Chapter 14: The Heroine Swoops In
HEROINES always swoop in just in time to save the day. Wait, no, that was heroes, wasn’t it? Well, it seemed our heroine was more interested in ruining the day than saving it.
She returned to us only a few days after Eddie’s arrest.
“Excuse me! You’re Lord Siraiya, aren’t you? I often see you studying in the library. I’ve always thought you seem very smart and beauti— Oh dear, I didn’t mean to say that out loud!” The heroine clutched her cheeks and squirmed with embarrassment.
Siraiya had returned to school and was studying with me in the library. That was when the game’s heroine trotted up and called out to him.
“You don’t have permission to use my first name. It’s rude. Don’t speak to me.”
You could practically hear the sound of crickets in the room.
My fiancé was such a wonderful man. He was decisive and blunt—the complete opposite of Eddie. Honestly, yanderes were the best.
“What?! U-Um, I was just wondering…if you would help me study…! Oh, I know. ‘I don’t care what your family thinks of you! I’m only interested in you as a person, Siraiya!’” Confused as she was, the heroine still spit it out boldly—the line that stole Siraiya’s heart in the game. However…
“And I have no interest in girls who don’t know their manners. What were you thinking, approaching me like this?”
She probably wasn’t thinking.
Siraiya wasn’t a black sheep anymore, now that he held a title. He was, in fact, the head of the Brooke family. His children would become the family’s main bloodline.
Besides, that line from the heroine was supposed to come after Siraiya said, “No one wants me anyway…” as a means of encouraging him. The current Siraiya had a beloved fiancée, making it a terrible line to choose while interrupting our time together.
“Why can’t I raise your affection…?! It’s important that I get my academics up!”
The heroine was at a total loss, probably panicking because her back was against a wall.
I’d actually been keeping an eye on her out of fear that the game’s unwritten rules would cause her to come and interfere with Siraiya, too. She seemed to have realized that she had no future with Eddie, who couldn’t come to school any longer, so she had given up on him quickly.
Then, she tried approaching the other male love interests—even the school doctor. But there was one problem: the original dating sim required the player to choose a route on the very first day that they transferred to this school.
Starting out on Eddie’s route locked her out of scripted scenes with the other love interests. But it sounded like they wouldn’t even entertain a conversation with her in general.
This was real life now. There was no restarting life once you made a mistake.
Ending my engagement to Eddie had already changed the game’s story quite a bit, although it seemed the heroine had no other choice but to go with Eddie at this point. Either way, I doubted she would find the happiness she sought.
If we were following the game’s timeline, Eddie would have ended things with me at our graduation party. Afterwards, it was implied that he used his degree and the connections he made through the Rhuddlan family to become a wealthy man.
Given everything that happened with the crown prince, that outcome hardly seemed believable now.
Come to think of it, the game barely depicted the characters’ futures. Perhaps the developers couldn’t think of a happy future between the heroine and the man she stole from his fiancée.
Could that really be considered a happy ending?
“If you’d like, I could share Eddie’s current address,” I interjected. “I know the two of you were close, Miss Elly.”
“No way! I’d never settle for a guy like him now! Besides, I know what happened! He was sent to work in a coal mine for the rest of his life because he offended a duke and his fiancée! It was punishment for causing a disturbance at the crown prince’s school! How did it ever come to this?! Everything would have worked out fine if you had never broken up with Eddie!”
The heroine was practically sobbing as she shouted at us. She didn’t seem to realize that she was committing the exact same offenses as Eddie.
Poor thing. She’s just really, really thoughtless.
Siraiya was finally about to stand up, putting his anger on full display, but that was when a new visitor arrived in the library. The two of us righted our posture and rose to our feet in unison.
Everyone else in the library rose from their seats, too. They knew this visitor wasn’t going to look their way, but the gesture was second nature for any true noble.
“Why hello there, Siraiya, Lady Cynthia. Please be at ease, everyone.”
With His Royal Highness’ permission, the students in the room sat back down. They pretended to focus on their books, but I knew everyone’s attention was now fixed on us.
“Prince Adelberd, we’ve been eagerly waiting—”
“Wow! It’s the prince! What amazing character design! Now I see why he’s the love interest in the main route!”
Siraiya should have been the first to speak in accordance with his rank, but the heroine cut him off and jumped forward out of excitement.
“My name is Elly! My father is a baron! I’m new here at school! You’re very handsome, Prince Adelberd!”
I’d seen a lot of different expressions on the crown prince’s face lately. That was probably why I recognized the icy cold look in his eyes, despite an otherwise pleasant smile.
An empty-headed girl like Elly would have made a great pawn in the “foolish plan” His Royal Highness told us about. But now that he’d reconciled with Lady Gridimore, he had no use for her whatsoever.
“School is a place for learning before you go on to carry your family’s honor in high society. It’s only natural to commit a few blunders before you graduate. Therefore, I’ll forgive your rudeness, so head home and ask your mother and father to explain what you did wrong. Understood? Will you leave us be now?”
She should have left when Prince Adelberd gave her that warning. But if I suggested as much, it would only set her off even more.
Besides, I have no duty to look out for you. I’m keeping my mouth shut.
“What was her name again…? Your fiancée… Lady…Grim…Grimoire? You’re having problems with her, aren’t you? I want to make your troubles go away, Prince Adelberd! I smile so much more than her! Please let my smile heal your heart!”
In the game, the crown prince told the heroine, “I can’t remember the last time someone gave me a real smile. Your smile is very healing.” But now, the heroine was insisting on her smile’s power without any context. It came off as unbelievably arrogant.
Mistaking a high-ranking noble’s name, the crown prince’s fiancée’s name no less, was also unthinkable, even if she was a student.
You messed up, heroine. Her name is Gridimore, not Grimoire. Perhaps she could salvage things if she earnestly apologized and left the scene immediately.
“…I’ll have no more nonsense out of you. Estellise and I care deeply for each other. Her smile is my greatest treasure,” Prince Adelberd said, the coldness bleeding from his eyes into his whole expression.
“Oh no, the crown prince route’s glitching too! Why is this game so bugged?! The developers aren’t doing their job! Oh, if there’s so many bugs…”
The heroine turned toward Siraiya as if he was the key. She stared at him intensely, her eyes full of hope.
“Maybe Siraiya, the yandere character, isn’t a yandere either! I don’t know what happened, but he’s a duke now! Hey, is that why you went after Siraiya, since he’s not a yandere?! Then I’m gonna do the same! If you could win him over, it’ll be easy for a heroine like me! He’s even prettier than he was in the game, so he’s totally my type now! I’m gonna claim the Siraiya route for myself!”
She nearly jumped for joy, convinced she’d found her answer. While I was still deciding how to explain reality to her, Siraiya suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Enough with your insults! I am yandere! I’m a yandere for Cynthia! No one’s as yandere as I am!”
Oh, I forgot I made up a definition for Siraiya. What did I tell him again? I don’t think I explained what it really meant.
“Wh-What?! You’re a yandere?! So you’re still the same character after all?!”
The confused heroine turned to me, demanding an explanation, so I smiled and nodded.
“Yes, he’s extremely yandere. He loves me to death, and I’m incredibly happy. I could just drown in his love.”
“A-Are you stupid?! You might actually die, you know! You do have terrible taste after all!”
“How dare you call Cynthia stupid?! That’s enough! I refuse to overlook your disrespect any longer!”
“Eek! O-Oh no! Siraiya’s really scary!”
The heroine recoiled at Siraiya’s angry shout. But then the crown prince clapped his hands loudly.
“Take her away, guards. This person seems to be mentally unstable.”
After causing such a scene, any guard would have readily apprehended her. Still, it was the prince’s personal guard—the same one from before—who got to her first. The future king had a very helpful subordinate at his disposal.
“I don’t want to ever see this woman’s face again.”
Though he barely raised his voice, His Royal Highness’ words echoed through the quiet library.
The heroine wouldn’t return to our academy. Most likely, she’d be sent to live at an abbey.
“Ah! This guard’s awfully handsome! I think I’ll go with the security guard route!”
When I heard her shout that while being escorted from the library, I realized that, wherever she ended up, this girl would probably find a way to keep herself entertained just fine.
Farewell, heroine. This is goodbye for real this time. May we find happiness far apart from each other.
Though, I doubted her happiness would have anything to do with that security guard either.
The library fell silent again, and the three of us began another one of our usual study sessions.
Siraiya had to supervise both our studying methods, but fortunately, his grades never fell as ours rose. Lady Gridimore’s grades did end up taking a hit, but whenever I saw her around campus, she always had a big smile on her face.
We were in different grades, which made it hard to socialize with her. Still, I expected we would see lots of each other once I became a duchess. I hoped we could become good friends.
I thought we might hit it off as fellow villainess characters. Of course, I could never tell her such a thing.