she dreams of blue skies

The otome game’s blank slate heroine, Halie Viriadian.

Her looks were as plain as her personality, but because she was the heroine, she was loved by all regardless. Sweet, innocent and kindhearted were her only defining characteristics—she had neither a personality nor a backbone, which meant she was the type that’d be the first to die in an apocalypse.

But this world was written as the quiet aftermath of the apocalypse, of healing and finding strength in weakness and nonsense like that. Even then, the heroine never fixed her own problems. Each of the male leads and even Eilah had to take turns saving her from situations she could’ve avoided if she wasn’t so stupidly naive.

Though Halie’s existence made some arcs frustrating to read, the protagonist of Villainess's Love Interest was the gorgeous and witty villainess after all. From the start, Orion was reading the comic for Eilah Veramillion, and Halie the heroine was nothing more than a scrap of pocket lint.

The pocket lint was now staring up at him, bright green eyes wide and round and full of nervous excitement. Orion could not fathom why she looked so happy to see him. In the comic, she’d never really reciprocated any of the male leads’ selfless, unconditional love for her.

Not that he paid much attention to her scenes in the first place.

“It’s you, Orion,” Halie said breathlessly, and her voice was high-pitched and melodic, like birdsong. “I’ve waited so long…you were supposed to be elsewhere, so I thought something had happened. But thank goodness you’re alright.”

…did the heroine always talk so much?

Orion just stared at her for a long moment, his words failing him. Even if, for example, he was face-to-face with Eilah Veramillion herself, he wouldn’t know what to say either. Come to think of it, he’d probably just embarrass himself to death. But right now he was face-to-face with Halie, and he had absolutely nothing to tell her.

“Greet the protagonist nicely.”

He scowled. Now why the hell would he do that? He had nothing nice to say. Unlike the real Orion Magnaolia, he wasn’t planning on sticking around the heroine for any longer than necessary. Of course, he didn’t intend to seek out Eilah and assist her with all her troubles and then she would allow him to travel with her as they grew closer while helping the folks in need until she realized she was actually in love with—

“Orion?”

The worry in Halie’s voice was almost endearing…if he was into the cutesy type. But with the world’s most forgettable face, she wasn’t even cute at all. Still, Orion supposed he owed her a greeting at least. Even if obeying the Entity (which was finally granted the honour of being a proper noun) left a sour taste in his mouth.

“Uh, hi there,” he said, equal parts awkward and reluctant. Might as well just leave it at that before he blurted out something he’d regret.

“Wrong answer. Affection levels have dropped from 89.9% to 17.2%.”

What the—? Affection? Like, from the otome game? When was that ever relevant in the comic?

And at that moment, Halie’s expression froze on her face. Then, the puppy-like excitement melted away, replaced by a look of disappointment.

“You’re not Orion,” she said, with the same sort of finality used by the Entity. “Who are you?”

Now, Orion couldn’t care less about what the heroine thought about him. Still, he resisted the urge to be a dick and point out that technically, his legal name was Orion, even before he died and ended up here. It’d be stupid to try and explain isekai to a character in the webcomic anyway. He’d read enough of Villainess's Love Interest to know that even Eliah couldn’t breach that iron-clad fourth wall.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said dismissively. “By the way, you know Eilah, right? Can you tell me where she is?”

“Affection levels have dropped to 0.3%. Warning. Dangerously low.”

Even without the Entity’s uselessly late warning, it was already obvious that Orion had messed up big time. The look of utter contempt that Halie shot him sent chills down his spine. She didn’t have that much hatred for the villainess in the webcomic, did she? Wasn’t this girl supposed to be sweet, innocent, and kind? How two-faced.

“Sheesh, I get it, you don’t like her,” Orion said, his eyebrow twitching. “You don’t have to glare at me like—”

“Oh my god,” Halie groaned suddenly, startling him. “This is the literal worst. Don’t tell me some rando got sent here too, that’s not how reincarnation is supposed to work?! What did I do to deserve this punishment? I’ve never done anything wrong in my life!”

Huh?!

She was storming toward him, and even though she was much shorter and didn’t look threatening at all, Orion still took an instinctive half-step back.

“You. Eilah simp.” Halie jabbed a finger toward his chest, and her eyes flashed dangerously. “Answer me. You’re dead right? You died in the real world, and that’s why you’re here.”

“Y-yeah,” he said, bewildered. “I guess that’s what happened. But wait, how do you—”

“Goddammit,” she seethed. She looked like she was ready to kill a man. “I’ll take the freaking OOC villainess spinoff if I have to, but this? If Orion’s not even here, then what’s the point?”

Orion didn’t have the faintest idea what she was talking about, but he was starting to realize that he wasn’t the only one that had been isekai’d into this world after all. The Halie that stood before him was clearly from his world and a fan of Orion Magnaolia’s, and she was also deranged.

“Look, I didn’t ask to be here either,” he said defensively as she hissed at him like a stray cat. “Can you just chill for like, one second—”

“No?! I literally just died!”

“Well so did I!” Orion shot back.

“Like I care!”

His jaws dropped. There were limits to how insensitive a person could be—or at least he thought. But this woman didn’t seem to have a shred of sympathy for his circumstances at all. Not that he was expecting any, but couldn’t she at least understand that he had no control over this situation either?

“Okay, okay, at least you’ve still got his face,” she was mumbling to herself. “I can work with that.”

“Work with what?” Orion blurted out, affronted. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“Affection levels have dropped to 0.01%. Warning. Dangerously low. Initiating bad end in three, two—”

“I mean,” he said quickly, backtracking. “I guess I’ll work with you or whatever.”

Realistically, what choice did he have? It was alarming that the Entity had already started a countdown, and he hadn’t known until now that he could trigger a bad end for himself. Orion thought it was just a villainess thing. Did that mean Eilah was nearby?

“Halie Viriadian is the protagonist.”

“Shut up,” he muttered, instantly regretting addressing the voice in his head out loud when Halie’s eyes went wide and round. “Sorry, I wasn’t—”

“Affection levels have increased to 3%.”

Before he could figure out how the hell that even happened, Halie’s face broke into a bright smile.

“That’s kinda hot.”

Every apology, retort, and thought Orion had ever had in his entire life flew straight out the window. And like a self-satisfied cat, Halie just smiled and smiled and that was when he remembered that he’d wanted nothing to do with the heroine in the first place.

And this one was insane.

“Thanks, now I’m out of here for real,” he managed to say. He brushed hair out of his eyes to glance in the direction where the faint cityscape could be seen against the orange-tinged sky. “Sorry I wasn’t who you were looking for but—”

“Orion has a gentle and softhearted disposition,” Halie interrupted in her singsong voice. She was making a habit of cutting him off whenever she felt like it, so he just let her continue. “He never raises his voice. He never raises a hand against anyone. I’ve never heard him say shut up before, and I’ve played his route hundreds of times.”

“Okay…?”

Her gaze was sparkling, and in the short time of being acquainted with this version of Halie, Orion took it as a very bad sign.

“Hearing you say some out-of-character lines with his voice is kind of exciting,” she said eagerly. “Your Orion isn’t too bad either.”

She was insane. She really was insane.

“Sorry,” he said, unable to believe that he had to apologize for existing. “But I’m not him.”

Halie scrunched up her face. “Right. You’re a freaking Eilah simp.”

“What do you have against her, anyway?” Orion asked, irritated. It made some sense if this girl was rooting for Halie, but Eilah never got in the way, ever. If anything, she gave that stupid heroine everything and more, because she loved the otome game so badly that she was willing to risk it all for the happiness of the characters she loved. That was why Orion liked her so much.

Halie just looked at him like he was stupid. “That’s ‘cause she doesn’t exist in the original otome game, duh.”