyways, to whoever is reading this, be it a friend or relative who wishes to know about my past, a historian who will find this old artifact in the future, or to the Me who wishes to remember all the painful memories just like what a masochist would, I hope this book will be helpful to you.

Chapter 2: The first week

HOLY SHIT THIS IS CALCULUS!!! 

I know I said it would focus more on the other aspects of my life, but I didn't expect FUCKING CALCULUS. I, I thought I was free from math and stuff after the entire isekai thing, BUT WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT!!!? Speaking of which, ARE ALL MAGICIANS HERE FUCKING WALKING CALCULATORS!!!? I, I think I underestimated what being a student really means. I think being an adventurer would've been the way to go, but it's already too late since I've already made my decision. Speaking of adventurers, it seems that Vier is gonna leave the town sometime next year since he wants to spend a bit more time with Onee-chan. I don't blame him cause it means that he won't be seeing her for a long time after he leaves. Don't worry Vier, I promise that I won't let you get NTR'd by some random dude who wants to get with Onee-chan while you're busy. However, the same goes for you too. If I ever find out that you cheated on Onee-chan, I'll make sure that you'll face a fate worse than I was supposed to.

Chapter 3: Weeks 2-6

A month had passed since the last time I wrote and the math has just gotten worse. Thank god I can still understand what the numbers mean. It might be because this body's owner is a genius, but I can still keep up with all the fancy symbols and all the weird equations and formulas and stuff. I'm pretty sure that if I went back to my world with all this knowledge, I'd be praised as a genius.

School stuff aside, me and Mel-nee grew closer. The more that I talked to her, the more I was sure that those two would never get together without any outside help. Lime-sensei is too dense and is a research maniac while Mel-nee is too passive(and by that I mean anytime Lime-sensei unintentionally does things only a manga protagonist can do, she immediately implodes out of embarrassment). Another thing I found out about her is that she has one hell of an intuition. I don't know how, but she can always find out if ever I think of something negative about her. I remember her pinching me when I called her an idiot in my mind when she was talking about her experiences with Lime-sensei.  

I also grew closer with Lime-sensei. Sometimes during our breaks, we would talk about some things. He would talk about his experience having Papa as a brother, I would talk about my experience having Papa as my father. And to no surprise, what was common in both stories was the fact that regardless of what role Papa played, he would always end up being a huge pain. Other than talks about Papa, we would also talk about our past. Lime-sensei would talk about his insecurities about his face and his social anxiety, while I would talk about the spartan training I experienced and the day when the "bandits" attacked us. From our conversations, I became 110% sure that this man would be unable to be in any romantic relationship if the other party was passive and not aggressive, which, unfortunately, is the case. And with that, I have a newfound resolve to make sure that they end up together because the only thing I hate more than idiot-couples is the dense ones.

Chapter 6: The 1st anniversary

It's been a year since Lime-sensei and Mel-nee came to live with us. During the past year, I did nothing but learn mathematics at a level that not even the smartest person in my old world could ever dream of comprehending. Well, that and every other subject I needed to learn, but it doesn't really matter that much compared to Math Hell. As for the relationship between those two, they're absolutely hopeless. On various occasions, I would give slight hints and push Lime-sensei to do something with Mel-nee without exposing her feelings. Unfortunately, both of the two are utterly hopeless when it comes to romance.

From what I've experienced, one of two things would happen. Either Lime-sensei would completely miss the mark and not understand what I was saying, or he would understand but Mel-nee screws it up because she'd get embarrassed and make a total fool out of herself. As if getting through his dense barrier was hard enough, you just had to mess up and completely ruin my plan. Oh well, at least they grew closer to each other than before. Back then, he would call her Melanie-san and occasionally calling her Mel-san and eventually called her Mel. Now that it's been a year, it's time to carry out the plan.

Chapter 7: 3 months later

About a month earlier, it was decided that it was time for me to finally learn magic after all of those horrible and painful math lessons. I swear, I'd probably be able to work for NASA if ever I get back to my world. When Vier came by and tried to learn magic, he fainted on the spot twice, each for different reasons. The first time was because he got really scared of Lime-sensei and fell on the spot. The second time was when I tried to teach him math. I'm very concerned for him, especially when he couldn't even handle multiplication. 

As for what actually happens during magic class, Lks time-sensei had written me my own study guide and told me not to refer to the books he gave me that are related to magic. Apparently, he was going to teach me in his own specialized way that he planned out for me. As for me, I don't know whether to feel flattered since he did something special just for me or to feel terrified since I have a good feeling that this magic training would probably be worse than the barbarian training I had to experience for two years.

Other than the magic class, I had also finally carried out phase one of the plan. Phase one is making contact with Subject A and successfully forming a partnership with Subject A to help with Subject A and Subject B's relationship. And by Subject A, I mean Mel-nee. After the last session of math class, I approached Mel-nee and told her that if she wanted to, I would offer her my help. What she said next had shocked me to the point where my jaw dropped. She said no and that she would do this on her own. Well, if that's what she wants, that's what she gets. Don't come crying to me when you fail miserably and end up a spinster. It's not my problem anyway, it's yours,

Chapter 8: 3 more months later

Two weeks after Mel-nee rejected my offer, she literally came back crying. Jeez, I know I said all that stuff but I didn't mean it literally. That and it looks like I was the one who made her cry. Okay okay, I get it, so please stop before anyone sees and misundersta—Aaaaaand there goes my reputation. 

At first, I thought that this would mean that their relationship would go smoothly without a hitch, but just like any generic rom-com, I was damn wrong. Sure, the entire thing went easier since we actually had a willing party who was part of the plan, but the problem is that same person. I don't know how, I don't know why, but every single time she just screws up the entire thing and just ruins all of my efforts. How does one even screw up this badly? Is she even human? At this point, I even started to doubt my plans thinking that I was the incompetent one, but no, it wasn't me, it was her. 

The only upside was that they did grow closer, but at this rate, one of 'em is bound to die before anything is about to happen. I can only hope that something major is gonna happen and that it would help their relationship progress.

Chapter 9: Something did happen

I don't know why it happened, I don't know how it happened, I don't even know why the timing was so perfect that I even started to wonder if the world just loved spiting me one way or another, but it did and I won't complain. Well, technically two things happened, but one of them was not as impactful as the other so I wouldn't really say that it affected them that much. As for what actually happened, a love rival had appeared.

I say love rival, but it was more like a disapproving party that wished he was the one she was gonna choose. What's the difference you may ask? It's that the aforementioned love rival was Mel-nee's brother, Eric Byron or otherwise known in the game, The Prince of Darkness. 

In the game, Eric was the right-hand man of Ziechs and served as one of the mid-game bosses that you had to defeat again and again. The last time you would face him was just before the final battle. Each time you fought him, he would manage to escape while barely alive and the next time you would fight him, he would grow stronger until you finally killed him. I still don't know why he was chosen to be Ziechs' right-hand man despite not being strong at the very beginning, but he ended up being really strong at the end so I guess it was an investment of some sort. As for why I know so much about him despite not playing the game, it's because Ota-chan would always rant about just how annoying of a boss Eric was. She kept on saying "This damn ikemen can just go to hell!!!" and "Why is he always 10 levels above me!!!" and also "THIS IS WHY PEOPLE QUIT PLAYING YOUR GAME!!!".  

Of course, I was scared and confused when he suddenly arrived, but when I saw how he acted, I was convinced that he hasn't turned into the Prince of Darkness yet. I was sure because of how pathetic he looked. There was no way that the Prince of Darkness was this pitiful and pathetic. The Prince of Darkness that is said to be one of the most grueling opponents that any of the "Only I can see love" players would face couldn't possibly be this pathetic excuse of a human being that is on the floor with a face full of tears and snot begging his sister not to go out with someone she clearly likes and begging her to choose him instead. Keep in mind, he is her biological brother that is also 10 years older than her, and he is begging her to marry him. What happened? What did I do wrong? Did changing the past also affect him? I'd rather he was evil than this pathetic sight.

Just as I was astounded by this discovery, a bigger surprise came. It was the fact that Papa was friends with him. As eccentric as Papa is, I didn't expect that he was actually acquainted with him. Apparently, both of them were in the same school and were classmates. What was more of a surprise was the fact that the piece of trash and Papa were first and second among the entire school. The single fact that the worthless man was the best student of a prestigious school was, to say the least, reality-defying and mind-shattering. At that point, I began to doubt everything that I ever knew. 

Anyways, what happened next was something I could only describe as a man desperately trying to deny the reality in front of him. The failure started to interview Lime-sensei and started asking him some questions in order to probe his personality and how he would treat Mel-nee when they get married. I would normally call this a heartwarming situation where the doting older brother is just looking out for his younger sister to make sure that she doesn't end up with a scumbag, but in this case, the older brother is the scumbag trying to find even the smallest flaw so that he could nitpick it and make it look like a real deal-breaker. Sooner or later, the small feelings of pity that I felt for him soon turned into disgust. The sentiments I felt for him became 99% disgust and 1% curiosity because I was curious how a being like this was allowed to exist. 

Every time he would find a minor flaw, he would then focus on it, but then Mel-nee would then defend Lime-sensei. She even went as far as "That's what I like about him!". Normally, I would cry tears of joy at the fact that she was able to do those embarrassing things without immediately breaking down and collapsing, but Lime-sensei kept on being dense and just misunderstood the kind of "like" she was talking about. At least he finally got the message AFTER THE 23rd TIME IT HAPPENED, but I'll take it. He then went all "I didn't know how that you felt that way about me" and then Mel-nee responded with "U-uhm, I-I didn't mean to say it out loud" and he went "So you don't like me?" and she said "T-that's not it" and blah blah blah. Tl;dr, they got together. Trust me, it went on for about ten minutes. It was so corny that I felt like puking, but I refrained since it would ruin this mood that took about, I don't know, YEARS to make?  At least it all worked out, except for the fact that this loser was here crying, but I'll take it. And of course, I secretly went to the bathroom to puke.

As much as I would like to say that everything went well, the uninvited imbecile decided to stay here for a few months. He was absolutely useless for about two months, but after a magical talk, he actually demonstrated his usefulness. He was surprisingly competent. As of now, my impression of him was that he was 99% cockroach 1% functioning human being.  

As for the other thing that happened, Vier finally left the village and went to the City of Rand to become an adventurer. What took me by surprise was that Onee-chan also followed him. Apparently, Mom had given her permission to do so and that it would be part of Onee-chan's "Bridal Training" by assisting him. And by assisting him, she meant doing the chores around their house that Mom and her party own. I then told Vier that if ever she does that kind of "assisting" before they were 18, I would kill him. I wasn't joking.

Chapter 17: Graduation, again

After 3 years of Magic Training, it was decided that I reached a good enough level and that my training would be finished. Coincidentally, it was my 11th birthday too. It's kind of ominous that every time I "graduate", it would be on my birthday. These past few years have been one hell of an emotional roller coaster with me being frustrated over the idiot couple being the idiot couple, me suffering the hardships of magic and math to the point where my blood started spurting out of my nose on multiple occasions, me being relieved that I don't have to ever go through another one of those painful moments, and other things. All in all, it was a nice few years, but I don't think I'll ever miss these times ever. Well, I still have a few years left till I leave home and start going to school. Back then, I'd think of more ways to get stronger, but this time, I think I'll just kick back and relax. After all, I do kind of deserve this after all the pain and suffering I had to experience. 

 I just hope that no more comedic timings ever happen.