—There was a moment when I really wanted to punch my past self.
I'd made this big show in front of Olivia, saying something like "I'll at least tutor you in your studies," but I'd never actually checked her level first.
I mean, the protagonist can freely raise whichever stats she wants, and she'd been putting off this vibe of not being good at studying, so I figured she was the brawny type, but…
"I don't understand this part. It's about magic—spells that use formulae are separate from regular incantations, and they have practical applications too, so—"
A study session in the library.
I was breaking into a cold sweat, unable to hide my astonishment at the sheer volume of Olivia's knowledge.
Yeah, to put it simply: me, who's only somewhat above average, trying to teach someone who competes at the top of the class—that's reckless.
More to the point, Olivia is smart.
"Uh, um, I think this is how it works?"
I was doing my best to get by on the knowledge I'd accumulated from studying and from the game.
But the sharp-witted Olivia was nodding several times with an impressed look on her face, listening to my vague explanations.
"That's right! Textbooks aren't always correct, so I was right that this was wrong, wasn't I? I had a feeling something was off. My experience using magic didn't match the established theory…"
Oh no… This girl has started questioning the textbook.
I tried to course-correct so she wouldn't go too far off the deep end.
"N-not everything in it is wrong. Textbooks are still important, you know."
"True. About twenty percent of it made me want to tilt my head, but if you flip it around, that means eighty percent was accurate."
Hmm, the textbook looked pretty worn. Had this girl already finished reading it? At this point in the first semester? It was still June!
There were nobles in this school who threw their textbooks aside because the content was too difficult!
Even I was only studying for test prep—I couldn't honestly say I understood the material. On top of that, my magic score was only in the seventies.
I spent the study session in a state of quiet prayer that time would pass quickly.
And then the allotted time elapsed.
"O-okay, it's getting late, so maybe we should wrap up?"
"You're right. It flew by in no time."
Olivia looked happy.
To me, the time had crawled by agonizingly slowly.
"Um, could I ask you again next holiday?"
When she asked with those upturned eyes, my male instinct screamed "Yes!" in response. But I didn't really want to keep doing this.
Searching for an excuse to dodge, I remembered the important task I had at this academy. Right—marriage!
"I-I'm sorry, but next holiday I have to prepare for a tea party."
Olivia hastily apologized.
"N-no, I was the one asking. Y-yes, Leon must be busy too."
That's right. I was busy.
I felt a little bad looking at Olivia, who was hugging her textbook and notes with a slightly lonely expression, but I couldn't forget my original goal.
I needed to host a tea party and find a bride who could maintain a businesslike relationship.
Besides, in terms of the class hierarchy, I was near the bottom.
Good partners—kind, gentle girls—were being aggressively pursued by the upper-caste guys. Even if kind, gentle girls did exist, the ones who were smart enough to consider their family's standing and future prospects would aim as high as possible and never end up with the likes of us.
What a terrible world. Or was the original world the same?
Olivia smiled at me, looking me in the eye as she expressed her gratitude.
"Leon, thank you for today."
That smile and the light in her eyes—they were blinding to a guy like me who'd been bluffing his way through on lies. She was thanking me from the bottom of her heart.
I nearly crumbled from embarrassment.
I was supposed to have lived a longer life than the girl standing in front of me…
◇
My room in the boys' dormitory.
I'd invited my friends Daniel and Raymond over, and we were eating drinks and snacks—not the kind of snacks you'd offer girls, but fried things. Greasy snacks, basically.
Considering the existence of carbonated beverages, this world felt closer to modern times than the medieval era.
Come to think of it, the uniforms were the same. It was an otome game, so maybe that was expected?
Daniel was eating french fries.
"Did you hear? Those rich guys—two more couples have already confirmed their marriages. And the brides are Millie and Jessica, the ones who were nice to us. We were aiming for them too…"
Raymond put on a cool front in response to the dejected Daniel.
But Raymond had liked Millie, so there was nothing he could do.
"If someone offers better conditions than our families, of course they'd go with that. It was hopeless from the start… As long as Millie's happy, I'm fine with that."
The reason I'd invited the two of them was that they were feeling down.
The rich clique was offering every possible advantage to the girls, aggressively pressing them to accept marriage proposals.
There was no gap for us to exploit.
If you looked at the girls around you, it was painfully clear how rare a kind-hearted woman was. And the even higher-tier group already had their marriage partners predetermined from the start.
Many, like the Crown Prince, were already engaged.
Daniel chugged his carbonated drink.
"Damn it! That means there's no hope left for our year! All that's left are the awful girls!"
There were so many girls who looked down on guys like us.
Raymond nodded.
"This year's really been unlucky. It doesn't help that there are tons of heirs from prestigious noble families, starting with the Crown Prince. It sucks being constantly compared to them."
Extraordinarily handsome, well-bred, wealthy men—all surrounded by intense attention from the girls around them. The comparison was so lopsided that guys in our caste could hardly approach girls at all.
Family lineage, mannerisms, wealth, appearance… and on top of that, these guys were engaged and still had the confidence that came with it.
"More importantly, Leon—how's it going with you? You've been hanging out with that scholarship student lately. Have you given up on marriage?"
Daniel asked with concern, and I shrugged.
"Not at all. I sent out invitations properly, but I keep getting rejected by the girls."
Raymond also had a sharp tongue but seemed to genuinely worry about me.
"Sympathy is a dangerous thing. …You got on the girls' bad side by getting too close to the scholarship student. You should keep your distance."
I'd gotten the same advice from third-year upperclassman Lelcule.
Some of the upperclassmen, finding it difficult to marry within the female student body, had accepted rather harsh conditions. For example… agreeing to take concubines other than demi-human slaves.
This was apparently a common practice among girls from ordinary-class knight families who found a man they liked. In exchange for producing an heir, the girl would also support the knight family's concubine—a humiliating arrangement.
The girl would receive financial support for living expenses while enjoying a married life with the man of her choice. The perfect environment, really… for the girls, at least.
From the girls' perspective, since they were the ones producing heirs, this much was only natural.
You could even argue that since these were political marriages, seeking love was the unreasonable part.
Well, I was certain the world I'd come from was better—at least in that regard.
Daniel asked me a question.
"Your brother's in the normal class, right?"
"Yeah."
I'd wanted to get my brother into the upper class too, but we only came into real money after he'd already enrolled, so it wasn't possible.
Transferring him in now would be an extreme measure I couldn't bring myself to do.
"Lucky. The normal class is decent, right?"
What Daniel meant was that marriage wasn't that difficult for them.
The girls in the normal class were truly normal.
They couldn't even afford to buy slaves.
Since they weren't as overbearing as upper-class girls, they could apparently get married in a relatively equal relationship.
"Listen, when I heard about it…"
"Hm?"
"…I wanted to punch my brother."
The daughters of knight families were, frankly, in a tough spot.
There were various reasons, but simply put: the number of available men—was small.
Even though upper-class girls could marry normal-class boys, normal-class girls couldn't marry upper-class guys like us. That was part of the problem.
The capable men got swept up by upper-class girls.
On top of that, normal-class guys often already had fiancées or girlfriends back home. The normal-class girls were truly unfortunate.
That meant, when you looked at individual girls, normal-class girls were kinder, gentler, more family-oriented… and incredibly enviable.
Well, better off than us, at least. Their time constraint wasn't limited to graduation—they could look for a partner even after leaving school.
"I wish I'd been in the normal class too. Then I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble."
I looked ready to burst into tears, and Raymond agreed.
"Why is marriage so brutal for us?"
If I answered "Because this is the world of an otome game," what would the two of them think? As we vented our frustrations to blow off steam, Raymond brought up a rumor circulating around the academy.
"Oh, speaking of which—the Crown Prince's circle has been getting noisy lately."
I sipped my juice and listened with a casual "Hm." Really, that was all above our heads.
I was curious, but it had nothing to do with us.
Raymond was just killing time with the story and didn't put much stock in its credibility.
From my perspective, I almost wondered if some mandatory event had been triggered.
Daniel chimed in.
"That thing, right? The girl… Marie, was it? I heard she's been getting bullied really badly by the girls."
Of course you'd be ostracized if you tried to cozy up to the Crown Prince. That was what I assumed, but then Raymond continued—
"It's connected to that rumor. Apparently, the ringleader of the bullying was the duke's daughter. When the Crown Prince found out, he was furious."
—I nearly spat out my drink, choking and coughing.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Leon, do you know something?"
The two looked worried and asked if I knew anything, so I made an excuse: "No, I just inhaled the wrong way."
I wiped my mouth and the cold sweat from my brow.
The two of them cleaned up the table for me.
But what caught my attention was Raymond's story. According to the event I knew from the game, the Crown Prince raging at his fiancée was supposed to happen much later.
Besides, I was close to Olivia.
I'd never seen her getting along with any of the game's love interests.
What on earth was going on?
◇
I'd intended to stay out of it.
A mob should act like a mob and watch from a safe distance. I thought it had nothing to do with me, but the situation was getting increasingly suspicious.
I decided to talk to Olivia right away.
She was the only upper-class girl I knew.
I called her to the library to hear what she knew…
"I'm sorry. I don't really know the details either. All I know is that for a while, all the girls were cold toward Marie, and now things have calmed down."
"I-see. Oh, one more thing—is there any connection between you and this girl named Marie?"
She was the girl who'd stolen the protagonist's place.
In truth, I was starting to consider that this world might have nothing to do with the game, and that I'd been the one making assumptions all along.
But—
"…We've met a few times. A few days after the enrollment ceremony, I came to the library, and she spoke to me."
The way Olivia lowered her gaze with a sad expression told me this wasn't a topic she wanted to discuss.
But I needed to know. For her feelings? No—for information about that creepy woman named Marie. This was the price.
"I really need to know."
Olivia looked up.
"…Leon, do you like women like Marie?"
She looked embarrassed, so she must have misunderstood this as a conversation about romantic interest.
Me and that woman romantically? It made my skin crawl.
When I made a face, Olivia was surprised.
"Huh!? You don't?"
"I hate that woman."
"O-okay."
Olivia thought for a moment, then told me about her encounters with Marie.
"Once, when I came to peek into the library, Marie was there, and she told me to leave because I was in the way. Another time, I saw her in the courtyard. The same thing happened—she treated me like a nuisance. So I asked if I'd done something, and she told me she hates women like me."
Olivia gave a bitter smile.
Marie hated Olivia?
It wasn't a case of "commoners shouldn't come to a noble academy"—she personally disliked someone she'd barely even met. From what I could see, Marie put on a good front.
When I stayed silent, Olivia fidgeted awkwardly.
But then, while we were both quiet, we heard voices.
"Here? Is that really okay?"
"Come on, it's just the two of us."
An unbearably sweet conversation drifted over.
I wondered who could possibly be having such a lovey-dovey moment in a place like this. I crouched down and crept over to get a look.
"Leon, what are you doing!?" Olivia whispered urgently.
I whispered back.
"Come on, I'm curious. We need to know who's getting together—it's important intel. Now, let's see who…!"
I instinctively clapped my hand over Olivia's mouth.
I held my breath and moved as silently as I could.
There, in the library, was a bespectacled young man with purple hair… Brad, embracing a petite, slender blonde girl.
Come to think of it, Brad was the type of character who always hung around the library.
Olivia was watching intently too.
And the girl was—Marie.
The two of them were pressed hip to hip, arms around each other's waists in a close embrace. I never imagined I'd witness such an intense kissing scene in a library.
The two of us quietly withdrew from the spot and fled the library.
◇
Marie Fou Lafan was on her way from the library back to the dormitory.
Recalling her sweet time with Brad, she ran a finger along her lip.
"Hehe, this really is the best world. Not as many stupid men as my old world, and a place where women's rights are properly recognized—it's perfect."
The setting sun had painted the school building orange.
Suppressing the urge to skip, she headed back toward the girls' dormitory.
"If Julius and the others become my allies, the girls who made fun of me will have such bitter looks on their faces. It's going to be amazing. Ahh, I'm so glad I enrolled in this academy."
This world must have been ideal for Marie.
After all, she existed exactly where the true protagonist was supposed to be.
When she turned a corner in the school hallway, she spotted Julius and Jilk. They seemed to have been looking for her.
"Marie, there you are."
The two approached her.
(These two are always together. Could they be… that kind of relationship? I've heard that in ancient times, men being into men was perfectly normal. If so, maybe that explains it.)
Thinking something terrible on the inside while maintaining a pleasant outward appearance, Marie straightened her posture.
She played the role of the ideal woman that the two—especially Julius—were looking for.
"Your Highness, what brings you here?"
Julius corrected her with a slightly exasperated look.
"Drop the 'Your Highness.' Julius is fine. I was talking with Jilk, and I realized you don't have a dedicated servant, do you?"
Marie nodded.
And did so with a touch of shyness.
"Y-yes. My family is, well… in a difficult financial situation, so arranging a dedicated servant has been hard."
(My parents waste money on everything. If only I'd been reborn into a wealthy family.)
Hiding her complaints about her family and playing the part of a brave, resilient girl, Marie listened as Jilk made a proposal.
"In that case, Julius and I will cover the cost. Surely it must be lonely not having a dedicated servant at the academy, Marie."
Marie pumped her fists in her head in celebration at their offer, then expressed her gratitude.
(Now I've got a no-contraception-required concubine arrangement! There are hardly any girls without one, so it's been a real worry. Still, the fact that women can openly walk around with concubines is insane. Well, I'm happy, so whatever.)
On the inside, Marie was slightly bothered that these two were giving her concubines, but she decided to accept it as simply how this world worked.
"Ah, thank you. Ju… Julius. Jilk."
When she called them by name, Julius looked bashful, and Marie felt reassured that he seemed genuine.
Jilk led Marie and Julius onward.
"Then let me arrange a carriage and we'll head out. I hear there's one of the finest slave trading houses in the capital. Shall we go there?"
◇
A spacious room in the girls' dormitory.
Only daughters of families ranked baron or above could use such rooms. Among those, members of the royal family were given specially prepared quarters.
The room Angelica was using was one of them.
A girl who was one of her entourage had come to visit.
"Lady Angelica, that girl is unforgivable. Isn't it true that His Highness bought her a demi-human slave? And yet Lady Angelica isn't even allowed to have one."
Standing by the window, Angelica kept her face turned away from the girl.
Her expression twisted with frustration.
"…Leave it be. If you understand what a demi-human slave signifies, then that is the extent of his relationship with that person."
"B-but—"
As the daughter of a duke, Angelica's family could easily purchase dozens of demi-human slaves.
But the reason she didn't was precisely because she was a duke's daughter. More than that, she held the position of the Crown Prince's fiancée.
A woman aspiring to become queen having concubines—that wasn't even a laughing matter.
After sending the girl out of the room, Angelica grabbed a nearby decorative object with both hands and smashed it against the floor.
"Don't mess with me! That… throwing himself away over some nobody girl like that! I—I did everything for His Highness—everything, only for His Highness!"
The raging Angelica was, true to her appearance, a passionate person.
Not long ago, Julius and the others had confronted the girls who had been bullying Marie. The girls hadn't been acting on any explicit orders, but they'd ended up dropping Angelica's name.
Those girls had belonged to the same social circle.
They'd probably been venting their frustrations by picking on Marie, who they felt was getting too big for her boots. In a noble society where connections among girls were precious, there were inevitably some who lacked emotional self-control.
But when confronted—and with the Crown Prince standing right there—they'd panicked and dragged Angelica's name into it.
That led to Julius and the others confronting Angelica, who denied everything but couldn't get them to believe her.
From that point on, Angelica's standing within the academy had weakened.
Now, more and more girls were trying to curry favor with Marie.
The boys had responded in kind, with certain groups gravitating toward Marie—mainly second and third sons from wealthy families who weren't heirs and who wanted to get close to Julius and his circle.
The girls who had harbored resentment toward Angelica were especially active.
"You think I gave the order? There's not a shred of proof, and yet you'd believe that woman's word over mine…"
What stung Angelica the most was that Julius had believed only Marie's account. Based solely on the words of the girls who'd been doing the bullying, Angelica had been treated as though she were the villain.
That was unbearably frustrating.
The girls who had been bullying Marie, apparently realizing they'd be at a disadvantage if things continued, had jumped ship and joined the faction that had been spreading nasty rumors about Angelica to build up its power.
Fine.
Angelica had no use for such small fry. But now she couldn't even get close to Julius or Marie.
And from Julius himself, no less:
"I am engaged to you, but in this academy, we are both students. Please don't interfere."
—He had said that to her.
Angelica burst into tears and sank to the floor.
"I…I love His Highness…I was raised to serve His Highness! Only for His Highness!"
Angelica loved Julius.
But Julius felt differently.
He'd seen their engagement as nothing more than a political arrangement.
Since the moment she'd been chosen as Julius's fiancée, Angelica had been overjoyed. She'd worked hard for Julius's sake, but none of it was ever acknowledged.
What Julius wanted was a domestic, gentle woman—someone like Marie.
Clutching her face in both hands, Angelica wept bitter tears.
◇
"Hey, you useless little brother!"
A holiday morning.
Crashing into the boys' dormitory was my second sister, perched on the shoulder of her prized slave.
Yawning in my room, I glanced at the clock and saw it was only seven in the morning before flopping back down.
"Don't you dare sleep! What do you think you're doing?! What is the meaning of this?!"
I had no idea why she was making such a scene, but I was really looking forward to sleeping in.
"Sorry, sis. Yesterday's class for guys was combat training. I'm exhausted—let me sleep."
The girls got to enjoy a fun sports day, while the guys were put through running drills and hand-to-hand combat training, coming back covered in mud. In a world where you could genuinely lose your life to war or monsters, the training was correspondingly brutal.
"I didn't say you could sleep! Foolish little brother, give me detailed information about the first-years. Right now!"
My second sister was apparently in a major panic and tried to forcibly drag me out of bed.
Being hoisted up by a muscular cat-eared slave from early morning and deposited in a chair, I rubbed my sleepy eyes and yawned.
"Information about first-years? You'd know more than me, sis."
"Strange rumors have been circulating, so I came to verify them. You are technically an upper-class student, aren't you?"
"Technically"—how rude. If that was how she was going to treat me, I'd have been better off relaxing in the normal class.
"Rumors? Oh, yeah—Millie and Jessica, the class sweethearts, have decided to get married. They were really nice girls, so it's a shame."
"I don't care about that nonsense."
Nonsense? For us guys, that was tear-jerking news.
"You know that girl Marie, right?"
I flinched, and my second sister ordered me to continue.
What came to mind was that intense kissing scene.
"…She's gotten close to the Crown Prince's group."
"Just the Crown Prince?"
"…She's close to the guys from the prestigious noble families too. Suspiciously close."
When you were being lovey-dovey around campus, rumors were inevitable. Especially with someone like Marie who was already the subject of gossip.
"There's a duke's daughter involved, right? What do you know about that?"
"You think I'd know? I've only heard that the Crown Prince got angry at her."
My second sister was deep in thought, looking quite serious.
Now it was my turn.
"Do you know the details? There's a rumor going around that the duke's daughter gave the orders to bully Marie."
"Seriously? Are you an idiot?"
Being called an idiot by my sister annoyed me. She was the one barging into the boys' dormitory at the crack of dawn. Though, with concubines at her beck and call, modesty was probably a foreign concept to her.
"At that level of social standing, you don't even need to give orders. People around you act on their own because they want to stay in your good graces. Honestly, if the duke's family had seriously tried to crush that girl, she wouldn't still be standing. We're talking about a scale that's no joke. This is exactly why men are hopeless."
With an exasperated look, she condescended to explain.
"So the duke's daughter's not involved?"
"That's a separate issue. The people who did it belonged to her group, so she has to take responsibility."
"Isn't that unfair?"
"That's just how it works."
Even the world of otome games was tough, apparently. In the game, I think the duke's daughter was shown as having given the orders… or was she? It had been over ten years, so the memories were hazy.
My second sister studied my face, her expression serious.
"The second- and third-years are in total chaos. Of all times, to cause trouble around the Crown Prince—we don't need that. I have plans of my own, you know. Gather some intel and do something useful for once. And report back to me properly."
What did this woman think I was? Her pawn? Well, I was curious, so I'd probably look into it.
My second sister also had nothing better to do.
"Do you even understand what this means?"
"Girls have it tough, huh?"
"Idiot! Complete idiot! Foolish little brother!"
With my annoying sister carrying on first thing in the morning, I held my ears as she pressed on.
"If nothing changes, the Crown Prince will ascend to the throne! Do you understand that if he takes a liking to someone at the academy, their future is set? Conversely, if he dislikes you, it's over!"
None of that had anything to do with a backwater baron's household.
Well, actually, it did matter to my second sister, who wanted to live in the city. Marrying the wrong person, only for that person to earn the Crown Prince's displeasure—there'd be no hope for advancement.
"As long as I can get married and graduate in one piece, I'm good."
"You men are all the same!"
My second sister was worked up, but honestly, I wanted nothing to do with the Crown Prince's orbit.
—After all, this country was about to be thrown into chaos.
At least, from a game perspective. It wasn't confirmed yet.
"In any case, you're not involved, right? Well, that's neither a negative nor a positive for me."
My second sister was wary that if I got involved, the fallout could reach the family.
"They wouldn't give a second thought to a backwater baron's family like ours."
Still, it was true that something about this piqued my interest.
I was curious about what that woman Marie was planning to do.
My second sister gave me a warning.
"At the end of the first semester, there's a grade-level party. Don't you dare do anything embarrassing and humiliate me. Honestly, at this rate, I need to reassess my choice of men."
The busy second sister headed for the door.
"Oh, and—have you found a partner yet?"
Watching her grin made my blood boil.
Even a sister like this had an endless line of suitors eager to marry her. Having your pick of the litter—how enviable.
"If I had, I wouldn't be suffering like this."
"Probably not. You don't exactly have charm just from being a little conspicuous. Maybe you should work on yourself a bit more?"
I scoffed.
"How does it feel to buy slaves with the money of a man who has no charm? Go ahead, tell me, dear sis."
My second sister shot back, "Drop dead, you worthless little brother!" and stormed out.
Alone at last, I stood up from the chair and stretched.
Luxion, who had been posing as a decorative object in the room, materialized.
"What a lively morning."
"So the first semester is ending, huh… Parties and the like—'typical nobles,' is that what I'm supposed to think? I'm not really sure."
The world of an otome game.
It was clear that the academy's yearly events were modeled after Japanese schools.
Well, the game was made for a Japanese audience, so familiarity was to be expected, but still…
"The first semester… I spent it entering dungeons with friends, hosting tea parties, and failing over and over. And now it's over."
"Even if the results were zero, it was still a meaningful use of time for you, Master. Fundamentally, you're lazy, so any movement at all is an improvement."
"Do you have a grudge against me or something?"
"I dislike New Humanity, so in that sense, I also dislike you, Master."
"And yet you boss me around—what a tragic AI. I'll work you to the bone for the rest of your life, so be prepared."
"I look forward to it. In any case, academy life has been quite hectic."
Beyond the daily classes, there were dungeon runs for pocket money.
Using that money to host tea parties, inviting girls, failing repeatedly—and just like that, it was over.
It really had gone by in a flash.
"…Hey, can you gather intel for me?"
Luxion was, by nature, loyal.
"About the duke's daughter's inner circle? That's possible, but I will not report on anything regarding three sizes."
"…Come on, tell me."
"I refuse."
"Fine then. Can you check whether what my sister said was true?"
"You want confirmation of the rumor? What does this have to do with you, Master?"
"Just curiosity."
"Spectator mentality. A hopeless trait. Very well, let us go confirm the rumor."
With that, Luxion projected the surrounding scenery onto his body, blended in, and glided out of the room to gather intelligence.
That guy could do anything, honestly.