For example, Yamazaki had sent me a postcard recently. A photograph printed on the card showed Yamazaki, smiling widely, with a beautiful girl. He’d written, “Oh, I think I might be just about ready to get married. My parents have been bothering me for a while to get set up with someone. (In the countryside, we get married early.) And because I didn’t really have a choice, I had a meeting arranged just once, and look! She’s perfect!”

It seemed to have become an age in which even an erotic-game-loving lolicon could be blessed with happiness.

Die. Go to hell.

Next was the New Year’s card sent by the female upperclassman: “Our house is a huge mansion. We’re in love. I’m about to have a baby.”

She really seemed happy.

Go to hell.

And on top of all that, Misaki’s life, too, now was moving in a truly upward direction. When she had returned to her uncle’s house, naturally, she had been severely scolded. She seemed to have sunk into a reflection about the incident that was deeper than the ocean. Eventually, at some point, she came to talk to me about it. “How do you think I could apologize properly?”

“Shouldn’t it be enough for you just to live a healthy life?”

“I’ve caused more trouble than I can even completely understand, so that just won’t cut it, okay? I need something to, you know, wholeheartedly demonstrate my gratitude and apologies.”

“You uncle is a rather wealthy man, isn’t he? If so, then what about studying and going to college? Thinking back, didn’t you pass your college entrance exams?”

I just gave her some appropriate advice without thinking about it too deeply. Then, several months after that, my advice had become part of her reality. She was planning to begin college starting this spring. Of course, the school was obviously one that even I could have attended based on exam percentile, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise, but…

Either way, that girl would be a college student while I remained a freeter and a hikikomori.

Ah, I can’t take it. Go to hell, all of you!

They say that curses come home to roost. So, I forced my feelings back down and tried wishing for everyone’s happiness, “Even if you fall into hell, keep trying, all of you.”

I, too, planned on trying, little by little.

The reason for that was on a scrap of paper I had here.

It was a contract, made from a page ripped out of the secret notebook. To fulfill the contract, I had no choice but to try.

That night…

I had jumped, and then I’d landed abruptly. I had landed on top of the wire netting set up around the cliff to prevent accidents. The frame had been buried into the rocky cliff itself, making a hook shape. As expected for a sightseeing spot, they had gone out of their way to mount the fence in such a way that the beautiful view was left unspoiled. And as expected for a sightseeing spot, there was absolutely no fault to be found with the safety measures.