“Wow, that was crazy,” the boy and girl said in unison. They glanced at one another and chuckled at their jinx, still in sync.
“No matter how this ends up, I look forward to working with you, Play-by-Play Caster Endo,” the girl said with a smile.
Her expression caused the boy’s heart to pound, but he did his utmost to keep a cool poker face while shaking her hand.
The boy’s name was Endo Aoto. He was in his second year of high school, was currently a member of his school’s broadcasting club, and he had a one-sided crush on the classmate-slash-clubmate grinning from ear to ear before him: Kobayashi Shihono.
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The tale began when Shihono brought a certain otome game to their club. The Broadcasting Club wasn’t very strict—in fact, it was infamous for being incredibly lax. Unless they had a competition coming up, the members only got together to practice on Wednesdays.
However, their club had a responsibility to deliver a broadcast at morning, noon, and the end of school hours every day, regardless of whether or not they had practice. As a result, on every other weekday, the two regular announcers were left all alone with little to do. To kill the time, the tight space of their soundproofed clubroom had been lined with manga volumes, a TV, and a game console someone had brought.
One day, Aoto’s beloved Shihono added yet another game to their pile: Love Me Magically!, also known as Magikoi. Set in a fantasy world styled after early-modern Europe, the main character Fiene finds her fifteen years of life as a commoner coming to an end as she is suddenly thrust into the world of nobility. All of it is thanks to her ability to use a noble’s greatest privilege: magic.
The romantic simulation game begins when Fiene finds herself admitted into the Royal Academy of Magic, surrounded by a prince here, a knight there, and a teacher over yonder. In total, there are five potential suitors to pursue (plus one hidden route where she woos a god). From there, she loves, swoons, loves again, and even goes on an adventure or two.
Although students enter the academy at fifteen and graduate three years later at eighteen, the game only covers the first year of her time at the school.
“But the best character is definitely the tsundere villainess, Lieselotte! I’m sure her dignified cuteness will make even a guy’s heart seize up, so try it out, Endo! And once you do, cry with me!”
After fully clearing the game herself, Kobayashi Shihono had given in to the primal urge to share the story she loved with as many people as she could. She didn’t skip a beat as she passionately made her appeal to the young man she always delivered the morning, noon, and after-school announcements with.
Aoto was so plainly infatuated with her that the rest of his clubmates secretly conspired to give the two of them as much alone time as possible. Thus, although he wasn’t too keen on Shihono’s suggestion, he was so overjoyed that she’d chosen to share this with him of all people that he had ended up agreeing to play an otome game near the beginning of June. That was around a month and a half prior to their peculiar episode.
At first, Aoto had no interest in Lieselotte, and even less understanding of why someone would appreciate a tsundere. However, he was curious to see the game that had caused Shihono to squirm in excitement, empty whole boxes of tissues, and dance a cute (according to Aoto and Aoto alone) little jig of joy in the clubroom.
Furthermore, he had the ulterior motive of finding more common interests to talk about so that the two of them could grow closer. With all this in mind, he swallowed his pride as a high school boy and began playing a dating sim for women under Shihono’s instruction.
“So, where do I start?” Aoto asked.
“I think you should go with the fan disc! The game is way deeper when you have an understanding of Liese-tan’s charm, after all! Oh, and, Liese-tan’s this ultra-high-spec marquis villainess who pops up in the main story and butts into the main character’s business all the time. And she’s always saying hurtful things and crossing a bunch of lines and gets possessed by this Witch of Yore demon-thing to turn into the final boss, but the truth is...she’s a huge tsundere!”
Aoto felt slightly disturbed at how his simple question had been met with an unyielding onslaught of an answer, but Shihono only grew more fervent, wildly swinging her hands as she continued.
“You’ll figure out that Liese-tan’s just a big ol’ tsundere if you play through the fan disc! Oh, and, you see, this disc has a bunch of visual novels that talk about the after story or expand on behind-the-scenes stuff during the main scenario, right? And there’s one called Lieselotte’s Memoir—which, since she’s the last boss and all, ends right before she gets killed. It’s really sad, and honestly kinda heavy all around...”
Recalling the sadness of Lieselotte’s story toned down Shihono’s vigor. Aoto grinned at her boisterous emotions and enthusiastically nodded to signal that she could keep going.
“First, you have this romance option in the main game, His Highness Siegwald, who’s the crown prince and Liese-tan’s fiancé. In her memoir, she confesses her secret love for him and her hidden admiration for Fiene’s innocence. You can see her slowly break down as the Witch of Yore eats away at her psyche, all while she struggles with her inability to be honest and her terrible relationship with Sieg. Her misery and bravery in this part already bring me to tears, but playing through the main story when you know Liese-tan’s true feelings makes her giga-cute! She’s! So! Cute! So start with this!”
Shihono’s eyes were shimmering as she looked up at Aoto. Taken by her excitement, he conceded and began working his way through the aforementioned story in the fan disc.
The conclusion? Aoto bawled. A mere otome game turned this high school boy into a sobbing wreck. It was a testament to just how miserable, brave, and prone to misunderstanding Lieselotte was in spite of her young, purehearted love for Siegwald.
Lieselotte bore some of the blame, what with how she’d let the Witch of Yore manipulate her jealousy, but she was only sixteen at her time of death; at her age, she was expected to be immature. The heavy sense of duty that came with her status had instilled her with a respectable work ethic, and her diary was full of self-admonishment. In the end, her lovestruck heart cracked to the evil witch and she perished. The tragedy of her suffering had caused Aoto’s floodgates to swing wide open.
“The cover art is so pretty and cute, and Magikoi is such a peppy title... Why is it so dark?” he asked weakly, wiping his eyes with his palm. Seeing his vulnerability, Shihono callously piled on more pain.
“What’s more, Liese-tan ends up dying in every single ending except the reverse harem end!”
“That’s so unfair! What did she ever do to deserve this?!” Aoto had developed enough compassion for Lieselotte that he found himself legitimately upset at the news. At first, he’d laughed it off when Shihono told him to cry with her. Yet here he was, crying and fuming from the bottom of his heart.
“Isn’t it awful?” Shihono said. “There are even a lot of deaths among the romance targets. I swear, all the deaths in this cutesy-looking game are the devs’ way of trying to scar a bunch of young girls for life. Then again, that’s why it got enough attention to put out a fan disc right after release...”
Aoto stared at her, mouth agape, and sucked in the lingering sensation of tears that remained in his nose.
“How about you try playing through the Happy End now?” Shihono smiled as she made the suggestion.
And Aoto, who still had trouble with just how malicious the developers were, ended up playing through the main game’s Reverse Harem Route. This route was only unlocked after clearing each character’s Best End, but Shihono had collected all of the endings and CGs to 100% the game. She’d also unlocked the Hidden God Route. Thus, Aoto started his journey on the Reverse Harem Route.