This inn, apparently favored by guests with rather particular tastes, had surprisingly thorough soundproofing. In one of its rooms, I had the table set, laid out mostly out of obligation, and tea prepared. Then I received Charlotte-jou, who had arrived fully prepared to watch me get what I deserved.
Charlotte-jou stared in shock when she saw me lounging comfortably. Her escape routes were already cut off. There was no running now. Reluctantly, she took the seat I offered.
Emma swiftly poured tea with practiced grace. The tea leaves we had brought from the townhouse were top-shelf. A fragrant aroma drifted softly through the air.
Once she saw me take a sip and relax, Charlotte, who had been sweating coldly in nervous tension, finally gave in and drank some tea herself. She could not bear the awkward silence any longer.
Then, suddenly, she started talking. She said it was not supposed to be like this. That something was wrong. That according to her past-life memories, this was not how things were supposed to go.
”Emma. Did you put something in the tea?”
When I asked quietly, Emma tilted her head without a hint of guilt.
”I just put in a teensy, tiiiny little essence, the kind that makes people feel chatty and want to spill everything, Your Ladyship. So faint you would not even notice.”
Just call it a truth serum, why do not you.
Charlotte-jou’s confession continued.
”Garrett was the best catch among the capture targets, and he was handsome too. He was perfect for me. My pink-gold hair and His Highness’s radiant gold hair… my aquamarine eyes and his deep sapphire ones. See? Matching colors are more compatible, right?”
Hm? Wait… so she did not actually like Garrett?
”Honestly, Rebecca, his fiancée, was super annoying. She reminded me of my sister, which pissed me off even more. She is two years older too, so I actually wondered if she was my sister reincarnated or something. I dropped hints about my past life a few times, but Rebecca just looked at me blankly. If she is just a game character, I guess that is normal.”
Back then, I had not regained my memories yet, so I had just thought she was a strange girl. No wonder she looked at me blankly. And for the record, in both this life and my past life, I do not have a sister.
”Even if she was not my sister, Rebecca was in the way. She is a marquis’s daughter, she is smart, she has got high magical power, everyone admires her. And on top of all that, she is currently Garrett’s fiancée. And she used all that to come at me over every little thing. Seriously annoying. Lecturing me about status, telling me to stop with the casual skinship. Like, come on. I am the heroine. It is normal for me to raise affection points with people other than His Highness, right?”
No, no. That is not normal at all. Getting close to people who already have fiancées or lovers is completely out of line.
And really, if you act entirely on past-life common sense, you should expect to be called delusional or strange.
”So I went to Garrett crying, all ‘Rebecca-sama is bullying me!’ and he must have reprimanded her for my sake, because after a certain point, she just… stopped nagging me entirely.”
It was not a reprimand. He had told her to stop involving herself. I had meant to give Charlotte a proper warning, but it was getting exhausting, so I saw it as a convenient excuse to wash my hands of her.
”I thought maybe I had gone a little too far. But that was a problem too, because then I would lose material to use to get His Highness to spoil me, right? And if I wanted to get condemned at the graduation party’s condemnation event, this was not nearly enough to build a case.”
Indeed. This would not justify dissolving the engagement. It was too thin. Interesting that she could analyze that part so calmly.
If she could figure that much, you would think she would also realize that if she could not handle a little “guidance” (harassment), she would never be fit to be a prince’s consort.
”So I came up with the idea of claiming he had ‘broken’ my fountain pen. It was a precious heirloom from my father. I bit my lip and said I could not study without it, and Garrett gave me his own. ‘It is a spare, do not worry about it,’ he said.”
Ah. So that is where she got the taste for it. If she could frame me, it would also give her material for a condemnation event.
”After that, I broke things, just enough not to be suspicious, and I would claim I had ‘had things stolen’ that I actually wanted. Thanks to the otome game cheat, Garrett believed it was Rebecca’s doing and gave me everything I wanted.”
I see. She assumed this was also game correction.
”Of course, I could not exactly ask for underwear or cosmetics, but then a merchant who supplied the manor started doing trades and buybacks. As long as I did not get caught selling the stuff he gave me, it was fine.”
You are totally caught. Why do you think you aren’t? Ah, right, right. Game correction.
”Oh, and when I altered my dress to show a little more back, y’know, to seduce Garrett, Rebecca got in the way. But the world was on my side, so in the end Garrett had a new dress made for me, and I got more condemnation material too.”
I had ordered her maid Milly to alter it, but she absolutely refused. Of course she did. Whether noble or commoner, any unmarried girl would know how abnormal it is to expose her bare back.
”Everything was going smoothly, and I was supposed to be on the prince route. But on the day of the graduation party, the condemnation event never happened. So I forced it to trigger, only to get completely talked down by Rebecca, with no one coming to help me.”
Naturally. She had just committed the outrage of picking a fight with His Majesty the King. That is why the condemnation event never happened in the first place.
”In the end, it looks like Garrett and Rebecca are dissolving their engagement anyway, so maybe this is for the best… but something about it just feels so… unfair. Like I got screwed over. Does not it? I am the heroine.”
Until this point, I had kept all my commentary internal. But now, for the first time, I spoke to Charlotte-jou directly.
”You are right. This is a world designed for your happiness, and you are the heroine,” I said.
Charlotte finally looked up from her cup, her eyes meeting mine. They were hazy, still drifting somewhere in a dream.
”Huh… Rebecca…? You believe me…? I am the heroine, right…?” she asked.
”Yes. I believe you,” I said.
Emma gave me a look that said, “Have you lost your mind?! Do not tell me this weirdo has rubbed off on you!” but a single glare silenced her.
The “chatty-and-spill-everything essence” I had had her dilute so faintly even I could not notice it was not supposed to have such a dramatic effect. Most likely, Charlotte’s past-life memories were so dominant, so out of sync with this world, that she had been bottling up a secret she could tell no one. One no one would understand. Add to that the frustration of a reality that refused to bend to her will, and it had all come spilling out. Her tone, too, had been completely that of a young Japanese girl.
”There were many paths prepared for you to reach happiness. But do you realize that the one who ruined them all was none other than yourself?” I asked.
”…Huh?”
”I am saying your own choices brought you to this present moment,” I said.
”I did not! I did not do anything!” she cried.
”Plenty of wrong things, I think… But you are right. You did nothing. And that is precisely the problem. We live in this world. Everyone studies, works, cries, laughs. We think, we act, we are all desperately living our lives, every day, striving for something better. And yet you… you never once lifted a finger,” I said.
My rebuke must have seeped into her mind. In Charlotte-jou’s eyes, a light of shock and confusion flickered to life.
Summary:
Charlotte confesses her schemes to Rebecca under the influence of a truth-serum-like essence, revealing her delusional belief that the world exists as an otome game for her benefit. Rebecca listens silently before finally confronting her, dismantling Charlotte’s victim narrative by pointing out her complete lack of effort. The chapter ends with Charlotte’s eyes showing the first flicker of shock and confusion – a crack in her delusion – while Emma fumes in the background.
Trivia:
Charlotte’s past-life memories are dominant enough that she speaks like a modern Japanese girl even in this fantasy world.
The truth serum was diluted so faintly even Rebecca could not detect it – Charlotte’s confession came from built-up pressure, not just chemical influence.
Rebecca never had a sister in either life – Charlotte’s association was purely based on annoyance.
Charlotte forced the condemnation event herself because it did not trigger naturally – an act of defiance against the King himself.
The soundproofing in the inn is noted as unusually good, suggesting it caters to guests with “special tastes.”
Rebecca’s final speech is the first time she speaks directly to Charlotte rather than just internally commenting.
The tea leaves from the townhouse are explicitly described as high-quality – Rebecca’s wealth is subtly shown, not told.
Charlotte sold gifts from Garrett for profit, and the merchant enabled this without her ever realizing she was caught.
Milly, Charlotte’s maid, refused to alter the dress – showing better judgment than Charlotte about social propriety.
Emma’s internal fury is comic relief, contrasting with the serious confrontation between Rebecca and Charlotte.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Charlotte’s term for her belief that the world will automatically adjust to favor her as the “heroine” – a rationalization that allows her to avoid accountability.
2 ↩ The otome game trope where the villainess is publicly shamed and stripped of her engagement – Charlotte expected this to happen to Rebecca.
3 ↩ The formal breaking of a noble engagement – the consequence Charlotte expected from the condemnation event.
4 ↩ The romantic storyline in an otome game where the player pursues the prince character.
5 ↩ Otome game term for romanceable male characters.
6 ↩ Charlotte’s belief that her past-life knowledge and status as the “heroine” grant her special advantages.
7 ↩ Charlotte claims memories from a previous life in modern Japan, which she uses to navigate the game-like world.
8 ↩ Japanese loanword meaning casual physical affection or touch – Charlotte uses it to describe inappropriate contact with engaged men.