Prologue

“Felicia Schwarose, I hereby annul our engagement!” Prince Seth Cabott declared, glaring right at me.

After all this time...

Not only was Seth Cabott a literal prince of the kingdom, he was also the archetypal Prince Charming—the kind that might sweep girls off their feet in children’s picture books and claim the honor of being their first love. I’d been engaged to him at five years old, and I’d spent the last nine years of my life undergoing training to prepare me for my position as the future queen. Now, at age sixteen, I felt it all flashing before my eyes.

A torrent of complex emotions swept over me, but I pushed it down and put on my usual, pleasant smile.

“If that’s what you wish, Your Highness,” I replied, accepting the annulment without complaint.

The prince was still glaring daggers right through me. But Lady Liliana, the woman at his side (most likely his next fiancée), looked on with a sweetly troubled expression. I didn’t visibly react to either of them. Instead, I turned my back to them, straightened my spine, and walked away. I didn’t want them to pity my plight.

Not yet... I thought to myself. Don’t lose your composure just yet.

Once I’d walked clear of the academy’s campus and was sure I was out of their line of sight, I gave my surroundings a quick scan to make sure no one else was around. The coast was clear. I entered the bushes and let my walls come down.

Surely I can let it all out now, right? That’s right. I don’t have to grin and bear this anymore. I’ve worked so hard all these years; I think I deserve a little moment to myself here.

“Heh...heh hah hah hah! Yes! He finally broke it off!”

Whew... I couldn’t help but let it all out. The laughter welling up in me had threatened to burst me at the seams. It had taken everything I’d had to hold it in!

“Well, guess I can close the book on that now. I got my happy bad ending, and good riddance! I’d rather die than be queen consort! Even if I didn’t, I can’t stand pompous types like him. No way was anyone going to force me to spend my future with a guy like that! It’s not like I could stand living like a noble anyway! If this plays out the way it does in the game, then my parents will disown me. I’ll lose my noble title and vanish in disgrace to live alone as a peasant... But since it was the prince who broke things off, at least it won’t impact my family too much. There’s no reason for my parents or my adopted younger brother to hold anything against me! From now on, I get to live out the rest of my days as a self-sufficient, happy commoner!”

I felt totally fired up, but I had to be careful not to let my guard down. I laughed quickly under my breath, just in case anyone was around to hear.

Until now, I’d had to be careful and ladylike in all things. As the prince’s fiancée and future queen consort, as well as Duke Schwarose’s eldest daughter, I couldn’t afford to embarrass myself. But very soon, I wouldn’t have to worry about any of that—I’d be off totally scot-free!

I put an abrupt stop to my immodest cackling. I turned to the open sky and clasped my hands together.

“Thank you, Lily. Where would I be if you weren’t here to screw me over?” I cried out, telepathically extolling the pretty girl who’d taken up her spot next to the prince like a goddess coming down to earth. Of course, I had no telepathic capabilities whatsoever. It’s the thought that counts, though, right?

Liliana Inoce (whom I privately referred to as “Lily” in my head) was the daughter of an earl and the designated villainess of this world—by which I mean this video game. In the actual game, she loses the battle for the prince’s heart to the game’s protagonist: me. In a complete reversal of our current positions, he casts her out to live the rest of her life in disgrace.

“When I realized how full of himself he was, I knew I couldn’t stand to even be friends with him, much less anything more than that. But Lily seems to actually love the guy; I’m sure she’ll make a great queen consort and eventual queen mother. Godspeed, Lily!”

I wished for her happiness in the same breath that I washed my hands of the matter entirely. I felt utterly selfish and utterly amazing. The only way I can describe it is that I’d shed all my earthly cares. It was like I’d grown wings—like I’d been living my whole life until this moment in shackles.

Once I’d given all the gratitude I could, I switched gears and began to daydream about the future that lay ahead of me. No doubt my eyes blazed with hope as my heart pounded in my chest.

“If everything goes according to the game’s story, then I’ll be relegated to commoner status and dumped into a rural town with only a house to my name. Liliana took it as a fate worse than death when it happened to her, but I can’t imagine things working out better for me. I’ll get a place to live and enough money to live comfortably for a year. What more does a girl need? I want to pick up where I left off with my old life and work at a bakery again so bad. I wonder if anyone’s hiring?”

Yeah, my soliloquizing is getting a bit out of hand, but this is what happens when you suffer in silence for year, after year, after miserable, suffocating year. So, please...just let me have this, I thought, making excuses to no one in particular.

I let out a contented sigh.

“I wonder when the engagement will be called off officially? When will I be kicked out of school and my home? It’s not like the game spends a lot of time talking about it. It’s really just a sentence or two in the epilogue! It’s nice knowing what’s in store for me and being able to get excited about it, but if they put off my banishment for too long, I might just get antsy and run away first!”

I rolled around in the grass, enraptured, and let out a final burst of excitement. Satisfied, I quickly patted down my messy hair and rumpled clothes. I then emerged with all the elegance of someone who, at a glance, you would never have guessed had just been frolicking in the bushes. Conducting myself with perfect grace, I made my way to the academy.

I was still the duke’s daughter, a perfect noblewoman who’d earned the nickname “Lady Rose.” The consequences were still out there in the distance, a tide bearing down on the shore.

I was painfully aware of every second of the yet undefined span that ran from now until I could live as my authentic self. The grass and dirt stains on my dress, not to mention the fraying threads that had been torn loose in the underbrush, were simply a result of a careless little “fall.” Even the perfect Lady Rose took a tumble sometimes, after all.

Heh heh heh...

***

I, Felicia Schwarose, hold two things as points of pride. The first is my acting prowess, which I owe mostly to the second thing, so I’ll refrain from going into detail just yet. Suffice to say that there aren’t many people who can pull one over on folks every day like I do, and I’m only sixteen.

The second is that I’ve retained memories of my past life. I know that sounds crazy, but just wait. It gets crazier. The world I call home now is the world of an otome game I played in my past life. Several people in my current life, myself included, were characters in the game. What’s more, I was the protagonist.

Now, some among you might be wondering what an otome game is in the first place; allow me to illuminate the matter. An otome game is a dating sim in which you, the player, direct a female protagonist through the game’s story and try to win the affection of several potential male love interests.

The name of this game—one of my old favorite pastimes—was Savior of Nations: Lady Rose (or Lady Rose, for short). Of course, when I was first reincarnated, I’d had no idea which game I’d been reborn into, much less that I was now its protagonist. After all, Lady Rose is the kind of game where you choose the protagonist’s name yourself. There isn’t even a default placeholder name that’s automatically prefilled for you to erase and overwrite with your own.

That being said, there were several things that struck me as strange about this world. It was weird enough that I’d been born into a foreign and incredibly wealthy family, but my surname, “Schwarose,” stood out as particularly unusual. My home country’s name was oddly familiar, but I wasn’t exactly a fan of the game for its world-building. Everyone around me had Western facial features and a wide variety of skin, hair, and eye colors...but they all spoke and wrote in Japanese.

Even the technology and fashions of my current world felt as if they were based on my old world’s recent history, but they were all just a little bit off in a way that seemed intentional. For instance, France didn’t exist here, and yet French bread was still a thing. I found myself wondering if this world was connected in some way to my previous world and the life I lived there, maybe as some sort of parallel universe.

Anyway, even at a young age, my memories of my past life had left me with some pretty conventional modern ethics. My memory of everything that happened right after I was reborn was pretty fuzzy, but I could remember realizing that my parents were power-hungry losers. Everything they did made it plain to me that they didn’t love me at all; I was just a tool to them. I couldn’t stand the way they showered me with luxuries I didn’t even want in exchange for fulfilling the aristocratic duties my birth had foisted on me. I already knew, even as a little kid, that I wanted to run away from home.

I was five years old when I finally realized the true nature of this world. It happened when I met the boy I’d been betrothed to against my will: the Pompous Prince, His Highness Seth Cabott. Even though I was a mere five years old, it was impossible to miss that his appearance and personality were a perfect match with Lady Rose’s main love interest.

In case you’re curious, my older brother from my past life is to blame for my vehement loathing for arrogant men. He was perfect in every way—a genius who took no time at all getting everyone around him on his side. You could say it left me with a bit of personal baggage.

Sure, it’s all in the past (you could even say it was a lifetime ago), but some mental scars define who you are for the rest of time. Even a literal world away, I was fighting with the ramifications. He was the whole reason I’d spent my past life getting a head start on my acting skills. Two lifetimes of lying like a rug to get by had turned me into a pretty world-class thespian.

When I’d played Lady Rose in my past life, I’d only played through each ending of Pompous Prince Seth’s route once. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to you, but let me put that into perspective: I’d played through the other characters’ routes and seen each of their endings multiple times. We’re talking double digits here. You’ve got to understand that I’d only read through Seth’s endings out of a sense of duty as a Lady Rose fan.

After my betrothal to the Pompous Prince and my Lady Rose revelation, I did everything I could to avoid my fiancé. Unfortunately, I couldn’t weasel out of it by insisting that our engagement was in name only. We were left alone together time after time and simply told to get along.

But as I said, my parents had no love for me. The last thing I wanted to do was slight the prince somehow and incur their disciplinary wrath. Worse yet, if I didn’t stick the landing getting the prince to call it quits, I could disgrace my family. They might lash out and force me into a political marriage to some creep twice my age that “likes ’em young.”

Of course, the Pompous Prince didn’t have a clue how I felt. He was too busy throwing his weight around and running images of his personal triumphs (real and imagined) through his head. “Be an adult about this,” I’d say to myself, putting on a placid smile. He had no idea how many times I’d nearly snapped. If we’d been of the same social standing, it would’ve been a whole labor of Hercules on my part not to beat him senseless three times a day. But the royal family held extraordinary power and influence in this world—and he had that to thank for the fact that he was still breathing.

It’s not like I had a hair-trigger temper or anything. It’s just that the only thing the prince had going for him was his looks, and my revulsion toward his arrogance completely nullified any effect that might have had. Even with all the most rigorous training in the world for it, how could I have been expected to put up with a job I couldn’t bear for the rest of my life?

There was no way I’d be able to support him emotionally. In fact, I was so stressed out myself that I felt like I might just collapse. I knew I couldn’t turn to my parents for help. How was I supposed to take in anything I was learning when I was so full of anxiety and loathing? My hateful thoughts played through my head on an infinite loop. I was possessed by them. So, I made up my mind: no matter what it took, I was going to run away from it all.

I was six at the time. It’s taken a decade of concerted effort to get myself here.

Once I made up my mind, the next issue at hand was how to annul the marriage peacefully, with as few negative consequences for myself as possible, and run away from my family to start a new life for myself.

Believe it or not, though, I’d had the answer to this pretty much right from the beginning. Shortly after my initial resolution, I’d run my mind in desperate circles trying to devise a way out, to the point of tears. Then it hit me:

If the protagonist of Lady Rose makes it all the way to a happy ending with the Pompous Prince, the villainess Liliana Inoce is disowned by her family and forced to live the life of a commoner. Her fate was the perfect ending for me.

But that’s not all! The stars were aligned perfectly, because Liliana absolutely despises the protagonist, thanks to the love she harbors for the Pompous Prince, and harasses her endlessly for it. Of course, the protagonist stands up for herself and denies Liliana’s slander, impressing the prince and gaining his trust. Liliana, on the other hand, takes a massive fall from grace when her bullying and lies are revealed.

Anyway, that’s the gist of the Pompous Prince’s happy ending. If the pattern from the game held, allll I had to do was “own up to” everything Liliana accused me of instead of denying it. That would give me the perfect opportunity to trade fates with her.

I was over the moon. All this time, I’d been gritting my teeth and bearing the Pompous Prince’s selfish shenanigans and the unbearable pressure (not to mention crushing boredom) of my rigorous training as queen-consort-to-be. After entering the academy and meeting my favorite villainess, the angelic Lily, I practically fell in love with her at first sight. Well, not really...but I was so happy I almost cried. After all these years of suffering, my savior had finally arrived.

Before we started school together we’d exchanged words here and there at the usual social gatherings, but it was a different matter altogether to meet her on the game’s turf. My heart brimmed with hope, and my eyes brimmed with tears. Even after all the years I’d spent putting up with the Pompous Prince’s BS, my acting was in fine form. But my mask—the automatic, hollow reproduction of a graceful smile I had perfected—threatened to crumble the moment we locked eyes.

In the days that followed, I considered her harassment a godsend. Each instance was a stepping stone toward my happy ending; I was thrilled to be the object of her torment. Lily would come up to me and proudly give me the play-by-play of each slanderous lie she’d told the prince about me. And every time she did, I had to stop myself from thanking her.

If I had any regrets, it would be that Lily probably still hates me and sees me as an obstacle even now, thanks to my status as the prince’s former fiancée.

Now then...I think that’s enough summarizing for one day. We’ll wrap up with the flashbacks here.

Let me bring you back to the present moment. I was in a courtroom, in the defendant’s seat.

“Lady Felicia Schwarose, I presume you have no objections to the annulment of your engagement?”

A silence fell over the room as the king asked the question I’d long, long waited to hear in this official capacity. Well, I guess it wasn’t so much a “question,” really—not with that forceful phrasing. Whatever, though. I’d never had any intention of objecting anyway.

I looked straight back at the king, meeting his gaze. He looked a lot more miserable than I did, actually. His typically gentle-yet-firm expression was twisted into an uncharacteristic frown.

He must be worried for me about my future, I thought.

Thinking back on it, I knew the king had really looked out for me. We didn’t exactly see much of each other (thanks to, you know, the fact that he was the king), but I’d always been fond of him and appreciated his kindness. If you asked me to name the most compassionate adult I’d ever met in either of my lives, his name was probably the first that would come to mind. I hadn’t exactly crossed paths with many respectable adults in either of my lifetimes, but still. My point stands.

Guess we won’t be seeing much of each other anymore. I’ll miss him.

Still, I had only one answer to his question: “No objections, Your Majesty.”

From this moment onward, I was finally free! Free of the worst possible future I could have ever imagined for myself!

Scene from a Castle Hall

“Excuse me, guards. My brother-in-law-to-be has already taken his leave. Are you sure you don’t need to follow him?” Liliana Inoce asked without a trace of real concern in her voice, sweeping her beautiful strawberry blonde hair to the side in a polished, graceful gesture.

In unison, Nicholas’s two guards gave her thin, emotionless smiles.

“Y’know, I’m thinkin’ Prince Nicholas was right. You don’t stand a chance against that oblivious broad,” one of the guards said.

It was unthinkable for a lowly guard to speak to a noblewoman—and the crown prince’s fiancée, at that—like that. But as he spoke, the other guard simply shrugged his shoulders. Liliana took no notice of his flagrant disrespect. Even her maid offered no rebuke.

“Prince Nicholas can say what he likes. You two, on the other hand, have no right,” Liliana said in a bold voice, straightening her spine.

Privately, though, she was conjuring the unpleasant memory of something Nicholas had said to her:

“Why don’t you just give up?”

His cold words had pierced her right to the core—all the more so because they’d come from him.

Liliana was fully aware that she was no match for Lady Rose, the woman whose fall from grace she’d orchestrated and whose position she’d shamelessly stolen. There would have been no way to win against her fair and square, which was precisely why she’d opted for a more underhanded approach. After all, what other choice did she have?

She didn’t need anyone telling her how horrid and in the wrong she was, or that she ought to just give up and stop resisting. She already knew all of that perfectly well.

“Hey, don’t be like that. Prince Nicholas might hate your guts, but we don’t. If you’d like, we might even lend you a helping hand,” said one of the guards.

“Could you please think a little before you speak?” said the other. “You’re gonna get us in real trouble, you know that?”

“Huh? Aw, what’s the harm? Look at ’er! She’s cute as a button, don’tcha think?”

“Well...I suppose I can’t argue with you there.”

“See?”

Even as the two guards talked about her like she wasn’t there, Liliana didn’t bat an eye.

“I don’t recall ever asking for your help,” she said, making her thoughts known.

She really meant it too. She’d never once asked for help, nor had she even thought about it. And no matter how strong these guards were, they would never be able to fulfill her one wish.

“Besides, I don’t trust you. Now, enough of the schemes and innuendo. I don’t have the time or the energy to play your games.”

She turned around, as if to make it clear that the conversation was over. The two guards made no move to follow her. They simply watched her go.

Once she’d finally disappeared into the distance, one of the guards spoke up sullenly.

“I’m not doin’ any scheming! Sure, I may be a busybody, but I’ve got nothin’ but good intentions!”

“You can’t just try to sweet-talk yourself through someone’s defenses when they’re that guarded, you know. What did you think was going to happen? Besides, you were acting fishy.”

“Huh? I was just tryin’ to give her a heads-up that Lady Rose is still alive, that’s all! I was sure she’d be happy to hear it.”

“Look...that’s a conversation that needs to be handled with tact. A lout like you ought to just leave it alone.”

“Sheesh! Thanks a lot!”

Off duty, the rough-around-the-edges guard dropped his professional blank look, becoming wildly expressive...and a little annoying. The straitlaced guard rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Do me a favor and don’t say anything to Lady Rose either, will you? You really shouldn’t go butting into messy political affairs.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know: I only serve one master.”

In unison, the two guards’ expressions fell. Stone-faced, they walked side by side to Nicholas’s room.

Chapter 2

I’d put aside my concerns recently about Nika and Shade. There was something else that had been bothering me.

When I’d first moved to the royal capital’s outskirts, my little town had been abuzz with rumors of the Pompous Prince’s annulment. A few days later, all anyone could talk about had been the altogether unexpected announcement of his romantic new engagement. I’d just smiled and nodded along.

Lately, though, I’d been hearing a new brand of rumors: rumors of trouble in paradise between the prince and his new fiancée.

Sure, they were probably just rumors, but it put me a little on edge to hear them only a month after their engagement. Even if I tried not to put too much stock in them, I couldn’t help but wonder where in the world they’d come from—and I was not finding many answers.

All I knew was that they must have been putting on a lovey-dovey front in public while things must have seemed strained in private. In all likelihood, high society had caught wind of seeds of discord, and that wind had apparently carried them all the way to the sticks.

It was impossible to tell how much truth there was to the rumors, but it was hard to imagine they were completely unfounded.

This certainly doesn’t bode well for the kingdom’s future. There’s no stopping a rumor once it gets started, but if it’s managed to catch fire so easily like this, I can’t help but think there might be some kind of conspiracy behind it... I mean, this could easily hurt the dignity of both the prince and the royal family at large.

At this point, it was hard to tell if the rumor would be the prince and Liliana’s alone to contend with or if it would become my problem too.

In the game, though, the Pompous Prince and Liliana conveniently end up together if the protagonist chooses another love interest—and by all indications, their relationship is pretty smooth sailing.

Things can’t be all that different now just because the prince broke off our engagement first...right?

If I’d just thrown away my dreams of being a commoner and had pursued a romance with a different love interest (out of a sense of duty rather than any real feelings), that probably would’ve led to the happiest ending for everyone.

But I wanted so badly to be a commoner. I was willing to sacrifice everything for it. After all, it was the whole reason I’d come this far.

I’d suffered for it, sure. But it was way better than having everything about my life decided for me all because I’d been born a noble. I couldn’t bear to have responsibilities forced on me that I hadn’t even chosen for myself. Maybe things would have been different if there’d been anything worthwhile about my rank—anything I could leverage it toward—but not a single thing came to mind.

It hadn’t even once occurred to me that I should have been looking for some sort of happiness on this path that had already been laid out for me. And why should it have, when I’d already found happiness veering off of that path?

If I’d never recovered my memories of my past life, maybe I would have been content to just do as my parents and everyone around me told me to. But I had recovered my memories, and they had shown me a future where I could run away from it all. I wasn’t enough of a saint to sacrifice that happiness.

I hoped that whatever was going on between the Pompous Prince and Lily was just a misunderstanding, like the kind that had occurred in the game between him and Lady Rose. But even if it was all just a misunderstanding, I knew I’d be in trouble if it somehow led to Lily’s lies being exposed. We were in the same boat, after all.

Despite all my worrying, though, I knew there was nothing I could do—not directly, at least. It wasn’t like I could just show up at Lily’s house or the academy and tell her I wanted to give her some advice. There was no way she’d see that as anything other than an attempt at sabotage. She’d think I was out for revenge.

And so I tried a different tactic.

Nika was waiting to walk me home from the bakery today, so I took advantage of his front-row seat to the drama and asked him what was going on.

“Is His Majesty doing well?” I asked him.

I knew it would be inappropriate to ask directly how Lily was holding up, so I took a roundabout approach instead.

“He’s in good spirits, as always. He seemed pleased to hear you were doing well, Fii. I think he’s jealous that I can come meet you like this, though. He must be missing his chats and naps with you.”

“Is he...? Well, I’m...happy to hear that.”

I’d been trying to beat around the bush by asking that, but I’d accidentally taken things in a very different direction. I missed the king too, and it was sad to think I’d never see him again.

Mmgh... Thinking about that makes me feel like I’m gonna cry! I’ll never forget the time we spent together. His Majesty is so kind and gentle...nothing like his windbag son! Just being around him makes me feel at ease. If you didn’t know better, you’d never imagine that he ruled a kingdom!

Okay, enough of that. Time to switch gears. It’s not like I pulled away from the king intentionally—it’s just what had to happen for me to chase my dreams of living as a commoner.

After asking about the king, it was only logical to ask about the crown prince. Right?

Wait...am I sure that’s the right move? I don’t want Nika to think I’m still hung up on him or something.

I’d made a big show of still being in love with Seth to Evan, since 1) he didn’t know the prince personally, and 2) I’d had to make a tactical commitment to make sure I didn’t trigger Evan’s route. Nika was too close to the Pompous Prince, though. The last thing I wanted was for him to get the wrong idea and say something to Seth about it. Whatever chaos might fall out from that, I wanted no part of it.

Ultimately, I decided that the best course of action was to skip right over the Pompous Prince and ask about Lily. I could suss out what was going on between them that way.

“And is Lady Liliana doing well?”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I froze. Coming from me, that question would undoubtedly sound laced with spite—even if I really was rooting for the gal.

I put on a calm, gentle smile, but I made sure to correct course.

“I know better than anyone how much work it is to train for the role of queen consort, and I’ve been training ever since I was a child. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for her to be thrust into it all now, without the benefit of that upbringing.”

Crap...

No matter how much I tried to run to her defense (and no matter how much I meant it), I knew it would only sound backhanded coming from me. There was no winning. I’d always dreamed of making up with Lily and becoming friends, but I knew the chances of that were roughly zero.

On the inside, I was honestly distraught. But I’d worked so hard to perfect my poker face that I knew none of my genuine affection could float to the surface. I’d been crafting it since my past life, after all; it wasn’t just for show. Honestly, I couldn’t even find it in myself to be proud of it.

Just as I’d expected, Nika didn’t seem to have any idea what I was really feeling.

“I’m sure she’s doing just fine...physically,” he said bluntly.

I was a bit taken aback by his coldhearted reply, but I took it to mean that psychologically, she wasn’t doing so hot. This worried me, but I knew that I was in no position right now to ask how things were between her and the Pompous Prince.

If only I could somehow guide Nika to offer Lily some support... It’d be the perfect opportunity to get him away from me too. Two birds, one stone! I thought, optimistically. I knew it was a lost cause, though. I wasn’t Machiavellian enough to pull that off.

Nika furrowed his brow, probably reading all kinds of things into my silence.

“I’ve been feeling for Lady Liliana myself, lately,” he said. “She may have stolen your role, but she’ll never be able to play the part the way you can. I suppose I must commend her for her tenacity, at the very least...but it’s only a matter of time before she finds her spirit broken.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa... You think that’s going to happen in the near future?! I thought, horrified. Now hold on a minute. I’d been training for the role of queen consort since I was a toddler. Of course Lily can’t compete! She doesn’t have all the connections I had, or the years to learn all the ins and outs of aristocratic etiquette. Anyone in her position would be facing an uphill battle, but she’ll make up for it with time and effort, okay?!

I wished Nika would help her out. I’d had the benefit of his help from a young age, and it had made a world of difference. I knew I’d have to put aside my assumptions about his willingness (or lack thereof) to help and make a case for Lily’s potential.

“Lady Liliana is a quick study by nature. I’m sure that with a little effort, she’ll grow to be every bit as capable as I was of conducting herself as a future queen.”

Nika went silent.

I was stunned. I was hoping for agreement, not loaded silence! Do you really hate Lily that much? Well, whatever... I’ll just have to lay it on a little thicker.

“I may have been known as ‘the perfect Lady Rose’ up until just recently, but I think you and I both know I hardly deserved that lavish praise. My skills are barely above average. I certainly don’t possess any special talent for it.”

I’d actually made a point of only working as hard as it took to be slightly above average and covered up for what I lacked by playing up my modesty. Until recently, I’d been doing the bare minimum in my roles as a young noblewoman and as the prince’s fiancée. I’d had no intention of living the rest of my life in either of those roles, and so I was free to slack off, knowing I’d never actually have to navigate the aristocracy or royal court.

The moniker “Lady Rose” seemed to me to suggest a mannequin adorned in beautiful fake flowers. Whenever I had the time on my hands to turn the facade into reality, I spent it instead on learning how to abide among the peasantry. After all, that’s what I’d really be doing with my future.

Nika and I had been childhood friends, so he’d known me before I’d learned how to feign modesty. Still, even if he couldn’t see through most of my acting, he’d probably surmised that my capabilities weren’t all that people believed them to be.

I’d better make sure I didn’t just shoot myself in the foot, though...

“You...did know that, didn’t you?”

After a brief pause, he conceded. “I’m aware, yes. I won’t argue with you on that, but...give me a moment.”

I was glad that he seemed to genuinely agree, but it worried me that he was suddenly pausing like this. What’s going on? I wondered. You agree, right? What more is there to say? Let’s keep things moving, please! This is the part where we naturally transition to concluding that Lily will make do just fine. What’s the holdup?

Of course, these private complaints were lost on Nika. His expression turned grave as he ruminated in silence.

Then, after about a minute, his eyes suddenly widened in surprise, as if he’d realized something of dire importance.

Care to share with the class?

“I must say, I find this difficult to believe, but...Fii, don’t tell me you don’t know? Surely you’re more self-aware than that?” said Nika.

Look, I’m sorry to interrupt your apparently new and oh-so-important announcement, but can we rewind a bit? For starters, what exactly do you think I know or don’t know? I’m not going to have the slightest clue what you’re going on about unless we set the record straight on that, so can you knock it off with the useless foreshadowing?

I cocked my head in confusion, hoping to convey some of my complaints to him. Nika looked back at me, dead serious. I was starting to get a little nervous.

Wh-What’s the deal? I don’t have any idea what’s going on. I’m not going to be able to figure it out myself either, so would you please enlighten me? I’m not a genius like you, so I won’t know unless you come out and tell me!

“I...think I’ve gravely misjudged things,” he said.

“Whatever do you mean?”

Honestly, there’s nothing worse than when someone starts going on about something in vague terms that only they can understand. I was getting really fed up with this. Just spit it out already! I wanted to say.

Nika fell silent again, seemingly lost in thought and apparently completely unaware of how much he was driving me up the wall.

Aaand...of course you’re not going to just spit it out. Figures.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can tell you. If your lack of awareness has led you to misunderstand, then perhaps it’s for the best.”

This was the worst possible way this could have gone, but I wasn’t exactly shocked that he refused to tell me after all that waffling.

Seriously, though...not only was it not clear what the misunderstanding was, it wasn’t even apparent who was doing the misunderstanding. Was it him? Me? I’d totally lost the plot.

Could you knock it off with your self-absorbed monologue, please? See, this is the problem with designated Smart Guys in these plots...

I had to make my discontent known, but I’d sugarcoat it, at least.

“If it’s something to do with me, then I feel I ought to know. Please, won’t you tell me?” I tried.

“I’m sorry,” he said, beaming at me. It felt like an odd expression for someone to wear when giving an apology.

“I believe that Lady Liliana is capable of anything. I began this conversation in hopes that you’d support her, Nika—not only for her sake but for Prince Seth’s sake, as well,” I said.

“Well...I suppose Lady Liliana must have some redeeming qualities, if you’re this determined to support her, Fii. I have my doubts about her after what happened to you, but I can try to put aside my bias and see her from a fresh perspective.”

I was shocked. I’d only chosen to take a different tack because we were getting close to my place and all his blathering was really starting to get on my nerves. I hadn’t expected my honesty to provoke such an encouraging response.

I knew I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but I couldn’t help but wonder: why is he being agreeable now, all of a sudden? The thought that his confidence in me might have been shaken dismayed me. I couldn’t help but wonder if his new agreeableness had something to do with his sense that he and I had been working from whatever false premises he’d figured out.

Why must I be so unsettled by the exact words I was hoping to hear out of his mouth? I wondered.

No matter how kind Nika was, he posed a real threat to my blissful life as a commoner. I wanted him out of the picture, as far away from me as possible. I’d tried to convince him it wasn’t appropriate for him to keep coming out all this way to visit some peasant, but he turned it around with his silver tongue, spinning a yarn about how he was just “visiting a childhood friend,” and “getting acquainted with the people of the kingdom,” and “checking in on the state of the local market.”

Will you stop letting him drag you around and do your damn job already? I wanted to ask his two guards. To be fair, though, they were escorting him...so I guess that counted for something.

After I arrived back home and said goodbye to Nika, I climbed into bed and thought about what he’d said. It didn’t take long to realize that I’d never figure it out on my own, though. I just didn’t have all the pieces. I made the wise decision to set a three-minute time limit on my ruminations. I was nothing if not adaptable.

Not only could I think whatever I wanted on the inside and still keep up appearances on the outside, I could also set firm boundaries on my train of thought. I was very comfortable accepting that there were some things I’d just never know.

It wasn’t like being reincarnated had changed my thought patterns or anything. I certainly wasn’t a mental health guru now. It was just that I’d imported some of the wisdom I’d gained from my previous life, which had given me a bit of a head start.

I knew better than to get a big head about stuff like this, though. When you get the chance to start a new life, the buffs from your past life only make you stand out as a kid. If you get all high and mighty about it, all your shortcomings will emerge in adulthood and you’ll wind up disappointing everyone in your life who had high expectations of you. Happens all the time.

My life might have looked hopeless from the outside, but it wasn’t at all. I was living the dream—well, my dream, at least.

***

The next day, I set about my work day as usual, ready to head out and buy the milk and butter that we needed for the bakery. There were no cars in this world, but the nobles did use horse-drawn carriages, and shops often used carts to transport goods.

I’d apparently developed a reputation for myself as the face of the bakery, since it seemed everyone in town recognized me. As such, Michelle put me to work as an errand girl, going out and about to pick up ingredients. The kitchen was where I really wanted to be, but I knew it’d take some time before I was allowed to start honing my skills as a baker.

I was rushing to the dairy store on the outskirts of town by the farm when someone called out to me.

“Out on an ingredient run, Fii?”

“Sure am! I’m headed to the dairy.”

It wasn’t unusual for the townspeople to chat me up like this, since they all knew my name and recognized my face. I secretly felt a bit satisfied that I was adapting so well to my new life as a commoner.

“Where’s your high-society boyfriend today?”

I laughed. “I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate you calling him that.”

Unfortunately, everyone now recognized Nika too—and that worried me. To be fair, though, in a world without TV and photos, I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone knowing who he really was. If it were Prince Seth we were talking about, it was entirely possible that someone might head into the heart of the royal capital and chance upon him (or a portrait of him), but Nika was too much of a homebody for that to be an issue. Plus, he wasn’t the crown prince. As things stood, the locals just thought he was a run-of-the-mill aristocrat here to sweep me off my feet into a fairy-tale romance that would break the class barrier.

I made my way to the dairy, fielding people’s small talk as I went. I knew I was getting close when I saw a cross up ahead. It was one of the major landmarks on my route, since the dairy was right next to the church.

Lady Rose was just a game, so it didn’t have the space to describe every detail of the world’s universe. For example, this church was the largest in the capital, but it only showed up in the game as a background for weddings. It was only from my studies that I’d learned about the god they worshipped here.

From what I’d read, the local religion was monotheistic. And apparently, no one was all that religious—by which I mean, most people believed in God, but no one was a zealous believer or extremist.

While the people here seemed more readily accepting of the notion of God than the people of my past life in Japan, they weren’t exactly the type to raise their hands and “give everything to God.” They were more into giving thanks to him for the happiness they believed he brought to their lives, like their spouses and children.

It might be easier to wrap your head around if you think of this world’s religion through the lens of its church. Their church was not a quiet place of worship and reflection but a place where families could stop by every once and a while to offer thanks with cheerful smiles on their faces. The religious laws were fairly lax, and even the clergy often married. Overall, it was a pretty laissez-faire religion.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t have much to do with the church. The closest I’d ever come to stopping by was when I’d think to myself, every once in a while, that it might be nice to go and give thanks for my new life as a commoner.

Just as I was passing by, thinking deeply about my connection to it (or lack thereof), I spotted a girl in a nun’s dress and habit emerging from inside. She looked about my age.

Oh, right, I thought. I think I remember monks and nuns being a part of the clergy from my past life too. They don’t take vows of celibacy in this world, though, so I guess they’re pretty different from the ones I knew. Probably best to think of them bearing a resemblance in name only.

As I was thinking about all of this, I found myself unconsciously staring at the girl in the nun’s garb. She must have noticed, because she looked back at me and met my gaze. Unfortunately, in her distraction, she lost her footing and took a massive tumble.

It was only three steps long, but I panicked when I saw her heading for the stairs that descended onto the road.

“W-Watch out!” I cried, turning around and opening my arms out wide to catch her.

Scene from a Church

There was no such thing in this world as a “saint.” And yet, there was a girl who bore the title. Regardless of the girl’s true intentions, mass consensus in public and private had stuck her with it. She had no idea why they would do such a thing.

Every month, the girl stood in front of the cross, clasping her hands and whispering a prayer in a voice too soft to be intelligible to any mortal ear. In fact, she had offered up such a prayer just recently.

The church she visited was in the farthest outskirts of the city—in the countryside, almost. And today, she had gone all the way to this remote little neighborhood alone, traveling as discreetly as she could, to pray as usual in front of the cross.

With a vacant look in her eyes, shaking, she opened her mouth to let out a little voice so faint that it threatened to disappear at any moment. She whispered, quietly enough so that no one could hear:

“Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me, Father, for I know this is all my fault. So, please... Please...”

She moved her lips, but no sound came out.

A pitiful excuse for a prayer, she thought. They call me a saint, but I can’t even manage a confession.

The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once she’d let it out, she opened her eyes again.

“Thank you, Father in Heaven, for blessing me again on this joyous day,” she said, in a normal volume, as if nothing she’d whispered before had even been real. It seemed she was trying to drown out the pain, but there was still anguish in her voice.

Finally, she smiled and left the church with a bow.

She was uncomfortably aware of the pastor and the nun watching her with adoration in their eyes, knowing that they might not adore her so much if they’d actually heard what she’d said. She ran back to her carriage as fast as she could and climbed in.

It was time to go home.

She knew better than anyone that the “home” she would return to wouldn’t welcome her and that no one there would be waiting to see her. She went all the same.

On the way, she passed by a commoner with uncommonly good looks and an impressive air about her. But she didn’t notice, because she hadn’t been looking out the window. And thanks to the privacy blinds in the carriage, the commoner couldn’t see her either.

And so, the two young women passed by like ships in the night, the threads of fate that bound them intertwining and twisting.

Chapter 3

I’d never been under the happy-go-lucky illusion that everything would be just dandy once I became a commoner.

The first stage had been to lay the groundwork. The second had entailed the engagement annulment and my estrangement. And of course, until now, I’d been happier than ever. I was over the moon.

The third stage, though, was to protect my new life at all costs. If I couldn’t manage that, then it would all have been for nothing. So it wasn’t like I never put any thought into that.

***

It had been twelve days since Nika had stopped his weekly visits. I’d befriended cute little Nana and was working happily away at the bakery today as usual. Things had turned to pretty smooth sailing.

But just when I was thinking it was probably about time to close shop, I heard a carriage stop out front.

A week and five days... Sure, I guess you could say I’d miscalculated, but I felt all this business with Nika reassessing his opinion of Lily probably had something to do with his absence, at least.

“Well, look who’s here, Fii! I’ll close up the shop, so you go have fun with Nika, all right?” said Michelle.

Before I could even utter a word of protest, she hurried me out the door. I knew Nika actually liked our bread, so I felt kind of bad for him. He probably would have preferred to visit before we closed shop.

It felt weird to hear Michelle call him “Nika” too. Sure, he might have been pretending to be just some run-of-the-mill aristocrat, but he was royalty. But, hey, if Nika was cool with it, who was I to say anything? It did feel a little overly familiar, though...

“Now listen, hon. If you keep trying to play it cool with that boy, he might lose his patience and give up on you. Don’t do anything you’ll regret!” Michelle called after me before she retreated back into the bakery.

Honestly, I wish he would, I thought, grimacing as I looked over at his carriage.

It struck me then that something felt off about the carriage. When I took a closer look, I realized that it wasn’t his usual one.

The moment I’d realized that, someone alighted from the carriage...someone who wasn’t Nika. And by “alighted from,” what I really mean is “hopped down from.” It looked wholly undignified, totally unlike anything you might call noble behavior. Once he landed, he looked at me, and his face relaxed into a smile.

He had ridiculously bright blond hair—so bright, it was more like platinum. But the metallic coiffure wasn’t the only unusual thing about him; he also had deep-crimson eyes and pale white skin.

If you’d asked past-life me to explain his strange pigmentation, I would have said he had albinism. But in this world, there were actually plenty of people with red eyes, and many had features totally at odds with albinism, like black hair or tan skin. There wasn’t any sort of consistency to hair, eye, and skin colors like there had been in my previous world. His resemblance to someone with albinism was pretty much a complete coincidence.

I can only assume that DNA must have worked differently here. Just like how the nuns of this world only dressed the same as those of my previous one, you couldn’t tell much of anything about a person in this world just from the way they looked. It didn’t seem like much research had been done in this world on the human body except for medical purposes, and even if there had been, I wouldn’t have known anything about it.

Besides, once I’d realized that I was living in the world of a video game, I’d kind of given up on trying to understand things like this. I was literally living in a different dimension, so I figured it was probably best to just roll with the nonsense as it arose.

Even though everyone in this world looked European and had a European-sounding name, they spoke and wrote in Japanese. The culture was a strange mishmash of Japanese, medieval European, and utter poppycock. If you went looking for anomalies, you’d never stop finding them.

Okay, time to stop dissecting this world before I drive myself crazy. Gotta take a deep breath and switch gears.

This red-eyed bishie dreamboat was the one and only Melvin Crabitt. Up until two months ago, he’d been in my class at school, but we’d only ever exchanged brief pleasantries out of courtesy.

There was just one sticking point: he was also a Lady Rose love interest. The fans called him “Mel.”

“Good evening, Lady Rose,” he said.

“Good evening, Lord Melvin.”

We exchanged polite, aristocratic greetings. I might have been a commoner now, but I knew it would be unthinkably rude to dismiss the formalities.

I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the bakery, so I suggested that we walk and talk, like I always did with Nika. Mel readily agreed, walking alongside me as three of his guards took up the rear.

I took a quick look behind me and noticed that, unlike Nika’s negligent guards, these three seemed to be keeping a close eye on me. Good, I thought. That’s what guards are supposed to do.

“I could hardly believe my ears when I heard the perfect Lady Rose was living as a peasant. I’ll admit it: I sensed a scintillating story and came running to get the scoop.”

“Well, my goodness... And I see you’ve dragged your driver and guards along for the ride?”

“You’ve got me there,” Mel said, letting out a laugh. “I can see how you earned your reputation for your composure before you left the peerage. Nothing ruffles your feathers, does it?”

“The minute you break your composure, you may as well be handing the reins over.”

Despite my lofty comeback, the truth was that I actually wasn’t all that surprised that Mel had come to pay me a visit. I’d actually accounted for this eventuality from the tender age of six, when I’d started planning for my future as a commoner.

If anything, it would be more accurate to say that I’d been waiting for this.

I’d known that if I stayed put here in the outskirts, my adoptive younger brother Shade would eventually manage to find me, and I’d had no doubt that my childhood friend Nika would use every resource available to him as a prince to find me too. It makes sense that they’d wanna track me down, right? But even though I’d barely ever had anything to do with Mel, I’d had full confidence that he’d come looking for me too.

Melvin Crabitt was the heir to Duke Crabitt, who had a major hand in the kingdom’s coffers. Thanks to his army of spies, he had ears all around not just the kingdom but the lands beyond its borders. He was, to put it bluntly, a gossip hound. He couldn’t resist the temptation of a good story, especially when it came to interpersonal drama. At the mere suggestion of some torrid new relationship, he’d get a twinkle in his eye and a hop in his step. He also had a particular fondness for frivolity. Outside of school and his duties as the son of a duke, he dedicated most of his time to leisure.

Once he’d caught wind of the rumors that the “perfect Lady Rose’s” engagement had been called off due to her bullying her classmates, and that her whereabouts were now unknown, there’d been no way his interest wouldn’t be piqued. It was inevitable that he’d investigate and discover that I was living as a commoner and that he’d be beside himself until he could come and see what had become of me firsthand.

“Hey, let me in on your secret. You were practically under house arrest before, and now you’re living it up as a peasant? How’re you managing that? I know you haven’t even touched a cent of that compensation your estranged parents left you.”

“You looked into my personal bank account?”

“What can I say? I was curious.”

I see you’ve done your homework, I thought. It didn’t bother me, though. It made no difference whether or not he had that information.

He was right, though. I never stopped by Crabitt Bank to withdraw those funds. I didn’t need to. To be fair, though, that was only because I’d been lucky enough to get this job.

Thanks to Michelle’s generous employment conditions, under which she paid me for my work at the end of each day, I’d been able to make a modest living. At the beginning of my new life, I’d planned to withdraw the money and return it later with interest, but it was just as well that I’d never needed to. The only thing I’d accepted from my former parents, in the end, was the house I lived in—and I liked it that way. I didn’t want to be racking up a debt that would come to bite me in the butt later.

Anyway, ideally, I would have liked to have built up assets of my own from a young age that I could have drawn on later...but a strategy like that was pretty risky, so I’d ultimately decided against it. I didn’t want to do anything that might attract attention or get misconstrued by my parents as some kind of asset they could leverage, since that easily could have jeopardized the annulment and my estrangement.

Money hadn’t been the only concern, though; there was also the issue of the family register. Such things didn’t exist in this world, so if anyone needed to verify their identity for some reason, they’d have to count on their relatives to vouch for them. Fortunately, this meant that I didn’t have to officially change my name or any other records; unfortunately, it meant that I was starting from square one in terms of building a reputation and earning anyone’s trust. That wasn’t an easy thing to do, no matter what world you lived in.

Figuring out whom to put your trust in is always a bit of a gamble, especially when, in my case, I didn’t have any support network that I could fall back on. I’d been really lucky that I’d only ever crossed paths with real do-gooders like Michelle pretty much from the jump since I’d joined the peasantry. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if me and my nice noble clothes had tipped off every cutthroat, swindler, and brigand around to my background on my first foray into town. If the wrong people thought I had money, I could have easily been murdered for it—either by those who wanted it for themselves or by those who simply hated me for having it.

“Would’ve been easier if I could have just bought the intel, but alas. Oh, hey! Maybe I should just buy you, now that you’re a peasant?”

“That would be human trafficking, which would put you in violation of the antislavery laws. I’m aware that some nobles slip under the radar with that, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want to jeopardize the trust you’ve built up, would you? I hear trust is everything in finance. Am I really worth risking your inheritance?”

“Wow. You’re good,” Mel conceded with a laugh. “Guess intimidation tactics aren’t worth much against someone who knows their way around high society and the law. And you’ve got the guts to fight back too.”

Mel looked legitimately entertained. The carefree, innocent smile he wore was a big hit among Lady Rose fans.

I knew I didn’t need to be particularly on guard around him. There was no ill will behind his nosiness; he was just a busybody, plain and simple. Besides, I had a feeling his intel might come in handy.

“You know, this whole song and dance I’ve been hearing about you ‘bullying’ Liliana Inoce just doesn’t sit right with me. I mean, you were on top. You had her beat in pretty much every arena. But hey, maybe that’s just who you are? You look like you’ve got it all together, but maybe you don’t?”

“Well, you know what they say: you should never judge a book by its cover.”

“Yes, exactly! It’s like we’re in sync or something. This is why I get such a kick out of picking people’s brains.”

Careful not to get reeled in by Mel’s excitement, I maintained my calm, placid smile as we walked. I couldn’t help but notice how unusual his attire was, though. He wore a cotton V-neck shirt and baggy pants that cinched at his ankles—peasant garb, essentially. It was strange to see him wearing such a casual look.

After Mel realized I wasn’t about to get swept away in his excitement, his spirits seemed to suddenly dampen.

“You just don’t budge, do you?” he said with a sigh. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. Honestly, you’ve got me really intrigued. And here I was, all excited to grill you, but you’re not giving me anything!”

“My! It’s an honor to hear that from someone as esteemed as you, Lord Melvin.”

“Hey...don’t patronize me. I did my research before coming here, you know. I looked into your beef with Lady Liliana. Just when I thought I’d stumbled upon something good, though, I wound up with more questions than answers. And when I tried to solve those new puzzles, I dug up some pretty interesting dirt...but I still didn’t solve anything. If anything, I’m even more puzzled than I was when I started. I can tell there’s a good story here, but this mystery’s got me beat. I’m done!”

It seemed Mel was done putting on a show. He completely dropped his affable-yet-calculating tone as he launched into his spiel, looking up to the sky dejectedly.

When Mel had tracked down my current location in hopes of getting to the bottom of things, he’d probably found himself even more confused to learn that I was getting on just fine as I was. That was probably reason enough for him to come see for himself. But judging from the way he spoke, it seemed there was more to it than that.

I had no idea how much he’d figured out about me, or how much he was still in the dark, but honestly, I didn’t feel that I led a particularly out-of-the-ordinary life. Either way, it didn’t matter. My response to him was the same regardless.

“You must be tired of all these wild-goose chases. If you want to hear the unvarnished truth directly from the source, all you need to know is how to ask for it,” I said, giving him my brightest, most elegant smile. I felt it take shape on my lips like a resplendent rose in full bloom.

I wasn’t an aristocrat anymore, and I had no intention of ever going back to that life. But it was still as effortless as it always had been to tap into my Lady Rose persona.

Shade had thrown way too many surprises my way, so I’d had to resort to real meathead tactics. When I had the time to mentally prepare myself, though, I could handle situations like this much better. I was used to putting on an act, after all.

“Lord Melvin, might I propose a trade?” I continued, a threatening edge in my voice even as I smiled gently at him.

This is it: make or break. Everything is riding on whether I can pull this off. Can I make this work, or will fate have the upper hand?

Mel’s eyes widened. His guards went on high alert at my bluff, reaching for their weapons. I watched them from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t feel even the slightest bit afraid. I knew they weren’t stupid enough to come at me without a signal from Mel. I had at least that much faith in them.

The conversation unfolding between Mel and me was of much greater importance than whatever the guards were doing. I continued, undeterred.

“I’m simply proposing a deal that would benefit us both—nothing illegal, mind you. Nothing more than information for information. I tell you what I know, and in exchange, you tell me what you know.”

“Information...?” Mel asked, frowning.

Seizing the opportunity, I went on to explain, “Yes, information. We’ll trade it one question at a time. For every question I answer, I get one in return. And let’s agree in advance not to play coy and give little single-syllable answers, yes? We wouldn’t want an endless back-and-forth, after all. Naturally, we’re each allowed to hold our tongues if we can’t answer. We’ll just own up from the start that we don’t know, and the questioner may choose a different question instead. Once one of us has run out of questions, the other will have one last question to ask before the exchange is over. What do you say?”

I knew I had to keep this simple. If I didn’t, Mel might see through my act and realize that I wasn’t as smart as I hoped he’d believe, leaving myself wide open for him to outmaneuver me. My simple proposal was a nice cover for my lack of confidence. If anything, it made it look like I was making concessions and generously offering a fair trade deal.

“Sounds like a good deal for me, but I’m finding it hard to believe that you have any questions you’re itching to ask,” Mel said.

“Why, of course I do. I have just gobs, and all my future plans hang on the answers,” I replied honestly. “I won’t fault you if you don’t have anything to offer, but you’ll put me in quite a bind if you lie. How about we sign a contract agreeing to the conditions?”

“You’d really go that far?”

“If you won’t agree to my terms, then this conversation is over.”

“Hey, wait! I’ll do it, okay?! I’ll sign the contract!” he cried. “Guards, get me a piece of—”

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” I said, interrupting him.

I pulled two sheets of high-quality hemp paper (something no commoner would reasonably have on hand) out of my bag and presented them to Mel, who looked them over with a visibly aghast expression. I watched him take them out of the corner of my eye as I retrieved two more sheets of paper for my own use.

“Do you need a quill and ink?” I asked.

“No... I always carry them on me.”

“Of course. It was foolish for me to expect anything less of you, Lord Melvin.”

I took out my own quill and dipped it in ink, laying the paper out on my hand to quickly scribble a janky-looking signature. I was used to using a quill now, but I did sometimes miss ballpoint pens and pencils. And while I appreciated the high-quality hemp paper of this world, it didn’t even compare to the ease of writing on the printer paper of my previous world.

But Mel probably had no idea about the subtle longing I felt for these things, especially since I didn’t let it show on my face. He glared at me, his mind clearly in overdrive. I could sense how grave a matter this was to him.

“Wait,” he said. “You only just proposed this idea. Why do you have contracts with both the conditions and our names already prepared?”

“Oh my. You’re already asking questions? But we haven’t even decided who gets the first move...”

“W-Wait! I don’t want to waste this opportunity. Don’t answer that question, okay? It doesn’t count!”

“It’s always ‘wait, wait, wait’ with you, isn’t it? What am I, a dog?”

“Well, if you are, you’re an awfully sly one,” Mel replied, looking at me warily.

He glowered at me one last time, then dropped his gaze to the contract, poring over it word by word. Once he was done, he stuck his hand out. One of his guards took my nice quill pen (Hey! When did he swipe that?!) and dipped it into a pot of ink before placing it in Mel’s open hand.

Wait...is this guy even a guard? Seems more like a secretary, if you ask me. He definitely looks more aristocratic than the other two. Well, I guess it’s probably not unusual for someone of Mel’s status to have a secretary accompany him everywhere...

The gist of the contract was that Mel and I (and any present third parties, such as Mel’s escort) would be bound to tell each other the truth and not to speak a word of our conversation to anyone else. Signing the contract meant that we both agreed to the terms, and if either of us broke the terms, then we became indebted to the other as their servant...or something to that effect, anyway.

I was hoping Mel wouldn’t break the contract, but even if he was willing to put his family’s good name on the line by going back on his word and trying to cover it up, I was still a little floored that he’d just casually sign something with a clause that stipulated he could become someone’s servant.

“There. I’ve signed your contract,” he said. “Can’t believe you even prepared extra copies for us each to keep...”

“Great, thank you! Oh, perfect timing—we’ve just arrived at my house. Why don’t we continue this conversation inside? I’ll even let you ask the first question.”

“How generous of you.”

After we’d both exchanged our copies of the contract, we hurried into the house. Mel was now the third nobleman I’d hosted.

I thought about offering him some tea, but then Mel pulled out the chair on my side of the table and gave me a look that said, Let’s dispense with the formalities and get to it already. So, I politely took the seat he offered. Mel followed suit and took a seat at the opposite end of the table.

He closed his eyes for several seconds, his arms crossed. Then he opened them and, with a serious look on his face, he began the trade with a question of his own.

“What were you thinking, not objecting to Prince Seth annulling your engagement after that scandal between you and Lady Liliana?” he asked.

“A fair question,” I replied, smiling and nodding.

I’d had a feeling that would be at the top of his list of questions for me. Whether or not he believed Lily’s accusations had any truth to them, I was sure it must have seemed odd either way that I hadn’t protested the annulment. After all, I had everything to lose. Even if Lily had been telling the truth, then the only sensible course of action would have been for me to put on a bold front and tell every lie I needed to in order to fight the annulment. It was practically my duty as an aristocrat—both to my family and to myself.

“I had no reason to object,” I said. I didn’t—and had never had—any intention of lying, hence the contract’s terms. “To put it another way, you could say that it was exactly the conclusion I was hoping for. As far as I’m concerned, the annulment was a happy ending for everyone involved.”

I didn’t want to give him too much detail, but I also didn’t want to say so little that he’d be inclined to pay me back in kind with a similarly tight-lipped answer. This seemed like an appropriate compromise.

For a moment, Mel fell silent. It seemed like he was thinking deeply.

“Honestly?” he said, speaking up again. “I’m at a real loss here. Looks like all my guesses were way off the mark.”

“Oh?”

It was only fair that he should be surprised by that. I was sure he never could’ve guessed, from the way I carried myself, that I’d wanted the engagement to be annulled. It would probably seem absurd to think that anyone might be so desperate not to marry the crown prince. But people’s subjective experiences often veer far astray from what objective truths might lead you to expect.

“May I ask what exactly you were imagining?” I asked him. “Oh, but I’m just asking out of curiosity, so please don’t feel obligated to answer that as an official question.”

“I don’t mind. Unlike you, I’m happy to throw in a freebie,” he shot back.

Yes!

I really wanted to know how my actions had looked from the outside, so that was actually going to be my first official question. But now I got to ask it for free! I couldn’t help but wonder if my gambit was worth it, though. It was starting to feel like Mel liked me less and less each time I opened my mouth.

Weird...

Protecting my happy life as a commoner was my number one priority, and I’d been acting accordingly, but I still loved Mel from when I’d played the game. I was a little afraid of how he might feel toward me once this conversation was over.

I have a bad feeling I’m going to cry myself to sleep tonight.

“From what I’d learned about the situation, I thought you’d accepted the annulment as some sort of strategic move against either the kingdom or your family.”

Okay, didn’t see that one coming! Wow... Is that what it looked like from the outside? Did people really think I was laying the groundwork for some sort of uprising?!

It seemed insane...but it did explain some things, like why Nika had always been checking up on me. Maybe he thought I was entertaining dangerous ideas, and he’d wanted to keep an eye on me?

It all makes sense now...

Was that the “misunderstanding” Nika had referred to before, when he’d implied we’d both been mistaken about something? Maybe he’d been realizing that his fears of me plotting something had all just been a misunderstanding? No...that couldn’t be it. He’d suggested that he’d overestimated me, which wouldn’t fit with this theory at all. Plus, it didn’t explain what he thought I’d misunderstood. And more than anything, the timing just didn’t make sense.

Huh... I don’t get it. Guess I’ll just put that to the side for now.

“Now it’s my turn to ask a question. Lord Mel, with the way things are currently unfolding, do you believe that Lady Liliana will be able to take on the role of queen consort?”

“With the way things are currently unfolding?” he repeated, as if seeking confirmation.

“Yes.”

I wished he wouldn’t parrot me like that. It felt like a signal that I’d triggered something.

“Yes. I think she will,” he finally replied.

Those words were music to my ears. In fact, I could’ve sworn they’d been accompanied by the celebratory doot doo doo! of an angel playing his trumpet. The future seemed awfully bright now that I had Mel’s assurances.

“It was certainly strange how Prince Seth dumped you and took Lady Liliana for his new fiancée so quickly, but she’s no slouch herself. It’s no easy feat to climb the ranks at school to the fifth from the top. She’s talented, and she works hard too. If it weren’t for this mystifying conflict the two of you are tied up in, I’d have no complaints whatsoever about her being queen.”

It was the first time I’d heard anyone speak highly of Lily. Well said, Mel! That’s right! I wanted to say. Lily’s amazing!

She was adorable, of course, but that went without saying. She was smart—as evidenced by her grades—and she was always on the grind. She had lots of connections and always went out of her way to maintain them, and she seemed to genuinely love the Pompous Prince. By any measure, she was way more cut out to be queen than I was!

I mean, sure, she did glare at me every time our eyes met... And whenever we had the chance to chat, she’d tell me how much she hated me. There was also the little issue of her whole web of lies implicating me as her perennial bully...

It was a little devastating how much she seemed to despise me, especially because she didn’t seem to harbor such hatred for anyone else. But Lily had only hatched her scheme against me to get to her one true love, the Pompous Prince—and I hated him all the more for it. That said, distance makes the heart grow fonder; being away from him did dampen my enmity.

Anyway, so far, it seemed I’d been managing to exchange questions with Mel without letting him see me sweat.

Now, you might be wondering, “why the emphasis on ‘so far’?” Well, I have some sad news for you: unfortunately, I’m not nearly as skilled at negotiating as I pretend to be. Mel might not have been a genius like Nika, but he was sharp, and what he lacked in intellect, he made up for in curiosity. The truth was, I didn’t stand a chance against him.

“All right. My turn next,” he said, his red eyes glaring at me. “You’ve been misrepresenting your capabilities. Why?”

As soon as he said that, my pulse quickened. But as my nerves began to fray, I actually felt my head becoming clearer. I gave him my usual placid smile. Whenever you find yourself in a bind, it’s crucial that you stay calm. As soon as you get caught off guard and let the other party dictate the direction of conversation, it’s all over...especially when they’re your intellectual and social superior.

It’s okay. If that’s all he’s got, then there’s no cause for concern. Besides, there’s no way he’d ever know about my past life. Come on, Fii...don’t let him catch you on the back foot.

“I’m afraid I don’t quite catch your drift. Could you be more specific?” I asked.

“All right. I spoke to all of your former tutors, and from what I’ve heard, you appeared more gifted as a young child than you did as you got older. I also learned something rather strange.”

He paused, watching me carefully with a squint to see how I’d react.

Crap... I thought it’d be a lot harder to find any dirt on me without a family register, but apparently, I’ve severely underestimated how well information travels in this world. And here I was, priding myself on making a clean cut from my past... I guess it wasn’t so clean after all. I just never thought anyone would spare no expense to inquire about my early childhood...

“Apparently, you were unusually gifted as a child. Your numeracy and literacy skills far surpassed the norm for your age—and even for adults. Your tutor was supposed to give you a child’s education, but she couldn’t even keep up with you. Your parents had to hire special tutors for each subject, all experts in their fields. But that’s when things took a turn, and you started struggling.”

“Isn’t it normal to struggle in one’s education?” I challenged him.

“Sure it is,” he agreed. Then he gave me a piercing look and continued, “But you know what I think? I think you overheard the adults talking about your unusual capabilities, and you tried to correct your course. You put on a show of struggling so you’d seem normal.”

I was starting to grow very uncomfortable with where this was heading. I’d clearly underestimated him.

“Your first tutor was very frank with me. She told me that she gave you a test during your first class together to assess your capabilities. I’m sure that must’ve put you on the spot, since you had no idea at that point what level of knowledge was ‘normal.’ According to your tutor, you made mistakes on that first test that actually indicated an abnormally high level of knowledge in several fields. You only started to ‘struggle’ after you learned what an average level of knowledge looked like and adjusted your answers to make you seem ‘normal.’”

Mel sounded just like some trench-coat-clad TV detective, ready to catch me out at the last minute. I couldn’t see where he was going with this just yet, but so far, everything he’d said had been true. If he’d only figured out my motives, I would’ve given him a gold star.

Come on, though. How was I supposed to know that the people in this world had a much poorer understanding of the world across several subjects? The point of Lady Rose was romance, not world-building. There was no reason for it to go into any detail about something like that.

But that wasn’t the only reason I’d excelled in my schooling. I’d known that if I did too poorly, my parents would order me to be physically disciplined. I’d fallen back on the knowledge I’d gained from my past life and tried to modulate it to what I judged to be a “normal” aptitude for my age.

But just as Mel had surmised, I’d missed the mark a bit. From my tutor’s reactions, I’d realized that I needed to appear even less competent in order to seem normal, and I’d made sure that I adjusted accordingly. I’d done this slowly—very slowly—because I hadn’t wanted anyone to notice what I’d been doing.

“That’s why all of your grades at the academy were only slightly above average. You took pains to keep them there—not so low that you’d get scolded, and not so high that you’d draw attention to yourself.”

How’d you snoop into my grades? I wondered. Unlike in my previous life, there were no class rankings posted to the wall. You must have splashed out hardcore and pulled some serious strings to get that intel.

Even Nika hadn’t argued when I’d said that my capabilities were only slightly above average. I was a little terrified to see how far Mel’s penchant for gossip had gotten him. I’ll admit it: my calm and collected front had taken a real hit. I knew I was going to be exhausted by the end of the day. I’d probably sleep like a log.

“Let me ask you one more question. Why did you go to so much effort to make yourself seem normal?”

I racked my brains, and in a matter of seconds, I was able to pick an answer that didn’t warp the truth.

“Because I didn’t want my parents to have high expectations of me,” I said, and every word was true. “They only ever saw me as their means to claim more power. If they thought I couldn’t serve my purpose, they would have kicked me out or destroyed me. But conversely, if I’d exceeded their expectations, they would have used me until I had nothing left. To protect myself, I had to seem like I was only capable of the bare minimum.”

I’d looked to Liliana (from the game, that is) to help me judge exactly how I should be measuring up.

“I probably would have been capable of great things if I’d tried to cultivate my talents, instead of hiding them. But that’s never been the life I wanted for myself.”

All I’d ever wanted to be was a commoner—and now I was.

“Hmm. That’s mostly what I expected,” Mel said. “But there’s a contradiction in what you just said. I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.”

“I do. We’re trading each question for a question, but I’ll deviate from the format this once so you don’t think I’m feeding you any lies. I wouldn’t want you breaking our contract, after all.”

I knew he was talking about the part where I’d said that I didn’t want to be kicked out. I could see how it would seem to contradict my earlier statement about how the annulment of the engagement had been a happy ending for everyone, which implied that I was pleased to be kicked out of my family home.

“I wasn’t trying to avoid being kicked out of my home, per se, but...there are all manner of ways you can dispose of something, wouldn’t you agree? There’s burnable trash, nonburnable trash, illegal dumping, donations... It was how I might be kicked out that I was worried about. I didn’t want to be abandoned and left to die. That’s why I was so pleased that my annulment estranged me safely. So you see, I haven’t told any lies.”

Mel nodded gravely, seeming to understand.

“Just out of curiosity, how would you say they disposed of you, then?” he asked.

“How did they dispose of me...? Oh. Well, let’s see... I’m not exactly ‘nonburnable,’ right? But I wasn’t burned, nor was I illegally dumped somewhere, since they paid money to dispose of me. I wouldn’t say they donated me either. I’m sure my parents didn’t expect their trash to skip right past the dump and keep on living, though.”

If anything, since they’d paid to dispose of me, that probably made me bulk trash. But there was no concept of “bulk trash” in this world.

Well, that probably closes the book on Mel’s second question, right? Whew! I was starting to get a little nervous there.

For my part, I’d already finished asking everything I’d wanted to know. I’d assumed that Mel would come knocking after the engagement was annulled to ask some questions, so I’d prepared my own to ask, but there were only two things I’d felt obliged to find out. The first was how my actions looked from the outside, and the second was how Lily seemed to be faring. That was it.

The answers to those two questions alone told me pretty much all I needed to know about how much of a splash I’d made in Lady Rose’s storyline. If I’d deviated too much from the original status quo, I’d have been left with no option but to run far away.

Fortunately, it seemed the little waves I’d caused hadn’t turned into a tsunami. The way things were going, Lily seemed to be on the right path to ascend to and excel at her future role as queen, just as she does in the game if the protagonist picks any route but Seth’s.

It bothered me a bit that I might have been suspected of plotting an insurrection, but I knew any such suspicions would blow over in due time. As long as I kept up my whole “honest peasant life” routine, there wouldn’t be any issues. And if Nika was determined to keep an eye on me, he could stand as a witness to my innocence.

But just in case, I figured it’d be a good idea to stick to big, bright, well-populated streets...

Anyway, despite all that big talk earlier about being satisfied with just two questions, I have a bad habit of not being able to leave things alone. There was one more question that, while wholly unnecessary, I was just dying to ask.

“I have just one final question. Maybe I shouldn’t ask you this, but...could you tell me what my brother, Shade, is doing with his life these days?”

“Huh?”

Mel looked at me suspiciously, apparently unsure of what to make of this sudden lighthearted question. But after the bizarre transformation from cute little brother to total creep Shade had undergone, I really wanted to know what he was getting up to.

“You...don’t want to ask about Prince Nicholas?” Mel pressed.

Huh?

This time, it was my turn to be confused. I definitely hadn’t been expecting that.

Nika? Why would I ask about him? Is there any reason that Mel would be thinking about him?

I could see why he might’ve thought I’d be interested in hearing about him, though. After all, Nika was incredibly intelligent, and he was a member of the royal family—plus, he despised Lily. So, if I cared about how Lily was doing, it only made sense that I’d want to know about what Nika was up to.

But since Nika had promised to reassess his opinion of Lily, I didn’t feel any need to check up on him. Any friend of Lily was a friend of mine, after all. And even discounting my acquaintance with him from the game, I’d known him for over ten years now. I knew he kept his promises.

Mel wore a skeptical look on his face, but I sensed that he was willing to answer my question when he began to slowly open his mouth.

“Shade Schwarose... I looked into him a bit during my investigation of you. He has a wicked inferiority complex when it comes to you, but he also seems to worship you,” Mel said.

Yep...that tracks, I thought. That was pretty much exactly how he felt toward the protagonist in the game. It made sense that Shade would feel inferior to his adoptive older sister when everyone called her “the perfect Lady Rose.” I’m sure it didn’t help that Shade was neither related to her (uh, me) by blood nor particularly prodigious himself. His emotionless face and voice were just a front he put on to hide his complicated feelings toward me.

“He’s toned down the Casanova act lately,” Mel continued. “I hear he’s been wearing a strange look on his face too. It looks like he’s lost in thought, but sometimes his face contorts into a look of contempt, or he breaks into a blush. I hear it drives the girls crazy.”

Right, which means... Uh, what does that mean, exactly?

I racked my brains, trying to come up with an explanation.

Okay, I’ve got it. My rash (but oh-so-successful, if I may say so myself) decision to chuck that baguette at his face the other day must have shattered his image of me. Maybe he’s realized that I’m not worth idolizing or feeling inferior to, and he’s embarrassed and disgusted by himself for ever thinking I was. He’s probably found a new sense of confidence and security in being the heir to the family title, and he can walk with his head held high now.

Or...is that a little too optimistic? Seems like a pretty solid theory to me, though.

“Doesn’t seem like he’s causing any waves at school or with his friends, at least. I’ve never spoken to him, but if I had to guess, I’d say he was doing just fine.”

That’s it? Nothing else seems off about him?

I was floored. Had it really been that easy to shut the door to his route? All I’d needed to do was throw that bread at him?!

Behold, the power of the almighty baguette!

“You seem awfully pleased to hear that,” Mel said.

“Familial love is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? I won’t think less of you if you find yourself moved to tears,” I replied.

“Fat chance.”

Mel was having none of it. It would have been nice if his guards had at least cracked a smile, but no...

I knew a lost cause when I saw one, so I gave up on the sentimental angle and returned to my brainstorming.

I’d prefaced my previous question by declaring that it was my last. This automatically left Mel with one final question. I was pretty exhausted already, but at least it seemed that our exchange was going to end without any major issues.

“I was hoping to ask two more questions, but whatever... I’ve got no choice but to honor the contract, huh? So, this’ll be it for me,” Mel said, clearly dissatisfied.

He let out a big sigh. It was refreshing how honest he was. Such a cute kid, I thought.

“If I’m going to take your word for it, then you’ve got no skeletons in your closet. You’re just enjoying your current lifestyle. And if I follow that thread of reasoning, you must have deliberately pulled some strings to make sure that you wound up living as a peasant instead of being killed or married off to another man.”

I would have given him a standing ovation—but that wasn’t appropriate, so I kept it in my head. Bingo! Well done, Mel! I thought. In a world where being demoted to the peasantry was tantamount to suicide, it took some real thinking outside the box to come to the answer he’d landed on.

“But...someone of your talents surely could have found a way to live an easy life as a noblewoman. If anything, keeping your status should have only afforded you even more opportunities to attain happiness. Why would you deliberately pick the path of most resistance? Are you that witless?”

Aaand now he’s just making fun of me. Great.

I couldn’t blame him for thinking that, though. In this world, any noble would think wanting to be a peasant was moronic. It went against all common sense. No one would ever even dream of throwing away their status unless they had a very compelling reason—like falling so head over heels in love with a peasant that you were willing to elope and lose it all just to marry them.

Things were a little different for me, though...because I had memories from before I’d lived in this world.

“Forgive my candor, but your very premise is flawed,” I said. “Everyone has a different vision of what it means to be happy. In fact, there are infinitely diverse concepts of ‘happiness,’” I began to explain, with easy eloquence.

I felt a familiar sensation take a hold of me—one that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. It was like my smile had been forged into my face and wouldn’t budge no matter what happened.

I’d been expecting Mel to use his final question on something entirely different, but I figured that was probably the other question he’d wanted to ask.

At any rate, I was impressed that he’d chosen to try to get at the heart of who I was with this final question. But still...after questions that posed a threat to my future plans, which I wanted to avoid for obvious reasons, this was the kind of question I dreaded the most on an emotional level. Putting my dreams into words always brought up bad memories and soured my mood.

I felt a little sick, but I braced myself and took in a deep breath.

“Happiness, for me, doesn’t entail riches, fame, or passionate love affairs,” I said resolutely.

I don’t need—nor do I want—any of those things. None of them will make my dreams come true.

“No matter what incredible doors might open if I were to live a noblewoman’s life as Lady Rose...I’d rather die a dog’s death on the side of the road as a peasant.”

“But...why?” Mel asked, looking absolutely mystified.

I smiled a genuine smile back at him.

“Because it’s the path I’ve chosen for myself. If being a noblewoman is my fate, then choosing a peasant’s life for myself feels like freedom.”

Telling anyone about my hopes and dreams felt like a double-edged sword. So much for sleeping like a log; I doubted I’d catch any Z’s at all now. My chest felt tight around my pounding, restless heart, and the sick feeling in my stomach didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

I had a feeling that if I turned my head, I might very well see the Grim Reaper behind me, laughing. I straightened my back and looked into Mel’s eyes, focusing all of my attention on him.

“I don’t get it,” he said, frowning. He looked absolutely bewildered. “I just don’t get it...and I don’t get you. You wanted to be a peasant so you could experience ‘freedom’? That’s insane. You sound like a dim-witted, self-centered princess who’s been sheltered all her life.”

“Oh my. But don’t you see? That’s exactly what I was.”

I let out a carefree laugh, agreeing with every insult he’d hurled at me. I put my own desires first and had values that were pretty out of sync with this world’s. I also wasn’t particularly smart, and, at least in this life, I’d lived as a sheltered princess.

The only thing he’d gotten wrong in his characterization of me was how seriously I took my choice. It wasn’t just some frivolous, thoughtless decision; it was everything to me.

“I hope you don’t find me too bizarre to satisfy your curiosity, Lord Melvin.”

“You are bizarre. I’ll give you that,” he said, cracking a bitter smile. He looked miserable.

Poor Mel... You look so dejected. It’s not your fault that you can’t wrap your head around all of this—it doesn’t make you a dimwit, I promise. I mean, there’s no way you’d ever be able to wrap your head around the biggest reason for all of this: that I was reincarnated. But if you knew about my past life, and the game I played, all of these puzzle pieces would slot into place for you.

“Well, I should go. Sorry for taking up your time.”

“Oh, please, don’t be. I’m ever so grateful for the valuable information you’ve shared with me. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to meet with me.”

I stood up from my chair and gave him an elegant bow.

I wanted to give him some bread from the bakery to take home with him, but unfortunately, Michelle had kicked me out before I’d had the chance to take any of the leftovers home with me today. It would probably have been a little disrespectful to give leftover bread to a nobleman anyway, but...it was just so delicious! Besides, Nika liked it, and I figured it must have had some sort of magical properties if it was powerful enough to thwart Shade’s advances.

The guards opened the door for Mel. He stopped abruptly at the threshold and turned.

“I can’t put my finger on it...but I feel like you’re fighting for something bigger than the kingdom or the royal family. You probably won’t appreciate hearing this from the guy who poked his nose in your business to satisfy his own curiosity, but...whatever it is you’re up to, good luck,” he said, scratching his cheek and turning away so I couldn’t see his face.

Oh? What’s this...? I wondered. Shifting gears from ice queen to sweetheart right as you walk out the door, huh?

I found myself a little worked up over how cute he was, but more than that, I was moved by his words of encouragement. I’d never told anyone about the battle I was fighting before, and even if I had, they probably wouldn’t have believed me. Worse yet, they probably would’ve thought I was crazy. It felt really good to have him cheering me on.

But I held back my joy and gave him a calm smile.

“Thank you. I’ll keep fighting—and I’ll win, mark my words,” I said.

Mel whispered something that looked like “good” or “right,” then left in a hurry.

I don’t remember Mel being a hot-and-cold character? I thought he was a lot more earnest than that. I mean, isn’t the Pompous Prince the hot-and-cold one?

Either way, Mel was adorable—and that was all that mattered. Even if he was the hot-and-cold type, it didn’t make a difference to me.

If I can keep going like this, I think I’ll find my happiness. As long as nothing new comes up, I’ll be declaring my victory over fate before I even know it! There’s no need to worry. Everything’s gonna be fine.

Now that I was alone, I let my smiling facade drop and burst into a fit of tears and laughter. It felt like all the discomfort and pain that I’d been bottling up inside of me had suddenly burst out. Flustered, I ran to the bathroom.

And then I threw up.

Phew... I’m exhausted. I am completely and utterly worn out.

I’d assumed from the start that Mel would visit. And just as I’d planned, I’d managed to pry some gossip out of his tight lips. The evening had been a huge success...but it had also been extremely draining.

Honestly, I would’ve been happiest if I’d just been able to live out my peaceful life as a commoner without any aristocratic visitors. But it was becoming increasingly clear to me how much of a pipe dream that was...for now, at least.

The worst part about all of this, though, had been having to give voice to my dreams. Each time I’d done that in my past life, they’d all been stolen from me or trampled underfoot and shattered. I’d never been so helpless, so full of despair, as I’d been back then. I still felt sick thinking back on it.

I spread my cheap, paper-thin bedroll across the floor and climbed inside. I hugged myself tightly, as if to protect myself and swear I’d never leave my side, and closed my eyes.

Just keep at it a little longer, I told myself.

I wanted so badly—no, needed—to become a commoner.

Scene from a Carriage

Nicholas Cabott climbed into a carriage again for the first time in two weeks.

Well, technically, he’d gone through this routine several times in these last two weeks—but that had all been for official royal business. But it had been a fortnight since he’d last climbed into his private carriage, which he used to travel incognito. Naturally, it was all to see the same woman yet again.

If he left that night, he’d be able to see her in the morning. He’d never seen her in the morning before, and that seemed like reason enough to take off in the dark in his lit carriage. He had the distinct feeling that he had to go to see her at once, no matter the cost.

He didn’t have prominent political enemies within the kingdom, and even if a passing band of highwaymen were to try their luck with him, he was accompanied by two guards fit to take on ten men at a time—each. Even if Nicholas directed them to protect someone or something that he felt was more important than his own safety, they would refuse with their dying breaths. They would never abandon their duty. But the guards weren’t the only swordsmen on board; the prince was rather adept himself.

“I wonder how Fii is faring?” Nicholas muttered to himself. “Perfectly well, I’m sure. In fact, she seems to carry on just fine without me.”

This pained him, even though it was all in his head. Neither of his guards spoke up to comfort him.

It wasn’t the only thing that pained him. Once he’d learned about the whole “bullying” business with Liliana that was at the heart of the annulment, he’d been rather hurt that Fii hadn’t ever come to talk to him about it. And after she was disowned, she had disappeared without so much as a word. He had finally plucked up the courage to go and see how she was doing a whole month later, and it had turned out she was doing great. Nicholas had thought himself something of a brother to her, and this revelation had absolutely shattered his pride.

But while it seemed quite strange to him that she would be thriving in her new life—and in fact, something about it seemed a little artificial, even—as her childhood friend and brother figure, he was happy for her. Still...he couldn’t help but wish that she cared just a little more about him.

He’d started to think as much after a conversation with his father. After he’d learned from the king what had become of her, he’d made up his mind. His Majesty’s words had set him free.

Between his kingdom, his brother, Liliana, Fii, and himself, his own well-being fell dead last last on his list of priorities. It didn’t matter what His Majesty said, even as the man spoke as his father rather than his king.

But even if Nicholas were to disregard his own wants and needs, he couldn’t ignore the expectations others had of him that might run counter to his priorities, forcing him to take sides. He couldn’t make everyone happy. Unfortunately, every society was like this; the higher your social standing, the more unavoidable that was.

Nicholas sighed, suddenly remembering the conversation he’d had with Liliana before he’d departed for his trip.

“Do you think it’s possible to change your fate?” she’d asked, pleadingly, tears brimming in her eyes.

Nicholas had felt that it was a wholly improper look to be giving one’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, but he hadn’t chided or warned her for it. He knew that she had eyes only for Seth. And besides, he didn’t see her as a woman.

Instead, he’d simply brushed her off with a curt “How should I know?”

Now, though, her question swam in his mind insistently.

Isn’t “fate” just a name we give things after the fact, in the absence of a better explanation? If our hopes are realized, we smile and say it must have been fate. And if they’re dashed, then we lament that it must have been fate. Fate is only a contrivance to enshrine happy fortunes and write off our tragedies as if we had no hand in them.

Nicholas nodded at his musings. To believe in “fate,” after all, was the height of arrogance. Or perhaps... Perhaps it was...

Then he cut off his train of thought and refocused his attention.

“I know... I’ll ask Fii what she thinks.”

But, unwittingly, he could not fully dispel his thoughts of fate from the back of his mind. The two guards flanking Nicholas made eye contact, still wearing lifeless looks in their eyes.

Nicholas had yet again run from the chance that he might make everyone happy.

A Story About Dreams and Reality

I had an older brother. He was so cool and so smart. He was the best at everything he did, and everyone loved him. He was the center of the universe.

I ****ed him.

Every time people met my brother, they told me how jealous they were of me. I’d smile and say bashfully, “Yes, I’m so glad he’s my brother.”

Because that’s how I was **** to reply.

My brother was so special and amazing. He was the center of the universe, and I was always in his shadow. I always had to make sure I wasn’t getting in his way or inconveniencing him. I’d do anything to avoid upsetting him, and I always had to be so, so, so careful. I lived for my brother.

I was his ****.

When I entered high school, I started to live alone. I told my parents that having a sister like me around would only inconvenience my brother, and they readily agreed to let me go.

But my brother still came to my school all the time. He came by my house too—the house where I now lived alone. No one saw what happened there. I started to **** him even more.

Once I started university, I was finally able to get **** from him. I did everything in my power to lay the groundwork and make sure that I couldn’t be found. And for a while, I was happy. For the first time in a long time, I was myself.

But one day—one fateful day—everything fell apart.

I ran into him again by chance. I thought I’d changed, that I was different now. I thought I’d broken the habit and that when he ****ed, I’d be able to **** him.

That’s what I thought...but when I saw him, I regressed. I was back to being the old me.

I ran and ran...all because of him.

And then I got hit by a car. All because I was in such a rush to ****. Like a fool.

I couldn’t **** his ****, because I was still his puppet, doing exactly what he told me to.

I— I was—

—after that, I can’t remember anything.

I hated the girl I’d been in my past life.

I hated how full of regret I’d been, how I couldn’t claim a single victory right until the end. I hadn’t even managed to retaliate before I’d died, and I hated myself for it. I hated that I’d just let myself be jerked around by fate.

I was sick of being a puppet.

I was good at putting up a facade. I’d been doing it for years with my brother, my family, my friends...everyone. Whenever people talked about my brother or asked about him, I put on an act. It was as natural to me as breathing.

I lived in a different universe now, and I’d never have another chance to triumph over him. But I could forge myself into someone who chooses her own path. I could triumph over fate.

I was going to fight harder this time—and I was going to kick fate’s ass.

Chapter 4

I woke up early and threw up again. Bad dreams, old memories, you know the drill. I’d been trying not to dig up my trauma, but unfortunately, it felt like it was all coming to the surface now, leaving me in an even worse state today than I’d been in yesterday.

When I stopped to reflect, it occurred to me just how much I’d been avoiding thinking too deeply about my brother, even as I was constantly reminded of him through my dealings with Seth. Every time I thought about my “past life,” I became keenly aware of the fact that I’d died, but strangely, I had completely forgotten about the actual moment of my death. I’d pushed forward like a madwoman in my fight to become a commoner, but at some point, I’d lost sight of why I wanted this life for myself in the first place.

I was in pretty rough shape, but I couldn’t take the day off work. It wasn’t like I was injured or sick—physically, that is; it was just my mental health that had taken a hit.

Finding reemployment in this world was a lot harder than you might imagine. Think of it this way: the moment you slipped up on the job, you pretty much destroyed any chance of finding other work in the village. Sure, you could claim you were sick, but even that was just shooting yourself in the foot. Employers wouldn’t find that sympathetic; in fact, they’d label you “feeble.”

Since there were few means of transportation, your employment prospects were also a lot more limited by your location. Sure, in theory you could travel to a workplace far from your home and just work shorter hours...but making a livable wage off of those hours was basically impossible. Besides, a commoner like me, with barely any work experience and no special commendations to speak of, would be laughed out the door of most workplaces looking to hire.

Even if I moved away, I’d have to pay to rent a new home—and I certainly couldn’t afford that on the savings I’d managed to scrape together after a mere two months of working. I wasn’t enough of an idiot to think I could find work as a live-in employee in some distant land either.

This world didn’t even have phones, so it wasn’t like I could just call in sick anyway. Even if I was gravely ill, I’d still have to go in to work to let my employer know.

My complexion was looking beyond just “pale,” though; I looked like I was dying. Even commoners wore blush sometimes, so I put a little on my cheeks—just enough to look natural—before leaving home. The streets were quiet as usual, though, which made me feel a bit silly for getting all worried.

Even though my past life was long over, I couldn’t seem to put it behind me. I was going about my current life as if the whole point were to overwrite my last. When I’d been deep into my obsession of chasing this dream to live as a commoner, I’d thought it had been a really positive dream...but apparently that wasn’t the case.

When everything settles down a bit more, I’d like to find a different dream—one with a bit more to it.

***

“Good morning!” I said to Michelle as I came in, beaming. I was used to putting on an act, so it was easy to cover up that I wasn’t feeling well.

Or, well...it should have been. But when Michelle took one look at my face, her smile dropped. She looked concerned.

“Are you feeling all right, Fii?” she asked me, coming in closer to get a better look at me.

I found myself at a complete loss. I couldn’t even smooth things over by feigning ignorance—that’s how shocked I was. I couldn’t believe she’d seen right through me, when my defenses should have been ironclad.

How did she know? I wondered. I was pretty sure I’d done a good job applying the blush, and it should have covered up how pale I was. I couldn’t imagine that my face or my voice was betraying me either.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, hon. It’s a big help having you here, but I want you here for the long run, so I need you coming into work happy and healthy. As much as I appreciate your passion for the job, you need to go home and rest. You can come back when you’re feeling better, all right?” she said, pushing me right back out the door.

I twisted around and desperately grabbed her by the arm. I felt tears welling in my eyes as I focused my gaze on her, looking straight into her eyes to discern her true intentions.

“How did you know?” I asked.

I had to know. If there was a chink in my armor, I needed to fix it.

“Oh, come on now. You’re like a daughter to me. How could I not notice that there was something going on?” Michelle said, with a puzzled look, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Now, now. Be a good girl and go straight home. You need to warm yourself up and get some rest!”

Michelle then gave me a final push and closed the door behind me. But I couldn’t even do as she’d said. I just stood there, staring blankly. I don’t know how much time passed, but eventually, I managed to start wobbling home.

I don’t know why, but I guess I should go home today. I don’t get what Michelle was saying, though, I thought. It felt like my brain wasn’t working...which was probably a sign that Michelle had been right to turn me away. I’ll come back tomorrow and work hard to make up for it. I’m too weak today.

I was just a short distance from home when I spotted something in the distance: it was a horse-drawn carriage coming in from a neighboring town. It was a strange sight at this hour in the morning. But as it came closer, I realized that I recognized it. I stopped in my tracks.

Just as I’d feared, the carriage continued my way until it was right next to me...and then it stopped. I squinted as the passenger inside stepped down onto the road, the sun’s rays reflecting off of his silver hair.

It was the first time I’d seen Nika in two weeks. He took one look at me and said, before we’d even traded greetings, “You look unwell.”

Before I even realized what I was doing, I’d taken a step back, as if to run away. I knew that Nika came to visit me in order to keep an eye on me, and knowing what I was dealing with should have been more of a relief than anything. So, why did I have to go and act so suspiciously? What was wrong with me?

But he’d caught me off guard. How does he know I’m not doing well? I wondered, my thoughts racing. What tipped him off?

“Let me escort you home. You can ride in my carria— No, that’s right...you’d prefer to avoid that, wouldn’t you? Here. Let me help.”

Did I say something before about not wanting to ride in his carriage? I wondered. I feel like I suggested a different location for our discussion before, when he first came to see me, since I wanted to avoid that accidental kiss event, but...

As I was racking my brains, Nika swiftly took my hand. He led me, pulling with a force that was neither too strong nor too gentle, and my steps felt a bit lighter.

Even if he feared for her health and safety, it would be unusual for a proper gentleman like Nika to take a woman’s hand. But I supposed he must not have seen me as a woman. Besides, he was only here to keep an eye on me. It seemed unlikely that this would trigger any romance.

For a while, we walked in silence, neither of us saying a word. I figured that Nika must have been staying quiet so that I wouldn’t feel obliged to talk either. And, sure enough, I didn’t feel like talking. All I wanted to do was to look at how his silver hair reflected the sunlight. Because the moment we started talking, it would ruin the mood.

By the time we made it back to my house, my nausea had mostly dissipated. Nika walked me inside and watched over me as I climbed into my bedroll. Then, like the gentleman he was, he quickly made to leave.

Unthinkingly, I grabbed the hem of his pants. Then I gasped and let go. It had only been for a second, so it was possible he hadn’t noticed... Please, don’t let him have noticed! I prayed, desperately.

But my prayers must have fallen on deaf ears, because Nika’s eyes shot wide open as he turned to look at me. Then, after darting his eyes around the room, as if unsure where to look, he sat down right where he was.

A silence fell over us, and I knew it was my responsibility to break it.

I’d been making a point all this time of keeping a careful distance from him, and yet now I’d gone and reached for him as he was trying to leave. It didn’t make any sense, and I owed him an explanation—especially because I knew why I’d done it.

With great effort, I opened my mouth to speak.

“I’ve...always been jealous of Prince Seth,” I said.

“Of Seth?”

Nika raised an eyebrow quizzically. I could hardly blame him for being confused. Anyone would have been confused about why I was suddenly bringing up the Pompous Prince.

“He doesn’t realize how lucky he is to have a kind, talented older brother who never uses his brilliance as an excuse to look down on people or treat them poorly. I’m...so jealous of him for that. I always have been.”

Some of my past-life memories were still pretty hazy, but it was clear to me now that I’d envied Seth. He had no idea how desperately I wanted a brother like Nika. And, even if he hadn’t been trying to flaunt how lucky he was, it still felt that way to me. I’d never felt like this when I was playing the game, but now that I was living in the same world as them, I could see their brotherly bond and the love that they shared.

My brother was obviously way worse than Seth, but still...seeing a man whose personality resembled my brother’s take what I wanted most in life for granted drove me insane.

“I...wanted a brother like that too.”

It was a stupid wish, of course. It’s not as if you could choose your siblings—everyone knew that. It was a pointless, ridiculous thing to long for.

All I could do was try to accept reality and make a better life for myself now. After all, didn’t I want to overcome my trauma and claim my victory against fate? Wasn’t that why I’d wanted to become a commoner? Even if I’d been missing a portion of my memories, they were part of what drove me, subconsciously, in my obsession.

Nothing would change for me if I let myself stay a prisoner to my delusions, no matter how enticing they were. I couldn’t keep pretending that someone else’s brother was my own.

“Must siblings always be tied by bloodlines?” asked Nika. “I confess, I’ve...always thought of you as a sister, Fii. Is that so wrong?”

I smiled. I felt like he was spoiling me, telling me exactly what I wanted to hear.

I love him. Even if I didn’t think of him as the perfect older brother that I longed for, I would still love him. He’s always so kind to me, always watching over me. But that’s exactly why I have to say what I’m about to.

“Yes, it is. You’re Nika, and my brother is...” I trailed off. “It can never be.”

Despite being just one person, my brother occupied a lot of space in my head. It was an uphill battle to try to erase the mark he’d left on me.

Nika wasn’t my brother. One was more than enough.

“Fii... Do you believe that we can change our fate?” Nika asked me, suddenly changing topics. He looked down at me as I lay on my bedroll with a lost look on his face.

No...it may have seemed to me like he was changing topics, but from his perspective, I’m sure this question seems somehow relevant.

Under normal circumstances, I would have assumed there was some religious undertone to this question, or that it was a setup for some kind of cheesy pick-up line, and I would have given an appropriately people-pleasing response. But right now, I didn’t have the wherewithal for that.

So, instead, I looked into Nika’s earnest eyes and blurted out, “Yes.”

I would never accept that we couldn’t fight our fates. The thought of being just a pawn to some overwhelming force, of having to reluctantly bend to its will even as my tears and regrets overflowed, was too horrible. I would rather have died. I hated the word “fate,” but I’d let my life be dictated by it. That’s why I had to change it. I wasn’t going to subject myself to the whims of this story.

“It’s just like you to say that,” Nika said, smiling as if the dark clouds over his heart had lifted. I didn’t really understand what was happening, but I smiled back at him.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to be strong again. But I’ll let myself be weak, just for today.

I clasped Nika’s hand in mine and closed my eyes. I had a feeling I wouldn’t have any nightmares this time.

Tomorrow, I’ll pick up the fight again.

***

As I roused from my sleep, I realized that I must have been having another ridiculous dream again. Hot on the heels of my nightmare about my past life, I had been dreaming about being a blushing damsel in distress. In fact, I still felt the soft warmth of Nika’s hand in mine as I opened my eyes, and the bashful delight of our exchange.

“Good morning,” I said slowly.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good morning.”

The familiar man who looked back at me had ice-blue eyes—cold at first glance but full of a gentle warmth beneath the surface. His hair was a beautiful, translucent silver. When it hit me who he was, I felt the blood drain from my face almost immediately.

I wish I could pass out again and make this all go away...

I averted my gaze from him as I sat up, slowly trying to wrest my hand from his as nonchalantly as possible.

There were too many things I wanted to ask—and too many things I wanted to apologize for—swimming in my head. I didn’t even know where to start.

Someone, help me, I thought.

But just thinking about it wasn’t going to get me anywhere. There was a part of me that just wanted to escape from reality and fall back into a deep sleep so I could avoid all of this, but the rational part of me won out. Even though my brain was still partly asleep, my body wasn’t.

“I’m terribly sorry for keeping you like this against your will. You could have shaken me off and left, but you graciously chose to stay. I owe my peaceful slumber all to your magnanimity,” I said. “But in the future, I’d appreciate it if you could please ignore any foolish requests I make in such a delirious state.”

My first move was to prostrate myself. Apologizing and begging for mercy was basically my only choice, since I couldn’t go and say something like “I’ll accept any punishment you deem appropriate.” After all, what would I have done if he’d ordered me to tell Seth the truth about Lily?

“What are you apologizing for?”

Nika’s question sounded like he was looking for an admission of guilt—like he wanted to know if I was fully aware of the gravity of what I’d done.

“For wasting the precious time of a prince with my frivolous requests,” I said, not looking up at him. My lips quivered as I spoke.

“Wasting...?” he repeated, sounding somehow unsatisfied with this response.

Then I heard two sighs from the corner of the room. I poked my head up a little to see Nika’s two guards watching us with exasperated looks on their faces.

You guys were here the whole time? I thought irritably. I may deserve those looks, but why are you looking at Nika like that too?

“Lift your head. I came here to see you because I wanted to, and I stayed because I wanted to. I cannot imagine a better use of my time,” Nika said benevolently.

His thoughtfulness only hurt more. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole or to run out of my house and into the nearest building with a second-floor window to defenestrate myself.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable, I reluctantly got up off of the floor. I looked up at Nika; there was a strangely pleased smile on his face.

Huh...? What’s he so happy for? I thought. I didn’t remember him having a sadistic streak in the game.

“You’re one to talk, though. Where’d your ladylike, flowery language go, huh?”

“I got tired of it.”

“That’s a pitiful reason. Seriously, though, if you’re going to drop the act with me, why not drop it with Prince Nicholas?”

I tried to laugh him off, but I couldn’t fake a convincing smile the way I usually could. I knew I was probably just letting my guard down because Mel would forgive me, though.

Mel let out a long, pained sigh. But just as I’d expected, he didn’t pry any further.

“Well, seems like you’re feeling better now. I’m going to go home,” he said.

“Okay. Thanks for staying for a bit.”

Without a moment’s delay, Mel’s guards were opening the door for him and watching his back the whole way through. No sooner than Mel had taken a single step outside, though, than I realized something.

“Hey...” I called out.

He turned around to look at me, suspicion and irritation written all over his face. Thanks to his red eyes, it was kind of a scary expression. If it wasn’t for how kindhearted (and how short) he was, he would have been dangerously close to usurping Nolls’s shtick. Blessedly, he didn’t have half the leeway or personal strength Nolls could sling around.

“Are you going to answer my question, or are you just going to leave me hanging?” I asked.

“Huh? What question?”

“I asked you before why you’re being so kind to me, remember?”

A look of recognition flashed across his face. But instead of giving me a proper answer, he grumbled, “You’re asking a lot of questions, considering you’re the one who said we only get to ask one question for every answer we give.”

“Those rules were for business conversations,” I retorted. “Right now, we’re just two friends having a chat, so this doesn’t count.”

Mel gave me an exasperated look, but the corners of his mouth turned up into an amused smile. He didn’t deny that we’re friends! I thought happily. I couldn’t drop the act and just be myself around my other friends like Nika, Nolls, or even Nana...but with Mel, I could. Out of everyone, I felt like he was kind of my closest friend.

“Well...I still think we should drop this. I don’t think you’d like my answer,” Mel said.

“Why?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. What reason could he have for being nice to me that I wouldn’t like?

Wait... Surely not?!

“S-So you are in love with me?!”

“Oh, please! Are you asking for a thrashing?”

I was just kidding around, but Mel seemed seriously pissed now. I saw him clench his fist tight and threw both of my hands up into the air in a show of surrender. He clicked his tongue and unfurled his fist.

I had a feeling that I was becoming a bad influence on him, transforming him from a proper duke’s heir into a common ruffian.

M-Maybe that’s just in my head, though...? I privately hoped.

I didn’t know what I’d do if his parents told him to never see me again, though. I had a feeling he’d probably cave to them, and that made me kind of sad.

Once he was about three meters from my house, the last of the three guards to leave grabbed the door to close it. I hurriedly grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Hey!” I called out again.

And yet again, Mel turned around, a tired look on his face.

“What?” he asked. “Can’t you just let me leave already?”

It was a fair question. I couldn’t just keep stopping him like this until I was satisfied. But...

“Come by again, okay?” I said.

“Don’t you have any friends?”

“Sure I do. But I don’t have anyone else I can be myself around. So? Will you come by again?” I asked in a sweet tone that hopefully wasn’t too flirtatious. I tried to turn my head so he’d get my best angle.

Mel didn’t even blush, but I guess that was kind of a good thing. It probably would’ve been a bad sign if he’d been charmed by that.

“If I feel like it,” he replied with an awkward smile. It was like he was talking to a needy little kid or a little sister who begged for his attention.

As he started quickly walking away again, I yelled after him, not taking any care to modulate my voice. The houses next to mine were abandoned, anyway.

“I hope you do!”

Scene from a Church (Part 2)

The saint was back at the church on the outskirts of town today, clasping her hands in prayer as she closed her eyes.

She was done making apologies. With each passing day, it was as if her vision clouded over a little further, like she was being enveloped in a deep fog. She no longer knew if apologizing was even the right thing to do.

She went about her days quietly and carefully, as if there were an invisible rope around her neck. She walked forward meekly, not daring to resist even to the bitter end.

“Why did my brother-in-law say all of that yesterday? Why now?”

The saint let out a mournful laugh. Even she herself couldn’t plumb the depth of feeling behind it, the chaotic interplay of sentiments. It was bittersweet—joyful, tragic, hopeful, and despairing all at once. Just like her life.

“Thank you, Father on high...for blessing me again today,” she said with a smile, as she always did right as she was leaving.

But although the saint had intended to leave as soon as she’d spoken those words, just like she had every time, something different happened today. She looked over at the pastor and the nun who always watched her during her visits, and she stopped.

The nun had always assumed that the saint couldn’t see them, since she’d never so much as glanced in their direction before. And so, the saint’s attention threw the purehearted and emotional young nun into a panic. As far as she was concerned, it was only natural that the saint would never have noticed her—and in fact, she felt that was the way it ought to be.

The nun’s eyes darted about in every direction, unsure of where to look. She was so flustered, she could hardly contain herself.

“How would you like to chat for a bit?” the saint asked her, smiling calmly.

“Huh?! U-Um...! Are you talking to me?!” the nun cried.

“Why, yes.”

The nun blushed fiercely. As the saint approached her, she flapped her arms about like a bird, as if trying to release some of her anxiety.

“Wh-Why...?!”

“‘Why’? Well, I feel that there are forces at work in our world—something akin to fate, perhaps—that a mere viscount’s daughter such as myself could never dare to fight. As far as I can tell, only a handful of brilliant minds can influence them. But I’m just so tired of being swept up in their schemes, unable to make my own choices. I suppose...I simply wanted to talk to someone who doesn’t have that influence—someone who isn’t involved.”

At this, the nun’s childlike expression contorted into a frown. But it was impossible to say whether she was frowning because the saint’s explanation had been so long-winded, because it had been too abstract and complicated to follow, or because of some secret third thing. Not even the pastor at her side, who had known her for many years, would have been able to guess.

“I’m...not really sure what you’re talking about. I’m kind of stupid,” she said.

The saint chuckled. “I’m sorry. I see I’ve made things needlessly complicated. All I meant to say was that I simply wished to talk to you. Would that be all right?”

At the sight of the saint’s sweet, gentle smile, the nun’s face lit up. In an instant, she reverted to the innocent, childlike expression that she’d been wearing before—one that made her look several years younger than she really was.

“I’d love that!” she exclaimed.

What else could she have possibly said? After all, she adored the saint.

“We’ve crossed paths so many times, but we’ve never properly introduced ourselves, have we?” said the saint. “I know it’s a little late, but please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Liliana Inoce.”

“I-I’m Nancy! You can call me Nana!” replied the nun.

Lady Liliana, the saint and future queen consort of the kingdom, had no idea just how fateful this encounter would be. She had never once doubted the choices she’d made in her life, and she didn’t doubt this one either.

It didn’t occur to her that fate might have been playing a cruel joke on her even now. And at this point, it remained to be seen whether this fateful meeting was God smiling down on her...or the devil dragging her under.

Scene from the Outskirts of Town

Prince Nicholas swiftly departed the home of former noblewoman Felicia Schwarose, now known as the commoner Fii Crow, making to board his carriage. When he realized that one of his two guards had stopped abruptly, he stopped with him.

The guard wore a bored expression as usual. What gave him pause? Nicholas wondered.

As you can probably tell from the way Prince Nicholas paid close attention to them, these two men were no ordinary guards. The prince might have dragged them along with him wherever he pleased, but it would be no exaggeration to call them the strongest swordsmen in the kingdom. In fact, you could even say that they were the kingdom’s “secret weapon.”

And so, while they could sometimes be willful or snide, they were easily forgiven.

“Prince Nicholas, I’ve been thinkin’... You know how Fii said it would be a waste to leave bread uneaten? Well, I think she’s gonna end up scarfing it all down in spite of your intervention.”

Nicholas paused for a moment. Then, turning right around, he said, “Let’s go.”

The other guard, who was standing next to him, looked at his wristwatch and let out a big sigh. But if Nicholas had taken notice, he’d pretended not to. He was undeterred in his quest to return to Fii’s house.

“Have fun! We’ll be waitin’ right here when you get back,” said the laid-back guard plainly, to indicate he would not be joining him.

The other guard looked shocked at this.

“Don’t you think we ought to accompany him, as his guards?”

“Nah, he’ll be fine. Lady Rose ain’t gonna do him any harm. Besides, the prince knows how to wield a sword just fine. Plus, I’m hungry. I could really go for some bread right now.”

“You’re hungry? You didn’t think to eat any of Prince Nicholas’s cooking earlier?”

“Yeah, right. That noble food is too rich for my blood.”

“Well, I suppose I have to concur,” the serious guard replied. “Are you tired?”

“Yeah. Tired of this work, I mean. You too, right?”

“...”

The formal guard averted his gaze and fell silent. The casual guard hadn’t even expected a reply—his question had been purely rhetorical. He knew the answer without even asking. He snorted out a little laugh through his nose.

There was no one around to hear their conversation. In fact, it seemed there was no pedestrian traffic around them at all. They’d specifically picked a road for carriages with few people wandering around on foot.

“What’s gonna happen to our jobs once this week is over?”

“Good question. I suppose it might be nice to take a long break and live here in the outskirts for a while?”

“Hey, I like the sound of that! Damn, why don’t we just quit right here, right now? This place reminds me of home, even though we haven’t actually been able to see much of it, seein’ as we’ve just been followin’ Prince Nicholas around. Seems like a pretty nice place to live, though.”

“It does indeed,” agreed the other guard. “Are you not planning on returning home?”

“You ain’t either, are you? It’s practically a ghost town now. I don’t think we know a soul there now. There’d be no point in goin’ back. I can only think of one place we could call ‘home,’ and it sure as hell ain’t there.”

This time, it was the formal guard’s turn to break into a smile. He turned to the casual guard and presented his fist. The casual guard reached out and gave him a fist bump.

It was exactly what they used to do back when they were kids from the same village. It was a greeting saved only for happy moments when they were playing together.

“You say the wisest things sometimes.”

“I guess I do, huh? Hey, can’t you knock it off with the formality when it’s just the two of us? We’ve known each other since the moment we left the womb, y’know? That’s gotta be somethin’ like twenty-eight years now, right?”

“Well, how about you learn to talk to our superiors with a modicum of respect?”

Just as things seemed to be going so well between the two of them, they were glaring at each other again. To anyone who didn’t know, it would be hard to believe that they were two respectable men pushing thirty, much less the best swordsmen in the kingdom. As it turned out, their policy of barely exchanging a word or two while they were on the clock was probably the way to go after all—even if the only reason for that was that they just annoyed each other too much.

“...”

“...”

As if in sync, the two of them suddenly glared at each other and let out a sigh. They’d had this sort of tacit connection since childhood.

“We’re going to get a scolding, aren’t we?”

“Probably, yeah. You-know-who has a pretty short fuse. A thousand times scarier than those punks over there... Let’s both try not to step on any land mines.”

“Sometimes there’s no way around it, hm?”

The two guards grimaced, again at the same time. You could attribute their strange synchronicity to the ups and downs they’d shared throughout their whole lives, ever since childhood.

“Oh. If we’re gonna rent a place, let’s find one near the bakery. I’m crap when it comes to cooking.”

“Let’s figure out how we’re going to quit our jobs without causing a fuss first... Actually, that’s just going to fall on me, isn’t it? All right, all right. I see how it is.”

As they watched Nicholas return from a distance, the two guards promptly closed their mouths, their faces falling into emotionless and bored expressions.

Today, as always, I’ll do whatever it takes to help El, they both thought in unison.

As always, they were right on the same page.

I shoved the letter into my bag and started on my walk, undeterred from my original plans. It was a pleasantly cool, crisp morning.

What if that letter was from El, though? I wondered. What if the real El is waiting for me at the location they gave me? No... There’s no way El would be there. If they felt like having a proper, face-to-face conversation with me, then they probably wouldn’t make a whole song and dance of it like this. I’m sure they’d just show up at my doorstep.

But if El had been behind the letter, I had a weird feeling that they’d know I’d never meet them where they asked me to. Why would they go to the trouble of something so pointless? Was I just overestimating them?

As these uneasy thoughts took hold of me, I heard the sound of hooves in my periphery.

“A horse? Wait...maybe it’s a carriage?”

I turned to look, and sure enough, there was a carriage approaching—one I recognized well. It was Nika’s. It was impressive looking, though certainly on the small side for royalty. But since Nika only ever shared it with his two guards, I supposed it must have done the job just fine.

What’s he doing here again so soon, after visiting me only yesterday?

I found myself taking a step back without thinking. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. Before the gears could start spinning in my brain, though, I turned and ran from the carriage at full tilt. I couldn’t explain it, except that the wheels of Nika’s carriage sounded a lot like the dreaded wheels of fate.

But of course, I couldn’t outrun a horse-drawn carriage on foot. I’d been a pretty good runner in my past life, but the carriage caught up with me in mere minutes. I knew I was going to be in hot water, though, so I didn’t stop. Instead, I banked hard down a narrow alley I’d rarely ever taken.

The moment I turned my back to the carriage, I felt someone grab my arm.

“Why’re you running, Lady Rose?”

My eyes flew open. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest as I slowly turned to look at who’d just spoken to me. Still holding on to my arm was one of Nika’s guards, who looked at me with a steely expression.

Then I looked over at the carriage. The door was wide open, even though it was still moving at a rapid clip.

Don’t tell me he jumped? I thought, incredulous. But the door had been closed until just moments ago. The only moment he could’ve jumped was when I’d turned around to go down the alley, which would mean that he must have jumped out at exactly that moment and immediately grabbed onto my arm...

But his grip was too gentle for that. No matter how much of an acrobat he might have been, there was no way he’d have been able to get hold of me that gently immediately after such a high-energy dismount.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You don’t have to look so scared, all right? Aren’t you always perfectly unfazed by everything?” said the guard. “Or, wait...have I just misjudged you? Anyway, don’t run! It’s my job to make sure you stay put, okay?”

What in the world is he talking about? He’s misjudged me as always unfazed by everything? Is that because I put on such a good show of being the “perfect Lady Rose”? Or is he thinking of the actual protagonist from the game?

“And you’re being awfully chatty today... I thought you never said a word?”

“Well...yeah. But I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Then let’s cut straight to the chase. Are you El? Or—”

But I couldn’t finish my sentence. The guard’s demeanor had suddenly shifted dramatically, and I was too taken aback by the threatening look he gave me.

I’d always regarded him as a background character with no real discernible traits, but right now, he was staring daggers at me. I felt like he might lunge out and attack me.

“How do you know about that? Nobody’s supposed to know about El,” the guard said. “Aw, crap... What now? Thinkin’ ain’t my strong suit. Why couldn’t that stodgy ol’ bastard have jumped outta the carriage with me? Stupid egghead...”

The guard had left me trembling with just a look moments ago, and yet here he was doling out childish insults. I had absolutely no idea how to respond.

The guard suddenly whipped around and let out a big sigh—a complete one-eighty from all his beastly snarling.

“Tch! Seems like our time’s up. Well, whatever. We’ll pick this up again another time. Don’t you dare tell anyone about El, got it?”

I followed his gaze and saw the carriage parked on the side of the road, so as not to bother any of the locals passing through. Descending from the carriage were Nika and the other guard, headed our way. Even though I’d just been trying to run away, I felt relieved to see them.

I nodded at the guard, who was still giving me a threatening glare.

Nika came running over to me, looking flustered. He looked down at me with concern as I crouched on the ground, still pretty petrified. Then his glittering silver hair obscured my vision.

“I’m sorry, did he scare you? I thought I still had some time, but it appears I’m racing against the clock even more than I knew.”

I was taken aback by his hurried apology and the worried look on his face. I suddenly felt bad that I’d tried to run away from him earlier.

I’m sorry, Nika... I just bolted out of pure gut feeling. But you must have a good reason to come to visit me again so soon. Does this mean you’re not El, though?

But if his guard had come to shut me up about El, then it would only make sense for Nika to be El... He was the guards’ master, so wouldn’t it track if they were just trying to protect him?

Judging by the fact that the guard had suddenly clammed up about El when Nika approached, though, maybe Nika had nothing to do with it? Or maybe the guard just wanted to warn me that El (that is to say, Nika) was trying to get rid of me, and didn’t want him to overhear?

Argh! This is all way too complicated! Either could be possible, so there’s no point even thinking about it right now!

“Um... Did you come here to talk to me about the ‘important matter’ you mentioned yesterday?”

“That’s right.”

Maybe I don’t need to have my guard up so high? I can at least hear him out and make a decision once I have more information.

I discreetly glanced over at the guard who’d just grabbed my arm earlier. He’d receded to the background as usual and was standing quietly and alertly behind Nika. He and the other guard might as well have been invisible now.

Maybe they’re more cut out for being assassins than guards...

Now that the guard had returned to normal, I decided to ignore him and focus on Nika.

I looked at him, waiting expectantly for him to start spilling his guts, and was struck yet again by his beautiful ice blue eyes. I had to make a conscious effort not to get lost in them.

Nika hesitated for a moment, averting his gaze before he spoke.

“Fii... I’d like you to meet with Liliana. Would you?” he finally said.

I was stunned. There was an earnestness in his eyes that told me he was dead serious. I looked away and began to rack my brains.

Wait... If Nika were El, he wouldn’t be this direct, would he?

I’d figured that El wanted Liliana and me to meet, but I’d never expected that they’d just come right out and say so. What’s more, Nika wasn’t ordering me around or trying to manipulate me—he was making a request.

“I, uh...”

“I can understand this must come as a surprise, but her life is in danger. Of course, I won’t force you if you refuse...”

What the heck? Did his conscience compel him to come here or something?

If I hadn’t known anything about El, I never would’ve doubted Nika’s motivations. I would’ve just gone along with his request without giving it much thought beyond I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’ll do anything for Lily!

That wasn’t quite so easy to do now, though. Too much just didn’t add up.

“I imagine the difference in our statuses will make it rather difficult for us to meet,” I said.

“I’ve prepared a place for you to meet in private.”

“I also heard that Lady Liliana is currently recuperating.”

“Right now, I believe she’ll be in more danger if she isn’t able to meet you.”

“I don’t understand... All of this is a lot for me to take in all of a sudden. Why is she—”

“She’s...bound by you. And the strings that bind her are ever tightening around her neck.”

“Well, that’s...macabre. Are you referring to my engagement being annulled? Did it really have such an impact on her?”

“That certainly plays a role, but it’s about more than that—about things that happened much further in the past. I don’t think even you yourself understand the full situation. But I can understand her feelings.”

I was completely lost now. Lily was “bound” to me? I could understand what he meant if he was referring to my engagement being called off, but she was bound to me before that? And what was Nika doing, getting involved in all of this?

It was baffling. For starters, Lily and I had barely ever spoken a word to each other. If Lily had known that I was a reincarnated person or that I was the protagonist from the game, she would have sensed that something was off when the engagement was annulled...but she hadn’t seemed to. And if that’s what this was all about, then there was no way Nika would understand her feelings around that...

I mean, if Lily were El, then she probably would never have taken center stage like this. And from what I’d been hearing, she wasn’t especially happy... No matter how I thought about it, that theory seemed off base. In all likelihood, she was just another puppet under El’s control—like me.

“But I must say, Nika, I don’t recall you ever being this fond of Lady Liliana...?”

Nika grimaced, looking like I’d just touched on a sore spot.

“I’ve...developed a bit of a soft spot for her,” he said slowly, as if struggling to get the words out. “As it turns out, she and I have more in common than I thought.”

“All right. Let’s go, then,” I blurted out.

Before I knew it, I’d agreed to go with him.

Even if I was dancing to El or Nika’s drum, I couldn’t just let Lily die. If there was any chance that what Nika was saying was true, then I wasn’t going to risk it. And if I was being honest with myself, there’d really never been any question in my mind about that. I’d only asked him those questions because I’d seen the opportunity to, but they weren’t going to impact my decision.

True as that may be, though, it’s also an excuse...

I knew from playing the game in my past life that Nika was a softie, but I’d also seen that side of him plenty in my current life. I just didn’t have it in me to say no to him.

Sigh...

***

Wait a sec... Wasn’t I avoiding getting in Nika’s carriage so I wouldn’t get that accidental kiss event?

A brief flash of the CG from the game popped into my head, but I knew the time for raising objections had come and gone. I mean, I’d already agreed to come, hadn’t I? I obediently took the chivalrous hand Nika offered and climbed into his carriage.

Never thought I’d find myself in a carriage again...and certainly not of my own accord.

Nika’s guards squished themselves in between us, so it was a little cramped. The carriage had been built to accommodate only three people per seating area, after all.

I was feeling a little nervous about our seating arrangements, since the guard sitting next to me was the one who’d jumped out of the carriage earlier and threatened me about El. But when I glanced up at him, he was just staring straight ahead. It didn’t even seem like he was trying to avoid meeting my eyes. If anything, he looked like he didn’t have a single thought in his head. It made sense that he’d be a good actor, if he had ties to El.

Just so you know, Mr. Guard, I’m probably older than you if we count my past life. I’ve got way more years of acting experience on you, so don’t think you’ve got me beat!

“I’m a little afraid to find out where exactly we’re going, so I won’t ask. But while we’re on our way, could you at least tell me a little more about what’s going on with Lady Liliana and why you think I need to talk to her?”

“Right, of course. But before I tell you about that, I should tell you how she and I viewed you—back when you were Felicia. We—’”

I was very curious to hear what came next, but he stopped there abruptly. Confused, I turned to look at the guard next to me for clues. He was staring wide-eyed straight past me at the carriage door—no, at what lay past it. I followed his gaze to the church.

I looked back at Nika, trying to figure out what was so astonishing about the church, but then I realized that Nika’s gaze was actually fixed just a slight distance from it. This time, I tried to take a closer look, following the line of his sight. It led not to the church but to...a carriage stopped in front of it?

What’s another carriage doing in the outskirts? Wait... I think I’ve seen that carriage several times before.

“Stop the carriage!” Nika yelled suddenly.

I jumped in my seat.

Then the carriage came to an abrupt halt, shaking violently. I found myself desperately missing seat belts. I let out a little cry, and for several moments after the carriage had stopped, I sat clutching my chest. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

Then I looked up again at Nika, hoping to find out what in the world was going on. His eyes were darting around, as if something was demanding all his mental faculties.

“...”

“Nika?”

He didn’t answer me, so I took another look at the carriage I assumed he’d been looking at.

Looks like a noble’s carriage, but there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it. It probably belongs to a family ranked even lower than the Schwaroses. It must belong to a duke or an even lesser noble.

It was a little strange that it was stopped in front of the church. But I had a feeling Pastor Jack came from a noble background, so maybe it wasn’t so strange after all?

“That carriage belongs to the Inoces. It’s Liliana’s.”

“What?”

My eyes went wide in shock. I practically pushed the guard next to me aside to take a look, all but forgetting the fear I’d felt for him not long ago.

Lily’s carriage...? What? But what would it be doing in front of the church? Why would a noblewoman like Lily be here? And wait...isn’t she supposed to be convalescing right now?

“Didn’t you arrange for us to meet somewhere?” I asked Nika.

“Yes. So why is she here...?”

Based on his expression, I’d had a feeling Nika hadn’t expected Lily to turn up here, but his words confirmed my suspicion. It seemed he hadn’t had any hand in this—which meant that it must have been El’s doing.

“I’m going to go check on her!” I said, rushing to get out of the carriage before anyone could argue.

“I’m coming too,” said Nika.

Honestly, I was a little relieved that he was joining me. If this was going to turn into a face-to-face confrontation with El (which, at this point, it very well might have been heading that direction), then I’d be grateful to have him there with me.

Nika’s two guards descended from the carriage effortlessly, and Nika and I followed. It seemed obvious from where the carriage was parked that Lily must have been in the church, so I took a step forward in that direction.

But just then—

“Miss Saint! No!”

I heard Nana’s heartbroken cry sound from inside the church, and my mind went blank. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve come back to my senses immediately and rushed in to save Nana.

But my confusion was too great for that. I was paralyzed.

Then a church window shattered as a man in a mask leaped through it, with a familiar figure slung over his shoulder—one that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was Lily, with her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“Lady Liliana! Dammit!” called an irritated voice.

Before I could figure out what was going on, my beloved Mel emerged from the church doors.

Huh? Wait... Beg pardon?

Shock can paralyze you both physically and mentally. I was experiencing that firsthand, and it seemed that Nika was too.

“Seize him!”

Nika seemed to regain his wits a bit quicker than I did, though, because he called after his guards to apprehend the masked man. But just as he pointed in their direction, Lily’s kidnapper quickened his pace and shoved Lily into the carriage.

I knew Nika had no intention of blaming me for the masked man’s escape, since I’d been all but petrified from the confusion of it all. But more than that, only a mere ten seconds had passed between the masked man breaking the window and climbing into the carriage with Lily. He’d been impossibly fast. Even if I hadn’t been too shocked to react, it was hard to imagine I could’ve done anything to stop him.

“Sorry, but we’re no horses. We can’t catch up to a horse-drawn carriage,” said one of the guards.

“That masked man certainly seemed to know what he was doing. I can only imagine he’s a real professional, in the employ of someone with ample means to provide commensurate compensation. If I may, I’d advise ascertaining who exactly hired him and launching an attack on them directly,” said the other.

They spoke bluntly, without a trace of urgency or concern. It was almost like they were mocking their master.

Surely these two could put a stop to the masked man if they made a move now? I thought. But I didn’t actually know that for sure, and I was well aware that I was conveniently ignoring the fact that I was utterly useless in this situation. Basically, I was just lashing out. Still...I couldn’t help but glare at the guards for their callousness.

Besides, it was entirely possible that they’d just gotten a sign from El—and that was the real reason they weren’t chasing the masked man.

I looked down at the ground and closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath to steady myself and calm the waves of emotion threatening to capsize me. I needed a clear head if I was going to figure out what I ought to do next.

“Felicia? Prince Nicholas? No, forget it... This isn’t the time to stand around talking. Prince Nicholas, I’ll leave Lady Liliana to you. I need to tend to the guards who were injured and to look after Nana. I’m also going to see if I can get the man we captured to cough up some information.”

Is Nana hurt? How hurt? I hope it’s nothing serious... Wait, did Mel just call her “Nana” too? Do they know each other? No, who cares about that... I need to focus my energy on thinking about what to do next.

I waited for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts.

Okay. My head’s clear now. I don’t care if it was El or someone else entirely, but I’m not going to let whoever did this get away with it.

I opened my eyes. Then, in my peripheral vision, I saw a familiar face.

“Oh, hey! If it isn’t Fii! Did you see that carriage that just went by? Kinda looked like things were goin’ off the rails... Wait, hm? Huh? Prince Nicholas Cabott? And wait, you’re...”

“That would be Mel Crabitt, the future heir to the Crabitt family. They’re highly regarded for their financial savvy. Hmm... It seems there’s some tension in the air.”

“Prince Nolan Gallion and Lord Zero Wolf? What would a prince and duke of the neighboring country be doing here...?”

Aaaand now Nolls and Zero have shown up. This whole situation is so contrived, it’s almost comical.

This was plainly no coincidence. It occurred to me just how easy it would be for the mastermind to blend in here without raising any alarms, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that now.

“Nolls! Where did the carriage go after turning down that road up there?!” I asked.

“That way!”

“Thanks!”

In classic Nolls fashion, he didn’t even think before answering me. After giving him my thanks, I immediately set off into a run in the direction he’d indicated.

Thank God I’m a commoner. There’s no way I’d be able to run fast or for long enough in my noblewoman’s shoes.

“Fii, wait! At least take a carria—”

“I want to run so I can ask any witnesses for directions! A carriage will stand out like a sore thumb here, so I’m sure the sight of one will be fresh in everyone’s memories. And since I’m a local now, I’m sure they’ll help me out! Nika, you have your own methods—use them!”

I didn’t even turn around to shout my response. I just kept running as fast as I could.

I didn’t know if the driver of the Inoce family’s carriage was working for the kidnapper or if he’d just been threatened into compliance. But if it had only taken a short while for Lily to take the carriage from the castle to the church, then the horse must have been worn out from sustaining a full gallop for so long. Even if the driver was forcing it, its performance was bound to take a hit. They’d have to either switch out the horse or take a break eventually...unless they were taking Lily somewhere nearby?

If the mastermind had planned to have a conspirator standing by with another horse and carriage at a predetermined meeting point, then I didn’t stand a chance. But if they were planning on just taking a break or if they were going to switch out horses somewhere nearby, then maybe I could still catch them.

I actually really wanted to take Nika up on his offer to take a carriage, but I knew that few people were likely to answer my questions if I yelled out at them from inside of one, not even bothering to stop. Besides, it’d just make me look like a noble—and many locals weren’t too keen on nobles. I had no choice.

Thanks to all the running around my brother had made me do in my past life ever since I was a kid, I was actually a pretty good runner. No matter how fast I was, though, the reason I was so fast made me kind of hate running. But also, I’d been running just before I died in my past life. Instead of rebelling against my brother, I’d found myself running toward him in a state of total distraction...and then it was all over.

Just to put a figure to it, I’m pretty sure that I could run a 1500 meter race in about 4 minutes and 32 seconds. I’d been the fastest female runner in high school. I didn’t run much in my current life, though, and my muscle mass wasn’t what it used to be. My odds of catching up to a horse were honestly pretty poor. But if said horse was slowing down, well...that changed everything.

It had taken Nika’s carriage several minutes to catch up with the Inoce family’s carriage, but I was hopeful that it hadn’t gotten far away enough for people to forget seeing it.

I won’t let you get away!

I’d never had much interest in being the story’s heroine, but I was down to become the savior of the future queen...so long as I could quickly fade into the obscurity of my peaceful commoner life again!

Anyway, I ran for about twenty minutes, asking passersby if they’d seen the carriage that had hauled Lily off. As you might expect from running that far, I eventually stopped recognizing my surroundings. Even if I could find an opening to save Lily, I had a bad feeling that we might not be able to get very far in this unfamiliar corner of town. And that wasn’t the only problem either. I’d been so single-minded in asking around about the carriage’s whereabouts that I hadn’t really paid attention to the route I was taking. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to find my way home.

As I puffed and panted, I spied out of the corner of my eye a poster with an address on it. And then, almost automatically, I stopped in my tracks.

“Is this...what I think it is?”

I felt like someone had clubbed me in the head from behind. I found myself breaking into forced laughter.

Right. I get it now. So this is what the author of that letter meant when they said they were waiting for me. They created a situation where I’d have to come meet them and then gave me the address. Is that it? Ugh. That’s just beyond dumb.

I reached into my bag for the letter, taking a deep breath in to avoid crushing it in anger. Then I pulled it out and compared the addresses. Just as I feared, my little pen pal’s meetup spot wasn’t far from here. I wasn’t very familiar with the area, but I was pretty confident that I’d arrive at the address soon if I kept going this way.

Maybe I should have just taken the carriage after all? ...Nah.

“I can’t trust anyone, so I think it was for the best that I went by myself.”

There was actually a pretty good chance that someone among the group of people gathered back at the church was behind all of this and was laughing at me internally.

I didn’t have a map to go by, so I wasn’t totally sure that I was headed in the right direction, but if I kept looking at addresses as I ran and asked some of the locals for directions, I felt pretty sure I’d arrive at my destination without too much trouble.

I took in one more deep breath and broke into a run again. I couldn’t imagine that El would let this opportunity go to waste by letting any harm come to Lily—not after they’d gotten all their ducks in a row. Still...if Lily was conscious, then there was no question that she’d be deeply unsettled by the kidnapping. I didn’t know if she’d feel especially reassured if I rocked up to save her, considering that we didn’t exactly have the most amicable relationship (and that she, uh, kinda hated me), but at the very least, it was probably better to have someone there by her side who wasn’t an enemy, right?

Ah, jeez... I just can’t help having a soft spot for her.

I knew that wasn’t really why I was going after her, though. I’d known from the beginning that there was a better path to her happiness, but I hadn’t chosen it. Instead, I’d just foisted everything on her and run away. I felt a bit indebted to her because of that, and admittedly, that was a key motivator right now.

I started thinking about all kinds of things—whatever I could to keep my mind off of how exhausted I was feeling.

Come to think of it, I just so happen to have some bread on me at the moment. At least, I’m pretty sure I put some in my bag before I left today. And thank god, because that stuff is magic—it’s got the power to change fate. I mean, I know that’s probably just in my head, but the thought does make me feel a bit better.

Upon reflection, I realized bread had saved me several times. Honestly, I never would’ve expected that it would become such a vital part of my life.

How many times is this now? Maybe I should light a couple candles and offer some words of devotion to the Bread Gods when I get home or someth—

And that’s when it hit me: I’d only seen it a few times, but I was pretty sure I recognized the handwriting in the letter.

I was no forensic linguist, so I might have been off base. But that was okay. To be honest, I hoped I was off base. Because if the person I was thinking of really was El, and they’d really kidnapped Lily...I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do.

Finally, I arrived at the address indicated in the letter. It was a large, three-story manor that resembled an aristocrat’s vacation home. Oddly enough, the front gate was left wide open.

I don’t think they’re just stopping here to give the horse a break. From the looks of it, I’m pretty sure this is the mastermind’s stronghold. And if I’m to believe what was in that letter, then they’re in there waiting for me...fully prepared for whatever might go down.

By contrast, I didn’t have a single weapon on hand. All I had going for me were my track skills, and thanks to all the sprinting I’d been doing for the last thirty minutes, I’d pretty much used those up.

Is there any way for me to win this? I wondered.

Not that it mattered. From the very beginning, there’d never been any real option except to go in.

I stared at the manor. Then I fixed my expression into one befitting Lady Rose and crossed the threshold.

That’s right... I’m the “perfect Lady Rose.” Even among the aristocracy, I stand above everyone as an exemplary young noblewoman. I am strong, noble, and beautiful. I’m a rose, and I don’t bend easily.

Enough whining. I’m going to win this thing and make my own fate.

Unsurprisingly, the manor’s front door wasn’t locked. It was a little heavy, but I was able to open it without too much trouble.

As I entered the main hall, I took in what awaited me at the far side of the foyer: a door flanked on both sides by columns. Wide hallways branched out from both the left and right sides of the room, and just in front of them were diagonal stairways to the second floor.

That’s a lot of options... Which way should I go? I wondered.

If I were thinking about this from a video game perspective, then the boss would be waiting through the innermost door on the highest floor...or maybe on the lowest floor. But this wasn’t an RPG; it was an otome game.

Well, guess I’ll try going up first. I doubt El is waiting in some small room on the first floor.

Now that I’d made a decision, I headed toward the stairs. But just as I was on my way, I heard a soft clatter. Then I heard a rhythmic cling cling cling as something rolled up to my feet. It seemed it had fallen from the stairs.

I eyed the object warily, trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at. The moment I realized what it was, my eyes went wide in surprise.

“A...golden cat?”

It was a glass golden cat, about the size of my thumb.

All of the characters in Lady Rose have surnames that sound like animals. The Cabotts, for example, are supposed to be reminiscent of cats. There were two Cabotts in the main cast, and so their merch featured gold and silver cats.

Back when I was a kid, I’d gifted this golden cat as a good luck charm to one of the Cabotts. You could say my gift came from a sadistic place, or that I simply thought it made sense...but really, I just hadn’t put that much thought into it. Dwelling on stuff had seemed like a waste of time back then.

I looked up to the stairs above and, just as expected, I saw the golden-haired prince who was the main love interest from Savior of Nations: Lady Rose.

“Feli...cia...” he said, looking down at me with a dismayed expression on his face.

“I haven’t seen you for a long time, Prince...Seth Cabott?”

I can say with some certainty I wasn’t prepared for this outcome. Even putting aside the whole El thing, I’d never have expected to see the prince here.

A long time ago—well, before our engagement had been annulled—Seth would have just stayed put and yelled at me from his perch upstairs like he was some kind of prince (which, well, he was...but you know what I mean). But now, he was actually descending the staircase to speak to me on my level.

Maybe he’s had a change of heart too, thanks to the distance? I wondered. Maybe Lily’s helped him grow emotionally.

“Felicia... No, it’s Fii now, isn’t it? I hear you’re going by your nickname now.”

For a moment, I was silent.

“How do you know that?”

I hadn’t seen him even once since I’d changed my name, but maybe he’d heard about it from Nika? Or...

Just like he had on the staircase, he made another pained expression at my question. It was like he was hiding something—or that I’d probed into something he didn’t want to talk about.

“What does that matter? Is there a problem?” he replied.

“No, not at all...”

Never mind... Seems like he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still the same old Pompous Prince, always judging things by his own standards and expecting everyone else to fall in line.

Nolls’s puffery was just banter, and I could respond in kind. Seth was dead serious, though, and he expected me to agree with whatever inane twaddle came out of his face hole. It left a bad taste in my mouth...

I didn’t even want to be talking to him. Every time I did, our “conversations” just left me frustrated and annoyed. I just wanted to hurry up and get him to tell me what he was doing here, but it seemed he was in just as bad a mood as I was. It seemed like I’d have to play slow-pitch for a bit to help lighten the mood first.

Obviously, I was worried about Lily, but I knew I couldn’t just ignore Seth and forge ahead—not when there was clearly some deeper meaning to him being here.

“Prince Seth, you still have that good luck charm I gave you?”

I figured talking about the glass golden cat that had just fallen down the stairs would be a safe, pleasant topic. But to my surprise, Seth made a pained expression again.

What’s the deal with all the grimacing? Whatever happened to the Pompous Prince I knew?

“I only brought it with me so I could return it to you,” he said.

Now, that was weird. You’d go through all that trouble just to return a random gift someone gave you when you were a kid? I thought. Looking at it from another perspective, though, maybe he was suggesting that he’d come here because he’d known I was going to be here?

As much as I didn’t care for it, the brusque way he’d been speaking to me did make sense when I considered the difference in our standings now. It wouldn’t have been surprising for him to be even colder to me.

But...I still couldn’t help but sense that there was something off about the way he was responding to me.

“I just need to ask: are you El?” I asked him.

“El? The prophet? Why would you think I’m... Wait, have you been in touch with them?”

Huh, okay... Maybe he’s not El then.

Wait... What? I’m pretty sure Nolls said that only the king had seen El’s face, but it kind of seems like Seth knows El pretty well. I guess it would make sense for him to be in the know, though... He is the heir to the throne and all.

If I took that to be true, though, and if Seth’s confusion hadn’t just been an act...then at the very least, wouldn’t that mean that El and I had probably never had any contact with each other while Prince Seth and I had been engaged?

In that case, it can’t be Nika either.

“As far as I can tell, only indirectly. I suspect that El was the one who called me here and probably also the one who kidnapped Lady Lilia—”

“Wait,” Seth interrupted, clearly suspicious of something.

I clammed up, waiting for him to continue. Even in this life-or-death situation, I couldn’t help but remember that this was always the way things had been between us. Whatever Seth had to say had always taken priority.

“El called you here?”

“I can’t be certain it was El...but I found this letter at my doorstep that directed me to come to this address. And when I was chasing after Lady Liliana’s kidnapper, I found myself in the vicinity. That’s why I think the odds are good that El led me here.”

I handed the letter to Seth, whose face only darkened further after he read it.

“Liliana is supposed to be resting in her bedroom,” he said.

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t speak to that... But the carriage parked outside the church was hers. So, whether or not El summoned her there, I believe she went there of her own accord.”

If I was going to take Seth’s confusion at face value, then it seemed he didn’t even know that Lily had been heading to the church...which was surprising, considering that he was her fiancé. And no matter the circumstances, he was also the crown prince. If nothing else, I’d just assumed that Lily would at least tell him where she was going out of deference to him and that that was why he was here now. But apparently that wasn’t the case.

Actually, I just remembered: weren’t there rumors going around that their relationship was on the rocks? Maybe there was some truth to those after all.

“I’ll never understand what women are thinking,” grumbled Seth, shoving the letter back at me with a sigh.

I just shrugged.

“With all due respect, I’m not sure men are much more predictable...”

“No. Men are straightforward and easy to read.”

“I’m afraid I have to disagree. Why, even at this moment, I’m really struggling to figure out what you’re thinking, Prince Seth.”

That’s when I realized what exactly it was that felt so dissonant. The way Seth had been talking to me was unusually familiar...almost friendly. I mean, hadn’t he annulled our engagement because he thought I was a wicked bully? Plus, his current fiancée was the alleged target of my bullying.

With all that in mind, I would have expected him to be a lot more hostile. If he did actually know the full truth, I would have expected him to take some sort of action, even if he couldn’t directly apologize to me because of his royal standing. Either way, his attitude didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going through his head right now.

Seth made another pained expression. Once again, I had no idea what that was all about.

“You... Never mind. If you don’t know, then you’re better off living your whole life in ignorance.”

It seemed he’d decided to shut the conversation down. I knew it wasn’t my place to push it—not when I was talking to a prince—so I reluctantly let it go.

“So, you say Liliana’s been kidnapped? Then I don’t have a minute to waste. I need to go save her.”

“Of course,” I said. Then, after a moment’s pause, I added, “Um, but may I ask what brought you here, Your Highness? And I noticed you haven’t brought any of your guards...”

“Just someone’s idea of a prank,” he said dismissively, as if to close the book on that question entirely. Of course, that didn’t tell me anything...

Seth seemed completely unwilling to shed any light on things for me and, instead, just stared straight ahead. I let out a little sigh—quietly, so he wouldn’t hear—and decided to refocus my attention on coming up with a strategy to get Lily back. I figured I could try asking him again once all of this was over.

Will I ever get a straight answer out of this obstinate schmuck?

“Perhaps the top floor might be a good place for us to start looking?” I offered.

“Right. I’m going to find her as quickly as possible.”

As irritated as I was that Seth had refused to engage with my questions at all, I was impressed by how steadfast he seemed in pursuit of this goal. Maybe he’s turned into a pretty dependable guy after all? I thought. Well, he looks so much like a prince that I guess he was bound to start acting like one eventually.

I knew he was actually pretty strong too. I couldn’t let the crown prince get hurt, though...and that could pose a challenge if we were going to work together on this.

“I don’t care what their motive is. Anyone who’d dare kidnap my fiancée deserves a death sentence,” said Seth, climbing the stairs with a deadly serious expression on his face.

As I followed him up, watching him from behind, I couldn’t help thinking that he actually seemed pretty cool right now. That felt a little weird, but to be fair, he was the main love interest in Lady Rose. His face took up prime real estate right in the center of the game’s packaging, and his route had a lot of material. I knew a big reason for my overblown hatred of him probably just stemmed from my contempt for arrogant men. He was happy to bring people into his orbit and take them along for the ride, though, so I imagined he made a good partner...as long as you could forgive his selfishness and strike a balance between supporting him and calling him out on his BS.

He cares deeply—I’ll give him that. He’s not my cup of tea, though.

And so, Seth and I climbed the stairs to the manor’s second story and were greeted by another large hall. We didn’t have to look around for long before finding a staircase to the third floor right next to us.

I wasn’t ready to climb that staircase just yet, though...because sitting on a sofa in the second floor’s grand hall was someone all too familiar to me, staring straight at me.

“I thought you might be behind this. The flourishes in your handwriting felt vaguely familiar,” I said.

His eyes widened slightly. I couldn’t blame him for his surprise. Honestly, even I was a little surprised that I’d recognized his handwriting. Despite living under the same roof, I’d gone out of my way to avoid him, so we’d barely ever exchanged words.

“But I really hoped it wasn’t you, Shade,” I continued, glaring at him.

My adoptive brother looked back at me, his face frozen into an affectless mask, but I could see a trace of delight in his eyes.

Scene from a Carriage (Part 2)

The townsfolk were quite surprised to see two horse-drawn carriages driven down the streets, one after another. They furrowed their brows as they passed by, trying to parse what was going on. But their frowns softened as they heard a voice call out from one of the carriages.

“Excuse me, miss greengrocer! Have you, um, seen a carriage go by?! It would’ve been about ten minutes ago! Did you see where it went?!”

“Yes! That way!”

“Thank you!”

“I don’t know what kind of mischief you’re getting up to, but don’t hurt yourself, Nana!”

“I won’t!”

All of the townsfolk were delighted to hear the voice of Nancy, the local nun, call out from the open window of the carriage. Melvin, who rode in the carriage in front, was astonished by how cooperative they were all being.

“You sure are popular...” he said. “Everyone’s being so helpful, even though you’re calling out to them from my carriage.”

“That’s because I try to be nice to everyone I meet! It’s still not enough to get me to Heaven, but...I’m working on it! Oh! Mister merchant!”

Nancy’s answer tugged on Melvin’s heartstrings, but right now, this was their best bet of finding Liliana without wasting too much time. Nancy had lived in these outskirts longer than Fii, and her pious career had earned her an almost unshakable trust from the locals. That meant that she could pull off what Fii couldn’t: hassling the locals for directions from the window of a moving vehicle.

As Nancy began to call out to another townsperson, sounds of laughter emanated from the carriage. They belonged to someone who was even more out of place in Melvin’s carriage than her: Prince Nolan, of the neighboring kingdom. Another unusual passenger—the prince’s aide, Zero—gave him a puzzled look as he inquired about the reason for his laughter.

“Looks like Fii’s not the only interesting broad; all of this country’s peasants are piquing my interest. I mean, you’d never guess this nun chick only just came around from getting coldcocked. She’s tough as nails!”

“I highly doubt that either woman is typical for a woman of their class.”

“Damn, though...this carriage sure is cramped.”

“It certainly is. It’s hardly appropriate for someone of your standing, Prince Nolan.”

Then get out. You don’t have to ride in it, you know, thought Melvin. Of course, considering the difference in their status, he could hardly say so aloud.

What’s more, the circumstances of how they’d come to join in on the carriage ride had hardly been pleasant, to say the least. Nolan wasn’t able to call on his carriage, since he’d already arranged for it to pick him up later, and so he’d made the bold declaration that he’d run after Fii on foot if he couldn’t catch another. He had been clearly dead serious, but there had been no way that Zero was going to allow that. A withering glare shot Melvin’s way was all it had taken to convey the mortal risks involved in withholding the use of his own carriage.

Melvin’s family might have wielded an unusual amount of influence for a duke’s family, but it wouldn’t save him from Zero’s silent threats. He’d had no choice but to concede and “invite” them into his carriage. Thanks to his two new passengers, space in the carriage had suddenly become a bit limited. This meant that he could only have one of his guards join on the ride, so he’d really gotten the short end of the stick.

Nolan and Zero claimed to be Fii’s friends who were just in town to hang out, which was altogether wholly unimpressive to Melvin.

Honestly, none of the company she keeps is the least bit respectable, he thought. If they’re gonna be riding with me, though, I may as well make the most of it. There’s something I’ve been wondering about, and Nancy isn’t going to be able to shed any light on it.

Melvin leaned against his seat and turned to face Nolan and Zero, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the carriage traveling behind them.

“Prince Nolan, what do you make of Prince Nicholas’s two guards?”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“Personally, I think it’s a little odd that guards employed by the kingdom would seem so unfazed after the future queen consort was kidnapped right under their noses. It’s almost like they knew this was going to happen...”

“Yeah? I dunno, seems to me like they just don’t give a shit. All I care about is that they seem pretty skilled. I’d love to cross swords with ’em sometime.”

“If I may, Lord Melvin, I’m afraid you may have asked the wrong person,” Zero chimed in.

“I’m sorry to say I’ve come to the same conclusion.”

Nolan’s answer provided a brief glimpse into his MO, and Melvin was starting to get the sense that the foreign prince was a bloodthirsty young man with little room in his head for thoughts of what might go on behind the scenes. Instead, he just took things at face value and let himself be driven by impulse.

Melvin slumped dejectedly in his seat, then turned to face Zero, who shrugged and gave him a nod.

“I’ve had my suspicions about them as well,” Zero said. “It seems they’re perfectly capable of finding Lady Liliana and bringing her back, yet they refuse, claiming that it falls outside the scope of their duties. They even refuse orders from a member of the royal family. Frankly, their behavior is downright baffling. And what’s even more baffling is that it didn’t arouse your suspicions, Prince Nolan.”

“Hey. Watch it, Zero.”

“I learned who they were a while ago. They’re the kingdom’s secret weapon, the ‘Peerless Death Gods.’ I’ve been wondering for a while now what they’re doing working as Prince Nicholas’s personal guards. I can’t help but wonder if there’s something more than meets the eye going on here.”

“Death Gods? Well, shit... I had a feeling they weren’t just a couple of run-of-the-mill guards, but that’s crazy. The kingdom’s secret weapon, huh? Kinda sounds like El, actually,” Nolan blurted out.

Zero felt a cold sweat dripping down his back. Nolan was being awfully loose-lipped with state secrets. Zero silently begged Melvin not to ask any questions, but Melvin paid him no mind.

“El?” he repeated plainly, as if to prompt Nolan to elaborate.

“Please, ignore him. That’s just a verbal tic of his,” said Zero.

“For cryin’ out loud, Zero, is that the best you’ve got? If you’re gonna try to cover that up, at least try a little harder. There’s no way he’s gonna buy that.”

Melvin was starting to get the feeling that maybe he didn’t want any part of this conversation, but he couldn’t suppress his hunger for gossip. He was too much of a busybody for his own good. He had to know what made people tick, and in this case, that meant getting to the bottom of why Zero seemed so flustered at the mention of this “El.” Naturally, he was also curious to find out who exactly “El” was.

But before Melvin could ask any further questions, he found himself interrupted by someone rather unexpected.

“Excuse me, Mr. Mel, handsome guy, and handsome guy’s aide. Could you all keep it down, please? It’s hard to hear what the townsfolk are saying,” Nancy said, puffing out one of her cheeks in a pout.

It was hard to argue with that, but Melvin felt the muscles in his face tense up as he considered what she’d said. It wasn’t because she’d stamped out his chance at satisfying his curiosity, though. No—it was because of how she’d addressed Nolan and Zero. His old acquaintance had no idea who they were; in fact, she probably didn’t even know their names. He couldn’t help but worry about how Nolan and Zero would respond to her rude manner of addressing them.

Nolan might have been a foreign prince, but he was still a prince—and princes could have peasants’ heads for the slightest of offenses. In fact, a prince didn’t even need a reason.

“Hey... I don’t care what you call me, but do you have any idea who they a—”

“Actually, it’s kinda refreshing to get cheek like that from a peasant. Besides, how can a guy complain about being called ‘handsome’?”

“If he has no complaints, then neither do I.”

“Oh... Well, all right...”

Melvin was relieved to hear that Nolan was taking it in stride. At least Nolan’s face had been the first one that Nancy had seen when she’d regained consciousness, and the words that she’d yelled instinctively were “Wow! What a handsome guy!” If she’d conjured some other less flattering descriptor, things might not have ended so well for her. Even if Nolan had forgiven her, Zero might not have.

Melvin discreetly looked over at Nolan, taking in his red hair and the menacing look in his wide eyes. He couldn’t help but think that he probably would’ve yelled something quite different...

Scene from a Carriage (Part 3)

A carriage followed behind Melvin’s from a short distance, with Nicholas riding inside. The prince was currently absorbed in an effort to sort out his discordant feelings. But a voice called out to him, as if intentionally trying to interrupt his thought process.

“Prince Nicholas?” said the casual guard.

Nicholas turned to look at him. He was convinced that what he’d just been pondering had been of the utmost importance, but he knew it wasn’t an option to just ignore his guard.

“If you’re gonna tell her how you feel about her, then you’d better do it soon.”

“What makes you say that?” Nicholas asked, surprised.

In all the time they’d spent together, the guards had never offered their opinions on Nicholas’s personal life. And what’s more, the guard wasn’t giving advice on some trivial matter either; this was a matter of great importance to Nicholas.

The casual guard shrugged.

“I dunno... I guess my conscience was just tuggin’ at me to speak up.”

The guard’s devil-may-care way of speaking irritated most who heard it, but Nicholas regarded his answer with an earnest expression on his face.

“Are you suggesting that something may be about to happen which would make me wish I’d spoken up sooner?” he asked.

“Beats me.”

I mean, I know the broad strokes, but I couldn’t tell you all the details, the guard privately added. No one—not El, nor anyone else—had specifically told him what was going to happen next. But judging from what he’d seen so far, he felt like he’d kinda pieced it together, and he was just doing his best to make sure that things went El’s way. And of course his partner, the formal guard, was doing just the same.

“I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean, though. Tell her ‘how I feel’?”

“You’re in love with her, right? C’mon. I’m doin’ you a solid here and givin’ you this advice straight, unlike Mr. Goody Two-shoes over there who’d just beat around the bush so hard that you’d never get the message.”

Nicholas blinked at the guard, who had a suspicious look in his eyes.

“You two have figured out whom I’m in love with?” he asked.

“Are you insane?”

“How could we possibly not notice, when you’ve all but got it written on your forehead? Truthfully, I’m insulted. How dense do you think we are?” the formal guard chimed in.

Seeing that the casual guard seemed genuinely concerned for him, and hearing the formal guard—who’d been quiet all this time—suddenly say his piece, it finally dawned on Nicholas that they were serious.

“Well, I don’t think she’s realized how I feel about her.”

“Yeah, but she’s kinda dense, y’know?”

“I have to disagree. I think it’s less that she hasn’t realized, and more that—” the formal guard began, before suddenly clamming up.

Seeing the wide-eyed expressions that the casual guard and Nicholas were giving him, he realized that he must have been the only one who’d noticed. The truth was, the formal guard knew more about Fii Crow than most people did—and not just a little more but a lot more.

Back when Fii was still going by Felicia and was only seven years old, the formal guard had done a little bit of his own research into her. Without going into detail about his motivations, he now had more dirt on her than most would ever care to accumulate. He knew all sorts of things, including things that even she herself wasn’t aware of (but that everyone around her knew) and things that no one but he himself had realized.

As a result, even if he didn’t have any particular desire to, he saw right through the way that she acted toward Nicholas, the way she thought about him, and the way she tried to fool him. He knew how she really felt, and he knew why she was putting up a front.

He was pretty sure that she wasn’t actually dense enough not to realize Nicholas’s feelings for her, but he could tell from the way she acted around him that she was never going to figure it out. Putting two and two together, he realized the reason for this contradiction: wishful thinking.

Fii wasn’t just trying to deceive the people around her; she was also trying to deceive herself. She was subconsciously pretending that she didn’t notice how Nicholas felt. Clearly, she’d tried very hard to convince herself of this. It was almost like a defense mechanism that she’d developed in response to some deep trauma from her past. Of course, even after all the digging he’d done into her background, the guard had never found any trace of such an event.

If he’d had to hazard a guess, he might’ve assumed that it had something to do with her terrible parents, but it seemed like she’d lived in relative harmony with them until the day she’d been estranged. So that didn’t really explain the defense mechanism.

For all the guard’s insight, though, he wasn’t really the type to go around doling it out for free. That kind of generosity just wasn’t in his nature.

“No, it’s nothing. Love affairs are best handled internally, so I’ll let the two of you sort it out,” he said to Nicholas. “You ought to stay out of this too,” he went on, turning to the other guard.

“All right, all right.”

Unlike the formal guard, the casual one was a softie at heart. The formal guard didn’t label him that out of admiration but simply as a matter of fact. Objectively speaking, the casual guard was more than happy to give out advice to Nicholas—or to anyone—but the formal guard held his cards close to his chest.

The formal guard would never have gone and said it out loud, but he agreed that Nicholas would be better off telling Fii how he felt before he figured out what was going on with this kidnapping and the role that he’d been forced into. Maybe he could even get his happy ending, if Fii’s mistakes and various inconvenient truths were never revealed.

After all, no matter how much anyone struggled against their fate, it wouldn’t change. There was no real choice but to accept that they’d live their whole life enslaved to it. And, as far as he was concerned, it was better not to know the truth.

The two carriages continued down the street. Shortly, they would come upon the manor.

Afterword

Thank you for reading Lady Rose Just Wants to be a Commoner. I’m the author, Kooriame. The mishmash of romance, comedy, and mystery in Lady Rose might be an overpowering combination, but I hope that you enjoy it.

I don’t want to just give you some bland story in the afterword, so since I’ve got some space here, I figure I’ll give you a bit of an inside scoop on the series. If you’re the kind of person who reads afterwords before starting on the actual story, don’t worry; I won’t spoil anything beyond what you’ll read in the first chapter’s opening scene.

As I was preparing to write this novel, the first thing I decided upon was who the main character would be. I wanted to write about a main character whose inner and outer lives couldn’t be more different. So, I came up with a character who is perfect, beautiful, and completely inscrutable on the outside, with an easygoing, cheerful, sporty personality. I also gave her an uncanny talent for acting, so that she’d make all these mismatching elements seem cohesive.

And, in the end, I also decided that she’d worship bread. Why did I decide on this, you ask? Honestly, I’m kind of asking myself the same question.

Now that I’ve filled up some space, we’ll leave that little anecdote off there.

I apologize for always teasing you with the promise that all of the mysteries will soon be revealed, but it’d make me really happy if you tried to predict what’s going to happen next.

I’d like to end this afterword by taking another opportunity to thank everyone who helped make this book a reality. Thank you to Hidaka Nami-san, the head illustrator. The moment I saw your character sketches, I was an instant fan. I didn’t know what the cover and illustrations would look like when I was writing this story, but they’re absolutely beautiful and they breathe so much life into the story. I’m so grateful for how you’ve captured the characters and for how you brought out the best in them.

I didn’t know much about books or publishing, but my editor was so nice to walk me through the process. So, to my editor, please let me say how grateful I am for all your help. From the bottom of my heart, I’m so glad that I had you as my editor.

Thank you to everyone at Beans Bunko for deciding to publish my story, and thank you to everyone else who had a hand in its making. And most of all, thank you to all my readers who have this book in your hands now.

I hope I’ll see you all again soon.

Kooriame