Forbidden Love? (5)
Forbidden Love? (5)
When Alice and I went back down to the lobby, Claire and Leo were there. From what I heard, Claire was apparently sharing a room with Charlotte. And Leo was sharing with Jake.
Mia Crowfield was with Sophia... No, I couldn't fathom what they were thinking with that pairing. They claimed it was so they'd "feel comfortable," didn't they? Wouldn't this combination just make them both uncomfortable?
But when I thought about it again, I suspected those two would have been uncomfortable no matter who they roomed with. Mia Crowfield wasn't the type to enjoy building friendships with others, and Sophia had only just transferred in. On top of that, she was a foreigner with no connections at all in imperial social circles.
Maybe they figured that, precisely for those reasons, they'd have nothing to clash over. Putting Mia Crowfield in a room with someone from the imperial family or an Emperor's Faction house like Claire was... awkward in a lot of ways.
"Ah, that."
When Alice took out the invitation she'd brought downstairs to start the conversation, Claire reacted immediately.
"You got one too?"
"No, I didn't."
Claire's expression was full of disappointment as she answered.
"But I saw Charlotte get one. From Lottie."
"What's it about?"
Having heard the exchange, Leo asked, looking curious.
"It's an invitation to a stuffy banquet being held at my family's territory tonight."
Jake answered. Unlike his usual demeanor at the academy, his mood was oddly subdued, making him seem far heavier than usual. Although, Jake's personality was always so buoyant it seemed ready to take flight, so the moment he settled to the ground he probably looked ten times heavier than normal.
"Just so we're clear, there's no need to go. My father didn't send these expecting everyone to attend."
"But we can't refuse an invitation from the local lord whose lands we're staying on, can we?"
Charlotte said, frowning slightly.
"We aren't providing this venue for you by invitation in the first place. We're providing it as cooperation with the academy's educational program. Strictly speaking, we're in the middle of classes, so this is different from a typical invitation."
Then he looked around and continued.
"Did anyone else get one?"
In the brief silence that followed, there was one girl who cautiously raised her hand.
"I, I also received one...."
It was Mia Crowfield.
And it was only after seeing that that the people around us seemed to realize roughly what criteria these invitations had been distributed by.
"That's really... blatant. Doesn't that mean not a single commoner student got one?"
Alice said, looking dumbfounded.
"Well, yes. They were only sent to families around the rank of count in the first place."
Seeing our gazes converge on him, Jake spoke with a bitter smile.
"It's excessively blatant even for a ducal house, isn't it?"
"...... Well, I can't say it's that extreme. At banquets held by other ducal houses, baronial families usually aren't invited unless they're the host's own people. Commoners go without saying."
Alice opened the envelope, unfolded the invitation, and spoke.
'We would be honored if you would grace the banquet we have prepared this evening with your noble presence.'
And the duke's signature, the location, and the time were written on it. Aside from the signature, the rest probably wasn't that important. Someone would come to escort us even if we forgot about it.
"Is he trying to forge connections in advance while they're still students?"
Once Alice became emperor, neither she nor I would likely have the time to come all the way out here. Alice because she'd be the emperor, and me because I'd be assisting Alice.
So if anyone wanted to build up their network, now was the perfect opportunity. Not just for the imperial family members like Alice, but for the children of other high-ranking noble houses as well.
"Um, well... I guess?"
Jake answered vaguely.
"A banquet... I am curious about it, though...."
Sophia said, her eyes sparkling. Naturally, since Sophia was officially from a 'hereditary knight family,' she seemed to be treated as a noble by a narrow margin, but by rank she stood lower than a baron. She hadn't received an invitation.
"Well, to an outsider's eyes, it'd probably look that way."
Alice, Charlotte, and Mia Crowfield, who actually received the invitations, didn't look particularly happy about it. And neither did I.
... Besides, I knew the duke's other ulterior motive too. I wouldn't be included in that scheme, but for the sake of the other girls who might get caught up in it, it was probably better for me to go along.
"...... Hmm."
Hearing Sophia's words, Jake stroked his chin and fell into thought for a moment, before a grin soon spread across his lips.
"Hey, friend."
"Whoa!?"
Leo flinched in surprise when Jake suddenly threw an arm around his shoulders.
"Any chance you'd like to come along to the banquet? There'll be plenty of pretty young noble ladies inside."
At those words, all the girls nearby shot Jake icy, cold stares. Even Sophia did... Ah, now that I thought about it, she was the one who had lines about premarital purity and things like that, wasn't she.
"Huh? No, I...."
Leo wore an openly uncomfortable expression. That was a natural reaction for a dense male character, but Leo's reaction wasn't actually the important thing here.
There was no way the game's protagonist could miss an important event like this.
In the original story, Jake, who had figured out the duke's real goal, dragged Leo into the situation and threw everything into chaos.
I didn't know if that idea would work out properly here, where the developments had diverged in so many ways, but well, having the protagonist nearby couldn't hurt.
"And, Leo's little sister over there."
"My name is Claire. And I'm not his little sister. I'm the older one."
"Yeah? Then, Claire."
Jake grinned as he looked at Claire.
"Don't you want to attend the banquet together?"
"Huh? Can I?"
"Of course. If the brother is going, the sister can't be left out. You too, Sophia."
...... Hmm.
How to put it.
It was this kind of atmosphere in the original story too, but I could see now why some doujinshi artists liked Jake so much.
Going by his attitude alone, anyone could tell he was a Blond Tanned Guy trying to flirt with the heroines.
It also seemed like he himself was deliberately playing up that kind of vibe.
It was fortunate that Lottie was still handing out invitations. Otherwise, I might not have been able to stop myself from smacking Jake on the back of the head.
"...... What's your angle?"
"An angle? I'm just saying I want to have a good time with my friends."
Alice's reaction was a little different from the original story, though.
In the original, Alice, who had spent her childhood studying all kinds of things just to beat Claire and thus felt awkward in social circles, was about to refuse this invitation too at first, until she heard Leo was going, which firmly made up her mind.
The other female characters had similar reasons.
Though here, Alice didn't actually seem to have any romantic feelings for Leo.
"I will go."
When I suddenly cut in and spoke, the surrounding gazes all instantly swiveled toward me.
"Oh, really?"
"There's a big difference between hearing about what kind of man the duke is and seeing it for yourself."
The truth was, I was completely filled with the desire to take part in Jake's plan.
Because... well, obviously?
In a setting like this, if you find a pure love couple engaged in a forbidden romance, it's common sense to help them get together.
"Hmm."
Jake looked at me quietly for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, fine. You already got an invitation anyway."
"Will you be all right?"
Alice, who was standing next to me, asked quietly. She was still glancing sideways at Jake with slightly suspicious eyes.
"Probably nothing major will happen. And..."
I looked toward Claire and Sophia, who were visibly excited, and spoke.
"There are about two people here who would be hugely disappointed if I said I wasn't going."
"You really are too soft."
Alice smiled bitterly at my words.
*
The southern part of House Lindbergh's territory was a place where the blazing sun beat down almost constantly, but around September, the daily temperature range grew quite wide.
The inside of the car that came to pick us up from the hotel was warm, of course. Warm enough that there was no need to worry about that kind of cold.
"Then, the invitations..."
"It's fine."
At the entrance to the mansion, before we could even hand over the invitations, Jake spoke to the gatekeeper.
"I'll vouch for the identities of the people here. They're my friends."
"Is that so."
At Jake's words, the gatekeeper stepped aside without further questions.
"Enjoy your evening."
"Um, hey...."
Following behind Jake, who was striding in confidently, Claire tugged lightly on my sleeve with the tips of her fingers and asked.
"Sis, is it really okay for us not to wear dresses and things?"
Now that was an adorable thing to worry about.
Wasn't it a little too late to be fretting over that?
"We're students, so our uniforms are perfectly sufficient."
This wasn't a true, formal social occasion in the first place. Rather, the duke had summoned everyone because he wanted to see the 'students.'
Especially the female students without fiancés, most likely.
The female students suitable for marrying his son.
The duke knew that Jake frequently associated with Lottie, after all.
A so-called forbidden love, I suppose.
Well, in a game with this kind of setting, it wasn't forbidden or anything, and might as well have been a couple they made to get together.