“[Because it’s you.]”
“Wait, wait a minute.”
“[It’s because it’s you, I believe you can do it.]”
“I told you to stop for a moment!”
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, Charlotte crashed into me, causing me to topple over sideways.
Right.
Since coming to this world, I’ve been exercising to keep up with Claire and Alice, but I still had a strength that made it pointless to compare with the real warriors.
“What do you mean by that? What are you doing? Are you telling me that I was saying such things in there!?”
Charlotte’s face turned bright red, and she looked quite cute.
I hardly ever saw that kind of expression from her.
“Of course. It’s just how the script goes.”
“I could never say that to Leo! No, I definitely haven’t!”
“Charlotte, could you lower your voice a bit? If you’re not careful, your yelling might be heard by the neighbors.”
“……”
Glaring at Alice while smiling, Charlotte got back on her feet.
Crack
This is yuri, right?
“Claire, can you ban that person?”
“Okay!”
As I got up and said that, Claire quickly grabbed the mouse and banned or muted the guys who were spouting nonsense.
Sure enough, managing it together is way more efficient than doing it alone.
“It’s only natural that I haven’t said anything to Leo. The world we lived in and the one in that game are flowing quite differently.”
“……But I think it’s a bit twisted to deliberately pick me and make me say such lines. It’s also weird that I had to read the lines that weren’t recorded directly.”
Charlotte was sharper than I thought.
It wasn’t like the game info was given accurately—no, to be precise, I was only given a rough idea of what a video game was, yet she inferred that there might be parts I could choose in there. It’s just impressive.
Did she realize it while watching me control my character?
“But I think there’s a possibility.”
“Can you give me your reasoning for that?”
I said nonchalantly, and Charlotte shot me a fierce look while pointedly questioning me.
“Do you remember when we were in Lutetia?”
“Why does that matter—ah.”
At my words, the color drained from Charlotte’s face.
Right, that makes sense.
A fair amount of time has passed since then, and I remember it, but there’s no way that Charlotte wouldn’t recall it, especially not long after coming from the battlefield.
Back in Lutetia, Charlotte had told me she was happy to finally make true friends.
And when I said I would leave her behind, she told me not to think that way.
As a reference, just a moment ago, Charlotte’s line was what she said just before going into a pair event with Leo.
Just before the war started, when a battleship exploded, the war itself ended up half-canceled. After all, the Empire’s most enormous and powerful strategic weapon disappeared.
And of course, the rumor was that the entity that could destroy that strategic weapon must be a spy from another country deeply infiltrating the Empire.
As a reference, Sylvia had not appeared since then.
Of course, later on, in the latter half of the story, she would join the protagonist’s party when they were surrounded by enemies right before their defeat, and say something like, “This is as far as you go.” But for now, she was simply ‘missing in action.’
The Empire was thrown into chaos.
The war itself was thwarted, but the boiling public opinion seemed far from cooling down.
And this atmosphere spread to the Imperial Capital, increasing the subtle pressure on foreign nationals and embassies residing there.
Being a princess, Charlotte was one of the most important figures, and even though the army had moved close to the border, a full-scale war hadn’t begun yet, so she was still treated as an important guest.
However, those words somehow reached Charlotte’s ears. It was said that the Velbur residents were in a rather dangerous situation.
As someone from the same Kingdom, no, as the royal family of that Kingdom, she may want to protect her people, but feeling helpless, Charlotte seemed hesitant to reach out to Leo.
……Of course, I didn’t know the details. I just thought that since they were the protagonist and heroine, there’d probably be an affection event or something.
The battle started with the Empire’s people trying to lynch the Velbur residents, leading to Charlotte’s response to Leo’s question, “Do you trust someone like me, who is also from the Empire?” Her face would flush, eyebrows slightly lowered, cheeks bright red—
“……If you bring that up here, I’ll challenge you to a duel.”
“In this country, life-and-death duels are illegal.”
It could skirt the legality in some cases, but at least dueling with swords was illegal.
“The law is just a trap with loopholes everywhere.”
“Is it acceptable for a princess to say that? And doing such will be detrimental to Mia’s education.”
“I’m the same age as you guys!”
Just a moment ago, Mia, who had her face flushed while covering her face with both hands and peeking at the screen, shouted out like that.
Is that an adult?
Were they an adult?
Is it legal?
Ah, right. We were considered adults here.
Mia likely was too, so if she just finds her ID, she could buy alcohol and cigarettes.
……I can somewhat imagine Mia drinking, but I can’t picture her smoking. After all, they are trafficking opium in their territory.
No, but more than that.
“Claire, please ban the person who said it was legal over there.”
“Got it!”
Claire seemed to find that quite amusing.
“Anyway, I can’t allow that.”
Charlotte said with a determined expression.
“Choose someone else. You appear in this game too, right?”
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t shown up since the last event.”
“……”
Charlotte turned her head sharply to glare at Alice.
“I’m sorry, but I’m already being targeted.”
Alice said calmly, her expression neutral.
“……”
“Uh, I don’t mind, but I think you won’t be able to target me in this work. She’s my little sister after all?”
That was indeed true.
I had tried to talk to her, but it didn’t seem like the kind of dialogue that would lead to a romance route. After all, in the previous work, she was also a character who was confirmed to die, so it felt more like creating backstory before death rather than a genuine targeting.
“Ah, Mia is out of the question.”
“Why not?”
At the same moment as Charlotte’s words, Mia also turned her head toward me. She seemed confused about the situation.
“Are you being serious? Do you expect me to target Mia instead of Leo?”
Charlotte glanced over at Mia, then eventually sighed, wiping her face with her hand.
“Certainly, that’s the case.”
“Why me!?”
Mia protested, her face reddening.
“I’m the same age as you all, you know!?”
It was the first time Mia reacted so passionately.
Ah, no. It wasn’t the first time. I had brought up her father in front of her, so…Hmm.
……I’ll set that story aside for a bit.
“Anyway, no.”
“No!”
“I’ll buy you a chocolate cake tomorrow, so no.”
“What kind of logic is that…!”
As Mia shouted that and suddenly became quiet.
So it works, huh.
She really does love food so much. I don’t know how she doesn’t gain weight, though.
Now that things have come to this, I wonder if we should have a mukbang tomorrow. I can’t build a whole broadcast on just eating, but it could be an amusing event, like when Alice reviewed my figure last time.
“Then the ongoing event is…”
“There’s no way to end it midway.”
Indeed, the same background music had been repeating on the screen since earlier, and the characters were just glaring at each other, poised to strike.
It’s a turn-based game, so time passing doesn’t really matter, but they look incredibly awkward just standing there doing nothing.
“Then can we proceed slowly?”
“……You started teasing first…What kind of common sense is that….”
Charlotte muttered, but she no longer hindered me from playing the game.
……Well, anyway, I haven’t seen the Charlotte ending yet either.
We can determine the next person at the end of the game based on our respective abilities.
And by that time, at least I have to avoid strenuous challenges as much as possible.
I am thinking of a few methods, but after all, nothing goes as planned in this world.
I leisurely manipulated the game controller, simply finishing off the battle designed to be easily won like in a pre-event.
*
After the broadcast ended, we all changed clothes, laid out blankets on the floor, and laid side by side.
Hmm, it wasn’t as stuffy as I had worried it would be. I’m sure if any of us started talking in our sleep, all five of us would wake up.
Alice, me, Claire, Charlotte, Mia. We hadn’t decided on a specific order for lying down, but it just so happened that we ended up like this.
“……How was it?”
I asked Charlotte.
“Well…”
Charlotte let out a small sigh.
“……I’m a little anxious, but overall, it was okay. If I’d fallen alone in a place like this, I wouldn’t have known what to do moving forward, but because I have acquaintances here…”
“Me too. This world has quite a few interesting and fun things, so I wanted to explore it a bit longer.”
“I’m glad.”
“As time goes by, you’ll feel more at ease. You were royalty, after all, so since you’re here, why not just relax?”
“……Is it okay for someone of royal blood to say that?”
“What Alice said is right. Since we can’t escape it anyway, we should just enjoy ourselves. And that’s also how we can find a way back.”
“You’re referring to what you said earlier in the daytime.”
There was a moment of silence.
“……If that is true, then until the next opportunity arises, I guess I have no choice but to take it easy.”
“Right?”
Claire’s voice had a trace of laughter.
“We’ve been to quite a few fun places. Starting tomorrow, I’ll introduce them one by one. There are still things I want to experience here!”
“And eat a lot of delicious food.”
Hearing that subtle suggestion from Mia, Charlotte let out a “Hmph” sound in disbelief.
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