First Year Second Semester – Q of Hearts (Part 4)
Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publis.h.i.+ng), so please click ‘view original’.
Between the guilt and the awkwardness and the shame, I trembled. Even if this is reaping what I sowed, what is this, this torture!? Why do I have to talk to Achille about the otome game? But for now, I should just be happy that Achille doesn’t despise me. I kind of get the impression that he doesn’t really believe me but… if that’s the case, I’m happy with it.
“That’s a really interesting story, huh~”
Royce-sama’s face suddenly appeared from behind Achille.
“You were here too, Royce-sama?”
He erased his presence again, didn’t he? It seems that all of the conversation just now was heard by Royce-sama.
“His Highness carried us two here after we collapsed.”
“Eh-, really? Royce-sama, thank you very much.”
“I couldn’t leave you two, after all, and you had various magic cast on you too.”
“Ugeh-!”
You d.a.m.ned Heroine, what magic did you use? Memory erasal magic? Despite that, I quite clearly remember what happened just now though… Maybe I blocked some of it.
“This is just from what I can understand, but a magic that looked similar to communication magic was fired at you two… Maybe it was fiction magic. Also, it looked like Achille had thought manipulation magic cast on him. I researched and dispelled that, you know.”
…Isn’t thought manipulation a forbidden art!? I wonder if the remaining communication magics or whatever were the contents of the dream just now? If they were, then that was incredible hara.s.sment! Because Achille defended for us, it ended at that level, but if it wasn’t for that, I might be suffering in that dream right now. Were it not for Royce-sama, the two of us would’ve been done for, for sure.
“Thank goodness that Royce-sama was here…”
“Right? Thank goodness that I got permission for the forbidden archives~”
“Yes. Honestly, thank you very much.”
“Mn, mn, so as thanks, I’d like you to tell me about that story earlier in more detail.”
“…”
Stooop iiiiiiiit! Any more than this and… I’ll go mad from the shame! I mean, how do I explain the rest? That I enjoyed Royce-sama’s route while smirking away… I don’t want to tell them that~!
“Camille, what’s wrong?”
Achille noticed that I was acting suspiciously.
“Ummmm, I guess I don’t really want to talk about this too much, or rather…”
“Achille, and Camille, and I… Who else appeared? Who was it that became my lover?”
“Royce-samaa!?”
Wait, please dont just smile and stab at the heart of the matter like that! If you say that, won’t the four different romance routes and each romance’s uhuhu ahaha stuff get revealed? And, won’t it be possible that after finding out that I enjoyed those kind of games, Achille will think of me as some kind of unprincipled womannn?
“Geez… You’re going too far with this shame play.” [tl: play as in s.e.xual play]
“Shame play? Eh-, is it a story aimed towards adults?”
Royce-sama has come to an outrageous misunderstanding. I can’t just accept appearing to be a person who enjoys those kind of things… Externally, that is.
“Y-, You’re wrong! It’s nothing like that, it’s just a normal romance story.”
It was rated 15+, but let’s just leave that out.
“As for your partner, Royce-sama, it was that girl who cast magic on us earlier. That girl is the protagonist. In the case where she gets close to you Royce-sama, the two of you get married, and she becomes the queen.”
Ah-, Royce-sama looks like he’s incredibly unhappy about that. I could hear him mutter “So it’s not Beatrix…” in a quiet voice.
“Hey, Camille… You said that was in the case where she gets close to His Highness, meaning that, there are also cases where she doesn’t?”
“Achille…”
n.o.body needs you to sharply point that out. But having come this far, it doesn’t seem like I can avoid it. If you go all the way back, all of this are seeds I sowed, so there’s no helping it. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll bravely reap them all at once. Ahhh, geeeez, let whatever comes comeee! Without hiding anything, I decide to tell them the outline of the game.
“Ummm… In that game, besides Royce-sama, the protagonist could also become a couple with Raiga-sama, Tria-sama, and one of the students in the Clovers cla.s.s.”
“…That girl, four-timed?”
An expression of shock appeared on Royce-sama’s face. Explaining that game going by this world’s logic, is increeedibly hard.
“Yes, though she doesn’t date them at the same time. In this world, a tale where you can read four different paths in a love story, is a little rare. The me before I was Camille knew about the contents of that story.”
Right. Just as the heroine says, I knew about Royce-sama and Achille, and when I a.s.sociated with them, I unconsciously used my knowledge of the game. When it comes to Royce-sama, I have a painfully embara.s.sing history of overlapping him with the game’s Royce-sama, and intensifying my longing for him.
Camille → Black tea and sweets Beatrix → Coffee and fruits Aurelia → Alcohol Mei → Black tea and meat