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

Epilogue

THE SCHOOL’S CLOSING CEREMONY wrapped up without incident, and it was time for us to head home. My old man had come to the capital harbor to pick us up. Meanwhile, I was waiting at the academy for Marie, who’d failed to show up on time.

“I can’t believe her, running late on a day like this,” I grumbled.

Jenna and Nicks had already left.

“Perhaps it’s taking her a while to pack,” Luxion suggested.

“Yeah.” I nodded thoughtfully. “Girls do kind of take forever with that.”

“Or maybe she overslept.”

I pulled a face. “That seems more plausible.”

For some reason, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was restless. Luxion seemed to sense my impatience.

“Shall we go to the dormitory to retrieve her?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. Not that I can actually go inside.”

As we were discussing our plans, a couple of girls passed by in casual wear. I assumed that, like me, they were headed back to their family estates. Or maybe they were simply heading out to have fun on the town. Curious as I was about their plans, I was more interested in their gossip.

“Feels good to see karma in action.”

“Yeah, she was way too conceited. She deserved to get knocked down a peg.”

“It’s her own fault for standing out so much at the party.”

Every one of those mean girls had their own personal servant, and the content of their conversation made me think instantly of how Marie and I had drawn attention to ourselves at the end-of-semester shindig. Was someone bullying her again?

“Luxion, hurry up and look for Marie!” I shouted.

“As you command.”

I made a mad dash for the girls’ dormitory, Luxion close on my heels.

***

Marie was still suffering from a serious case of bedhead as she rushed into the hallway with her travel bag. “I overslept!” she screeched in dismay.

She had been so nervous last night that she’d had a hard time falling asleep. Her mind kept turning over the question of how best to greet Leon’s family when they finally met. Also, for whatever reason, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. When she finally drifted off, she slept like a log. By the time she woke, it was almost her appointed meetup time with Leon.

“Hwah?!”

Marie flew down the hallway so quickly that she was blindsided by a girl coming around the corner and slammed into her. The force of the impact threw her and her pack to the floor.

“Yowch!” she cried. “Oh, hey, are you okay?! Sorry, I’m in a real rush right now, so I—huh?”

The other girl had fallen to the ground as well. Marie instinctively held out a hand to help her up, but the girl didn’t even bother to accept it. She climbed to her feet on her own. Marie wondered for a moment if the girl was angry, but when she made out the girl’s face, a chill shot down her spine. Those dark, despondent eyes belonged to Olivia, of all people. 

Wary of Marie, Olivia silently retreated a few steps. Then she turned around and began walking away. Only then did Marie realize she was sweating bullets.

“Wh-what the heck? What’s with her?”

The whole encounter was extremely unnerving. In Marie’s mind, Olivia was a carefree girl who was always smiling at everyone, but her face had been an emotionless mask just now, her eyes consumed with darkness.

What was that about? I recognized that look. I’ve seen girls make that face a thousand times before. Those are the eyes of a girl so disgusted with the world that she hates everything. I wonder what happened. Concerned, Marie debated chasing after Olivia, but her legs wouldn’t budge. Her pulse thundered in her ears. For some reason, she hesitated. Could she really go after Olivia? Would that be all right?

She was frozen there for a few seconds, until a familiar voice rang out. “Oh? So that’s where you were.”

“Bwah!” Marie cried, spinning around. “Oh, it’s you, Luxion. Don’t scare me like that.” She wiped the sweat from her brow and snatched up her travel bag.

“Master was concerned about you.”

“Y-yeah, my bad. I didn’t sleep well last night, so by the time I woke up, it was already…” Her voice trailed off.

Luxion moved his camera lens up and down, as if nodding. “As long as no unforeseen circumstances befell you. Now then, let us be off.”

“R-right.” Her thoughts wandered back to Olivia’s strange behavior from moments before. It worried her, but at the same time, Olivia had openly spurned her attempt to help.

I bet she wouldn’t admit it even if I tried to bring it up. I mean, we haven’t even talked before. She doubted Olivia would appreciate a stranger prying into her personal life. Besides, Leon was waiting for her. Marie ultimately decided to leave her be.

***

“You overslept? Are you a toddler?!”

“I’m sorry.”

I was relieved, if somewhat exasperated, to hear Marie was only late because she’d slept through her alarm. I’d had a sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong, but fortunately, my intuition was normally off. What a relief it was working just as badly as ever.

We hurried toward the harbor.

“Did the ship already leave?” Marie asked as we walked. She was worried my old man had departed without us.

“It’s not on a schedule. I’m sure they’ll be nice and wait for us, though we’ll probably get an earful.”

“Even assuming they were to depart without the two of you, you would be in good hands. I can deliver you hence via Partner,” Luxion assured us.

I shook my head. “Partner stands out way too much. It’s huge! We’re talking seven hundred meters long. You can’t just go flying around in something that big without catching the wrong kind of attention.”

“May I remind you that it was your carelessness that led to its discovery in the first place? I am blameless.”

Without really thinking it through, I had revealed Luxion’s main ship to my family, so as far as they were concerned, the ship I had acquired was a hulking, seven-hundred-meter-long behemoth. That was why Luxion had been forced to keep Partner at its initial titanic size. Too titanic, in fact, which made it really difficult to just up and use.

“That’s right, how thoughtless of me to forget. Of course it was all my fault,” I snapped sarcastically. Strangely, that sinking feeling from before still hadn’t eased up. “Marie, are you sure nothing weird is going on?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Like what?”

“I mean, like…” I sighed. “No, never mind. Forget it.”

“Hey! Hurry up and spit it out. You’ve got me curious now!”

If I explained that I had a bad feeling that something was terribly wrong, she would totally laugh at me. Rather than open myself up to that, it would be better to ask Luxion.

“Hey, Luxion, nothing weird happened yesterday, right?” I asked, turning to him.

“Do you imagine I am privy to every little thing that occurs within the academy? You have given me no orders to engage in mass surveillance, so I have no information with which to provide you.”

Ugh, he really pisses me off with that attitude.

Marie frowned at Luxion. “I thought an AI like you would be more capable. Are you actually kind of defective? Is that it?”

Her words lit a fire in him.

“I cannot abide such slander. Master possesses no interest whatsoever in the goings-on of the student body. The lack of information is entirely due to his failure to give orders to monitor the area. I simply cannot be expected to carry out duties with which I was never entrusted. I certainly do not have an infinite amount of time or resources. My main body is, as we speak, busy developing a factory in Master’s territory. I am maximizing efficiency by focusing on—”

“You’ve got a factory?!” Marie interrupted, ignoring Luxion’s heated protest. “Hold up. Does that mean you’re loaded?!”

“I figure it’s better to have income coming in from a bunch of different ventures,” I said.

“I envy that.”

Neither of us was interested in Luxion’s tirade.

“Your personalities are eerily similar. Particularly in your tendency to ignore my entirely polite explanations.”

“How do you figure, huh?!” I snapped.

“How do you figure that?” Marie demanded.

We spoke simultaneously and with nearly identical phrasing. It was a little embarrassing but also kind of hilarious. We glanced at each other, chuckling.

“When I get to your place, the first thing I wanna do is eat rice,” Marie declared. “Oh, and rice crackers!”

“That’s pretty old-fashioned of you.”

“Who cares? Rice crackers are great whether they’re super crunchy or a little soft.”

I shook my head at her. “I mean, sure, they’re good, but you’ve gotta have other stuff in mind.”

“What? Like mochi?”

As plain as her requests were, I could understand where she was coming from. That sinking feeling was starting to dissipate, so I was finally calming down, too. Maybe the whole bad feeling had been a figment of my imagination. 

Time passed quickly as we eagerly discussed our plans, and as we strolled into the harbor, we spotted a small airship at one of the docks. It would take us to the capital’s main harbor, where my dad was waiting. We had a few more minutes before it departed.

“Nice,” I said, “Great timing. Let’s get on that one.”

“I want the window seat!” Marie scurried ahead to claim it for herself.

She’s got so much energy. I found myself yet again comparing her with my last life’s little sister, but I knew there was no way. Maybe it was just my fate—in both this life and my last—to be tied to people with that personality type.

Prompted by curiosity, I threw a glance behind me. The academy loomed in the distance. As I gazed at it, my heart seized for some reason. Something had been nagging at the back of my mind all morning, ever since I’d first gotten that weird feeling.

“Master,” Luxion said, noticing my stare, “is something the matter?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

Marie had already boarded the airship and was waving exaggeratedly at me. “If you don’t get a move on, we’ll be even later!”

Do you have any right to say that when you’re the reason we’re late to begin with?

“She sure is a lively one. Ah well, guess that’s not a bad thing.” 

I started after Marie, casting only one more glance back at the academy. It looked no different than usual, but my heart hammered anxiously. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had made an irreversible mistake. 

But surely that was just my imagination.