Right and wrong can flip depending on your perspective.
My mind was so exhausted that I found myself thinking about things I normally never consider.
Maybe because of that mental erosion, my expression had gone blank.
Right now I just wanted to collapse onto my bed and spend my time on my favorite manga or anime. Or better yet, I wanted to play the sort of games that boys actually play.
But the game I was playing, with dead eyes like some office worker in the middle of his day off, was... an otome game.
It was a so-called romance game—if the protagonist were male, you'd call it a galge.
Since the protagonist is female, they call it an otome game.
Exactly.
This is not the kind of game a working adult like me should be playing on a precious day off.
If I actually liked otome games, that would be one thing, but honestly, I'd much rather be playing games aimed at guys.
"Why the hell do I have to spend my morning conquering a bunch of dudes? And now it's already noon, too."
On the other side of the screen was a handsome male character.
Basically every capture target that shows up is good-looking.
Famous voice actors lend their voices, and popular illustrators drew the characters.
My smartphone was propped up nearby, displaying walkthrough information.
As I occasionally glanced at it and picked choices, a chime signaled a rise in affection, and the 3D character moved to strike a pose.
He ran his fingers through his hair, his cheeks just slightly flushing.
'You... you're different from other women. I'll remember your name.'
The guy was the crown prince—a capture target in the game, and an extremely popular male character at the academy.
The scene was one where the protagonist meets him by chance, and since she doesn't know he's the crown prince, she treats him normally.
To the prince, that attitude probably seems refreshing, but...
"...There's nothing happy about watching a guy blush. And to think my precious day off is vanishing because of this stuff."
I worked Monday through Friday, and my hard-earned Saturday and Sunday were being devoured by an otome game.
It had been ages since I'd even had a Saturday off.
I'd been busy with overtime for a while, so I'd made all kinds of plans for this two-day break.
And then—this.
A notification sound came from my phone.
When I picked it up and checked, I found a message from my sister—with an attached picture.
'Having a blast in Hawaii with my friends~'
...My blood boiled.
There was my sister, looking like she was having the time of her life with her male and female friends on the beach and at the hotel.
I fired off a message immediately.
'Are you kidding me?! You pushed this game on me because you said you were busy!'
That's right—the game I was playing was my sister's otome game.
On Saturday morning, while I was cleaning my cramped little apartment where I live alone, my sister dropped by. She's a college student and lives with our parents.
I thought it was unusual, but then she forced this game on me.
Smiling, she said she was busy and told me to complete it for her.
Complete. Completion... That meant I had to get the game to a state where every CG and event movie was unlocked. Once they've been viewed, she can go back and look at them later.
So I got saddled with playing her otome game.
My sister's reply came through.
'Huh? You sure you wanna talk like that? When I get back, I won't clear up Mom's misunderstanding, you know. I'll bring you a souvenir, so just finish the completion stuff, 'kay~'
Reading that infuriating message, I barely resisted the urge to hurl my phone at the floor, and I yelled.
"God dammiiiiit!"
I'd wanted to refuse too, obviously.
But my sister, who lives at home, had hidden a huge stash of her own hobby books in my room. Then she made sure our mom found them, so Mom got the wrong idea that I was the one with those interests.
For the record, my sister is the type they call a fujoshi.
She's not bad-looking, and her grades aren't bad either.
But her personality is that of someone who's very good at wearing a mask—and I've always been the one to suffer for it.
She hides her hobbies from our parents, too.
She laid all this groundwork just to force me into playing her game.
And thanks to that, I got a worried call from our mom.
Suppressing the urge to rampage, I returned my gaze to the screen.
Picking up the controller again, I focused solely on clearing the game so I could clear up the misunderstanding. Infuriating as it is, our parents trust my sister more than me.
She knows that full well, which only makes me angrier.
Even if I frantically try to set the record straight, my sister is way more eloquent—that's another headache. And she lives at home.
She even squeezed pocket money out of me, and her excuse for being busy was a trip. I'm pretty sure if I punched her just once, I'd be completely justified.
"She could really use a taste of her own medicine."
She's always been clever and a smooth operator.
She knows she's cute, and honestly, she's basically my polar opposite. The only real weakness she has is probably those hobbies she keeps hidden from everyone.
Grudgingly continuing the game, I frowned.
"This part is the real problem."
This otome game my sister forced on me.
It was made with the ambition of being a blockbuster, and it's seriously elaborate. Apparently my sister had immediately bought the first-print limited edition for the art and the voice actors.
But the issue is that it's an otome game with RPG and strategy simulation elements crammed into it.
The game's setting is a sword-and-magic fantasy world.
A fantastical realm where chunks of earth float in the sky and people live on them.
There are kings and nobles, and the level of civilization doesn't seem particularly high, but airships fly through the skies and knights fight wearing armor that looks like powered suits.
On top of that, the protagonist attends an academy for the children of nobility.
The protagonist is a commoner, but her talent is recognized and she is admitted to the academy.
There, she'll end up meeting a prince and the sons of aristocrats.
But once she enrolls, bullying from her own gender and the outbreak of war will drastically change her life...
Basically, it's a game where they crammed adventure and war into a school-life romance game.
Apparently my sister tried to clear it on her own at first, but she gave up because she just couldn't handle those elements clearly aimed at guys.
And thanks to that, I ended up stuck with all the hard work.
"Who even asks for this kind of thing in an otome game in the first place?"
Grumbling, I kept my eyes on the screen and worked the controller.
On the screen, airships were lined up.
Airships shaped like ships, airships shaped like rugby balls. All sorts of airships were facing off against each other.
When I moved them, the airships would shift position, and I'd deploy knights from them to attack, but...
"It's ridiculously difficult, and that's the problem. Make it so you can breeze through it a little faster, please!"
—Anyway, every single stage is hard.
If it were easy, even my sister could have cleared it.
"Ah, crap."
One of our allied airships went down.
Since the landmass itself is floating, airships are the mainstream method of transportation. Maybe because of that, they're also the primary tool of war.
I mean, I'm fine with giant hunks of metal flying through the air and firing cannons at each other, but... it's just so damn difficult.
One reason is that there are random elements that influence the outcome.
Even when I follow the walkthrough, I still lose sometimes, and that drives me crazy.
"As if I can afford to waste time on this! Seriously, why did they shove elements like this into an otome game?! Are they stupid? They must be stupid! Or are they trying to make you spend money?!"
They're trying to force you to buy paid content.
I refuse to accept any more expenses for my sister's sake, but the combat and war segments are undeniably the reason my time is being stolen.
I paused the game and looked up the paid content.
And there they were—a mountain of items.
Outfits for the protagonist, equipment, all sorts of items.
Those go for about a hundred yen each, but the prices for airships and armor that help in the combat sections are weirdly high.
Three hundred to eight hundred yen.
"...This kind of business is exactly why games get a bad reputation."
It had been anticipated at first, but by pulling these kinds of monetization schemes to push paid content, it got hammered by criticism.
The aggressive pricing was also revised within less than a month, and the prices dropped.
I scanned the shop.
"Swimsuit outfits for the guys... No thanks."
One of the things being sold was equipment to put the male characters in swimsuits.
Looking at it just made me sick.
But, if the roles were reversed... if it were a normal galge with a male protagonist and female capture targets, I might have bought it. No, I definitely would have bought it. Every single one of them.
Mentally in tatters, I laughed weakly.
"From a girl's perspective, I wonder if harems feel the same way I do right now? Eh, who cares."
Looking from my perspective, an otome game where you can build a reverse harem is just exasperating—and that probably goes for galge games, too.
The fact that I was earnestly thinking about that kind of thing honestly felt like a red flag for my mental state. Anyway, I decided to focus only on finishing the game.
"Alright, which one should I buy to wrap this up quickly?"
They all looked powerful.
Exclusive weapons for the male characters, exclusive equipment for the protagonist.
More than anything, I wanted something useful for the war segments.
"...This one."
The most expensive paid content was an airship.
It seemed like you could get an absurdly powerful airship that ignores tedious status things like supply lines.
"It looks more like a spaceship than an airship."
Given that it cost a whopping 1,200 yen, its performance was flawless.
Checking the flavor text, it was something about an ancient... anyway, it was an incredible spaceship.
"It IS a spaceship! ...Or maybe that's a typo?"
Maybe they meant to type "airship" but typed "spaceship" instead? That occurred to me, but since all I needed was to clear the game, it didn't matter.
I bought it.
Next, I checked out the armor.
Powered suits... Well, they were shaped like armor, but there was something completely unrealistic about them. They looked more like you'd call them mecha and be done with it.
Knights were the ones who donned that kind of armor and waged war.
From a girl's perspective, I wonder if a guy who fights for you actually looks dashing?
Anyway, I bought the expensive one.
If this makes clearing the game easier, it's a cheap price to pay.
The black armor was sort of spiky and looked like something a villain would wear, but that didn't matter. What mattered was finishing the game without hassle.
It had a wide variety of attacks, so it would be useful in any situation.
Like, there's that capture target who's the disciple of a sword saint and strong with a sword but has no ranged options, and another one who's a magic idiot but fragile.
So, if it meant getting the war parts over with quickly, two thousand yen wasn't a bad expense.
"I have to finish this. Just finish it so I can finally relax."
My precious days off were slipping away.
Unable to take it anymore, I used the paid content I'd bought, and from there, I silently continued conquering those guys.
Past noon and into the evening, I somehow managed to push the collection rate for events and CGs past ninety percent.
All that remained was the harem ending. Or reverse harem ending?
The ending where the protagonist marries all the male characters was still left.
This is considered the game's True End—the true ending—but from my perspective, it was just something I was mindlessly clearing.
The items the guys would give you once their affection hit a certain point, I'd sell off at the item shop the next day and turn into cash.
And I did it with the characters still in my party, too.
Selling stuff right in front of the person who gave it to me is pretty scummy, but since it's just a game, who cares.
I just proceeded mindlessly, exactly according to the walkthrough.
If only this had been a galge.
Thinking that, I kept playing... and before I knew it, night had fallen.
"...I really did waste two whole days."
As I watched the ending, what welled up inside me was anger—and sadness.
Why did I have to do something like this?
I saved my data, and having kept my promise to my sister, I collapsed onto my bed.
Looking at the clock, it was already late enough that no one would think twice about me going to sleep.
I couldn't muster the energy to go out now.
But maybe because I felt relieved that everything was over, I suddenly realized I was hungry.
When I pressed my hand against my stomach, I remembered that aside from a tiny breakfast, I hadn't eaten anything.
"There's nothing in the fridge."
While cleaning, I'd thrown out anything past its expiration date.
There was barely anything in there to begin with, so either way, I'd have to go outside to eat.
And at this hour, too.
The only places I could go were family restaurants or convenience stores.
Checking my phone, I saw a message from my sister.
'Are you taking it seriously? I'll come pick it up when I get back, so have it ready. If you do a good job, I'll give you a souvenir.'
Even as my own sister, I thought she was the absolute worst.
She was showing off how much fun she was having while telling me to work hard. And she'd squeezed money out of me on top of that...
"She doesn't even have a part-time job. Where did she get the money?"
Puzzled, I thought about it.
She's got a weird sort of pride, so she wouldn't do anything that'd get her in trouble. And she has a curfew, so she can't stay out late.
As I thought that far, I remembered something our mom had said before.
"She mentioned needing money to get a qualification."
Our parents must have prepared the money thinking she was getting a driver's license or something, but no matter how I looked at it, a chunk of it definitely went toward that trip.
I copied my sister's message.
I edited it on my PC and sent a message addressed to Mom.
Of course, I attached my sister's comments and pictures too.
"...Idiot. This is what happens when you underestimate your big brother."
The fact that she'd threatened me, the fact that she'd gone on a trip.
What would our parents think when they saw this?
For all her cleverness, with this kind of undeniable evidence, even she wouldn't be able to talk her way out of it.
I was grinning to myself about it when it hit me.
"Wait. If I could've done this from the start, then there was no need to waste my time clearing the game... Ugh, I'm hopeless."
Realizing just how stupid I'd been, I grabbed my wallet because I was hungry.
The matter with my sister could wait as a treat for when she got back.
I wouldn't have to rack my brain over otome games ever again.
Just thinking that made my steps feel lighter.
The oddly floaty sensation was a happy feeling, like the relief after being freed from work.
"Alright, I'll splurge a little today. Convenience store, or maybe a family restaurant—"
Deciding to make tonight's dinner more extravagant than usual put me in a happy mood.
I walked down the hallway, the flickering fluorescent lights bothering me since no one else was around, and just as I reached the stairs, a sudden wave of dizziness hit me.
"—Ah, this... this is the bad kind."
My body crumpled on the spot, all strength gone like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
The really unlucky part was the location.
The staircase was right in front of me, and my vision violently lurched.
I didn't feel pain or anything like that, but as I tumbled down hard, I knew my situation was dangerous.
"...An end... like this... is so... pathetic."
My precious days off ruined by my sister, and just when I thought I was finally free, I'd seriously injured myself. No, maybe my life was in danger.
The thought made me strangely—furious.
Amid the fading scenery, my life began to flash before my eyes, and just when I thought this was truly the end... at the very last moment, I saw a landscape I'd never seen before.
Landmasses floating above the sea.
Airships flying through the sky.
Blue skies and white clouds—I saw myself reaching out a hand toward the sun, and then my consciousness slipped away.
◇
The gently sloping embankment was lush with grass that had grown just the right length.
Lying sprawled out on that spot, I—Leon Fou Bartfort—was reaching a hand toward the sun, my heart hammering violently.
It wasn't sweat from the warmth of the sun; it was a cold sweat I couldn't stop.
A disgusting sweat.
"Wh-what was that just now?"
When I hastily sat up, blades of grass caught on my clothes were yanked from the ground. As the wind blew, leaves and grass danced in the air.
Just as I registered the particularly strong gust, an airship passed directly overhead, blocking out the sun for a moment.
The boxy, wooden airship was the one that visited our territory regularly.
Normally I would have watched it without a second thought, but today I couldn't hide my wide-eyed astonishment.
It felt like I was seeing it for the very first time.
When I pressed a hand to my chest, my heart was pounding fiercely.
I stood up and gazed in the direction the airship had gone, and beyond it, the sea stretched out.
If there was something that felt off, it was the way the sea looked.
"What... Why—"
I moved forward slowly but tripped.
Checking my own body, I saw that my arms and legs were strangely small.
There was no doubt this was my own body, yet it felt oddly tiny—a bizarre sensation.
But confirming things mattered more than worrying about that.
I walked, then broke into a run, heading for the sea.
A strange sense of foreboding filled me.
On a child's legs, it felt like it took a long time, but I arrived at my destination.
From the spot where a safety fence had been installed to prevent falls, the scenery I saw was the same as always.
"Right. Just like always—the islands are floating."
Islands that floated above the sea.
The floating islands were there today as well, but I couldn't tell if that made me happy or sad. The image that surfaced in my mind was of islands bobbing in the water like they were floating on it.
That couldn't be right, and yet I absolutely had to see it for myself.
I'd been feeling strange since a little while ago.
The moment I reached toward the sun, the vision I saw was practically the whole life of a single person. The life of a man who lived somewhere that wasn't here.
There was nothing especially remarkable about it, but it wasn't my imagination that it still looked happy.
I just can't remember his name.
I pressed both hands to my head.
Even though the memories had played out so vividly, I somehow couldn't recall his name.
In the five years I've been alive—the span of my five-year-old life—it felt like I'd experienced more than that in a single instant. Or rather, like I'd remembered it.
Unable to make sense of it, I sank down on the spot.
With my back against the fence, I looked up at the sky.
"...Just what was all that?"
Even I didn't know who I was asking.
◇
The sun was going down, so I returned home.
I remembered now that I had hated the idea of going back and had run off to lie on the embankment, but I wanted to return before nightfall.
Bracing myself, I went home, and the one waiting for me was my father.
He stood with his arms crossed at the front door, waiting.
"You idiot son!"
His huge fist smacked me on the head, and with tears in my eyes, I clutched my skull as the door opened.
The person I saw from there was my mother.
"You finally came back. Why on earth would you run away on the day the lady of the house was coming? "
My father, Balcus, is a feudal lord—a baron.
My mental image of a noble was someone who wore fine clothes and was more slender. Or maybe fat. But Balcus was a muscular, bearded giant of a man.
My mother, a mistress, was Ryuse—the daughter of a retainer knight family.
She also wore the sort of clothes that women in town or the village would wear, not a dress.
The "lady" my mother referred to was my father's legal wife.
"I-I'm... sorry."
Perhaps sensing that my mood was different from usual, my parents made odd faces as they tried to take me into the house—no, not the main residence, but the storehouse.
Then, peering at us from the open front door was a woman in a dress.
She didn't leave the main house; she just looked down on me.
Her neck and fingers were adorned with jewels, and standing nearby were her eldest son, Rutart, and eldest daughter, Merse.
Those two alone were the children of the mistress—the legal wife.
Behind them stood a tall, handsome man in a suit. With his long ears and all the features of an elf, the man looked at us with a sneer.
"Honestly, this is what you get with ill-bred children."
The woman, with her hair done up, narrowed her eyes. She perfectly fit the image of a noblewoman. Both my older brother and older sister were wearing expensive clothes, unlike me.
My mother apologized, and my father led me away to the storehouse.
On the way there, my father's face looked like he was holding back.
"...Reflect on what you've done in the storehouse. I'll have food brought to you later."
I nodded, and inside the storehouse, someone else was already there.
It was my second older brother, Nicks.
My brother, two years older than me and dressed in similar clothes to mine, was reading a book by the light of a lantern. When my father and I came in, he looked exasperated.
"You're an idiot too. If you just put up with it for a few days, they'll leave."
Watching my brother turn his eyes back to his book, my father pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Nicks, teach Leon his studies."
My brother pulled a very reluctant face, but he cleared a space on the desk in the storehouse and brought over a chair.
He told me to sit.
"If you fall asleep, I'm hitting you."
Seeing me nod, my father left the storehouse and returned to the mansion.
Once it was just the two of us, my brother handed me a book that even I could manage. I opened the battered, hand-me-down volume.
There were scribbles here and there.
Inside the storehouse.
I brushed away the bugs drawn to the lantern light and read.
It was a slightly strange sensation.
There was a language inside my head that I didn't recognize. If anything, it felt even more natural to use than the one I was speaking.
My brother must have thought I was struggling with some characters I couldn't read.
"Figure it out on your own a little. If you really can't get it, I'll tell you."
The quiet time ticked by.
If there was anything noisy, or rather annoying, it was just the bugs gathering around the light.
"—Hey, Bro?"
My word choice seemed to startle my brother a bit.
"Bro? Weren't you calling me 'big brother' until this morning?"
I hurriedly tried to correct myself, but my brother apparently found his own answer.
"Going through a phase where you wanna act older? Eh, I don't really care either way. More importantly, what part don't you get?"
I shook my head.
What was bothering me was how we were treated.
I understood the heir being treasured, but why were we stuck out in the storehouse? We also have other older and younger sisters.
But those sisters aren't in the storehouse. Even though they're also children of a mistress.
"Why are only we in the storehouse?"
My brother muttered, "And just yesterday you were saying 'I' like a little kid..." before setting his book down and looking up at the ceiling.
"Because Her Ladyship hates us."
"Because we're mother—because we're Mom's kids?"
My brother laced his hands behind his head.
"You think there's any other reason? Even though we're the children of a mistress, it looks like she at least hesitated to shove the girls out into the storehouse, but the treatment for boys is about this much."
From there, my brother calmly explained our family's circumstances.
Actually, it was less "explaining" and more just griping to his clueless younger brother.
It seems my seven-year-old brother has plenty of his own grievances.
The Bartfort family holds a floating island as its territory.
However, until recently, they had been a baronetcy—a family classified as a knight house. They weren't true nobles, but they were still a family of feudal lords.
But over a long stretch of time, the territory developed.
Through independence and entering service, retainer knight families were established, and before we knew it, the house's scale had grown.
The infrastructure of the domain was improved, the population increased—which meant the population the land could support had grown—and in terms of territory size, it barely qualified as a barony.
Then surveyors from the Holfart Kingdom came.
They had supposedly come to verify the territory's scale. Normally, peerage promotions aren't decided based on territory size alone. They aren't, but the kingdom declared that if a territory's scale was equivalent to a barony, they would prepare a baron title.
Ordinarily, you apparently need military achievements or other significant deeds to be promoted.
"Is it bad to be promoted?"
My brother doesn't seem to fully understand either, but judging from our father's demeanor, he gathered that it wasn't a happy thing.
"He was grumbling that even if they spring it on you suddenly, it's a problem. On top of that, a baron family is expected to contribute on the level of a baron family. That's why we're so poor."
You're expected to perform to the standard of your family's rank.
When he said that, something surfaced in the knowledge from that other world.
The difference between a territory that barely qualifies as a barony and one that comfortably meets the mark.
Families with leeway have no issues, but for families without that margin, the required contributions become a burden. So that's probably why there are houses that keep quiet and continue calling themselves baronetcies even if their territory is baron-scale.
In any case, a rural noble house on a remote island ended up becoming a baron family.
Our father was expected to behave in a manner befitting the household's rank, and so he apparently ended up marrying a higher-status woman.
But the woman called Her Ladyship normally doesn't live in the territory.
Her eldest son and daughter only visit the territory occasionally.
"...But they're married, right?"
"Yeah, that's right. They are. Well, I hear that kind of setup is normal for houses ranked baron and above. In the future, you and I will both have to find partners at the Academy, too. But personally, I don't want to get involved with any girl from a baron family or higher. I don't want to end up as some older woman's second husband looking after her. You'd better study now so you can find a partner at the Academy, too. Otherwise you'll get turned into an old hag's second husband."
...I couldn't hide my shock.
There were things like the Academy and all sorts of other stuff I wanted to ask about, but more than any of that, the phrase "second husband" stuck with me.
"U-uh, Brother?"
"I don't mind if you call me Bro. So what is it?"
"...Normally, isn't the man the center of a household? I mean, what does it mean to be forced onto an older woman?"
My brother tilted his head.
"It means exactly what it sounds like. Women who couldn't get married, women who were left by their men—any woman without a husband, basically. Apparently having only lovers doesn't save face."
My unusually level-headed brother answered my question.
"In a normal case, isn't the man in a higher position?"
With the knowledge I'd somehow obtained, I'd vaguely thought that men would be the stronger ones in this situation. But apparently not.
"Just look at Dad and you'll see women are stronger. You've seen for yourself that he can't defy that woman—Her Ladyship."
The fact that he corrected himself from calling her "that woman" told me my brother had some bitter feelings toward Her Ladyship.
I'd just heard something insane.
"You're acting weird today."
Suspected by my brother, I gave a strained laugh and turned my eyes back to the book, breaking out into a strange sweat again.
This is wrong... This world is just wrong somehow.
Maybe because I'd gained knowledge of a strange world, everything felt off to me.
After reading for a while, I recalled what my brother had said earlier.
"The Academy... Holfart Kingdom? And lovers... Wait, that elf servant... an elf?"
As I was muttering to myself, my brother complained that I was being noisy.
"What's with you?"
"Uh, um, that man in the suit. The elf is Her Ladyship's lover, right?"
I still didn't quite know what tone to use with my brother.
My brother didn't look bothered; he just seemed exasperated.
"Don't ask such obvious stuff. Come on, study."
A demi-human as a lover—or rather, a servant who attends her... I knew this situation. Actually, I remembered it with incredible clarity.
I slumped forward onto the desk.
"...This is an otome game world."
My muddled consciousness gradually grew clear.
At the same time, I realized that this world was an otome game world with unbelievably fluffy, flimsy world-building.
My brother slapped the back of my head.
"Don't fall asleep! Seriously, what's up with you today? Did you hit your head or something?"
I raised my head and looked at my brother.
I was wearing such a twitchy grin that my brother recoiled slightly in surprise.
"Wh-what?"
"...Bro, the world is pretty unreasonable, huh."
"...Y-yeah, sure is."
Struggling to answer, my brother fled back into his book and resumed studying.
I never imagined I'd experience being reincarnated into another world.
And on top of that, a sword-and-magic fantasy world... but nobody told me it was an otome game world where women dominate men.
I clutched my head in both hands.
"This is the worstrrr!"
When I yelled that out, my brother just whined.
"What is wrong with you?! Somebody make this guy quiet down!"
I—Leon Fou Bartfort—was a former Japanese person reincarnated into an otome game world.
...I would have much rather been reborn into a more normal world.
And to top it all off, it had to be an otome game...