Chapter 15 - Bug Demon Saintess
Translator : Elizabeth
Clara, having become somewhat close with Calix, one of the Sub Male Leads, acted friendly and answered.
“Good. Instead, there is a condition, no, a favor.”
“A favor, you say?”
“Fufu, yes. As you know, I don’t have many female friends. When I acted like I did with you just now to others, they all said they felt bad…….”
Clara spun a half-turn and looked up at the leaves fluttering in the wind.
While doing so, she tucked her hair behind her ear with one hand, appearing as if she had become one with the wind.
With a wistful expression.
She performed such an act.
“Haha, so if things go on like this, it will end as a chilly Tea Party and I’ll be totally humiliated. Ahaha…… Well, it can’t be helped, I suppose.”
“……I will go.”
“The favor was a joke. How could I dare, then I shall take my leave…… Huh? Yes? What did you just…….”
“Lady Hermain’s Tea Party, this body, Calix von Luminous, said he would go.”
“Ah…… R-R-Really?”
“A knight does not go back on his word. If you still cannot believe it, I swear on this sword.”
“Lord Calix…… I am so grateful, but still, swearing on a wooden sword is a bit…….”
“…….”
She roughly acted out even such a light comedy scene well, following the dialogue she saw in the game.
“Thank you, Lord Calix! Surely I, and my few friends, will be happy……!”
“W-Wait! Friends, surely you said you had no friends—”
“No matter if it’s me, I’m not completely without them! Then, see you at the Tea Party!”
Leaving the spot immediately while still maintaining a sense of mystery,
Thus stimulating the Male Lead’s regret,
And simultaneously amplifying his imagination and anticipation.
After finishing all that acting,
—Dadadak!
Clara scurried away to the back of the school building where no one would see her.
“Bleugh!”
And vomited.
To be precise, she pretended to vomit.
“Bleeuugh……! C-Cringey! It’s cringey, cringey, so cringeeeyyy!!”
Clara, confirming there was no one around, shuddered and trembled all over her body in horror.
This was self-reproach.
“Just how could the Iris of the original work say such things with a sober mind?! Of course, I, who perfectly recreated it from the dialogue to the pose and expression without a single mistake, am quite amazing too, but……!!”
Clara had a complex expression, a mix of self-loathing and pride.
“……Phew, anyway, success this time too.”
In any case, she performed perfectly.
“Leon, Sigmund, Edri…… and this time, even Calix. With this, a total of four Sub Male Leads, the first meeting scenes are cleared for now!”
This makes exactly the fourth one.
And all four times, she succeeded in handing out the Tea Party invitation and receiving an intention to attend.
In other words,
“Fufu…… With this, I’ve finally taken a good step toward becoming a popular girl…… I’m no longer just some ordinary, average K-High School Girl…… Ufufu…….”
Reincarnator and veteran gamer Clara’s plan to suck the honey (reap benefits) of the Romance Fantasy world was, fortunately, proceeding smoothly from the first step.
“……Actually, popularity aside, I’m doing this fish-management (stringing along) bullshit just to prepare for the difficulty just in case…… but fortunately, it’s smooth so far. However, with the Crown Prince…….”
The ending Clara was aiming for was like an egg without the yolk.
It’s a route where she first gathers the four Sub Male Leads, excluding the Main Male Lead, the Crown Prince.
Because, if the difficulty of this Romance Fantasy game was Normal or simply Hard, there was no need for this.
But the Extreme difficulty where you have to struggle like crazy, and that difficulty which no one expected, where you can only clear it by gathering all five men—four Sub Male Leads and one Main Male Lead.
To prepare for this, it couldn't be helped.
And for that preparation, Clara decided to take charge of the ‘whites’, the Sub Male Leads.
Then who eats the remaining yolk?
“The most important one is actually Iris, not me…….”
Naturally, it was the Main Heroine, Iris.
The Main Heroine Iris had the mission to take charge of the yolk, the Crown Prince.
“……For now, I taught her almost everything I could.”
Clara had taught Iris almost everything needed to date the Crown Prince through special training during that time.
Starting from what the Crown Prince likes and dislikes, to the Crown Prince’s personality that appeared in the setting book and game, and other miscellaneous information.
Clara, befitting a K-High School Girl who received K-Education (cramming), practically crammed it all into Iris’s head.
Although she was a Main Heroine who had to skip the first Slap Event because of the Saintess’s eccentricities.
Still, if she crammed this much, it should work out somehow.
She desperately wanted to believe so.
“Please manage somehow, Iris……! Please, please, Iri-Iris! If you can’t get close to the Crown Prince and date him, just who will clear the game scenario and who will stop the Final Boss……! Goddess, please!”
Clara looked up at the sky in a praying posture as if seeking the Goddess she hadn't sought even once until now,
But soon thought of the Saintess and stopped.
“……This won’t do. I have to check even from afar.”
Clara immediately went to the place where the second Event Scene with the Crown Prince would take place, where Iris would be waiting.
With the mindset that if the Crown Prince hadn't passed by yet, she would give Iris one more nagging reminder.
The corridor leading straight from the Sword Garden, the Knight Department training ground, to the main building.
Looking toward the nearby Alchemy Hall, she could easily find the Main Heroine.
“Ah……! There she is!”
Fortunately, although Iris was sitting on pins and needles looking anxious, she was still clutching the Tea Party invitation tightly with both hands.
It seems she didn't run away, at least.
Still, looking like that, it seemed obvious she would make a mistake without even being able to speak properly,
So Clara intended to go and at least relieve her tension.
It was when she was about to approach like that.
—Swish, swish, swish.
Suddenly, a group of young noble ladies began to surround Iris.
Iris stepped back to widen the distance, but before she knew it, she was driven back and blocked by a pillar behind her.
Surrounded by the group of young ladies, Iris couldn't go anywhere.
Soon, clack clack, another young lady approaches Iris, who is cornered.
Perhaps that young lady held the highest status in the group, as the other young ladies made way for her on their own.
That young lady, characterized by deep red hair and amber eyes,
Was naturally a character Clara had seen in the game too.
‘W-Wait……! Th-That’s Erancia?! W-Why on earth, why……! Why is Erancia already here?!’
Erancia de Valmonde.
The Marquess’s daughter of the Court Noble family, House Valmonde, and,
‘In the first place, Erancia is a third-rate villainess who comes out as a substitute after Anastasia’s annulment event……!’
The third-rate villainess of this Romance Fantasy game.
However, only her role and story in the game were third-rate.
The halo of a Marquess family was actually right below a Dukedom and not something to be dared ignored.
At least, even more so now, before becoming close with the Crown Prince Lucerius!
“W-Why on earth…… Why on earth did Erancia come out already and towards Iris…… Uh, uh? Uh-uh-uh? Uh-oh, d-don’t go…… You can’t follow her…… You can’t follow heeeer……!!”
However, contrary to Clara’s desperate wish,
Erancia and her group began to drag Iris somewhere.
Even though there wasn't much time left until the Crown Prince would pass by here and the second meeting Event Scene would occur.
—Rustle.
Clara was hiding in the bushes,
—Step, step.
And at that moment when Erancia’s group of young ladies approached near the bushes and then moved away,
Clara heard.
“If you’re thinking of asking the Saintess for help, you’d better wake up from your dream, Commoner.”
“Hmph, right, right. I just saw the Saintess hopping around pol-jjak pol-jjak saying stuff came, singing some weird song about Lay-zuh? Lay-juh? Anyway, singing something weird and returning to her villa just a moment ago.”
“Everyone, stop chatting and let’s go educate her quickly. That things turned out like this is partly my fault for harboring curiosity about Professor Snake’s class, so I will educate her directly. That commoner.”
“There is no need for Lady Erancia to use her hands directly……! Rather than getting your hands dirty on a commoner, I, Clarice de Holland, will become Lady Erancia’s hands and feet instead……!”
“Don’t make such a fuss, Clarice. In the first place, if you lay a hand on her, and if by chance this commoner really can use Light Magic and is indeed a retainer under the Saintess’s protection, you, from a Baron family, might have a problem with status. So quietly leave it to me, a Marquess’s daughter.”
“Kuh……! I-I apologize! If only I were from a Marquess family instead of a Baron family……! I wouldn't have dared to let Lady Erancia dirty her hands and feet……!”
“I told you not to make a fuss…… In the first place, if you were from a Marquess family, you wouldn't be my retainer. ……By the way, why have you been emphasizing not just hands but feet since earlier? Surely you aren't holding a grudge about me kicking your shin before?”
“Ah, that’s right. That time it really hurt a lo…… Hi, hiek?!”
Clara heard up to that point,
And the subsequent conversation faded away quickly as they moved further away.
“…….”
Clara remained hiding in the bushes.
Just how long did she stay quiet like that?
—Spring!
Clara, seeming to have made up her mind, stood up from the spot,
—Dadadak!
And began to run.
To the place where Iris and Erancia’s group disappeared.
Behind the Alchemy Hall.
While doing so, she shouted.
“You damn Sainteeeeeess……!!”
She continued shouting while running.
“I wondered ‘no way, no way,’ but the fact that she caused a scene in the Dark Magic class, was that noble Eranciaaaaa?!!”
While running and running,
Containing the resentment boiling up from her dantian,
She shouted for the last time.
“You damn Saintessssss!!! Just what kind of things are you going around committing!!! You Bug-Ma (Bug Demon) Saintessssss!!!”
Rapist (Gang-gan-ma).
Murderer (Sal-in-ma).
And Bug-Ma (Bug Demon).
That’s right.
To Clara,
In her Romance Fantasy struggle,
Saintess Louise was,
The Devil itself creating bugs in this Romance Fantasy game world.