That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 3 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

THE SUN’S RAYS GREW SHORT as the shadows elongated. By the time school was over, darkness began to descend. As the hour grew late and the temperature dropped, I found myself in a tearoom on the second floor of the main school building.

“Maybe it’s about time I get a space heater in here. Or, if we could get a room with a fireplace, I could find some firewood to keep us warm,” I said as I busied myself with making a fresh pot of tea, my back turned to the woman I had invited to join me.

“I wonder about you sometimes. This is hardly cold enough to complain about,” Marie shot back. “I can put up with this just fine.”

Her full name was Marie Fou Lafan. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was in the same year as me at the academy. She was also my betrothed. Although she had attractive features, her most notable quality was perhaps her petite, slender build. Her diet had improved—­become more nutritious, specifically—which gave her skin and hair a healthier sheen. While her long, voluminous blonde locks had always been eye-catching, their new luster heightened her looks. Her small stature gave the impression that she was younger than she really was. Those who didn’t know her would probably think she looked as adorable and fragile as a porcelain doll. 

Her personality was the polar opposite of her looks. Like me, Marie had reincarnated into this otome game, retaining memories of her past life. We’d originally been players of the game we now found ourselves stuck in. In other words, basically, Marie’s appearance was incredibly deceptive. She was no adorable, fragile doll.

“This isn’t a competition,” I said with an annoyed sigh, carrying the tea tray over.

Marie gratefully picked up her cup and blew on the rippling liquid within, then cautiously took a sip. “Ah. This really warms the body.”

“Now I get it. You were just too proud to admit that you’re as cold as I am.” The boorish way she held her cup and guzzled her tea as soon as it cooled enough was unbecoming of an aristocrat, but I didn’t blame her. 

This tea party was really a pretense for our true goal. We were meeting to discuss the future; we needed to talk about what would now happen in the game. And we had to do so privately, so we couldn’t have this conversation in a classroom and risk someone overhearing it.

This tea room was the perfect meeting spot for the three of us. The third member of our little group wasn’t exactly a person. Rather, it was my AI partner, Luxion. His mobile unit was about the size and shape of a globe, and was made of metal with a single red lens at its center. His real body was a spaceship over seven hundred meters long. Given that unwieldy size, he typically accompanied me and provided support in his mobile form. The enormous spaceship would only get in the way, and it had more power and functionality than I needed on a daily basis anyway.

“Master, Marie, our time is limited,” Luxion interjected. “May we dispense with trivialities and move to the main topic?”

Marie finally set her cup down. “You want to ask what I think we should do now, right? I’ve got a few ideas.” She smiled proudly, as if she’d given this serious thought. That was a rare action for her, but she might be striving to show due consideration for this world’s future.

“Okay, let’s hear them. You seem awfully confident,” I said.

She snickered gleefully. “I’ve taken everything into account.” Leaping out of her chair and throwing her arms wide, she continued, “Our school trip will go to a Japan-inspired island! Word has it that it’s summer there, and apparently they also have a festival! So I’m definitely going to have a yukata ready for the occasion.”

Luxion and I traded blank looks. “I should’ve known. You didn’t think about this at all.” I shook my head.

As if doing likewise, Luxion “shook” his lens from side to side—his best way of signifying exasperation. “She has let excitement over the upcoming trip cloud her brain.”

Marie puffed her cheeks, glowering at us both. “This will be the biggest event of our academic lives! It’s precisely what you should be thinking about!”

She was right about one thing. A school trip had been the highlight of a person’s academic career in our previous lives. However, things were a little different at this academy.

“You can hardly blame me for not being that excited when it’s a yearly trip that students from every year go on,” I pointed out.

In Japan, school trips were only for second-year students, so in your three years of high school, you only went on one. That uniqueness made the trip special. It was the exact opposite here. The trips were annual, and everyone was invited. To me, that cheapened the experience.

Marie disagreed with me. “There are three different destinations, though!” she insisted. “So each year, after we’re broken into groups, we get to go somewhere different. It’s not like it’s the same trip every time.”

“Who cares if the destination’s different?” I shrugged. “Wherever you go, you still do the same crap.”

“It’s hardly the same in a completely different place! Get a little excited, would you?!”

The teachers did choose different destinations each year to help broaden the students’ horizons with varied experiences. That was also why they split us students into mixed groups from different years. It was supposed to give us a chance to meet and mingle with students we didn’t usually interact with.

In the game, this whole school trip had been designed as an opportunity for the protagonist to develop her relationship with her chosen love interest. I remembered that well, because I had to play through it an ungodly number of times—primarily because there was a completely randomized element. You could get your hands on a really powerful item, but whether you did was completely random, so the trick was to save scum until you nabbed it.

The whole thing had been a massive pain in my butt when I played. Anyway, we needed to address bigger problems now.

“Let’s talk about the school trip stuff later,” I suggested.

Marie looked offended. “Later? We don’t have much time before then!”

I heaved a long, beleaguered sigh. “But the Offreys bowed out of the story a lot sooner than they were supposed to,” I reminded her.

Marie flinched, finally sinking back into her seat. All her eagerness and excitement disappeared as an anxious shadow settled on her face. “You’re talking about Stephanie, right? It’s my fault you had to do all that.”

Stephanie, Earl Offrey’s daughter, was supposed to be the mid-game boss. Her family had consorted with air pirates and were involved in all kinds of crimes. They were villains, to put it bluntly.

Halfway through the game, Stephanie was supposed to get fed up with the protagonist and use the Offreys’ power and influence to try to get rid of her, sending air pirates after her. The love interests would all flock to the protagonist’s aid, saving her before anything unfortunate could happen. Stephanie would then be promptly punished by the crown. In fact, after all their misdeeds were revealed, the entire Offrey family would be divested of their rank.

That, at least, was how it had gone in the game.

“There is no need to trouble yourself over the matter, Marie,” said Luxion. “The Offreys made the first move, and their own crimes were their undoing.”

However much he consoled her, Marie’s hands remained tense as her fingers interlaced in her lap. “It’s my fault for approaching Brad and trying to snag someone out of my league.”

The episode she was talking about had taken place around the time we first met. Marie had attempted to use her limited knowledge of the game to seduce one of the love interests herself. She’d wanted to usurp the protagonist’s position. Only after I encountered her and gave her what information I had about the game did she truly realize how dangerous her actions were. And despite my warning, her attempts at romancing the love interests didn’t cease at Julius. Her persistence with the other guys—Brad, specifically—was what had incensed Stephanie so much that she went after Marie.

My only recourse at that point was to demolish the Offreys completely.

“I won’t disagree that you’re culpable to a degree, but Stephanie’s the one who took things too far,” I said. “Besides, she and her family would’ve been judged for their crimes sooner or later.”

That said, it would’ve been much later if the scenario had played out fully, since the game’s midpoint was ­during the protagonist’s second year at the academy. Still, the Offreys would’ve fallen either way.

Marie lifted her head. “You’re terrible at comforting people. If you’re trying to console me, at least do it right.”

Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head. “The point is that I had to take the Offreys down to save you. With them out of the picture, a huge hurdle the protagonist and her love interest were supposed to overcome together is gone.”

Although the results had been the same, the core issue was who had defeated the mid-game boss. I wasn’t simply beating the protagonist to the punch by taking down the enemy first. That was supposed to be an opportunity for growth in which the protagonist and her chosen man rose to bravely face the challenge. It was an especially pivotal event because it determined which love interest’s route the protagonist would pursue.

Marie cupped her chin and scrunched her face. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the protagonist end up romancing whatever guy saves her during that event?”

“Yep. And in the next part, the two figure out a way to overcome the problem together. So this isn’t as simple as us having skipped over a trivial mini-event.”

If the protagonist didn’t pick a man for herself, our chances against the final boss would be abysmal, to put it mildly. Olivia and her partner’s love for each other was the key to battling that boss.

Love really is powerful stuff, huh?

Sadly, that wasn’t the only problem this turn of events had caused us. We’d also stolen all the battle experience the protagonist was supposed to gain from the ordeal.

I flopped forward and pressed my forehead against the cool surface of the table. “I don’t want to get all technical about video game details and whine about wasted experience points, but it really throws a wrench into things that she’ll lose out on so much because there’s no longer a mid-game boss. That fight was supposed to help level up the love interests, too.”

So much had been invested in that mid-game episode that its absence would lead to significant losses.

Marie cradled her head in her hands. “I can’t begin to guess which of the guys Olivia has the hots for. And you’re right. As if things weren’t bad enough, that loss of experience puts us at a real disadvantage.”

Marie and I had both struggled considerably in the battle portions of the game. We knew all too well that losing out on experience and, in turn, levels would make everything significantly harder. 

Luxion glanced between the two of us before finally blurting out, “Am I correct to assume that, judging by the way you two discuss the matter, your robbing the protagonist and her love interest of this significant moment of development poses a very real problem?”

“Duh,” I said irritably. “That’s exactly what we’ve been saying.”

The ring in the center of his lens hummed as it twisted back and forth. “And the only reason you are so anxious about Olivia and her love interest growing and gaining ‘levels’ is because you need the two to defeat the final boss?”

Marie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that should be obvious. If Olivia and her guy of choice don’t step up, we’ll be up the creek without a paddle.”

If they couldn’t defeat that final boss, Holfort would be completely destroyed. It would be game over for all of us.

Okay, realistically, I don’t know if we’d actually die, too. But I sure don’t want to find out what’d happen if the whole kingdom was annihilated. Even if we survived, navigating everything afterward would be a real pain.

It boiled down to this: I wanted the protagonist and whichever guy she was with to keep the peace so I could live a nice, calm life. I’d be the first to admit that wish was selfish, but even Luxion couldn’t defeat this final boss.

Luxion spent a few seconds digesting everything we’d said, then continued, “And you are absolutely certain that my spaceship cannot exterminate this final boss?”

“Yup. That’s why we’ve got to get Olivia and her love interest to do it for us,” I said.

“I question how accurate that really is at the present moment.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What’re you trying to say?”

“You have informed me that the Principality of Fanoss must use a Magic Flute to summon this final boss.”

Marie and I exchanged glances. It seemed we both understood where Luxion was going with this, and we were equally embarrassed that we hadn’t thought of it sooner ourselves.

Luxion ignored our epiphany and proceeded to state the obvious: “I suggest that we retrieve or otherwise destroy the Magic Flute in question before Fanoss can carry out their plan to summon the boss. With the flute out of their control, no one will need to do battle.”

“Y-you’ve got a good point! And it’s best to strike while the iron is hot. Let’s get the flute and avoid future catastrophe altogether!” The words rushed out of my mouth in my haste to gloss over the way I hadn’t thought of this first.

Marie’s hand shot into the air. “Y-yeah, you said it! With the flute gone, I can rest easier at night!”

Luxion stared at us coldly. “Could it be that this didn’t occur to either of you until I brought it up? Although it is the simplest, most obvious solution to the issue at hand?” His gaze bored into me uncomfortably.

Okay, he’s got a point. Why didn’t I consider doing this sooner? In my defense, I’d been trying to stay out of the whole mess by letting the protagonist and her love interest handle everything. That was why it never occurred to me that we could take care of it ourselves so easily.

“I-I was just trying to come up with something else, that’s all,” I replied. “And don’t you think this should kind of be our last resort anyway? I mean, I wanted to believe in the protagonist and her ability to overcome and triumph.”

Marie bobbed her head quickly. “Yeah! What Leon said! This is her story, not ours. It would’ve been crass of us to steal her limelight and defeat the final boss before she got the chance to!”

“For your sake, I will leave it at that,” Luxion said with an exasperated shake of his eye.

It came as something of a shock that the AI was reining itself in for the sake of our pride.

Luxion turned his attention back to Marie. “Since we have decided on our course of action regarding the final boss, we should next address the issue concerning Marie.”

I glanced at her, knowing immediately what Luxion was talking about. “Yeah. And it’s a pretty big issue.”

Marie pulled a face, sulking. “You’re telling me. How could I have known the Saint’s necklace was cursed?”

Cursed indeed—much to my chagrin, since I was the one who’d given it to her. This particular mess had started the night after I left the necklace in her care.