This was just genuine concern. An adult being concerned about a child, this was a very obvious and sensible reaction.
That was why he had no hesitation in taking action by calling out to her in the abusive tone as always, wanting to send her back to her room. Without realizing that it would become 1 of the reasons for the collapse of the original story and his own plans.
If time was turned back to this moment with him retaining his memories from the future, Kazuki would absolutely not call out to Erika. He wouldn’t have been able to call out to her.
But there was no way such a convenient thing would happen, and it would be a few years from now that Kazuki, looking back at the past, would keenly feel that this might have been the greatest turning point in his life.
But it wasn’t now.
「What are you doing, at a time like this?」
At that voice, Erika’s thin shoulders trembled. Timidly turning around, Erika winced as she confirmed Harold’s figure.
To the reaction which she hadn’t made until now, he had a slight sense of discomfort, but without minding much about it, Kazuki closed the distance between them with unfaltering steps.
「I heard that you were staying in bed since you weren’t feeling well. And yet, seeing you standing here in the night air, I can’t help but think that you’re an idiot who doesn’t think」
” To go that far, even for me….” was what Kazuki thought.
From here, he didn’t continue with a -「I, it’s not like I’m worried about you, alright!?」, but as expected, Harold was scum who didn’t have even a little bit of naive nature like a tsundere. He had a despicable nature, but that was how he was.