My Lord’s Engagement – J of Hearts (Part 2)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

“Camille?”

Carrying Camille to the two-person room that His Highness prepared for us, I lowered her onto the bed.

“I’ll bring you water, so stay right there.”

When I tried to leave her side, the cuff of my shirt was caught.

“Achi, lle, don’t go.”

Camille’s raspberry eyes were gazing up at me, moist and upturned.

“…What a difficult drunk.”

I immediately folded.

“As long as you don’t want me to, I won’t be going anywhere.”

When I combed her silky hair with my fingers, she narrowed her eyes in pleasure.
And she just continued to cling to me.

“Achille…”

What is this? So cute.
It seems that the plan that His Highness suggested at the entrance ceremony was actually realised.
I thought that getting Camille drunk to have her act spoiled was much too risky for a person like her though.
But it seems that since she’s weak to alcohol, getting her drunk on sweets instead of liquor is just right.

“Camille, what did Beatrix mean by 『going to the academy』?”

“Nnnn, it’s a seeecret.”

Seeing Camille giggle as she looks at me is incredibly, incredibly cute, but…
I’d better wring the answer out of her here, even if by force.
I get the feeling that if I leave this be, absolutely nothing good will come of it.

“Camille? Properly answer please.”

I looked at her eyes and slowly spoke.

“…You won’t stop me?”

Camille asked me as she leant against me.

“Mn, I won’t stop you.”

Is it something that I would stop her for?
In that case, I’d better stop her whatever the cost.

“I want to go see the Headmaster.”

The drunk Camille was unexpectedly obedient.
The normal Camille probably wouldn’t answer honestly unless you forcefully tied her up and forced it out of her.

“The Headmaster?”

“Right. He’s the secret character, so I’m going to have him stop the Heroine.”

“Secret, chraacter?”

By ‘Heroine’, she means that schoolgirl, right?

“Right. He’s the only one who can match the Heroine.”

I don’t really know about the secret character or whatever, but it seems that it’s somebody from the story in Camille’s old world. It seems the Headmaster appeared in the story as well.
Just like His Highness and I.

“Beatrix told me about it. That the secret character was the Headmaster, and was stronger than the Heroine.”

“…I see. So Miss Beatrix was the 『same』 as you, huh.”

After we were attacked by the schoolgirl, Camille told His Highness and I.
That in fact, Miss Beatrix was also from the same place as her.
This was also one of the reasons that His Highness took her as his bride.

Hearing the details from Camille, I found out just how serious this matter was.
Apparently this stupid girl was planning on marching alone into the base of somebody who might still be a dangerous person.
…I’m really glad that I found out before she headed there.

“I calculated it all. When I met him last time, I didn’t feel any hositilty.”

“That doesn’t mean that everything would work out, you know?”

Camille’s thinking was fundamentally too naive[amai]. As sweet[amai] as the candy that she loves.

“It’s finee I said.”

Even if you use that lovely voice that tickles a man’s heart, it’s pointless.
Even if everybody in the world believed her words, I alone won’t.

“Then you plan on meeting another man alone despite being married? That’s immoral, you know?”

“Ah-…!”

Hearing my suddenly lowered voice, Camille backed away while trembling.
It seems that even drunk, she can still sense the changes in other people’s atmosphere.
I really wish that she would direct that sensitivity to danger towards her own actions.

If you’re going to run away from me, then you could just avoid sticking your neck into danger to begin with.
I grabbed Camille’s arm as she tried to escape.
She’s drunk right now, so her movements are sluggish. I easily caught her.

“Eh-… Ah-, you’re wro-, it’s not being immoral-”

“Am I not enough for you?”

Her eyes were swimming.

“That’s not, it so-, not it-…”

But well, I wasn’t worried about her cheating on me or falling in love with someone else anyway.
Camille doesn’t have that sort of capacity. She’s become like this with just me alone.

But her lacking sense of danger is lethal.
If I don’t correct this while I still can, I get the feeling that one day something will happen that I can’t undo.

“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t notice.”

I’m sure that from Camille’s point of view, I’m giving quite a smile.

“So like I said, that’s not it… -HYAA-!”

Camille was putting some distance between us and desperately trying to resist, but… being a person who uses magic for everything, she was really weak.
Without her magic tattoos, she probably wouldn’t be able to defend herself directly.

Incidentally, her magic tattoos don’t work on me.
She kindly adjusted her tattoos so they wouldn’t work on me alone.
I’m happy that I’m that special to her.
After all, it’s useful in situations like this.

“I’ll work hard so that you won’t feel uneasy.”

“Sto-, it’s fine even if you, don’t work so hard, so-”

Camille tried again to fruitlessly run away.
When I relaxed the power in my arms, the force she put into it made her topple onto the bed.
She doesn’t seem to be feeling unwell, so there probably isn’t any need to nurse her.

Now then, enough of questioning Camille…

“It would probably be better to relay this information to His Highness, huh.”

I sent a communication spell to His Highness.
It would be fine too to just head there myself, but if by some chance His Highness and Miss Beatrix were in the middle of something, it’d be bad.

I’m already getting no breaks because of his burst of anger, so it’s hard to find time to relax with Camille, after all.

“I’m sure that from Camille’s point of view, I’m giving quite a smile.”
Originally ‘ii egao’ which literally means ‘nice smile’, but usually when it’s written in katakana, or else in the wrong context, instead it means a dark or evil smile. I tried to carry this across by writing ‘quite’, but I know that some people aren’t English natives and yeah. Thought I’d explain just in case.

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My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Hearts (Part 3)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

“To start with, this is about the Headmaster Bad End but… it’s also known as the Romance Target Annihilation End.”

Things suddenly got heavy again.
Judging from this other name, it’s probably nothing good.

“The Headmaster was cornered emotionally, and wanting to monopolise the Heroine, he massacred the students that made a move on her.”

“Uwahh…”

Apparently unsatisfied with just erasing the rival characters, it seems the Headmaster even attacked the romance targets.
By ‘cornered eotionally’… Not wanting the Heroine to get into any romantic relationships? Just how narrow-minded is he, this Headmaster.

As I thought, it really was nothing good.
Royce-sama and Achille were probably included amongst the massacred students.
It really is the worst ending.

“After that, the Headmaster abducted the crying and screaming Heroine, and disappeared. The last scene was the expressionless Heroine locked in a building somewhere, and the Headmaster with a satisfied smile, but…”

It’s an ending where nobody but the Headmaster is happy.

But the fact that the Heroine just obediently let herself be carried off means that in other words, the Headmaster is stronger than the Heroine in a certain sense.
From the way Beatrix is speaking, it sounds like if we drag him out, he’ll become quite a war asset.

“And so, about the Happy End but…”

“Yeah.”

“Roughly speaking, although she was getting hurt, the Heroine accepted the Headmaster with her biiig heart, and in the end she stopped the Headmaster from running around and killing students with the power of love. While wounded all over.”

“To be able to wound the Heroine all over… The Headmaster really is amazing, huh.”

“The result was that the school wasn’t destroyed, and all the students were safe. The Heroine quit the school, and after marrying the Headmaster, she kept an e-… she supported him. Garnet and other countries targetted her, but they couldn’t match the combined Headmaster and Heroine, and the academy broke away form its various bonds, and continued to develop independently after that.”

In other words, in this route the Heroine eventually became his wife, huh?
It’s an otome game, so it can’t be helped, but just how convenient does this Heroine have it?
The rival characters would turn in their graves…

It really was rough, but Beatrix basically gave me a general understanding of the “secret character” but…

“It really would’ve been better had I played it myself, huhh…”

I can’t stop regretting it.
From what I heard, it seems that she couldn’t remember the details.

But it isn’t as though reality will go like the game.
Even the Headmaster, from what I’ve seen in real life, doesn’t seem to be stuck to the Heroine, and always seems to be a hikikomori.
Even now, of the rival characters and the other students, not a single one has been killed.
This point is something that I’m glad isn’t like the game.

“I think I should go have a talk with the Headmaster.”

With determination in my heart, I straightened my posture on the couch.

“Eh-, Miss Camille?”

Beatrix was looking at me with eyes widened.

“At present, Royce-sama and Achille haven’t gotten involved with the Headmaster after all, and he hasn’t targetted them either. From what I can see at least, the situation has changed, and I don’t think things will go like in the Headmaster End.”

So I want to test the waters to see if he’ll lend us his power while it’s still possible.
Even if I don’t get a positive response from him, whether or not he’ll join hands with the Heroine… is something that I want to know.

“Even so, there’s no guarantee that the Headmaster is completely safe, you know, Miss Camille.”

Beatrix was flustered, and tried to stop me.

“But… the ones that know about this at the moment, are only me, you, and the Heroine, right? And right now there’s no way that you can leave the castle.”

Beatrix is Royce-sama’s treasured fiancée.
She’s currently being targetted by the members of the Anti-King Faction who oppose Royce-sama as well as those old men who are trying to pair Royce-sama with their own daughters.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I don’t know as much about it as you do, Beatrix, but I do have knowledge of the game. Now that various things have diverged from the game, I don’t know how useful it’ll be though.”

“Miss Camille?”

“Like people say, ‘strike while the iron is hot’. I’m going to fly to the academy for a little, so…”

“Y-, You can’t, Miss Camille… Are you planning on sneaking out of the castle without the permission of your Danna-sama and His Highness Royce?”

“Ehhhhhh… But I mean, if Achille finds out then he’ll definitely oppose, after all.”

Because at any rate, I have too many previous offences.
If things go badly, this time he might realy lock me in my room.

“Isn’t that even more reason not to!?”

“B-, But…”

Although mumbling and making excuses, I left my seat.

“…Nn?”

My head kinda feels, more hazy than before. Did I catch a cold as well?
It felt like the moment I left my seat, my head suddenly grew even hazier.
Why is my body suddenly feeling so hot?

“Miss Camille? What’s the matter?”

Noticing that something was wrong, Beatrix peered in on my face with worry.

“Beatrix… Nn, my body is kinda,”

I tried reaching my hand out to her.
But before I could stretch out my whole arm, I collapsed towards her.

“M-, Miss Camille?”

“S-, Sor… ry”

I tried to part my body from Beatrix in a fluster, but I was finding it hard to muster the power.

This has happened before… Today was a lot better than that time though.
The incident with Dominique in the past floated into my head.
But ever since then, I should have abstained from drinking so… why?

Even today, I shouldn’t have drank anything but tea.
This Camille-body of mine is incredibly weak to alcohol after all.

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My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Hearts (Part 2)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

It was already evening after all, so I had planned on leaving Beatrix’s room, but I was curious about the secret character, so in the end I just stayed there. The castle maids were thoughtful enough to bring more tea and sweets.
The tea sweets were fluffy pseudo-soufflés. There was fruits in it so the colour of the soufflés were all a little different… I wonder which one should I pick.
I decided to go with the one that was faintly pink. It’s probably got berries or something in it.
Beatrix chose the brown one.

“And soo, the headmaster is the secret character?”

That always languid looking one? …That headmaster?

The tall and thin man with the three silver braids popped into my mind. His golden eyes were mysterious.
He’s the headmaster after all, and he’s powerful after all, so he might certainly be a high-spec character.
Some people treated him like a legendary class monster but… from what I could see of the person himself, it really made me wonder if he wasn’t a slug, or a sloth, or a bean sprout monster instead.
He was always hiding in his room after all, and the only time I’d ever spoke to him was in the academy greenhouse… and only for a little, too.
His ecological behaviour was still wrapped in mystery.

“By the way, um, the Headmaster Route, was it? What kind of conditions did you need to clear to unlock it?”

It was a route that I’d never been able to see, so I was really interested to hear what was in it.
I just can’t imagine a romance with that headmaster.

“Once you cleared the conditions that I mentioned earlier, when you returned to the start menu, you’d find the option for the new Headmaster Route. Then you’d just pick the headmaster… the joker, to enter his route.”

Beatrix continued her explanation.

In Carte à Jouer, you didn’t change character by making choices in-game, but instead you’d choose a card from the menu at the start to choose their route.
For example, if you picked the K of Hearts, then it’d be Royce-sama, and if you picked the K of Spades, then it’d be Raiga.
And so in other words, the Headmaster’s card appeared on the menu.

“Wow…”

In other words, had I picked up my pace a little in my old world, I might have been able to meet him…
I’d cleared all the romance and friendship routes, and I’d almost cleared all the bad ends too.
There’s nothing I can do about it now, but it’s a waste.

“Was the Headmaster in the game this sort of person as well?”

“In the game, he wasn’t lethargic, but he was even more of a shut-in than the current Headmaster. He was interested in the protagonist for having as much mana as he did and brought her to the academy, and after that, he’d quietly watch over her but… while he was watching over her, his feelings escalated, and he gradually started to rampage.”

As she explained, Beatrix switched  the legs that she was crossing. She’s wearing a dress, but her actions are manly.

“…Rampaging, huh?”

It sounds kind of disturbing.

“To begin with, in the Headmaster Route during the entrance ceremony, right from the very start, the four rival characters tried to hurt the Heroine.”

“Eh-… why?”

Each rival character wouldn’t have any reason to hurt the Heroine as long as she didn’t get involved with their romantic interest.

“Because she had become a rumour for being brought into the academy by the Headmaster, and so becoming interested in her, the Ks and Js came into contact with her one by one, and she ended up in a reverse harem.”

“Harem…”

What the heck.

“Because of the Heroine’s mana and talent and personality, all the male characters approached her to try to make her theirs.”

“Hm~mm…? When you say Ks and Js, you mean that the characters from the friendship routes were included?”

No, I mean, in the end it’s just what happened in the game, so it’s not like I’m worried about Achille. I’m not, okay?

“Yeah, that’s right. The characters from the romance routes are a given, but even the characters from the friendship routes were passionately making moves on the Heroine.”

–CRASH- …

“M-, Miss Camille?”

Oh no… I dropped the teacup. In a fluster, I used magic to fix it.
It’s the same magic that I used when I threw up the alcohol at the entrance ceremony. It turns back time for just the necessary parts.
…Mn, good as new. I’m not shaken in the slightest, okay?

“W-, What happened then?”

I urged Beatrix to continue.

“Finding out that the rivals were trying to hurt the Heroine, the Headmaster erased every one of them. The Headmaster had probably used some kind of magic, because not one person had noticed that the rivals had disappeared. Only the Heroine had noticed, and questioned the Headmaster… And that was the start to their romance.”

“It’s a pretty heavy start to a romance, isn’t it…”

It’s a bit horror.
And was she physically erased this time? Camille, I mean.

I reached my hand out to another pseudo-soufflé. This time I chose a light purple one, and brought a spoon of it to my mouth.
Mnn-, it’s similar to the taste of rum raisin from my old world. How nostalgic.

Being rum raisin flavour means that there’s alcohol in it, doesn’t it?

^ That was an author’s note

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My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Hearts (Part 1)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

Right now I’m in Beatrix’s room.

Trying my best with my unsteady legs, I had thankfully made it as far as in front of Royce-sama’s room, but I hit my limit and couldn’t stand anymore.
Achille happened to be there and carried me after I collapsed though. To begin with, it’s all Achille’s fault that I became like this.

It seems that the room next to Royce-sama’s was prepared for Beatrix, and by chance she was also standing there in front of her door.
I know now why husband and wife have rooms next to each other, so I’m not going to stick my nose in it.
After all, I get the feeling that if I cause trouble for myself, I’m going to go through a rough time at Achille’s hands again. Even though he’s got such a skinny body, to think he had that much endurance… It’s fraud.

“Um, M-… Camille-sama. If it pleases you, how about resting in my room?”

Beatrix gave me a much a much wanted suggestion, so I took her up on her offer.
Listening to Achille say this, and that, and “don’t stay out too late” was tiring though… I’m not a kid, so I know that much. Geez.

Ever since I got married to him, he’s been nagging me even more. He’s almost like a mother, warning me about thiss, and thatt.
But despite saying this and that, he definitely wouldn’t give up on me.
I’m aware that I’ve gone in some weird directions as a woman, so I want to treasure Achille who says that I’m fine like this anyway. I have no intention of changing the direction I’m heading in though.

And so, going back to my first topic, it was decided that I’d be passing the time in Beatrix’s room.

※

I had something I wanted to talk to Beatrix about as well after all, so it was a good chance.
I told Beatrix the rough details about what the Heroine and extremists had done, and how we would be catching them in the future.
She’s the person who might become our next queen, so I thought it would be better to tell her about to danger of the extremists.
At the same time, feelings of guilt about her marriage welled up in me.
According to what I heard from Achille, it was an engagement brought about by Royce-sama’s unrequited feelings, the situation with the Heroine hiding in Topageria, and various other things.
When I tried asking in further detail, for some reason Achille was evasive about it… Why?

Personally speaking, I’d like Beatrix to come to like Royce-sama.
In the past, I probably would have been jealous of her, but right now I already have Achille as a husband.
Although I still think of Royce-sama as wonderful, it isn’t a romantic feeling anymore.
In that cause, I’d like to cheer him on.

But. When I considered how I’d tell her about all this, a number of problems came up.
How should I explain this to her? I’m not entirely clear about the situation, so there are lots of parts that I can’t fully explain.

Royce-sama brought up the issue of the Heroine and said “Wed Beatrix to me and help me capture the Heroine and I’ll overlook some of Topageria’s responsibility in this to a degree. If you don’t, it’s war.” …It’s no good. If I said this, Royce-sama looks like a villain.
Then how about, “I’m making Miss Beatrix the queen of Garnet, so go help us out with catching the Heroine”? …This is no good either. It’s filled with Royce-sama’s self-interest.

Having only heard bits and pieces, there’s a limit to my ability to explain things.
It’s no good. I guess it might really be better to have Royce-sama explain things himself. He’s the one who chose her as a bride, after all.
I decided to pass all of the explaining to Royce-sama. I’ll leave the rest to you.

“Oh that’s right, I’ll call Mei-chan over as well next time. She’s here at the castle too, after all. She’s pregnant so she shouldn’t do anything strenuous though.”

“Eh-… pregnant?”

The surprised Beatrix rose her head, and stared right at me.

“Right, with Raiga-sama’s child.”

“-…I, see.”

Beatrix’s eyes were swimming. She was a Raiga fan, so she might have received quite a shock.

Looking out the window, I found that the sun had already set.
I’d feel bad about staying too long in Beatrix’s room, so I stood up. It can feel more power in my legs than before.

“It looks like you’re still struggling to stand up, but are you alright? Aren’t you feeling ill?”

“…I’m fine. This is, umm.”

The words were stuck in my throat. My cheeks immediately started to burn.
I-, I can’t say it…
Because Achille did this and that to me, I ended up unable to walk properly.

“Look now, it looks like you even have a fever.”

“T-, That’s not it. This is, I, just don’t have any strength in my legs… Umm, last night.”

“Eh-? Ehh-, could it be… Ah-, AHHH!”

It seems that Beatrix finally understood.
Her face also turned red in a flash. My face burned even hotter…
S-, So embarassing.
Because it was so embarassing, I couldn’t raise my head, and just flopped onto the couch. It’s a bit of a breach of manners, but it’s just us two here so there shouldn’t be a problem.

“…W-, Well, you’re newlyweds after all.”

Beatrix gave an odd follow-up.

“Uuu…”

“Achille is different than how he seems, huh!”

Please, just stop speaking…

“Uuuuu…”

After crouching for a few minutes, I somehow managed to get my blushing under control.
Alright. Time to withdraw.

“Beatrix, umm, that’s how it is, as far as its possible, I’d be happy if you cooperated with us. I know that it isn’t my place to say this after all that’s happened though.”

“Y-, Yeah. As long as it’s something I can do, I’ll cooperate with you, Miss Camille.”

“Thanks.”

Because a bit of the embarassment was left over from before, it’s still a little awkward.

“This is my personal opinion, but if you’re going to directly face the Heroine, then I think that in the end, pulling out the secret character would be effective.”

“Secret character?”

“You don’t know about him?”

I tried thinking back to the past. Speaking of which, the might have been something like that, but… I ended up here without finding out who it was. And I’d forgotten they existed all this time.
Even the walkthrough sites at the time still hadn’t uploaded any information on the secret character after all…

“Sorry, I ended up here while I was still playing the game, so… I only know about the four romance and friendship routes. Did you clear the route for the secret character, Beatrix?”

“Yeah, after you clear the four romance and friendship routes, as well as all the bad ends for the protagonist, he appears.”

Was that how it was? I ended up coming here while I was in the middle of clearing the bad ends after all.
The bad ends took an emotional toll after all, so they were really tough for weaklings like me, after all. So naturally my game clearing speed fell.
I mean, the Heroine just kept dying, and dying, and dying after all.

“And so, about that secret character… is he strong?”

“He has mana that compares to the Heroine.”

Was there such an amazing person around…? What a blindspot. As expected of Beatrix.

“By the way, what kind of person were they?”

“What kind of person, huh…? He’s just the school headmaster though.”

“Beatrix gave an odd follow-up.”
The word ‘odd’ here is actually ‘bimyou’, and means um, like… Well, basically they’re saying that it’s ‘neither here nor there’ or ‘hard to make a judgement on’. When something is bimyou, it’s like, it’s not too bad, but not too good either. Or maybe, it’s not quite appropriate, but not exactly inappropriate either. Like, in general, things that are ‘bimyou’ are just things that are hard to give a straight judgement on. Like, if you eat something and it tastes ‘bimyou’, it’s sorta like ‘ehhhhh, not BAD, but like… not good either, sorta’.

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My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Diamonds (Part 4)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

“Ehhh? Miss Camille… You married Achille? And what’s more, it just happened recently?”

Almost as soon as I invited her into the room, Miss Camille gave me a shocking confession.

“Right, right.”

With my shock being completely unrelated to her, she was currently in a daze eating the candied flowers that the maids brought.
Miss Camille bringing the petite and colourful flowers to her lips was extremely picturesque.
In Topageria where there are many desert, flowers were a high class luxury, and so sweets like this were new and fresh.

“When, exactly…?”

“After we came back from our expedition, I got proposed to by Achille. Before I knew it, I’d signed the papers though.”

“Eh-… Miss Camille?”

‘Before I knew it’… Wai-, aren’t you a little bit too careless?
Didn’t you fall into a trap set by His Highness and Achil-…

“N-, No, nevermind. Congratulations on your marriage.”

If the person herself has no complaints, then it isn’t my place to say anything.
The two of them seem to get along.

“Thanks, Beatrix.”

Camille gave me a smile as she once again stuffed her cheeks with sweets.

※

“By the way, Beatrix. There’s something I’d like to talk to you about, but is that okay?”

After having tea and having a breather, Miss Camille fixed up her posture.
Rare for her, today she wasn’t wearing a robe for once, but was instead wearing a dress. Seeing her like this, she really looks like a noble girl.
I say that it’s a dress, but unlike the thing I’m wearing right now, hers is just a simple one though.

“What is it?”

“You know how we took leave from school to recuperate and rest?”

“Yeah… You mean how the three of your fell ill?”

She nodded at my words.

“It actually wasn’t an illness… The truth is that we were attacked by that game Heroine, and had forbidden magic cast on us. We were resting to recover from that, and take up countermeasures.”

“Ehh-?”

“Achille covered me, and in the end I was saved by Royce-sama.”

Without me knowing, the relationship between the Heroine and the Hearts Faction has turned into something incredible.
I’ve never talked to her before, but she even used forbidden magic on somebody else without hesitating, so she might have quite the personality.

“Why did you become enemies?”

“It has to do with the Revolution End that I talked to you about before.”

Miss Camille told me about the acts of the commoner extremists, and the things that the Heroine did.
From the way she spoke about things, it seems that the Heroine was one-sidedly antagonistic with Miss Camille.
Judging based on the activities of the commoner extremists, she probably has more of a problem with nobles in general, rather than Miss Camille personally.

The Heroine who can’t be matched even by an elite magician of this country, Miss Camille…
Although it was a setting from the game, she really is a frightening existence.

“And so, it seems that she’s hiding in Topageria at the moment.”

“I see… I heard that soldiers were sent into the academy to catch the Heroine. I also heard that she escaped though.”

I didn’t know the circumstances behind it because they were concealing it though.

“Royce-sama asked for the Topagerian King’s cooperation… or rather, it was more like saying ‘because the Heroine comes from Topageria, take some responsibility’.”

“Speaking of which, the Heroine was adopted by Topageria’s Cintron family, wasn’t she.”

“You know about it?”

“A little… When I entered the academy, I was curious about each character, so I did a little research. It was just their official history though.”

Thinking that it wouldn’t do if I by some small chance fell into the same disaster as the in-game Beatrix, I roughly researched all the characters of the game. On the surface, there didn’t seem to be a problem.
However, with the Heroine and her complicated background, I’m regretting not researching further.

“Once we settle the chaos in our country, we plan on capturing the Heroine and the remnants of the extremists.”

Miss Camille’s gaze pierced right through me.

“And so… if possible, I’d like it if you cooperated too, Beatrix. I do feel sorry for asking for a favour on top of getting you wrapped up into this though.”

“Now that I’ve become His Highness Royce’s fiancée, it certainly isn’t another person’s problem anymore, huh…”

I placed my hand to my brow. Things have really become troublesome.

“This is about your engagement, Beatrix, but I’m wondering if it isn’t also somehow related. Only Royce-sama and Achille know the details though.”

“…”

Because Miss Camille’s specialty is magic, it seems that she’s estranged from the details of diplomacy.
Or rather, she’s just tossed it to them wholesale and left it all to them.

It seems… that I’ll need to speak to His Highness Royce one-on-one.
If possible, I don’t want to get involved, but this time it can’t be helped.
His Highness and Achille… I need to make clear their motives.
Being  used and having my life swung left and right without me knowing is something that I’m long sick of.
Unlike Camille, there’s no way that I can just trust them completely.

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My Lord’s Engagement – Q of Diamonds (Part 3)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

In Japanese, bisque and parians dolls and the like belong to the group ‘western dolls’ rather than just dolls. The reason is because Japan had its own flourishing doll culture. So uh. How am I trying to explain this again? Sorry, woke up at like 5 this morning, or last morning rather, and it’s 1 now. Um. Right, so uh, .Hm. Right, so like, we say ‘you look just like a doll’, but to evoke the same image, Japanese people might say ‘western doll’. Because if we take Japan to be the default, a doll might look like this:

Um, of course, when they say ‘you look like a doll’ they probably mean the more modern stuff, and not the traditional, ugly porcelain dolls. Uh. Damn it. Anyway, if you see ‘western doll’ in a Japanese novel, just use your default image of doll. All it means is that it isn’t a traditional Japanese-style doll. Not necessarily traditional western dolls.

Also note that in Japanese, ‘black stomached’ (haraguroi) means ‘black-hearted’ or ‘wicked’. If you’ve seen Log Horizon anime, should’ve heard ‘haraguro megane’ all the time.

A fragrance like lavender wafted about through the elegant but empty room.
I even had make-up put on me, looking like a western doll, and a completely off-looking reflection greeted me in the mirror.

“Hah… This isn’t suitable for me, is it.”

The kind maids would occasionally bring in books or sweets to help my boredom but… I’m at my limit.
To begin with, I wasn’t the type to sit around doing nothing.

“I think I’ll leave my room.”

Fortunately, there isn’t anybody around, so I can leave my room without blame.
I opened the door and looked left and right around the surroundings.

“It’s not as though I’ve been ordered 『Don’t walk about』 or anything, so it’s fine. I’m just going to have a bit of a look about the castle…”

There shouldn’t be any problem as long as I return to the room in the end.
I decided to have a stroll around the castle, doubling as checking for an escape route in case things really came down to it.

※

“…Beatrix-sama?”

“Hie-?”

The moment when I closed the door and had just taken a step forward, somebody called out to me.

“…Ah-”

This is bad.

It seems that I bumped into Prince Royce’s adjutant, Achille, just as he left the neighbouring room.
Such bad timing…
Am I going to be told off for arbitrarily leaving my room?
Perhaps because the game knowledge of him takes priority, I’m a little bad with dealing with him.

I met Achille Jade back when we went to the mountains behind the school.
However, I don’t recall speaking to him very much.
At the time, he had his hands full looking over the master of getting lost, Miss Camille, as she was always about to talk off somewhere else. Because of that, he was in no position to chat.

“Achille…dono.”

“Calling me Achille is fine, Beatrix-sama. Are you going out?”

Achille politely asked me this with a friendly smile.
But I know your about it, know. That the pits of your stomach are a pitch-black black hole!

“Yes, well, it would be too boring to just stay in my room all day, so… I wanted to have a bit of a stroll around the castle, but…”

“Certainly, it might be difficult to spend the whole day in the same room, mightn’t it. However, I cannot recommend leaving your room without telling anybody. It brings us shame, but idiots like the ones on the day of your bridal procession may be lurking in the castle after all… What’s more,”

“Aaachiiilleeee”

As though cutting off his words, a lovely, bell-like voice rang out from the other side of the hallway.

“…”

The moment that it did, Achille made a troubled expression.

“Eh-…”

Unable to hide my shock, I looked at the rare expression of Achille who normally never drops his pokerface.
Even though in the game, he was supposed to be a character that always had a smile plastered on…
In the game, no matter which sprite or image it was, he was basically always drawn with the same expression. The only time that his expression changed was when he looked at the burikko noble girl, Camille, with eyes of scorn or loathing.
The fact that his expression changes when it’s something to do with Camille is the same as in the game, but… I feel closer to this Achille with the troubled face.

I could see Miss Camille heading our way from behind him, with somewhat unsteady steps.
Why is she tottering like that…? Is she drunk just like the time of the entrance ceremony?

“Camille, are you fine with walking now?”

The overprotective Achille ran up to her, and in return, Miss Camille shot him a resentful glare.

“…-Whose fault is this?”

At that point, exhausted, she fell to the ground.
What’s going on…? I’m worried.

“Camille!”

Achille flusteredly held her up in his arms. As usual, they’re a pair that really feel out of place.

“If you can’t walk, then go back to the room. If something happened while you were like this…”

“…Like I said, whose fault is this?”

She seemed to be in a bad mood for some reason, but Miss Camille who was clinging to Achille’s neck in a princess carry was really very cute.

“Um, M-… Camille-sama. If it pleases you, how about resting in my room?”

Achille probably has more work after this. He’d probably lose a lot of time bringing Miss Camille back to her room.
And what’s more, it doesn’t seem like I’ll get to have a stroll around the castle at this rate.

“Eh-, is that okay?”

“It’s no big deal after all. I was bored, after all.”

“I see. Then let’s head to your room, Beatrix. …Achille.”

With Miss Camille suddenly looking in Achille’s direction, Achille was once again making a troubled expression as he carried her.
I think she’s amazing to be able to have him make such a face.

“Don’t stay out too late, okay? There’s work tomorrow, right?”

Achille reluctantly consented.

“Mn, don’t worry.”

“…It seems that you haven’t been made too useless, huh?”

“I said I was fine.”

..*

“Mn?”

This scene…

I was thinking that I’d seen this scene somewhere before, when I realised that it resembled the conversations I had with Baka-sama.
She probably troubles him a lot, but because I could see the kindness, my lips unconsciously curved into a smile.
Goodness. Even though it’s only my second day in the Garnet castle. I’m already homesick.
I was the same way when I first came to this world though. It seems that I’m no good with dramatic changes to my environment.

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My Lord’s Engagement – J of Hearts (Part 1)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess Noble Girl, out now.
Honto tutorial here.

Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.

In the afternoon, I was thinking of showing my face in His Highness’ room, but the problem began when I arrived there… I found the person in question zealously peeking into the neighbouring room. Do your damn work.
His Highness was clinging to the door to the room that neighboured his. There’s nothing more suspicious looking than this.

“Even though it was my day off…”

Had I known things would be like this, I would’ve preferred to stay with my bride more.
Even though it’s a rare day off, to have to have left her in my room and headed out here was so regretful that I couldn’t help but get irritated.
While I was in a small daze thinking about how great the word “bride” sounded, His Highness complained in a small voice.

“Achille, don’t be so loud.”

Even while telling me this, his gaze was directed into the room.

“Did something happen to Beatrix-sama?”

Even without going out of his way to peek like this, knowing him, he could’ve just used a magic item or something to hide inside the room.

“I think I might be hated by Beatrix more than I expected… I’d better think of some countermeasures.”

Seeing His Highness gaze my way with an expression deep in thought, I turned my face away.
Sorry to him, but after doing that, did he think she would like him in the slightest?
I’ll just leave him. He should give some serious thought to what he did to her. And then do his work.
I went and tore His Highness from the door.
If by some small chance this were revealed to Miss Beatrix, there’d be no way to recover.

※

The other day, we finally managed a great catch of the Royal Prince Faction members that finally showed their true colours.
Thanks to the cooperation of Raiga, the Royal Prince’s son, we were able to uncover almost all of them, shockingly easily.
All that’s left is the King Faction.
As for them, His Highness plans to clean them up in one go during Miss Beatrix’s engagement party.
And then hurry up and catch that schoolgirl that fled the country, no matter what methods we have to use.
I don’t trust the Topagerian king either.

“Your Highness, this is the invitation list for the party.”

There are plenty of people that I’d like to leave off that list, but unfortunately my personal judgement doesn’t come into it.
The name of the second Topagerian prince is on there too.

“Thanks.”

“The preparations for the venue are proceeding without a problem.”

“Got it. So Achille… Lend me Camille today?”

I’d like him to stop nonchalantly inserting self-interest into our work-talk.
Lending my bride to His Highness? It’s obvious that I won’t.

“…I will not. You already borrowed her yesterday, did you not? We are newlyweds, so I wish you would show some consideration.”

“you’re so cruel.”

His Highness was smiling, but his aura was gradually getting darker.

“Achille, you know, I think that it’s really unfair that you’re the only one having all sorts of fun. I hope that you’ll consider yourself and Camille as having no breaks until things go smoothly between Beatrix and I. I’ll ask Camille to leave tonight free so there’s no problems on that end. I think that as long as I ask her directly, she’ll listen after all.”

“Your Highness…”

Hearing my lord’s well-planned and ridiculous statement, I was stumped.

This is the worst. The worst way of taking venting his anger.
It’s harassment on a level that had it not been for the deal with Camille’s engagement, and being saved from that schoolgirl’s forbidden magic, I’d immediately feel like changing sides to Raiga.

“…Understood. I will try my best to cooperate.”

There was nothing else I could say.
I have to hurry up and hook the two of them up.
For the sake of my newlywed life.

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