16 Years Old – Q of Hearts

“Oh no!”

I’m in my room, glaring at my workbook.
It’s study practice for the entrance exam to the Royal Magic Academy.
The entrance exams to the Magic Academy include tests for both magic and general education.

If it’s magic knowledge or practical skills then I’m set, but that isn’t the case for general education. Right now, I’m bad at studies.
I didn’t notice until I enrolled for the exam, but all the characters in the games, the mob characters included, are actually all extremely gifted.

“Camille-sama, for this question, you use the equation from before, you know.”

Today, Achille is playing the part of my private tutor. He’s perfect for both magic and general studies.
He’s good at explaining things, so I’m grateful that I can ask him for help like this.

“I’m done forr… There’s only a month left, after all.”

“Come on, it’s only a little more. Aren’t you going to enjoy your school life with Royce-sama? It’s a boarding school system, so if you fail the exam you won’t be able to meet Royce-sama for a while, you know?”

“I don’t want that!”

“Then you’ll solve this question, right? If you can do that, I’ll take you to a street cafe that just opened.”

“I’ll do my best!”

Achille is incredibly good at using the carrot and the stick technique. He completely understands how to get me to bite.

Ever since I formally became his fiancée, Achille has been coming to our house even more than before.
Aimée and all the other servants welcome him. He’s extremely popular with the servants.

I’ve been desperately studying.
In this world, the things I studied in my old world are almost completely useless.
The official language of this world is Japanese, but there are no Japanese classics, Chinese classics, or English to study. The history is different to my old world too, so I had to memorise it from scratch.
And English which I hated so much! Even though I suffered so much studying it in my old world, for it all to have been meaningless is just too cruel.
A little bit of the modern language and science curriculums just managed to overlap.

“…Correct.”

Achille told me well done, as he pat my head. This is kinda, embarassing, huh.
It feels like he’s been touching me more recently.

“The street cafe…”

“All right, all right.”

The two of us left the room for a bit, and quickly changed into clothing for going incognito.

※

We finished getting ready without a hitch, and left the garden of the estate.

Achille enlargened the quill he produced from his pocket, and sat me down in front. He can use broom magic just like me.
Achille is talented, so he immediately managed to learn the new magic that I taught him.
It was worth teaching him, but for him to be good at both magic and studies is a little mortifying.

“It’s fine, I’ll just take out a broom too.”

However, Achille ignored my words and sat down behind me.

“Achille-! Like I said, I’d bring out… I can ride it myselff.”

“Come on now, we’re taking off. Hold on, okay?”

What’s up with that?
It feels like the distance between us has shortened somehow.

My resistance was futile, and Achille took off with me sitting in front.

“You’re so slender, Camille, and you smell nice.”

“…You should just save those words for those noble daughter fans of yours, or something.”

Ever since that day when Achille told me that he wanted to be my fiancé, he’s occasionally created this kind of sweet mood.
I wonder if this is his “proof” or whatever.
Honestly speaking, I don’t know what to do.

※

Finally, the day of the entrance exam has come.
It was packed enough that it made you wonder if there were really this many people of your age in the world, and the school grounds were a mess of people. The exams can be taken by anybody, so there might be a lot of people who come to take it for the hell of it.

Unfortunately, I’m in a different examination room to both Achille and Royce-sama. It seems that Mei, and while I’m thinking about her, Raiga as well, aren’t in my classroom either.
I’m feeling just a little discouraged.

“No, it’s alright. After all, I’ve been studying all for this day.”

If I fail now, I won’t be able to show my face in front of the tutors who have looked after me, or Achille either.
Not only that, of all things I wouldn’t be able to meet with Royce-sama! How unbearable!
If something happened to Royce-sama while I wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be enough even if I regretted it.

I steeled myself, and opened the door to the examination room.

“Buhe-”

Ouch…
The moment I opened the door, somebody’s arm smacked me right in the face.
For the sake of protecting against cheating, everyone took off their automatic magic today.
Because of that, right now I’m obviously not using automatic defence magic.
Even my magic tattoos are completely gone today, you know~?

I could feel a seemingly expensive cloth up against the place on my face that was hit.
Because the cloth served as a buffer, it seemed that I suffered less dmg than expected.

“Sorry, are you okay?”

A tall man with long copper hair, and foreign looking accessories jingling about was looking down at me with a troubled expression.

“I’m fine. I should be saying sorry for bumping into you.”

I immediately began heading to the table I was assigned, but the man I bumped into earlier called out to me.

“Hang onnn, could you possible be… The noble daughter of Marquis Rhodolite?”

“Eh…”

“It really is youu. You don’t have any tattoos today, so I didn’t recognise you.”

My tattoos are already something like a trademark of mine. There are almost no women with tattoos, so I guess it can’t be helped though.
But still, just who is this guy…? I can’t remember, but was there someone this gaudy around me?

Probably because my expression gave me away, the man named himself.

“I’m Tria Topageria… We haven’t seen each other since the dance party, huh~”

“Ahhh…!”

Tria Topageria is the second prince of the neighbouring nation, and in the game he was the K of Diamonds.
Speaking of which, I feel like I recall his older brother, the first prince, bringing him along to the dance party as well.
Because he was carriage-sick, he was laying down and we shouldn’t have had a chance to meet, though.

“Today is the first time we’ve spoken directly to each other, huhh~”

He said with a smile, which was really too unmatched with his in-game character.

The in-game Tria had short, cropped hair, and was muscled… he wasn’t dressed this jingle-jangly, and he wasn’t this weak-looking either, and also he was a super womanising character.

The route for him followed the template of “because his way of thinking was a stereotypical royal, and moreover because he had always wanted to defeat his brother, the first prince, and take the crown from him, during the period that the heroine pointed this out to him, they fell in love”.

The Tria in front of me has for some reason turned into a gaudy man with long hair, but…
Just what the heck happened?

“Umm, I apologise for failing to greet you at the party, and…”

“You don’t have to worry about formalities, you know! We might become classmates after this, right!? And also, on the day of the dance party, I was carriage-sick and throwing up all over the place, so I wasn’t in any condition to greet people, yanno?”

“I… see.”

“Ah-! But I felt better near the end, you see, and I went to have a look at the party from the corner of the hall, but… Your magic was suuuper amazing, you know? I was moved!”

It seems like he saw the back and forth with that good-for-nothing son from that baron’s family.

“Heyhey, how’d you do that magic? I haven’t seen that magic in my country, but it was automagic, right?”

“Yeah, that was the magic tattoos’…”

.　.

“Umm, -cough cough-… Everybody who is taking the exam, please take a seat. I repeat, everybody who is taking the exam―― …”

It seems like the exam supervisor has arrived in the room.

Cutting off our conversation, the two of us sat down.
Tria’s sitting two seats diagonally in front of me, but he’s been turning around occasionally and winking at me …What’s up with that?

Via the supervisor’s magic, the papers and stationary for the general education written exam appeared on our desks.

“Well then, you may begin.”

The middle-aged supervisor’s voice rang out throughout the room.

---

“However, Achille ignored my words and sat down behind me.”
actually
“However, Achille ignored my words and straddled (the broom) behind me.”
but putting it like that sounds like there’s a second broom behind Camille.

“Tria Topageria”
tria as in “TRY A banana”,
topageria as in “TOPAz was found in alGERIA”

*imouto*

*imouto*

*imouto*

---

<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>