Chapter 39 - With So Many Women Around You

Bond Skill.

Special Command.

What were these now...?

The words of my junior, the game's creator who had insisted I play through it multiple times, really hit home.

I truly hadn't experienced even half of that game—of this world.

The deeper I dug, the more new things kept turning up.

Still, speaking as a gamer, I could hazard a guess: if they were hiding the information, the features at least wouldn't be useless.

Maximum affection, plus a Scouter upgrade.

With two requirements to meet, there had to be a reward for all that effort. That was how games worked, regardless of genre.

No game made you suffer for nothing.

That wouldn't be a game.

Let's see.

Upgrading the Scouter to Stage 2 cost 500 coins.

That was relatively cheap compared with the ending rewards available in the shop, but I still needed another 300 coins.

One way or another, the time had come to clear some achievements.

To think maximum affection didn't just affect the endings, but unlocked new features too.

“If I'd known, maybe I should have tried harder to win Esther over...”

Never mind maxing it out—I didn't think I'd even checked her affection in the first place.

What had it been the last time I looked?

“How brave you are, Hasgard. A true hero indeed. To dare speak another woman's name in my presence. I'll have your gravestone inscribed with the bravery you displayed in life.”

Amelia crossed her legs and lifted her chin.

However haughtily she spoke, sitting on a swiveling chair in the student cafeteria didn't lend her much dignity.

In fact, the momentum of crossing her legs had just made her turn a little.

Well, whatever the reward for maximum affection, my objective hadn't changed.

Help Amelia grow, then send her back to the royal court.

“Do you like it?”

“Like whom?”

At her question, I pointed to the plate in front of her.

“The hamburger.”

“Oh.”

Eating a burger with gloves on struck me as sacrilege, though I supposed there was nothing wrong with keeping clean.

“I'm not particularly fond of it. Though I do appreciate its efficiency. You can consume carbohydrates, protein, and fat in a single bite. It shortens mealtimes too, which is no bad thing. It's not as though I'm fond of such commoners' food.”

She'd said she wasn't fond of it twice.

“And don't change the subject. I distinctly heard that first-year's name.”

Tch.

So that hadn't been enough.

“Your Highness.”

Left with no choice, I played a stronger card.

“Why did you come to the academy?”

I asked the question even the other heroines had wondered about.

“The academy's teachers are excellent, but the royal family could surely have found you more capable private tutors.”

“...”

Amelia considered for a moment, then took a bite of the efficient food on her plate.

She chewed for a while.

Then she spoke slowly.

“I see. It must certainly seem strange to you. I've even been kidnapped by an assailant, yet I still haven't left.”

“Not just to me. Most people probably see it that way. They simply don't say so.”

“It's nothing terribly remarkable. Personal circumstances, like anyone else's.”

Personal circumstances.

Was that how she was drawing the line?

She was a princess. Perhaps she was more protective of her privacy than anyone.

I felt the gulf between royalty and a count's house all over again.

However close we'd grown, this was a princess's private life. She wasn't going to spill everything to me.

Just as I thought that...

Amelia's information will be updated, and new abilities will be unlocked.

I remembered seeing that message earlier.

At first I'd focused on the “new abilities,” but now I realized the part before that mattered too.

Her information would be updated.

Games whose business models revolved around selling characters often used that approach.

As a character's affection increased, you could view previously hidden background information and details about them. Exclusive dialogue would unlock, and sometimes their expressions would change.

If that was what the system meant by an “information update”...

“Still, if it's you... I suppose there's no reason I can't tell you.”

The effects of 99 affection were only just beginning.

“For some reason, I feel as though I don't want to hide anything from you.”

039

Amelia's profile, as displayed through the Scouter.

Unlike before, I could now see all sorts of things: stats, talents, hobbies, and more.

Everything was visible except the newly revealed Bond Skill and Special Command features.

In that case, before digging into Amelia's past, I ought to run a few tests.

If maxing out her affection had let me access her information, she would answer just about any question.

“How old are you this year?”

“My age? Why so suddenly?”

“Yes. I suddenly became curious.”

The game had always listed her as X years old, after all.

“I could tell you, but once you've heard it, there's no going back.”

“... Then I'd rather not hear it.”

“A wise decision. To give you a rough idea, I'm older than that first-year you mentioned earlier.”

“How long are you going to keep bringing up Esther? She's not even at the academy anymore... You really do hold a grudge.”

“I'm older than that first-year, but younger than her roommate.”

“This sounds like a riddle.”

It reminded me of the Professor LaXton game series.

“Hmm? Who's that? La17ton?”

“Don't jump at the chance to substitute a number.”

That X wasn't an unknown variable.

This wasn't an equation, either.

“For a hint, I'm older than Esther, younger than Rebecca, and the same age as Lucia.”

“Thank you. Now I'm even more confused.”

“Also, someone is lying.”

“Now it really is a riddle...?”

“And that someone is me.”

What was I supposed to do if the person posing the riddle was lying?

Then even that number, seventeen, had been a lie in the first place.

“So we're back where we started on the age question.”

“Don't you think it was rude to ask in the first place?”

Amelia had readily answered my questions about her age, but she hadn't told me the truth.

She was like a monkey's paw.

“Your favorite food?”

“Am I not eating it right now?”

“Didn't you say you weren't fond of it?”

“...”

“Shall I move on to the next question?”

“... Please do.”

“How much do you weigh?”

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Thirty-eight kilograms.”

I hadn't expected her to actually tell me, so this time I was the one taken aback.

“You've lifted me before. Surely you know.”

“I don't have the ability to determine someone's weight just by lifting them once.”

“I thought you might, given your hobby of carrying women.”

“I don't have that hobby either.”

“Really? With so many women around you, I assumed you played that sort of sport.”

She'd been slipping barbs into every other thing she said...

“You're even lighter than I expected. With a little more effort, you could be about the same weight as a golden retriever.”

“I don't know what that is, but it doesn't sound particularly insulting. It's not as though I'm trying to lose weight. I simply use energy efficiently. I have curves where they belong, so what does it matter?”

“I'm not sure why you're asking me...”

“Who else would I ask? Your preferences are the only ones I care about.”

“I don't know why you're speaking as though I naturally judge women by their weight, but what matters to me is age.”

“So that's why you asked that first! You wicked thing...!”

“Now, the next question.”

“Changing the subject again...”

“I hear you've been staying in the dormitory since the start of the second semester. How is it?”

“Hmm... Utterly humiliating. Since I disgracefully allowed myself to be kidnapped, I'm now confined to the academy during the week. Two people sleeping together in a room as cramped as a chicken coop—it's nothing short of torture.”

“I can certainly see that.”

I'd managed somehow back when I was a student, but now that I'd tasted life as a noble, I doubted I'd want to return to that lifestyle.

“Still, fortunately I like my roommate.”

“Your roommate?”

“I like how quiet she is. She's always sleeping, and she sneaks out of the dormitory every night. It's practically like having the room to myself.”

I had a feeling that narrowed down her roommate's identity...

Somehow, I thought I knew who it was...

“The other residents apparently sneak delicious food late at night, get caught by the dorm supervisor while visiting other rooms, or lose track of time sharing secrets. But my room is wonderfully quiet.”

“Your Highness, were you perhaps looking forward to those sorts of—”

“No. Of course not. Absolutely not.”

“I see. Then shall we get to the serious questions?”

“Yes, I was just about to suggest it. How much more are you planning to fill with this pointless exchange?”

“Why did you come to the academy?”

“...”

Amelia gently closed her eyes, as if the warm-up was over and the inevitable had arrived.

“As punishment.”

“Punishment?”

“I was stripped of my right to the royal succession and exiled.”

The conversation took a heavy turn without so much as a signal.

“Some students are forced to attend school, are they not?”

My heart grew heavy.

Perhaps rambling through pointless banter wasn't such a bad thing sometimes.

Even useless things had their uses.

At least when it came to keeping the mood light.

“For someone being forced... aren't you remarkably diligent?”

“It is true that I'm diligent, but I never said I lived this way because I wanted to. I do it because I must.”

So that was it.

I'd never met anyone as methodical and diligent as Amelia, yet she said it was all a manufactured result.

A staged image within a frame.

Then wasn't diligence a source of pain for her?

Was she simply enduring it?

Even at this very moment?

“I told you once before, didn't I? About Chiron, the fourth prince.”

Chiron.

The prince who, like me, was on the Death God's cult's recruitment list.

The cult had tried to kill Amelia to corrupt him.

Because he treasured her so dearly, they believed killing her would make him put his faith in the necromancer, who could resurrect corpses.

And thus become the necromancer's follower.

“The king finds my brother dreadful. Not dreadfully dear—dreadful in the literal sense. He loathes him. So much so that he makes him wear a helmet at all times because he cannot stand the sight of his face.”

A helmet?

I'd never heard the name Chiron in my previous life, but I had known a swordsman who never removed his helmet.

... Known him as an enemy.

“I couldn't simply stand by and watch.”

Amelia spoke with a faraway look in her eyes, as if privately revisiting the past.

I couldn't stand by either.

If I hadn't saved Amelia back then, I would have ended up turning Chiron into a villain.

And one of the top five, at that.

Did the future I led Amelia toward determine the fate of both a heroine and a villain...?

This conversation really had become heavy.

“I secretly helped my brother, was found out, and am now being punished. That's the story.”

“When you say... helped him...”

Had she plotted treason or something?

“It was nothing so grand. My brother has been driven out of the royal court and stripped of the royal insignia. And because of the helmet, even the royal colors...”

Amelia pointed to her eyes and hair.

The royal hue, a subtle red like autumn maple leaves.

“...have been lost to him. He wanders the streets, treated not as royalty, nor even as a human being. I secretly gave him food and somewhere to sleep, but unfortunately, I was caught.”

“You're saying a prince became homeless, living on the streets?”

“Sadly, yes.”

Amelia sighed deeply.

“We bleed when we're hurt and die when we cannot breathe, just like anyone else. Stripped of the royal name and thrown onto the streets, there's nothing we can do.”

“But didn't you say the fourth prince was the strongest swordsman?”

“If he were the sort to lash out when trampled on, he'd have killed them all long ago. Every last one.”

Hmm.

As far as I knew, he did eventually turn to the dark side.

Amelia's death had been the final trigger. Had things gone that far in my previous life?

“It's just as well, really. The royal family is in the midst of a struggle over the succession. Simply being removed from that fight leaves me far better off. I do worry about my brother, but if I can just have a little time...”

“A struggle for the throne? So... that's why you did it? To seem incompetent...”

“That's why I did what?”

I must have mentioned it before.

“One last question.”

Every heroine had her own abilities.

If their grades were at the bottom despite that, it was because those abilities hadn't awakened, only activated under certain conditions, or...

“Is that why you deliberately fail your exams?”

The heroine herself was hiding them.