I dragged the man who called himself Finn into a private room at a tavern.
Sitting across from each other, we both skipped the alcohol and ordered tea and food instead.
I could clearly tell he was on guard against me.
(For Luxion to be this wary, this guy must be pretty dangerous.)
Should I have just taken him out by surprise? While thinking that, I glanced at my partner, whose red eye was glowing.
"○×▲▽――!!"
My partner was spouting something completely incomprehensible, and it was frightening.
It was the same for the one across from me.
"■◇◆◆○●――!!"
He seemed to be muttering some kind of incantation, but I couldn't understand it.
The two of them were enemies――they seemed to bear quite a deep grudge against each other.
"Well then, the drinks and food are here, so let's get down to business."
When I spoke up first, the other man nodded.
"Right."
The taciturn pretty-boy hadn't even touched his drink the whole time.
"It's not like I put poison in it or anything."
"I don't care about that. More importantly, let's just get on with the talk."
My throat was dry from the tension, but with the man in front of me not drinking, somehow I――didn't want to drink either. Could it be that he's pulling something?
For the time being, not drinking seemed the safer choice.
If there were poison in it, Luxion ought to warn me――.
"qawsedrft――!!"
From earlier, it looked like there'd be no conversation out of him.
"All right, then there's one thing I want to ask you first. ――What did you come to this country for?"
The other man paused a beat, then answered.
"To guard Mia――that girl. Does the word 'protagonist' mean anything to you?"
"No problem there. So you're one of our crowd too, huh."
We mutually confirmed we were both reincarnators.
With that, one problem was solved.
Meaning he's got cheat items, too.
"Now then, here's where it gets important. ――What are you guys' goals?"
The protagonist of the third installment is, in fact, later revealed to be a princess of the empire.
The capture-target boys become her guardian knights and resolve various problems together with her――.
"Our goal? That's already decided. To clear that game safely."
"Safely, huh. I'd like you to be a bit more specific."
Having been burned once before, I wasn't about to let my guard down here.
The other man――Finn――scratched his hair as if troubled.
"Why do I have to spell it out that far?"
"Because it's necessary. Depending on what you guys do, I have to decide how I'll move too."
While I was bracing myself, ready to give no quarter if he turned hostile, this time Finn fired a question back at me.
"Then what is it that you want to do? Just because you're a reincarnator, did you really have to change the country this much?"
Those words got me irritated.
"Don't make it sound like it's my fault! I'm not the one to blame here!"
"R-Really?"
Huh? He's backing off here? That's not the reaction I was expecting.
As an awkward silence stretched between us, I went ahead and told him the whole story of how things had gotten this way.
"There's another reincarnator. That one was my little sister in my past life――and she stole the protagonist's spot to chase her own reverse harem."
"You're kidding."
I wanted to agree with Finn's shocked reaction――but it was the truth.
Having my past-life little sister aim for a reverse harem――as her family, it's embarrassing.
"Thanks to that, all my plans got thrown off, and while I was cleaning up after her, things ended up like this."
"I-I see. That must have been rough."
"Yeah, it was rough."
――Then it was Finn's turn to talk.
"Mia is――not a reincarnator. It's just, she kind of reminds me of my little sister from my past life. So I felt like I had to protect her."
"You had a tough time with your little sister too?"
"No, my past-life sister was sickly. She died young, so I want Mia to be happy at least."
I had the feeling I'd just stepped on a landmine, so I quickly tried to smooth things over.
"I-I see. So that's why you followed her all the way to the academy."
"If possible, I want to find a guy who can be trusted with Mia and advance the scenario. That girl's body has been getting especially weak lately."
Apparently, advancing the scenario would also solve that problem.
"You followed her all the way to the academy for that? The paperwork and everything must've been a huge hassle."
"On that front, a big shot in the empire happens to be a reincarnator. It was pretty easy."
"There are other reincarnators in the empire too?"
"Right now, that's the only one I know of. What about your side?"
"In the kingdom, there's three including me. With the caveat 'that I know of.' But there's also two in the Alzer Republic."
"The republic――oh right! About the republic. What the hell did you do over there? The republic suddenly almost collapsed, and even the empire was in an uproar."
"It's not my fault! Those two reincarnators over there came at me first, so I just had no choice but to fight back!"
"I-I see."
As we kept talking about various things, I realized――huh? This guy isn't actually that dangerous, is he?
Finn looked like he'd been let down too.
"So basically? Leon――you're saying that while cleaning up after your sister and the republic's reincarnators, you just happened to rise in rank?"
"That's right. I'm not the one at fault here. And also, Erica was my niece in my past life, so she's not a villain. Hands off her. That kid's an incredibly good girl."
"I heard that part already. I see, so that's why you didn't move against us. No, my bad. I'm relieved."
At Finn's words, Brave――no, Kurosuke――was protesting.
"Partner! Don't let them sweet-talk you. The thing next to him is an AI. It's a filthy slaughter weapon that'll use any dirty trick it can!"
Then Luxion also made his appeal to me.
"Master, this thing is a weapon left behind by the New Humanity. It is an enemy of the Old Humanity, and is not to be trusted. Please come to your senses. Now, let us annihilate the New Humanity together!"
"You hear that, partner!? He just said 'annihilate'! See, this guy really is dangerous!"
Finn and I each pressed our respective spherical companions down with our hands and resumed the conversation.
"I see――so you're stuck dealing with a troublesome partner too."
When I said that, Finn nodded.
"Whenever anything related to Old Humanity comes up, this guy goes berserk. Sorry about that. I was suspicious of you guys too."
"No, we were too on edge as well. We got burned before by reincarnator-related stuff."
As we started in on the now-cold food, I continued talking with Finn.
――Turned out he was an unexpectedly easy guy to talk to.
◇
There existed an organization called the Ladies' Forest.
It was a group that had existed back in the days when female supremacy ran rampant.
Since the kingdom had changed its policies, the Ladies' Forest had transformed into a radical organization.
In a lavish underground chamber, women ranging from their sixties down to their thirties were gathered around a table.
The woman who had come to report wore shabby clothes――while the women around the table were dressed in gowns.
Although none of them held noble status any longer, they continued their former lifestyles down in this underground room.
There were no slaves at their sides to serve them.
Instead, they worked their own sons like servants.
"――Zola, the plan is going smoothly, isn't it?"
"Y-Yes! My daughter has become His Majesty Roland's mistress and is extracting information from the royal palace."
Zola――once the wife of Balcus Fou Bartfort.
She had since been divorced, and had lost both her status and her fortune.
And now she was reduced to running errands for the Ladies' Forest.
"U-Um, may I receive my reward? My living situation has been quite hard――"
To Zola, the women said:
"Thanks to that idiot son of yours and what he pulled off, we're living this miserable existence. You haven't forgotten that, have you?"
"B-But, my children have nothing to do with it. Besides, that foolish man was the child of a concubine."
"Doesn't matter. It was your mistake. Until the kingdom returns to what it once was, you'll stay just as you are now."
"How could you!"
Zola cried, but not a single one of the women paid her any mind.
"The plan is on track, isn't it?"
"Of course. Comrades are gathering across the land. There are many who've been stripped of their titles and demoted in status. We have plenty of allies."
"Honestly, the kingdom is pathetic. But with this, the current kingdom will soon fall as well. We're getting support from foreign nations too, so things will be back to normal in no time."
Insurgent factions were assembling all across the country.
And the ones backing them weren't just disgruntled domestic nobles.
There was also support from abroad――from enemy nations.
The Ladies' Forest had become the central organizing force behind such a rebellion.
"It was a stroke of luck that we managed to plant our agent at His Majesty's side. Thanks to that, the inner workings of the royal palace are laid bare to us."
"What an empty-headed king he is."
"Isn't it fine? It works in our favor, after all. Then again, expecting anything from men is a mistake to begin with."
To reclaim the kingdom that had once been kind to them, the Ladies' Forest writhed in the shadows beneath the kingdom.
Zola hung her head and bit her lip.
(Damn you――Leon. Because of him, I'm forced to live this wretched life. I won't forgive him!)
The women of the Ladies' Forest discussed their plans.
"This past year, we've been forced to swallow bitter pills. But that ends here――"
"Weapons have already been delivered from abroad. All that's left is for us to rise up all at once."
"Finally, we'll be able to return to our old way of life. First, we must restore the slave system. In fact, why don't we make all men into slaves?"
The Ladies' Forest were planning a coup d'état.
But that plan, too――was something orchestrated from abroad.
◇
I was drinking tea with Finn at the tavern.
Alcohol? Sorry, but Finn and I are both underage if you go by our past lives.
Plus, alcohol is bad for your health, so it's vetoed.
"It was a relief to get to talk with you. I feel better now. Ever since I came to this side, so much has been different from the game's content that I was getting frantic."
"The content's different?"
"Yeah, I only watched my sister playing it, so I don't know all the details――but there was a capture-target boy named Aaron. Know him?"
When I stayed silent, Finn continued.
"When I had Kurosuke look into it――he said Aaron had become a girl."
That Kurosuke――Brave――was sipping his juice.
"Partner, are you doubting me!? It's really true! The girl named Ahre used to be a guy named Aaron! I've got proof to back it up too!"
When I looked at Luxion, he had averted his single eye from us.
――Do I have to be the one to say it?
"――Aaron underwent gender reassignment surgery."
"Hah!? W-Why!? Is there even a place in this world that can do such advanced surgery?"
"My――subordinate, or rather, the AI, did it."
"Y-You――you idiot! That's not okay! What're you going to do about it!? One of the capture-target boys hasn't even enrolled, and Jake is out of the question. On top of that, that Oscar guy is――"
Actually, the other capture-target boy――he's not enrolled at the academy.
His family had been up to all sorts of bad things, so his title was stripped after the war with the principality.
I only recently learned that he himself got married and is now living as a commoner.
Then Finn spoke up.
"――With Finley. Wait? Wasn't that girl's surname also Bartfort?"
I collapsed face-down onto the table.
"Finleyyyy! What the hell is she doing!?"
Without my knowing, my little sister had gotten close to one of the capture-target boys.
Seeing me like that, Finn became suspicious again.
"Hey, you didn't do anything else, right?"
"Of course not. Don't pin every single thing on me."
"I-I see. Sorry. Then, there are a few things bothering me, so fill me in."
When I nodded, Finn started asking the things he was curious about.
"About Prince Julius being disinherited, do you know anything about that?"
"――That's because I pounded him into the ground in a duel."
Back when we first enrolled, Angie had challenged Julius, who was even more of an idiot back then than he is now, to a duel.
More precisely, the challenge had been against Marie.
But the duel was fought by stand-ins, and I went up against Julius and his crew――and they ended up disinherited.
"Hey!"
"It couldn't be helped at the time."
"Then, the protagonist of the first game. The reason she's not the saint?"
"The other reincarnator, Marie, stole the saint's position from her."
"Then why is there no saint right now!?"
"During the war with the principality, she confessed she was a fake. That really had me in a bind."
I shook my head with a 'good grief,' but Finn's questions weren't done yet.
"Right. The princess of the principality. I'm pretty sure――she was supposed to have a flute that controls monsters."
"Huh? Oh, I broke it, so no problem there."
"You did? Then the final boss is no issue."
While Finn was relaxing, Brave was staring at me.
"――The reason the game content my partner talks about is so different――isn't most of it because of this guy?"
"Hey, don't mess around. I just brushed away the sparks that fell on me."
"That's right. Master merely eliminated obstructions. I'll eliminate you lot along the way!"
Luxion butted into the conversation, but today his annihilation sickness was even worse than usual.
Or rather, thinking about it calmly――I really am pretty deeply involved in the game's plot.
Finn was eyeing me with suspicion.
"You really, truly are going to be fine, right? Will Mia's partner really be found without issue?"
"I-It's fine. Next year, the kouhai is supposed to enroll."
"I'm counting on you. That girl's life is on the line, you know."
The girl named Mia, who had recently become sickly.
――The opposite of Erica, huh.
Erica had been sickly until now, and apparently has only recently been trending toward recovery.