“I don’t really know what you mean by ‘normally,’ but you are cute, Katarina,” Jeord replied with a serious expression.
I was left at a loss as to how to respond myself, and could only open and close my mouth helplessly. After noting my reaction, Jeord smiled to himself. Then he steadily closed the distance between us. Before I knew it, his beautiful face was right in front of my eyes.
“Now that I can see that you’ve finally started to feel self-conscious around me, I couldn’t be happier,” said Jeord, before closing his eyes.
As his gorgeous face drew ever closer, I stood in rapt attention, thinking to myself, Wow, his eyelashes are so long.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang as the door was thrown open.
“Big sister, look out!” I heard someone cry as I was yanked backward. “Just what do you think you’re doing here?!” cried Keith, facing Jeord as he held me in his arms.
For one moment, Jeord just looked shocked, but he quickly comprehended the situation and smiled wickedly.
“What do you mean? I was simply taking this opportunity to become closer with my fiancée. More importantly, Keith, weren’t you invited to a soirée this evening? Aren’t you home rather early?”
“I couldn’t seem to get away from my work, so I ended up declining that invitation... Wait, how do you know what my schedule was supposed to be?! Don’t tell me that, having heard about it, you deliberately visited Katarina at this time of night? You are a sly one.”
“What are you saying? You’re the sly one, Keith. To think that you would interrupt a conversation between a man and his fiancée. You are far too lacking in consideration.”
“You may say it was just a conversation, but I’m willing to bet that you were just trying to take advantage of my big sister while she was daydreaming, aiming to do something untoward!”
“What do you mean, untoward? How very rude. We were only engaging in the sort of contact that should be expected between two who are engaged to be married.”
And thus a row began between the two of them, with me sandwiched in between. Despite where I was placed, I felt entirely left out of the conversation. As I vacantly watched this very typical argument between Keith and Jeord, I gradually felt myself start to calm down, and the burning sensation receded from my face.
How can I explain my reaction? For someone like me, who has zero prior romantic experience—including in my past life—having an unreasonably beautiful prince earnestly whisper words of love in my ear is too much for my heart to bear.
Eventually, in the midst of their squabble, Jeord realized that it was so late that he had to be getting home. When the two of them started bickering, it often ended up dragging on quite a while. Sometimes I thought that the two of them must actually be really friendly with each other, in order to keep it up for that long.
Before leaving, Jeord smiled at me and spoke in a low voice.
“Just to be safe, please try to avoid visiting the palace while the Prince of Ethenell is studying here.” After leaving me with those words, he headed home.
“Now then, big sister, are you sure he didn’t do anything to you?” asked Keith with a severe expression as soon as we’d seen Jeord off.
“N-Nothing happened at all... If I had to mention something, it would be the moment his face suddenly came very close to mine and... Erm... For a moment, it seemed like our lips might touch. But before that happened, you came...” I answered, hesitating slightly.
Keith sighed heavily.
“See, I knew you were in trouble. Big sister, you simply lack any sense of peril. In the first place, when a man and a woman around your age are alone in a room together...” Keith completely entered lecture mode at that point.
How to put it? Keith looks like a sexy young man, but on the inside he reminds me of nothing except for an overprotective mother. In the game, Keith was a playboy known for seducing one girl after another. I couldn’t help but wonder what had brought on this dramatic transformation. I stared blankly as I let Keith’s lecture go in one ear and out the other.
“Big sister, are you listening to me?”
“Y-Yes, I am,” I hurriedly replied when mom—I mean Keith—asked if I was still listening.
For someone who knows me as well as Keith does, I guess it’s pretty easy to tell.
A while later, the lecture finally ended. With a sigh of relief, Keith resumed questioning me.
“Come to think of it, it’s pretty rare for Prince Jeord to visit here so late. Did something happen?”
“Well, you see... Prince Jeord came to tell me that the Prince of Ethenell is coming here to study,” I said, before explaining to Keith what Jeord had told me.
After hearing this news, Keith pondered it for a moment before replying.
“Though we needn’t worry about the prince coming here to study, I can’t help but feel concerned about him looking for a fiancée here...”
“Oh? That worries you too, Keith? Why?”
“Why, you say? The prince in question is the one you became friendly with at the International Assembly, right? Big sister, it would be disastrous if he came to ask you to marry him.”
Keith’s answer was the same one Jeord had just given me.
“We don’t have that kind of relationship. And Keith, you’ve just repeated exactly what Prince Jeord said.”
“Exactly what Prince Jeord said...?” Keith frowned, as if he found this idea distasteful. After tensing up for a moment, he finally exhaled. He seemed to have put aside the unpleasant revelation from a moment ago that he had said the same thing as Jeord. “Big sister, you have a habit of enticing men without even knowing about it. Even if you claim that you don’t have that kind of relationship, you can’t know how he feels. Did he say nothing that might indicate that kind of interest?”
“What are you talking about? Entice men without even knowing it? Surely that’s the job of the protagonist, not me.”
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘protagonist’?”
Ah, shoot. I just referred to the otome game’s protagonist. But this world doesn’t have otome games, so...
“L-Like the protagonist of a story. A cute, pretty, lovable sort of girl. That’s the kind of girl who’s supposed to fall in love with a prince,” I said to cover up my slip of the tongue. I answered him confidently, as if that much were just common sense.
But Keith gave me a somewhat dumbfounded look.
“Big sister, I never quite seem to understand your logic.” He looked like he was on the verge of blushing as he continued, “Although, you’ve certainly managed to entice both me and Prince Jeord. We’re both completely besotted with you.”
When he said that to me, I couldn’t help but blush as well.
That’s right. Jeord isn’t the only one who confessed that he loves me in a romantic sense; Keith did too. And, for the same reason as with Jeord, I’ve put making any decision about him on hold.
“Um, I already told Prince Jeord this, but you both just happen to have very unusual tastes. N-Normally, it would make more sense to choose a cuter girl!” I protested.
“You’re extremely cute yourself, big sister,” Keith said smoothly. But he didn’t manage to carry it off quite as coolly as Jeord had. His face was bright red.
Though I was in no position to talk; I could feel my own cheeks burning, so my face had to be pretty red as well.
Wh-What’s with everyone today? After getting flustered one too many times, I was starting to reach the limit of my stamina for romance. If Keith came much closer, like Jeord had a short while earlier, I felt sure that I would blow a fuse in my brain and collapse on the spot. Fortunately, Keith did not approach me at that moment. With our faces still bright red, we decided to return to our respective rooms.
“In any case, please don’t get too close to the Prince of Ethenell. If he says anything to you, tell me, okay?” said Keith, his face still red as we parted. Then he walked away.
What can I say? Jeord and Keith both seem to worry too much. Because they have some very niche interests, they don’t realize that other people don’t necessarily share them. In fact, I think they’re very much in the minority. Plus, they inadvertently said the exact same things. Perhaps they have similar taste in women because they’re really very similar at heart.
As I dimly considered these notions, I decided I really was going to my room this time. Once I was in my room, I changed and immediately flopped down on my bed, gazing up at the ceiling. As I lay there ruminating on what Jeord and Keith had just said to me, I felt the warmth build up in my cheeks once more.
No, no, this is no time for me to be losing my composure. In order to survive, I need to focus on the doom flags that lie ahead of me!
In just a few weeks’ time, Cezar would arrive in Sorcié. An otome game event would surely commence once he did. In one of the dreams I had where I saw Acchan playing the game, there was a scene where Katarina appeared to get in the protagonist’s way, just as she was beginning to romance Cezar. According to that memo I found—whose author was still unknown—success in the Cezar route would see Katarina thrown in prison, whereas failure meant that she would die after being struck down in battle against Cezar.
I wondered if I would be able to evade these Bad Ends, which had become even more severe since the first game. I sighed heavily in spite of myself. The peaceful future I had hoped for still seemed so far away.