Plan (5)
Plan (5)
Honestly, setting aside his character setting, Jake Lindbergh was a character with quite a bit of unfairness attached to him.
Completely contrary to the internal setting that he was in a difficult, hard-to-achieve love, his appearance setting led to his being used in various negative ways in all sorts of doujinshi. Though, the game itself was famous, so there weren't that many doujinshi of that kind, anyway.
That image mostly disappeared in the sequels, but then, because of the "Devoted Love" setting, there were works where the person he liked was stolen away as a twist... Well, he was a pitiful character in many ways.
"......"
"......"
The problem was that we didn't really have anything to talk about.
Truthfully, at this point, he probably had more to talk about with Alice than with me. Alice was in a position to become the Emperor, and that would be how the other nobles saw it, too. Frankly, even if he built a friendship with me...
Ah, or not. I was almost always attached to Alice's side, so from an outside perspective, I was someone where getting closer to me couldn't hurt. The fact that my image made me hard to approach was another story.
Incidentally, the girls who had been beside me started shuffling backward the moment Jake and I stood face-to-face and exchanged a single word, and at some point they ran away.
"I have often heard stories about Her Imperial Highness. As a classmate, I apologize for not coming to greet you sooner."
But this guy was an easygoing person who knew how to strike up a conversation with women without any hesitation. A brief silence didn't make him run away from me.
Even at this very moment, wasn't he flanked by women on both sides?
...... Now that I thought about it, this guy was also an "oblivious harem protagonist" type of character. Of course, unlike the heroines around the protagonist, the heroines next to this young master were almost all side characters. They were in the Noble Class, so they had names, but they were characters who would show up briefly, at most, as jealous roles.
And those side characters were already shuffling backward from the moment Jake and I started talking.
Even if they had scenes where they were jealous and ostracized others, in the end, they were daughters of noble families. Setting aside their origins, there wasn't a person who could openly confront me, someone whose status they absolutely could not overcome and whom rumors even called a Noble Killer among some noble circles.
Though nobles who openly spoke to me were rare.
"Don't mind it."
I answered like that and looked at the maid standing slightly behind Jake with her head bowed.
They called it the Noble Class and the Commoner Class, but the uniform designs were no different. This design, which was hard to tell whether it was a military uniform or a school uniform if not for the distinctive pleats of the skirt, seemed intended to convey the message that "all students are equal"... but honestly, it was meaningless since most nobles already knew each other's faces. And even if they didn't know the face, rumors spread quickly anyway.
"However, within the academy, we are all just students. There is no need for you to go out of your way to address me formally as an Imperial Princess."
"Ah, then..."
Jake mulled it over with a "Hmm," then spoke.
"Would it be alright if I called you Sylvia?"
"......"
Well, I mean.
It was indeed rather awkward to call me by my family name, Fangriffon. It was the name of the Imperial family, so casually throwing it around was a bit... but seeing him immediately jump to my first name like this, I didn't know whether to say he had a lot of nerve or not.
Well, this was Jake, after all. He was the character who called everyone he met by their first name from the start, so pointing it out was pointless.
More than that, I looked toward the maid, who must have been the one to drag Jake before me.
Her skin was a little dark. The game included content about her being discriminated against for that skin color. Though it wasn't completely dark, either. She was mixed race, white, to begin with.
'If people are to be discriminated against for their skin color, then should I be discriminated against too?'
That was what Jake had said in the original work when he sided with this girl.
Other people knew that Jake's skin color was sun-tanned, and some people said that made it different,
'Skin color is something that can change just from tanning in the sun, so does it make sense for that alone to prevent someone from doing something?'
No one could say a word to Jake when he spoke like that. They probably had plenty they wanted to say. But what could they do when the other party was a Duke?
"Ah, this is..."
Jake seemed to notice my gaze directed behind him, as he reached out his hand and patted the back of the girl standing next to him, making her take a step forward, and said,
"This is Lottie... that's her name."
Jake introduced the somewhat petite girl.
Just like it had been at the orphanage, this child also had no separate surname. In this world's setting, if you didn't inherit a surname from your parents, you would live without one unless you later married into a family and were incorporated, or unless you created and attached a surname to yourself.
Lottie was the illegitimate child of House Lindbergh. They wouldn't even recognize a child born to a commoner, let alone one born from a maid brought over from the colonies.
Lottie, who had lived as a maid since birth, and Jake, who had been a noble young master from the moment he was born.
They were a sub-couple, but they were quite interesting characters.
"I am Sylvia Fangriffon."
"...... My name is Lottie. I apologize for not greeting you sooner."
Originally, it wasn't a maid's place to step up and say her own name. Even though she had grown up with Jake since childhood, Lottie would be painfully aware of that fact.
Lottie's face was... so perfectly expressionless that I could stand to learn from it.
"Did you have something to do? Sorry for suddenly talking to you. Lottie told me that talking to you would be a good way to shake off the girls."
"Young Master."
"......"
I stared quietly at Jake's face.
There wasn't a shred of negative emotion visible in his expression. He was a member of a noble family, and the House of a Duke, the most exalted of nobles at that, so he would at least know how to deflect. So, this statement was intentional.
But even so, it didn't strike me as a remark meant to test me. More than that, it was probably meant literally, exactly as he felt.
"Don't worry, Lottie. Because Sylvia isn't that kind of person."
Jake affirmed Lottie's words with certainty.
I wasn't sure where that certainty came from, though.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
At my question, Jake nodded and said,
"I don't know how other people might see you, but I just don't get the impression that you're a particularly bad person."
The original work doesn't state whether Jake had a good eye for people or not. It was just that he was a character who treated everyone in a friendly way. To the degree that in the part where the protagonist's party lived on the run, he nonchalantly lived in a port town, spoke casually with commoners, and spent his days in leisure, fishing. With the bonus of even lying that he and Lottie were newlyweds.
Now that I thought about it, maybe he did have a good eye for people. He wouldn't have been able to live so leisurely in that kind of situation if he hadn't trusted the people around him.
You could just call it luck, but still, wouldn't it be better to at least harbor a little suspicion?
I raised my wariness toward Jake just a tiny bit.
"So... yeah. You give off a feeling similar to Lottie."
"......"
"...... Young Master."
Lottie's expression didn't break, but seeing me stand still without replying, Lottie called out to Jake once more. But Jake's expression didn't change at all.
I glanced at Lottie. Lottie's gaze fell to my feet. The eldest son of a Ducal house had said it, so she dared not pick up the words, and she didn't have the authority to apologize on his behalf, either. Her face was still expressionless, but I could feel from her demeanor alone that she was terrified.
"I wouldn't say we are entirely different, either."
When I answered like that, Lottie's face lifted again slightly. Though she still didn't meet my eyes.
"Was that the only reason you spoke to me?"
"Ah, yes. I just figured we could greet each other while we're at it. We're in the same class, aren't we?"
"I see."
"Yeah."
"Then I shall take my leave now."
"Alright, see you tomorrow."
I gave Jake a glance as he waved his hand with a bright smile, then turned around without making a point of saying goodbye separately.
Truthfully, my fatigue had been approaching its limit. Even though I had gone back in time and fallen asleep early, the fact that I had woken up at dawn must have been the critical blow.
...... First, I needed to get a good, deep sleep. I could worry about those two when I woke up.
Thinking that, I hurriedly headed to my room.
Still, at least the fact that I was resting went according to plan, so that's fine, right?
*
"......"
"......"
The two of them quietly watched Sylvia's figure growing distant with her stiff gait, and Lottie was the first to open her mouth.
"Young Master."
"Hmm?"
"...... Do you know who it was you just spoke to?"
"Wasn't it you, Lottie, who told me to go talk to her?"
"...... Young Master."
Unable to stand Jake's grumbling about how many women were around him, Lottie had snapped at him, and Jake, not forgetting it, had put it into action. He had seized the moment when the princess who was always with Sylvia and the other imperial princess were absent.
And the effect was outstanding. In fact, all the female students who had been surrounding Jake fell away.
"It really did work well, too. Hmm... Should I try hanging around with that group from now on?"
"Young Master."
"No, it's fine, isn't it? The Princess of the Kingdom of Belbur is there, and the imperial princess who's the leading candidate for the next Emperor is there. And they say the Grace family, though only a barony, is closer to the Imperial family than most ducal houses. Isn't each and every one of them an optimal person to build a friendship with?"
"......"
When Lottie finally clamped her mouth shut, Jake burst out laughing with a "Pfft."
"No, hmm... Okay, I admit it. At first, it's true I talked to you just to tease you."
"......"
Lottie still kept her lips firmly pressed together, but Jake simply shrugged his shoulders once and continued talking.
"But, I found out after talking to her. I don't think Sylvia is a particularly bad person."
"...... How can you be sure?"
"Well."
At Lottie's question, Jake tilted his head slightly and fell into thought.
"Honestly speaking, there isn't really a logical reason."
"......"
"She's similar to you, Sylvia. She herself also didn't say she was entirely different from you. If she had just had some run-of-the-mill high-ranking noble personality, how do you think she would have reacted to being compared to you?"
Sylvia Fangriffon's reaction had certainly been unexpected. Even if she weren't a noble, most people of the Empire... no, white people, would have been very offended if compared to someone from the colonies with a different skin color.
But even though she was an Imperial Princess, Sylvia didn't seem particularly offended.
...... She was expressionless, though.
"Her Imperial Highness is a person who rarely ever shows changes in expression to begin with."
"I know. I saw it right in front of her."
Jake answered Lottie's words immediately.
"But I happen to know someone else who maintains an almost expressionless face at nearly all times. Despite how it looks, I've been continuously learning to read expressions for over a decade. Thanks to a certain someone."
"......"
"What, are you trying to say you and Sylvia are different from each other?"
Jake said, grinning.
"Then, want to make a bet? On whether Sylvia is a good person or a bad one."
"...... Do you think now is the time to be saying such carefree things? If Her Imperial Highness were to......"
"You're worried my life might be in danger if she truly is the kind of person in those rumors? Thanks for the concern."
"......"
Lottie shut her mouth as if at a loss for words, but Jake didn't let the conversation lull.
"Even if it were certain that Sylvia killed that person, well. I just can't imagine that Sylvia, who has an atmosphere similar to yours, would have killed someone for no reason at all."
Seeing Jake say that with a beaming smile, Lottie let out a deep sigh, as if realizing he simply wouldn't listen to reason.