Switching to a Reverse Harem, But the Male Lead Changed the Genre

The gaze that had lingered on her for a moment slipped away, and a new order rippled down the line.

"Move! Block the remaining three sides!"

Thanks to Natalie, the number of sides they had to hold had shrunk — but the real problem was that there were simply too many of the things.

Just when it seemed the beasts were howling on some regular cycle, more monsters came swarming in from every direction. Axes and swords swung without pause, arrows rained down like a storm, and yet the horde showed no sign of thinning.

"Hah... hah... damn it! These things just don't end!"

"Hhk — too... many... of them..."

Even Munash and Muki, whose stamina was second to none, grumbled through ragged breaths. The first to start giving ground was Jorel, the weakest of the bunch when it came to endurance.

"Blast it! Orlando! I need support over here!"

And the monsters, catching wind of exactly which gap was about to open, surged toward Jorel as if they'd been waiting for precisely that moment.

Natalie, who had been lending support by lobbing fireballs at intervals, felt her heart seize. A grim premonition crept over her — that at this rate, they might not walk out of here in one piece.

Wasn't this exactly why the expedition had begged so desperately for a mage in the first place?

A wave of self-loathing washed over her for failing to do the one job she was here for. Then she caught sight of Jorel, backing away step by step, his footing beginning to waver. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand shot out toward him and she shouted, urgent and sharp.

"Roll sideways, Jorel!"

A beat later, with a tremendous FWOOOOSH, a colossal torrent of flame erupted from her fingertips. Like water bursting from a fire hose, a thick, furious blaze tore through the monsters swarming toward Jorel, burning them pitch-black in its wake.

The fire was so fierce that every creature caught in its path was reduced to ash on the spot.

In truth, even Natalie — the one casting the spell — flinched at its sheer, absurd power.

It was the exact moment when the hope over skill acquisition she'd been trying so hard to smother bloomed all over again.

Fortunately, the monster purge that she'd feared might drag on well into the night ended before the sun went down — all thanks to Natalie's unexpected, thunderous debut.

The expedition members dragged their battered bodies toward the lord's castle of Delloa Territory. As they passed through the abandoned residential quarter and a shopping street that must once have flourished, the members grew quieter and quieter with every step. The desolation — bleak to the point of being funereal — made them feel, viscerally, what lay ahead of them.

Only after they finally reached the lord's castle and were assigned temporary quarters did the members recover something of their usual liveliness. Dry bread, jerky, tea, and a few cups of low-proof liquor proved just the thing to soothe the day's exhaustion and fill the hollow in their stomachs.

"You were absolutely extraordinary today, our mage!"

"What did I even do? I'm more worried I got in everyone's way."

Natalie waved her hands in embarrassment, but the praise showed no sign of stopping.

"Did you not fell dozens of monsters single-handedly, Lady Pereira? You're more than qualified to be a member of this expedition."

"That's right! Truly incredible."

"Better than Munash, even. She's genuinely strong, Lady Pereira."

Everyone sang her praises in one voice — no, if anything, it felt closer to outright worship than mere compliments.

"You all killed far more than I did. I'll just have to work even harder from now on."

Unable to bear the flattery any longer, Natalie finally decided to slip away. The day had drained more stamina than she'd expected, too, and the fatigue she'd forgotten about was beginning to creep back in.

"Well then, I'll turn in early for tomorrow's sake. Could someone wake me when it's my watch?"

"Ah — mages are exempt from watch duty by custom. You may sleep straight through until morning. Surely you need to recover your mana as well."

Orlando waved the suggestion off as though it were nonsense. But Natalie found it more burdensome still to keep piling up special treatment for herself. Hadn't she already ridden alone in the comfort of a carriage this whole way here?

"No, really, I should take my turn like everyone else. My mana's already recovered just fine."

"Even so, rest properly tonight. We're more than enough for the watches."

"That's right. The young lady has done plenty today. Don't push yourself further."

"Go up and get some real rest, Lady Pereira."

Just as Natalie was reluctantly rising to her feet under the members' insistence, a strangely subdued voice cut through the chorus of noisy goodnights and caught her feet mid-step.

"Lady Pereira. A word, if you would."

The place McLane Lindhardt hauled her off to, gripping her by the arm, was the stable behind the inn. With safety impossible to guarantee, it would be dangerous to stray too far from the other members — so he had apparently brought her to this spot where the horses and carriage were tethered.

"What is this about?"

The man spent a good while frowning in silence, as if nothing in the world could please him less, and only after Natalie pressed him for a reason did he finally demand, like a prosecutor opening cross-examination:

"Excuse me, Natalie Pereira, but what exactly do you think you're doing?"

"What am I... doing?"

"You joined the expedition to see the game's true ending, didn't you? You came along to hunt monsters — didn't you?"

"I did. I mean — what else would I have come all this way for, if not to hunt monsters?"

Natalie couldn't make heads or tails of what he was getting at. At her retort — bewildered more than curious — McLane shook his head slowly and muttered, half to himself.

"Damn it all. Who asked you to slaughter things that *stylishly*? You weren't casting magic, you were putting on a charm offensive."

"I'm sorry — what on earth are you talking about, Sir Lindhardt?!"

She opened her mouth to fire back — to ask what kind of absurd accusation that was, why he was picking a fight over something that deserved praise, of all things. But before she could get a single word out, the man cut her off, his face dark as a thunderhead.

"Do it with me instead!"

"Wh-what?"

At her baffled protest, the man ground the words out between his teeth as though chewing on gravel.

"The romance! The one you wanted so badly!"

At the utterly unforeseen proposal, Natalie's brow creased.

She had given up on the original storyline long ago. The hope of somehow wooing this man had been abandoned long ago as well. Besides, his favorability had only just crossed the halfway mark — and it barely budged at that.

And that wasn't all. Ranked by the numbers, he was dead last. The only reason left to choose this man as her male lead was a lingering attachment to the original story, and nothing more.

After a short but ferocious internal struggle, Natalie looked up at McLane with a smile full of practiced regret.

"I appreciate the thoughtfulness, Sir Lindhardt. However, I was already exploring other avenues — so I believe it best I decline your offer."

Leaving the man behind wearing the expression of someone who had just lost the entire world, Natalie returned to her room ahead of him.

Good call. When would I ever drag a favorability stat that isn't even halfway there up to 100%?

And McLane's growth rate is pathetically small compared to the others, anyway.

Let it go. Just let it go. The story doesn't fail to end just because I don't end up with the original male lead.

If it did, there wouldn't be a favorability notification popping up in the first place.

Only after swearing a few hundred times not to let it bother her did she finally drift off to sleep.

The next morning, she was pressing her throbbing brow — sore from lack of sleep — as she headed downstairs for breakfast. That was when Natalie, eyes still puffy, looked up and saw McLane listlessly pushing food around his plate. No — more precisely, she saw the favorability value glittering above his head, and her eyes flew wide open.

She could not make sense of what was in front of her.

It hadn't been like this back when she was still possessed by Natalie's body and faithfully following the original plot. Even after McLane let her go, forcing her to reluctantly decide to join the expedition, everything had unfolded with a certain plausibility. Even when small distortions crept into the original story, the developments that followed had remained predictable.

But ever since she'd joined the expedition, everything had changed.

Utterly unforeseen things kept happening — so unforeseen that she couldn't even trace the cause and effect anymore.

Of course, Natalie knew perfectly well that the story shouldn't simply follow the original. It was precisely because she had complained that she couldn't stand the original's ending that she'd been pulled into this world in the first place.

Then, all at once, Natalie grew bewildered.

What exactly am I supposed to do here?

Are you telling me not to abandon the original male lead? Or are you telling me to go find a new one?