Volume 3 Short Story – Marie and Leon’s scoring result

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“That was a terrifying machine. Truly the devil’s machine.”

The more one thought about it, the more they became scared of it.

Marie was in a basement, thinking back on the recent frenzy that she had been caught up in.

Her visitor Leon was yawning whilst listening to her talk.

“Ah, it really was terrible. But don’t worry. Weiss has already sunk.”

“Huh!?”

Marie turned towards Leon with an expression that looked like she wanted to say “What the hell is this guy saying?”

She corrected Leon’s misunderstanding.

“I’m not talking about that airship. This is about the machine we had to use before boarding it.”

“Eh?”

“There was a machine that measured love as a numerical value! That thing was a disaster! That kind of thing should never exist.”

Since Leon also had bitter feelings related to that machine, he agreed with Marie’s opinion but—

“It really was a terrible machine. But I laughed at how low your score was towards those guys.”

“Don’t laugh!”

The results of Marie’s feelings towards Julius and his friends were shambolic.

“How do I even greet those guys from now on? Just remembering it will make things awkward between us!”

Watching Marie who was cradling her head, Leon broke out into another round of laughter.

(This guy really pisses me off.)

But Leon seemed to also be curious about those results.

“That was really funny. But were those scores really accurate? From your point of view, what did you think of it?”

Marie thought a little bit while placing a finger against her chin.

“Hmm~ I think they were mostly just about right. Julius lacks any sense of realism, Jilk has a bad personality and Brad is a narcissist.”

Marie didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with the scores.

“Greg and Chris scored a little bit higher though.”

“Those two—you know, they can earn some money.”

Those two were good fighters. Even just by entering dungeons and fighting monsters, they were able to earn a bit of cash.

Compared to the other three they were evaluated to be slightly better but apparently that was the justification.

“Instead of how much you love them, you’re just judging them based on how much money they can earn. Is that all you want from your lover? What low standards.”

Being told that by Leon, Marie erupted in rage and retorted back to him.

“I don’t have the margin to be playing around for fun! If I could survive off some teenage student romance, I wouldn’t be having such a hard time either!”

“I mean, you’re a teenage student right now and those guys are also teenage students.”

When Leon pointed that out, Marie turned away from him.

“When I think about marriage in the future, it’s just impossible. Those five are out of the question.”

Leon smirked while saying “women are scary~”.

However, perhaps having recalled his own terrible experiences, he stood up as if he had suddenly come up with an idea.

“Then let’s go and destroy that machine. Do you want to tag along?”

“Yeah, is it really okay to destroy it? Or rather, am I really allowed to leave?”

“If it’s only for a short while, then it should be okay. I’ll contact Luxion.”

Leaving the basement, Marie and Leon headed for another basement which had that machine.

It was the shelter in the basement below the royal palace.

Marie was striking a hammer up and down onto the devil’s machine there.

“I’ll destroy this so there will never be any unfortunate victims like me ever again!”

Leon shrugged his shoulders while watching Marie.

“In your case it’s not misfortune but merely the expected result. Hey, don’t force yourself too much.”

Marie kept trying to swing down on the machine but she lost her balance and looked like she was about to fall. To support Marie, Leon went up onto the stage of the machine as well.

Being supported by Leon, Marie blushed and looked away.

“I-If it’s just to this degree then it’s easy for me.”

“I see. Then in that case, destroy it by yourself.”

“Why!”

“Didn’t you say it was easy for you?”

When Marie began to retort back to him, the stage started lighting up.

“Fwah!”

The two of them started panicking but it was too late.

The machine measured the love between the two of them.

『For the man, eighty-one points! For the woman, eighty-four points! Just a little more and you’ll have mutual love! Good luck! 』

The reactions of the two who received words of encouragement from the machine were—

“Eh?”

“T-That can’t be right.”

Marie dropped the hammer she was holding.

With that impact, the machine suddenly stopped working.

Marie and Leon looked at each other and then immediately looked away.

(Oiii! This means—)

Leon coughed to clear the awkward atmosphere.

“Ah, that’s right. This means the machine was broken from the very beginning. That must be it.”

Marie quickly agreed to that excuse. Or rather, she had no choice but to agree.

“T-That’s right. There’s no way I’d have such a high score. You would also definitely have a lower score than that.”

As the two laughed together in sync, their hollow laughter started echoing around the basement.

Then their voices slowly faded away.

“L-Let’s go back.”

“Y-Yep.”

Amidst an awkward atmosphere, the two of them left the basement.

Marie started thinking to herself.

(Hmm? Now that I think about it, wouldn’t Leon be a pretty good catch? He has a cheat item battleship, has a lot of money and is also a reincarnated person so his moral values are close to mine—Fuck! It would’ve been great if he wasn’t my brother!)

Marie gave Leon a higher evaluation than that group of five.

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