Charlotte-jou and I share a homeland: Japan. We are compatriots, in a way. I understood enough about the past life she spoke of.
I do not know what kind of otome game it was, but if Charlotte-jou says she saw the game package in Japan and that this is that game’s world… then I suppose that is how it is.
Naturally, as the heroine, Charlotte-jou should have been given special protections and countless choices.
It was up to her to use them or squander them. And apparently, she had managed to squander them quite thoroughly.
Speaking of squandering, I wondered if Charlotte-jou had chosen the most difficult capture target of all.
By the time she enrolled, she would only have a year with Garrett-dono. In that short time, could she deepen their bond enough to make him, the crown prince, willing to defy even His Majesty the King?
It was not impossible. But it must have been a brutally difficult scenario that would make any player tear their hair out.
Looking around, her classmates included the heir to the ducal house with no fiancée, the prized protégé of the magic research institute director, and the prime minister’s second son.
Above her year, there was the son of a baron who had amassed a fortune in a single generation. And the viscount’s son who had his own fan club as the academy’s most handsome man. And Amadeus, the marquis’s younger brother, blessed by the gods, destined to become a first-class musician.
Charlotte-jou is the only daughter of the Silver Baron family. If she was going to marry up anyway, would it not have been better to find someone willing to join her family…?
No, no. It is easy to criticize after the fact. This is just my personal opinion. The truth is anyone’s guess.
And besides, regardless of the truth, it does not matter anymore. The current situation is the result of Charlotte-jou’s choices. She needs to accept that.
What matters is what comes next, for her and for me.
I regained my past-life memories because of one thing Charlotte-jou said.
And in that past life, I had a son who was older than Charlotte-jou. Meaning: I have raised children before.
These two facts feel strangely connected.
As someone who shares the memory of a past life, and as someone older who has raised the next generation, I can be the “catalyst” that sets Charlotte-jou on the right path.
I do not want to believe everything is pre-programmed. But for Charlotte-jou, the heroine, I might be the “villainess” of the academy, and also the “hidden salvation” for when she is about to stray off course.
If that is the case, then I have a role to fulfill.
I am not trying to play the saint.
I just cannot have Charlotte-jou staying on this path, committing sins, and falling to darkness. That is why I lured her here, even if I had to trap her to do it. In other words, this was also for my own sake.
That said, the end result should make a lot of people happy. So it stings a little to go down in history as the villainess. At least let me be a “temporary” one.
With some dissatisfaction about my job title lingering, I set to work on what needed to be done: eliminating the misfortune that would befall the Kingdom of Rendel if she fell.
This was what her parents should have done. What they had not done.
When you are raising a child, you need to say what needs to be said. Namely: a good, firm talking-to.
I laid it out for Charlotte-jou.
”This is the real world, you know. A place where each person lives carrying joys, sorrows, and all kinds of feelings. You have been blessed with a beautiful face, a privileged upbringing, and holy magical power. So tell me. Why have you not put in any effort to make use of those gifts?”
Doubt flickered in Charlotte-jou’s aquamarine eyes.
”B-but this is a game world! A world where I am supposed to win at love! I am the heroine! It is a world made for me to be happy, so game correction will kick in and keep things on track. I do not need to work for it. It does not matter,” she stammered.
”Besides, even without trying, people love you just because you are pretty, right? A-and anyway! Why do I have to hear this from you?! Someone like you, who has everything. You have no right to judge me!” she yelled.
When I pointed out that this is a real world, she started to lose confidence in her own argument. So she deflected. As if to say: if I had no right to judge her, then everything she had done up until now would be justified.
And because I understood exactly what she was doing, I shut that defensive outburst down.
”Someone like me, who has everything? Do not make me laugh,” I shot back.
”Yes, I have been given a lot. But do you have any idea how much I have built up in this life? How much I have seized? And how much I have lost? You do not know anything about me. Do not pretend you do.”
I had no intention of going easy on Charlotte-jou. Someone who had lived however she pleased because “it is a game world,” and who had even failed to follow that world’s so-called rules.
”Do you think people called geniuses are simply born that way? Natural talent, combined with effort that makes them bleed. That is what makes a genius. As the heroine of this world, should you not have made the effort to become someone worth loving? Look at reality. Is this the ‘happiness’ you wanted?”
I had never thought Charlotte-jou was simply a “quirky girl.”
Certainly, by the standards of noble society in this world, her behavior was odd. You could understand why people called her eccentric. But if you thought of her as just a young Japanese girl who had convinced herself she was living in a game world, a lot of it made sense.
Of course, the fact that she could not read the room, that so-called “TPO” skill, meant she was also, at best, a “foolish girl.”
Charlotte-jou averted her eyes, frightened. The reality was starting to sink in. She seemed to realize that relying on game correction was not going to work anymore.
”Even if you say I should have tried harder… my parents always told me I was cute, no matter what I did. You have been nagging me, but that is just because you are the villainess, right? Garrett-dono and everyone else were nice to me. I studied enough. I never felt like I had to try. No one ever taught me that. And now you are blaming me for that…”
Tears began to spill from her aquamarine eyes.
If you only looked at this scene, I was the textbook villainess. Luring the heroine to a dingy inn room and making her cry. That was the kind of event you would expect.
In reality, it was a scenario that completely subverted the trope: I had taken the heroine’s trap and turned it back on her, then delivered a lecture.
Watching her wilt like a fragile, fading flower, I wondered: what exactly were those tears for?
Even now, she was still making excuses. “It is not my fault, it is because everyone spoiled me.” And I found that downright pitiful.
Summary:
The narrator, after regaining past-life memories, confronts Charlotte with a hard-hitting lecture about effort and reality. Charlotte’s defensive worldview cracks as she realizes game correction will not save her. The chapter ends with Charlotte in tears and the narrator questioning whether she can truly help.
Trivia:
The narrator and Charlotte both share a past life connection to Japan.
Charlotte had multiple capture targets available but chose the most difficult one: Garrett-dono.
The narrator has raised a child before, giving her maternal authority to lecture Charlotte.
The narrator views herself as both the villainess and a hidden salvation for Charlotte.
Charlotte believes game correction will automatically fix her situation without effort.
The narrator lured Charlotte to a dingy inn room to deliver her lecture.
Charlotte’s parents spoiled her endlessly, never teaching her responsibility.
The narrator’s lecture breaks down Charlotte’s belief that beauty alone earns love.
”TPO” (time, place, occasion) is referenced as a social awareness skill Charlotte lacks.
The narrator reflects that she appears to be the textbook villainess in this scene.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Japanese acronym for “Time, Place, Occasion” – refers to situational awareness and appropriate behavior in social contexts. Translated colloquially as “reading the room” in US English.
2 ↩ A genre-specific term in otome isekai stories where the game’s mechanics automatically adjust events to keep the plot on track. Translated as “game correction” to preserve the term while making it accessible through context.
3 ↩ Otome game terminology for a romancable character. Translated as “capture target” to preserve genre-specific meaning for readers familiar with the genre.