Information (3)
Information (3)
"So,"
But the conversation didn't end there. Alice, having heard Bella say that, asked her with an expression that seemed to say, What does it matter?
"'So,' what?"
"Were you planning to just hand over that piece of information and leave? It's a long way to Northwood from here. Finding out what a Cathedral Knight is doing there isn't something we can really do anything about."
I scooped up a spoonful of the mango parfait in front of me and put it in my mouth.
The sweet ice cream and slightly tart mango pieces came together in perfect harmony. The warm weather made it even better. The combination was nearly perfect. Was that why the French called it a parfait, a perfect dessert?
I should have tried a parfait when I went to Belbur last time.
When the emperor had announced he was sending me as his proxy, my sense of judgment had flown away along with my disbelief, so my thoughts hadn't reached that far.
I resolved that if I ever returned to Belbur, I would absolutely try the recommended items at the cafés Charlotte had recommended.
"The moments when Father hands us information are when he wants us to do something."
"He must want 'us' to do something. Not 'you.'"
"Ugh...."
Bella corrected Alice's statement.
The ones who received missions directly from the emperor and moved on them weren't Alice, the true imperial princess, but the ones called the Emperor's Children, entities practically indistinguishable from the emperor's personal assassination unit. I was included among them.
From what I could tell, the number and danger of those missions had dropped sharply compared to the original, but it was still true that I had carried out missions.
"... So? What's the reason you went out of your way to come here and deliver that information, even to the point of letting it slip that you're surveilling Sylvia?"
I scooped up another spoonful of parfait and put it in my mouth. This time, though, I got more fruit than ice cream. Even though it was fruit from far away, the juice was vividly alive. Could it taste even better if I ate it locally?
"That assumption is wrong. Do you think that if I hid the fact that I stick close to Sylvia until the very end, Sylvia wouldn't know? She probably knew everything from back when Lucas was attached to her."
Well, I hadn't known from the start. Actually, since I hadn't noticed the pursuit of Mia Crowfield, whose stalking skills were inferior to Lucas's, it stood to reason I hadn't noticed Lucas's pursuit at all.
"If you ask her where Lucas is now, she could probably answer right away."
No, I didn't know. If I found out Lucas's position in the near future, I might be able to go back in time and pretend to have known, but honestly, it didn't look likely that I'd find out in the near future to the point of wanting to turn back time.
Of course, there was no need to reveal in advance that I didn't know. It would be awfully strange to run my mouth about the latest information I couldn't possibly know a moment ago and then bring out the fact that I somehow didn't know Lucas's location.
I would just not answer.
"... You keep deflecting. I asked why you're going out of your way to offer that information."
Obviously, it was an order to infiltrate the casino.
In the original, it was information that Claire showed up to deliver. Of course, in the character name window, she only appeared as 'a girl with a decadent atmosphere.' Still, since this scene was Claire's first appearance, I could at least say it was fortunate that the mood wasn't one of desperately pretending not to know a character everyone knew.
Alice appeared in a somewhat suspicious role early on. She was a character who came off like someone who seemed decent on the surface but had something going on underneath, deceiving the players. Since they showed an event scene of her having this kind of conversation with an unknown figure in a place without the protagonist, it was easy to mistake her for a hidden mastermind early on.
What's more, they didn't even give you the full conversation; they cut just a few lines from the middle and left it at something like '... Fine. I'll keep that information in mind.' When it was done like that, it was way too obvious to anyone watching.
In fact, it was so obvious that nobody believed it.
"Before vacation... that thing, a Field Practicum, was it called? There's a schedule where you go once more, right? I rearranged the order a little. You guys are going to Northwood for this Field Practicum. Naturally, you'll end up going near the casino. Even if it doesn't look it, the surroundings are completely forest."
Because the surroundings were a forest that people couldn't enter carelessly, the area around the casino could boast ironclad security. The immediate vicinity of the casino had all the trees cut down anyway, and since nothing but forest ran along that perimeter, even if someone lost money and ran out, they couldn't survive making it through that vast forest.
There was a bit of history involving the local mafia attached to this, but that wasn't a story worth bringing up now.
"A blessed forest hard to see anywhere in the Empire... or so they call it, but because of that, apparently beasts come jumping out at all hours. Naturally, there are also beast-hunting requests near the area."
"So?"
Pitifully, Alice seemed not to have thought about her own future at all.
'If you're truly the emperor's daughter, then carry out the mission yourself, right alongside us.'
That was what Claire had said in this scene. In the current world, however, Claire was either training or studying, one of the two.
When a casino appears as a setting in a game like this, isn't there only one reason?
To put the heroines in bunny-girl outfits.
The game was strangely niche, with figures rarely coming out, so it needed at least this much fanservice.
Naturally, Claire infiltrated together with you. An event where both of you donned bunny-girl outfits, wore something like masquerade masks on your faces, went poking around deep inside the casino, and were eventually discovered by Leo, who ended up entering the casino by chance.
At first, Leo thought, 'Come on, there's no way Her Imperial Highness would be in a place like this doing that.'
... And while there were a few doujin artists who got hooked on that line, that was something with no relation to the original game anyway.
"So, well, I came to ask a favor."
I wondered what kind of reaction Alice would show.
Honestly, I was a little curious. Because in the game, the reaction Alice showed back then wasn't shown.
Curious about Bella's next line and Alice's line in response to it, I scooped up another spoonful of parfait and put it in my mouth—
"To Sylvia."
And froze right up.
"Hmm, originally, I wanted to ask our true imperial princess and see her reaction, you see."
Bella smirked and rolled her eyes toward me.
"Because, as it happens, the person who already knows all sorts of information without me having to tell her more is sitting right here."
"What did Father say?"
When Alice, who had seen my face, asked, Bella shrugged her shoulders and answered.
"Well, he told me to tell Sylvia."
"......."
At that answer, Alice bit her lip.
Uh, no, the reason I froze up was that the mission... well, granted, I didn't particularly want to do it.
But it wasn't because of something like that.
"... Fine. Convey this clearly to Father."
Alice glared at Bella.
And Bella, seeing that sharp look on Alice's face, hunched her shoulders with an expression as if to say 'ooh, how scary.' To put it simply, it wasn't a scared expression at all.
"For this mission, 'another' imperial princess, me, is going too."
Ah.
No, no, no.
If you went there for no good reason, you were going to end up in a bunny-girl outfit too.
Of course, by my standards, Alice's bunny-girl outfit would only look like an ultra-high-quality cosplay that reproduced the original heroine's historical accuracy at one hundred percent.
The problem was the very high probability that I'd have to be in bunny-girl attire right next to her.
And... if things unfolded like the original game, Leo, who had tagged along with Jake, would see us in that getup. Since I had no intention of leaving Alice all alone in a bunny-girl outfit while I ran around elsewhere.
"Hooh."
Seeing Alice's face full of competitive spirit, Bella laughed as if intrigued.
"Are you saying you're going to 'play big sister'?"
"Well, of course."
Alice puffed out her chest at Bella's words.
"As someone with imperial blood, I keep my word. Since I publicly declared that I'm Sylvia's older sister, I intend to protect Sylvia as her sister."
That wasn't the problem, though.
Alice probably knew my skills too. She already knew the fact that I'd roamed the battlefield, so she wouldn't think that me going in alone would cause the situation to spiral out of control or result in my death.
This was, literally, competitive spirit.
Seeing her flash a grin at me, it felt like she was literally saying, 'You have someone on your side too!'
"Well, fine."
Bella shrugged her shoulders at Alice and said,
"I'd intended to watch from a bit farther away... but the story is getting interesting. If two sisters infiltrate together and I, the remaining one, stay out, it'll feel disappointing. I'll go together with you too."
At Bella's declaration, Alice once again threw a sharp look at Bella.
Bella received that look with perfect composure.
... If Bella joined the team....
Before I could even do anything about it, was infiltration locked in?
You could truly call it a miracle that my expression didn't change in that moment.