Inside the carriage, Miyako could not help humming to herself.
What a wonderful birthday this is. The bright clear sky, the pleasant breeze, the gently rocking carriage. Most of all, the villainess whom I’ve been burning for all these years, Fuuka, is sitting next to me.
“Hey, Fuuka-sama.”
“I’d like you to drop the pretense and stop calling me ‘Fuuka-sama.’”
“Whoa, so forward!”
“What are you talking about? First you steal my fiancé, then you kidnap me. I think it’s a bit late to be addressing me with ‘sama.’”
“Eh, uhm. Well... Fuuka-chan?”
“You’re acting very familiar, now aren’t you?! Well, whatever. What is it?”
“Heh heh. I just felt like trying that out.”
“I will kick you, you know that, right?”
Eyes rimmed with perfect lashes glared at her, and Miyako calmed down.
Oh, so cute! Cutest of all is that she’s glaring at me, but I’m still holding her hand over her knee, and she’s not shaking it free.
Miyako clenched down on Fuuka’s cool hand.
“What is it?”
“Oh, it’s just, I’m so happy.”
“Do you have any brains at all between your ears?”
Ah, I love your sharp comebacks too!
Knowing she shouldn’t make Fuuka too angry, Miyako grew quiet again. They sat in silence for a while.
“...Miyako.”
“What’s up?!” responded Miyako, eyes sparkling at the mention of her name.
If Miyako had a tail, she would have been wagging it. She didn’t go as far as panting excitedly, but acting so happy at just having her name called took a certain kind of talent.
Incidentally, when Miyako took a “What animal are you?” quiz in the real world, the result was “dog.” Although, she herself had forgotten this.
“What was that before?”
“Hm? What was what?”
“Well, that, what was it?”
“I don’t know which ‘that’ you’re talking about.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake! When you said you longed for me, or something like that!”
“Oh!” said Miyako. “That was me confessing to you.”
“There’s something fundamentally wrong with your head. Would you like me to introduce you to a doctor?”
“It’s just that, the more I learned about you, Fuuka-chan, the more I fell in love.”
“With me?”
“Yeah,” Miyako said with a nod.
In the main route in this otome game, Fuuka ended up leading a life of defeat as the villainess. But the moment Miyako laid eyes on Fuuka’s character information sheet, she fell in love.
“Like how you have a strong sense of responsibility, or how you always work so hard. And how even though you’re not a morning person, you wake up early to study. And you’re amazing at white magic!” said Miyako, counting off Fuuka’s good points on her fingers. “You act like you don’t know anything when you’re in front of Klaus, but in reality you’re super knowledgeable.”
In the world of Drop Fantasia, though, these traits were all used against the main heroine.
“And you put in effort to get your father to notice you.”
“H-Hold on! Hold on a second!!!”
“Hm?”
“How do you know that...?”
Miyako noticed Fuuka’s creeped-out expression. Specifically, she looked at Miyako as if she were looking at a stalker.
“I must have temporarily lost my mind, coming with you.”
“Fwah?! Wait a minute, it’s not like that!”
Oops. I said too much.
Miyako shut her mouth in a hurry.
That was information somebody living in this world shouldn’t know.
I messed up. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll have to tell Fuuka my secret.
“Um, the truth is... I can see the future.”
“What?” Fuuka widened her eyes.
As a player of this otome game, Miyako knew the future of this world. It was equivalent to having the power to predict the future. Well, at least as far as she’d gotten to see through the game’s scenarios.
“Maybe not ‘see the future,’ exactly, but like, clairvoyance? Something like that anyway. With that power, I ‘saw’ you.”
“...How much did you see?”
“Everything, I think.”
She saw Fuuka being cruelly scolded by her father Count Hamilton after the engagement was called off; her being cast away by him, the father she loved and respected; her persevering with hard work despite all that.
These are all things that Miyako learned from “Villainess Fuuka’s Secret Backstory,” posted on one of the game designers’ blogs.
But looking at all that only deepened my feelings for Fuuka.
“You can’t expect me to believe that; it’s like something out of a fairy tale. Besides, if you know that much about me, then why did you go and steal my fiancé from me?”
“Well...”
That was also something Miyako learned from the game’s scenarios. If Miyako doesn’t get engaged to Klaus—in other words, in the event that Fuuka’s engagement isn’t called off, and she manages to marry into the prestigious Reinhardt family—Fuuka dies gruesomely in a sudden accident halfway through their honeymoon.
On the other hand, if Miyako marries Klaus, deploring herself for failing to bring good news to the Hamilton family, Fuuka chooses to take her own life on their wedding night.
Horrible. No normal person could come up with those scenarios. They treat the villainess way too mercilessly.
Miyako wondered why it had to be that way, but whichever route she chose, the result was the same. With no other option to change that outcome, Miyako followed the otome game’s predetermined route and became engaged to Klaus—then induced him to break off the engagement.
Even while she was playing Drop Fantasia, she’d been infatuated with the courageous, hardworking, beautiful villainess. Once she met the real-life Fuuka as rivals contending for the role of bride to a noble house, she realized her charm was the real thing, and that she was far, far more charming than the in-game Fuuka. Miyako knew no one could stop her love for Fuuka. She swore to make Fuuka happy, no matter what.
When Miyako led Klaus into canceling their engagement, she had employed a plethora of tricks with her knowledge of the game, but that is a story for another time...
“No matter what reason they had, I could never forgive the man who threw you away so unfairly, or the family who treated you so poorly.”
“Don’t talk so ill of Klaus-sama and my father. All of it was due to my inadequacy.”
“There’s nothing inadequate about you! ...Sorry, but that’s what I really think.”
Miyako took Fuuka’s hand once again.
She pulled out a hidden bouquet of roses and presented them to her beloved Fuuka.
What she really wanted to give to Fuuka was a white lily to go with her lustrous black hair, but it seemed that the people of this world hadn’t managed to cultivate lilies.
Miyako fixed her shining hazel eyes in a gaze aimed at the dignified, beautiful girl.
“I, Miyako Florence, swear that I will do everything I can to make you happy!”
At that declaration, Fuuka’s violet eyes opened wide in surprise.
Her cheeks instantly began to redden. Steam was practically rising from her ears. After all, this was the very first time in Fuuka’s entire life that she’d had affection expressed to her like this. Moreover, that person was the same gender as her and the former rival who’d stolen everything from her.
Fuuka felt flustered.
Despite everything, why is my heart starting to beat so fast?
“...Happy.”
“Yeah, let’s be happy together!”
“But, somebody like me...” started Fuuka, her voice trembling.
I lost my engagement. I failed to contribute to the elevation of the great family of Count Hamilton. I don’t deserve to be happy.
Fuuka softly hugged the bouquet that had been foisted on her. The tender smell of the roses tickled her nostrils.
And then—
And then, Fuuka slowly shook her head.
“I can’t. I’m the eldest daughter of the venerable family of Count Hamilton. I can’t just throw away my family...”
“But, but is the Hamilton family going to make you happy?”
“What?!”
All the days of belittlement flashed before her eyes.
Miyako is right.
In that house, Fuuka was just a pawn for political marriage.
But even so—
“You have two weeks.”
“Huh?”
“I have no doubt that it won’t take more than two weeks for riders from the Hamilton family to find me,” Fuuka said deliberately. “Within those two weeks, try to make me say the words ‘I’m happy.’”
Miyako’s hazel eyes popped open. Two weeks. In other words, fourteen days. She had to make Fuuka happy within that time limit.
“...Absolutely!” shouted Miyako. Her voice was overflowing with joy.
After all. After all, that means that for two weeks, she won’t reject me. Oh my God, what?! I actually have a chance at this!!!
“Yahoooo!!!”
Miyako leapt up in jubilation.
On that pleasant morning, as the carriage drove along, Miyako’s shouts of joy echoed across the sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
“By the way, where is this carriage heading?” asked Fuuka, her glossy black hair fluttering in the wind coming through the carriage window.
“Oh, sorry, Fuuka-chan. I should have said,” responded Miyako, watching the scenery flash past outside the window. “We’re headed for my homeland.”
“...What?”
“Which is, by the way, the Atika region.”
“What?!?!” Fuuka abruptly stood up.
The Atika region was located far away from the country’s capital city Ode, where Fuuka was born and raised. A border region, or rather, the boonies.
“I really must have lost my mind, after all!!!”
On that pleasant morning, as the carriage drove along, Fuuka’s screams echoed across the sky.
By the way, the Atika region was renowned for its rice production.