“Incredible.”
I couldn’t help but offer words of wonderment at the sight stretching out before me. The party hall was filled with delicious-looking food and beautifully adorned men and women holding conversations. This was exactly the kind of party for nobility you saw in games and anime. Normally, you would talk to friends to kill time until it was your turn to greet the party guests, but…
Well, Weiss was a low-ranking member of the nobility, and since he was removed from the line of succession, he had very little experience at social gatherings such as this. Additionally, he had been holed up in his mansion for a long time, which led to his territory becoming incredibly unsafe. This only drew more attention to him—and not the good kind.
Long story short: I’m all alone. Maybe I can start a rock band. I could call it “Kessoku Band.”
However, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that kind of silliness.
Dammit, this whole thing was bringing back awful memories of when my schoolteacher told us to pair up in class. Fortunately, I had an out this time.
“Ros—”
I was about to call her over but noticed that she was excitedly chatting with a fellow maid. It would’ve been wrong of me to interrupt, so now I actually was all alone. Just when despair was beginning to wash over me, I received another shock.
“If it isn’t my best friend! Long time no see! I heard things have been quite rough for you.”
A young man with a dubious smile on his face came walking over to me. He looked about the same age as I was, and his eyes were narrow but intelligent. Something about his face was beautiful and androgynous.
Who was this guy? I didn’t recognize him from the game, and the fact that he was speaking to me was enough to make me suspicious. I was trying to figure out what to do when he stopped in front of me and struck a dramatic pose.
“What’s this? What’s wrong, my friend? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten who I am! Surely you remember me, your best friend Nyarl!” he said. “Don’t you remember how Rosalia chewed the both of us out for reading a lewd book about training maids?”
This guy was really putting on the social pressure. Also, it was deeply annoying that an attractive guy like him could pull off such a weird pose.
“Is that your idea of a happy memory?” I asked him.
“Ha ha ha, you finally replied to me! Just keep in mind, I’m not to blame for your maid fetish. Or are you mad at me for not visiting you while you were recovering? Look, even I know how to read the room. You’ve had it rough with the whole line of succession thing in your territory. It would be bad for both of us if I did anything to bring about unfounded suspicions. Instead, I sent you Josephine. Have you been taking good care of her?”
“Er, Josephine?”
Had he sent me a dog or something? If he had, Rosalia would’ve said something. The only gift I got while I was recovering was that creepy carnivorous plant that looked like a bunch of tentacles.
I suddenly remembered that the card on it said it was from my best friend.
“You’re the one who sent that creepy flower?!” I couldn’t help exclaiming. “That thing is terrifying! It catches bugs with its tentacles!”
“Creepy? How rude. How can you not understand her beauty? I suppose this is the one thing we shall never agree upon, but that’s fine. I grow all kinds of plants in my territory, you see. It’s not uncommon for me to come into possession of rare plants.” He stared straight at me, that shady smile still on his face, and extended his hand. “But I am truly glad you’re all right. I was really worried.”
Given how he was acting, we must’ve genuinely been close. I’d only make myself look suspicious if I was overly cautious at this point, so I exchanged handshakes with him. However, when I tried to take a look at his stats, nothing happened.
Why wasn’t anything popping up? Was he using some sort of magic? No, maybe it was that I’d played the hell out of this game and had no knowledge of this man. What if I couldn’t see stats for people who weren’t in the game?
If that was true, I was in big trouble. As I progressed down an alternate timeline from the game I knew, I was inevitably going to run into people I wouldn’t have an advantage over, and there would only be more of them over time.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve run into a bunch of orcs on a mountain…” Nyarl seemed to get the wrong idea from how shaken I was, but he continued to drone on and on before waiting for my answer. “Ah, I know why you came here after holing up in your mansion all this time. You’re looking at…her. The second daughter of House Bloody—you want to enter the running to be Aigis Bloody’s fiancé, right?”
Nyarl pointed at the area where the hosts were seated.
No, dude. I was surprised at you, I thought to myself, but upon following his finger, I saw a sturdy middle-aged man and a beautiful red-haired girl, a little younger than myself, sitting up front.
The girl in question was watching the older man talk to noblemen and women with a bored look on her face. I was familiar with that expression of hers that kept people at a distance.
So, Aigis Bloody is disinterested in people even at this age?
She already looked the part of the girl who would rip the head off her fiancé after he rescinded the marriage offer, then go on to wield the magic blade passed down to her by her ancestors.
Like Weiss, she would also meet a tragic end. The hero and his party pursued her, and she would continue to fight until her life came to an end. The hero himself attempted to get her to surrender on multiple occasions, but she never listened, choosing to fight back instead. In the end, she died facing him in single combat.
“She has a beautiful face, that much is certain. However, she’s a thorned rose, my friend. Look, Versago, from one of your neighboring territories, is also getting annihilated as we speak.”
Nyarl was right on the money; a young man a little older than myself was confidently speaking to her, but she looked completely disinterested. Then, she said something that caused his expression to freeze and sent him off on the verge of tears.
I could hear him whispering crudely as he left the party hall, “That bitch… How dare she…”
Er, what the hell did she say to him to break him that badly?
“Wait, ‘also?’” I asked. “Has she turned down others?”