Isekaied Into An Eroge, Time To Have Fun!-Chapter 236: Public Sentiment

Another day went ahead and slowly slipped through our fingers as we trained, studied and made love all while the city was bombarded by a plethora of spells and projectiles at fixed increments, showing off the unwavering tenacity of the Cult as they continued to waste their mana every few hours.

Because of this constant bombardment they were actually already achieving something that they might not have wanted - although I only think this because it would make little sense if this was actually their goal - which was that everyone was already sort of... accustomed to this state of existence they were subjecting us to.

Obviously there was still this lingering fear beneath the surface of our minds that was constantly whispering to us about what might happen if the barrier suddenly fails, but until that happened we were able to just sort of ignore the attacks entirely.

The fun thing about having a very strong barrier and some super strong people defending you was that you could get over these sorts of things relatively easily so long as you didn’t think about it for too long and too hard.

Thanks to the lack of results from their constant bombardment a majority of us were able to start brushing it off, especially when we were inside of a building and ’shielded’ from the sight as well as most of the sounds, which meant for us it felt like every other day already.

That wasn’t to say that we weren’t still having our days changed thanks to their actions, but otherwise things were going mostly the same, just with the occasional need to practice different drills on what if scenarios or whatnot.

The things that had changed though was the conversation in the halls, specifically about the student who had gotten rescued from the Cult in the first place; I had come to learn that her name was Hailey Kochi, that she belonged to a minor Noble House that was really just a Merchant House that rose up a bit, and that she certainly had developed post traumatic stress disorder since she constantly lashed out at everyone around her.

The sort of attacks that made it rather obvious that the ’worse’ had happened to her whilst she had been held hostage, and because of that there was this ’stifling’ air of pity that followed her around that only seemed to make things worse.

She clearly wanted to try and find some normalcy in the world again yet was met constantly with stares and murmurs that hadn’t been there before, and on top of that she was still jumping at shadows and uncertain about what she should do now.

Since I didn’t know her personally I couldn’t really do much for her, but the one time I saw her in the cafeteria I couldn’t help but feel pity, though since I was so far away that didn’t really get to her as much as the two students in front of her had.

Seeing the pale grey skinned Elf snarling at two well meaning yet very clearly not socially ’trained’ Beastkin definitely made me feel a bit relieved about my current situation and that that hadn’t been me.

Most of the people around me felt the same way, yet some of the others that also wanted to help her couldn’t help but feel a bit put off by her aggression, something that seemed to poke at them since to them this Elf was refusing aid for no apparent reason.

It was one of those things that reminded me of how different my world had been since people sort of knew about ptsd slightly and could - at the very least - understand what was going on and accept that the ’help’ this person needed was from a professional, but here...

That was certainly not the case, and Hailey was being slowly pushed away both by her own actions as well as by everyone else’s as she tried to handle this herself, which was likely not the best idea; seeing her bat away the hand that had been raised to give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder definitely didn’t help, but again... what was I to do?

I could go to her and try and give my own help, but it wasn’t like I was trained in this either, so all I might end up doing is making it worse or just earning myself the ire of someone who isn’t completely right in the mind...

So as bitter of a pill as it was to swallow, I just kept my distance and observed, taking it in and gauging the reactions of those around me as I wondered what might need to be done or what might happen.

"I... feel bad for her, but..."

Just saying that made my friends all nod, and Anwen was the one to say "She needs space yet at the same time she clearly is yearning for someone to just... be with her. I’ve never been in her shoes - obviously - but I’ve felt something similar before and... yeah, it sucks... like, a lot..."

"What makes this worse is just the stigma she’s got on her now because of something she couldn’t control... Such a shame, and I really hope the Professors take her aside for now and try and help her instead of leaving her with us."

Lu’Shaki glanced over at Kha’Miero and said "That might make her feel worse since she’ll be even more ostracized than she is now.", which just made the Draconian shrug as she replied "It might be what needs to happen. Fix one thing and worry about another issue later. Ostracization is an easier fix than whatever is going on in her mind."

We all looked towards Hailey again before returning to our food, feeling a bit down because of it but also just accepting that there was little we ourselves could do for her... or at least telling ourselves that since it made things easier for us.

Seeing that most of the people here were thinking the same thing was... oddly reassuring, like how it was ’reassuring’ to be a bystander amongst many others when something bad happened; it was further validating your indecision even though it was wrong, and that... well, it was ’acceptable’.