Anoseka Volume 1 Chapter 4

This is MTL. So, I cannot guarantee that the translation 100% contextually accurate or appropriate.

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Chapter 4 "Encounter Event"

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Part 1

The school is located in the royal capital, the capital of the Kingdom of Horfalt.

If you go outside, the city spreads out around the royal palace.

The school has a curfew, but many students —— especially girls can frequently be seen playing late at night.

For girls, it's like there's no curfew.

On the other hand, when it was found out that a boy had broken curfew, a rather severe punishment awaited.

They are required to do hundreds of push-ups and squats, and as a bonus, they are asked to write a reflection.

If the curfew is broken several times in a row, the student will be suspended.

That is one reason why there are few boys in sight, but some of them go out without worrying about punishment.

(I found him!)

Marie, who has slipped out of the school, sees a boy and approaches him.

Muscular male with short red hair brushed back, he walked proudly through the royal city in his school uniform.

Not afraid to be spotted by the teachers on patrol, he searches for a restaurant to eat.

His name is [Greg Fou Seberg].

He is the eldest son of the Count Seberg family and is proud of his skills.

He has a slightly short-tempered personality, but he is courageous and manly, and is a reliable person in battle.

And he is one of the capture targets of that otome game.

Greg chose a place to eat, and just as he was about to enter, Marie ran out.

(Alright, now!)

"Areh~? Is that you, Greg-sama? I never thought I would meet you here."

When Greg stops at the entrance of the store and turns to face Marie, who is smiling and talking to him, he simply tilts his head.

"Ah~, who are you?"

Without making any attempt to mend, he asks Marie, whom he barely knows, for her name.

Greg was a man who did not fool around with vague replies.

Marie was a little nervous inwardly, but she told herself that she could still win the game back.

(It's a process of getting to know each other once and then having dinner together. We've only met face to face once, but we couldn't talk properly at that time. But here's the thing. Once we have dinner together, the rest will go as it should.)

Marie had worked in the night world in a previous life, and she thought she could bring down even her targets if she had the right opportunity.

She knows their personalities and their preferences.

She was confident that if she could handle the rest with her own experience, she could get closer to him at an earlier stage than in that otome game scenario.

"Don't you remember me? We were in a class together once."

"Really? I don't remember that at all."

"Ahaha, I see. I'm Marie. I'm Marie Fou Lafan."

"——I can't remember"

They had been in the same group in class once, but Greg doesn't remember it one bit.

After all, he and Marie had hardly had any conversation at all.

Still, Marie tries to get by.

(Damn! I hate those girls who interfered with me in class. I will never forgive those girls for pushing me away to approach Greg! And those who get in the way of my happiness... they are... whoever they are.)

For a moment, the face of a male student named Leon comes to her mind.

(I see that guy's nasty face popping up again)

Every time she approaches the capture target, she recalls the face of the boy who has interfered with her happiness.

Because of that, she is not able to concentrate on the capture target.

(Even though I don't give a crap about that guy.)

However, Marie quickly switched her mind.

While resenting the girls who got in her way, Marie imitates the protagonist's dialogue in an attempt to create an encounter event with Greg.

"Are you going to eat now?"

(Invite me, invite me! Invite meeeee!! Or rather, I'm hungry! Buy me something too~~~!!)

Marie asks with a smile, but inwardly she is quite impatient.

After asking if he is about to eat, and then Greg asks if she would like to join him, the encounter event will occur.

However, Greg looks at Marie and then peeks inside the store and scratches his head.

She must have thought that the restaurant she was about to enter was not suitable for the slender and girlish Marie.

"I want to eat a hearty meal today, so I'm having a meat dish. You may not be interested in it, but men like it. See you later."

When she sees Greg about to enter the store after saying that, Marie freezes with a smile on her face.

But then a girl showed up at the right moment.

The girl, holding her luggage as if hugging it with both hands, naturally calls out to Greg when she notices him.

There is no strange air of enthusiasm, and no sign of feigning friendliness.

It was just that she saw someone she knew, so she called out to him —— just like that.

"Areh? Is it Greg-san?"

Greg stopped when he heard the voice.

When he turns his head, he is in a better mood than he was earlier with Marie.

"Olivia? What, you're playing at night too, huh."

When pointed out to her about playing at night, Olivia blushes and denies it.

"I-I am not. I received the book I had asked for. I had planned to be home by curfew, but time passed while I was looking at various books at the bookstore."

Olivia told him why she had broken curfew, but the delicious smell wafting from inside the restaurant was to blame.

It is the kind of place that serves steak, and you can hear the sound of meat cooking on the griddle.

Then, Olivia's stomach makes a cute sound.

She hid her face with the book she had bought, and when Greg saw it, he opened his mouth wide and burst out laughing.

"Are you hungry? No problem, today's dinner will be on me"

"B-But that's something I feel bad about."

"I'm the one who invited you. Don't worry about it, just eat."

"I-I'm quite a big eater."

Seeing Olivia say that shyly, Greg seemed to become even more interested.

"That's good. I'll make sure of it, and you can eat as much as you want today. I'll find out if your word is true."

"Even if you say so."

"I'm hungry, so please come with me."

Saying that, Greg pushes Olivia back and walks into the store.

Marie looked at the two of them and for some reason felt lonely——sad.

(What? No matter how hard I try, I can't win against the protagonist's natural airhead? This is terrible. Do you have any idea how much effort I put in.)

Seeing Greg's joy at Olivia's arrival, Marie sadly turns away and runs off.

(Why doesn't it go well? Why!)

Tears flowed.

As she wades through the crowd and away from them, Marie's arm is grabbed.

When she looked up in surprise, it was Leon who was there.

"I've been looking for you."

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Part 2

I took Marie with me into the alley and we were alone.

People are coming and going all around us, but they're not interested in us.

Since both Marie and I were wearing hooded robes, the teachers who were patrolling the area would not notice us.

Marie is depressed and looks down in front of me.

I let out a small sigh and suggest to Marie.

"I want to talk to you."

"No."

But Marie immediately rejected my suggestion.

I approached Marie many times in the school, but each time she ran away from me. If I chased after her too much, bad rumors would start, so I had Luxion keep an eye on her.

Frankly, I don't want to get involved with Marie either, but we need to have a discussion to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.

I don't intend to get along with her.

I just don't want to be hostile and get into trouble.

"Even if you don't want to, I still want to talk to you."

"Shut up"

"Ha?"

"I said shut up! It's your fault. Because of you, I've wasted three opportunities that I could have had. If it weren't for you, I would have been happy by now."

It would be troubling if she looked down and said something about happiness.

I think individual happiness is important, but from my point of view, it's meaningless if the country is destroyed.

"Why are you going after the capture target? There are plenty of other guys out there."

Marie turns away from me when I tell her that she should find happiness in a more realistic range.

"There are good-looking men with status, honor, and money. You have a chance to have a relationship with them, and you're just going to sit back and do nothing?"

"I'm a realistic guy, so I wouldn't do such a reckless thing."

"Then what would you do if it were in reverse? What if there was a beautiful, kind young lady and you had a chance to go out with her, would you not make a move?"

——In this world, the boys in the school are in a very difficult position.

If a person cannot marry by the age of twenty, he will be seen as someone who has some problems.

So they want to marry at all costs, but the women are the ones who choose.

A good man could marry, but many others were too crazy.

In many cases, they even become the second husbands of much older women.

What if I'm in such an environment and I get the chance to do what Marie says?

No need to think about it.

"Don't go for it."

As I nod deeply convinced, Marie snickers at me.

"That's what I mean. That's why don't get in my w——"

Just as Marie was about say not to get in her way, I heard a loud sound.

Like——Gugogogo! Like that? Like a predator's growl?

I was baffled by the extraordinary sounds coming from Marie's tiny body.

"Eh? What was that, just now?"

Marie sits down on the spot and puts her forehead on her knees and starts crying.

"It really sucks. I'm small, but I'm not getting good energy efficiency, and on top of that, I'm losing everything compared to that guy. How am I supposed to win?"

I don't know what happened, but this time she seems very depressed.

When I'm in trouble, Luxion shows up.

[Master, you have decided that it is necessary to check each other's situation. Once done, you should share the information you have with each other.]

"R-Right."

I told Marie who was crying, for the time being——.

"If you're hungry, come with me and I'll buy you dinner."

—— I invited her to dinner.

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Part 3

We left the alley and went into a reasonable restaurant.

The atmosphere of the restaurant, is the customer base common?

They also serve alcohol, but the atmosphere is not that of a bar.

Families also came to eat and seemed to be enjoying their meals.

I sit down at the table I'm shown and open the menu, and when I see the price, I put my hand to my chin.

"It's a nice place with a little bit of an expensive price, I guess?"

It is not a cheap restaurant where you can eat a lot, but the number of customers gives the impression that it is a popular restaurant loved by the locals.

Unlike me, who was alone in my convinced state, Marie's cheeks were pulled back.

She looks at me and shakes her head in disbelief.

"This is a little expensive, you said?"

He wants to complain about my sense of money.

After deciding what to order and closing the menu, I turned away from Marie.

"Unlike you, I come from a poor baron family."

In that world of otome games —— girls were considered to have a more luxurious life than boys.

But there are exceptions to everything.

"Poor, you say? Real poor people can't even afford to go into cheap stores."

"Eh? A-Aa"

Marie, despite her complaints about me, stares at the menu and begins to seriously select the dishes she will order.

She was not the kind of person who would think of such an auspicious thing as 'I'm sorry to be treated to a cheap meal'.

"All right! For now, I'll order this most expensive steak, three."

Marie smiled as she closed the menu.

I pick up the menu I put down again and check the steak Marie ordered.

The most expensive steak was described as a very satisfying meal.

Even an average man would find it difficult to finish the amount of food, and yet she suddenly orders three portions of it.

I look at Marie's body.

Not in a disgusting way, but she is petite among girls. In addition, I couldn't believe that Marie's slender body would order a steak in a quantity that even a man could not finish.

"Are you sure you can eat it? If you're ordering it to harass me, your personality is too bad."

I warn her that her personality is bad, playing with food, but Marie responds with a growling stomach.

Gurururu, it was a sound like the growl of a ferocious beast.

"It's fine, just place your order right away. Ah, also —— I can order more, can't I? I'll check to see if your wallet can handle it."

Worried about paying the bill, I pull my wallet out of my pocket and look at its contents.

I carry a good amount of paper money and coins, so I guess I'm still good.

"Don't worry about paying the bills. I'm still earning a lot of money."

Before entering the academy, I earned a lot of money as an adventurer.

Since Luxion is also here, there is no problem regarding financial resources.

Hearing my reply, Marie furrowed her eyebrows and turned her face away.

"——I knew that you lied about being poor."

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Part 4

After the food was brought, Marie was truly amazing.

"Hmm, it's delicious. It's very different from the meat of wild beasts. It's cooked just right, so it's easy to eat and I could eat as many slices as I want."

She cuts the steak with a knife and fork and brings it to her mouth.

She was eating constantly and sometimes drinking to clear her mouth.

She has already eaten three steaks and ordered more food.

On our table, there were many griddles on which steaks were placed.

The waiter brought a new steak and placed it on the table, and a hunk of meat more than five centimeters thick appeared in front of me.

The meat makes a grilling sound on the grilled plate, and the restaurant's signature sauce is poured over the meat.

Marie ate up even the accompanying vegetables neatly and piled up the empty griddle plates.

When she pulls in a new steak, she starts eating again.

It looked really delicious —— she was eating with a smile on her face, as if she was biting her teeth with happiness.

"O-Oi, eat more slowly. No one will take it."

Just looking at her makes me feel full.

Marie didn't stop eating.

"If I don't eat when I can, who knows when the next time will be."

Although she is eating in a well-mannered manner, the pace and quantity of her food are unusual and attract a lot of attention in the restaurant.

Marie continued to eat, oblivious to the surrounding crowd.

I hold my face with my right hand.

"You can get any food you want in the cafeteria, right."

The academy attended by the nobles is basically free of tuition and living expenses.

If you just want to lead a normal life, just use the cafeteria.

You don't even have to pay for food.

However, if you want to have a luxury —— a more luxurious meal than others, you have to pay for it.

Marie wrinkles her brow and complains about the cafeteria.

"The amount of food in the cafeteria isn't enough at all. Even if I eat three meals, I get hungry right away."

"Is that so."

As I'm thinking that with her small body, how could she eat so much, Luxion, who had been observing Marie, joins our conversation.

While hiding his appearance in the surroundings —— just a little bit, just enough to signal that he is there, Luxion's figure appears in the air.

Unnoticed by the surroundings.

[Very interesting indeed. I have confirmed that Marie also has the characteristics of the old humans. Do reincarnated people have the characteristics of the old humans?]

Luxion seemed to take a liking to Marie who had the characteristics of the old humans.

Normally, he has an attitude of "I don't care about the masses," but his words and actions show that he is concerned about Marie.

[There's enough food. Marie, why don't we continue the conversation?]

The purpose was to exchange information, so we told each other about our current situation.

First of all, Marie, like me, was a reincarnated person——a former Japanese woman.

She did not tell me her age, but from what she was saying, I assume she was in her mid-thirties to early forties.

She was disowned by her parents and lived with a no-good man as her boyfriend.

Later, she lost her life due to her boyfriend's violence and found herself reincarnated, she said.

And Marie was the same as me.

She still remembers her previous life, but cannot remember her own name.

She said her memory was also blurred and she could not recall the faces of people close to her.

——Or rather, the reason for Marie's reincarnation is so pitiful that it's not funny.

These pitiful topics are troubling because they can't be diverted from.

When Marie stops her hand, she lowers her gaze to avoid looking at me and speaks.

"How far have we talked?"

"You've just been reincarnated as the youngest daughter of the Viscount Lafan."

When she realized it, she was reborn in the world of that otome game.

Moreover, she became the daughter of a Viscountess! From there, a happy life awaits!

If she had said so, it would have made me feel a little better.

From there, Marie talks about the difficulties she has had since her reincarnation as if they were nothing.

"Right."

Marie nonchalantly tells me what kind of family she was born into after her reincarnation.

Not the least bit happy, she has a blank expression on her face.

"I've been reincarnated into a terrible family. We are a Viscount family with a fiefdom on the mainland, but our fiefdom is small and we are very poor. And yet, they keep getting into debt. My family is made up of my proud parents and my trashy brothers and sisters."

Mainland —— meaning that it has a territory on the floating continent where the kingdom of Horfalt is located.

My parents' house is on a floating island separate from the mainland.

It is difficult to compare which is better, but the one with territory on the mainland tends to be seen as superior.

Marie, talking about her family, finally mutters a few words.

"Very different from my onii-chan in a previous life."

"Onii-chan? Did you have an older brother in your previous life? I had a younger sister, and she was an annoying person. Did you feel like you were getting along?"

"——It's none of your business."

When I ask about her brother, Marie shuts her mouth, not wanting to talk.

Just for a moment. For a brief moment, I had the thought in my mind, "Could Marie be my sister from a previous life?".

But I scoff to myself that it's not possible.

What kind of punishment game is it that brother and sister all reincarnate in the world of that otome game?

Besides, my sister would still be alive when I died.

It would be weird if she were here.

If my little sister had been reincarnated here, she would have been much later than I was.

It's impossible for us to be the same age——isn't it?

Well, I don't know the details of the reincarnation, but it is not realistic to meet my sister even after reincarnation.

"Let’s get back to the topic. Why did you target His Highness Julius and the others? If Olivia-san —— the protagonist doesn't unite with the capture targets, the country will be destroyed."

If you know that otome game, it should be obvious knowledge.

Yet, Marie was trying to make a mess of the relationship between Olivia-san and the others.

Marie looks somewhat proud when I tell her that one wrong move and she would have been in big trouble.

"I hate to say it, but it doesn't matter to me. That woman is not the only one who can use healing magic. I qualify to be a saint, too."

"Qualify to be a saint? What are you saying——"

Marie squeezes the knife and fork in her hand tightly.

"For ten years, I've worked bloody hard. I had a talent for healing magic, so I worked hard to learn it. The saint's items respond to a certain level of healing magic user, don't they?"

The saint's item is a key item that appears in that otome game.

It is an important item, but at the same time, when it is possessed, it greatly enhances the capabilities of the protagonist.

The equipment requirement at that time was to raise the level of mastery of healing magic to a certain level.

Marie apparently remembered that.

"If I become a saint, there will be no problem. I'll replace her, and I'll be the protagonist of this world."

Watching Marie quietly and forcefully declare that makes me think.

Marie and I were reincarnated in this world in the same way, but our ideas were completely different.

I want to stay as a mob, and Marie tries to replace the protagonist.

Marie's selfishness is irritating, but I honestly praise her for her efforts to do so.

If she has reached the level of mastery as in the game, she must have had a great deal of difficulty before entering the academy.

I'm starting to want to support Marie.

But —— I have to tell her the reality.

Marie needs to know that this would be cruel to her.

"You're wrong"

"Ha? What's my wrong?"

"Did you really complete that otome game? What you really need is not the power of a saint, but Olivia's own power."

"——What is that?"

To a stunned Marie, I give her a rough explanation of the endgame story.

"Olivia-san, recognized as a saint, awakens her hidden power. So, beyond being a saint, she becomes an even more powerful protagonist."

It was a game that made me struggle from the beginning to the end of the game, but Olivia-san at the end was capable of what I would call a cheat.

After defeating the last boss with her own power, she restored peace to the kingdom of Horfalt.

The circumstances should have been explained in the text conversation.

"Even the power of the Saint was not enough to defeat the last boss. After that, she awakens after a few events. In the end, relying on Olivia-san's power, she challenges the final battle and wins——that was the flow of that otome game, wasn't it?"

When I looked at Marie and saw her expression, her gaze wandered.

She looks flushed and impatient.

"It's a lie. Because the images and videos from the event didn't show that."

"No, there was an explanation during the story, right? It was like that in terms of the text of the conversation and the flow."

If it had been cleared, it was an event that should have been known naturally.

"I-I don't know. I haven't cleared that otome game myself."

Marie, hanging her head and her hands shaking, said she now realized that she had made a big mistake.

"Haven't you cleared it?"

"I threw it away halfway through because it was so difficult. But I was curious about the last part, so I just watched the event later."

With tears in her eyes, Marie looks as if she is about to burst into tears.

——I feel like crying too.

With half knowledge, she almost ruined the story.

"It was certainly difficult. I paid for it and cleared it."

When I say it was difficult, Marie leans forward, sympathizing with me.

"Right! It's impossible to get through it normally. Isn't it no wonder I don't know anything about it?"

"I have mixed feelings now because you did something unnecessary."

I had no idea that Marie had not completed that otome game.

I feel like it was the right thing to do to share the information, or it would have been horrible if I hadn't.

——Would have been? Maybe, will be, right?

Feeling strangely unconvinced, Luxion informs me that the waiter is approaching our table.

[Marie, there's an extra dish here.]

The waiter brought the last steak that Marie ordered in addition.

With a face that looks like she's about to start crying, Marie starts eating her steak.

When I and Luxion looked at her seriously, she makes excuses as if she was embarrassed.

She seems to have opened up somewhat more than before.

"I-It's been a long time since I was able to eat a lot. The cafeteria is not enough, and I couldn't get enough to eat at my parents' house. There were days when all I had to eat was tasteless soup."

Did this person commit a major sin in her previous life? Her circumstances are so terrible that it makes me cry.

"That's a terrible story."

When I sympathize, Marie says in a more casual manner than before.

"You should know that you are blessed. Even though you are a poor baron in the countryside, you are blessed with a good family and you never have to worry about food, don't you? From my point of view, I envy you."

"I can't deny it when you say it."

The wife of my parents' house —— My dad's legal wife, [Zora], almost made me marry a woman in her fifties.

I still think that is unfortunate, but in the world, there are some people who are better than others.

Being the child of a concubine, I was disliked by Zora.

However, Zora usually lived a luxurious life in the royal capital and did not visit my parents' home very often.

My dad and——the concubine, my mom. I spent more time living in peace with that children's family than I did with theirs.

Well, we were poor, but we didn't have as much trouble as Marie.

"I had to go through a lot of hardships. I've struggled to eat, and I've been in dangerous forests many times."

"T-That's amazing."

"Thanks to that, my body remains smaller. Even though I was more attractive in my previous life."

Marie seems to be concerned about her small body.

Luxion, who has been observing Marie, reports his findings.

That gives Marie a final blow.

[From Marie's story, I would guess that excessive practice of healing magic may be the cause? Normally, her body could have grown more. Even if she had eaten poorly, her body would have grown more feminine.]

Then Marie stopped eating.

"——Eh, you're lying, right?"

Luxion gives a more detailed explanation.

[It's a highly probable story. It's the result of overexertion during a growth spurt. Your physical growth has stopped, but you have gained enough skill to become a specialist in healing magic. You must have pushed yourself quite hard. Why don't you learn from her a little, Master?]

There is an artificial intelligence that is taking care of Marie and lowering me.

"I want to live life efficiently and enjoy it. I have a policy of not wasting effort."

[As expected of Master. Why don't you drink some of Marie's nail polish?]

"I refuse. I mean, Marie is trying too hard."

To put it in a game style, the level of learning healing magic at the beginning of the game has grown to a level that can be used even in the final game.

I honestly admire it, but I would not try to imitate it.

Marie dropped the knife and fork she was holding and was stunned.

She's trembling.

"Eh? Eh?!? Could it be, the reason that I have a body like a child is..."

[It's the result of your hard work. You can be proud of it. And there is nothing wrong with your feminine characteristics. It just won't grow any more.]

In other words —— Marie remains in a childish figure, younger than her age. It seems that there is no hope for future growth.

After that, Marie was crying and eating burned steak.