The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

“Hmm.”

The reason Alice squinted at me like that was usually one of two things.

One reason was when I did something completely ridiculous and nonsensical, only to pin it all on the Emperor.

Most of my friends have seen parts of my personality, but the one person who could almost perfectly read my essence was Alice. Claire had recently started to get dangerously close to understanding me, and Charlotte had been slowly picking up on my expressions too, but for now, that was still the case.

The problem was, I hadn’t done anything like that recently.

When I returned from Lindbergh, I didn’t take more than a day before causing some trouble. The airship had flown nonstop, so it didn’t take days to return, but almost immediately after, I began poking around the most crucial places of the system. Of course, after making a mess, I always made sure to rewind time and erase all evidence.

So, Alice’s stare wasn’t because of that.

That left only one other reason.

She had found something to tease me about.

I wasn’t exactly sure when Alice opened up to me completely, but at some point, she started teasing me without caring about my usual blank face. Even after she had more or less figured out my abilities, she didn’t stop.

Or perhaps, it was because she figured out my abilities that she felt comfortable teasing me.

Well, anyway.

Alice used to be the one who had a rivalry with me when we were younger, but now it seemed like I had developed a sort of rivalry with her.

I could tell just by how her gaze made me irritated.

“What’s going on?”

Unable to stand her stare any longer, I finally asked.

We had gathered in the classroom for the first time in a while. After all the time we’d spent going off on various field assignments, you might think the classes would be running smoothly, but there’s no mandatory curriculum set by law in this world.

Despite the world’s best faculty, the teaching here wasn’t based on centuries-old educational theories. Instead, it was more about teachers passing on the knowledge they had gathered through years of personal research, giving students general life knowledge. It felt more like a university than a high school.

So, it wasn’t a big deal if a class was interrupted. The teachers themselves knew about the field assignments, so they just adjusted their schedules accordingly.

Because of that, the mood in the classroom was a mix of joy and regret. Out of all the field assignments, the one to Lindbergh had been the closest thing to an actual “trip.” While Winterfield and Northwood had their charms, Lindbergh was the most exotic.

With the buzz of students discussing the last field assignment even after the weekend, my voice didn’t spread too far.

“Well, it’s just...” Alice casually looked away with a little pout as if she was playing hard to get. But her eyes quickly returned to me.

Yeah, that was definitely a move to annoy me. The proof was in the muscles around the corners of her mouth, slightly lifted as if she was hiding a grin. Alice was grinning at me.

“...”

And then, I started to get an inkling of why.

I turned my body a bit more to look at Charlotte. When our eyes met, the foreign princess quickly shifted her gaze elsewhere.

I thought so.

I suppressed a deep sigh. Even though my concept had been getting a bit shaky lately, I didn’t want it to break completely—

*

...

Well, sure.

It could be a bit of a cliché for a cool beauty to fall in love and become a cool dere (cool and tsundere) only to break down and turn into a mega dere (over-the-top affectionate).

But still.

I had no intention of getting involved with any male character.

Actually, I didn’t really want to get involved with any female character either. If I had been possessed by Leo, or even if I had just come to this world as a male character, I might have flirted with a few heroines. With so many female characters, I could’ve easily slipped in, as long as I wasn’t engaging in NTR (netorare) with the protagonist.

But I ended up as a female character. Moreover, I was a character who may or may not even appear in the original work.

In this era, with homosexuality, well, considering the game was designed as a subculture targeting otaku, maybe it would be more accepting of it, but I didn’t want to make unnecessary trouble.

Still, if I were to date someone, it would be another woman.

Right.

At least in the future, I would never date a “man.”

“Umm... about that.”

Charlotte, who was facing me and Alice, spoke with a somewhat awkward expression.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really planning on talking about it. Keeping ‘such things’ a secret is the duty of a noble, after all.”

I didn’t really want to know what “such things” referred to, so I just stayed silent.

“But, no matter what, when his little sister asks me like that, I can’t just keep my mouth shut.”

“So, are you saying you told Claire that I like Leo?” I asked, unable to hold back.

The following statement was so absurd that I quickly asked in a bid to stop any more of my sanity from escaping my mind.

“Ah, no, I didn’t say it exactly like that.”

Seeing my expression, which must have been downright fierce, Charlotte stammered, “Well, no, I didn’t say it exactly like that.”

“Yes, Charlotte didn’t say it exactly like that.”

I turned to Alice, who chimed in.

“I heard it from Claire.”

“...”

“My little sister said she wasn’t sure if anyone liked Leo, but I couldn’t just ignore it. And don’t be too harsh on Claire. She also didn’t want to say anything at first.”

“How did you convince Claire to say it?”

“I agreed to support Claire’s plan. At that time, I didn’t even know what the plan was.”

I forced myself not to facepalm.

“You said that without even knowing what the plan was?”

“You said you’d go along with the Duke of Lindbergh’s plan without knowing what it was. Isn’t that a much lighter mistake than mine?”

“...”

Well... I didn’t have much to say to that.

“And by the way...”

Alice leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.

“If you really don’t like Leo, then Claire’s plan might actually work out quite well for you.”

She was grinning, but I didn’t think that plan would actually be that great. Still, I decided to listen.

“What’s the plan?”

“Claire doesn’t want Leo to marry you.”

“...No way!”

Charlotte covered her mouth in surprise.

As both of our gazes turned to her, Charlotte, still in shock, turned to Alice and asked, “Why? Claire calls Sylvia ‘big sister’ and follows her, doesn’t she? Isn’t this an important matter where she could actually become a ‘real big sister’?”

“That’s the problem,” Alice said.

“Claire wants Sylvia to stay as her ‘big sister,’ but she doesn’t want to become her ‘little sister.’”

...

...

...Ah.

I see.

It took me a while to process, but it slowly started to make sense.

Claire was insisting that Leo was her “little brother.” Of course, both of them had been calling each other “older brother” and “younger sister,” so it was unclear who was actually older.

But it seems that the rivalry between them was real.

Claire truly viewed Leo as her little brother, so she was worried that if I married him, I’d start calling her my “sister.”

I clenched my fist again. I had to hold back from slamming it into my forehead, so I tensed my entire arm.

“No way!”

Charlotte looked like she was genuinely getting into the situation. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

“Because of that...!”

“And also, Claire isn’t just calling Sylvia her big sister. She’s already considering her part of her family. Think about it. How would Claire feel if her little brother and big sister were to get married? Even if they’re not blood-related.”

“...”

That was truly a disturbing way of thinking.

“So, if you really don’t like Leo, just keep those feelings. It’ll be a lot easier for you and your little sister’s worries will be eased.”

Charlotte’s gaze at me now felt like she was seeing an older sister sacrificing herself for her younger sibling.

...

Alright, then.

In that case, there must be another way.

I was already quite the expert at setting up couples... too successfully, in fact. Every time I saw one of those couples, it made me feel queasy.

Making Leo a girlfriend was easy, right?

He already had someone he liked, so it shouldn’t be that hard.