CHAPTER 1     Where Is the Third Holy Maiden Candidate?!

Vleugel Academy had its very own prince.

He excelled in both sports and his studies, he was handsome, he was brave, and he was magnanimous of spirit.

Flowers burst into bloom as he passed, and when he smiled, the sun would shine even in the midst of a storm.

A soft whisper from his lips would make anyone weak in the knees, and whoever he touched would experience exquisite bliss.

The academy students, girls especially, considered it a stroke of fortune if he spoke to them.

And once again today, a lucky individual had been blessed…

“Ah, you dropped this,” rumbled a sweet voice that lingered in the ears. When the girl turned to look, she beheld a beautiful boy, the likes of which would make even Aphrodite, goddess of love, turn green with envy.

“Oh! Prince Cecil!” cried the student, surprised. She blushed with sparkling eyes.

He placed a handkerchief that she must have dropped into her hand, which he enclosed with both of his own as he did.

“Thank you so much!” she squeaked.

“Be careful, okay? If you cry into your handkerchief, it will get too soaked for me to wipe your tears away with,” he murmured, rubbing a finger against her cheek to brush away a droplet that had gathered at the corner of her eye.

Shrieks rose up from out of nowhere, and the girl fainted on the spot, still clutching the handkerchief.

The prince’s name was Cecil Admina.

As of yet, only one of the female students knew that he was actually a girl.

“You’ve really been playing up the prince act more and more lately, huh?” insisted Gilbert, seated next to none other than the prince, whose cheeks were stuffed full of sandwich. They were the only people in the school’s glass greenhouse.

“What? Really?”

“And while I’m of the opinion that you can do what you want as far as that’s concerned, don’t overdo it, or you’ll just get yourself into trouble later. I mean, you’re dressing as a boy to keep a low profile in the first place, but how exactly is strutting around as the prince of the school avoiding attention? Do you have a few screws loose or something?”

“Hey…”

Gilbert’s acerbic scolding hit him—er, her—right in the heart.

Her real name was Cecilia Sylvie, Duke Sylvie’s only child. She had transmigrated into this world, which bore a striking resemblance to the otome game Holy Maiden of Vleugel Academy 3 from modern-day Japan.

In this country, a woman known as a Holy Maiden protected the citizenry from entities called Obstructions. When the Holy Maiden’s power grew weak, a Selection Ceremony would be held to choose one of several candidates to succeed her. Holy Maiden of Vleugel Academy 3 is set during one of those Selection Ceremonies and allows the player to romance the knights who guard the candidates.

In the game, Cecilia is the heroine’s rival in love, a character archetype commonly referred to as a villainess. No matter the route the player chooses, however, she is always doomed to die. To avert her fate, Cecilia had elected to cross-dress, spending her days as a boy named Cecil.

Currently, the students were in the middle of a short break period that fell between the end of exams and the publishing of the exam results. Teachers would visit the homes of anyone who received poor scores for a parental consultation.

“So what do we do now? Is the plan still to keep trying to get Lean together with the knights?” asked Gilbert, Cecilia’s one and only coconspirator.

“Hmm, well…” She frowned.

Lean was the original heroine of Holy Maiden of Vleugel Academy 3. But in a wild twist of fate, her true identity was, in fact, someone who’d also transmigrated into this world. The real shock, however, was that this individual was none other than Ichika Kisaragi, who had been best friends with Hiyono Kanzaki, Cecilia’s previous incarnation.

Lean had actually rejected Cecilia when she’d asked her friend to become Holy Maiden. According to her, “If I become the Holy Maiden, I can’t keep dating Huey! I don’t want that! Not one bit!”

That was the word on that. It was true enough that if Lean became the Holy Maiden, she couldn’t stay with Huey, because he wasn’t a knight.

But can’t we figure something out…?

Cecilia wanted to support her friend’s love life, but she also didn’t want to lose her own life.

Furthermore, Lean had returned the Sacred Artifact that Jade had given her. If something didn’t change, Cecilia—who was currently in possession of Gilbert’s Sacred Artifact—was as good as the next Holy Maiden. And if that happened, she’d get waylaid by bandits on the way to the church for her baptism and killed. But unlike in the game, Cecilia was dressing as a boy this time around. She couldn’t imagine what sort of unfortunate end that would send her hurtling toward.

“Cecilia, you can be the Holy Maiden, no problem! You’re not gonna die! Well…probably!”

She recalled Lean’s blithe words of comfort and forced a smile to her lips. Gilbert gazed at her with concern. “What is it?”

“Uhhh…”

She wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. Lean had insisted that Cecilia keep the fact that Lean had transmigrated into the world, and that she had been Cecilia’s best friend in the past, a secret. Naturally, this meant she had to keep it from Gilbert, too. She wanted to tell him, but Lean had made her swear up and down not to, so she couldn’t.

Evasively, Cecilia said, “I think from here on out, it’s going to be kind of impossible for Lean to be Holy Maiden…”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, things are going oddly well between her and Huey, right? So I guess she doesn’t want to date anyone else!”

“Then what are you gonna do?”

“Mmmm…”

What indeed? That’s what Cecilia herself honestly wanted to know. She was racking her brain for some sort of clever solution but just couldn’t manage to come up with anything.

“In that case, should we start looking for the third one?” suggested Gilbert after a moment of consideration. Cecilia blinked at him, and he clarified, “The third candidate for Holy Maiden. The key part of all this is keeping you from getting the position, right? Then why don’t we just push it onto this other candidate, who might still be alive? Won’t everything work out then?”

“That’s it!” she cried, pointing an involuntary finger at him. This world and the Holy Maiden of Vleugel Academy 3 game that she’d played differed in a number of ways; they diverged on everything from Oscar’s and Gilbert’s personalities, to relationships between characters, to how various events played out.

Among these, there were two points of difference for which she had no explanation.

The first was that the murderer targeting the potential Holy Maidens—the Killer—had not yet shown up.

The other was that the third candidate, who bore an azalea-shaped mark, still drew breath.

In the dating sim, she gets done in during the prologue, before the story even starts. But in this version of that world, no one had heard of the murder of someone with a candidate mark, and the papers hadn’t reported anything lurid enough to resemble it, either.

Based on that, they could presume that the potential Holy Maiden with the azalea mark might still draw breath.

“Maybe she had a reason for not putting her name forth as a candidate. There’s no harm in looking for her, is there?”

“There isn’t! Gil, you’re the best! So smart!” Cecilia beamed, hugging him. “A clever little brother really is the best thing to have!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gilbert responded unenthusiastically.

She cocked her head at his attitude. “Hmm? Gil, you don’t hate me hugging you anymore? Is your rebellious phase over?”

“It wasn’t a rebellious phase to begin with.”

“Really? I totally thought it was just you being an embarrassed teenager!”

“Being a teenager might have had something to do with it, but the root cause wasn’t what you’re imagining.”

“Hmm. I don’t really get it!”

“Yeah, I suppose you don’t.” He sighed, a shadow coming over his face. “Anyway, I decided to think of stuff like this as a side benefit.”

“A side benefit?”

“You wouldn’t do this with His Highness, would you?”

“No, but what does this have to do with Oscar?”

“I wonder.”

Now he looked a little pleased. Lately, Cecilia couldn’t quite get a handle on Gilbert. All she could tell was that he seemed a bit more at ease in his mannerisms and expressions, which she interpreted as him growing up. He’d always acted mature for his age, but now it seemed like he was ready to leave the nest. It made her feel a little sad.

“Well, let’s just say I’ve let go of a lot of hang-ups,” he added.

Cecilia just nodded, without really understanding what he meant.

Where should we start looking for her?

After school, Cecilia wandered around campus. The Vleugel Academy grounds were huge. The institution functioned much like a modern-world university, so the quad even encompassed research laboratories and an annex for research-track students. Since this included medical research, the campus was also home to all types of medical institutions as well. Cecilia had yet to even walk from one end of the grounds to the other.

The elementary school and middle school are elsewhere, so this is about the size of it, but it’s still way too big…

The elementary and middle school buildings were located on a separate campus. However, because they accepted both commoner and aristocratic children, most noble families elected to educate their children at home through middle school before sending them to the academy from the high school level on.

Vleugel Academy operated on a five-year system. Years one through three were general education, and four and five separated into different research tracks. The majority of students graduated at the end of the general education course, but those who wanted to conduct specialized research could continue onward to that track. Furthermore, they could select any field they wanted to study. There was a rumor among the students and teachers that some people attended classes while conducting research.

Oh, right, that comes up in Dr. Mordred’s route, doesn’t it?

The school doctor, Mordred, was actually a researcher of Obstructions. As a Holy Maiden candidate, the heroine ends up helping him with his research at his request…

How does Dr. Mordred’s route end anyway?

In Cecilia’s previous life as Hiyono, she hadn’t played through the section that focuses on him. In fact, she’d died partway through it. She’d gotten to the romantic part right before passing away in a fire.

I guess that counts as a pretty big regret. I wonder what kind of story it was?

She’d read online that his route was fun and intriguing.

Cecilia also hadn’t romanced the twins, Eins and Zwei, but for an entirely different reason. Specifically, she wasn’t a fan of their character types. Off-putting would be one way to describe them.

Come to think of it, there’s a lot I don’t know about Holy Maiden 3.

The common route takes up a good chunk of the game, so she had a solid grasp on each character’s personality, and she’d also read their profiles. However, she didn’t have a clue about the romantic events and true endings that happened afterward for the characters she hadn’t pursued.

I even blocked anyone who was sharing their thoughts about the game online. Now I really wish I’d just spoiled myself completely.

Evidently, Lean was the same way; she’d only played Oscar, who was the main love interest, and Dante. How very her to rack up three hundred hours playing Dante’s route just for Huey. Which was why when Lean first saw Cecil, she simply thought, I never saw him in the character sheet, but maybe he’s someone who comes up in other guys’ routes.

I guess the one thing we do know without playing all the routes is that I die in every one of them…

At any rate, the Cecilia of the game would kick the bucket no matter what. A walk-through blog Hiyono had used a lot had that written right at the top in big red letters. Cecilia had a death mandate.

“What are you doing around here?” came a voice out of the blue, and she looked up. It was Mordred. “This is the research annex. Are you here for something?”

“Oh, no, I’m just looking for something…”

“Looking for something?” He frowned suspiciously. And with good reason—she was a student puttering around an area she didn’t look like she had any business in after class. The annex conducted very important research for the country.

“Ummm, what are you doing here?” she asked with a smile, changing the subject.

“Me? I’m about to head in for a hospital visit.”

“You are?”

“Yes. My younger sister is actually staying there,” he informed her, pointing to a facility within the academy grounds. It was one of the top medical institutions in the country, and it accepted patients with serious health conditions as well.

So Dr. Mordred has a sister…

She hadn’t known. Neither his sister, nor the fact that she was hospitalized, had come up in the game. Or at the very least, it hadn’t come up in the parts Hiyono had played through.

“Does that mean she’s sick?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that. She just hit her head a little.”

“Hit her head?” Cecilia asked, confused.

His expression remained placid, but Mordred looked down and away. “The truth is, someone attacked her a while ago.”

“What?!”

“She escaped death thanks to someone finding her, but she was injured so badly that she’s still in the hospital recovering. They haven’t caught who did it yet, but the person who found her testified to seeing someone flee from the scene. That must have been the perpetrator.”

“Wait, so does that mean—?”

This story sounded oddly familiar. To confirm her hunch, Cecilia asked, “Is your sister a student here?”

“Yes, she is. We’re not very close in age, and she’s exactly a year younger than all of you.”

“How long has she been in the hospital?”

“It happened in March, so I suppose it’s been three or four months now.”

“March?!”

“Yes, what about it?”

Cecilia’s eyes were practically bugging out of their sockets now.

The same month the Azalea Holy Maiden died?! Then this girl has to be—

If Mordred’s sister was the third Holy Maiden candidate, then it all made sense why there hadn’t been news of a girl with a Holy Maiden mark dying and why, if she wasn’t dead, she hadn’t been at the Selection Ceremony.

So the Killer attacked her, but she managed to survive?!

Cecilia zoomed right up to Mordred. “Um, does your sister happen to have a—?”

Then she froze, catching herself. Right now, she was a boy. It would be suspicious enough if Cecilia, a duke’s daughter, asked the school doctor if his sister had an azalea mark on her body. But as Cecil, it would border on sexual harassment.

“A what?”

“A…uh…a seal! Yeah, does your sister have a pet seal?”

“Um…a pet seal?”

Mordred wore an obviously flummoxed expression. No surprise there. Cecilia herself didn’t even know what she was babbling about.

“I am relatively certain that she doesn’t… Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason! I just really like seals, so I was wondering if we had that in common.”

It wasn’t the smoothest of saves. She didn’t care one way or another about the animal, of course.

Although the doctor still looked faintly baffled, when the school bell rang, it seemed to make him remember the visit to his sister. Glancing up at the reddening sky, he set off for the hospital.

“I’ll be on my way. You get back to the dorms now.”

“Oh, okay…,” Cecilia responded, watching him go with an awkward smile.

After arriving early to school the next morning as a favor to Gilbert, Cecilia spent the time before first period started by spacing out in the classroom. No one else had shown up yet, and the room was silent. She was going over her conversation with Mordred the day before.

“The truth is, someone attacked my sister a while ago.

“We’re not very close in age, so she’s exactly a year younger than all of you.

“It happened in March, so I suppose it’s been three or four months now.”

The timing and the details all lined up.

Maybe his younger sister really was a potential Holy Maiden. The developers must not have mentioned her in Mordred’s profile because they wanted to surprise the players. This happened occasionally in otome games. But in his route proper, his sibling would absolutely come up. And a story that went something like, Mordred holds deep resentment toward the Killer for murdering his sister and is hell-bent on revenge, did sound kind of fun.