Reincarnated As Both The Villainess And Heroine...?

The Girl Who Admired The Back Of A Hero

My name is Annette, but Anne is fine. This is a bit sudden, but does anyone know what exactly is a hero?

To be brave? To be compassionate? To be strong? I often thought those things when listening to fairy tails, yet I remained doubtful. Yet...

When I stared at that tiny back bigger than any mountain, it was hard to say the same. When I was rooted down and frozen in fear, all I saw were hands that gripped tightly onto those curved blades.

To be a hero was to be unconquerable by fear. That smile of hers, it was so incredibly confident, but she was shaking. Yet, she was indomitable. It was truly...the back of a hero.

When I first met Rin, she seemed like a nice girl, if not a bit out of touch with the Kingdom due to her Sakura heritage.

However, it soon became clear she was talented. A monster of talent, one could say. She might not know it herself, but her swordplay is among the best among our grade. If anything, her technique was among the best in the academy, held back only by her limited strength just as all children were.

She was strong. Rin was strong. I didn't need to say that repeatedly to know it was true, but...did such strength really belonged to a hero? I wasn't feeling ungrateful, don't get me wrong. It's just...her behavior sometimes could be frightening.

No matter what we say, what we do, what we think, there was still something beneath that everyone around us seemed to have forgotten, including Rin herself. The fact that we were all merely children.

Like I said, it was frightening. It was simply chilling how Rin could react to matters with indifference and without a shred of surprise. Was there anything in life that could surprise her? Was there anything that could alter that eternal smile of hers? Children were not meant to be strong, but she was.

The girl who bore two blades stared aimlessly into the distance, pondering a thought that was fathomless to the rest of us. The dress she borrowed on that party night glimmered brilliantly along with her smile, yet her eyes were just like any other day.

It was the embodiment of death. Soulless, hopeless, and strangely...sad. Rin may radiate an aura of charisma and joy, but if one looked into her eyes, it was different. She seemed to be discontent with something, yet it was an attitude of having given up.

But Rin giving up? Absolutely unthinkable. Just what could cause a person like her to lose hope...? In the face of death, she merely stared it down and extended her swords in defiance. Then, pray tell, what fate would be worse than death? What exactly was she so afraid of?

The same girl who fought off attackers that outnumbered her five to one, just what frightened her so much? The same girl who only fought harder at the sight of her own blood, just what made even her cower in the face of fate? The same girl whose howl resembled that of a cornered animal, defiant even as she was beaten and exhausted...you would tell me she could experience despair!?

I shortly lost consciousness afterwards, but it was simple to guess what happened next. After all, the person that greeted me with a brilliant smile over my bed was none other than my hero. With bandages covering various parts of her body, she still managed to laugh and report the time of day to me in her usual carefree tone.

"Rin...You're okay..."

"What nonsense! Of course I am! It'll take a whole lot more than that to kill me! For example, several handsome young men...Ah, I said too much."

There was the Rin I knew. A dear friend who would occasionally spout incomprehensible words. In a way, she was like a raging storm. There wasn't a single soul who wouldn't be caught up in her mysterious madness.