I Really Want to Hear It!
Long post warning.
I’ve cleared the endings of Princess Raising Simulator fifty times.
I consider myself a veteran, yeah.
Split the endings half and half between Viviana and Lillian.
From that perspective, Lillian is a hundred times better than Viviana.
I’ll explain why.
The vast majority of Viviana’s endings are bad endings.
Kill too many enemies on the war map → she corrupts.
Three or more of her comrades die → she corrupts.
Even if you bring peace to the empire, she feels hollow and corrupts.
She falls like a sunfish keeling over—casually, as if she’s just having a meal.
I got pulled in by her absurd fucking munchkin specs early on and only played Viviana, then somehow became a bad-ending collector without meaning to.
Inside the game, Viviana has a corruption gauge. That’s an official fact the company released. It’s a hidden gauge that never shows on the UI, so if you just power her up or grind money without knowing any better, the gauge climbs and you get a bad ending.
Only players who carefully dig into the in-game lore will know this, but even Viviana—who finds everything in existence a pain in the ass—has exactly one hobby.
She likes playing the piano.
The first time I ever saw her smile was while she was playing.
I never expected her to have a hobby at all, given how much she hates wasting time, but it gets mentioned in a hidden event that triggers in the mansion study.
If you keep having her play the piano regularly, you can lower the corruption gauge.
So no problem, right?
Of course there is.
From a veteran’s perspective there’s a fixed optimal route, but because of this fucking corruption gauge you can’t grow the character efficiently at all. Piano every morning, piano every lunch, and piano again in the evening, fuck lol
And because of her closed-off personality, there’s no option to play when other people are around. She can only play when she’s completely alone.
You can skip a day or so, but the second you let your guard down even a little—instant corruption ending.
It’s not like she’s got some disease that kills her if she doesn’t play piano. From a veteran’s view it’s so frustrating it makes you want to die for real.
The setting where she’s written as a sociopath concept yet still gets a healing gauge from this shit is also hilarious.
The company claims there’s a route that clears the corruption gauge every day without needing any of this, but across fifty endings I never once saw it.
Might just be bluffing.
Anyway, unless you’ve seen the endings dozens of times like me, I recommend the protagonist Lillian.
Pick Lillian, hold out through the early game, awaken as the Saintess, and everything after that is pure healing. Don’t just look at Viviana’s massive hexagonal specs, dive in, and end up with eight consecutive bad endings like I did. Play Lillian.
But fuck, Viviana is more my type, so I’m going back to play Viviana lol
Viviana.
So you held a favorable impression of me as well?
“May I call you Lady Viviana?”
“What did you say?”
Originally I had never planned on getting close to Viviana. If she ever walked the path of corruption, the people in the greatest danger would be her closest aides—so there was no special reason to draw near.
But now that we had come this far, did any of that still matter? More than anything, Viviana was the sole heir of one of only four ducal houses in the entire empire. Winning her goodwill would clearly bring enormous benefits and rewards.
What should I do.
Should I try reeling her in?
Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated—wasn’t that the saying? Viviana was one of the people I knew best in this entire world. I had already seduced the villainess Mardian with nothing more than a single piece of information. Why wouldn’t I be able to do the same with Viviana?
Yeah.
I like it.
I’ll make Viviana mine.
I had a feeling I was going to need her help.
Mardian’s behavior was crossing the line more and more. I had assumed she would treat me like nothing more than a cute pet the way everyone else did, but the fact that she had even tried to kiss me made it clear her inclinations were seriously twisted.
There were lesbians in a romance-fantasy setting? Beyond shocking—it was just absurd. The saying “every villainess is a crazy bitch” was apparently true after all.
If Mardian tried something like that again, I had no way to stop her on my own. Right now I needed someone who could keep her in check. And fortunately, that someone was standing right in front of me.
“Is it not allowed, My Lady? I want to grow closer to you.”
“Young Lady Bland. I already told you not to put on that coy act.”
Perhaps because she already knew my false face, the easy smile lingering on Viviana’s lips refused to fade.
What would a childhood friend have done in a moment like this?
They would have built a sense of shared feeling with the other person, of course.
Then that was exactly what I needed to do.
“I would prefer you not lie to my face. I may look like this, but I can be rather frightening when I’m angry.”
Viviana rested a cool smile on her lips and laid her hand against my cheek. Her palm was colder than I expected, and my body shivered of its own accord.
I gently layered my own hand over the cheek she was touching. Even though I could feel the calluses, Viviana’s hand was endlessly soft. I kept toying with it—lacing our fingers together, interlocking them—until Viviana furrowed one eyebrow.
“Young Lady, what are you doing right now…?”
“Your fingers are so slender and long. My Lady, you must be wonderful at the piano!”
“…What?”
I didn’t miss the brief tremor in Viviana’s pupils. My words seemed to have shaken her heart quite a bit. I opened my eyes wide and stared into her violet irises without the slightest waver.
“Young Lady, do I look like someone with enough free time to play something like the piano?”
“Is that not the case…? I only said it because I thought you would look so elegant if you played. My Lady, surrounded by music—you would surely be incredibly beautiful.”
“….”
“You really can’t play…? I love the piano so much…”
I looked up at Viviana with an intense gaze that never once faltered. Under that stare she seemed somehow uncomfortable; she turned her eyes aside and muttered in a small voice.
“…A little, when I have time.”
“Really? I absolutely must hear it! I truly love the sound of the piano. But there’s no one around me who plays, so I haven’t been able to listen for a long while.”
“….”
“Is it… not allowed?”
I looked up at her with slightly downturned eyes. Deep within Viviana’s completely still violet pupils, all sorts of emotions were writhing.
“I see. So this is how you deceive other people.”
Viviana curved a distorted smile onto her lips and took one step back. Truly the protagonist, I suppose—she didn’t open her heart as easily as the others.
“I’m not deceiving anyone.”
I stepped forward the same distance she had retreated. While she hesitated for a moment at my relentless approach, I seized one of her hands and pulled it toward me.
I looked up at Viviana with false truth in my eyes and spoke to her in a voice that never once trembled.
“I want to hear Lady Viviana’s music.”
“….”
It wasn’t a lie. I needed to hear Viviana’s music in order to grow closer to her, so the words “I want to hear it” were sincere. Perhaps that sincerity reached her; Viviana averted her gaze again and muttered in a tiny voice.
“…I only play very rarely, so I’m not that good. If you’re just going to be disappointed—”
“No!”
Why couldn’t the woman they called the God of War on the battlefield meet someone’s eyes? I doggedly chased Viviana’s gaze until I finally locked eyes with her.
“Lady Viviana, you would shine even if you only struck the keys. I can guarantee it.”
“What the hell do you even know.”
“Because Lady Viviana is the most beautiful person I have ever seen? I might fall for you the moment you simply sit down at the piano bench.”
“….”
Viviana stared at me with an expression of pure disbelief, hesitated for a long while, then twisted her face in irritation and turned her back.
“It’s gotten late. We’ll talk about this next time.”
“Ah… yes. I understand.”
“…Hah.”
At the slight drop in my voice, Viviana tossed her hair back once and offered a short reply.
“I’ll play for you, so don’t you dare be disappointed when you hear it.”
With those words, Viviana left.
Suddenly I was alone in the garden.
I watched until she had completely vanished from sight, then covered my twitching lips with one hand.