For Whom the Clubroom #2
Victorica parted her glittering lips and spoke.
“Nike told me everything. That you and she are not in a relationship. That you have only known each other for ten days at most.”
“......”
“In other words, your claim about having another woman was a lie. That ring is fake too, is it not? A mere prop to pretend you had someone else.”
“Yes, exactly as you say.”
Increases the wearer’s Charm by +10.
A pure gold ring from the royal capital of Parthas, extremely popular with women.
It was a fake coupling ring.
I slipped the ring off, and Victorica gave a slight shiver.
“...Suddenly I find you even more detestable, Victor. Is it just my imagination?”
So the effect appears the moment it comes off. In that case I had better keep wearing it.
When I slid the ring back on, Victorica reproached me.
“Miss Mokemoke seemed like a good person. How could you seduce such a kind girl and make her lie for you? The falsehood that Miss Mokemoke likes you and even kissed you. We nearly had a serious incident because of that misunderstanding.”
“......”
I had nothing to say. I had steeled myself for scolding of this degree, so I actually felt rather calm. No, it was milder than I had anticipated. Given Victorica’s personality I had expected her to slap me across the face without hesitation.
“Besides, Victor, you were never the sort to tell lies. I know that better than anyone—better than Enio or Miss Mokemoke.”
Victorica placed strange emphasis on the names Enio and Nike. While I wondered what she meant, she continued in a low yet composed and subtle voice.
“Victor, you already knew everything, did you not?”
“Knew what?”
“That this Enrique… no, that those Fimblevert fellows were connected to our Arclight family.”
“So it seems.”
“There is no need to play innocent. I heard it all from Enio. You knew Enrique would come to this warehouse and were waiting here in advance, yes?”
If I answered “That is correct,” it would be a lie. Yet both Enio and Victorica had interpreted the situation however they pleased.
“Victor, you knew about Enrique. Likewise, you knew about Fimblevert. Then naturally you also knew there had been a transaction between their leader, the ‘Wolf’ Leroy, and my brother Orca, correct?”
Orca. Orca Arclight was Victorica’s brother, two years her senior. An elite who had served two consecutive terms as student council president in the previous generation.
While I was lost in thought, Victorica trembled.
“I cannot believe it. My own blood relative made deals with those lawless vagrants. I do not know the content, but the Fimbleverts were not truly dismantled. They merely pretended.”
“Yes. It appears that was the case.”
“Victor, you could not tolerate such an Arclight, could you? You could no longer endure a student council that violated its own rules. That is why you deliberately lost to the transfer student.”
That is not accurate. Yet if it was not entirely wrong, perhaps it was close enough.
In truth, the main reason I had broken my engagement with Victorica was to sever ties with the Arclight family. Once Victor returned to the Arclight household he would become a slimy character for certain reasons.
“...The true enemy was within. The brighter the light, the darker its shadow must inevitably become. Victor, tell me. Exactly who is connected to whom?”
You want me to say it? Victorica’s line—“The enemy was within. The brighter the light, the darker its shadow must inevitably become”—appears at the end of Act 7 in the student council route. In other words, it is the declaration of ambition she makes to the protagonist Luke after plunging a blade into the slimy Victor’s chest.
To hear those words from Victor at the end of merely Act 1.
What would happen if I told the truth right now: “In fact, your father is reaching out to forbidden sorcery”? It would cause all sorts of trouble. Do you think the current you could defeat the family head? Absolutely not yet.
That was precisely why, when I broke the engagement, I had not said directly, “It is not you; it is your family that is the problem.”
“......”
Therefore I chose silence. After several trials and errors I had learned that Victor preferred silence over lying. This way my stomach hurt far less.
Victorica said, “No, since you are no longer an Arclight, such words would merely be my own obstinacy. This is my problem. Which brings me to… Victor…”
“What is it?”
“The matter of our broken engagement. I have thought about it quite deeply. I went back to the beginning and reconsidered our betrothal from the start. At that time we were children. We knew nothing.”
“It was an engagement arranged by the families from the outset. An unreasonable relationship from the very beginning.”
“...Unreasonable. Yes, because our own wishes were never involved at all. Therefore…”
Victorica paused for an unusually long time. Her personality had always been as straightforward as the sleeveless outfit that boldly revealed her shoulders, yet in ten thousand hours of playing the student council route this was the first time I had seen her circle around a subject so hesitantly.
“Stop dawdling and speak. Time is gold for a debtor like me, even if a rich person like you can afford to waste it.”
“Yes, I suppose it is. Then—”
Just as Victorica seemed to reach some resolve and her golden eyes sparkled brilliantly—
“Victor dear, are you in here?”
Someone stepped into the old warehouse. Unlike the silver-sparkling Victorica, she gleamed jet black. Black and white. A clear symmetry.
“My, Miss Victorica. Even someone as busy as you is in a place like this?”
“Enio, what brings you here of all people?”
Crackle. It seemed lightning flashed between their eyes. Their confrontation was only natural. Victorica was the student council vice-president and now the sole remaining ducal daughter of House Arclight. Enio was one of the seven councilors who kept the student council in check and the last remaining ducal daughter of House Blackstar. The two could never mix.
Enio spoke first.
“I had a request from Victor dear, you see.”
“Victor asked something of you?”
“Victor dear asked me for a single sock. Since I remembered, I stopped by to have a look at the club room as well.”
“A sock…?”
Victorica appeared unable to comprehend Enio’s words. Regardless, Enio sat down on the mat spread across the floor and removed her black shoes.
Thanks to that motion, her white thighs were revealed, and one might have glimpsed the single mole on the inside of her left thigh and the yellow ribbon wrapped around her slender ankle, yet Enio did not seem to mind in the slightest. Naturally, neither did I.
“Here. Is it not better for Victor dear if I remove it immediately?”
With a soft rustle Enio peeled off the sock, revealing her bare foot. It was exceedingly white and small.
“Ha, what is this? This is completely ridiculous. I am leaving.”
Victorica’s face flushed deeply. She whipped her head away.
I called out to the girl who was about to storm from the room.
“Victorica, were you not about to say something important?”
“I do not know! You fool! Just die!”
In the end Victorica left the club room. Die? Had anything in our recent conversation lowered her favorability?
More importantly, what had she been trying to tell me? While I was reviewing the preceding events, Enio handed me the black sock.
“By the way, why do you need this? Is it for the reason I am imagining?”
“Enio, I do not know what reason you are imagining, but what I requested was a new sock. To decorate the club room.”
To create the essential furniture for interior decoration—the Christmas Tree—one needs socks received as gifts from others.
Furniture that reduces Rene consumption for all Ludens facilities by 10%.
Allows a 10% discount on vending machines in the Hall of Adventure, random item boxes in the Underground Market, and various other facilities. One of the first items that must be installed.
“I see. So you needed a new sock. In that case I shall wear this one again.”
With a quick motion Enio slipped the black sock back onto her white toes and put her shoes on once more.
I had assumed Enio would simply look around the room and leave, yet she remained in the club room and chatted about various things. Among them were several pieces of information quite useful to me. For example:
“This is a secret, but during the councilors’ meeting someone suggested it might be good to permit Victor dear to carry weapons on campus.”
“If it is a secret, should you really be saying it?”
“I was merely talking to myself. If someone overheard, it cannot be helped.”
Very like Enio. Permission to carry weapons. It did not seem like a bad thing to have. Most of the materials needed to decorate the room—cooking ingredients, crafting components—were obtained by defeating monsters or animals.
“However there are seven councilors in total. A majority must approve. Even if I am willing, persuading the remaining three will not be easy.”
“Certainly. The councilors possess personalities every bit as distinctive as the student council officers.”
I knew six of the councilors. The game featured six councilors in total; one remained veiled and never appeared. Among players the running joke had been “They just have not made the character yet, have they?” or “They are clearly saving it to bundle into a future DLC.”
“......”
Thinking back now, those speculations might have been correct.
Enio continued, “I believe I can somehow persuade the likes of Eris or Morian. The remaining one is the problem. Even among the councilors, opinions do not always align.”
Enio was strangely favorable toward me. Was this compensation for having protected her from Enrique? Or had helping her locate the yellow ribbon been more appreciated than I realized?
Yet I found such goodwill burdensome. When a return gift far larger than the favor I had extended came back, I would then have to offer an even greater return gift. Then the other party would reciprocate again, and I would—endless repetition. That was why it was cleanest for people to give only as much as they received and receive only as much as they gave.
“Enio, I am grateful for the goodwill, but since this is my own affair I shall handle it myself.”
“Yes, that is the sort of person you are, Victor dear.”
With that our conversation paused for a moment. While I was pondering at length where to place which piece of furniture—
“Um, Victor dear.”
Enio spoke to me again.
“Why are you calling?”
“Now that I think about it, I am a member of this club too. Yet I have never tasted any of the dishes you have cooked, Victor dear. Could you make something for me?”
“Did you not call yourself a ghost member?”
“That is true, but… I believe I put in considerable effort to secure this room for you, Victor dear.”
Enio narrowed her eyes in a slightly sulky manner and gave me a sidelong glance.
She was right. In obtaining this club room I had incurred a small debt toward Enio. If I did not repay it now, there was no telling how it might return to haunt me later. I did not know about debts to others, but debts owed to Enio should be repaid as quickly as possible. Otherwise things became frightening.
“Very well. It happens that I was thinking it would be good to add a new menu item, so I shall specially accept your request. What would you like to eat?”
“Me? I…”
Enio pondered for a long time. As far as I knew, her preferences leaned toward mild flavors—bland tofu or the mild version of instant ramen.
“Hmm. When you ask me so directly it makes me think even harder. To think Victor dear is cooking for me… Hmmm…”
She was taking a long time. Time bourgeois.
Perhaps I should help her choose.
“Would you like a tofu dish?”
Since I had defeated Enrique, the Underground Market would soon open to civilians as well. I could obtain the tofu Enio liked there.
“Tofu? Victor dear, how did you know I like tofu?”
“Just a feeling.”
“Hmm, I shall accept that answer. But right now I do not particularly feel like it. At the moment, how should I put it… I feel like eating something sweet.”
Something sweet? In Ludens, where mere survival was difficult, sweets counted as a luxury item. Even for ducal daughters such as Victorica or Enio, while it might differ on the mainland, the setting was that sweets were hard to come by within Ludens.
“Even for you, Victor dear, is such a sudden request rather difficult?”
“No, there is no problem.”
Mass production would be another matter, but creating a single serving was not difficult. The biggest issue was that I would have to be prepared to get stung by bees.