That was how the game of proving whether this game was someone’s creation or not, between Canaria and I had started. I am to prove to her that this world is a reality, while Canaria will prepare proof that this world is that of a game. So I had her put all the information between the two games together and send them to me later on.
In actuality, I didn’t really care whether the world was a reality or that of a game. The ones to make a distinction between these two are either the god himself, or perhaps the otherworlders. There’s no use in going around and pondering my thoughts about things out of my reach. The only thing that royalties such as us must consider is to make the country richer and to prevent making its citizen starve– at least according to my tutors.
But still, the main reason why I made the bet of proving that this world was not a game was because being seen as an imaginary character by her was amusing. That’s right, even if I am truly just a piece in someone’s storyboard.
Just recalling her face flustered in red after telling her that she’ll have to kiss me, makes my lips slacken.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
After several days, a parcel from the Corundum Kingdom has arrived. It was the information regarding the two games that I asked of Canaria. I had her write it in Corrundum’s language to help my study too, so the servants wouldn’t understand them even if they took a peek. I went straight to reading them with the assistance of a dictionary in hand.
‘…..’
After reading for a while, I sorted out my thoughts. This game with Coloflare Kingdom as its stage, with a love story as its body, was seemingly thoughtlessly trampling on this kingdom’s secret. Although they were not so secure as to prevent foreign spies from completely finding them out, it was still my first time discovering things that you will only find out in the forbidden books, such as the Saintess, the first’s name. However, I’m at a loss as to how should I confirm their veracity. If I ask father about this, he’ll certainly ask where I got the information from. I cannot possibly just blurt out that this was a game, and I got it from that game’s strategy. I guess Canaria must’ve pondered about this in the past as well.
That aside, I need to come up with a method to prove to her that this was not a world of a game. However, she’s highly unlikely to listen to my words alone, so I might need to gather several people’s opinions.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
First, I tried asking the person who gave me advice on how to stop a lady’s tears.
‘Sei, do you happen to know what to do about a girl who is seemingly convinced that you’re just a major character of a story?’
‘What’s that about sir? That’s way out of the blue.’
Omitting the keywords, ‘game’ and ‘past lives, I merely illustrated it in a way of consulting about story’s contents being uncannily similar to the events within one’s surroundings.
‘In other words, the lady was fearing that it was a prophetic record, isn’t it?’
‘Prophetic… well, I guess that’s true. Either way, the story had a tragic end so she was anxious that it’ll happen.’
‘Then first, you shouldn’t deny her words and board on it.’
Ah, but I ended up denying it immediately though. I mean, she’s talking about our country’s destruction, you know?
‘The most important in hearing a girl’s troubles is not advice but sympathy. No matter how outlandish her stories are, for the lady, they were severely serious matters. You must not ridicule them for that. Once you let her vent her frustrations, just hold her and tell her that you are there for her, and that’s a win.’
I wasn’t asking about how to make a lady fall… Wait, I wonder if this will work? I only needed to make her agree after all.
‘Incidentally, if I prove to her that we’re not in a story world?’
‘I wouldn’t advise you to break a lady’s dreams, sir.’
…This guy’s no good.
By the way, the game seems to have written about Sei being troubled by forbidden love, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I mean, he’s just foolishly sending his kisses over the ladies making a racket at a distance.
Pulling myself together, I traversed the hallway that leads to the first prince’s room. My brother should be studying under scholars of different fields around this time. That was when I met him and his fiancee, together in the hallways. His eyebrows knitted upon noticing me, which makes me sad even though I know that it was not out of hate.
‘It’s been a while, brother.’
‘…How unusual. You don’t often come to this place.’
‘There’s something I wish to consult brother about.’
As the eyes of my brother and her fiancee met, the lady retreated back to where her servant stood. She had glossy black hair and her face was hidden behind her folding fan, but I already knew that she was a terrific beauty. Her servant does not lose face either, his amethyst-colored hair and eyes were something that felt rather familiar.
Whichever the case, I already know about them.
‘Make it brief.’
‘Okay, erm… If brother were to be told that we are living in the world of a game, how do you suppose will you deny it?’
‘…pu-‘
The one who almost burst into laughter was Lady Chloe, whose shoulders were trembling behind her folding fan. On the contrary, my brother’s frown was increasingly looking more displeased.
‘My, I guess Prince Yello is quite the idealist, isn’t he? Kukuku…’
‘No, it’s not me but Canaria…’
‘Oh my, that blue-eyed lady fiancée of yours? I happen to have the courtesy of receiving her greeting yesterday. She was just like a doll, but I guess she must’ve been in the age to fantasize about those sorts of plays underneath, fufufu.’
Implicitly asserting childishness has made me sullen. That’s exactly why you’re a “Villainess” inside the game! Oops, being too influenced by the game would make me unable to refute Lady Chloe’s words.
‘How foolish, it would be a waste of time to attend to such things so just ignore them.’
‘I completely agree, ohohoho.’
Brother spat a one-liner and left, followed by Lady Chloe’s loud laughter. Well, I would’ve thought the same thing before, but now I wanted to refute her argumentatively.
Suddenly, I noticed the son of General Nable, Dai, whose eyes sparkled as he came close.
‘Huh, wasn’t Dai brother’s escort?’
‘My father made me, in order to gain experience because I wouldn’t settle down in the house, and his highness Leddorio had just instructed me to attend to you, sir.’
Dai was a year younger than my older brother. In other words, he was the same age as Lady Chloe. However, his height is already close to that of an adult. His masculine look is quite popular with the ladies, isn’t it? Although he’s a muscle brain, I should consult him, just in case.
‘…Dai, if someone told you that this is the world of a game.’
‘…That’d be cool, right? Was it a heroic tale where you beat the bad guys to a pulp?’
‘Well, yeah… but the kingdom would have been ruined before that so…’
‘Then I’ll beat them before that.’
‘Look, that’s only in the story. Nobody really knows if it’ll happen in reality, you know?’
‘My father has always said that the army is there in case something happens. Even I, want to get stronger so that I could protect my precious people when the time arrives.’
As Dai heartily smiles, I could only reply in affirmation and leave afterward. Reality or not doesn’t really matter to him. He’s always prepared for war. If I approach Canaria in the same assertiveness as him, would she be submissive too? No, Dai is a capture target. Having finished the game herself, she’d play someone as simple as Dai within the palm of her hand.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
I talked to the group of gentlemen, who are coincidentally, capture targets too, but none of their ideas are likely to convince Canaria so, I tried talking to the ladies group instead. That’s why I invited Sei’s sister-in-law Lady Masumi, for tea.
‘Good day, Duchess Bruno.’
‘Well if it isn’t his highness, Yello. Good day.’
Her smile, as dazzling as the sun itself, looked awfully similar to Lady Chloe’s earlier, but their ambiances were completely different from one another. This sister-in-law of his was Sei’s first love… perhaps, it was because he is so popular, that he was attracted to someone he shouldn’t be, instead.
‘To think that the small prince in the past would smoothly invite me for a tea, how very moving.’
‘Please stop talking like you’re my auntie. Doesn’t Sei hate that kind of talking too?’
Lady Masumi has severely pampered Sei ever since marrying his older brother, Soma. It’s very likely that she doesn’t even notice how much it tramples on Sei’s pride, as a man who fell in love with her—is what I think, but having the game’s knowledge could blindside you to a single angle.
‘My, once his highness, Leddorio, marries Chloe, we will truly be relatives, you know? Even sister-in-law said that it will be House Moonlight’s dearest wish once fulfilled, during the time she was alive.’
‘House Moonlight… If I recall correctly, that was the house of the minister to the right’s wife, wasn’t it? What does she mean by dearest wish?’
‘Oh my, looks like I spoke too much. Fufufu, that just means that it would be a terribly joyous development.’
I feel like she’s glossing it over but, thinking about how we’ll become relatives after the marriage made me remember the other game that Canaria spoke of. The Duke Riqum who was the relative of the princess; The princess was a descendant of my brother, while the duke was mine’s, making the both of them relatives. If that’s the case, the future will change if it doesn’t take the Leddorio route—or not, it couldn’t be that simple. The romantic circumstances of the Saintess and the invasion of the empire are two separate problems.
‘Speaking of marriages, I believe Prince Keith was also engaged to the ducal lady of the Corundum kingdom, wasn’t he? Considering she was a high nobility from a different country, the difference in sense of values must be troubling, you then.’
‘I guess that’s true. It’s my first time encountering the thought that people could be reborn to someone anew after death.’
‘My… in our kingdom, there’s the thought about monsters originating from scoundrels… Mhm, I see, that kind of thought would make each life quite like a tribulation, wouldn’t it?’
Life as a tribulation? I didn’t think about that. A trial brought by the gods huh… it’s certainly becoming more like a game. I consulted Lady Masumi just as I did my brother and the others, but more concretely. From how we talked about so far, she seems to have quite an interest in the mass novels that were quite the trend in the capital. Perhaps, she’ll take it as nothing but worries of a daydreaming lady, and laugh it off. But Lady Masumi merely took a sip of her tea, and after having finished my explanation, only silently brought the cup down.
‘Is that so, an otherworld… Certainly, if a person who has read something like that were to come to this world, it can’t be helped for them to think that way. But your highness, do you think that this world is just a creation?’
‘Mhm, I guess it wouldn’t matter to me. After all, I do not have such past life memories, and I’ve only been here ever since I was born. So that’s the only thing that matters.’
I know that I should haphazardly think of gods or what the world is all about, as a noble, but this was just me being honest. Lady Masumi merely nodded and smile, then asked another question.
‘Then… what would his highness do if you receive a bad divination?’
‘I’ll take it as advice. If it’s something unchangeable, I wouldn’t pay it any mind. After all, if you’re suddenly told “You going to die someday”, there’s nothing you can do about it either?’
‘Fufufu, Prince Yello is soo mature.’
Lady Masumi’s expression had become similar to Lady Chloe’s. Granted that they would look similar, considering they were relatives, but I was referring to the seemingly malicious ambiance behind their smile.
‘Everyone will surely die. But even so, the bloodline will keep getting carried over, and even if the houses crumble, the people will remain. However… if this country perishes, there will come a time where it will be forgotten, and things that we inherited will disappear.
I also feel fear towards the thought of death, highness. But not the perish of the flesh, but on the idea that there’s nothing next. That everything eventually amounts to nothing at all.’
Masumi’s talk about life and death was so interesting that I could only nod as I listen to her words. She was born in the last years of the previous Duke Sereknight, and thus, was considerably affectionately spoiled, which is probably the reason for her gentle personality. But she was not stupid, and unexpectedly, have such profound thoughts in her mind.
Death of the flesh, and death of identity, huh? The religious doctrine about the world after death was in a way, practically, a notion of immorality. But if that’s the case, then perhaps those who reincarnated like Canaria with memories of her previous otherworld life, in-tact, could be called immortal in a way. It’s precisely because of the presence of her ego from the otherworld that she couldn’t throw away the doubt of being inside of a world of a game. Was she about to live her life from the standpoint of having given up, thinking that everything was nothing but a game anyway?
‘Canaria sure is living her life bothersomely. She is fretting about things that will happen after her death… even though this world is nothing but a mere story to her.’
‘Doesn’t that speak of how kind Lady Canaria is? After all, it’s about the ruin of the kingdom and the death of the people from a story; which is a predetermined course. But even so, she feared the destruction of an imaginary kingdom like her own death and laments her heart over its fate. She must’ve considerably loved that story that much then.’
‘……’
Lady Masumi’s profound words have made me put the teacup down to its saucer. It made a sound due to me almost having dropped it.
I see. What Canaria fears is not being within the game of the world from her previous life’s memories. Such a thing does not really matter to her.
What I should’ve told my fiancée, who summoned all her courage to tell me all about it, was—
That was how the game of proving whether this game was someone’s creation or not, between Canaria and I had started. I am to prove to her that this world is a reality, while Canaria will prepare proof that this world is that of a game. So I had her put all the information between the two games together and send them to me later on.
In actuality, I didn’t really care whether the world was a reality or that of a game. The ones to make a distinction between these two are either the god himself, or perhaps the otherworlders. There’s no use in going around and pondering my thoughts about things out of my reach. The only thing that royalties such as us must consider is to make the country richer and to prevent making its citizen starve– at least according to my tutors.
But still, the main reason why I made the bet of proving that this world was not a game was because being seen as an imaginary character by her was amusing. That’s right, even if I am truly just a piece in someone’s storyboard.
Just recalling her face flustered in red after telling her that she’ll have to kiss me, makes my lips slacken.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
After several days, a parcel from the Corundum Kingdom has arrived. It was the information regarding the two games that I asked of Canaria. I had her write it in Corrundum’s language to help my study too, so the servants wouldn’t understand them even if they took a peek. I went straight to reading them with the assistance of a dictionary in hand.
‘…..’
After reading for a while, I sorted out my thoughts. This game with Coloflare Kingdom as its stage, with a love story as its body, was seemingly thoughtlessly trampling on this kingdom’s secret. Although they were not so secure as to prevent foreign spies from completely finding them out, it was still my first time discovering things that you will only find out in the forbidden books, such as the Saintess, the first’s name. However, I’m at a loss as to how should I confirm their veracity. If I ask father about this, he’ll certainly ask where I got the information from. I cannot possibly just blurt out that this was a game, and I got it from that game’s strategy. I guess Canaria must’ve pondered about this in the past as well.
That aside, I need to come up with a method to prove to her that this was not a world of a game. However, she’s highly unlikely to listen to my words alone, so I might need to gather several people’s opinions.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
First, I tried asking the person who gave me advice on how to stop a lady’s tears.
‘Sei, do you happen to know what to do about a girl who is seemingly convinced that you’re just a major character of a story?’
‘What’s that about sir? That’s way out of the blue.’
Omitting the keywords, ‘game’ and ‘past lives, I merely illustrated it in a way of consulting about story’s contents being uncannily similar to the events within one’s surroundings.
‘In other words, the lady was fearing that it was a prophetic record, isn’t it?’
‘Prophetic… well, I guess that’s true. Either way, the story had a tragic end so she was anxious that it’ll happen.’
‘Then first, you shouldn’t deny her words and board on it.’
Ah, but I ended up denying it immediately though. I mean, she’s talking about our country’s destruction, you know?
‘The most important in hearing a girl’s troubles is not advice but sympathy. No matter how outlandish her stories are, for the lady, they were severely serious matters. You must not ridicule them for that. Once you let her vent her frustrations, just hold her and tell her that you are there for her, and that’s a win.’
I wasn’t asking about how to make a lady fall… Wait, I wonder if this will work? I only needed to make her agree after all.
‘Incidentally, if I prove to her that we’re not in a story world?’
‘I wouldn’t advise you to break a lady’s dreams, sir.’
…This guy’s no good.
By the way, the game seems to have written about Sei being troubled by forbidden love, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I mean, he’s just foolishly sending his kisses over the ladies making a racket at a distance.
Pulling myself together, I traversed the hallway that leads to the first prince’s room. My brother should be studying under scholars of different fields around this time. That was when I met him and his fiancee, together in the hallways. His eyebrows knitted upon noticing me, which makes me sad even though I know that it was not out of hate.
‘It’s been a while, brother.’
‘…How unusual. You don’t often come to this place.’
‘There’s something I wish to consult brother about.’
As the eyes of my brother and her fiancee met, the lady retreated back to where her servant stood. She had glossy black hair and her face was hidden behind her folding fan, but I already knew that she was a terrific beauty. Her servant does not lose face either, his amethyst-colored hair and eyes were something that felt rather familiar.
Whichever the case, I already know about them.
‘Make it brief.’
‘Okay, erm… If brother were to be told that we are living in the world of a game, how do you suppose will you deny it?’
‘…pu-‘
The one who almost burst into laughter was Lady Chloe, whose shoulders were trembling behind her folding fan. On the contrary, my brother’s frown was increasingly looking more displeased.
‘My, I guess Prince Yello is quite the idealist, isn’t he? Kukuku…’
‘No, it’s not me but Canaria…’
‘Oh my, that blue-eyed lady fiancée of yours? I happen to have the courtesy of receiving her greeting yesterday. She was just like a doll, but I guess she must’ve been in the age to fantasize about those sorts of plays underneath, fufufu.’
Implicitly asserting childishness has made me sullen. That’s exactly why you’re a “Villainess” inside the game! Oops, being too influenced by the game would make me unable to refute Lady Chloe’s words.
‘How foolish, it would be a waste of time to attend to such things so just ignore them.’
‘I completely agree, ohohoho.’
Brother spat a one-liner and left, followed by Lady Chloe’s loud laughter. Well, I would’ve thought the same thing before, but now I wanted to refute her argumentatively.
Suddenly, I noticed the son of General Nable, Dai, whose eyes sparkled as he came close.
‘Huh, wasn’t Dai brother’s escort?’
‘My father made me, in order to gain experience because I wouldn’t settle down in the house, and his highness Leddorio had just instructed me to attend to you, sir.’
Dai was a year younger than my older brother. In other words, he was the same age as Lady Chloe. However, his height is already close to that of an adult. His masculine look is quite popular with the ladies, isn’t it? Although he’s a muscle brain, I should consult him, just in case.
‘…Dai, if someone told you that this is the world of a game.’
‘…That’d be cool, right? Was it a heroic tale where you beat the bad guys to a pulp?’
‘Well, yeah… but the kingdom would have been ruined before that so…’
‘Then I’ll beat them before that.’
‘Look, that’s only in the story. Nobody really knows if it’ll happen in reality, you know?’
‘My father has always said that the army is there in case something happens. Even I, want to get stronger so that I could protect my precious people when the time arrives.’
As Dai heartily smiles, I could only reply in affirmation and leave afterward. Reality or not doesn’t really matter to him. He’s always prepared for war. If I approach Canaria in the same assertiveness as him, would she be submissive too? No, Dai is a capture target. Having finished the game herself, she’d play someone as simple as Dai within the palm of her hand.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
I talked to the group of gentlemen, who are coincidentally, capture targets too, but none of their ideas are likely to convince Canaria so, I tried talking to the ladies group instead. That’s why I invited Sei’s sister-in-law Lady Masumi, for tea.
‘Good day, Duchess Bruno.’
‘Well if it isn’t his highness, Yello. Good day.’
Her smile, as dazzling as the sun itself, looked awfully similar to Lady Chloe’s earlier, but their ambiances were completely different from one another. This sister-in-law of his was Sei’s first love… perhaps, it was because he is so popular, that he was attracted to someone he shouldn’t be, instead.
‘To think that the small prince in the past would smoothly invite me for a tea, how very moving.’
‘Please stop talking like you’re my auntie. Doesn’t Sei hate that kind of talking too?’
Lady Masumi has severely pampered Sei ever since marrying his older brother, Soma. It’s very likely that she doesn’t even notice how much it tramples on Sei’s pride, as a man who fell in love with her—is what I think, but having the game’s knowledge could blindside you to a single angle.
‘My, once his highness, Leddorio, marries Chloe, we will truly be relatives, you know? Even sister-in-law said that it will be House Moonlight’s dearest wish once fulfilled, during the time she was alive.’
‘House Moonlight… If I recall correctly, that was the house of the minister to the right’s wife, wasn’t it? What does she mean by dearest wish?’
‘Oh my, looks like I spoke too much. Fufufu, that just means that it would be a terribly joyous development.’
I feel like she’s glossing it over but, thinking about how we’ll become relatives after the marriage made me remember the other game that Canaria spoke of. The Duke Riqum who was the relative of the princess; The princess was a descendant of my brother, while the duke was mine’s, making the both of them relatives. If that’s the case, the future will change if it doesn’t take the Leddorio route—or not, it couldn’t be that simple. The romantic circumstances of the Saintess and the invasion of the empire are two separate problems.
‘Speaking of marriages, I believe Prince Keith was also engaged to the ducal lady of the Corundum kingdom, wasn’t he? Considering she was a high nobility from a different country, the difference in sense of values must be troubling, you then.’
‘I guess that’s true. It’s my first time encountering the thought that people could be reborn to someone anew after death.’
‘My… in our kingdom, there’s the thought about monsters originating from scoundrels… Mhm, I see, that kind of thought would make each life quite like a tribulation, wouldn’t it?’
Life as a tribulation? I didn’t think about that. A trial brought by the gods huh… it’s certainly becoming more like a game. I consulted Lady Masumi just as I did my brother and the others, but more concretely. From how we talked about so far, she seems to have quite an interest in the mass novels that were quite the trend in the capital. Perhaps, she’ll take it as nothing but worries of a daydreaming lady, and laugh it off. But Lady Masumi merely took a sip of her tea, and after having finished my explanation, only silently brought the cup down.
‘Is that so, an otherworld… Certainly, if a person who has read something like that were to come to this world, it can’t be helped for them to think that way. But your highness, do you think that this world is just a creation?’
‘Mhm, I guess it wouldn’t matter to me. After all, I do not have such past life memories, and I’ve only been here ever since I was born. So that’s the only thing that matters.’
I know that I should haphazardly think of gods or what the world is all about, as a noble, but this was just me being honest. Lady Masumi merely nodded and smile, then asked another question.
‘Then… what would his highness do if you receive a bad divination?’
‘I’ll take it as advice. If it’s something unchangeable, I wouldn’t pay it any mind. After all, if you’re suddenly told “You going to die someday”, there’s nothing you can do about it either?’
‘Fufufu, Prince Yello is soo mature.’
Lady Masumi’s expression had become similar to Lady Chloe’s. Granted that they would look similar, considering they were relatives, but I was referring to the seemingly malicious ambiance behind their smile.
‘Everyone will surely die. But even so, the bloodline will keep getting carried over, and even if the houses crumble, the people will remain. However… if this country perishes, there will come a time where it will be forgotten, and things that we inherited will disappear.
I also feel fear towards the thought of death, highness. But not the perish of the flesh, but on the idea that there’s nothing next. That everything eventually amounts to nothing at all.’
Masumi’s talk about life and death was so interesting that I could only nod as I listen to her words. She was born in the last years of the previous Duke Sereknight, and thus, was considerably affectionately spoiled, which is probably the reason for her gentle personality. But she was not stupid, and unexpectedly, have such profound thoughts in her mind.
Death of the flesh, and death of identity, huh? The religious doctrine about the world after death was in a way, practically, a notion of immorality. But if that’s the case, then perhaps those who reincarnated like Canaria with memories of her previous otherworld life, in-tact, could be called immortal in a way. It’s precisely because of the presence of her ego from the otherworld that she couldn’t throw away the doubt of being inside of a world of a game. Was she about to live her life from the standpoint of having given up, thinking that everything was nothing but a game anyway?
‘Canaria sure is living her life bothersomely. She is fretting about things that will happen after her death… even though this world is nothing but a mere story to her.’
‘Doesn’t that speak of how kind Lady Canaria is? After all, it’s about the ruin of the kingdom and the death of the people from a story; which is a predetermined course. But even so, she feared the destruction of an imaginary kingdom like her own death and laments her heart over its fate. She must’ve considerably loved that story that much then.’
‘……’
Lady Masumi’s profound words have made me put the teacup down to its saucer. It made a sound due to me almost having dropped it.
I see. What Canaria fears is not being within the game of the world from her previous life’s memories. Such a thing does not really matter to her.
What I should’ve told my fiancée, who summoned all her courage to tell me all about it, was—
