The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 29: Carrying Nadia

Chapter 29: Carrying Nadia

After managing to sit up, Nadia looked back at Hilda. She had a deadpan look on her face, along with an incredulous light in her eyes.

Carry her? Was this woman being serious?

"I don’t need your help... for something like this..." Nadia spat, trying to push herself up using her sword. But fell over a second later due to exhaustion.

She had spent too much Vitality this time...

’I pushed myself too much already...’ Nadia groaned internally, ’Four back-to-back fights, with all the big moves I used on top of that...’

With the state that she was in, she doubted she would be able to walk properly, or walk at all... she would need to be carried, if they still wanted to move.

The Heroine reluctantly looked up at Hilda, who still stood over her, smiling.

’But does Hilda have to be the one to carry me?’ Nadia thought with an unwilling look in her eyes.

Then, an idea popped into her head, one that would give her an acceptable solution to her problem!

’Surely, one of them can carry me, right?’ The Heroine thought, looking towards Seraphine and Callum for help.

But when her eyes landed on them, she found Callum clutching his chest with an arm slung around Seraphine’s neck. Due to the injury he received, he was struggling to intake air properly. And just like Nadia’s arm, his chest had begun to bruise badly.

Seraphine, who had overheard the conversation between Nadia and Hilda, chuckled wryly.

"I’ll have to help Callum out a bit until he manages to regulate his breathing. So, I don’t think either of us can help carry you, Nadia..."

Although what she said was undoubtedly true... Seraphine also had hidden motives. She just didn’t want Callum and Nadia getting too close to each other for her own selfish reasons.

Callum smiled wryly with a slight wince.

"Apologies, Miss Nadia, but I’ll need Seraphine to help me walk." He said in a hoarse voice.

Nadia’s face paled when she heard that.

Then, she glanced at Hilda to find her smirking smugly at her.

"That’s right~ since Mister Ashby is injured, und Miss Halloway is occupied with helping, the only one left that can you can depend on is me~" Hilda then spread out her arms, "So, what will it be, meine Dame~? The gentle and elegant princess carry, or the good ol’ piggy back?"

The Heroine gritted her teeth at the options she was given.

’Damn it...’

With no other solutions in mind, she answered in a strained tone:

"Back..."

"Hm? What was that~?" Hilda taunted.

Nadia growled.

"I said back, damnit!"

"Haha, good choice, good choice~! Although a disappointing choice, it’s still good nonetheless!" Hilda laughed as she helped Nadia up to her feet.

Nadia’s left eye twitched violently at Hilda’s words.

Disappointing decision? There was no way she was going to let herself be carried in such a humiliating manner! And especially not by someone like Hilda!

Watching as Hilda crouched down to allow her to get on her back, Nadia clicked her tongue in frustration before getting on.

...

The group continued down the road, albeit at a much slower pace than before. Fortunately, Callum managed to recover from having the air knocked out of his lungs; now able to walk properly, much to Seraphine’s grief.

But that couldn’t be said for Nadia.

’I hate this, I hate this, I hate this...’

She continued to ride on Hilda’s back with an utterly foul mood.

She had her right arm wrapped around Hilda’s neck and her injured arm dangling over the woman’s shoulder. She also had a rather terrifying look on her face that would even put a savage Scoundrel to shame.

’The last thing I wanted to do today was interact with this woman, if I could help it, much less make physical contact with her!’ Nadia grumbled.

The fact that she had to depend on a person she disliked so much to carry her was utterly shameful — Nadia felt like throwing a childish tantrum because of her situation!

Eventually, she calmed down.

"Haa..."

While sighing in resignation, she took a look at the back of Hilda’s head, specifically, her long brown hair.

Despite staying and camping outside for an entire day, the woman’s hair still remained perfectly styled, unlike hers, which was now somewhat of a mess. Especially after what just happened.

To say she was a little bit envious of how Hilda managed to keep herself so pristine would be an understatement.

Nadia’s eyes then became half-lidded.

Apart from Hilda’s hair, she also noticed one other thing now that she was up close with the woman. Something that instantly charmed her the moment she took notice.

’She smells really nice...’

Now that she was up close to the German, she began to get whiffs of the woman’s scent. And it was a smell she didn’t expect from a person who had just camped out for an entire day.

Unexpectedly, Hilda didn’t have the slightest whiff of blood on her. Instead, she had a sweet, floral scent, which tickled Nadia’s nose, causing her to subconsciously lean in closer a bit.

’Is it some kind of perfume...?’ Nadia wondered. ’She didn’t apply any perfume on her this morning, and I doubt it still remained after last night...’

So did it mean this was Hilda’s natural smell?

Nadia pondered on the topic a little as she continued to indulge in the German’s scent, finding herself growing much calmer and forgetting about the painful throbbings in her left arm.

’It’s nice... smells very nice...’

Eventually, though...

’What the hell am I doing!?’

She managed to catch herself out of the strange daze. And with wide eyes and a shocked look on her face, she immediately flinched back from the woman’s hair — repulsed by what she was doing.

Hilda, who was ignorant of the sort of turmoil she had unknowingly put Nadia through, whistled casually as she walked down the street.

Despite all the shuffling around Nadia was doing on her back, she wasn’t that bothered by it. Rather, she was more distracted by the system screen hovering before her face.

[Quest: Establish a situation for Nadia Crane to Depend on You]

[Importance: Moderate]

[Reward: 50 SC]

[Status: Completed]

’With this done, I should now have around 90 SC.’

The System had provided her with this Quest the moment she woke up. And for a while, she struggled to figure out how to accomplish this task, considering that Nadia was evidently being hostile towards her.

But that was until they encountered their first Predicament.

At first, she had thought about dealing with it herself, but... decided against it — figuring it would be better for Nadia to do it herself.

The reason?

Naturally, for the sake of information. She still needed to gather more data on the three around her, especially on Nadia. Thus, it wouldn’t do her any good if she eliminated all the Predicaments in their path.

Obviously, though, that wasn’t the main reason; she still needed to accomplish the Quest.

So, she came up with the glorious idea to... exclude herself from every fight until Nadia got tired.

Because she knew, as much as the woman might deny it, she was similar to her in the sense of trust.

Hilda knew for a fact that Nadia didn’t see either Callum or Seraphine as being as dependable in a fight, compared to her. In fact, she believed Nadia saw them more as burdens she needed to shield!

Either from her, in fear that she would "cull" them, or from Predicaments.

And because of that distrust, she knew that the Heroine would try to take on the fights alone without any help. Thus, it was only a matter of time until Nadia grew tired and used up too much Vitality — leaving her in an extremely vulnerable state.

’It’s funny how predictable she is~...’ Hilda mused in amusement.

Breaking out of her thoughts, the German decided to take a look back at her patient and found Nadia’s face to have turned rather pinkish. Had she actually gotten ill from the fatigue?

"Meine Dame, everything alright? I’m not holding onto you too hard, am I—?"

"I-I’m fine, I’m fine!" Nadia interrupted with a stutter, then asked flusteredly, "Did you need something? Why did you look back?"

Having only just finished berating herself on her strange behaviour earlier, she wasn’t quite ready to talk to the person responsible for her embarrassing turmoils.

Hilda stared intensely at Nadia for a bit, blinking as her gaze slowly made their way to the Heroine’s beautiful blue eyes. She then became lost in them for a moment, only waking up when Nadia averted her gaze.

"W-well? Out with it." The Heroine spat as she quickly regained her composure, turning taciturn.

The German smiled a little, then smirked playfully.

"I just thought~ that I should tell you that you’re looking rather stunning today. Despite your current conditions."

Nadia widened her eyes to the extreme; the composure she had just regained was instantly shattered.

"W-wha—! S-SHUT UP!" The Heroine stammered in embarrassment. She then began to hammer down on Hilda’s shoulder with her right fist like a child.

"You’re so annoying! And keep your eyes on the road!"

"A-ah~! It hurts, meine Dame~! Haha." Hilda laughed at Nadia’s embarrassment, playing along with the woman’s childish actions.

"Don’t patronise me!"

As the two bickered... played around... flirted and teased each other? Seraphine stared at them with a deadpan look.

Was she really in the right story...? Why did these two seem so close?