That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Summer Break at the Bartforts’

LESS THAN A WEEK of summer vacation was left.

I, Leon Fou Bartfort, had returned to my family’s territory for the break. On this particular morning, I found myself waking even later than usual. I say “later than usual,” but it was only seven in the morning. Prior to enrolling in the academy, I’d woken at the crack of dawn to help with household chores. Compared to that, this was absolutely laggardly.

I stretched, unable to suppress a yawn. After fishing out a shirt and some pants—and only half buttoning the former—I shuffled out of my room looking disheveled and unkempt. Then I lumbered downstairs. The creaky steps were drowned out by a ruckus that immediately banished my last dregs of drowsiness.

“What’s with all the noise this early in the morning?” I grumbled, giving up on my shirt buttons.

Luxion floated at my right shoulder. “Marie is playing with your younger brother,” he informed me. “Of greater concern is how late you sleep, Master. The latest of anyone in your household. I suspect you’ve let yourself slip due to the extended break from the academy. I request you address the issue promptly.”

I’d asked only one simple question, but for some reason, Luxion had mixed unsolicited advice into the response.

Luxion was an AI installed on an enormous spaceship. His small unit beside me was a metal sphere with a red lens at its center—a compact, portable extension of the ship AI. It was only about the size of a softball, and it almost made him seem cute. Sadly, although Luxion referred to me as his master and followed my commands obediently, he was still an absolutely constant nag.

“I woke up at seven,” I reminded him. “That’s plenty early.”

“The rest of your family was awake and attending to chores well before then.”

“Yeah, well, morning starts earlier in the countryside,” I said, trying to distract him from his criticisms.

As I reached the foot of the staircase, the source of the ruckus neared. I looked in its direction. Marie and my little brother Colin came barreling down the hallway from the direction of the living room.

“Come get me!” Colin chirped over his shoulder.

He was still pretty young. It was good to see him so happy and energetic, even when the day had just begun. Luxion’s gaze followed Colin closely as he whizzed past with Marie hot on his heels.

“This pattern seems to have become more regular of late,” the AI said. “That suggests Marie has integrated herself well into the Bartfort household.”

My face puckered. “I guess so.”

When Marie first arrived, she’d been on her best behavior for my family, representing herself as a delicate, charming young lady. If her rage-contorted face a second ago was anything to go by, that mask had fully come off by this point. 

“Wait right there, you little turd!” Marie screeched after Colin, brow firmly furrowed in concentration.

I could only assume this cat-and-mouse game had ­resulted from some prank on Colin’s part. It must’ve been successful. Colin seemed cheerful, at any rate.

“I don’t wanna!” he shouted back.

Watching the two locked in this cartoonish chase, I heaved a sigh. “Bickering again? I don’t get how they keep this up all the time.”

“Bickering indeed. Your younger brother’s teasing was the cause,” Luxion said. “He and Marie were nervous around each other initially, but they are now much more relaxed.”

“‘Relaxed’? More like unable to contain themselves.”

From Colin’s perspective, Marie was probably like a slightly older sister. Despite her small stature, she tried her best to act mature, so he loved picking on her. He wouldn’t have gotten any gratification from it if Marie could’ve shrugged him off. However, she took it seriously each time, which only encouraged him.

I wish she’d act a little more composed, like someone her age should.

As my old man, Balcus, passed through the house, he noticed Colin darting around. He grimaced, and his fist came down right on Colin’s noggin. The blow made my brother yelp in pain, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes.

“Owie!”

“Colin, don’t tease Rie. Need I remind you that she’s an important guest? Yet you keep annoying her,” my old man chided. This would only be the start of his sermon.

Marie, who’d screeched to a halt, fidgeted nervously. “Oh, um, Baron Bartfort, no need to go this far on my behalf. I’m not really angry.”

That wasn’t the most convincing lie. She’d been hot on Colin’s heels, screaming at the top of her lungs, moments earlier.

“Sorry about him, Rie,” Dad said with a genuinely apologetic look. “It’s not that he dislikes you. I hope you won’t bear a grudge toward him for this.” Dad set his hand on Colin’s head and pressed down, forcing him to bow to Marie.

“Oh, of course not,” Marie said stiffly. Her eyes darted away. 

Sensing how awkward she felt, my older brother Nicks stepped in. He shot me a look, as if blaming me for not breaking this up. “Sure is noisy in here for this hour.”

“Good morning, sir,” Luxion greeted him politely. “You woke early to practice swordplay outside, correct? What an excellent and effective use of your time. If only Master could learn from your example.” 

Of course he had to shoehorn in a complaint about me.

Nicks forced a smile. “Mornin’, Leon’s li’l buddy. Glad you seem in high spirits. Anyway, I’m guessing Colin’s in hot water for bothering Rie again, huh?”

“Yep. Can’t believe they aren’t sick of this routine yet. They’re almost like real siblings,” I said with a hearty laugh.

Nicks looked surprised. He tilted his head. “Well, I guess that’s not far from the truth. They’ll be siblings-in-law.”

My jaw dropped. “What?” 

Nicks stared at me blankly. He blinked a few times. “Huh?”

“Uh, I mean, you said…” I sought the words and came up short, floundering a bit until I finally composed myself and demanded, “Why would Marie and Colin ever be siblings-in-law?” 

I still hadn’t fully comprehended Nicks’s comment. Was he still half-asleep or something? Or maybe I’d misheard?

Nicks’s exasperated stare said otherwise. “Are you serious?” he asked. “Or still half-asleep?” That was the same thing I’d wondered about him.

“Uh, no—” I started.

“Oh, cut the crap, Leon. You dragged an academy girl here to our home, and you’ve spent over a month together. Any outside observer seeing that would figure you’re engaged, or as good as.”

His words held water. Marie wasn’t actually my fiancée, but the optics weren’t great. We’d spent our entire summer break together. If I were an unrelated third party, I’d probably have gotten the wrong idea, too, and assumed we planned to tie the knot.

“The rest of the world would consider you two as good as promised to one another. Given the degree to which you value decency and appearances, you should make your relationship with her official,” Luxion suggested, happy to capitalize on the moment for his own agenda. He jumped on every chance to push Marie and me together.

“You shut up!” I said, pointing at him, then turned back to Nicks. “C’mon, you know how it is with Marie. She couldn’t go back to her own folks, so I just figured I’d invite her to hang out here. To be nice.”

From what Marie had told me, the Lafans were plagued with problems, to the point that they’d told her not to come home. Her only choice had been to stay at the academy. She’d confided to me about her plan to spend the break dungeon diving to make extra cash. It was so pitiful that I’d invited her to my home instead. Still, it should’ve gone without saying that I had no ulterior motive.

At any rate, Marie preferred tall, hot guys with loads of cash. I fulfilled the last criterion by virtue of having struck it big as an adventurer, but I wasn’t tall, nor conventionally attractive. I was just a regular dude. Not her type.

As for me, I liked girls with substantial boobs, and Marie was flat as a board. We couldn’t have been further from each other’s types if we tried.

Nicks’s eyes softened as he gazed at Marie, who was still fidgeting nervously after covering for Colin. “You aren’t gonna find another girl as sweet as her, however hard you look. Plus, Ma and Pops already think you’re planning to get hitched.”

“You’re kidding me!” I burst out.

Was that why they’d been so strangely kind to Marie ever since she turned up? If I didn’t clear up this misunderstanding quickly, it was bound to get way, way out of hand.

Nicks’s face fell, and he sighed. “Must’ve been nice, landing a partner the second you enrolled at the academy. I’m having a really rough time. Can’t find anyone.”

It did sound like Nicks was getting put through the wringer. Unlike me, he was in the academy’s general class. It was full of knight families’ children and the second, third, and other younger sons of barons. Courtship in that group was very different from that in the upper class, to which I belonged. I doubted Nicks faced trouble nearly as bad as what we were up against, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t struggling.

“Well, shouldn’t you be able to find a partner in your class pretty quick?” I asked. “Or have I got that wrong?”

Nicks scratched his head. “The problem is, girls in the general class want to live in the city. They’re looking for a partner with connections and prospects so they can live comfortably in the royal capital, or at least on the mainland. I’m not even a satisfactory backup option.”

Once Nicks graduated, he would have to leave the household and strike out on his own. Zola’s son, our half brother Rutart, was the eldest of the household and would inherit everything from my old man, including his title. Nicks was essentially a spare in case something happened. After Rutart became baron, Nicks would be tossed aside, so his position made marriage a challenge.

Nicks’s got it rough, too. I wished I could help, but I had my hands full with my own issues. In fact, I was more in need of help here.

As eager to end this bleak conversation as I was, Nicks changed the subject. “So, Leon, when’ll you guys head back to the academy? The day before school starts? Two days before?”

If I had my way, we’d return the day of the opening ceremony. There were too many preparations to make before then, though; we had no choice but to head back early. Then there was the weather to worry about. If it got bad, we wouldn’t be able to fly, so a day or two before would actually be cutting things kind of close. It was customary to leave even earlier.

“That’s the plan. Can’t believe the break’s already over. I really don’t want to go back to bride hunting.” Just thinking about it made my stomach knot with dread.

Nicks shared my sentiments. “Don’t remind me,” he said.

We sighed in unison, trading beleaguered looks, but something about that was so hilarious that we both let out bitter laughter.

“I’m graduating this year. If I can’t land a girl soon, I might end up some old lady’s second husband.” Nicks said it with a touch of dark humor, but my heart ached with sympathy. As he implied, someone in his circumstances might need to get hitched to a widow, who in most cases would be significantly older. Nicks would be lucky if there was only a decade between them. It was perfectly possible that she’d be twenty years or more his senior.

“C’mon, don’t give up yet.” I nudged his shoulder. “If I can do anything to help, just say the word.” 

“Knock it off,” he shot back, pulling a face at me. “And don’t look at me like that. Nothing makes me feel more pathetic than pity from my little bro.”

Why did this world have to be so hard on guys? Maybe the problem was more how vicious it was toward us background characters. Some guys in this world didn’t have it so rough, after all—namely the love interests, who were all heirs to great houses.

Those guys were probably enjoying their summer break with the protagonist Olivia at this very moment. Oh, how I envied them.

***

A few days later, Marie and I made our way to a floating island near my family’s territory. Luxion had located and hauled it all the way here for me. This would be my territory in the future, but at the moment, it was deserted. 

Thanks to the robots Luxion had manufactured, which toiled day and night, the island would be fit for settlement soon enough. Thus far, Luxion and his minions had built me a cozy little log cabin—a secret base, if you will. I’d invited Marie to check it out, since we had more in common than most, having both reincarnated into this world from Japan. As for what we were doing there…

“Today we’ll have grilled freshwater fish with a touch of salt for flavor.”

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Marie squealed in delight. “You’ve got pickled veggies, too!”

We made a habit of retreating here every once in a while to enjoy nostalgic flavors from our former lives, including this freshly steamed white rice, clear soup, grilled freshwater fish, and last but not least, lightly pickled vegetables. 

A normal Japanese person would probably consider this a boring, run-of-the-mill meal, but when you lived in another country—or worse, another world entirely, like us—getting your hands on even these dishes was a real challenge. I couldn’t have put the meal together all by my lonesome, that’s for sure.

I was lucky to have Luxion as a partner. He’d originally been built as some kind of migrant ship. Survivors of old humanity were meant to board him and escape to outer space, where they would search for a new home. He’d come equipped with the necessary features to aid them in that endeavor.

Luxion was basically the only reason we had white rice and clear soup.

“I do kind of wish we had grated radish and soy sauce, though,” Marie said with a frown, not entirely satisfied with our limited menu. “I’m getting tired of this clear soup, too. I’d love miso soup. I mean, we’re Japanese. Being Japanese and eating miso soup kind of go hand in hand.”

I nodded repeatedly, entirely agreeing. “I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately, miso and soy sauce are both fermented. They take time to make.”

Marie shot Luxion a look. “You’re not as great as you make yourself out to be. Are you really a cheat-tier cash-shop item? You should have miso and soy sauce preprepared.”

“Since it appears you have forgotten, allow me to remind you that you two insisted these products be fully natural. That is why they require considerable time to create. I have explained on multiple occasions that I could produce a suitable substitute with an identical flavor and mouthfeel,” Luxion shot back haughtily. “You refused it.”

Given Luxion’s exceptional resources, making a substitute would have been a piece of cake. But, at the end of the day, a substitute was only that—a substitute. We might get something that tasted like miso soup, but it wouldn’t be miso soup.

“I want the real thing,” I said.

“Me too,” Marie agreed.

We declared that we were going to eat, ignoring Luxion’s response as we dug into our meal. The fish was grilled to perfection; its exterior had a slight crunch, while the interior was soft and flaky. Now this is Japanese food. Holfort had its own seafood, but it wasn’t the same.

Luxion watched us, exasperated, and spun clockwise. “As much as you two gripe, you have no trouble devouring the dishes I prepare,” he grumbled.

Marie in particular beamed as she wolfed down her food. “Oh, man. The flavors just taste so familiar. I love it. I feel like I finally know what people mean by ‘comfort food.’”

Since Marie and I were originally Japanese, these comforting dishes were soul food in the most literal sense.

“Luxion said he can make us miso soup and soy sauce in just two more years,” I told Marie.

Her eyes lit up with anticipation, and her lips pulled into an adorable smile. “Two more years! You better invite me to visit when the time comes. Man, I really want to find fish that tastes like salmon here so I can have grilled ‘salmon’—with a big helping of rice!”

Her words stirred memories of my sister in my previous life. Right. She loved salmon, too.

Meanwhile, Marie was busy fantasizing about the future dishes Luxion had promised. “If we have soy sauce, we could make butter soy sauce.” A full grin stretched across her face. 

It was rare to encounter a woman who took such joy in something as simple as soy sauce and miso. For a split second, I pictured my little sister sitting in Marie’s place. It had to be my imagination playing tricks on me.

“If you’re that eager to indulge in those products, I will make processing them my highest priority,” Luxion said. “Setting that aside for the moment, however, your second term is about to begin.”

Marie and I were both so focused on our food that we essentially shrugged him off.

“Yep.”

“Guess so.”

After a substantial pause, Luxion continued, “If this world is indeed an otome game, as you two claim, then the climax—and any potential problems it brings—are just on the horizon. Would it not be wise to prepare countermeasures before the start of term?” 

The way he spoke indicated he didn’t fully believe our story about this being a dating sim. Yet the fact remained that all the predictions I’d made up until now had been right on the money. That was presumably why Luxion wanted to discuss possible countermeasures. There was no need, though—I’d already made my decision in that regard.

“I’ve got no intention of involving myself with the plot,” I said. “Miss Olivia and His Highness are getting along great, aren’t they? I don’t want to butt in and make things more complicated than they need to be.”

“Yeah, rocking the boat would just make more hassles than necessary. I’ll pass,” Marie said. Then her brow furrowed, and her mouth puckered. “I’ve got to admit, though, something about Olivia’s weighing on me.”

“Are you talking about how she seemed a little off before summer break?” I shook my head and shrugged. “She probably just had a bad day or something, right?”

Before accompanying me to my family home, Marie had bumped into Olivia for a moment, and she’d noticed Olivia wore a particularly dark expression.

“I hope that’s all it was,” she said, not sounding fully convinced.

“She’s got the crown prince,” I reminded Marie. “And the other love interests. I bet she’s having the time of her life enjoying her break right now. Pretty sure there’s a bunch of summer events for upping her affection scores with the guys.”

Marie nodded slowly, recalling various game cutscenes. “I guess there’s no issue if she’s having a good time.” She hesitated. “Wait. Actually, there is.”

“There is?”

“I’m kind of jealous.” Her face said she wasn’t joking.

I was at my wit’s end with her envy issues. “Seriously? You still haven’t given up? Pretty sure I remember you babbling about how the love interests weren’t really your type. You’re obviously still hung up on them, though.”

Not long ago, Marie had attempted to steal Olivia’s position out from under her by approaching the prince and other love interests. Her designs ended in failure, and she’d sworn up and down she was over them. She wasn’t, though—not if she was still this green with envy.

“If you’re referring to the prince and his friends, then you’ve completely got the wrong idea!” Marie snapped. “I just envy Olivia if she’s having a great summer vacation—that’s all I mean! If she’s shopping or taking trips and vacationing in all kinds of places, how can you expect me to sit back and wish her the best?! As if that’s not lucky enough, she’s got a bunch of rich, kind, sexy guys tagging along with her! That’s the kind of adolescence every girl yearns for. How could you expect me not to be jealous of that?!”

Ah, so that’s it. She can’t stand Olivia having a blast during summer break when she hasn’t had the same ­opportunity. Especially after Olivia got everything Marie couldn’t.

“Doesn’t matter to me either way,” I told her. “But just so we’re clear, this is summer break, not summer vacation.”

“You really like to nitpick the tiniest, most irrelevant details, don’t you?” Realizing she wouldn’t find a sympathetic ally in me—not on this particular topic, at least, since in her mind I wasn’t really trying to “enjoy” our break—Marie huffed and turned away.

“The more enjoyable Miss Olivia’s summer break, the closer this world gets to true peace and harmony,” I said. “All we’ve got to do is keep our mouths shut, sit back, and cheer from afar as she follows the game plot.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know that.” Marie frowned, still displeased. 

Even so, I genuinely meant it when I said I couldn’t have cared less about Olivia and her break.