...

“Well, never mind,” the woman said. “What I’m about to tell you will show me your true worth. If this doesn’t wake you up, then that’s that. Just another seed I planted that didn’t blossom.”

The woman put her hand to Kanako’s cheek. Then, she said:

“Your mother wanted a boy.”

Kanako couldn’t understand what she meant right away. Her mind was so scattered, she needed time just to process the string of sounds into words.

“That is to say, she didn’t want a girl,” the woman added helpfully.

At last, Kanako began to understand what she meant.

“That’s... all?” she whispered.

It couldn’t be true. Was that really all it was?

But she couldn’t deny it.

Her memory confirmed it.

The sinking feeling Kanako had always had, that no matter how good she was, she would never be loved... it had been accurate.

“Yes. That’s all. Life can be so unreasonable, can’t it?” the woman said dryly, as if not terribly invested in it.

The next thing Kanako knew, she was laughing weakly, her head hung. There was nothing she could have done about that. It had all been set in stone, the moment Kanako had been born into the world. But if that was all it took to keep her from being loved, then what was she supposed to do?

She hadn’t been wanted. She shouldn’t have been born.

She wished she had known earlier that from the very beginning, there was no hope to be lost.

“I didn’t have much faith in the ‘Isekai Writer,’ but I guess everything really is worth a try,” the woman said with a smile. “Now, do you feel sufficiently despairing of the world? Do you think it’s time to end it?”

The woman held out her hand.

Kanako stared at it dimly.