Sogo Doma had never been gentle. He could have concealed everything from Mashiro through tactful words or even outright deception. After all, his guesses about why Rita had acted that way and Rita's hostility toward Mashiro were merely his own deductions. He had no idea what she truly thought deep down! But...
He still voiced his speculations, and they were filled with malice—if he had been one of those soft-hearted protagonists, even if the other person truly thought that way, he probably would not have said it outright, right?
At most, he would have sought out Rita, moved her with emotion, reasoned with her, awakened her conscience through the power of words, and then welcomed a happy ending for everyone?
Unfortunately, although Sogo Doma thought he was quite good with words, he did not think he possessed the power of words or verbal persuasion. He had said so much to Rita before, but what about her? She was still stubborn as ever. That left Sogo Doma rather embarrassed. Looking through his skill list, sure enough, he found no skills called Power of Words or Verbal Persuasion.
So, after thinking it over carefully, he concluded that the 2D world was the 2D world, and reality was reality. If people in reality could change their minds after being talked into it like characters in the 2D world, then Yukinoshita... Ms. Snark would have achieved world peace long ago. After all, although her ideas were naïve, very few people could actually out-argue her!
Ahem, setting Yukinoshita aside for now, Sogo Doma had actually already given Rita a chance. He had even directly questioned whether she was truly doing this for Mashiro's sake. Speaking of which, Rita had been stunned by that question and had even left in a daze. Sogo Doma had originally