No Easy Mode in My Romance Fantasy #2

My heart felt at ease.

Why was that? Was it the Academy students reveling in their youth beneath that fresh, bright sun? The sidelong glances the girls kept throwing my way?

Except Talia-chan, the prettiest girl in all of Lamedia, already had her arm hooked through mine. She caught the stares around us, puffed her cheeks out huge, and said,

"Honestly, Lord. Are you going to keep looking at other girls? I might just get jealous—"

"...I am not linking arms with you. And it is not exclusively the young ladies who keep glancing this way. Nor am I puffing my cheeks in a jealous sulk. What on earth have you been going on about?"

Talia stared at me like I'd lost my mind.

Ah. Right.

Thankfully, it wasn't a hallucination. This wasn't Sheol. Just my own little fantasy.

"...It's nothing. The weather's so nice I was talking nonsense."

Of course, the part about my heart feeling at ease wasn't nonsense.

You know what? It had been about a week since I came to this world. In a single week I'd bounced between Sheol and waking life, pulling every kind of stunt just to survive this far. There's a limit to how brutal a hard mode is allowed to be.

Compared to that—wasn't a romance fantasy just too beautiful?

A world that had plucked out every grimy, filthy corner of the Middle Ages and dressed what was left in the pretty name of fantasy. It claimed to be medieval, and yet there were finely silver-gilt mirrors, gorgeous dresses and dashing uniforms, elegant, refined balls. In truth it was closer to the Renaissance, or even the modern era.

How great was that. I finally understood why women loved romance fantasy.

This was fantasy. This was fiction.

A bone-chilling dungeon that opened every night was never beautiful. Nobody wanted that crap.

"At that pace, however, we are going to be late. Professor Cordelia's magic class begins early, does it not?"

"Ah, that? Forget it. I'm not going."

"...I beg your pardon?"

Talia didn't follow. I shrugged.

"You're the one who said Professor Cordelia seemed like a dangerous person. I think you were right. So I'm putting a little distance between us. Magic class isn't required anyway—I'll just fill the slot with something else."

Talia stared blankly for a moment before she found her voice.

"So you mean... you are doing this because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of what I said?"

"Of course! I ought to listen to you."

Lying without batting an eye. Well—it wasn't really a lie. I had decided not to see Cordelia anymore. That much was true.

"I thought it over a lot last night. You've got a better eye for people than I do, so I figured I should take your opinion. The training did work, but it's still fishy... and training with you is way better anyway."

Talia looked at me for a long second. Then she ducked her head, and when she spoke again her voice had gone a little small.

"L-Lord... thank you. For trusting me."

Aigoo. What a cute thing.

With a Talia this pretty standing right here, why had I ever listened to that witch? Aura absorption—what was I even supposed to do with that? Cordelia hadn't known the first thing about the situation I was in. Common sense said she should have told me to skip the weird stuff and just do orthodox training, the way Talia had. That witch was not normal. I'd had a bad feeling from the start. Yes I had. Absolutely.

I started walking again, grinning to myself.

"Lady Lianette. Good morning."

"Ah—good morning."

She dipped her head, then went on.

"Um, Lord Edwin? We're in the same year, so you don't have to be so formal. You can just call me Lianette."

Hm? The line had changed.

Not that a change of dialogue was strange, of course—she wasn't an NPC. But her whole manner had softened a little. This was probably the point in the original where Lianette went around raising affection with the major characters. She was suddenly smiling at me, after all.

"Then please call me Edwin as well, Lianette. There is no high or low birth at the Academy."

"O-oh, is that all right? Then—Edwin. I'll see you again in sword training."

"Yes, Lianette. Until then."

A short greeting, and we parted ways.

Nice. The vibe was good. This was a romance fantasy!!

I was still grinning as I walked, and Talia's expression went subtle again.

"Lord. As I have told you before..."

"Don't hit on a girl who already has someone, right? I know. We were just saying hello as classmates."

"...Yes. So long as you understand."

Even a little jealousy like that was terribly charming. Conflict elements? A catfight was plenty. That was the proper flow of things.

Dream-monsters and worlds where cognition came unstitched and all the rest of it... I was so, so sick of that.

"All right, let's go!"

The air was crisp. Even the air in a romance fantasy was refreshing. Today I was going to walk into sword class in a good mood, and say hello to my classmates while I was at it.

"Hey—what classes are you taking today?"

"Uh... I'm taking mounted swordsmanship."

"Same here."

"C'mon, why's everyone so stiff? We're classmates. Drop the formal speech. You can talk casual. What about you?"

"I'm taking Grand Magic Combat Theory. Um... you're the prince from Lamedia, right?"

"Oh, same class as me! And I said drop it. Yeah, I'm from Lamedia. I actually take my electives over on the magic-department side, so I don't really know what people pick for gen-ed. What'd you guys choose?"

Everyone's reactions were awkward, which was fair ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough. A few of them had probably tried to talk to me on enrollment day. I was royalty, after all. Then I'd blown them all off, gone straight back, and done nothing but train with Talia, so of course they'd lost interest.

Even so, once I came at them friendly, the ice started to thaw.

"I took—I mean, I went with Tactics..."

"I'm in Military History."

"Tactics, huh. Hey, Talia—how's Tactics? You seem like you'd be into that kind of thing."

I floated the suggestion casually enough. Talia's response was... noncommittal.

"I will... be taking the same classes as you regardless, Lord. Please choose whatever suits you."

The Academy's add-drop period was generous, so this early in the term you could change almost anything. Magic-related classes were off the table, first of all. The magic faculty offered plenty besides Cordelia's basic magic course—but you'd still have to set foot on the magic campus to take them.

Not that my magic talent isn't complete garbage anyway. I only went in the first place to get on Cordelia's radar.

"But Edwin...? Why'd you pick a magic class as an elective?"

The question came out of nowhere. I blinked back at them.

"Hm? Electives are free choice, aren't they? Is there a problem?"

"Ah—no. It's just, the sword department and the magic department have always been on bad terms. I was wondering if you catch any dirty looks."

"Ah... right. That was a thing in the setting."

"...Huh?"

"Nothing, never mind. So people don't usually take magic as an elective?"

They nodded.

"Yeah. Among the first-years it's just you and Lianette, I think. Other than that there's a third-year, Senior Rita..."

"Lianette? Lianette of House Bellone?"

"Yeah, that's her. You know her? She's a pretty weird one too. She's been dragging incidents around since the first day of school... ah. You don't really hang out with people, so maybe you hadn't heard?"

No, I knew. I'd read it all in the original.

Come to think of it, Lianette had taken magic classes too, hadn't she? It wasn't as if Cordelia's was the only magic course on offer... and besides, Lianette had gotten tangled up with Cordelia before her regression, so she probably didn't want to see her.

"I know her. She's famous. Fired a sword instructor, and so on... you hear it whether you want to or not."

"Right? Honestly, if she weren't the Third Prince's fiancée the story would've broken a long time ago. Her backing's just that solid, so they let it—hk."

The student mid-conversation went stiff. I looked back. Lianette was standing there.

She didn't smile, and she didn't ice over either. In a perfectly composed tone, she said,

"Talking about people is fine, but could you make a small correction? I'm not particularly under Prince Garen's protection. So I'd appreciate it if you'd amend that to saying I have House Bellone as my backing. Miss Romea."

"Uh... yeah. Lianette, I'm sorry—"

Lianette turned on her heel and vanished without waiting for the rest.

Damn. Look at that refreshing girlcrush. That was the personality a romance-fantasy heroine was supposed to have.

At any rate, I spent the rest of the day taking classes only in the sword department. In case Cordelia came looking, I deliberately took the long way back, the route farthest from the magic faculty, and in the afternoon I trained with Talia again.

"Ah, Talia. And don't renew the lease on that storage shed I rented. I don't need it anymore."

"You don't need it? That's a curious way to put it, considering you never used it in the first place."

I wanted to use it! How was I supposed to know Pale Cameo was a trap card?

"Anyway! Wha—hey, like that—wait, wait! Talia, I'm talking here!"

"Lord, an opponent will not wait for you to finish speaking!"

"Agh, it's been a while since I heard that line!"

We trained until we'd had our fill. I practiced modulating my aura output, too. Then I lay down in my room and went to sleep.

"...Nnh."

That night, I did not dream of Sheol.

The next day passed.

"Lord. Focus!"

And the day after that. Only on the fourth night did I dream of Sheol again.

The cycle the dreams followed seemed to be random, but roughly every three or four days? Apparently you didn't usually get Sheol dreams back-to-back the way I had last time.

"Yay! Play with me again today!"

"Sure. What do you want to play? How about something other than house?"

"Nooo, nooo. House is the best! Today Brother and Ariella are husband and wife. A wife has to take care of her husband. Come here. Brother! Hurry up!"

"Where did you even learn to say that...?"

So I played with Ariella again that night, then stepped out to 1-B, opened the door once more, and woke from the dream.

Come to think of it—I spent a considerable stretch of time inside the dream, and yet I never felt tired in the real world. A minute ago my mind had been wide awake, and the moment I opened my eyes I felt as if I'd slept deeply. It was a strange sensation.

"Good morning, Lianette."

"...So it is. Edwin."

"Morning, Edwin!"

"Yeah. Morning."

I put my overflowing social stat and my likable face to work, and went on building friendships with the classmates I'd newly gotten to know. Hm. I did have the kind of face people warmed to, didn't I?

"I couldn't say what a 'social stat' is, Lord, but your first impression was a long way from likable. You ignored every greeting on the first day of school and walked away."

"Talia, can you not pick apart every single thing I say?"

I grumbled at her, and in the evening we trained.

Three more days passed, and on the night of the third, I dreamed.

"...No. This is impossible."

I tried denying reality. The notification window did not go away.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

At first I'd thought, casually, that the meet-Ariella quest was over. I'd even shrugged at the reward being nothing but access to information. I'd figured it would be useless information anyway.

But I never imagined that "information" would be—

No. Not this. This was not it. This was really not it!! Please tell me it's a lie!!

I denied reality all I liked. This damned status window did not change.

"Nngh... kh, hhkk. I'm the only one who always gets griefed!!"

"B-Brother. Are you crying?"

Ariella came up, worried, and wrapped her arms tight around mine. Miserable as it was, the tears spilled over.

"This is seriously so rigged..."

Status window!! Sheol!!! You fucking bastards!!!