The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs - Volume 13 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

“...LEON SCREAMED at the top of his lungs." All right. That’s it for today!”

Bookshelves lined the room, and children’s toys were strewn about in its center. Noelle sat in one chair, reading from a book perched on her protruding pregnant belly. The kids who’d listened attentively were all Leon’s.

One reached up and tugged her shirt. “Mommy Noelle, what happened next? What’d Daddy do after that?”

Noelle had been reading from a volume Livia herself wrote, an epic that recounted Leon’s many heroic journeys.

A blond boy whose face looked just like his father’s said, “I wanna hear more about Daddy’s adventures.”

Noelle smiled at him but snapped the book shut, leaving her chair. She tucked it back into a nearby shelf, emphasizing that story time was over for the day. “It’s late, so we’re going to end there. Time for you all to sleep. And I’m sorry, but that book doesn’t continue. The next part isn’t written yet.”

The children collectively whined in disapproval.

A girl with curly hair much like Deirdre’s launched herself at Noelle’s leg and clung to it. “Why won’t you write the next story for us? We want to hear more.”

Noelle smiled bitterly. “We can’t write it yet,” she told the girl. 

Her eyes scanned the children’s faces. Some already looked drowsy. A girl who resembled a younger copy of Angie was nodding off, her head dipping before popping back up. She held the hand of a boy who looked identical to Leon. He was already fast asleep and had collapsed onto the floor beside her.

The children invested in the story insisted they weren’t sleepy and begged for more.

“Write it!”

“We can’t,” Noelle again said firmly. “Just wait a little longer. Your father’s embarking on his next big adventure as we speak. Once it’s over, Mommy Livia will write the next part. When she’s finished, I promise I’ll read the book to you before anyone else gets their hands on it.”

A girl with pink hair leaned against Fact’s mobile unit, her chest rising and falling slowly. Fact supported her as he chided the children. “Lack of proper sleep will negatively impact your growth, young ones. Now, enough arguing. Off to bed with you.”

His nagging didn’t sit well with them; those who remained awake were anxious to play some more. They began poking and prodding him.

“Aw, look! Fact’s mad!”

“Let’s roll him across the floor!”

“N-no, stop it! Can’t you see I already have someone sleeping on me? Stop! I shall negatively adjust my evaluation of you all!”

Although it had initially seemed that all the AIs perished during the battle, Fact and his brethren had in reality preserved themselves by transferring their data to their mobile units. They supported the kingdom from the shadows now, carefully toeing the line so that they didn’t interfere too much. 

Leon hadn’t wanted the AIs to be overinvolved. Angie was anxious to call upon their help, but however much she’d tried to persuade him, Leon rejected her idea without showing any indication of budging. “I want us to be as independent as possible,” he’d said. His stubborn refusal wore Angie down enough that she acquiesced.

Personally, Noelle agreed with Leon. She knew it’d be more efficient to let the AIs handle things, but she still thought it was healthier for their civilization to stand on its own two feet and develop by itself.

“Enough,” she scolded the children. “No bullying Fact. If you don’t go to bed like you’re supposed to, I’ll tell your father.”

“All right,” the children answered in unison, reluctantly obeying.

A girl with black hair pulled into a side ponytail stood in front of Noelle, fidgeting anxiously. Noelle knelt down to her level. “What’s the matter?” she asked sweetly.

“Mommy, um, uh… When is Daddy coming home?”

Noelle’s smile faltered a moment. That was a hard question to answer. Leon had gone off to deal with a particularly troublesome problem, and there was no way for anyone to know when he might return. He probably didn’t even know himself. His troubles had only just begun.

“I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t know either. What I do know is that he should have a long break once summer arrives. Maybe he’ll come home then,” said Noelle.

***

The floating island Leon had once developed for himself was being transformed. It had previously been repurposed for the war, but now it had regained its sprawling greenery. It was still under government ownership, but Leon was using it for personal purposes. It was the perfect place to send all the troublesome people under his care to live. Naturally, that meant Marie and her entire entourage.

Marie was enjoying her walk, dabbing away perspiration with a towel as she watched robots toil in the fields. “Ah, it feels good to be out here sweating. It’ll make today’s beer taste even better!” Although it was only noon, she was already fantasizing about the alcohol they’d drink that evening.

The moment Carla and Kyle spotted her, they rushed toward her, Carla carrying a child on her back. “Lady Marieeeee!” she called. “Please don’t strain your body needlessly!”

Kyle was similarly panicked. He still looked young, but he’d grown taller than Carla. His elven blood came through strong, giving him a handsome face. He was mellower now than he had been when he was younger, but he hadn’t changed much overall.

“Mistress!” he hollered at Marie. “You shouldn’t move around so much in that state!”

Carla seized Marie’s arm and began dragging her back toward the house. “How can you think about drinking in your condition? Come, we need to get home!” She was more assertive with Marie now, partly because she was still looking out for her.

“I wanna drink!” Marie whined childishly at Carla.

The child on Carla’s back tucked a finger into his mouth. He had the same navy-blue hair as Julius.

Jilk strode toward the trio, a leather rucksack over his shoulder. He waved at them as he approached. “I have great news for you, Marie, since you’re so anxious for a drink. I brought back some special tea leaves.”

Carla scowled at him. “I’ll prepare them. Don’t even think about stewing them yourself.”

“Why can’t you get it through your thick skull that you’re terrible at brewing tea?” Kyle added coldly. He might’ve mellowed out with other people, but he was as biting and severe as ever when it came to the idiot brigade—in no small part because those five morons still gave him, Carla, and Marie grief.

Jilk shrugged at them. “I guess the way I brew it is just too sophisticated for you to appreciate.”

Marie’s eyes landed on the leather bag. The color drained from her face. “Jilk,” she said. “I’ve…never seen the case for that tea set you have with you.” As she studied the bag, she soon realized it was brand new.

Pleased she’d noticed so quickly, Jilk patted it. “Oh, this? I picked it up in the capital before I returned. I thought it was a really great find for such a low price, especially given the quality.”

Marie’s legs trembled beneath her. Kyle lunged to hold her up before she sank to the ground. “Mistress! Please keep it together! It’ll be all right. Since Mr. Jilk’s been reinstated, and is a viscount now, we have a little more money than before!”

His assurances didn’t stop the tears that welled in Marie’s eyes. All the boys had been welcomed back into the aristocracy, but they were still in debt.

“You promised me you wouldn’t waste money, remember?!” she screeched at Jilk.

Leon was their creditor, but Angie was the one actually in charge of the purse strings. She was nowhere near as permissive as her husband, and she made sure to charge interest on what they owed. Fortunately, the idiot brigade weren’t squandering their finances the way they used to. They spent reasonably and within their means, primarily for work. Still, Marie was used to being completely penniless and hadn’t yet grown accustomed to their new stature. The amount of debt they were in seemed exorbitant to her.

Jilk grinned at her, puffing out his chest proudly. “It wasn’t a waste of money. After all, this tea set and its case were only eight hundred thousand dia. The seller told me it was something they got out of an ancient ruin, a real antique.”

Eight hundred thousand dia was equivalent to eight million yen.

Marie’s hands flew to her belly. “Oh no… I’m going into labor. I have to get back to the estate to give birth.” She’d gone through this process before, so she stayed calm, despite the urgency of the situation.

“Doctooor! We need a doctor!” Kyle screamed, scrambling off to retrieve one.

Jilk stared at her slack-jawed, startled. “Wh-what should I do?! I guess I should make the tea—no, no, I should carry you to the hospital first!” He was in such a panic that he dropped the new bag he’d purchased. The expensive tea set shattered the moment it slammed against the ground.

Blood drained from Marie’s face. “Noooo! All that money!” she screamed, wobbling and finally losing consciousness.

Jilk dove for her, lifting her in his arms before she hit the floor. “Miss Marie, please get a hold of yourself!”

Carla shot Jilk a look. “You’re the one who put the metaphorical nail in her coffin. How come you’re so gullible? Why did you let someone trick you into thinking a shoddily made tea set was some antique? Do you have any idea how much money you threw away by doing this? It’s high time you owned up to the fact that you have no talent for judging an item’s quality or rarity.” Her words were brutal, going straight for the jugular.

Jilk flinched. Looking a little terrified, he sputtered, “M-my apologies.”

“Well, if you really do feel bad, hurry to the estate and get some water boiling. Go on, run!” Carla made a shooing motion, although she sounded skeptical that he’d be any help whatsoever.

“Y-yes, ma’am!” Leaving Marie in her care, he sprinted off.

Carla sighed and glanced at Marie. “My lady, please pull yourself together.”

Marie had revived but stared blankly straight ahead of her, a forced smile spreading across her face. There was no light in her eyes, as if her spirit had left her body. 

“I’ll have to send a message to Big Bro and ask for money to cover our living expenses again,” she muttered numbly. She let out a short, dry laugh. “Ha ha. We’ll be borrowing more before we even finish paying him back. Our debt’s going to increase even further. Angelica and the other girls will be furious with us.”

“Don’t be too negative, Lady Marie! It’ll be all right. If you tell them it was Jilk, they’ll understand, I’m sure of it! Probably!”

“I miss my brother,” Marie whined.

***

After losing the war to Holfort, the Holy Magic Empire of Vordenoit went through changes.

“The machines are building another of those towers.”

“They give me the creeps.”

“We just have to accept it, though. We lost to them.”

The project began in the empire’s capital, as metal towers were erected in large numbers across the city, serving as lamps on the public streets. They’d only been introduced after the war ended, and the imperials weren’t fond of them.

Finn was walking down a street in the capital when he spotted one and paused to peer up at it. “I never expected he was planning this,” he muttered.

The towers the empire’s citizens despised so much were Leon’s idea.

Mia, whose arm was wrapped around Finn’s, gazed sadly up at the tower as well. “Sir Knight, what did we all fight for in that war?” 

Mia was able to live comfortably and in good health, wandering out in the open as she pleased, but only where these towers had been built. They didn’t only serve as light sources; they also pumped demonic essence into the atmosphere.

She and the other imperials’ bloodlines had a strong similarity to new humanity’s. They’d have difficulty living comfortably if demonic essence completely disappeared from the atmosphere.

Leon had never intended to destroy the empire. In fact, he’d been devising a way for the imperials to coexist with their neighbors.

Finn grimaced. He deeply regretted not having more trust in his best friend. As he remembered Brave, his brow wrinkled. “If I’d put my faith in Leon, we might not have lost Brave. We might’ve avoided that whole war altogether.”

“Sir Knight,” Mia said gently, wrapping her arms around him, “no one could’ve seen what would happen in the future, so please don’t blame yourself too much. I know I caused everyone a lot of trouble too.”

After the war ended, neither she nor Finn had been called upon to take responsibility for the part they played in it. Moritz shouldered all the blame himself. Finn and Mia had renounced their respective positions—his as a knight, hers as a member of the imperial family—and now lived as ordinary citizens.

Finn shook his head. The last thing he wanted was to sadden Mia too. “Are you going to keep calling me ‘Sir Knight’ forever? I’m not a knight anymore.”

“B-but you’ll always be a knight in my heart,” she exclaimed, flustered.

He stroked her head. “All right. But someday you’d better call me by my name.”

“Y-yes, of course!”

The two had just begun their new lives in the empire.

***

Why couldn’t things ever work out the way I wanted them to?

I was currently in a place called Oasis Kingdom, a desert nation far from Holfort. A message had arrived from Marie, describing in keen detail everything that’d happened around her recently.

Elysium hovered at my left shoulder. He’d printed her letter out for me to read. By the end, it turned into a desperate plea for help.

A refreshing breeze swept through the room as I lowered the message and heaved a deep sigh. “Jilk’s a real piece of work, putting her through the wringer when she’s pregnant.”

The guy was a hopeless jerk, but he was also my savior. I’d have died in the battle with the empire if he hadn’t swept in at the end and retrieved me. He always came in handy when the going got tough, but somehow, he was an absolute loser on a daily basis. I guess if I weigh his pluses and minuses, they come out about even? Nah, probably still a few more minuses. He was lucky he’d saved my life, or I might really have sent him somewhere remote, isolating him from the rest of the world.

After listening to me rant and reading all the message’s details over my shoulder, Elysium concluded, “He is more trouble than he is worth. Let’s erase him.”

“Don’t say scary stuff like that,” I ordered him.

“I understand your meaning exactly, Master. You want me to erase him secretly, correct? I shall do just that. Before you know it, Jilk will have died from a mysterious illness, and no one shall be the wiser.”

“Stop twisting my words! We’ll leave Jilk to his own devices—wait, no, that might be too dangerous. Maybe I should ask Noelle to give him a talking to. Angie’s busy handling administrative stuff, so I can’t put more on her plate.” Thinking about Noelle and Angie, who’d stayed behind in Holfort, brought me close to tears.

Why did I have to come all the way out to this foreign country anyway? And why the heck was I serving as a teacher at Oasis Kingdom’s school? It was tragic enough that I’d somehow become king of a nation, but now I was somehow far from home educating kids, all because this was the setting for the game’s fourth installment. The “teacher” business was my cover; I’d infiltrated the school to keep tabs on the main character and her love interests.

Elysium’s lens flashed red three times. “A video message has arrived from Lady Olivia. I shall play it now.”

“From Livia?” I cocked my head.

His lens projected a video feed depicting Livia in the kitchen of the apartment we shared here in Oasis Kingdom. She waved and smiled at me, wearing an apron. “Mr. Leon, I’d like you to come home quickly today, since I’m making you fish for dinner. Be sure to let me know if you’ll be late. You’d better not forget, all right? Get in touch with me.”

She was trying to entice me with fish, which was adorable, but something about her solemn expression, and the way she repeatedly emphasized contacting her, gave me pause.

“It’s nice living with the woman you love. That’s the one silver lining in all this misfortune.” My face fell. “But I wish I could be at home, watching our kids grow up.”

“Would you like to see records of the children’s growth?” Elysium asked.

“Yeah, when I get home.”

“Certainly.”

As much as I wanted to avoid further world-ending catastrophes, having to leave home like this seriously sucked. I was really glad that Livia came along, but it was hard not seeing my kids. Having so many might’ve been the bigger issue, though.

“Leaving that issue aside for the moment, there was something odd about the video Lady Olivia sent. It is almost as if she is trying to keep tabs on you,” said Elysium.

I shrugged. “She’s adorable.”

“How magnanimous you are to describe her that way! I am deeply moved, Master.”

“You know, you’re always way too dramatic about everything. Are you actually mocking me? Is that what this is?”

“No,” Elysium said. “I just genuinely believe you are the best Master in the world.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I appreciated his lack of barbs and cheap shots, which Luxion had been fond of, but he was so theatrical about everything that it felt facetious. No, no. He’s a good boy. A good boy with a lot of problems, granted.

“Oh. I should also inform you that Roland was safely discharged from the hospital,” Elysium said.

“Yeah? I couldn’t care less.”

After abdicating the throne, Roland had retired to the countryside and gone back to his old ways. He was supposed to be confined to an island, but he’d slipped away countless times. He always headed for a big city to hit on girls, juggling dozens upon dozens of relationships at once. That alone pissed me off.

His descent into debauchery turned out to be more than one of the women he’d brought to his island could take. She’d snapped and run him through with a knife, landing him in the hospital. Great news, as far as I was concerned; what I wouldn’t have given to see it happen again! 

“It’d really make my day if he got stabbed a second time!”

“If I recall correctly, Master, you were concerned for him when I first reported that he had been stabbed and was unconscious in the hospital,” said Elysium. “You asked me repeatedly whether he was all right, and looked visibly relieved when I informed you that he would survive the encounter. Why would you want him to be stabbed again?” He sounded genuinely confused.

I avoided his gaze. He was right that I’d been surprised and concerned at first. I hated Roland’s guts, but I was in the same position as him. We were both surrounded by a harem of women, and when I heard he’d been stabbed by one, I couldn’t help seeing myself in him.

“Look,” I said, “it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing if I got stabbed too.”

“There is no need for you to be concerned about that, Master. I would erase anyone foolish enough to make such an attempt.”

“The scary part is I could picture you doing that.”

“There is no need to picture it. I absolutely would.”

I shook my head at him, nose wrinkled. “See, that’s a little scary. Your loyalty to me is suffocating.”

“I digress, Master. Why is it that you seem to see yourself in Roland?”

“Because I’ve got a bunch of wives too.” I knew admitting it aloud made me sound like a real creep, but I couldn’t help that. If I tried to take the monogamy route, and pick just one of them, the knives would really come out for me.

There was no going back.

To be clear, I didn’t regret having so many women around, but I felt bad about it. If I’d handled things better from the beginning, I wouldn’t have ended up with such a huge harem.

“Your situation and Roland’s are completely different,” Elysium assured me. “In fact, if you desire it, I could dispose of him.”

“Stop it! You’re not killing Roland!” Sure, I had a deep-seated resentment for the guy, and I’d laughed a bit when I heard he’d been stabbed, but I didn’t want to kill him.

“I cannot understand your feelings for him. Do you want him to die or not?”

“Both. I want him to die, but I don’t.”

“Very well. I will save the matter of his extermination for another time.” Elysium swiveled, glanced behind us, and activated his cloaking device to hide himself from view.

Someone was coming upstairs to the school rooftop. When they reached the top step, they flung the door open and stepped outside. It was a male student, which wasn’t surprising, given that this was an all-boy school. The last place I wanted to be, since I had no interest in dudes. My wives would frown on my saying that, though, given the possible implication that I wanted to expand my harem.

The student who’d climbed to the roof was awfully delicate for a boy, with an androgynous face. When he saw me, he smiled. “You’re here again, Professor Leon?” He sounded awfully happy to have found me.

I shrugged. “I like the rooftop. What can I say?” I didn’t sound like a teacher at all. “Anyway, have you got some business with me?”

The student gave me an exasperated look but soon broke into another smile. “You’re supposed to teach our next class. I came up here to get you and make sure you wouldn’t be late.”

This boy actually wasn’t a boy at all; she was the protagonist of the fourth Alte Liebe game. Based on what Erica told me, she was cross-dressing to attend this school. I still didn’t know what had possessed her to come here, though. Erica wasn’t able to provide many details, so I was starting out pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. Elysium and I had come to this desert country specifically to conduct our own investigation.

“All right, let’s head for the classroom,” I suggested, standing up straight as I strode back toward the staircase.

“Aw. I really don’t want to go to class,” complained the protagonist.

“Is that something you ought to say to a teacher?”

She giggled at me.

Before I knew it, we’d reached the classroom. Inside was a group of boys who looked like a bunch of delinquents. They glared at me. I was actually just the assistant homeroom teacher, not a full-fledged professor. Most of the students here were troubled in one way or another. The fourth installment had really crammed a bunch of tropes into its story.

I watched the protagonist take her seat. As the school bell chimed, I scanned the rest of the classroom. Some other boys there were probably her love interests, but I had no way of identifying any of them. All her classmates were potential candidates at this point.

“Glad to see everyone here today,” I said.

I wasn’t the type to be the entire world’s savior, but sadly, no one else was up to the task. Besides, Luxion was awaiting me on the other side. I had to give this my best shot so that I could greet him with a smile when we reunited. It’d feel great to brag to him that I’d saved the world again, so that was just what I would do.

“All right, let’s get started.”

The bigger question was this: How many times would I have to save this stupid place? Honestly, the world of otome games was a real thorn in my side.