That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 1 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Notebook

IT HAD BEEN A WEEK since the start of the bullying campaign. I found my way behind the school building to spy on Marie from the shadows. She was yanking her charred belongings out of the incinerator.

“There’s no salvaging them once they’ve been burned,” she muttered. Resigned, she started throwing them back in.

My heart ached watching her go through this. “How’s she so tough? I’d have fled the academy after a couple of days of this.” Her mental fortitude was something else.

“Perhaps because the environment in which she was raised significantly differed from yours,” Luxion suggested. “She has had much less support and stability, both in this life and her last. I would venture to guess she had no choice but to toughen up; otherwise, she wouldn’t have had the will to continue on.”

“Is getting her ideal version of happiness really worth all this?”

If I were in her shoes, I’d give up and deal with it. I wouldn’t try to stand out, wouldn’t cause undue conflict—I’d settle for whatever happiness I could scrape together and be satisfied. That was my secret key to getting through life. Granted, I’d died pretty young last time around, so my advice probably wasn’t the most convincing.

“Now that the situation has devolved, do you still intend to leave her be, Master? If you would only order me to do so, I could identify the culprit and bring them to justice.”

“Oh, please. Don’t even joke about letting you handle the situation.”

Luxion’s abilities as a cash shop item were unlike anything else this world had seen. They surpassed every facet of modern technology. If he wanted, he could wipe the floor with the entire world.

“Then do you plan to sit idly by and watch as this continues?”

I hesitated. If I lent her a hand, I needed to be prepared for the consequences. Problem was, I hated conflict and the trouble that came with it. Marie wouldn’t even have been in this situation in the first place if she had just controlled herself.

But no matter what my brain said, my feet moved. I couldn’t even begin to guess what compelled me. Luxion followed close behind.

“If only you were more honest with yourself,” he said in exasperation.

“Shut it.”

I slipped out of the shadows and approached Marie. “Heya.”

Marie glanced at me but quickly turned her head away. “What do you want? If you’re here to lecture me again, go away. You may have free time to waste, but I don’t.”

“You sure like to run your mouth.”

This reminded me of my little sister, too. Annoying as it was, it was also strangely nostalgic. Maybe that was why I couldn’t keep my nose out of her business.

“Why not give up already? If the bullying escalates any further, the damage could be serious,” I said.

Bullying was a thing in Japan as well, but it wasn’t nearly as malicious as it was here at this academy. War was a fact of life in this world. Consequently, our peers had way fewer compunctions when it came to resorting to violence. If it got physical, they wouldn’t hesitate to get down and dirty. For being a bunch of aristocrats, they were awfully bloodthirsty.

Marie lifted herself to her feet and sniffed. “You don’t get it at all. Even if I gave up and left the love interests alone, these girls wouldn’t stop. I have no choice. If I wanna shut up the naysayers, I have to win over one of those guys.”

“Did you know it’d be like this from the start?” Marie seemed so unperturbed that I had to assume she’d anticipated this. Maybe all the suffering in her previous life had made her resilient to this kind of thing.

“All I can do now is climb the social ladder,” Marie reiterated, not answering my question.

“To me, it looks like you’re on a one-way trip to self-destruction.”

“Success is my best chance to turn everything around.”

I snorted. “Is it really worth gambling your life for that small chance?”

“Don’t call it gambling,” Marie snapped. “I hate gambling.”

At that, I had to roll my eyes. “I mean, what else could you possibly call this? And with truly terrible odds.”

“There’s no way to know for sure unless I give it a shot!”

Marie was right in that she could turn things around if she succeeded, but that was a big if. The odds were stacked overwhelmingly against her. Could she even manage to land a date with any of the love interests? I mean, she was neither the protagonist nor even anything like her.

“Look,” I said, “I don’t wanna have to say this, but…don’t you think you and Miss Olivia are about as different as night and day? By which I mean, well…if they’re attracted to her, then…” I hesitated.

Marie slapped her hands over her chest. “Where do you think you’re looking, you perv?!”

“What’s there to see? It’d be news to me. But I don’t just mean your chest—or lack thereof. There’s your face, and your personality, and just…your whole vibe, I guess? Point is, you aren’t anything like Miss Olivia.”

“B-but,” Marie protested, “those guys don’t care about your looks—they care about your heart. I’m sure of it.”

I was trying in vain to suggest that she wasn’t their type. Desperate as ever to cling to hope, Marie insisted they’d overlook her pint-size stature for what treasure lay beneath.

I let out a deep sigh. “Do you honestly think you stand an ice cube’s chance in hell of beating Miss Olivia when it comes to your heart?”

“W-well, sure, I think… I think I…”

Marie trailed off, but I could tell what she was thinking. It didn’t matter if she could outmatch Olivia in any capacity, so long as she could seduce just one of the guys. But her interest in them wasn’t genuine. That one thing already made her the rotten apple in the barrel. No one could call her heart beautiful, not with a straight face.

Marie’s lips flapped wordlessly as she tried to think of some clever retort, but even she had the self-awareness to see I was right. She finally snapped her mouth shut.

“There’s no reason for you to go toe-to-toe with Miss Olivia, right?” I said. “Find your own version of happiness, one that doesn’t involve her or the love interests. I’ll even help you do it.” To show my sincerity, I extended my hand toward her.

Marie kept her eyes on her feet as she slapped it away. “I hate the way you nag me. Like you’re so much better.”

“Huh?”

“Must be nice for you. You got your hands on a cheat-tier item, so you’ve got it made for the rest of your life. But I’m not like you. I…I still don’t have anything to call my own!” Marie darted past me, fleeing the scene.

I dropped my outstretched hand and scratched the back of my head. “She sure is a stubborn one.”

Having listened to our entire conversation, Luxion said, “I have to wonder whether you truly intended to convince her to back down. You could have communicated your intentions in a far less combative manner.”

I shrugged. “I suck with words. You really think I could sway her?”

“The bottom line, Master, is that you tend to be harsh with her. Is it simply an instinctive response? An innate incompatibility?”

Was Luxion right that I was being harder on her than I meant to be? I wasn’t above admitting I could’ve handled things better, but Marie wasn’t exactly perfect, either. More like stubborn as a mule.

“Or perhaps it is that variety of teasing born of fondness?” Luxion speculated. “According to my data, this pattern of behavior is common in young boys. I was convinced you were old enough to rise above such cliches, but that seems a distinct possibility.”

“Hey!”

Was he trying to tick me off on purpose? Certainly felt like it.

***

Meanwhile, two girls were snooping through Marie’s room in the girls’ dormitory.

“Where’d that little twerp run off to?!”

“What’re we gonna do?! If we don’t find her soon, Stephanie will be breathing down our necks!”

“Hey, I don’t want that any more than you do!”

They’d come all the way here to drag Marie off campus, per Stephanie’s orders. In fact, they’d searched the school grounds on the way, but they’d seen neither hide nor hair of their quarry. The girls were terrified that, at this rate, they would be unable to fulfill Stephanie’s orders.

While they rummaged through the room, one of the girls located something beneath Marie’s bed. “Hey, what’s this?”

“That’s a travel bag, right? Why’s she hiding it under her bed?”

The rest of the room was sparse, with few personal belongings. That made the travel bag’s location all the more suspicious.

One of the girls pried the bag open to dig out Marie’s things. As she pulled them out, she found an old, beaten-up notebook stashed beneath the rest.

“Why’s she hiding this thing in here?”

“Who cares? I wanna know what this language even is. I’ve never seen letters like this.”

The two boggled over the notebook, its pages covered in characters that were completely foreign to them. While they were thus preoccupied, the third member of their group burst into the room.

“I found her! She left campus!”

The girls threw Marie’s bag to the ground and dashed out of the room, though one of them was still clutching the old notebook.

***

After fleeing from Leon, Marie left campus to aimlessly wander the streets of the capital. Shuffling along one of the main thoroughfares, she dug her hand into her pocket to check how much cash she had on hand. There was only a single bill and a couple of coins. That was it.

“It’ll be hard to find a food stall selling anything this cheap.” Her brow furrowed. “I also need to buy a new notebook and pencils, since they burned my other ones. Which means…”

She didn’t have enough money.

Marie breathed a deep sigh and ground to a halt. By pure coincidence, she happened to stop in front of the window display she’d admired when she was out with Leon. Her eyes wandered to the price tag on the gown. It was so beyond her that she let out a weak laugh.

“The way things are going, a dress like that is an unattainable dream.” She tutted. “When am I finally gonna get to wear pretty clothes and live a life of luxury?” Was such a future even within her grasp? Or would it lie forever beyond her reach? She was beginning to fear that maybe it was.

Downcast, Marie’s thoughts turned to Leon and their earlier conversation. That jerk is something else. Literally why does he have to dig the knife that deep? I’m perfectly aware that I don’t measure up to Olivia.

Marie knew nothing about Olivia’s personality, but she could at the very least sense that it was much more pleasant than her own. On the rare occasions Olivia spoke in the game, it was all idealist nonsense. Marie had hated her for it. As far as she was concerned, Olivia was ignorant and stupid. But Marie could critique her all she wanted; she knew Olivia was in a league of her own.

I get that I’m being completely insincere, but I just want to be happy. Is that so wrong? She continued staring at the display, lost in thought. 

At some point, an employee seemed to notice her and slipped outside, heading toward her. As soon as Marie noticed them, she fled.

She felt pathetic, running away from everyone. She hadn’t shed a single tear since the girls at school started bullying her, but at this point, feeling as pitiful as she did, tears threatened to leak out.

Marie suddenly skidded to a halt. Three girls blocked her path.

“We were looking for you.”

“You again?” she spat at them. “Haven’t learned your lesson, have you?” Marie puffed up her chest, putting on a brave face. But as soon as her gaze landed on the old notebook one of the girls was carrying, her jaw dropped. “Th-that’s mine!”

Her reaction was all the confirmation they needed: this notebook was important to her. What they didn’t know was that it contained vital walkthrough notes for the game. Vital was honestly an understatement. If Marie was to have any chance at changing her lot in life, she needed that notebook.

The girls snickered.

“If you want it back, come with us. We’ve got somewhere special to take you.”

“Ngh…” Marie gritted her teeth. Left with no other option, she obediently fell into step behind them.

***

Once I’d returned to my dorm room, I sprawled out on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Why do I have to worry about stupid Marie?” 

From nearly the very start of my academy journey, I’d been chasing her and her antics on a never-ending series of wild goose chases.

By now, it was nearly May, which meant the tea parties would start up soon. The boys were starting to get lessons on proper etiquette for these parties. We had to learn to be perfect gentlemen in order to invite the ladies to join our tables. Everything until this point had been the opening act; now the real show began—the point of attending this school in the first place. We had to land a marriage partner. For me and the other boys, this was the main event.

Sure, I was from a backwater barony, but I still needed to get married. If I didn’t, I could say bye-bye to a good reputation, which would land me in all kinds of hot water. Back in Japan, I hadn’t had to worry nearly as much about what other people thought of me, but this society didn’t stand for such flagrant disregard of social norms. If I became a pariah, my family would see repercussions as well.

All the more reason why this world sucks the big one.

So, I wanted to focus on getting myself a girl—if for no other reason than to avoid all that mess—but I couldn’t stop thinking about Marie. It would have made sense if I had romantic feelings for her, but that definitely wasn’t the case. It was more that we’d both reincarnated from Japan and knew the trajectory of the game’s plot—and that, first and foremost, I still feared that Marie would do something to throw the narrative off course.

“Almost makes me think she really is my little sister, making me overanalyze things all the time.”

But try as I might to recall my contemptible sister’s face or name, I couldn’t. All my memories of my past life and the people in it had grown fuzzy and indecipherable. Marie had the same issue.

I flipped over for what had to be the millionth time when Luxion rushed toward me. “Master, we have an emergency.”

“Huh? Give a guy some breathing room.” He was only a few centimeters from the tip of my nose, his red camera lens flashing eerily.

“Marie has been captured by air pirates.”

“Say what?”

***

“What’s that moron doing?!” I cursed under my breath.

“A group of female students led her to the warehouse district,” Luxion reported.

“If you realized what was happening, you should’ve stopped them.”

“Yes, that’s why I—Master, someone is headed this way.”

After leaving the boys’ dormitory, we made for the main gate, where a female student was apparently returning from her own excursion into the city.

“Ah, the main character and the prince,” I said.

Luxion had already activated his cloaking device to hide himself. “Priorities, please,” he said. “We haven’t the time to bother with Miss Olivia.”

“I wasn’t going to.” I snapped my mouth shut after muttering my reply and sped past Olivia and Julius, though I caught a snippet of their conversation in the process.

“I didn’t realize you liked skewers so much, Prince Julius.”

“I absolutely adore them. I’m glad you enjoyed them, too.” 

They must’ve had something of a date. I was glad to see their relationship was developing—made my job easier. All I needed to do was focus on saving Marie.

Once I got past Olivia and Julius, I broke into a run. Luxion kept himself hidden as he provided navigational support. “I shall guide you down the shortest route to our destination. I am also preparing Arroganz for emergency deployment.”

“And here I was hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to violence in the capital.”

“They have left us no choice.”

With Luxion’s help, I hastened to the warehouse district.

***

As Leon hurried past, Olivia froze and turned to watch him, but he had broken into a run and was quickly receding. Curious as to what had caught her attention, Julius also turned to glance back.

“Ah, that’s Bartfort,” he said. “He’s in our same year as well.”

“You know him?” Olivia asked.

“Of course. He’s rather famous; made a name for himself as an accomplished adventurer even before enrolling. I hear he’s already been promised a barony once he graduates.”

Olivia’s eyes went round. “That’s incredible.”

Jealous of this reaction, Julius quickly added, “I’ll soon set out on an airship and have adventures of my own. When I do, I assure you, I’ll see even more than he has. Would you like to come with me? An adventure’s sure to be even more enjoyable if I have you by my side.”

Olivia’s lips pressed into a strained smile. “Honestly, I’m the type who prefers to stay in her room and read.”

“Oh, uh, really? Well, in that case, I’ll just have to make sure there’s a reading room on the ship. You can study there as much as you like.”

“Um, err…I don’t know what to say.” Olivia hesitated, trying to figure out how best to reject this offer.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was watching them from a distance.

***

Angelica stood by a window on the second floor of the school building. Her face betrayed no emotion as she studied Julius and Olivia. Her followers hovered behind her. Sensing the ominous air, they kept their lips tightly sealed.

“It seems she failed to heed my warning,” Angelica said, her voice exceedingly calm.

It hadn’t even been that long since she cautioned Olivia against her continued flirtations with the prince. This blatant dismissal was essentially a slap to Angelica’s face. More than that, Angelica’s decision to warn her, rather than deliver an immediate rebuke, had been incredibly kind. It seemed Olivia had the audacity to spurn her generosity. Overlooking the initial offense hadn’t done Angelica any favors after all.

When Angelica turned to face her entourage, she was silhouetted by the evening sunlight, which streamed in through the glass behind her and gave her an ominous silhouette. Her crimson eyes gleamed in the shadows cast upon her face.

“It seems I must speak with her more directly.”

Angelica’s followers nodded eagerly, intimidated by their leader’s low tone.

“W-we’ll summon her right away,” one of them volunteered.

“No, I have a prior engagement. I’ll also be meeting with His Highness this May tea party. I’ll deal with her after that,” Angelica decided.

“O-of course. We’ll make arrangements.”

“See that you do.” Having said all she had to say, Angelica turned back toward the window. Olivia and Julius seemed to be enjoying themselves, walking side by side.

It’s been years since you flashed that sort of smile at me, Angelica thought bitterly.