Chapter 40 - There Is No Reasoning with Her

"What... are you talking about? That I deliberately fail my exams?"

Amelia's eyes widened for a moment before she averted her gaze.

"I thought I'd made it fairly obvious."

I'd been telling her, however indirectly, that I knew everything.

"I hinted at it just a little while ago, too."

["Perhaps there's some underlying problem. Your motivation, for instance."]

["... An underlying problem. Anyway, Hasgard."]

She was the one who'd been changing the subject all along, diverting attention that way before I even could. And it wasn't just today. She'd done it when we first met, too.

["Though I haven't been showing... the sort of grades that would warrant such expectations..."]

She'd said she wasn't showing them. Not that she couldn't.

In the status window before my eyes, all her stats were A's. Her radar chart was a full hexagon: [Strength], [Intelligence], [Luck], and every other stat. None had reached S, but she wasn't someone who should be coming last in the entire school.

Especially [Intelligence]. Considering the Laward I'd raised in the game had an F in [Intelligence], the gap was like the Paleolithic versus the space age.

I'd known that much even before I could see her stats. Only now was I certain, but having seen the hidden ending, I should have known.

—Her thoughtful expression was that of an armchair detective. It seemed impossible that she ranked dead last among the second-years.

Exactly. It was a lie.

"How long have you known?"

Naturally, I couldn't tell her I'd unlocked my second perk and could now see all her stats, or that this world was actually a game I'd played. But I had something to say that wouldn't expose my secrets.

"I've known from the start. Why else would I have said I had high hopes for someone who ranked dead last?"

"I certainly did think... you were a strange fellow from that moment on. Though at the time, I thought you were a pervert who only went after stupid women."

I see. So she was a woman who could insult someone even with her affection at 99.

"... What clinched it was just now. When you threw your report card."

"My report card?"

"Throwing it was fine. You looked genuinely dissatisfied with your grades. But I caught a glimpse of the warnings your teachers had written at the bottom."

Amelia's expression stiffened slightly at the mention of the warnings.

"This is as far as we'll turn a blind eye."

Every one of her teachers had said something to that effect. Teachers who'd taught her for two years.

"You hadn't cheated. You'd merely done poorly on your exams. Why would they say that?"

"..."

"It seems I'm not the only one who already knows."

Two years. That ought to be enough time to notice something suspicious.

"Weren't those complaints you were venting actually directed at your teachers, Your Highness?"

"Heh... Is that so?"

From Amelia's smile, it seemed she had no intention of making any more excuses.

"So you've already seen through me."

Her remark about having already seen brought to mind the True Ending CG I'd viewed last time, but I forced the thought away and cleared my throat.

"Is it that dangerous? Dangerous enough that someone would try to kill you if you didn't play the fool?"

"Hmm. More or less."

Amelia spoke with a nonchalance that made it sound trivial. Her own family—her siblings—might take her life. There was nothing trivial about it.

I'd been grateful that, despite being born a count's third son, I didn't have to fight over the succession. But clearly, my family was simply unusual. This wasn't some forgotten noble house. It was the royal family, and the king was preparing to step aside for the next generation, no less. Of course she would be anxious.

"Was it all because of court intrigue? Even when you said it was preferable after I told you the Death God's cult might be targeting you?"

"Yes."

"And when you said you had no guards you could trust?"

"... Yes."

Amelia nodded quietly.

"Yes, you remember. Even though I only mentioned it in passing."

"I found it suspicious even then. It didn't pass me by at all."

You were the one who made me worry about it in the first place. Even her claim that she'd "only mentioned it in passing" felt like a lie.

"Yes, that's how it is. Saying it was better to be targeted by the Death God's cult, keeping my guards away because I didn't trust them. And..."

Amelia raised a finger and pointed straight at my face.

"And thinking you're special for unfairly saving me at precisely such a moment."

Her voice rose confidently, only to drop again in the end.

"... None of it was without reason."

Then she added something cryptic: "Though I'm not sure which of us is being unfair..."

"Your Highness... are you taking refuge at the academy until the successor is chosen?"

"Taking refuge...? No. As I said, I was driven out before that. Though I am using the opportunity to keep my head down."

Her shoulders twitched, as though the phrase "taking refuge" bothered her.

"My name isn't among the candidates the lords will vote for."

Vote? The lords voted for the next king?

"They stripped me of my succession rights as punishment for helping my brother in the first place. It's our kingdom's tradition that the lords only recognize those who possess that ring as eligible for the throne, isn't it?"

She could talk about tradition as if everyone knew, but I certainly didn't. She was seriously underestimating someone who'd become a shut-in as soon as he arrived from another world. Not just anyone could hole up at home for three years.

But just now... hadn't she said something about a ring?

"Yes, a ring. A mark of royalty, and specifically of a claimant to the throne."

Huh? That ring had that much history behind it? But... they sold it in the shop for 1,500 coins...

040

Come to think of it, something was odd. The ring Amelia mentioned was the reward for clearing Ending 15, her True Ending. Players who'd missed that ending were given the option to buy it with coins.

That meant Amelia already had the ring by Ending 15. The main story probably involved Laward obtaining it for her. I could simply buy it from the shop now, but ordinarily, it must have taken a great deal of effort to acquire.

The odd part was Chiron, the fourth prince. The True Ending was literally the canonical ending, the one where she became his wife. Amelia didn't die in it. Even on the brink of the apocalypse, she found true love.

Then why did Chiron turn evil? Why did he join the Death God's cult?

So it wasn't that route after all. It was a failed harem route. Endings 26 through 29. More specifically, Ending 27: [Declaration of War].

That was the ending where Amelia turned evil and even Chiron became a villain. Just like the ending where another version of me had coaxed Esther into burning the world, a heroine and a villain joined forces once again.

Five heroines. Five villains, too. It seemed that matching number really wasn't a coincidence.

All of Amelia's romance endings were locked, but as long as that one land mine of an ending remained open, I couldn't let my guard down.

However, looked at the other way, locking that ending early would reduce the chance of Chiron becoming a villain to zero. That alone would let me neutralize part of the Death God's cult's fighting strength.

The Death God's cult's Five Lamps were no easy opponents. They were so powerful that one could say they, rather than the necromancer, were responsible for the apocalypse. The moment I thought that, several loathsome faces seemed to flash before my eyes.

... Did I have to do it after all?

"Ugh."

A struggle for the throne... Did I suddenly have to plunge into something on that scale? My stomach churned.

This was a world I could never have saved as a paladin on the frontier. In the end, did preventing its destruction require me to willingly take on something with an entire nation's fate at stake?

Royalty, lords, and the factions backing the candidates. Merely imagining the people I'd have to face if I helped Amelia left me struggling to breathe.

Laward had reached the hidden ending despite skipping storylines like the struggle for the throne. But that was only the story from the protagonist's perspective. Naturally, there were people and stories wherever the protagonist wasn't, too. Just as there had been for me in my previous life.

Laward didn't have to take part in that event, but that didn't mean I could ignore it as well. The hidden ending had come about through the unlikely outcome of Amelia winning without the protagonist's involvement.

"Do I really... have to do it after all?"

I tried to think of ways to avoid it, but every idea fell apart.

I'd intended to give Amelia extra help and send her back to the royal court quickly precisely because she was royalty. That was why I'd shared information about the Death God's cult: to get the royal family involved.

But it turned out Amelia was a rotting lifeline, thin and frail enough to snap the moment I grabbed it. That was what a prince despised by the royal family and a princess stripped of her rights and driven out amounted to.

I suddenly remembered that one of Amelia's endings was called [Even If I Must Give Up the Royal Family]. Was that one about breaking away from the royal family entirely and farming with Laward or something?

"I can't let that happen..."

Whatever the case, I'd already maxed out her affection. And she was a student I was nurturing. That reason alone was enough to keep me from giving up.

Yes. In the end, I had to become one. A kingmaker.

* * *

First, I needed to earn coins. That was the only way to get Amelia back the ring she'd lost. I opened the system window and browsed the achievement list.

Let's see. I should start with something quick and simple to complete. Hmm. The achievements I'd looked at last time caught my eye first.

[They Say the Infirmary Is Haunted]

- Visit the infirmary during the break after third period on Wednesday.

- 300 coins

[King of Snipers]

- Hit a flying bird with a ranged weapon (magic).

- 100 coins

These looked easy, yet offered quite a lot of coins. Not enough to reach 1,500, but considering clearing an ending only paid 50 coins, the rewards were pretty good.

"Shall I start with the easy one?"

And so, during the break after third period on Wednesday, I arrived outside the infirmary.

School ghost stories usually felt like they had to happen at midnight, but oddly enough, this one specified third period. Broad daylight. Wasn't that a little lacking in atmosphere for a ghost to appear?

Whatever the case, I had to check. Ghosts had to do with the dead, so this might be a clue about the undead. And there had been a ghost among the Five Lamps, too. Sometimes decisive clues were hidden in unexpected places.

After vowing not to be startled by whatever appeared inside...

RATTLE—BANG!

I flung the door open in one go.

"Aaargh!"

"Eek!"

A boy's and a girl's screams instantly rang out from inside the "infirmary." The students hastily pulled their clothes on and fled through the back door.

A darkened room. Carefully drawn curtains. A boy and a girl who'd fled in alarm at someone's arrival.

What... What had I just seen...? I'd sworn I wouldn't be startled by anything, but that was utterly impossible.

Suddenly, I remembered what Commander Blash had said.

"F-fifty-five percent..."

Was that statistic actually real? The sudden psychological shock made me want to crumple to the floor. As I staggered with my head in my hands...

SWISH!

The curtain around another bed was thrown open.

"Yaaawn..."

Along with a languid voice that had become familiar by now.

"Oh, Lord Karma."

There was only one female student who called me that. And why were you here?

"Because there's a bed."

Lucia stated something that was far from self-evident as though it were perfectly obvious.

"Wherever there's a bed, there's a Lucia. Last time, there was even a Lucia in your bed, Lord Karma..."

"Stop."

"Yes."

"More importantly, you were just sleeping through what happened here?"

"What happened?"

When she asked like that, I couldn't exactly answer with confidence. I gave her a vague, evasive explanation.

"Oh, I was asleep, so I didn't notice a thing. Aww, what a shame."

"It wasn't particularly pleasant. If their parents knew what they were doing..."

"It happens sometimes, so it's fine. This is the infirmary, after all."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Her answer had made me forget to use the noble Daywin's manner of speech without even realizing it.

"It's the health room, so... hands-on health education?"

"... I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

Careful. Get a grip. There was no reasoning with her.

They said that staying up all night lowered a person's cognitive abilities to the equivalent of a blood alcohol level of 0.08%. So it was no exaggeration to say Lucia was always drunk. She was practically a drunkard.

While I pressed a hand to my forehead at her shocking remark, Lucia quietly perched on the edge of the bed.

"You look tired. Would you like to sit here?"

PAT, PAT.

Lucia patted the spot beside her.

"I'll pass."

"You're surprisingly shy."

"Has it occurred to you that you're the abnormal one?"

"Yaaawn. Well, I suppose I should get up for today."

For today? Then this wasn't her first time sleeping here?

The moment I realized it, a chime sounded, the achievement was completed, and I received 300 coins. Current coin balance: 500.

"..."

So that was it. The truth behind the infirmary ghost. I had a feeling I was raising this heroine all wrong.