CHAPTER 5     Cecilia Gets Kidnapped

“So I was thinking… Maybe this world isn’t the setting of the game that I knew?”

“If you have time to chat, you have time to work.”

It was late May, and class had let out. Happily reconciled, Gilbert and Cecilia were sitting across from each other at a table in the dining hall, surrounded by textbooks and notebooks.

Yes, they were right in the middle of studying for midterms.

“Hey! Gil, I’m being serious here—listen to me!”

“And I’m saying get serious about studying. It’s all over if you can’t make any progress without me tutoring you, and I’m a year below you.”

“I know…” She pouted. They were in the common space of the dining hall, so she was being careful not to say anything that would give away that she was a girl.

It was not because Cecilia was a bad student that she was studying so hard for midterms. Despite her tendency to catastrophize straight to doomsday scenarios, she was intelligent enough. Her grades were always among the highest in the academy.

No, the reason she was studying so frantically now was because of the academic system at Vleugel Academy. Scholastic excellence was a given here since it had been established for the purposes of educating fine ladies and gentlemen of noble stock. Accordingly, if any student dropped more than five places between exams in the class ranking, their parents would be contacted. Depending on the circumstances, a home visit from the teacher could even be warranted.

Only the academy higher-ups knew that Cecilia was attending dressed as a boy, and all her teachers only knew her as Cecil. That meant that if a home visit occurred, her parents would find out about her cross-dressing exploits.

No matter how doting her parents were, they still wouldn’t allow their daughter to attend class while dressed as a man.

Incidentally, even though Gilbert never acted like he was studying particularly hard, his ranking only ever fluctuated between first and third place in his year.

“So… What were you going to say?” he asked.

“You’ll listen to me?”

“If I don’t, you’ll just be annoying about it later.” He sighed.

Her brother really was sweet. After checking to make sure no one was nearby, she lowered her voice. “I think there’s just too many differences from the game world that I know. I can understand why your personality is different, but Oscar and Jade are a bit off, too, and the Killer hasn’t shown up… Plus, Lean is the most different of all. The version I know never behaves this aggressively.”

Lean Rhazaloa was someone who always wore an angelic smile. She was a girl so sweet and ephemeral that everyone in the game felt an instinctual need to protect her.

But the Lean of this world appeared to be running completely wild. She was crafty, drew everyone into her schemes, and did exactly what she wanted.

“But she still has to get together with someone, right? At this point, who’s a possibility?”

“Umm, let’s see…”

Cecilia carefully wrote down the names of the love interests in her notebook: Oscar; Gilbert; Jade; Mordred, the school doctor; Oscar’s friend Dante; and the twins, Eins and Zwei.

“Out of these, Oscar kinda seems the most likely. Plus, he seems to be into her…”

“Mmm. He’s out.”

“Huh?”

“Not that I want to help my enemy out or anything, but I don’t want you going on a fool’s errand. There’s no way it’ll be His Highness,” he declared flatly.

Cecilia’s eyes widened with shock. “Why not?!”

“Because I said so. Although I’m personally hoping he’ll get distracted, too.”

“Talking about me?” interjected none other than Oscar, who had approached them. Next to him stood an unfamiliar face…

“Dante?!”

Dante Hampton, one of the love interests. His hair was a bright and eccentric blend of green and blue, and he wore an insincere smile, a choker at his neck, and a half-undone school uniform. He seemed the opposite of an ideal student in every respect.

“What are you doing?” asked Oscar.

“What does it look like? We’re studying. Midterms are coming up, and we’re preparing,” Gilbert snapped back. Previously, he would have kept a smile pasted on his face despite the effort, but now he wore the same surly look that he might show to Cecilia. For anyone else, it would be the other way around, but this was a sure sign that Gilbert had warmed up to Oscar.

But it was Dante who reacted. “Hey, Oscar, let’s join them.”

“Hmm?”

“What?” spat Gilbert with obvious revulsion, glaring at Dante.

But the subject of his ire was undeterred. “We were just talking about studying, weren’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess we were,” answered Oscar.

“So how about it, O famous prince of the school?” Dante drawled, with that last bit directed at Cecilia.

“Umm… Sure. Okay, we can study together,” she agreed, feeling it would be strange to refuse. In all honesty, however, she didn’t want to interact with any more love interests if she could help it.

“Great!” shouted Dante, immediately dragging the neighboring table right up to theirs before sitting next to Cecilia. Left with no alternative, Oscar sat down next to Gilbert.

“Now that I’m sizing you up from close quarters, I can see you really are as pretty as all the rumors say,” marveled Dante, staring at Cecilia as he set his books and notepads on the table.

Under his peculiar gaze, she gave a noncommittal nod. “Mmm.”

“And you’ve got the future king and prime minister eating out of the palm of your hand!” Dante gasped.

Both Gilbert and Oscar broke into coughing fits at that. Their eyes both turned red-rimmed.

Dante scooted closer to Cecilia. “But y’know…”

He gave her a once-over, appraising her like a piece of meat. She flinched uncomfortably.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing going to school dressed like a guy?”

Cecilia’s body turned to ice.

“Girl?” said Oscar, reacting the fastest. He turned to look at her.

Cecilia grew flustered as he scrutinized her. “Umm…”

“What are you—?”

“What are you talking about? Yeah, he’s got a girlie face, but he’s a guy through and through,” Oscar retorted before Gilbert could jump in to help.

Dante’s eyes widened, like he hadn’t been expecting that. “What? But no matter how you slice it…”

“I mean, yeah, he has a girl’s face. But he’s pretty self-conscious about it, so don’t harp on it.”

Dante’s gaze flicked between Oscar and Cecilia. After glancing over at a stony-looking Gilbert, too, he said, “Hmm. I see.”

His nod sent a shiver of fear down her spine. But Dante dropped the subject and opened his notebook. “Well, if you say so, Oscar, I guess that’s how it is! Sorry, Cecil. Looks like I got it all mixed up. Did that rub you the wrong way?”

“No… I’m fine,” Cecilia replied, her face pallid.

She and her brother wore equally wooden expressions for the rest of their study session.

 

“He knows! Dante is definitely on to me!”

“I mean, considering that reaction…”

That night, the two of them held an emergency strategy meeting in the dorm lounge. Normally, they would hold those meetings in Cecilia’s or Gilbert’s room, out of the public eye. But Gilbert had refused, so they’d opted for the sparsely populated lounge.

According to Gilbert, “I don’t want to be alone with you in a room with a bed if at all possible.”

He’d also told her that he was at an age where it would be hard for him to keep himself in check, but Cecilia didn’t understand what he meant at all. She decided it must have been some sort of puberty thing.

No one else was in the lounge. In the period before midterms, there weren’t many students complacent enough to just hang out and chat in common spaces.

Cecilia nodded, despondent. “We need to do something to keep him quiet…”

“That’s a dangerous line of thought.”

“Why do problems keep popping up one after another when I still need to do something about Lean’s love life?!”

“Not to mention that exams are coming up.”

“Aaaaaargh!” Cecilia cried, reaching her wit’s end after his interjection. She always seemed to have a million problems on her plate.

“Oh, right. Dante is a knight, so he’s a love interest, too, isn’t he? What about Lean and Dante together? Sounds good, right?”

“Mmm, Dante?” Cecilia considered, unusually reluctant.

“Is there some problem? Does he not get a route with her?”

“No, that’s not it. Actually, they get along well, but…”

“But?”

“Dante is…kind of on hard mode.”

While he claims to be the third son of the Hampton family, that turns out to be merely a cover. In reality, he’s an assassin from a bordering nation sent to kill Oscar.

But by the time the game opens, Dante chooses to stick with Oscar purely as his friend, the end result of electing to maintain their relationship over his duty as an assassin. Accordingly, his route primarily revolves around his struggle to decide between friendship with Oscar or the mission for his country.

During a certain event, Lean finds out he’s been sent to eliminate Oscar, which also puts a target on her back. But he can’t bring himself to kill her. He has innumerable opportunities to do so, but he’s never able to go through with it. This causes him to mull over what’s stopping him from doing her in. At long last, he arrives at a single conclusion—he’s in love with her.

From that point on, he decides to wash his hands completely of the assassin life, but…

“Anyway, so that’s how his route goes…”

“Okay. I need to give you a lecture.” Gilbert sighed, five seconds away from blowing his lid completely.

“Why?!” she yelped.

“You should know why! Why did you just ignore such an obviously dangerous character?! I can see why you didn’t tell anyone else, but at least tell me!”

“But, I mean, none of that ever comes up unless you play Dante’s route. What if I told you, and then he gets arrested? Wouldn’t you feel sorry for him?”

“No, I would not!” he snapped, and Cecilia ducked her head. “Well, anyway…there’s a lot to consider, but I get it. For now, I see where you’re coming from. So what did you mean when you said it’s on hard mode?”

“Um, so the choices in Dante’s route are really harsh. Typically, a love interest’s affection for you just goes down if you pick the wrong dialogue option, but in Dante’s route, you die.”

“What?”

“I mean, Lean dies. Because he kills her.”

“…”

“And once Lean dies, it’s usually Cecilia who gets blamed for it, and then she dies, too. Either in jail or from getting executed…”

Gilbert buried his face in his hands. His long sigh was just scary. “Why is this game so focused on life and death?”

“There’s a lot of dating sims like that lately,” she informed him.

“I wouldn’t know. Nor do I care.”

He lifted his head, a look of exhaustion on his face. Despite that, it seemed like he’d processed the situation.

Cecilia rubbed the furrow between her brows that had developed at some point. “So that’s why I want to keep Lean from going down Dante’s route if possible. If she messes a choice up, I’ll go down along with her…”

“That’s true. Let’s avoid Dante’s route at all costs, then,” he agreed, nodding deeply.

“The dialogue choices influence whether Lean learns Dante’s secret or not…”

“What makes that choice pop up?”

“If his affection points reach a certain threshold, Dante’s junior Huey transfers in. Then Lean happens to see Huey hounding Dante about getting back to his hit-man gig.”

Huey doesn’t notice Lean hiding in the shadows, but Dante does. From then on, he starts threatening her.

“So what you’re saying is that if this Huey guy transfers in, that’s a sign of danger?”

“Yeah, that’s basically it.”

As usual, Gilbert’s powers of comprehension were stunning. He massaged his temples, wearing a grave expression. “And we also need to come up with some sort of plan to address how he knows you’re a girl. My head hurts a little.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s nothing you need to apologize for.”

“Okay… But Lean probably has no interest in Dante. She hasn’t shown any signs of it so far!” Cecilia added reassuringly.

However…

 

“I’m Huey Cranebel. It’s nice to meet you.”

 

The next day, Huey transferred into Cecilia’s class.

It was clear and sunny that day, the exact opposite of Cecilia’s mood.

“What am I gonna do…?” she moaned, gazing up at the sky through the greenhouse windows.

Gilbert was right there next to her, as usual. “I thought Lean wasn’t supposed to be interested in Dante.”

“Yeah, she wasn’t supposed to be…”

Cecilia had meant to keep a close eye on Lean. But here in the real world, she couldn’t exactly see the affection points and dialogue from the game. Furthermore, Cecilia honestly hadn’t been able to check up on Lean like before, what with her fight with Gilbert and studying for exams. Lean must have gotten close to Dante in the interim.

Gilbert thumbed his lips pensively. “This Huey guy… Is he pretty much harmless?”

“Yeah. He’s like a sort of apprentice assassin, so there shouldn’t be any dangerous events involving him…”

Huey Cranebel, age sixteen, Dante’s junior in their organization. He’s supposed to be the same academic year as Gilbert, but he fudges his age in order to speak with Dante and transfer into a second-year class.

Even though he’s a side character, he has an adorable appearance, and a famous voice actor provides his lines. This ensured his popularity persisted, despite not getting a route in the fan disc.

Oh, that’s right, Ichika also loved Huey…

Cecilia reminisced about her past life. Even though Ichika made BL ships out of everyone and everything, Huey alone occupied a special place in her heart.

“Huey is sooooo cute! So, so cute! Hiyono, have I always been into the cute younger guy type?! Oh my god, whenever he looks at me, I just lose it!”

“Wow, this is new for you. But, Ichika, you don’t usually ship yourself with the guys, do you?”

“No! I didn’t think I did anyway! I guess he’s just so cute he’s got me all messed up!”

The way she pressed a hand to her heart and freaked out over the character was truly adorable. She went on to play through Dante’s route and would replay scenes and events with Huey over and over.

Awww, good times. If Ichika were here now, she’d be so thrilled. She’d squeal, “Real Huey!”

“So what should we do? Lean’s going to end up on Dante’s route if we don’t stop this, right?” Gilbert asked, pulling Cecilia back to reality. Right, she didn’t have time to wallow in her emotions.

“But what would be the best thing to even do?”

“Keep watching from the sidelines?” he suggested.

“That seems too risky…”

Frankly, it’s impossible to make it through Dante’s route without consulting online guides. Hiyono messed up on his route time and time again, too, while wishing she had more fingers to juggle all the tabbing between walk-throughs. It was downright odd in the first place how there could be such a difference between choosing “Do your best” and “Do your best, okay?”

If you pick “Do your best,” you survive, but selecting “Do your best, okay?” seals your doom. It was brutal.

Yet, no matter how Cecilia racked her brain, she couldn’t come up with a good plan for averting Dante’s route.

After deliberating for a while, Gilbert finally looked up. “Hey. Even though Huey’s showed up, the route won’t start unless Lean’s figured out who Dante really is, right?”

“Yeah…”

“So we just have to prevent that, don’t we?”

“Prevent it?” Cecilia parroted, unsure of what he meant.

“We only need to prevent Lean from overhearing Dante and Huey’s disagreement. If we do that, she won’t learn his identity, so he’ll have no reason to target her.”

“Oh! Yeah, that could work!” she cried, clapping her hands at her brother’s ingenious plan.

 

After school, the two of them met up in the courtyard to follow Gilbert’s scheme, since they knew the event happened at that time and place on the day Huey transferred in.

But the Vleugel Academy courtyard was huge, so they divided up. One would watch the south side, and the other would take the north side. When Lean showed up, whoever saw her would chase her away.

In the southern edge of the courtyard, Cecilia hid in the shade of a bower.

I’ve gotta make sure to drive her out!

But no matter how long she waited, Lean didn’t show.

Is the event happening over where Gilbert is?

Cecilia strained her eyes, but the courtyard was too spacious, and the trees cut off her line of sight. She couldn’t see all the way over to him, but she also couldn’t leave her post, so her only recourse was to stay there and wait.

Lean’s plenty late now. I’m going to go over to Gil’s side.

Tired of waiting, Cecilia moved to stand up, but that was when Huey and Dante entered through the southern courtyard entrance. She hurried to crouch back down.

What?! But Lean isn’t here yet!

In the game, Huey and Dante appear when Lean is reading under the shade of a tree after school. Cecilia looked all around but couldn’t find her anywhere. Meanwhile, the two boys had started to argue.

Oh crap, am I screwed?

If Lean waltzed through the entrance right now, they’d definitely spot her—the exact situation Cecilia needed to prevent.

Wait, aren’t I right where Lean was?

The woman hiding in the trees was different, but the circumstances were otherwise 100 percent identical.

As their verbal sparring continued, Cecilia hunched down even lower.

“Whatever, I don’t care anymore!”

Once the discussion fell through, Huey spun on his heel and stomped out of the area. She’d at least escaped the danger of both of them encountering Lean simultaneously. As some of the tension drained from her shoulders, a few beads of sweat rolled down her back.

I think what happened next in the game is Dante finding Lean hiding in the bushes…

He’d peered into the shadows under the trees and smiled enigmatically.

“What do you think you’re doing there?”

“Yes, that’s the line, ‘What do you think you’re doing there?’— AAHHH!”

She scrambled to put distance between herself and Dante, who was peering down at her. He wore the same enigmatic smile from the game event plastered across his face.

“D-D-D-D-Dante?!”

“You’re very naughty, eavesdropping like this.”

Even the line is exactly the same!

He said what he should have directed at Lean, then traced his lower lip. “Don’t tell me… You saw everything?”

“What? N-no, nothing! I saw nothing! I heard nothing!” she squeaked in denial, her face lined with panic. But her body language clearly indicated otherwise.

“Hmmm.”

In the game, his affection for Lean is high so he doesn’t kill her, but now…

She was Cecilia. Forget affection—she’d never even spoken to him before yesterday.

Think. I have to do something…

She couldn’t get herself done in now. Dante hadn’t quit being an assassin yet. He had no misgivings about the general concept of murder; it was only Oscar who he wanted to avoid killing at the moment.

In other words, the second Dante deemed Cecil a liability, he wouldn’t hesitate to strike him down.

Cecilia decided to make an all-or-nothing gamble. In a shaky voice, she announced, “Dante, I know everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, including what you just discussed and more. I know the crown prince of Janis ordered you to come here, I know your assassin organization is named Heimat…”

The more details she added to that impressive list, the blanker Dante’s face got, until his lack of expression was so frightening that she shivered. But faltering here would only have the opposite effect.

“I know even more damning facts about you, too.”

“Hmmm.”

“But I don’t intend on telling them to anyone.”

His eyes narrowed, watching for her move.

“So I propose a deal.”

“A deal? You want money or something? I don’t need a deal. I can just kill you right here,” he barked in an uncharacteristically low, rough voice.

She gulped, swallowing the saliva pooling in her mouth. “Do you think I haven’t taken any contingencies toward you with the knowledge I have?”

“Contingencies?”

“Another person has stored all the info I have on you. If I die, it all goes public. So you should watch how you treat me.”

Dante scowled, then tapped a finger against his forehead thoughtfully. “Doesn’t…seem like you’re bluffing.”

That’s because she wasn’t. She’d exaggerated a little, but if she died, then Gilbert would make everything she’d told him public.

He sighed, defeated. “What sort of deal? What do you want me to do for you?”

“Uh…”

I actually just want him to let me go free… But…

That wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t buy that being all she wanted.

She looked up at him, determined. “You figured out I’m a girl, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” he answered without even hesitating. He really had busted her.

In a dignified voice, she continued, “I’m here as a boy on the basis of certain info in my possession. So keep your mouth shut about me being a girl. In exchange, I’ll keep your secret.”

“That’s it?” he asked, as though he’d been let down.