Chapter 5 - We need to make a plan.

Translation: Thrax

Editing: Alexy

That night, my elder sister came into the room saying ‘Congratulations!’ happily.

“Shin got engaged too huh...... That girl is going to be my sister-in-law, isn’t she? Is she cute?”

“Yeah, she has beautiful black hair, she was a bit anxious, but she was polite and honest, I’ve taken a liking to her.”

“Is that so. I’m glad. I can go get married without worries now.”

She looks really happy.

“Hey elder sister, have you ever heard a story like this?”

If she wasn’t having delusions, but was actually influenced by some fable or novel, a similar story should exist in this world.

A story of a commoner girl who gets enrolled into an academy full of nobles, then gets romantically involved with one of them. That noble’s fiancée becomes a hindrance to them, so the noble breaks off their engagement and gets engaged to the commoner girl.

If I say ‘Prince’, it will be obvious I’m talking about myself, so I’ll go with ‘Noble’.

“It sounds somewhat similar to Cinderella. But I haven’t seen a novel or play like that. In the first place, a story in which a noble or royal has an affair with a commoner and marries them in the end, would be prohibited and might even have all copies burned. There is no way a noble like that would exist, it would shake the status of the aristocracy. The story of Cinderella exists exactly because the prince had no fiancé, since if he did he wouldn’t have gone to search for Cinderella in the first place.”

“Of course, that’s how it is......”

“Did she read a book like that and now thinks she is going to have her engagement broken?”

“Well, I guess, that’s basically it.”

In fact, she was pretty convinced that was going to happen.

“Well, it might not be that impossible to happen in the academy. Back when I enrolled in the academy father told me to abide by the ideal of ‘Those who pass through these gates have to cast away their rank.’ and to associate with commoners without discriminating. At first there was a lot of resistance from some of the idiotic nobles who claimed that that’s just a pretext, but as I took the initiative to interact with people of all ranks and even commoners, the atmosphere changed.”

As expected of my elder sister. I love that about her.

“But I spent just one year in the academy before going to Halfa to study abroad, so things might have gone back to how they were before. It’s a real shame.”

Is that so......

“Shin, if that happens, follow in my footsteps and destroy that atmosphere at the academy. You can’t let any nobles have an attitude of being the chosen people or let them be high-handed against those of ranks lower than theirs. The peoples respect and trust are a nobles fortune, nobles who are arrogant and just put on airs aren’t necessary to this country. When they leave the academy and go into high society, they will become rotten. So that it doesn’t happen, never forget that the king is always with his people. Do your best Shin!”

“I will.”

It’s a big responsibility. I wonder if I can make the academy be like my father and elder sister envisioned it.

“As for Lady Serea, her marriage has been decided at the age of ten, it stands to reason that she is anxious. She is a kid after all. It’s what they call wedding blues. It’s a pretty common occurrence.”

It doesn’t seem like my elder sister has any though. If you had as much confidence as my sister, you would pave your own path, heroines and villainesses be damned.

“If that’s the case Shin, love, cherish and dote on that girl so much that she doesn’t have that anxiety. If you do that, she will happily get married. Always be her ally and never betray her. Become her ‘Knight’. Can you do that Shin?”

Something unpleasant just came out of my elder sister’s mouth. Looks like I’m going to have those wedding blues as well.

Maybe my aspiration to become a knight when I was seven was because of my elder sister.

No, I’m sure it was. ‘It’s all because of you!’ was ringing in my head.

I have one more thing bothering me.

What if Serea’s ‘I lived in a country called Japan^[TN-1], and died while hospitalised.’ really was a delusion?

If you carefully think about it, it’s more likely that it is.

I tried asking about that story as well.

“I don’t think that a story like that exist in this country. I mean we didn’t even have hospitals before I returned from studying abroad. Until then doctors would go directly to the sick persons home for examinations.”

That’s why only people with rich families or nobles could afford to see a doctor. It was only a few years ago that, after returning from an advanced country, my sister gathered the doctors and established hospitals in this country, allowing even commoners to get healed by doctors for an affordable sum.

When I think about it, isn’t my sister amazing for being able to convince father and the cabinet minister to build hospitals and orphanages after she returned from studying abroad? I respect her a lot.

“Why do you know a novel like that Shin?”

“No, it’s not that I know it, I just thought something along the lines of ‘Does a novel like that exist?’”

“Why not try asking the maids? There is one who loves romance novels.”

I asked the maid who likes romance novels, those that my elder sister told me about, if there was a story like that and she said that it was her first time hearing such a premise.

She even ended up asking me to tell her about it since it sounded interesting.

If it turns out that it really was a delusion, I’d be even more amazed.

...... She even knew about my embarrassing childhood memories. I’m not a hundred percent convinced, but there are too many things that make it impossible to just say it’s a delusion. I guess there are a lot of things I have to discuss with her from now on.

One morning I was told ‘The young lady has recuperated’, and I immediately started getting ready.

I stuff a lot of paper and writing materials into a bag, pick a single rose, and head out with Shreegan.

“I think this will take quite a while. You can go back Shreegan. Just come pick me up in the evening.”

“I’ll be talking with miss Bell, so it’s fine.”

“You will be a bother to her. “

“Its fine, I’ll help her out with her work.”

“You never want to help me with work......”

The maids are already lined up in front of the entrance hall with the Duke and Sera waiting to greet us.

She is wearing a proper dress today. It’s a lovely white one.

As we come close to them, the first person I greet is the Duke.

“I apologise for the sudden visit. I have received permission from his highness the king, so I hurriedly came to deliver an official proposal for my marriage with lady Serea.”

“Prince Shin, thank you for taking the trouble to come over so frequently. It would be my great pleasure to accept your proposal. Please take good care of my daughter.”

“Serea.”

I head over to her.

“There is no one I want as my wife other than you. On my name I, Shin Midland, promise to love you till death does us part. Please accept my proposal.”

As I say that, I kneel on one knee and offer her the single rose.

“Instead of giving you a large meaningless bouquet, I picked this one rose, which was the most beautiful in the entire royal garden, for you. Please accept it along with my feelings.”

“...... ...... Alright.”

Among everyone’s cheering and clapping, Serea took the rose.

When we entered the mansion, we were being led to the reception room, but I asked to have the meeting in the young lady’s room. So, we ended up there again.

We have a lot of things to talk about today that I don’t want anyone else hearing. That’s why it will be better to talk in the room.

“Shin-sama, are you really 10 years old?”

“That’s quite rude. Of course I am.”

After being led to her room, we were left alone together. We had great tea and tasty snacks.

“It’s because I’m a prince. My teacher had me practise with my elder and younger sister’s until I was able to do at least that much. Socializing is an aristocratic affair after all.”

“Right...... I thought you looked very grown up.”

“My elder sister is very strict. If I didn’t come up with a different line every time, she would hit me. She would say ‘That’s too unoriginal. Lines like that will never make a girl swoon’.”

“I think I can see why you become so popular in the future......”

When you drop the formalities and talk openly with her, you can see that at her core, she is an interesting girl.

On top of the table is a one flower vase.

“This flower really is pretty though. It made me happy.”

“I’m glad. Don’t be surprised when all of the petals fall off though, ok?”

“It’s ok, I’ll press it later and cherish it my whole life.”

“Yes yes.”

Saying that, I pick up the vase and put it on a cupboard.

“It’s settled huh......”

“It has.”

I reply to her soft mutter.

“I’m a royal and you are a noble. You had no way of refusing, and even if I refused nothing would have changed. That being the case, I think that getting engaged happily is a lot better than getting begrudgingly engaged. I’m glad that I got engaged with you. Probably a lot more than I would have been if it were any other lady.”

“Thank you very much......”

She looks like she has given up. To her this probably means that her ruin and exile is set in stone. From now on, its my duty to remove all anxieties she has about her future. Whether the game, or other world exist doesn’t matter anymore. That’s not what’s important. Let’s have a fresh start from here.

“So, in the future I will break off our engagement and you will end up unhappy right?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, to make sure that that doesn’t happen, let’s work together to make the best plan we can in order to change our destiny.”

Saying that I pull out a sheaf of papers, fountain pen, ink and blotting paper^[TN-2] out of my bag. Facing each other at the opposite sides of the table, I begin questioning her.

“For starters, tell me as much as you can remember of the whole broken engagement story, point by point.”

Well, that was really something. There was a huge amount of work.

It’s already past the length of an entire novel. The protagonist that I saved when I was seven still doesn’t know that the boy who saved her is the prince. Just before the end of the game, while she is confessing her love to the prince, she finally remembers that the prince is the boy from that time. Apparently she is what is called a ‘dense protagonist’.

The prince on the other hand remembered her the first time he saw her again, became interested in her and watched over her without saying anything. What’s with that, that’s totally not fair.

“I completely forgot about it though.”

“It is your part of your black history^[TN-3] after all.”

“Don’t rub it in...... But, if that girl played the game like you said, she should know that I’m the prince, right?”

“I think so. When she was seven, she probably thought ‘Prince!!!!’ when she saw you.”

“Hmmm, no I don’t think that she would have played a game like that when she was seven. Maybe she is like you and her memories of playing the game hadn’t returned yet.”

“My memories returned when I met you Shin-sama. That might be the ‘flag’ for that happening.”

“What’s a flag...... Is it something like a cue? If that’s the case, wouldn’t she have screamed and collapsed?”

“......I was extremely rude at that time, I sincerely apologise.”

In this way we keep laying out all of the facts, clearing up the setting and finding plot holes, It’s pretty fun. It’s like the two of us are making a story.

She keeps retorting at me and I keep retorting at her, since a little while ago it started feeling different. At first I just thought it was tedious work, but this is actually pretty fun!

“It’s not like I’m disagreeing with you. It’s just that at present, we can’t say for sure whether or not the protagonist......the ’heroine’ remembers playing the game like you say. You can’t know at what timing she will remember, it’s possible that we won’t find out until the last moment.”

“I guess that’s how it is......”

“Right now we don’t even know the heroines name or how she looks like.”

“Because you enter any name you want at the start of the game.”

How convenient......

“Shin-sama, if you met with that girl, won’t you suddenly remember the seven-year-old heroine? Like what happened to me.”

I’ll scream and collapse too?

If that’s the case, It’s a memory I never want to remember. I want to avoid it......

[TN-1] The author wrote Japan in katakana(ニホン) here instead of kanji(日本), to emphasize that he is just pronouncing it how he heard it.

[TN-2] Blotting paper, sometimes called bibulous paper, is a highly absorbent type of paper or other material. It is used to absorb an excess of liquid substances (such as ink or oil) from the surface of writing paper or objects

[TN-3] Not sure if everyone knows what black history means so just in case you don’t, it usually refers to something like an embarrassing phase/moment of your life that you would rather forget and never bring up again.

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