On the Boat (2)
2. Gift Agnes a book at the big bookstore in the commercial district, then head to the lakeside promenade as your second stop.
Go with 1 if you're collecting CGs, 2 if you want to stack affection. Doing both? Meal → bookstore → lakeside. I don't care about Agnes's affection, so I only ever ran the meal route.
[Photo: The lakeside promenade]
This is what it looks like when you arrive at the promenade as your second stop after eating. See the circle in the corner of the screenshot? That's the boat rental shack.
If you went with route 1 or 2, your affection should be high enough that she'll say yes to a boat date. (Warning: bring her straight to the promenade as your first stop and she'll refuse to get in the boat and you'll lose affection.)
Pay 3 silver for the rental fee and grab the two-person boat, let's goooo
[Photo: The boat out on the lake]
Row around the academy for a bit and a few dialogue events pop up.
Nothing important in any of them, so just answer appropriately and skip through.
Choice prompts do come up now and then, but they're all so easy a monkey could raise affection with them, so I won't bother explaining.
[Choice example]
Agnes: Do you know what tomato meatball spaghetti and Flame's 4th-order fire formula have in common?
1. They're both made entirely of curves?
2. Easy enough for even a monkey to understand?
3. …….
The whole dialogue is nothing but choices like this, and as you can see, there's exactly one option a sane human being would pick.
[Somewhere, an ominous sound echoes...]
Anyway, if you row around the lakeshore of the Isle of Knowledge like that, you'll eventually get this sign that the Kraken is about to surface.
Pick Let's head back to dodge the fight and end the day; pick Ignore it and keep going and the Kraken shows up and the battle begins.
[Photo: A tentacle slab slamming down onto the lake's surface]
I'll post the battle guide tomorrow.
...
...
...
We sat in the small boat that Ethan and I, on a whim, had rented and clambered aboard. The atmosphere had turned oddly stiff, and the little vessel carrying the two of us began gliding toward the middle of the lake to the quiet music of the water.
—Splash. Splash.
"...Ah, Ethan. There's a tree behind us."
"...Got it."
Ethan rowed while I watched the stern and called out directions — a staggeringly awkward boating arrangement, all told. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but with a faint flush coloring his face, Ethan gradually steered us farther from the shore and out toward the heart of the lake, until the two of us had drifted to a point near the center of the vast water that embraced the entire Isle of Knowledge.
"Is this far enough?"
"...Yes, this is fine. At this distance, no one should be able to see us, let alone overhear us."
By now, even if someone on the Isle of Knowledge happened to look our way, picking us out as Lilith and Ethan would be next to impossible. And it went without saying that no one could possibly hear the conversation we were about to have out here, anyway.
Ethan's oars, which had been slicing gently through the current one last time, soon went still upon the placid water. Thanks to the lake's calm ripples, neither of us rocked so much as an inch, and in that solemn silence we found ourselves simply facing each other.
"Lilith."
"Yes, Ethan."
"May I finish what I was trying to say earlier?"
"...Of course. That's the whole reason we came out to this spot, isn't it?"
I had hoped, if nothing else, that the rowing would give the alcohol time to wear off and return him to a calmer frame of mind. Regrettably, tonight's Ethan appeared to have properly made up his mind.
Well, to be fair, this wasn't the first time I'd nearly been on the receiving end of a confession. There had already been that one moment in front of the bonfire when the mood had turned remarkably similar. Back then, the bandits who happened to ambush us had let everything fizzle out gracefully — but in our current situation, that kind of escape was simply off the table. No deranged highwayman was going to come rowing a ferryboat across this lake with robbery in mind.
'...Hold on. Why am I feeling this strange sense of unease the moment we set foot on this lake?'
It felt as though I was forgetting some crucial piece of knowledge related to this body of water.
"Lilith."
"Ah — yes."
Just as I was racking my brain to dredge up whatever it was I'd forgotten, Ethan's solemn voice calling my name reached my ears again. Since nothing came to me right away, I decided it probably hadn't been all that important after all, and turned my focus to the man sitting before me.
"To be honest, this may sound like it's coming a bit out of nowhere."
"...Yes, Ethan."
"But even so, I felt I had to convey this feeling to you at least once. At the very least, I wanted to put into words, just this one time, that I like you, Lilith."
...So it had finally begun.
I had prayed, more than anything, that this particular development would never come to pass — but it seemed that bolting without answering was no longer an option. Not that running away had ever been the plan, anyway.
"Lilith."
"Yes, Ethan."
"Do you remember what you said, back when I asked you what my type was?"
"...That while you had no particular style of man you liked, there were certainly kinds of people you despised. Those were the words I passed along, I believe."
"...Yes. You remember."
...Well, how could I possibly forget.
That had been the exact moment my negative feelings toward Ethan had hit their ceiling — the era when anything and everything connected to him filled me with loathing. Looking back on it now, that was probably where it all began: the point when Ethan stopped tormenting and pestering me, and started, in earnest, becoming a different person altogether.
"That you hate unclean men. That you hate short guys who are nothing but flab. That you can't stand arrogant, self-important layabouts..."
"......"
"Th-that, and... men like perverts who poke you in the rear and then laugh about it right in front of your face — you said he was the worst man in the entire world..."
"......"
"Those words, back then — you were really saying them to me, weren't you?"
"......"
"Be honest with me, Lilith. I promise I won't get angry."
"...If we're being completely honest — yes. I was."
...Well, Ethan had probably already pieced most of it together anyway. Trying to paper over it with lies at this point would only erode his trust. If that was how things stood, it was far better to be honest and move forward. I knew full well by now that Ethan wasn't the sort of man who would dredge up the past and use it to shame me.
"Compared to the me of back then — how am I now?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You said you hated unclean men, so I cultivated proper manners and etiquette. You said you hated a short, flabby layabout, so I drilled swordsmanship with my father every single day."
"...So you did."
"A-and — I thought you would hate it, so even sharing a bed, I never once laid a hand on you. Th-that is, aside from what you did to me first..."
"...That's perfectly fine. That was something I explicitly permitted as your reward, so it doesn't count as molestation."
"Y-yes... I suppose that's true..."
In truth, I had been dimly aware of it for some time now. That Ethan — the reviled character who'd once strutted around under the title of the Pig Prince — was growing in a direction that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the Ethan of the game. That there was only a single difference between the environment the game's Ethan had lived through and the one this world's Ethan experienced.
And only now, hearing the cause of it all directly from his own lips, could I finally be certain of it. That the one who had transformed the Pig Prince Ethan into this — was none other than me.
"Is there still something lacking? Is it still my height that bothers you?"
"...No. Your height isn't really an issue for me anymore. You're a bit taller than I am, at the very least."
"Th-then...!"
"......"
"I-if — by any chance, if even the smallest fraction of you feels something for me as a man..."
"......"
"c-could you... become lovers with me? As a man, and a woman...?"
Water stretched out in every direction. And clutched in Ethan's hands, two oars.
There was nowhere left to run.
It was time to meet, head-on, that burning passion Ethan held for me.