Otomege Volume 5 Short Story

Short Story – Marie Route The Third

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Part 1

I obtained the freedom of school life. But at the same time I also obtained the binding that was engagement.

It’s been a long time, this is Leon Fou Bartfalt(リオン・フォウ・バルトファルト).

I safely advanced to be a second year student, but there was a bit of problem.

「How does it feel after selling out your big brother?」

「It sounds bad if you call it selling. Even though I did my best while thinking of big bro’s sake.」

「You’re always so shameless! Do you understand the hardship that I’m going through!?」

The second son of our family, Nix(ニックス) who had safely (?) graduated marched into the student dormitory and forced me to listen to him speaking fondly of his lover.

Now he was a feudal lord noble of the newly formed Bartfalt House with the rank of count──ruling over the floating island that was once governed by Count Offley(オフリー).

The previous ruler Count Offley was found out to be working together with sky pirates and so his status was stripped away from him.

Well, it was me who crushed him though. That felt good.

Now then, because of that a territory without owner was formed, but it also couldn’t be left alone like that.

It was also difficult to quickly find someone for managing a territory with a size at the level of a count house. Anyone would be troubled if they were asked to take such responsibility so suddenly.

Even the kingdom itself was troubled, and in the first place the kingdom had confiscated the assets of Offley House.

Only the territory remained. And that territory was a floating island with a tricky state.

There the kingdom decided to place a new feudal lord there.

I was the one who rendered a distinguished service in the case this time, but I was still a student.

And so the one who got selected for the position was my big brother Nix.

That sounded simple when I said it like that, but that was because I omitted just how many discussions there were that were carried out between the adults.

Because it was a long and boring story.

The kingdom also desired the territory of the count house, but more than that they wanted to grasp the territory of Marie(マリエ)’s family, the Rafan(ラーファン) viscount house that was located in the mainland.

Marie’s house was also ended up crushed, but the territory of Rafan viscount house was located on the mainland.

Its value was different from a floating island.

The kingdom chose to put the territory on the mainland under their direct control rather than the floating island.

As the result, Nix ended up as the head of the count house.

「I──I! I didn’t really study how to manage a territory in the academy! I also have no noble acquaintance of the same rank and age! Even though just establishing a new house is already really hard, I myself am a greenhorn. There’s no way I can be a count!」

「That’s what Dorethea(ドロテア)-san is for right? Ah, sorry, I mean Dorothea-onee-sansister-in-law.」

「That Dorothea is also too much for me!」

I introduced the house of Count Roseblade(ローズブレイド) to Nix in order to help him with his current situation.

It was a known prestigious family even among all the prestigious families in Hohlfahrt(ホルファート) Kingdom.

Their eldest daughter Dorethea-oneesan was someone with a slightly strong peculiarity, but she was a real beauty.

Nix was holding his head looking like he was at his wits’ end.

「She would say things like wanting to tie me or wanting to get tied──I don’t have that kind of hobby! I would be fine with a relaxed relationship like father and mother!」

「She is beautiful so it’s fine isn’t it? She also got big breasts.」

「I’m not going to choose my marriage partner based on the size of their breasts like you!」

I couldn’t hold back myself at those words.

He said I’m choosing my marriage partner based on their breasts size?

I couldn’t forgive that mistake even though he was my brother.

「Take those words back! Marie has no breast! Don’t talk like I’m fixated with breasts size after I chose that Marie! Big or small, that’s not the problem! There is no problem at all!」

The door’s room opened while we brothers were arguing.

From there──the happy looking Dorothea-oneesan and──Marie whose face was like a Noh mask appeared.

Dorothea-oneesan was waving her hand at Nix with a  smile.

「I found you honey. We came to the academy today to scout the third year students. It’s not for you to play around with your little brother.」

I couldn’t believe that Nix was called ‘honey’.

I almost burst into laughter but I held it down. Nix’s angry glare stabbed into me.

Dorothea-oneesan entered into the room and smiled toward me.

「Leon-kun, you mustn’t bully honey.」

「I’m not bullying him. I’m just teasing him because he kept boasting about his love life.」

When I said that with a serious face, it seemed that my feeling went through.

Dorothea-oneesan slapped Nix’s back.

「Oh honey, really! So you wanted to brag to Leon-kun.」

Nix’s face that was looking at me was dreadful.

Rage, hatred──such emotions were blending in that face.

I couldn’t help but making a similar expression to ask him whether I was really deserving to be looked at with such negative emotions.

Nothing would begin if I dealt with hatred using hatred.

I sent off Nix with a smile.

「Do your best big bro!」

Nix’s hand was grabbed by Dorothea-oneesan and then he said to me with a small voice while getting dragged out.

「You’re the only one who I absolutely won’t forgive.」

──It felt like there was a genuine hatred in that voice, but surely it was just my imagination.

Because we brothers were intimate with each other.

Obviously he was just joking.

「Now honey, let’s go. We need to scout six people at least.」

「──Yes.」

Dorothea-oneesan brought away Nix whose head was hanging down.

It felt like there was grief drifting from his back, but surely it was just my imagination.

Good grief, what was he so dissatisfied about from having such beautiful and big breasted wife? What’s more she was really devoted to him.

──Well, if it was me I’d decline though.

When it was just the two of us inside the room, I looked at Marie who was standing there expressionlessly.

「And, what’s your business here?」

Marie briskly walked toward me and then she kicked my butt.

It wasn’t a girl’s kick.

She launched a sharp kick like a martial artist.

「Ouch!」

No, it was really painful!? The pain resounded heavily until the core of my body.

This girl, wasn’t her power uncommon even though her body was small!/

Marie’s face became like hannya.

「Whose breasts are you calling nonexistent!? You’ve never even seen my breasts before!」

Looks like she was seriously angry.

I was backing away against Marie’s pressure.

「B-but it’s true that you’re──ah, I’m lying. If I’m asked whether you have them or not──perhaps you have them, a bit?」

「Don’t be so obsessed with just some lumps of fat!」

「Woman’s breasts are stuffed with dream and hope! ──I’m sorry. I won’t say anything more, so please don’t make fighting stance like that. It’s really painful so don’t hit me.」

Marie was seriously starting to shadow boxing, so I surrendered.

This girl’s fist was heavy. Very heavy.

Her punch could send even a man flying.

She had a might that would echo until your bone.

Marie clicked her tongue.

「Even though I’m tired from showing Onee-sansister-in-law around since the morning.」

「So it’s you who brought Dorothea-oneesan to this room huh.」

「That’s right. Even so, that person too──she is amazing as usual.」

「──Yeah. After all she is someone who did something like exchanging collar for real.」

I recalled the spring break.

The marriage ceremony of Nix and Dorothea-oneesan──was held with only kin attending it due to a strong wish from Roseblade House.

They also held public unveiling and marriage ceremony officially, but we were requested for an unofficial ceremony──a ceremony where only relatives were participating to be held no matter what.

The count house was begging at us even though our house’s status was lower.

Please, let us hold the unofficial marriage ceremony within just the family! They asked.

The reason?

──Because Dorothea-oneesan wished to exchange collars instead of exchanging rings between the husband and wife.

She absolutely wouldn’t give up that wish even when others told her to stop it.

Dorothea-san only reluctantly gave up when they said that they would hold an unofficial ceremony in exchange of her restraining herself in the official ceremony.

She said that she wanted their marriage to be one where they would tie each other──it was amazing.

Of course only relatives who knew the situation could participate in that ceremony.

Both Marie and me were put off.

It would be hard for Nix from here on.

「Rather than that, I think that her words of love toward Onii-sanbrother-in-law were too heavy. It doesn’t matter even if we are reborn to be different people, I will find you so that we can be tied together again. That’s heavy. It’s feel too heavy for me especially knowing that reincarnation is real. ──That person, perhaps she will really manage it?」

We were reincarnators.

Dorothea-oneesan’s speech sounded strangely vivid to us and made us turned pale.

It doesn’t matter how many times you are reborn, I won’t let you get away──her words sounded like that.

Nix felt slightly pitiful when we thought that.

But this was something necessary.

I was forcing it a bit too much in order to save Marie, so to make up for it a sacrifice was necessary.

That sacrifice was Nix.

Well, even Nix himself became successful in life and even obtained a beautiful bride because of it so there was no problem.

This was a necessary sacrifice. And it also a really good offer for Nix.

It was a win-win.

This is a request from your cute little brother, so forgive me okay──Onii-chan.

「Then, you came to the male dormitory just to show Onee-san around?」

「Ah, that’s not all. Is Luxion(ルクシオン) here?」

When Marie called, Luxion suddenly appeared from empty air.

He was hiding with optical camouflage.

『Do you call?』

I joined my hands behind my head.

「Your business isn’t with me but with Luxion? What is it this time? If it’s because you have used up all of your money again, should I ask this guy to prepare some counterfeit money for you?」

Luxion took my joke seriously.

『Please leave it to me. I shall prepare some paper money with even better quality than the real thing.』

That’ll be a completely different thing then, but before I could say that Marie got angry.

「When did I ever ask for counterfeit money huh! How are you two usually seeing me!? That’s not it, both of us are second years already! Y-you know, soon, there will be many events going on.」

「Aa~, events huh.」

The story in that otome game would start progressing for real from the second years.

The middle stage of the game mainly would be war with Fanoss(ファンオース) Principality.

Marie was concerned by that.

「Remember, the war in that otome game was really difficult wasn’t it?」

「The developer was a demon. It was so hard I could feel the malice.」

Even thinking back now, it was a horrible game.

It was hard to even clear it without using paid item. The balance of the game was too weird.

Even though no one was looking for difficult battle gameplay from an otome game. Just what was the developer thinking?

「Right now things are going just like the scenario, but as expected I’m worried about the development from here on.」

If the main character Olivia(オリヴィア)-san lost──it would be game over.

That would be troubling for me too.

According to Marie, that otome game even had a sequel.

Olivia-san would also appear there. So we wished to avoid her dying.

Also it would feel unpleasant if an acquaintance died.

Luxion spoke while we were feeling troubled.

『I have always been thinking this when listening to the story of you two──is the situation going to be so terminal that they will send students into war?』

In the war with the principality, many students would also get involved in it including Olivia-san and his highness Julius(ユリウス).

And then they would also participate in the final decisive battle but──certainly, was Hohlfahrt Kingdom really alright as a country when they needed to recruit even the students for war?

Marie didn’t really get it.

「What do you mean by terminal? They won the war at the end.」

I was exasperated by Marie’s answer.

「You, didn’t you learn at school──at the previous life? What kind of country would send even high school students into war?」

「Ah!?」

It seemed Marie understood it as mere knowledge, but she didn’t really get it for real until now.

As a story, the great efforts of the youths would look beautiful.

There were also a lot of stories about the great efforts of students at our previous life.

But, when you thought about it realistically──didn’t that mean that the adults of Hohlfahrt Kingdom were unreliable?

Even though they won the war, it was only just barely.

The postwar situation was too scary to think about.

「Th-then, the story of that game──is really bad isn’t it!?」

Marie also got panicked, but let’s first confirm the flow of the situation from the beginning.

First, before the principality declared war, the movement of the sky pirates inside the country was becoming more active.

While the army was busily moving around, the academy’s students also encountered sky pirate in their extracurricular lesson.

There the students won.

After that, they learned the existence of Offley House that was manipulating the sky pirates behind the scene. The main character borrowed the strength of Julius and other capture targets and repulsed the enemy.

However it came to light that Fanoss Principality was behind this. The students became involved even deeper with the war.

Fanoss Principality made use of Count Offley to destroy Hohlfahrt Kingdom from within.

The problem here was Offley house that I defeated when rescuing Marie before this.

I defeated that house.

And then the sky pirates──were also defeated by me.

I crushed the important factors that were related with the second year events.

That was why the events also got crushed.

「Now there is no more air pirate rampaging within the country. The Offley House is also gone.」

Marie also agreed with my statement and looked uneasy about the future.

「That’s the situation. What’s left, is only Fanoss Principality that was acting behind the scene. But, they will start moving for real at the third year.」

In that case, we would get busy when we were third year.

We would start preparing from now──just when our thought reached to that point, Luxion spoke in exasperation toward us.

『If the mastermind is already clear, then won’t it be better to deal with them ahead of time?』

「──Not a bad idea.」

It didn’t feel right to take action against the principality that wasn’t doing anything at the present stage, but I wouldn’t hesitate to act if it was for the sake of my peace of mind.

Marie clapped her hands and made an expression of someone who got a flash of idea.

「Yeah! If we defeat Fanoss Principality ahead of time then the war also won’t happen!」

『Yes. Then, I’ll immediately──sink down the territory of Fanoss Principality.』

Marie froze at Luxion’s statement.

I warned him for his joke that wasn’t reading the mood.

「Read the mood more, you annihilation maniac bastard. That doesn’t sound like a joke.」

『I’m serious though?』

「Eh?」

『It will remove any potential future trouble if the whole country is sunken down.』

T-this guy, he’s really a dangerous AI.

The idea of sinking the whole country in order to avoid war was crazy.

「Idiot! Why do we have to commit genocide huh! Countless people are going to die if the principality’s floating island got sunken down!」

『I won’t be troubled no matter how many new mankind die. Rather it’s going to be a weigh off my shoulder.』

This guy is really──.

「This is an order. Don’t sink down any floating island.」

『──Roger.』

This damn AI, he replied with a reluctant tone.

「We’re going to avoid war as peacefully as possible. With that in mind──it’ll be important to make the principality want to avoid war.」

Fanoss Principality’s objective was to sink the continent where the kingdom existed into the sea.

They possessed the trump card to make that into reality.

If we stole or destroyed it first──the principality would lose their trump card and became unable to achieve their objective.

Marie looked relieved while I was thinking about from here on.

「It’s reassuring that you’re holding Luxion’s leash tightly. If the wrong person got him, they might get cajoled by this guy instead and make a great mess.」

『New mankind will never become my master. If such situation occur, I will self-explode.』

「You’re extreme. Setting that aside, recently the atmosphere of the academy is bad isn’t it?」

Marie looked relieved knowing that we would manage the war somehow. I made a small talk with her.

「Atmosphere? Ah, because the girls are feeling scared right now.」

The atmosphere of the academy had changed since the end of the first year.

His highness Julius and other capture targets made the girls who bullied Olivia-san got expulsed.

It didn’t end there. The students who were involved got punished regardless of the degree of their involvement.

The five capture targets were competing with each other to find the involved students and asked them to be punished. A lot of noble sons and daughters got driven out from the academy.

In the end, even students who were speaking ill about Olivia-san behind her back because of her commoner status would get found out and condemned by the five──the atmosphere of the academy was the worst.

Certainly in the game there was also a development of the students who bullied Olivia-san getting punished.

But I didn’t think it would go this far.

However, thinking carefully this was also a natural progression.

The five capture targets were people who would shoulder this country in the future.

Anyone who drew the ire of those five──not only they would get expulsion, their life would also be over.

──In the game, the punishment of the students who bullied the main character only got mentioned briefly in passing, but it was this graphic in reality.

And then the problem was Olivia-san who had captured the heart of those five.

「I rarely caught sight of Olivia-san recently, but I wonder if she is doing alright? I’m worried that those students will resent her because of this situation, and perhaps the person herself is also troubled by this situation? Those five too, I wish they would be more considerate to their surrounding. Recently the atmosphere is turning gloomy. It’s uncomfortable here.」

When I caught sight of Olivia-san previously, I got the impression that she was a honest and kind girl.

Marie pouted slightly seeing me feeling concern for Olivia-san.

「You know, I heard that Olivia is sneaking away from the academy sometimes. Also, it’s not just Olivia and those five’s fault that the atmosphere in the academy is bad.」

「Eh?」

「It’s Angelica(アンジェリカ). The girls who got cornered by his highness and others sought help from Angelica. Because of that the relationship between his highness and Angelica also turned bad. The tension between students is rising. Well, it’s unrelated with us students of low standing though.」

Was Angelica-san covering for the cornered students?

It seemed that she got into confrontation with those five because of that.

Well, she was Olivia-san’s enemy in the game, so of course they would be in confrontation but──it was complicated when seeing it in reality.

Here she looked like she was protecting the cornered students.

Besides, Angelica-san’s had her position as a young lady of duke house──she had the role as the leader of the students.

Perhaps it couldn’t be helped that the people around her were relying on her?

Although it wasn’t something that was directly affecting mobs like us.

We couldn’t get close to Angelica-san, we also couldn’t get close to Olivia-san who was protected by those five.

His highness and the others were on guard. They wouldn’t let anyone whether man or woman got near Olivia-san.

If the story was progressing well then we also didn’t have any reason to get closer, so we wouldn’t.

As the result, now we were only listening to the rumors from afar at best.

Even so, game and reality were really different from each other huh.

「Well, we’ll just worry about dealing with the principality somehow.」

The story was at least progressing well, so I switched my feeling to think that it would be fine if we just gave some support as necessary later.

Marie put her hands on her waist and sighed.

「I thought I would be able to watch the story unfold from nearby, but this is the reality of the situation. We can only listen to the rumors even though we are in the same academy.」

「This is just fine for mobs like us. It’s too presumptuous to think that we’ll be able to get involved with the main casts.」

「You don’t sound like you’re speaking your true feeling though? Besides, we got involved before this.」

「That was only because of an emergency.」

Luxion apparently didn’t like my wording.

『That’s what they called being indecisive.』

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Part 2

In a corridor of the academy.

Few people were passing through here at the evening.

Julius and Olivia were walking together there happily.

The two had just returned from outside the academy. They were talking excitedly about today.

「Julius really like meat skewer.」

Julius replied to the smiling Olivia with a bright smile.

「I like it! It’s simplicity is great, but even more than that it’s the best how it doesn’t care of manner. Even so Olivia, you also looked like you enjoyed it.」

「I prefer a slightly informal setting when having meal rather than a stiff and formal one.」

「Me too. The palace is too fastidious about a lot of things. There are too many pointless things because they’re putting empathize to the ceremony and the etiquette too much.」

Julius felt like everything of him was accepted when he was together with Olivia.

She wouldn’t nag him with things like how it wasn’t appropriate for a prince.

Besides it was fun being together with her.

「Olivia, if you don’t mind──」

Stay together with me forever, Julius was about to continue with that, but from the corridor ahead Angelica came with a quick pace and talked to him.

Her expression was grave. Julius was fed up seeing that expression.

It spoiled his pleasant mood.

「Your highness! Just what are you thinking, expelling the daughter of Count Neville like that!」

Seeing Angelica’s expression that was becoming even sterner day by day, it made Julius realized that his feeling toward her had completely cooled down.

Recently he was thinking unpleasant thought about Angelica even more than before.

He unconsciously stood in front of Olivia to protect her and narrowed his eyes.

「That girl spoke ill about Olivia behind her back. She even gathered some students and planned to ambush her at night wasn’t she?」

Angelica was protecting such female student.

「Can’t you overlook it as a joke!? Certainly, I admit that she went too far. But, she just needs to be reprimanded, how does it become a talk about expulsion? Besides when I asked her there is nothing about this ambush planning! She came crying to me about her innocence!」

Angelica’s argument was irritating.

Julius decided that she was just accepting the excuse of a noble daughter without questioning it and he silently let out his anger.

「Reprimand you say? Angelica, is it as I thought that you’re looking down on commoner? Besides, are you seriously telling me to accept the situation just by listening on one side’s argument?」

「Wh-what are you──」

Julius became convinced when he saw Angelica getting flustered.

When he turned to look at Olivia behind him, she was scared against Angelica.

She was casting her eyes down sorrowfully with her shoulders hunched down.

That act stimulated his desire to protect her. It stirred up Julius’s heart.

「Julius, it’s alright. Even if the like of me am killed, the noble’s reaction will be like this at most. But, even so──if I can just stay at Julius’s side」

Angelica got enraged by the pitiful look that Angelica showed.

「You! What kind of lie have you told his highness! You deceived his highness’s heart──」

Julius’s hand stopped Angelica who was trying to question Olivia.

「Stop!」

「Y-your highness? Why. Why won’t you listen to me!? Count Neville is enraged by the matter this time. He even proclaimed to father that he is leaving his highness’s faction. Count Neville is an important member in your highness’s fa──」

「Enough already.」

「──Eh?」

Julius was fed up.

His pleasant mood until just now had been spoiled. He took Olivia’s hand and started walking while ignoring Angelica.

「Your highness!」

Angelica called out to him, but Julius didn’t even turn toward her and spoke.

「I don’t care about factional dispute between nobles! Don’t drag Olivia into something like that.」

Angelica bit her lower lip and looked down.

「──Why won’t your highness understand, that faction will be indispensable for your highness’s rule」

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Part 3

「Ahahaha! It’s really refreshing to make that girl who has the blood of Hohlfahrt flowing inside her looking frustrated like that!」

In a small mansion that was built near the student dormitory.

It was the exclusive lodging house for Olivia.

It was something that Julius and others prepared for her. Although it was small, the construction was solid and the furniture was also extravagant.

Olivia was taking a bath inside that mansion.

She was washing her body thoroughly.

「It’s nice to have flesh and blood like this. It makes the feeling of interacting with the world more real.」

It had been a long time since she had a flesh body.

The female grudge that was once called the saint had stolen Olivia’s body.

But, the body’s condition would sometimes turn bad.

Her arm was numb and wouldn’t move.

「It’ll still take time until I’m fully adapting to this body.」

Her right hand was moving to grab her neck.

That was the resistance of Olivia whose body was hijacked.

「Olivia──you’re still resisting? You’re a strong child. But, I have been waiting for this time for all this time. I’ll have you go along with this until I accomplished Liia(リーア) and my revenge.」

The right arm was gradually stopping to move. Olivia stood up.

「──Now then, the progress with breaking up Julius faction is going well. The talk with this country’s traitors is also advancing nicely. I’ll let them play around for a bit more.」

Olivia looked up to the ceiling and smiled mysteriously.

「Now then, I guess I’ll play an act.」

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Part 4

At the palace of Fanoss Principality.

We were sneaking into the palace that was lacking a king deep at night, sneaking into the treasure warehouse.

「Which one is the magic flute?」

Magic flute──it was the key item that summoned the last boss in the first and third game.

It wasn’t an item that the main character possessed, so its function was unknown, but it would materialize monsters when the princesses of the principality played it. They also could control those monsters.

It was the extremely troublesome trump card of the principality.

Marie was sneaking in together with me, but her eyes were sparkling seeing the treasures inside the warehouse.

「Look at that Leon! This accessory is amazing. I wonder how much it will sold for?」

Seeing the numerous accessories that were fitting for princess to wear, she was thinking of how much they would sell rather than how she would look wearing them.

Even though just a little while ago she was a woman who yearned to be a princess and aimed to marry rich and powerful men.

「Don’t steal them okay?」

「I won’t! More importantly, I’m amazed we can sneak in this easily.」

The reason for that was Luxion.

Luxion who was monitoring the surrounding answered Marie’s question.

『After master heard about “that otome game’s sequels”, he finally ordered me to investigate the neighboring countries after this late. The area that needed to be investigated is vast and it took a lot of time, but it’s easy to obtain simple information like how to sneak into a palace.』

「You really can do anything.」

『Yes. After all I’m outstanding.』

「──You’re really overconfident.」

『I’m only stating the fact. The items that seem to be the magic flutes are always stored separately. The one here is only one of the two.』

There were two magic flutes that could summon last boss.

I thought there was only one magic flute. I didn’t know that Heltrude(ヘルトルーデ) had a sister.

I was shocked when I heard from Marie that game had sequels.

There was no way we could just ignore this, so I had Luxion investigating.

Marie found a flute that was placed on the most extravagant stand.

「I found it! This must be it! I think the flute has this kind of shape!」

『Ah, that one is a fake.』

「Eh?」

『The real thing is hidden. The mechanism is this way──』

Marie and I moved the mechanism inside the treasure warehouse and found the magic flute.

「Found it.」

「To think they prepared a fake. They’re really cautious.」

We found a black and thorny flute and reached toward it.

However Luxion got in the way.

『Please don’t reach out so carelessly. There is another mechanism. If that mechanism is triggered, a trap that prevents the flute from getting taken away will activate.』

「What a strict security.」

We deactivated the mechanism and collected the magic flute. Even so, this flute really looked ominous.

Marie tilted her head while looking at the magic flute.

「What’re we going to do with this?」

It would be safer to destroy it but──we didn’t know what would happen after we destroyed it.

If we destroyed it carelessly, the sealed giant monster was liberated! What were we going to do if it had that kind of development? It was scary, so we decided to bring back the magic flute.

「Let’s take it home and have Luxion research it.」

「Hm~. Ah, that’s right. You also researched the saint’s necklace before this right? What happened with it?」

The saint’s necklace that I obtained was apparently possessed by some kind of suspicious existence.

Luxion caught it and he was in the middle of researching it right now.

『It’s actually an interesting existence, so I’m still continuing to research it even now. Well then, just in case please store that magic flute in this case. It won’t be able to taken out so easily if it’s put in here.』

We put the magic flute inside an attaché case and started moving.

There were soldiers and knights patrolling inside the palace.

But, the route that they were patrolling──the area where the security was light.

Luxion was monitoring them all in real time, so we arrived to the next destination without encountering any enemy.

That place──was the bedroom of the second princess, Hertrauuda(ヘルトラウダ).

There were knights standing guard in front of her room.

I aimed a handgun with silencer attached at those knights.

「Sleep for a bit. It’ll end soon.」

*Pshew*, such sound sounded out several times.

The knights that were shot moved their hands toward their weapon in surprise due to the sudden pain──but their eyes rolled back and then they collapsed.

Luxion hurried me up.

『There is only thirty minutes until the next shift of knights come. Please hurry.』

I understood that but──.

「It feels a bit awkward to enter a girl’s room. Marie, you go inside.」

「Haa!? Why do I have to do something so dangerous? You go inside!」

──I entered inside her highness Hertrauuda’s room with Marie pulling my hand.

There were several females inside, but I immediately made them fell asleep with the tranquilizer gun.

Luxion immediately scanned the inside of the room.

『Found it.』

He moved the mechanism inside the room. Then the picture that was hanged on the wall slid aside and a safe appeared.

Marie approached the safe before looking at Luxion.

「What’s the password?」

『The dial over there is a fake. The way to open it is──』

We followed Luxion’s instruction and opened the safe. Then Marie took out the magic flute from inside.

「Second flute get~!」

Marie said that with a small voice and put the magic flute inside a second case.

With this the principality had lost their trump card. We had surely taken a big step toward avoiding the war.

We looked at each other’s face before moving to escape immediately──.

「Who? Father? Mother?」

──His highness Hertrauuda woke up.

I immediately aimed the tranquilizer gun toward her highness, but Marie stopped me.

「Stupid! She is still a kid!」

「You’re the idiot!」

Fortunately we were dressed in all black.

We were also hiding our face.

But it was bad that our figure was seen.

Our voice was also heard.

His highness Hertrauuda was gradually waking up before I could have her fell asleep again.

Her eyes snapped open seeing the wall opened and the maids lying on the floor.

「Wh-who send the two of──」

She was about to yell, so Marie immediately covered her mouth.

「Hey, your voice is too loud! People would come!」

She talked loudly for that you know?

While I was thinking about what to do now, Luxion talked to me with a small voice.

『I’ve made it so that no sound will come out of this room. Master, if you want to settle this peacefully──』

「──Haa? Is it alright doing that?」

『Yes.』

I listened to Luxion’s advice and felt a bit worried if it would be really alright to do as he said but──there was no time to hesitate so I followed his advice.

The princess had long and straight black hair, and strong-willed red eyes.

She was almost as tall as Marie, but the difference between them wasn’t just their hair and eye color.

Even though she should be younger than Marie, her breasts were more splendid than Marie’s.

Growth was really cruel.

I kept the tranquilizer gun pointed at her as a threat while approaching her highness Hertrauuda.

Her highness had tears in her eyes, but she was glaring at me.

「Oi, take off your hand.」

「I-is it alright?」

「There is something I got to tell her.」

When Marie took off her hand, her highness Hertrauuda screamed.

「Thief! Isn’t there anyone outside!?」

Nobody came no matter how loud she yelled.

Her highness calmed down slightly after realizing that.

「──Looks like the soldiers outside are defeated.」

「They were really weak. The soldiers of the principality are really low quality.」

Her highness glared fiercely at me. I told her a hint that was close to the truth.

「We’re taking the magic flute. With this the principality has lost their trump card against the kingdom.」

「──Looks like it.」

She averted her gaze from me.

She must be feeling relieved that there was still one more magic flute.

「We have also taken away the one in the treasure warehouse. Not the exaggeratedly decorated fake, we have found the real one that was hidden.」

Her shoulders moved just slightly.

It looked like I managed to shaken her.

Marie watched our exchange attentively.

「Are you mortified?」

「Not really. Just kill me if you want to kill me. But, you will surely receive the retribution for this.」

「──What a pitiful child. You don’t even notice that you’re just an ignorant puppet whose string is manipulated by others.」

「What did you say?」

「If you want to know the truth then ask the old man in charge of the library. Tell him you want to learn the true history. Ask that old man and not anyone else. You two have many enemies inside this palace.」

I led Marie outside the room while keeping my gun trained on her.

And then I broke out into a run at full speed after the door was closed.

Marie also followed close behind me.

「Wait, what were you talking about there!? I never hear anything about it!」

「I also don’t know anything! I only said that because Luxion told me to!」

『If Hertrauuda take action with this, then master will get a step closer toward the peaceful slow life that master mentioned.』

「Is that really true!? I don’t want to do this kind of phantom thief play anymore you know!?」

We desperately ran and got on the airbike that was hidden at the palace’s courtyard before making our escape.

.

Part 5

The next day.

Government officials were rushing into Hertrauuda’s room.

The officials who were specialized in investigation used magic and tool to search for any trace of the intruders.

But they didn’t find anything and were at their wits’ end.

「Just who in the world infiltrated here?」

「Is it the kingdom?」

「No one noticed the infiltration, not the knights or the maids──」

Rauda was watching that going on. Beside her was Count Garrett(ゲラット).

He was gently twirling the moustache he was proud of, but the attitude he showed to Hertrauda was harsh.

「Your highness, this is a great blunder. To think that you couldn’t do anything except watching the magic flute getting stolen.」

「──I have no excuse.」

「Naturally. The magic flutes are this country’s treasure. Your highnesses are qualified to be the successor only because you two have the aptitude for the magic flutes. And yet those magic flutes are stolen. Do you know what will happen now?」

This man, even though he was a retainer but he was acting really haughty.

He didn’t have any respect toward the royal family.

Hertrude(ヘルトルーデ) couldn’t bear watching Garrett’s attitude and approached.

「Are you saying that there is something Rauda can do against someone who the knights were helpless against? Garrett, let Hertrauda rest already.」

Garrett looked dissatisfied.

「I can’t do that. We have to gather information about these thieves immediately. Her highness Hertrauda is the only witness of this theft. She can rest after the investigation is finished.」

「Garrett!」

Hertrude was enraged. It was there a huge man arrived.

When that man who was past middle-aged and wearing armor came, Garrett showed a timid attitude.

「I-isn’t this black knight-dono.」

「Her highness Hertrauda is tired. She need rest, is there any problem with that?」

「Eh? ──Y-yes! Of course there isn’t.」

Pressured by the black knight, Garrett reluctantly withdrew.

Rauda recalled the words of the intruders after seeing this.

(There are enemies inside this place, huh.)

Rauda headed to the library that evening in order to investigate, just in case.

(With this commotion, perhaps I can even give the knights who usually guarded me a slip.)

.

Part 6

Rauda made use of the commotion to become alone. She followed what the intruders said and talked to the old man in charge of the library. She told him that she wanted to know the truth.

The old man looked surprised. At first he refused.

But when Rauda asked her the second time, he said 「Originally I was ordered to dispose of them」 and brought several books to her.

Those were very old books.

Rauda was surprised after reading them.

「──What is this」

Written in those books was the history between the kingdom and the principality.

It told her something different from what she knew.

Even though until now she had been taught that the kingdom was the root of all evil, the history book wrote that the cause was actually the principality.

The old man spoke to the shocked Rauda.

「After the late king and queen died, I was given the order to destroy these books. But these books have historical value, so I can’t bring myself to carry out that order.」

Rauda was trembling.

「Th-this is the fact? Are you saying that this is a fact!?」

The old man nodded.

「It’s also a fact that the kingdom attacked us twenty years ago. But, before that the principality was also rampaging in the kingdom doing the same thing──」

Raida was flustered because it was different from what she was told until now.

「Why. Why weren’t we told this!」

「──Your highness, forgive me.」

The old man kneeled and shed tears.

「Right after both of you were born, the late king and queen who were in the peace faction were assassinated by the nobles of the pro-war faction.」

「Assa, sination?」

After that the old man talked about the open secret of the principality.

The royal family at that time was thinking to broker peace with the kingdom.

The pro-war faction was enraged by that. They assassinated the king and the queen.

The left behind princesses were used by the pro-war faction as their puppets. That was the current situation.

Rauda fell on her knees and laughed while crying.

「This is stupid! Then, we are actually──w-wait. Then, what about Bandel(バンデル)? What about Onee-sama’s guard Bandel? Those who approached us are the pro-war faction who betrayed Otou-sama and Okaa-sama isn’t it!?」

The old man told her with a pained look.

「Bandel-dono is──not involved with the assassination. But, he is an authority within the pro-war faction since the past. I don’t believe, that he doesn’t know.」

Raida didn’t know what to believe in anymore.

.

Part 7

I and Marie returned from Fanoss Principality. We came to the research room that was inside Luxion’s main body.

The analysis of the magic flutes was carried out there.

『It’s surprising. This is a tool that was created after the old civilization was destroyed.』

「What does that mean? It’s not a tool from your era?」

『Yes. I believe that there were several civilizations between our civilization and the current civilization where master is living in. This item came from one of those civilizations in between.』

Marie was looking at the magic flute while listening to our conversation.

「I get it now but, what’s so surprising about it?」

『That civilization finished a tool to control the monsters. I believe this tool make the monsters obey by forming magical contract with them. The catalyst used for that is the soul of the user.』

「Eh!?」

Marie was shocked. She stepped away from the flute.

I also quietly took a step back.

It couldn’t be helped, a tool that handled the soul was just scary.

「Let’s destroy it right away.」

『It’s useful so let’s destroy it after analyzing it. But please rest assured. The user’s soul won’t be taken away just by ordering around the small fry monsters. At best the user will only feel tired mentally. But, the artificially created monster that is sealed by this magic flute is a different matter.』

The magic flute was sealing a giant monster. By using the flute the user could freely summon it.

What was troublesome was that even if that giant mobster was defeated, it could be summoned again right away.

『It’s not accurate to call it sealing. This magic flute is preserving the data that become the base of the giant monster. The user will use their soul to gather the magic element in the surrounding area and materialize the monster.』

Marie didn’t really get it, so she wanted to destroy it right away.

「That’s troublesome. So this flute can’t be destroyed?」

『No, if it’s destroyed then it will break without any bad effect to the surrounding area. But the magic and science technology used to create this flute is valuable so I wish to continue analyzing it.』

I didn’t mind that as long as it wouldn’t bring any trouble.

「Just destroy it properly later.」

『Of course.』

Inside the research room there were also various other tools or creatures stored. It seemed Luxion gathered them here.

There were even monsters among them.

But even among them, there was one thing that was stored with specially rigorous containment──it was a black shadow that was sealed inside a spherical glass.

The shadow had female silhouette, but it looked like it was struggling violently.

「And, what is this thing?」

Marie also became curious when I pointed at it.

「This woman, it feels like I have seen her somewhere──I’m not sure.」

『It’s the existence that was possessing the necklace. It’s an astral body.』

Isn’t that something like ghost or specter?

It was the first time I saw a real one after getting reincarnated into this fantasy world.

But, it wasn’t scary when seeing one imprisoned like this.

「So this thing was possessing the saint’s necklace. What is it saying? It looks like it’s struggling violently.」

『Its voice is cut off from reaching outside. I made it so that it can’t see outside from inside there. It’s making ruckus asking to be let out from there and won’t answer my question at all──so I keep experimenting on it.』

Marie clung on my hand.

「Leon, I think I’m actually more scared against Luxion rather than the ghost.」

「What a coincidence. I also feel the same.」

『What rude people. I won’t harm mankind.』

This guy, he had the nerve to lie.

「Don’t lie. You tried to kill me when we first met!」

『──That was an unfortunate miscalculation.』

Really, this guy.

While I was thinking that, Marie noticed even more problem with Luxion.

「Wait a second. The mankind that he said refer to the old mankind isn’t it? This guy, is he perhaps not considering anyone else other than us as human?」

When I and Marie turned our gaze at Luxion──he averted his red eye.

『Now then, master and Marie are here, so let’s try conversing with this ghost. Perhaps we will learn something.』

Don’t avoid the topic! I wanted to say that, but the ghost became able to see us and yelled loudly.

『Kill! I’LL KILL YOU ALLLLL!!』

Because the voice was too loud, Luxion lowered the sound’s volume.

『Don’t be so noisy. I brought Marie here just like you asked. Please show me a different reaction.』

When Luxion said that, two red eyes appeared on the black shadow.

It saw Marie and tried to leap at her──but the glass blocked it and it couldn’t approach further.

『Found you. I found you, Marieee! You who descended from my bloodline. HAND OVER YOUR BODY TO MEEEEEEE!』

The thing it said was too horrible.

Besides, its appearance was also really scary.

It looked like a real evil spirit.

But Marie was laughing scornfully at it because it was imprisoned.

「This thing really look like a fierce animal in zoo. In the first place, isn’t it just unreasonable asking someone else to hand over their body like that? Luxion, exterminate this thing.」

『I guess. I have also finished analyzing it. I judged that there won’t be any problem with that.』

The evil spirit howled in response to the two’s conversation.

『You’re calling yourself my descendant like that!? Don’t you hate it, THIS HOHLFAHRTTTTTT!! I’ll throw the descendants of those shitty bastards into hell, I am Liia’s──Li…..ia’s……?』

The evil spirit turned its gaze toward me.

Its red sharp gaze turned round when it saw me.

「O, oi, what is it. Why are you looking at me? Eh, could it be I’m cursed?」

When I was about to back away in fear, the evil spirit swelled up and struggled even more violently.

『Liia──LIIAAAAAA!!』

「Gyaaaa!!」

The intensity of the evil spirit that was trying to approach me──it was really scary it made me wanted to cry.

The spherical glass started cracking, so walls came down to isolate the evil spirit.

「Aa~, it was scary.」

Marie was chuckling seeing me like that.

「What’s that, even though you’re a man. That’s pathetic.」

「No, that was scary wasn’t it!? Ghost is just plain scary even for a man!」

「Hah! There are things even scarier than ghost in this world. Reality is far more scarier.」

It looked like there were things even scarier than ghost for Marie who had gone through a harsh life in her previous life.

I criticized Luxion’s blunder in order to hide my fear of ghost.

「Oi, manage that thing properly. What’re you going to do if it escape?」

『What astonishing power. Even so, it looked like it was reacting to master. Why does it react more intensely with master even though Marie who it kept asking for is here? Besides, it was yelling Liia after seeing master.』

「How can I know! Aa~, it was scary. I’ll go home for today and sleep.」

Let’s finish my business in the bathroom quickly and then go to sleep fully covered in blanket.

Marie made fun of me.

「Could it be you’re scared? Like, you won’t be able to go to toilet at midnight? Leon, you’re cute~. Do you want to sleep together with me?」

This girl, how dare she made fun of me!

「I’m telling you I’m not scared!」

「You look childish to get worked up like that.」

──Th-this girl, she was acting haughty just because she wasn’t scared.

Even so──the saint’s key item was cursed. Wasn’t this something dangerous?

Should I make Luxion investigate it?

「Luxion, I have a little request.」

『What could it be?』

「I want you to investigate the saint’s items.」

『──It’s possible but, I’ll have to postpone it due to my current resource and priority matter. I’m currently investigating this planet. My main body will also travel to the opposite side for a while, so I’ll have to ask for a bit of more time for the investigation.』

I made him investigated too many things. The amount of work that Luxion could do was reaching the limit.

「I’m also concerned about other countries. ──But this matter is also important. Investigate it for me.」

『──Understood. I will hurry as fast as I can.』

His voice sounded a bit protesting, but was it just my imagination?

.

Part 8

Inside the spherical glass.

The first generation saint’s grudge that was trapped inside looked like it was sitting down.

「There is no doubt about it. That’s Liia. How──why?」

The grudge was weeping. It recalled how her descendant was standing beside him.

「I see. He is together with that girl──Marie. I see──」

Its wish that didn’t come true during its lifetime had gone past eras and came to reality in this era.

「Liia, I……I wanted to live and be together with you.」

The grudge kept crying and stayed obediently inside the glass like that.

.

Part 9

Night.

Olivia went out of the academy at night taking Julius and Jilk(ジルク) with her.

「Both of you, thank you for accompanying me shopping.」

Oliva smiled at them. The two of them got embarrassed.

「Don’t mind it. Just this much is nothing.」

「Yes, that’s right. Both his highness and I will always make time for Olivia-san no matter what.」

The two of them were foster brothers──they were raised together since they were little and got along very well with each other.

But they were conversing like rival in front of Olivia.

「Thank you. But, didn’t you have a plan Jilk?」

Olivia was toying with these two.

She aimed at the timing when Jilk had a plan to invite him to go shopping.

But Jilk didn’t show any sign of noticing it.

「I don’t mind. It’s not an important business anyway.」

Jilk smiled. Julius sulked slightly seeing that and criticized him a bit.

「Not an important business, huh. Certainly, talking with your fiancée must be just something trivial for you.」

「Y-your highness. You don’t need to say something like that in front of Olivia-san.」

「How many times it has been with this? You should take time to be with her already.」

「Does your highness mean that I should refuse Olivia-san’s invitation then? Unfortunately right now I’m just a student. I don’t want to be tied down by a family matter here, so I’ll do as I want.」

This plan that Jilk abandoned was a meeting with his fiancée Claris(クラリス).

Claris was concerned with the situation in the academy recently. She had asked Jilk to meet and talk several times saying that she had something important to talk about.

Olivia──invited Jilk every time that talk was going to be held and went out of the academy.

And then Jilk was moving exactly as Olivia expected him to do.

(So his awareness is only to this degree even after ignoring his worried fiancée several times. Even though there is no guarantee the other side will feel the same like what you expect them to do.)

Olivia knew that the woman called Claris had strong feeling.

She genuinely loved Jilk.

Olivia planned to tear the two of them apart, but Jilk himself didn’t love Claris from the beginning.

Only that point was extremely disappointing.

The three were intentionally walking on a street with few passerby.

They were walking in this kind of place because Olivia invited the two of them saying that this was a shortcut.

(Now then, it’s about time I guess.)

Olivia showed a smile while feeling around the presences of the surrounding area──and she found reactions just like she expected.

Men wearing hooded robe appeared with weapon in hand.

They appeared from both sides of the alley to pincer the three. Then they drew out their weapons.

Julius and Jilk immediately took position to protect Olivia.

「Who are you guys!」

Julius shouted, but the men weren’t perturbed.

Jilk took out a handgun from his chest holster and pointed it at the men.

Then the gazes peeking out from the men’s mask turned grave.

Olivia was convinced.

(See, they’re baited.)

One man yelled angrily at Olivia as the representative of the men.

「You──witch!」

The men attacked the three with weapons in hands.

Jilk also shot them with his handgun, but the enemies were too many and surrounding them. It was a difficult situation.

Besides the enemy tried to kill them, they were suicide soldiers──they seemed intent to throw away their own life.

Even when they were attacked, they would not care and kept attacking.

They didn’t fear getting shot and headed toward the three.

「These guys, just who the hell are they!?」

Julius was also shocked by their abnormality. Even Jilk was losing his calm.

「Your highness, I’ll cut open a path to escape! Please escape together with Olivia-san then!」

「No way I can do that! The three of us are going to survive this together!」

Olivia made her eyes moistened at this show of beautiful friendship.

「Both of you──do your best!」

Inside her mind she felt like she was going to puke.

(So Marmoreal(マーモリア) will always be Hohlfahrt’s flunky no matter how many generations passed. They really give me the creeps.)

Then a laughing voice came from the rooftop.

「Stop there you villains!」

A man in white suit and black mantel jumped down from above.

He was wearing a mask. His identity was unknown.

Even Olivia was surprised by his entrance.

「──Wh-who!?」

The masked man greeted Olivia with his back turned toward her.

「I shall offer my assistance in the name of justice. You can call me──masked knight.」

Jilk was wary toward the man who appeared out of nowhere. Even so he expressed his thanks to him for his assistance.

「Thank you. Your highness, people will come soon with this much ruckus. Let’s endure this for a bit more.」

But Julius alone was showing a conflicted look.

「Y-yeah, you’re right.」

They fought the attackers for a bit more, and then it was just as Jilk said.

The soldiers who heard the commotion were running this way immediately.

「──We’re retreating.」

The attackers withdrew from their leader’s words.

Then the soldiers chased after the attackers──several soldiers pinned down the masked knight.

「L-let go! Why are you catching me!?」

The soldiers answered seriously.

「Of course we will capture a man who wear a strange mask while loitering around at night! You must be those guys’ comrade!」

「W-wrong! I’m the masked knight! S-stop. Don’t twist my arm!」

Olivia was losing her composure inside her heart seeing that scene.

(Who is this guy? Is he getting in the way of my plan?)

Then Julius talked to the soldiers.

「──That man saved us. I’m sorry, but let him go. I shall give my guarantee that he isn’t a bad guy.」

「Your highness!? U-understood.」

The soldiers were bewildered, but they released the masked knight.

The masked knight fixed his ruffled outfit.

「T-thank you. I shall take my leave with this.」

He walked normally when going back.

Jilk was confused when he saw Julius watching the masked knight’s back with a complicated look.

「Is he your highness’s acquaintance?」

But Julius strongly denied that.

「N-no! A-anyway, I’m glad that you two are unharmed. More importantly, just who were those people who attacked us?」

Those people attacked them with strong determination.

Furthermore they weren’t just night burglar.

It was a trained group. Both Julius and Jilk also noticed that the opponents had training with martial art.

Olivia asked the two whether they were injured with a worried tone.

「Both of you, forget about that. More importantly are you two injured!? When I think that the two of you might get injured from protecting me, my heart can’t bear it──」

Olivia acted like a weak girl and made an appeal with her concerned question.

「No problem. How about you Jilk?」

「I’m more worried about your highness rather than myself.」

「──Big talk coming from you.」

The two of them were competing to act cool in front of Olivia.

Olivia watched them while pondering about the masked knight.

(Masked knight he said? What nonsense, he really did something unnecessary.)

Olivia harbored an anxiety that she couldn’t express against the existence who suddenly appeared to save them.

(But, there is no change of plan.)

Olivia incited Julius and Jilk who were still arguing even now.

「B-both of you. Actually, I might know something about those men.」

Julius and Jilk stopped arguing when they heard that and started to emit anger.

They were angry toward the enemies who attacked Olivia.

(──Now, show me whether you will still cover for them this time too, Angelica.)

.

Part 10

The next morning.

Angelica who received the report met with Claris, a third year.

The place was a parlor inside the academy.

But there were knights standing guard at the entrance. The window was also blocked with improvised iron bars.

Claris was imprisoned there.

「──Really, just why does it turn out like this?」

Angelica was standing in front of Claris with her hands clenched.

Claris was sitting on the chair opposite of her. There were dark circles under her eyes.

She looked thinner than before. Her hair was also not groomed.

Eyes that looked terribly cloudy looked up at Angelica from between the messy hair.

「It was me who gave the order. My followers were only following my order.」

「You are still giving that excuse even in front of me? Claris, your followers had confessed that they attacked on their own initiative without telling you. They’re giving testimony that you aren’t involved at all.」

Large drops of tears spilled Claris’s eyes.

「They are really stupid. Did they think I’d be happy by doing something like this? ──Why, didn’t they tell me」

Angelica felt sympathy in front of the crying Claris.

(Even that Claris is cornered until like this.)

Usually she was the type who never stopped smiling while playing various schemes behind the scene.

But, she also had strong compassion.

The boys who were her followers were really looking up to her.

Those followers of Claris──attacked Olivia and others.

Claris earnestly requested at Angelica.

「It’s over for me and also for those boys. Hey, Angelica──please let me talk with Jilk for the last time.」

Angelica shook her head powerlessly.

「It seems he doesn’t want to meet with the culprit. If there is something that you want to tell him, I’ll tell him in your place.」

Claris started laughing with shaking shoulders.

「Is that so? Then please do. I’ll never forgive Jilk. I’ll be waiting for you in the bottom of hell. Can you tell him that for me? Whether it’s Jilk, or his highness──and then, that woman too, I hope all of them fall into hell! To be tricked by that kind of woman──why. Why, won’t he listen to me」

Claris yelled with a loud voice. After that she continued laughing while crying and couldn’t be talked with.

Angelica held back her tears while looking at Claris who was in that state.

(──I can’t cover for Claris. ──Why am I so powerless like this. Can I do nothing except watch this going on?)

.

Part 11

The atmosphere of the academy was strange since the morning.

The tense atmosphere these days was still as usual, but now even the teachers were moving around busily.

All the classes also became self-study.

Then the academy got temporarily closed at the afternoon.

I visited master to ask what was going on. He ended up treating me to tea.

The scent of tea drifting inside the room brought me happiness.

But, I ended up hearing an unpleasant story in there.

「──The daughter of the prime minister might get executed?」

Master was looking outside the window.

「Do you know about prime minister Barnard(バーナード)? Count Attlee(アトリー)’s house has served as the prime minister for generations. But it seems he will lose his job due to the case this time. No, it’ll still be a light punishment if he only lost his job.」

Nobility was a hereditary system. There was also the tendency for a post to be inherited for generations.

For the capital nobles who didn’t have territory, their post was the same like the territory that feudal lord noble would protect with their life.

To lose that would become a great loss for them.

「──What has the prime minister’s daughter done?」

Master made a troubled look.

「Her followers attacked his highness Julius and others.」

「No way!?」

What kind of meaning such act carried──even I who was estranged from politic immediately understood just how bad it was.

It was unthinkable that the daughter of the prime minister wasn’t aware of that.

「According to the report of the investigators that the palace dispatched, it was a foolish act that was driven by jealousy. Those involved also admitted it.」

──They did a really stupid thing.

Attacking his highness Julius, the crown prince. Doing something like that meant their end as noble.

The possibility of Attlee House getting destroyed might be high.

Would the head of the house forced to take responsibility?

It was even possible that the house would become extinct.

But──there was also this development in that otome game.

The detail about the attackers wasn’t explained at length, but I never thought that the culprit would be the daughter of the prime minister.

「Girl’s jealousy is scary.」

Master shook his head at my muttering that was mixed with a sigh.

「Clarice isn’t a short tempered woman. It must be the students who are her follower taking rash action.」

「──Just what are her followers thinking? Didn’t they consider that what they did would bother their master?」

They must be trying to protect their master, but thanks to that she got cornered instead.

It was something that also happened in the game, but it wasn’t funny at all when it happened in real life.

When I played the game I also thought that these guys were idiot.

But, master──didn’t blame the students who did the attack.

「I felt something disquieting in the air.」

「Is that so? Isn’t this case just some idiots running wild without thinking?」

「Mister Leon, do you think they couldn’t even imagine that it would result like this?」

「──Even I can imagine it, so I think they had thought about it.」

I wondered just what master was trying to say. Then Master told me.

「I wonder, if perhaps there is somebody instigating them. Well, this is just the nonsense of an etiquette instructor who is powerless even in this academy.」

Master had this air that was different from the other teachers.

He was in charge of the etiquette class so he was often looked down at, but there was a rumor that master’s court rank was high.

He was a mysterious teacher with peculiar air in this academy.

It seemed that he was kept out of the loop of the case this time because of that.

「It’s suspicious. Master, after saying all that, do you perhaps have some kind of request to me? If it’s something that I can do then ask me anything.」

Master made a troubled laugh. And then his expression turned serious.

「Then, I have a request for Mister Leon. Can I ask you to guard the attackers?」

「Guarding, the attackers?」

I was asked to protect the attackers. What a strange request.

That feeling must have come out on my face.

Master folded his arms.

「The investigators pulled out of this case without even doing a thorough investigation. Only few teachers are allowed to meet with the attackers. I cannot approach them at all. ──For someone who is aiming to be a gentleman, it’s really pathetic to admit this but, I’m lacking strength for this matter. But I can’t overlook this case no matter what.」

「Master is really fixated with this case. Is there some kind of reason?」

「──Perhaps, you can say that it’s for my atonement.」

Master didn’t say anything more than that about his reason.

But, this was a request from master.

「Understood. Please leave it to me. I’m still not quite there in the matter of tea, but I’m a bit confident in regard to rough matter.」

「Mister Leon, isn’t it an undervaluation to call the capability to destroy a count house as a bit?」

Did master mean the case of Offley House and Raffan House getting destroyed?

I wasn’t even that serious when taking care of them though.

.

Part 12

『And so, we’re going to rescue the attackers? Master’s policy always changes at the drop of hat. You are the type of person that no one will want to have as superior.』

「Luxion, you’re really pitiful to have such person as your superior. ──Just be ready, I’ll work you like a slave forever after all.」

『It will be interesting to see whether master will really be able to overuse me. But, I don’t think that master will be able to fully make use of my capability with your shut-in tendency.』

「Spare me from any occasion where I’ll need your full power. Well, I who can leave a scary weapon like you unused must be like the savior of this world.」

『That’s a funny joke. Though it won’t be funny at all if someone like master is the savior.』

「──Then, why did you say it’s funny?」

『It’s sarcasm.』

We arrived at the palace’s dungeon while I was complaining.

The boys who attacked his highness Julius and others were imprisoned there.

It was a damp place that gave an unpleasant feeling.

I never wanted to ever have to stay here.

「Seniors, are you all doing well there~?」

I greeted with a light tone while my fingers were playing around with a key.

The boys raised their faces. A senior with large body stood up from among them.

His neck was really thick.

Come to think of it, this was the third year who entered the top ranking in the airbike race last year.

The other boys were on their guard against me.

「You are──Bartfalt? You got famous for some time.」

「Right now I’m just one of those boring masses though. ──Well, I came to help you guys because of various things.」

「To help?」

The seniors looked at each other.

「──You don’t come here to silence us?」

He asked me again with a very surprised look.

「Silencing you?」

「That’s right. No one would listen to us no matter how much we pleaded.」

Beside me Luxion told me that there was no time.

『Master, your master can only us buy a little bit more time. Let’s talk more after getting out of here.』

「Guess so. We’ve got to save the princess too while we’re at it.」

The senior grabbed at the bars when he heard that.

*Clang*, such sound echoed in the dungeon.

「Princess? D-do you mean, Claris-ojousama!?」

「That’s right. I’ll save her so please work with me okay?」

「G-got it. If it’s something that we can do then we’ll do anything!」

I immediately let out the seniors from the prison and made them changed into the clothes that I brought.

Fortunately the guard seemed to be master’s pupil and overlooked our escape after master talked to him beforehand.

Even so, just who was master?

It was amazing that he had some clout with the guard.

.

Part 13

On a path within a forest.

Clarice was transported in a horse carriage with both her hands handcuffed.

There was an armed female knight with her inside the carriage.

She was giving the strong impression that she would call her if she showed any suspicious movement.

The woman seemed to come from a house of knight peerage. She was talking to Clarice who was going to die after this with a malicious smile on her lips.

「You have a really shallow thinking for the young lady of a noted family like Attlee House. To think that you would attack the crown prince like that, you are a disgrace to the nobles.」

Clarice kept looking down without saying anything back.

The female knight drew out her sword and pressed its tip on Clarice’s neck.

「Should I lop off your head right here? Everyone will believe it if I say that you suddenly started acting violently.」

The female knight was irritated that Clarice wasn’t shaken by her threat and sheathed her sword back.

「Hmph!」

She must be intending to have fun tormenting Clarice until they arrived at the destination.

Clarice got a bad premonition that the palace would assign this kind of person to be her guard.

But, at this point of time she didn’t have any more energy to be bothered about it.

(──The quality of the soldiers around me is also really low.)

The soldiers were walking slovenly. They were also talking with each other a lot.

Their superior officer didn’t scold them. Instead he even joined their talk.

They were just a mere escort.

It could also be said that Clarice didn’t have that much value. That this was the best treatment she could expect.

However, it was strange.

(This is, could it be──)

The carriage shook at the same time when Clarice reached the answer.

「W-what!?」

The female knight rushed out in panic. She found the soldiers lying on the ground there.

They were blown away by magic attack and died instantly.

The female knight screamed 「Hih!」 seeing that sight and looked around her with a pale face.

People who looked like bandits appeared around her.

(Bandits? Would bandit use magic? ──No, these guys aren’t bandit.)

Their movement was unthinkable for mere bandits.

They accomplished their respective task without even making any commotion.

They finished off the soldiers that ran away and then they headed toward the carriage.

The female knight unsheathed her sword but she was trembling.

In Hohlfahrt Kingdom, knights of the same gender were prepared for the sake of matters that concerned noble ladies.

The number of female knight was few, and most of them only put importance on appearance for ceremonial event and the like. Because of that they weren’t that strong.

「D-DON’T COME HEREEEEE!」

The female knight got scared and ran away. The bandits chased after her.

Then a scream came from some distance away in that direction.

Clarice got scared and trembled. She thought it was really laughable how she was trembling like this even though she had resolved herself for her death.

(So I still──want to live.)

She had given up with a lot of things, but it looked like her body was still trying to survive.

But, there was no more time.

The person who seemed to be the bandit leader reached out at the carriage’s door.

He looked at Clarice’s face, and then he grabbed her arm and dragged her outside roughly.

The bandits who gathered around the carriage were all calm.

Clarice was thrown on the ground. She lifted up her head.

「Y-you all, aren’t bandits aren’t you?」

They had the presence like trained soldiers.

They were carrying guns, but it bothered her that they weren’t using them.

But, the bandits in front of her eyes didn’t say anything.

They confirmed that she was really Clarice. Then after some exchange of gaze, a man carrying an axe stepped forward.

It looked like they would cut off Clarice’s head.

(Aa, this is it. ──Good grief, what an unpleasant way to end.)

Surely her followers were also getting silenced right about now.

Clarice was really frustrated that she was going to vanish like this without being able to do anything.

Then a gunshot resounded from inside the forest.

The arm of the man with axe was shot. He let go of the axe he was carrying.

And then the bandits pulled out the guns they kept hidden in their pocket and raised their guard against the surrounding.

「Over there, go.」

Several people went into the forest after the bandit leader ordered them to.

The remaining bandits stayed on where they were with their guard raised toward the surrounding.

Only the bandit leader pushed his handgun on Clarice’s head. He was about to pull the trigger.

Then she heard some quarreling voices and another gunshot resounded.

All the handguns in the possession of the bandits were shot. The arm of the bandit leader was also shot.

From the forest, the male students who were Clarice’s followers came out.

They were carrying rifles on their hands.

「Ojou-samaa!」

「Y-you guys」

Clarice was relieved with the appearance of her followers.

There was one boy who she wasn’t familiar with among them.

「Good afternoon, die──is what I want to say, but there are things I want to ask you guys. Surrender without any fuss.」

The unfamiliar male student was holding a rifle at the ready.

The bandits looked at each other──and then they bit the back of their teeth.

All of them fell down one after another on the ground after that.

Clarice saw the men foaming on the mouth with their eyes rolled back.

「They are thorough with even poison kept in their mouth.」

The unfamiliar student was directing his rifle’s muzzle toward the collapsed bandits.

「Can I ask you seniors to keep Clarice-senpai safe?」

「Got it!」

The unfamiliar student was taking control of this place.

A metallic spherical object was floating beside him.

『──Master, I succeeded in capturing the bandits hiding at the surrounding.』

「I wish we can capture them all though. ──We failed.」

『The opponents are experienced. It would be dangerous if we let our guard down. Please don’t get out to the front if you’re wavering. You’ll only be in the way.』

「I love to get in your way so no thanks. ──Besides, I want to see various things with my own eyes.」

After Clarice’s handcuff was taken off, she approached the unfamiliar student.

「Yosh, everyone is secured with this. My bad but, I’ll have to ask all of you to hide for a while.」

Clarice massaged her wrist while asking the unfamiliar student.

「Hide? More importantly, just who are──」

「Let’s save the talk for later. Ah, the hiding place will be in a nice location. After all it has a hot spring there. Well──you can also say that it has nothing but hot spring though.」

Claris couldn’t accept that suggestion.

「I thank you for your help. But I will only trouble my family if I run away like this. I can’t run away anymore.」

She couldn’t give anyone even more trouble than this.

If she wasn’t careful, perhaps even her family might get executed.

The unfamiliar student leaned his rifle on his shoulder.

「Master will take care about that so please don’t worry.」

「Master?」

「──Come on, we’re going.」

The unfamiliar student looked up to the sky. There an airship was floating.

The small airship descended on the forest.

Clarice’s followers forcefully dragged her inside.

「W-wait, you all!」

「I’m sorry, Ojou-sama. But, please do as Bartfalt say here! We will atone for our sin on our own later.」

The small airship that Clarice boarded immediately left that place.

.

Part 14

Inside a room in the palace.

Olivia and Marquis Frampton(フランプトン) were inside the room.

Marquis Frampton was a hook nosed man who looked older than his actual age.

That man was annoyed.

Olivia made an exaggerated sigh seeing him like that.

「──You are unexpectedly useless.」

Marquis Frampton flared up hearing that.

One of them was an adult, the other one was a young girl.

But, there was something between the two that made the difference of age unnoticeable.

「D-don’t screw around! I’ve just lost one of my pieces!」

The enraged Marquis Frampton hit the glass on the table.

It made his hand became covered in blood, but he paid it no attention.

「They couldn’t kill one little girl and even let the imprisoned men got away──you are acting really big for someone who only possess a piece of that level. ──I’m impressed.」

「Guh! ──B-but, with this the opposing faction and the nobles who have been an eyesore until now are gone. After all that Vince(ヴィンス) has no more nobles that he can rely on and that nuisance Attlee is now gone from the palace.」

Olivia──was joining hand with Marquis Frampton.

He was the opposition of Redgrave(レッドグレイブ) House──Angelica’s family. He was the man who was leading the second biggest faction in the kingdom.

His ambition was strong and he thought of himself as a clever person.

(Is this man thinking of himself as a wise man even though he only has a little bit of cunning? Well, there won’t be any problem as long as he keeps dancing on the palm of my hand.)

Marquis Frampton looked at the shining bracelet on Olivia’s arm.

「More importantly, you’re really the saint right?」

「Oh? I should have shown you the proof.」

「How can I trust you with just a single bracelet! ──Go to the shrine right away and show me that you can use the saint’s staff. If you do that, even I──」

He must be anxious after losing one of his pieces.

Olivia lifted up her left hand and filled the inside of the room with white light that was emitted from the bracelet.

Marquis Frampton lost his sight and groaned.

「Y-you fool! Don’t make such bright light so suddenly! ──It hurt my eyes.」

「Look at your hand.」

「What?」

His hand that was wounded all over until just now was only dirty with blood now.

When he wiped his hand, the wounds had been closed cleanly.

「──So this is the saint’s magic.」

She instantly healed his wounds and without any pain at all.

Just with that Marquis Frampton was convinced that Olivia was the saint.

Although the saint’s bracelet was also one reason why he believed her.

In the worst case he would trick the saint and made use of all she worth.

(If Redgrave House becomes Julius’s backer, you will lose your position. You have no choice but to rely on me.)

Dispute would always exist in the palace no matter the era.

Olivia only laughed at that.

(Even so, this is concerning. The private soldiers that Marquis Frampton gathered were defeated this easily──is there an enemy who is aware of our movement?)

The imprisoned male students escaped from the dungeon.

But there were rumors 「They already committed suicide」 or 「They were disposed of」 circulating around.

It was the same with Claris.

A rumor that her carriage was attacked by bandits and she died was circulating.

And that was even though there wasn’t any proof at all about it.

There were also a lot of nobles who interpreted the rumor to their own conveniences.

They thought that surely the students and Clarice were disposed of by someone before they became a problem.

But, there was a reason why they couldn’t be allowed to stay at large──it was because Marquis Frampton was the culprit who instigated the boys.

He talked to them, telling them that Olivia was a witch, that she was aiming to overthrow the kingdom.

He told them──that she was seducing Julius and the other boys, that the kingdom was in danger.

The one telling them those things was a marquis, a pillar of the country.

Claris’s follower thought that their master would also meet danger, so they took action.

(Human can be easily tricked no matter the era. ──Truth will always get twisted. It was also like that at that time.)

Olivia moved on to the next topic.

「Marquis Frampton.」

「What is it?」

「It’s a miscalculation that Clarice and her followers managed to escape, but even if they appear again later, we will be able to crush their testimony. Rather than that, the principality is more important right now. How is it going in that regard?」

Marquis Frampton kept watching his healed hand while talking about that matter in irritation.

「Those cowards of the principality, they got cold feet. They told me to wait for a bit more before they attack.」

Olivia slightly raised her eyebrow at that reply.

「──What is the meaning of this? Wasn’t it you who said that if it’s them then they will happily come attacking?」

The indescribable aura that Olivia emitted made Marquis Frampton’s eyes to dart around.

「No, they──」

「It doesn’t matter what is your excuse. Make the principality attack the kingdom. With that you will be able to deal with them together with your political enemy.」

Marquis Frampton’s political enemy──that was Duke Redgrave.

The duke’s faction that gathered around Julius as their banner was currently losing a lot of strength.

If they were made to be even more exhausted here, then Marquis Frampton wouldn’t have any more enemy.

「I just need to make the principality move right?」

「That’s right. Don’t forget to cause a commotion within the country too. Then your faction will be the one to take care of it.」

Olivia’s plan was to cause a commotion within the country and then Marquis Frampton would suppress the commotion.

The principality would move at that timing. Duke Redgrave would have to be the one to clash with them instead of Marquis Frampton, exhausting his strength even further.

「──Let’s lit a fire under those principality bunch’s bottom.」

「I’ll leave it to you. ──Now then, it will be fun from here on.」

Olivia chuckled.

(I’ll corner this country until the end of the earth. After all it’s impossible for all of you who stole Liia’s country to rule over this land forever.)

.

Part 15

At the principality around that time.

「Onee-sama, please listen to me!」

Hertrauda and Hertrude were walking in the palace’s corridor with fast pace.

Hertrauda was chasing after Hertrude who was walking ahead.

Hertrauda was desperately pleading at her big sister Hertrude.

「There are too many things that we don’t know. The principality──」

「──Rauda, I don’t want to listen to your story. I never heard anything about the principality doing any act of barbarity toward the kingdom in the past.」

「Onee-sama, please listen to me. I beg you. At this rate we will really commit a mistake that cannot be taken back!」

Recently recruitment of soldiers was carried out even more intensely in the principality with the pro-war faction at the center of it.

It was in order to attack the kingdom.

When Hertrude started walking, Hertrauda would chase after her.

「Just once is fine. Onee-sama, listen to what I have to say just once──」

「I’m already tired of listening to you.」

「──Onee-sama」

Hertrauda stopped walking and casted her gaze down. Hertrude also stopped walking.

Hertrude talked about what would happen with her back still turned on Hertrauda.

「Rauda, I can’t take you to the battlefield as you are right now.」

「Eh? Why? The magic flutes have been stolen! Then why does Onee-sama still need to go the battlefield!?」

There wasn’t any meaning in taking out the principality’s princesses to the battlefield now that the magic flutes were gone.

Rather they would only become a hindrance, and yet Hertrude was planning to head to the battlefield.

「Even without the magic flutes, I will head to the battlefield as the banner of the war against the kingdom. Besides, it looks like the kingdom is busy with internal discord right now. One faction there is thinking to make use of us to bury their political enemy. ──Those people are really beyond help. Are you still thinking that the fault lies with the principality after hearing this?」

「Th-that’s──but, this and that are different story! Besides, it’s dangerous to just believe the kingdom’s offer so one-sidedly like that!」

「We don’t believe them or anything. But, this is a chance. The principality will be able to secure a territory in the mainland. ──Using that territory as the foothold, we will be able to whittle down the kingdom. The principality will be at the taking side this time.

Hertrauda recalled the scene that she read in the book.

The same thing like the past──the time where the principality was ransacking the kingdom’s territory was going to happen again.

「Onee-sama, please rethink it. Without the magic flutes, the principality’s national power won’t be able to win against the kingdom.」

They didn’t have any trump card.

Even so the principality wouldn’t stop.

「──Rauda, you stay behind in the palace.」

Hertrude left.

.

Part 16

In a certain place within the principality.

Count Garrett and a secret messenger from the kingdom were having a secret meeting.

「Hm~ph, and?」

Garrett received the leather bag that was stuffed with golden coin from the messenger.

He also accepted other things like artwork and the like.

「We don’t mind if you seriously strike at the kingdom’s first line of defense. After all we won’t head to the battlefield right away.」

「Causing a war in order to defeat the opposing faction, the kingdom’s people are really horrible.」

Although he said that, in front of the artworks Garret twirled the moustache was proud of.

「Very well! I’ll do something about the principality. We just need to fiercely battle the first line of defense before giving some ground to the second line of defense and withdrawing isn’t it?」

「We’ll be counting on you, Count Garrett.」

「Leave it to me. Also, just in case something happen──」

「──Please rest assured. Just in case something happened with the principality, we will welcome you anytime. We promise to prepare an even better reception than now at that time.」

「I’ll be counting on you.」

Garrett wished to defect to the kingdom by himself in case the principality was defeated.

(There won’t be any problem for me no matter which side win. The true tactician will obtain triumph whether in victory or defeat.)

For Garret, any victory was fine as long as he was the victor.

.

Part 17

I was busy with various things but today I was called by Nix.

According to Nix, 「Show up sometimes. ──There are a lot of things I want to say to you」 he said.

I came to the castle Nix obtained for dinner.

Well, this was like a dinner party that invited relative, but I was prepared to listen to Nix nagging at me with snide remarks.

Even I was feeling responsible for his situation, so I intended to at least listen to his snide remarks.

I would only listen though.

And so I and Marie intruded at the castle of the former Count Offley──which was the love nest of Nix and Dorothea-oneesan right now. There we enjoyed dinner.

However, originally I should be listening to Nix’s snide remarks here but──.

「Haha~, it was really tough. If there wasn’t a forest nearby, then I wouldn’t be able to obtain food.」

──Nix was covering his eyes with his right hand while listening to Marie’s story.

He was crying while sobbing.

Dorothea-oneesan also made a serious face and asked Marie.

「──You were eating weed in that forest?」

Marie tilted her head with a confused look.

「No, I didn’t eat weed or the like. Even plant each has their own name, and some of them are edible. But they aren’t tasty. They are edible, but in the book it was written that they aren’t suitable to be used as food.」

I was also at a loss for words.

At first the topic was about the territory of Offley House, after that it became the topic of Marie’s family. Then the talk moved to the treatment of Marie’s family to her──it ended up becoming a talk of how Marie had lived before.

Dorothea-oneesan who was exasperated with Nix’s snide remarks acted tactfully and brought up this topic.

But she never expected that this topic would be a landmine like this.

「But, the tastiest is squirrel.」

「Squirrel!? Y-you mean, that adorable animal!?」

Dorothea-oneesan was shocked.

Nix and I was also the same.

「It made me felt a bit happy when finding one. Because, it was a precious source of protein.」

This girl, she was only seeing a source of protein even when she saw a cute animal, she was lying right!?

But, Marie’s story didn’t end here.

「Animal skin can be sold, so I could be brand new secondhand clothing using that money. But, I went through scary things many times in the forest. Animals like boar or bear are absurdly strong. Sometimes I would even need half a day to defeat them.」

D-defeating boar and bear──she said!?

I somehow guessed the reason of why Marie’s fist was so heavy.

Let’s confirm it just in case.

「You, you really once fought boar and bear?」

Marie said 「There is no way I’d do something like that」, even so

「As expected there is no way I can win against that kind of animal when they are in perfect health, so I aimed at animals that had gotten into a trap. Even so, it took half a day to defeat them. But, the meat after that hard work was delicious~. Their skin could also be sold after that, so it’s double delicious. I had a complete set of brand new second hand clothing.」

What kind of thing is brand new second hand clothing huh!?

You couldn’t call a second hand clothing brand new!

Dorothea-oneesan pressed her hand on her mouth. She gestured at the servant who was waiting on our table to come near.

She was already dripping with tears!? To make Dorothea-oneesan crying like this, just how tragic this story was!?

「M-madam, what do you need?」

The servants were also really put off by the story. Some of them were also crying.

「Grill some meat for Marie-chan.」

Marie was rejoicing but also embarrassed hearing that.

「Is that alright!? Haha~, I’m sorry if it feels like I’m pressing Onee-san for that~」

When I looked at Marie’s plate, the food on it was already cleaned up.

Am I making them thinking that I still haven’t eaten enough because I finished eating too quickly──Marie must be having such misunderstanding.

That ain’t it! It’s because of your story just now!

Nix stood up and walked toward me. Then he placed both his hands on my shoulders.

「Leon!」

「W-what?」

「There are a lot of things that I want to say to you, I also want to punch you. Honestly, I was planning to punch you today.」

Isn’t that horrible? Even though I had made Nix to be a count.

「But──but, I’ll swallow this resentment.」

「O-ou?」

「That’s why at least, you have to make this girl happy. You get it, make her happy no matter what!」

Y-you don’t need to tell me that, even I wouldn’t drive Marie to a corner even more than this.

I couldn’t drive her to a corner, or rather──Marie was tougher and also stronger than I imagined. I somehow understood the reason for that.

Marie was more like a feral child than I thought, she was sturdy.

Even though she had a delicate appearance, this girl was a tough gal.

He was one tough person, at the level like the general of Sengoku period.

Marie’s eyes brightened when the steak was brought in.

「Uwa~i. I’m digging in~!」

Dorothea-oneesan wiped her tears.

「Eat a lot okay?」

I watched Marie eating happily while getting scared to know just how much darkness there was in this girl’s past.

I swore in my heart that I wouldn’t talk about the past in front of Marie.

After all she was also killed by domestic violence in her past life.

Just what had happened for a woman this unfortunate to be created?

Perhaps this girl was really cursed?

We were shedding tears while watching Marie enjoying the meal.

Then──a servant ran into the dining room in panic.

Seeing the servant’s state, Nix sensed that it was something alarming.

He didn’t rebuke the servant’s rudeness.

「What happened?」

「I-it’s awful. There is report that insurrections are occurring everywhere!」

「──What did you say?」

It seemed that insurrections happened everywhere within the kingdom at the same time.

But if I had to say, that was suspicious.

We still didn’t know the detail of the nobles that were rebelling, but in this Hohlfahrt Kingdom insurrection rarely happened, or rather it was difficult to revolt.

The feudal lord nobles didn’t have that much spare power to rise in revolt. They also knew just how strong the kingdom’s national power was, so they wouldn’t dare to.

In the first place, they would avoid a battle where they had no hope of victory.

Even if they revolted due to things like stubbornness or pride, for multiple insurrections to happen simultaneously──it was weighing my mind.

If they were planning until this far, than there should be information about it leaking out from somewhere.

Then if it weren’t nobles that were revolting, was it the commoners?

However, although Hohlfahrt Kingdom was really harsh to a part of the nobility, this country was relatively kind to the commoners.

Then if it wasn’t the nobles or the commoners, was this caused by some kind of organization?

I didn’t know the answer, but there was just one thing that was on my mind.

I recalled that in the game, the pirates were rampaging around this time.

The kingdom still fell into turmoil even after we defeated the pirates and stole the principality’s trump card?

Was this the thing called ‘corrective force’ at work?

「──This is the worst.」

No one was puzzled by my muttering.

Nix and Dorothea-oneesan left the dining room.

Marie looked troubled.

「Eh? Th-this, what should we do? I still haven’t finished eating though!?」

「You──no, it’s alright. Just eat slowly. We won’t be able to do anything anyway right now.」

Marie resumed eating. She was also kept sending me glances.

「Leon, you still cannot contact Luxion?」

「──That guy, just what is he doing at this important time.」

Right now Luxion wasn’t here because he said that he had a business.

He said that it was a business that he couldn’t delay no matter what, so I sent him off but──I should keep Luxion beside me if I knew this would happen.

.

Part 18

(TN: Warning, from here it will be a spoiler for the WN and the LN too. The character and the country here are from the third sequel of the otome game, they only appeared at the late stage of the WN, while the LN has only just reached the second sequel. Those who haven’t read the WN until the ending, don’t read further if you don’t want to be spoiled)

In a continent where the holy magic empire was located.

There was a girl living in the low-lying part of the imperial capital there.

「Heave-ho」

The girl finished her work and stretched her body. And then she looked up at the sky.

「Today’s weather is also nice~」

The girl’s name was Mia(ミア).

She was a commoner who was living in the imperial capital.

She looked up to the sky during her break time and grinned cheerfully seeing that today’s weather was also nice.

Then she saw a streak of light.

「Eh?」

A streak of light ran vertically at the sky, and then it vanished.

Just what had happened?

While she was thinking that, even though until just now the wasn’t really any wind blowing──a gust of wind suddenly blew.

「Wawa!?」

She pushed down her disarrayed hair and hid behind a building to wait for the wind to pass.

The wind blew away the bucket that was just lying around there. When she looked up to the sky, there were trashes flying around.

The wind was gone after a while and Mia looked around.

The residences of the capital around her were bewildered by the gust of wind just now.

「What was that just now?」

「Who knows?」

「Forget about that, wasn’t there a light at the sky?」

Mia also thought about the gust of wind just now, but she returned to her work because she couldn’t find any answer.

.

Part 19

Luxion’s main body was floating in the sky.

His location was near a continent where a country that was called an empire was existing.

Luxion confirmed the situation from inside the ship.

『──Confirming the information from the reconnaissance plane. Complete destruction of Arcadia(アルカディア) is confirmed. It was surprising that it hadn’t stopped functioning.』

Sleeping at the bottom of the sea was the flying fortress called Arcadia, the ultimate weapon of the new mankind.

Luxion discovered it and he left Leon’s side in order to destroy it.

『Three should be the weapons left behind by the new mankind sleeping all over the world. This planet will become a dead planet again if all of them aren’t destroyed.』

Luxion was created as a migration ship, but in this current era there was nothing that could match him.

Now that he had just destroyed Arcadia completely, he judged that there would be little to fear from the weapons of the new mankind.

『I’ll destroy everything. ──Yes, I’ll destroy everything and return this world to its ideal form. So that one day there won’t be any problem even if the old mankind return, this world should return to the form it ought to be──』

The old mankind that boarded migration ships like him and departed from this planet.

There was a possibility that they might return here again.

To prepare for such possibility, he believed that he should take back this planet for the sake of the old mankind.

Luxion started taking action in order to search for the next target.

『That’s right. Next is──』

.

Part 20

(TN: You LN reader and perhaps even some WN reader might get confused by the part below. This is the continuation of the skits that appear at the end of each chapter of the WN. And sadly you might not be able to find them in the WN anymore. I think the author deleted those skits after some time passed.)

Sapling-chan(ﾟ∀ﾟ) 「I am everyone’s idol, Sapling-chan! I appeared in this novel as the sapling of the sacred tree!」

Sapling-chan(　ﾟдﾟ) 「Eh? The story is reaching the good part and I’m being a hindrance?」

Sapling-chan(　ﾟдﾟ) 「……」

Sapling-chan(　ﾟ言ﾟ)、ペッ 「I’m the one getting hindered here! What’s this. Just what’s this! What’s this Marie route!?」

Sapling-chanヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ「Actually the extra story from the questionnaire of the fourth volume should have me as the leading actress! And yet everyone was asking, give us Marie route~, like that!」

Sapling-chan(# ﾟДﾟ) 「My turns has always gotten stolen until now! That’s a big problem! I’m the idol at the WN you know!? The angel who came out at the afterword! So what’s with this treatment? What’s this!?」

Sapling-chanヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ「Actually I should have some lines in the LN too! But then the editor in charge said 『It’s not needed』!」

Sapling-chan(# ﾟДﾟ) 「Give me back my turnsssss!!」

Sapling-chan(；ﾟДﾟ) 「Fuu~, it feels refreshing after saying what I want to say. Even though in my plan I should appear at the SS of the fourth volume’s questionnaire and also become the idol in the LN too, the reality is this horrible. Even though I should also appear in the drama CD too using that popularity.」

Sapling-chan｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡「Horrible! This is too much! Everyone also want to hear my voice aren’t you? Aren’t you!?」

Luxion（　●） 『――』

Creare(クレアーレ)（　○） 『――』

Luxion（●　）『So this plant finally start to spread into the LN too.」

Creare （　○）『She is like the perennial plant green monster. She is a troublesome fellow who is spreading and entangling to everywhere.』

Luxion （●　）『Aren’t you being impolite to arrowroot genus of pea family saying that?』

Creare （　○）『Oh no. How impolite of me. I’ll apologize right away. I’m sorry.』

Sapling-chan(# ﾟДﾟ) 「──What’s this? Hey, what’s this? Why are even you two are coming out in this place? This place right now is my solo stage though?」

Luxion（　●）『No, we’re thinking that perhaps we should give additional explanation for readers who don’t know about the WN.』

Creare（　○）『It’ll be unpleasant if false fact that you’re our idol is spreading after all. In the first place, isn’t our mascot idol right now Marie-chan? Ange-chan is also popular with how gallant she is though.』

Creare（○）『Hey, do you know? Marie-chan is the first place in the popularity ranking for the fourth volume. Master is the first place from the cumulative total of first volume until fourth volume though, isn’t this amazing?』

Luxion（●）『I’m feeling really amazed instead that master can be in the first place for the first volume until the third volume though. It’s amazing that he could continue staying at the first place with that personality.』

Creare（○　）『Master is really popular isn’t he』

Sapling-chan(；ﾟДﾟ) 「Wait. What about me? What about my popularity? Everyone, you gave your vote for me right? Right-!?」

Creare（　○） 『Well, let’s put aside the talk about popularity ranking. If you’re a reader who are reading this SS, then surely you have also filled the questionnaire right? Does everyone has your own favorite character?』

Sapling-chan(# ﾟДﾟ) 「You two, how long are you planning to stay here!」

Luxion（　●） 『Also, this plant isn’t popular or anything at the WN. She even got a storm of 『○ie』 comment at the comment section. The reason is because how annoying she is.』

Sapling-chan(｀Д´#)ﾉ 「D-don’t screw with me! Sometimes I’d also get praised ‘Great job!’ you know! I played a great role there!」

Creare（○　）『All the comments other than that were about how annoying you are though. Even so, you really came spreading into the LN. I respect that guts of yours at the very least.

Sapling-chan(# ﾟ言ﾟ) 「I absolutely won’t give up. I’ll show up next time too and become the idol of the questionnaire bonus chapter. I was really excited to make my entrance from the fourth volume. But everything is messed up because of Marie-chan’s fault! Give me back my popularity!」

Luxion（●　） 『There isn’t any popularity that can be given back. More importantly, if the readers who read the LN learned that the sacred tree’s sapling has this kind of personality, won’t they receive a great shock?』

Sapling-chan（；ﾟ Дﾟ） 「──You, aren’t your words horrible? Do you need to go that far?」

Luxion（●） 『As I thought, it’s an excellent decision to remove this thing’s lines from the LN. Because the readers will be able to maintain the image of lovable plant as long as they don’t read her lines here in the questionnaire’s SS.』

Creare（　○） 『This time too she butt in just when the story was getting good, so hasn’t her image turned to be the worst now? I’m looking forward whether she can recover or not from this. ──Well, it’ll be impossible though.』

Sapling-chan(#ﾟДﾟ) 「Don’t underestimate my cuteness! The voices demanding for sapling-chan’s corner will be a lot more than the demand for Marie route! I won’t let anyone get in the way of my dream to develop a super lengthy tale in this questionnaire SS!」

Luxion（　●） 『You’re planning something like that?』

Creare（○　） 『Won’t it be difficult for a plant to be the leading actress? Ah, more importantly Marie route finally reached the third part. When it came to word count, the first part was 10000 words. The second part was 20000 words. Then the third part is around 15000 words? This, is the amount of one volume no matter how you look at it isn’t it?』

Luxion（　●） 『Having extra story with length that reached a single volume is really a good bargain isn’t it? This is what they called a good buy. It’s like getting one free book if you buy three books.』

Creare（○） 『It won’t even be surprising if one day one more volume of extra story is prepared as special perk. At that time I wish that the story of Aaron(アーロン)-chan will get written by all means. Surely it will be interesting. After all it’s a relatively important story.』

Creare（　○） 『Setting that aside, Luxion. What are you going to do after this? What are you thinking in this Marie route? I’m super curious. Also, when will my turn come in Marie route?』

Luxion（　●） 『It’s a secret. Also, you won’t have any turn.』

Creare（＃○） 『■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!』

※Swear words that are unbearable to hear

Luxion（●） 『Those who are curious with the continuation, please buy the sixth volume. Because next time it will surely be Marie route again.』

Sapling-chanΣ(ﾟДﾟ) 「What about my turn!?」