Chapter 75
A room in a mansion located in the noble district of the Royal Capital.
A girl who sneezed cutely like a little bird chirping glanced at the maid packing her luggage and smirked, wondering if someone was gossiping about her.
With only a few days left until she entered the long-awaited academy, she stayed at a separate residence in the Royal Capital to polish her charm. She chose clothes and accessories that were simple and universally appealing rather than the gaudy style typical of nobles, eagerly awaiting the day of enrollment so as not to deviate from the heroine of the game.
"Young lady"
While idly picking out lace ribbons to put in her hair, she was called by a maid and only turned her gaze toward her.
The stern-looking maid with tightly pulled-back hair had been chosen by Celestia's nanny. Although she had initially pretended to be sweet and charming, she gave up completely when she realized this maid would only ever speak in a businesslike tone no matter what she did.
"This bag is for you to carry, and the rest will be sent to the academy. On the day of move-in, three maids will accompany you to help you unpack, so please rest assured."
"Only on that day?"
"Yes."
"I heard there are exceptions."
"Only a select few are allowed to have maids or attendants with them."
"The Rotish family is on par with dukes and marquises, right? Then it wouldn't be strange if we were among that select few."
"If it's Celestia-sama, the heir, she can have a maid."
"Ah, so it's because I'm the adopted daughter."
When I waved my hand dismissively at the maid who stood silently without even flinching at my sarcasm, she exited with the other maids who had been packing. The previous maid that Celestia dismissed used to always smile and try to please me and my mother.
"So annoying..."
I flopped onto the sofa and propped my feet up on the armrest.
Because of that overly strict maid, I couldn't even casually sit with my feet up like this, and the frustration kept building. Even though she claimed it was because of the Rotish family, she addressed Celestia with honorifics and treated me like a mere guest by calling me 'young lady.'
I feel like yelling at them to let me do as I please, but since I plan to win a prince and leave this house soon, maybe being treated like a guest isn't entirely wrong.
Twirling a white ribbon around my finger, I mocked the expressionless maids, thinking they could have had a better life as the queen's maids if they had gotten on my good side.
"But... how should I raise those princes' affection levels?"
The stage for the romance game was finally about to begin, but there was no villainess.
In the game, the heroine, who had always felt out of place in the Rotish family, gets bullied at the academy by Celestia, who reigns like a queen with her own faction...
The marquis family's young lady, who was called the second villainess, hasn't enrolled yet, so who's going to bully me?
"Ugh, this is the worst. Am I stuck? Can't I just reset?"
I groaned while thumping a cushion, but no good ideas came to mind.
"What should I do? Was there someone suitable...?"
I never thought it would be this troublesome when the villainess moves on her own.
But maybe this is actually a good thing? No one enjoys being bullied, so I should just enjoy capturing the royal family in a peaceful academy without a villainess.
"Alright...!"
I sat up and hurried to the bedroom.
On the small desk beside the bed, I always kept a notebook and pen. Whenever I remembered something about the game or needed to jot down important events or timelines related to the capture targets, I wrote them in characters not from this world.
On a fresh white page, I wrote the names Ludweek and Renato, then circled them over and over with my pen.
"Even though I trespassed into the lake district, there was no punishment. That time, the event was ruined because of Celestia, but Ludweek was smiling..."
I had panicked, thinking the event failed, but maybe his affection level increased anyway. Since it was an event where he falls in love at first sight with my appearance, the moment he saw my face in that outfit, it should've been a success.
His younger brother, the Second Prince, is supposed to act like that at first according to the setting, and if his affection level rises, he'll naturally warm up to me. That process is fun, so I'll forgive his attitude toward me.
"Floyd is holding steady for now, and then..."
Resting my chin on my hand at the desk, I flipped through the notebook and reread the pages about the capture targets written at the beginning.
The capturable characters aren't limited to princes and nobles from my own country—foreign royalty is also fair game.
However, the foreign royalty comes from a country that's constantly at odds with the heroine's homeland, so there are very few events, and if you fail one, the affection level drops drastically.
He's a high-difficulty, troublesome character to capture, but he's the Third Prince who ends up taking the crown and sitting on the throne. In other words, he's the future king, so he's worth the effort and time.
"Ah, come to think of it, it's almost time..."
On the page labeled Sleiran Third Prince Dick Aalkvist, it said: younger brother, deceased.
The younger prince, who had left his country for some reason to help his full-blooded brother Dick, ends up being killed by the Second Prince, who hates Dick.
When Dick receives word that his younger brother's body is in the Kingdom of Russell, he defies the king and his older brother's orders and goes alone to the border to retrieve it. The still image of Dick crying while holding his brother's corpse was so beautiful it made me sigh.
Not knowing the Second Prince was the culprit, Dick secretly enters the Kingdom of Russell to investigate what happened to his brother and meets the heroine in the Royal Capital.
The encounter with him is fixed to occur on a holiday morning, and if you miss it even once, his affection level won't be enough and you'll end up with the friendship ending.
"Ludweek is nice too, but my real targets are Dick and Renato."
Ludweek's status as Crown Prince is attractive, but a guy who's just kind isn't interesting. In that case, either the most handsome Renato or the mature and seductive Dick would be better.
"Being fought over by two brothers while aiming for the foreign queen route... hmm, a reverse harem might ruin me."
Should I go with the Crown Prince and Second Prince routes, where Celestia might still interfere, or the Dick route, where she absolutely can't interfere since she's at the military school...
"But I guess I'll just have to go with all of them at once, right?"
I closed the notebook, flopped onto the bed, and stretched.
Around the summer of the year I enter the academy, Dick's younger brother dies.
Then, before winter truly begins, he appears in the Royal Capital and has a fateful encounter with me.
The key is how much I can raise Ludweek and Renato's affection levels during that time.
"Just you wait, Celestia. I'll make you regret making me angry."
—By this time next year, it'll be my turn to laugh triumphantly, or so I firmly believed without a shred of doubt.