Chapter 1: Where Is the Third Holy Maiden Candidate?!

With a soundless scream, Oscar froze. A sweet, feminine scent wafted down from the top of Cecil’s head.

What in the…?

His thoughts were swimming from the unthinkable situation they were in. After a while, he heard a familiar voice ring out, “Lord Cecil!” and it all finally clicked.

Cecil was hiding from Lean, which meant that this strange, foreign dress he was wearing had to be some scheme of hers.

But even for all that…

Oscar glanced at Cecil. The arms peeking out of the red satin outfit were so fragile, they seemed on the verge of breaking, thin and delicate. The considerable slits up the sides of the skirt left his ivory-white thighs completely bare; his legs lay between Oscar’s own, pushing them apart. The way Cecil was pressed against him, plus the softness of the thighs brushing against his knees—it was all making his heart pound out of his chest.

Calm down! This is a guy! he yelled at himself. Unaware of Oscar’s inner turmoil, however, Cecil only pressed himself closer.

This idiot!

“Hey,” he whispered, unable to take it any longer, but Cecil only covered Oscar’s mouth mercilessly. With a serious look on his face, he hissed, “Shhh!” Of course, it was easier said than done to comply with that.

But if I make a fuss here, Lean will probably find us…

And if she did, who even knew what she would write or create next.

Biting his tongue and his bottom lip, Oscar fell silent. But all he could think about was the soft body on top of his, so he desperately recited prime numbers in his mind. Despite that, Cecil’s breaths and his needlessly sweet scent caused Oscar’s brain to short-circuit time and time again.

After a while, Lean retreated. With a sigh, all the tension drained from Cecil’s body.

“Phew!”

“Hey…Cecil.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about all that.”

“Could you just move away from me?” Oscar managed, his throat ridiculously dry. “Please.”

The moment he made his request, Cecil flushed bright red, as if just now realizing the compromising position they were in. Then he appeared to lose his composure, exactly as though he were a young and innocent girl.

Oscar turned away. To be entirely honest, he couldn’t gaze at him like this. If he did, he’d really start to see Cecil as a woman.

“S-sorry,” the other boy muttered, red-faced, as he slid off Oscar. The crown prince kept catching tantalizing glimpses of his bare thighs; he was at his limit in so many senses of the word.

“Oh, and I’m sorry. I think I crushed something you had in your pocket…”

“Don’t worry about that! Seriously, don’t think about it!” Oscar burst out in a louder voice than he’d meant to use.

Cecil froze, his eyes wide, thinking he’d gotten yelled at.

But Oscar wasn’t angry. There was just something he didn’t want Cecil to realize.

Sucking in a deep breath, Oscar sat up.

It was just a physiological response. It didn’t mean anything at all; it was pure biology.

Even as he thought that, though, guilt filled his chest—guilt toward not just Cecil but also his fiancée, Cecilia.

“Um.”

“Sorry. Could you just get out of here?”

“What?”

“Please…,” Oscar entreated, his voice tight and hard.

This clearly flustered Cecil, who must have thought Oscar hated him now or something. “But we should leave together…”

Cecil held out a hand to Oscar, who knocked it away on instinct. Cecil’s eyes filled with hurt, but Oscar didn’t say anything to smooth things over. He only mumbled an apology, which Cecil awkwardly nodded to.

“Okay, I’m leaving, then. I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s fine—don’t worry about it,” replied Oscar.

Soon enough, Cecil was gone. Oscar watched him go and then flopped back onto the floor, his limbs splayed out. “Ahhhh…”

Never before had he plunged into a pit of self-loathing this deep. “I mean, he’s a guy and my friend. How many times do I have to remind myself that I have Cecilia…?”

His feelings for his fiancée hadn’t faded. He didn’t have the slightest intention of calling off their engagement. But it was also true that Cecil kept on messing him up inside, which was only intensifying his guilty conscience.

“Augh, dammit!”

Frustrated, he dug his fingers into his hair and churned it violently.

Oscar seemed pretty upset.

Cecilia trudged along the corridor, staring at the ground despondently. She couldn’t get her friend’s annoyed face as he told her to leave out of her mind.

I thought we’d gotten close, but now I’ve messed it up…

Anyone would get angry if someone dragged them into an empty classroom to be used as a human mattress while they still had no idea what was even happening. It was only natural. And to top that all off, she’d covered his mouth, refused to listen to his objections, and flattened herself against him. The weight of her on top of him had probably made him feel sick. But despite all that, he’d magnanimously stayed quiet until Lean was gone.

I have to give him a proper apology later, she thought as she walked along. Suddenly, she heard a very familiar voice say, “Huh?” from behind her. She looked up to find a wide-eyed Gilbert coming her way.

“Oh.”

Her brother’s gaze darkened the instant their lines of sight met. Cecilia broke into a full-body sweat.

Crap, crap, crap!

He strode right up and threw his uniform jacket over her. Although the action was sweet, the look on his face wasn’t at all. He was incensed—seething with fury over finding his sister in a weird costume.

Involuntarily, she started to shiver. Obviously, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes, either. “I-I’m sorr—”

“Let’s just get you changed first, okay? Immediately,” he interjected with a smile that made her want to burst into tears. Frightened tears.

Gilbert strongly recommended that Cecilia be allowed to pose for Lean’s illustration in her regular school uniform, which got her off the hook for that. Nevertheless, Lean still asked her to do a bunch of weird poses and faces she didn’t understand.

Of course, Lean wouldn’t be satisfied with just that, which was why she got in one last sharp remark when she left: “You better remember this!”

She had even looked like she was about to cry. Cecilia really did feel bad for refusing to wear the dress her friend had lost sleep to sew, but she just couldn’t bear to do it.

Cecilia returned to her classroom, getting her uniform in order again as she did. Hoping to apologize to Oscar on her way back, she peeked into the classroom she’d dragged him into, but he was long gone. All she could do was search for him again later.

But anyway, what do I do now? If Emily would just wake up, everything would work out…

Her thoughts turned in a more serious direction as she pondered that. As both Mordred’s little sister and the third Holy Maiden candidate, Emily waking up would make everyone happy—Cecilia, Mordred, and Emily herself.

Of course, it was possible that she might hate the idea of becoming Holy Maiden, but it represented the highest position of power a woman could reach in the country. The vast majority could only dream of it. Cecilia and Lean were anomalies for having no interest in the title at all.

That’s why Cecilia thought it was extremely unlikely that Emily would object and say, No! I don’t want to be Holy Maiden!

But how do we get her to wake up?

There was nothing wrong with her brain or body. So then what was the issue?

I bet the key is in Dr. Mordred’s route, Cecilia thought as she took her seat. Lunch break was almost over, so the classroom was a bit noisy.

“How’d you do, Cecil?” asked Jade.

She frowned. “On what?”

“The midterms. The results are posted up on the bulletin board.”

“They are?!” she cried, leaping to her feet.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that these exams would decide her fate. If she didn’t do well enough, a teacher would visit her parents at home. But her mother and father had no idea their daughter was cross-dressing, so that was the one thing she wanted to avoid at all costs.

“I’ll go look!”

“Sure.” Jade nodded, and Cecilia dashed to the bulletin board.

When she saw her place in the rankings, relief washed over her.

Oh, thank goodness!

She exhaled strongly, fears allayed. She was tenth in her year. Since she’d been eighth the last time, all she’d done was drop a little. But the ranking wasn’t enough to make her worry about a home visit.

But wow, look at everyone else, too!

The names of the original game’s love interests studded the rankings list. Only Dante was missing, but that was surely just because he thought of studying as too much of a pain. His life philosophy boiled down to, I’m not gonna go out of my way to do something I could easily pull off if I wanted to.

Gil’s in top place. I knew he’d be!

Her brother had already finished learning everything the academy taught. When he was thirteen, their private tutor had said, “I have nothing left to teach him,” and quit. He wasn’t attending the academy to learn; he was there to make connections within the aristocracy and help Cecilia with her harebrained cross-dressing scheme.

Thinking about it like that, he totally outclasses me. In just about every way…

Gilbert had already made his high-society debut; he didn’t need to be at school to make connections. In fact, he already had plenty of followers, and he was even popular among the girls, too, though not to the same degree as Cecil. His sister was about 90 percent of the reason why he went to the academy.

Once it’s summer vacation, I’ll have to pull out all the stops to show him how much I appreciate him! Cecilia vowed to herself.

Vleugel Academy’s summer break wasn’t very long—only a little less than two weeks. Since it was so short, it flies by in the game, and the characters don’t even have any events.

For Cecilia, that meant she was getting a brief respite.

And I don’t have to cross-dress! I don’t have to worry about everything! I bet it’ll be really nice to get to spend some quality time with Gilbert at home.

Her excitement was unstoppable. Earlier, there had been talk of the whole group visiting Cecilia’s house, but she’d managed to quash those plans. Lean would be coming to visit for two or three days, but she would get the rest of the time to just relax with Gilbert. Or so she believed.

In the real world, however, things don’t work out quite so smoothly.