The Protagonist’s Party is Too Diligent

Well, what could I do?

Here was someone who had done nothing wrong, yet was apologizing to me. The least I could do was ease some of her guilt. Otherwise, things would be unbearably awkward every time we met in the future.

And, to be honest, I already knew exactly what Lena was hiding. I had investigated it before.

If she had been a character I was familiar with from the start, I wouldn’t have bothered looking into her unless she posed a direct threat to my life. But Lena was someone I had never seen in the original story, so I had been cautious.

Lena’s secret?

She was a fan of Digger the Dog.

“……”

“……”

But Lena had no idea that I knew.

In fact, she probably never even considered the possibility. How many people in the world would expect that the person they admired had gone out of their way to dig into their private life?

Even though Lena was usually open about everything, she had been careful to keep this particular interest hidden.

Honestly, I didn’t understand why she was so secretive about it.

Subculture in this world was still in its infancy. Movies had only recently emerged and weren’t even considered a proper art form yet. The techniques that would eventually be recognized as "cinematic" were only just being studied. At this point, films were still mostly short slapstick reels. And animation? Even more primitive.

If anything, the field was so underdeveloped that the concept of "otaku" didn’t even exist yet.