The Sponsored Heroines Are Coming for Me-Chapter 285

Ian collapsed.

Having defeated the Void God, he collapsed to the ground as if all his strength had been drained.

A flurry of healing spells and divine power followed.

A world that had nearly fallen to ruin.

It was treatment worthy of a hero who had saved the world—but more than that, it was driven by a singular determination: to save a comrade.

Aria poured out every last drop of her divine power.

Elena supported her by his side, eventually collapsing from exhaustion herself.

Healing spells. Every type of potion and elixir…

In some ways, the process of saving Ian was fiercer than the battle against the Void God.

And finally—

— Thump, thump, thump.

His heartbeat grew clearer.

— Huff.

His breathing became audible once more.

“H-he’s alive! Just like a god resurrected—Brother Ian has come back to life!”

Elena cried out, watching Ian’s chest slowly rise and fall. Around them, sighs of relief and joy burst forth.

But that atmosphere did not last long.

It was only a few hours after Ian had regained his pulse and breath.

“He’s not regaining consciousness…”

Emilia spoke.

She was kneeling at Ian’s side, pressing into his hand as if performing acupressure.

She had been tending to Ian’s side with unwavering devotion ever since he collapsed.

Then the Blood Witch approached.

She placed her hand on Ian’s head.

Flash.

After casting a spell, she spoke.

“It’s not that his consciousness is gone—it’s more like something is blocking it.”

“W-what should we do?”

“He’s trapped… in a space. We’ll have to wait for him to break out of it himself.”

That was the conclusion.

◇

I stared at the monitor, fixated.

There was the heroine, Emilia, seducing me—

Her allure was utterly irresistible.

It was clearly a rare scene, no doubt about that.

Probably one of those post-final-boss event cutscenes.

But…

“…Why am I not drawn in by this?”

My heart felt restless.

Objectively speaking, this was one of those “Dude, she’s all over you” situations. But I just wasn’t feeling it.

My brain kept saying I should follow Emilia immediately, and yet… I couldn’t make my hands move.

Tap, Tap…

My fingers hovered indecisively over the arrow keys.

Oddly enough, even that felt unnatural.

Why the hell am I like this today? Everything feels…

Wait a second.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine.

“…Was Fantasy X Academy ever a PC game?”

Throb.

A sudden pain stabbed through my head.

But through the pain, my mind started spinning. A long-forgotten memory resurfaced.

Me, lying on the bed, holding up my phone and playing Fantasy X Academy.

That’s right—Fantasy X Academy was a mobile game.

And not one with this much freedom of control. It was a typical gacha game.

I stared blankly at the monitor.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is frёeωebɳovel.com.

What was being displayed inside it was definitely Fantasy X Academy.

“…What the hell is this?”

The moment I murmured those words—

Whump.

The monitor screen began to tremble violently.

◇

“Ugh!”

Emilia let out a small groan.

Some of the group turned their eyes toward her.

She shook her head as if it were nothing, but her face was pale.

“You okay?”

Lina asked her.

“I’m fine. I think I’m just a little exhausted.”

“Maybe you should take a break? Haven’t you been by Ian’s side for too long?”

Lina’s eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke.

Emilia had been glued to Ian’s side without rest since he had collapsed.

“No, please let me continue. If I return Ian’s mana like this, even a little, he might wake up faster.”

“Phew. What a touching friendship.”

Yerina murmured from the side.

Many in the party trusted Emilia in this way. Just looking at her actions, she appeared to care for Ian more than anyone else.

‘…But.’

Lina, who had been quietly watching Emilia, finally opened her mouth.

“Emilia. I’m sorry, but I’d like you to step away from Ian.”

“L-Lina?! We have to s-save him! Why would you say that now…?”

Lina shook her head firmly, stopping Aria from stepping in.

“Sorry, Aria, but could you stay out of this for now? Emilia—I can’t fully trust you.”

A slight twitch.

Lina noticed Emilia’s shoulders tremble ever so slightly. Emilia spoke.

“Why not…?”

“Remember? At the start of the semester—you, me, Sharon, and Aria tried to frame Ian. You were the ringleader.”

“That… but all of you were involved too…”

“I know. And I deeply regret it. I’ve been trying to atone ever since. But that’s not the point here.”

“Then what is…?”

“I can’t completely trust you. Sharon apologized to Ian, and Aria at least didn’t approach him without permission. But you? You just appeared out of nowhere and planted yourself at his side.”

“That’s just your jealousy talking…!”

“You can call it whatever you want. What matters right now is saving Ian.”

Lina turned away from Emilia with unwavering resolve.

Then, as if making a declaration to everyone, she raised her voice.

“Some of you may remember, and some may not—but at the beginning of the semester, Emilia, Sharon, Aria, and I stood against Ian. One of us even pushed him off the rooftop, and because of that, a lot of resentment and misunderstandings were born.”

Murmurs rippled through the group. Some were hearing this for the first time, while others—those directly involved—remained silent.

“Ian hasn’t regained consciousness. And I believe someone is preventing him from waking up. Then who should we be suspicious of?”

Silence fell.

But Lina’s words already held the answer.

“I want Emilia to stop casting magic on Ian.”

Drip, Drip.

Tears fell from Emilia’s eyes.

Everyone stared at her in shock.

Emilia crying—it was a rare sight.

“I… I’m being wronged. Back then, Ian was acting suspicious. I’m sure you all remember. He flirted with everyone, always messing around like some guy obsessed with women.”

“That was before Ian changed.”

“Yes! And you, Lina, shot magic at him from behind. Sharon, lying over there, pointed a sword at him. And Aria—she even mobilized people from the Church to harass Ian!”

Emilia’s voice grew increasingly emotional.

“Yes. I know now—Ian changed. He worked hard and became a different person. All of you saw that, and that’s why you stand by him now.”

Her voice carried conviction.

One that could easily draw sympathy from everyone listening.

“I was just… a little late. I’m naturally suspicious, cautious. B-but…”

Tears streamed freely from Emilia’s eyes now.

“That’s not a crime, is it? That’s all it was. There’s no way I would’ve tried to kill or sabotage Ian. I can fix this. I can help him recover.”

◆

— Brrrrr.

The monitor screen trembled.

No—it wasn’t just the monitor.

My entire field of vision shook violently.

Was my vision shaking from dizziness?

Or was the dizziness because my vision was shaking?

Eventually, things began to settle down.

“Urgh…”

I fought down the nausea, trying to regain my senses.

And at the same time, I reached a conclusion.

This sense of déjà vu.

The unease.

The strange experiences—

This definitely wasn’t a normal situation.

Either my mind was broken,

Or the world was.

“There’s no way I wouldn’t know if my mind was broken.”

I quickly tossed out the first hypothesis.

Was I always this fast at making decisions?

Even that thought, I cast aside.

The world is what’s broken.

With that in mind, I looked around.

First, the monitor.

Displaying Fantasy X Academy, a game that I knew was mobile-only—

Yet here it was, running on a PC monitor.

And then I noticed—

“…There’s no power cable?”

The monitor wasn’t connected to a power source.

The PC tower? Same.

There wasn’t even a cable connecting the two.

A logical flaw.

I began to see things I hadn’t noticed before.

The awkward furniture arrangement.

The orange-tinted fluorescent light.

This wasn’t reality.

It was as if someone had reconstructed my old studio apartment from memory, in an eerily convincing way.

— I won’t accept this!

A faint voice rang out at that moment.

◆

“I won’t accept this!”

“Lina. And what exactly are you going to do if you don’t accept it? You’re from a noble house that’s already fallen to ruin—hardly better than extinct.”

“See? That’s the real you, Emilia. Always pretending to be a proper lady—how could someone like that throw out such insults?”

“You started this, didn’t you? And if we’re going by your logic, Lina, how can you be trusted? If you’re the one who did this to Ian, then right now, you’re the one getting in the way of me saving him.”

Emilia was a formidable opponent.

Not just her rhetoric, honed through managing the upper ranks of the merchant guild, but also her ability to sway the room.

Lina realized she was being cornered.

Well, maybe not cornered, exactly—she still had support on her side.

But she wanted to win this argument decisively. Because Emilia was the type who never gave up.

There had to be a good move.

What would Ian have done in a situation like this?

Ian always found a third way—something no one else had considered.

Ah.

A good idea came to her.

“Then let’s all step back.”

“…What?”

“All four of us. Let’s remove ourselves from this. That solves everything, doesn’t it?”

Emilia fell silent, looking as if she hadn’t expected that.

Lina gave Aria a small signal.

Aria hesitated, then quietly lowered her head and stepped back.

Sharon was already being treated, having collapsed from exhaustion—so she didn’t factor into this.

Lina stepped back as well and gestured at Emilia.

“You and me—both ‘sinners’—let’s step away together.”

Emilia bit her lip hard.

Then, she spoke.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Just—!”

Their voices started rising again.

And then—

— “Don’t fight…”

A voice called out, trying to stop them.

No, it wasn’t far away.

It came from Ian’s lips.

“Don’t fight.”

◆

…Too noisy.

The voices echoed painfully inside my head.

Who’s fighting?

One of them is Lina… the other… Emilia?

Why am I hearing these voices?

The question didn’t last long.

— Ian! Snap out of it, nyah!

A familiar voice reached me.

A voice I missed so much.

“Da…”

Who was that?

— Ian!

— Brother Ian!

More voices followed.

All of them voices I longed to hear.

But… I couldn’t remember their names.

Not even their faces.

They weren’t the heroines, and yet… I knew they were dear to me.

How did I meet them?

Characters from Fantasy X Academy?

“…No.”

They were my comrades.

I had to get out.

I had to see them again.

That thought consumed me entirely.

Then—

『 … Continue? [Y/N] 』

A message appeared on the monitor.

Hovering above the severed head of the defeated final boss—the Blood Demon.

“Of course.”

Yes.