Chapter 1: Ocean Harbor Town

The girl’s sigh echoed through the dark room.

She wouldn’t stop, so I faked a smile and told her, “Don’t worry. There’s nothing to be scared of,” and her crying quieted slightly.

I was trying my best to be gentle with her, so as not to frighten her.

I wasn’t doing it out of kindness, and I definitely hadn’t suddenly started feeling pity for this kidnapped girl. I just thought that her crying would make my job more difficult.

My job: bringing this very valuable girl to her buyer without damaging her.

I was only a disposable pawn. I didn’t know any of the details, but I was still going to be paid handsomely.

Now that the girl was almost done crying, I heard her stomach growl.

“I’ll go buy you something to eat,” I said, then asked one of my partners to look after her as I went outside. My fake smile vanished instantly.

The salty breeze from the harbor hit my expressionless face.

I reached the road, which was bustling with people. The people here were always calm and peaceful, possibly because of the warm southern climate. In general, the people in this country were oblivious and sheltered.

In the kingdom of Sorcié, the largest in the region, slavery and human trafficking were forbidden, and the rights of the citizens were carefully protected. Even commoners received an education, and most people were literate. It was a wealthy, peaceful country.

Seeing the happy faces of the people walking by made me wonder about something... If I were born here, maybe I wouldn’t have needed to resort to crime to make a living.

But wondering about that was useless.

I wasn’t born in Sorcié. I was born and raised in the slums of a poor country, and I was an orphan who couldn’t even read properly.

I shook the thoughts out of my head, put on my usual fake smile, and went to a shop to buy something to eat.

★★★★★

“Oh, everything looks so different here!”

I, Katarina Claes, looked out of the carriage’s window and couldn’t help but express my surprise at the change in scenery.

Larna Smith, my superior and fellow passenger, explained why: “This city is located south of the capital, so the plants around us are completely different.”

I took a better look, and sure enough, the greenery looked much more tropical than what I was used to. We hadn’t traveled that far, so a change this radical was surprising. I thought that, maybe, this was because this world belonged to an otome game.

I have a secret I’ve never shared with anyone: I have memories of my previous life. When I was still eight years old, I’d fallen down and hit my head and remembered that I used to be an otaku high school student from a country called Japan.

I died because of an unfortunate accident and was reborn as the daughter of a duke. I soon realized that I was now living in the world of Fortune Lover, the otome game that I was playing in my previous life right before dying! And if that weren’t enough, I was playing the part of Katarina Claes, the villainess who was destined for doom no matter what she did.

I was obviously shocked when I found that out. Fortunately, I still had seven years before I’d enroll in the Academy of Magic and experience the game’s events. I spent that time preparing countermeasures for all the ways in which my doom could happen, and my efforts were repaid. I successfully avoided all of the Catastrophic Bad Ends that the game had in store for me, finally earning peace. Or so I thought...

I became friends with the game’s protagonist, Maria, and after graduating, we started working together at the Magical Ministry, one of the kingdom’s most important organizations. But once there, I found out that the Ministry was actually the setting for Fortune Lover II, the game’s sequel!

And, according to the game’s story, Katarina Claes, after being exiled during the events of the first game, was back in the kingdom for more evil antics which all resulted in her doom.

After all that effort to escape doom, here was a fresh new batch of bad ends! I needed to do something! But unfortunately, I’d never played FL2, the sequel, in my previous life. All the hints I had about it came from a mysterious note I found and from some dreams which I sometimes had, where a friend from my past life was playing it. Armed with nothing but that, I was currently looking for ways to avoid my impending doom.

Maybe because the game’s influence was forcing me to follow its script, I happened to get my hands on Dark Magic, an evil and forbidden type of magic whose very existence was kept secret. Specifically, I found a Dark Familiar and something known as the Dark Covenant. So, between thinking of the bad ends and my work at the Ministry, I was very busy.

Right now I was headed toward Ocean Harbor, the port in southern Sorcié which was used to trade with Ethenell, and this was also part of my job.

A young, magic-wielding noble lady disappeared not too long ago. While the Ministry was looking for her, I (accidentally) found that she had probably been kidnapped and was going to be used for human trafficking. We also found out that, in all likelihood, a Dark Magic user from Sorcié was involved in the kidnapping.

Larna, the head of my department at the Ministry, chose three people to accompany her on this mission based on their ability to fight Dark Magic: me and my colleague Sora, since we wielded that same type of magic, and Maria, who wielded Light Magic. The four of us were now close to Ocean Harbor, the town where human trafficking was likely taking place.

A few days had already passed since that young lady was kidnapped, and we therefore had no time to lose. As soon as the International Assembly was over, we had to rush here for our new mission.

Despite the tight schedule, however, my friends had found the time to come to see me off.

“Katarina, remember to keep away from things which do not concern you. Stay clear of danger,” Jeord said, furrowing his brow.

Keith, with a similar expression, said, “Big sister, don’t follow strangers, even if they promise to give you snacks.”

“...I’m an adult, you know? I’m eighteen years old,” I replied, slightly offended at being treated like a child, but then my friend Mary joined in, staring deep into my eyes.

“That’s what makes it all the more dangerous! Take these, they could come in handy. This will turn any assailant temporarily blind, and this one will paralyze—”

“What? Where’d you even find those things? Quit it, anyway. Giving someone as clumsy as her things like those would make it all even more dangerous,” Alan said, stopping Mary as she was getting a series of little bottles out of her bag.

To be honest, I agreed with him. Hearing the way she spoke about their contents, I was scared to think of what would happen if I accidentally broke one of them.

“Lady Katarina, should you be bored during the ride...” Sophia said with a smile as she handed me a series of books which were probably romance novels. I appreciated the thought, but those were probably too many for me to ever finish reading.

“Sophia, Katarina isn’t going there to play. She’ll be working and will have no time to read those things. Bring them back home,” her brother Nicol said. I actually wanted to borrow a couple...

I couldn’t bring myself to contradict someone as strict and serious about work as Nicol, so I gave up.

I eventually left the capital with some snacks to eat along the way, as well as a lot of warnings not to do anything dangerous and to be very careful.

“We’re going to leave soon,” Sora announced through the carriage’s window.

“Please take care of Katarina,” Jeord addressed him with a dark smile, “and make sure that nothing weird happens.”

Sora was slightly taken aback, but he silently nodded.

Everyone was seeing me off as if I were going to a far away country, but I wasn’t even leaving Sorcié at all...

I was now excited at the southern scenery around me. The greenery was different, with palm trees and luscious flowers I’d never seen before, and the people were different as well. They were tan, unlike the pale people who lived in the capital.

It was just like one of the islands in southern Japan from my previous life...or at least I assumed it was, since I’d never visited them.

“We’re almost there,” Larna said while I was still busy excitedly taking in the scenery around me.

“You all know about your identities, right?” she then asked.

“Yes,” all the three of us replied.

She was talking about the fake identities that we were supposed to take on during the mission.

Unlike the time when that village had asked the Ministry to help them with their tanuki infestation, this was an undercover operation, just like Sora and Maria’s mission at the Castle during the Assembly.

If people found out about our ranks or about the fact that we worked for the Ministry, they would probably feel wary of us, and looking for information would become much more difficult.

Therefore, as long as I was here, I was no longer a Ministry employee or the daughter of a duke. I was supposed to be just a normal girl.

There was a restaurant in the area which had secret connections with the Magical Ministry. We would pretend to be relatives of the owners who had come there from the countryside to help with work. We would then use that cover story to snoop around without raising suspicion.

However, when Larna prepared our cover stories, mine was a bit different. The higher-ups at the Ministry insisted that, as the daughter of a duke, I couldn’t be asked to do the lowly job of a commoner, and so I could pretend to be a slightly higher-ranking tourist, just lazily goofing around while my friends worked. I refused, and asked to help Sora and Maria.

I couldn’t stand doing nothing while my colleagues were working and collecting information. I was doing my fair share of manual labor back at the Ministry, and in my previous life, I worked part time at a restaurant to finance my otaku hobbies, so I was positive that I’d have no problem here.

In the end, it was decided that Maria and I would work at the restaurant while Sora would help load ships during the day and act as a sort of bouncer during the night.

Larna, who was a master of disguise, would change her looks to investigate here and there, but she didn’t tell us any of the details.

“Here we are,” Larna said, and we hopped off of the carriage.

There was a slight breeze coming toward us.

“It smells salty!” I said, happy to experience that telltale fragrance for the first time in this life.

“That’s because we’re so close to the sea,” Larna explained.

“The sea?!” I said, overjoyed.

“Lady Katarina, have you never been to the sea?”

“No, never.”

In my previous life I’d gone to the beach to swim every summer, but since being reborn as Katarina Claes, I’d never even seen the ocean. The word itself was enough to get me excited.

“If that’s the case, you should go and take a look at it if you find some free time,” Larna kindly said. I definitely wanted to do that.

“I have also never seen it, so, if you go, I would like to come along,” Maria said, so we promised to go together.

I was looking forward to discovering what the sea looked like in this world.

Leaving the carriage, we walked through a street smelling like salt and full of people, until we finally reached a building with a red roof and a simple sign on it that read “Harbor Restaurant.” While it didn’t look particularly old, it obviously wasn’t very new either.

A sign on the door showed that it wasn’t open yet, but Larna casually walked inside, making the shopkeeper’s bell ring.

Inside we found a few dozen tables, each with two or three seats, and just to the right of the entrance, what looked like a counter. Just like the building itself, its contents were neither ancient nor brand new, but the whole place was very clean.

“We’re here!” Larna said as soon as she entered, addressing someone inside.

“Oh, already?” a voice from behind the counter replied.

It belonged to a woman who was probably in her late twenties. She was crouching behind the counter doing something, but stood up when she heard Larna.

“It’s been so long, Larna. I haven’t had much time since you contacted me, so I’m not done with the preparations yet. Sorry.”

The woman, whose words indicated that she obviously knew Larna, had brown eyes and hair of the same color, long enough to reach her waist and tied in a messy ponytail. She wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful or anything, but she had an attractive je ne sais quoi about her.

“Don’t worry, it’s my bad for calling you all of a sudden. We’ll take up the preparations from here,” Larna said before introducing us to the woman.

“From right to left, these are Katarina Claes, Maria Campbell, and Sora Smith,” she said.

Introducing people with nothing but their names—no titles—was weird, but this woman must have been used to how weird Larna usually was, since she didn’t bat an eye.

“I see,” she said. “I already read about all of you in the files that were sent to me. However, as long as you are here, we’ll all be on a first-name basis. I’m Regina, by the way. I know this is very sudden, but time is of the essence, so I’ll show you your rooms.”

We followed her to a hallway opposite to the entrance. It was darker than the hall, but just as clean.

Regina opened one of several doors.

“This, the next room, and the one at the end of the hallway are the employees’ rooms. They all look the same, and, since they haven’t been used in a while, they could be a bit dusty.”

She showed us a simple room with a bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a chair. It only had the bare essentials, but the sunlight coming in from the window made it look like a pleasant, comfortable place to stay in.

“Lady Katarina, Maria, Sora. Clean these rooms and then move into them, one for each,” Larna ordered after checking inside the door.

“What about you, Miss Larna?” I asked, wondering where she was going to stay if we used up all three of the rooms.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be staying in this building. And don’t call me Miss while we’re here.”

“Y-Yes...”

She was going to investigate in disguise, so she wasn’t going to stay with us.

“Regina, I won’t be able to stop by so often, so please take care of these three.”

“Even after going up in rank, you’re still as freewheeling as always,” Regina said, putting a hand to her cheek and sighing. She looked toward the rest of us. “It can’t be easy working with her as your boss, huh? Anyway, as long as you stay here, I’ll take care of all of you, so just tell me if anything happens,” she then added, showing us a voluptuous smile. I nodded, but I found myself blushing.

Larna, however, had raised an eyebrow.

“I want you to take care of them, but don’t teach them anything weird, all right?” she said.

“What do you mean weird?!” Regina replied, pouting.

“I mean things like how to charm men, which I know is one of your fortes. These two girls, in particular, are young and naive, so try not to tease them too much.”

“I would never! And I don’t try to charm men. They just come to me of their own accord.”

“Don’t think I’d forget how many men you were keeping around yourself and how much trouble that caused at your last workplace.”

“If we’re talking about that, shouldn’t we also mention how much trouble you caused me by thinking of nothing but your research on magic, without ever stopping to consider the consequences of what you were doing?”

By the quick remarks that they were exchanging, one could see that Larna and Regina were very close to each other.

“Excuse me, how do you two know each other?” I finally asked, unable to contain my curiosity.

“We worked together at the Ministry,” both of them replied in perfect unison.

“Regina is a bit older than me, but we started working at the same time and were assigned to the same department,” Larna explained.

“So you used to work at the Ministry?”

We knew that our organization had some connection to this restaurant, but we didn’t know that a Ministry employee was working here, and finding this out surprised all three of us.

Seeing our reaction, Regina put her hand to her cheek and sighed once again.

“Why are you always so half-hearted, Larna? You haven’t even explained the details to your subordinates? Be more diligent!” she said, and then looked back at us.

“Most Ministry employees are open about their work, but there are some, like me, who hide their position and pretend to be common citizens. We do that to collect information and report it to the higher-ups, or even solve small problems on our own. In other words, we do all of this undercover,” she said.

I knew that Larna had been on some undercover missions, and that Maria and Sora had recently done the same at the Castle, but I didn’t know that there were people who were always undercover!

“Regina looks...like that, but she’s actually strong both with her arms and with magic. You can rely on her,” Larna said.

“What do you mean like that? I really don’t want to hear that coming from the Ministry’s problem child...” Regina replied, pouting again.

“Problem child? That’d be you.”

“No way. You were the problem child.”

Most likely, both of them were the problem child.

In any case, the Ministry was hiding more secrets than I thought. I used to think that Ministry employees were like government officials in Japan, but now they looked more like an intelligence agency. I really didn’t understand the scope of this organization, despite being an employee myself. There was so much I didn’t know.

Now that we had reached Ocean Harbor, we went from answering to one Ministry problem child to another.

I didn’t know how glad I should feel about that.

We started by deciding who would stay in which room, but since we were two women and one man, Sora would stay in the room at the end of the hallway, and Maria and I only had to choose which one of the two adjacent rooms to use, and then we all cleaned them.

Just as Regina had told us, the rooms were a bit dusty and looked like they hadn’t been used in a while. We opened the windows and swept the floors. Since there was only the bare minimum furniture, cleaning took very little time, and soon we were ready to put our belongings into our wardrobes.

Anne, my maid, used to do everything for me, but while working at the Ministry, I had experienced doing a variety of menial tasks, and now I could easily take care of this kind of thing.

However, according to Anne, I was “too careless about personal appearance,” and she had even asked Maria to look after me in that regard. She obviously didn’t trust my skills yet, but I personally thought that I’d improved a little bit since my past life. Now, for example, I fixed my hair before leaving the house.

I thought of this while taking things out of my luggage and stuffing them inside the wardrobe. I put in my clothes and other daily necessities, leaving my bag almost empty, except for a book.

I didn’t take Sophia’s romance novels with me, did I? I thought but, taking a better look, I realized that it was actually the Dark Covenant.

Oh, that’s right. I’d been told to always keep it with me, so I’d put it in my bag before going to the Castle for the Assembly.

I often forgot about the covenant, mainly because reading it was so difficult that I wanted to think about it as little as I could.

When I looked at this book, by far the most villainesque thing I owned, I remembered the Catastrophic Bad Ends that were waiting for me.

I had avoided doom throughout my time at the Academy, but after I started working at the Ministry, I realized that I wasn’t quite done yet. However, even after a while, I hadn’t noticed any particular event that looked like it could lead me to a bad end.

It was also possible that I just hadn’t noticed—after all, I hadn’t played FL2, so I wasn’t very familiar with its script.

Despite everything, I had accidentally found a lot of Dark Magic-related items that were probably used by the villainess in the game. Furthermore, because of my job, I spent a lot of time with Maria, meaning that maybe I was inadvertently interfering with her romantic events.

I had to be really careful about that, since, from what I knew, doom for Katarina in FL2 was related to interfering with the love between Maria and the three new love interests: Cyrus, Dewey, and Sora.

As for Cyrus, Maria’s gynophobic superior, I’d actually helped him get closer to her, and I was always rooting for Dewey, the child prodigy, so I didn’t think I’d have any problems with those two...

But then there was Sora, who worked in the same department as me. We spent a lot of time together, but I could never tell what he was really thinking under that aloof expression of his. I decided that, if I found some free time during this mission, I’d ask him again what he thought of Maria.

I put the Dark Covenant in the wardrobe with my other belongings and, since I was finished, I went to see how Maria was doing.

“I’m done!” I said, and I noticed that she was still putting her clothes away. Unlike me, who just threw them in haphazardly, she was neatly folding each one of them.

“That was fast, Lady Katarina,” she said, before quickly realizing what she’d done and covering her mouth with her hands.

“You can’t call me Lady while we’re here, remember?” I answered with a grin.

“...Miss Katarina,” she said while blushing.

I wouldn’t have minded being called just Katarina, without even the Miss. Actually, I would have preferred that, considering that Larna had also told me not to use it with her. However Maria refused, saying that she could never disrespect me like that.

I thought that in this world, where rank was so important, that gap was too large to bridge, but I still hoped that one day we could just call each other by name like two friends.

“Ah, I ended up bringing Alexander’s towel...” Maria muttered to herself as she continued putting her things away.

“You mean that teddy bear?” I asked, and her expression got slightly darker.

“Yes. He was supposed to come with us, so I had also packed his things.”

“A shame, really,” I said.

Alexander was a magical tool, an uncool teddy bear with a cool name that Larna had created, and it was supposed to come with us on this mission. It was very attached to Maria and followed her everywhere.

Its main function was finding people, and it had helped us find Keith in the past, which is why we thought it could be helpful this time too. We tried to borrow something from the kidnapped young lady to activate it, but we then found out about a major problem... Alexander was actually looking for people by detecting traces of their magic, so it didn’t work properly with people who only had weak magic powers.

Keith, Maria, and the other test subjects we had used when experimenting with Alexander all had very strong magic powers, so we only recently found out that it couldn’t help us in finding the not-so-powerful young lady.

This also meant that it probably couldn’t find not-so-powerful me.

We were obviously all disappointed, but the most disappointed person (bear?) was Alexander, who thought it could save the day.

To be honest, I didn’t really like Alexander (because it teased me all the time), but seeing how depressed it looked back then made me feel for it.

After all, Alexander had to stay in the capital.

“I think it’d want us to do our best,” I told Maria, in an attempt to cheer her up, since she was Alexander’s...owner, in a sense.

After Maria was done with her luggage as well, we walked out into the hallway, where we found Sora. He’d already finished with his room and was waiting for us.

“Now that we’re all done, we should go back to the restaurant. Regina said she’ll tell us what we’re supposed to do next,” he said, and so we all went back to the hall that we’d seen earlier.

We found Regina behind the counter, and Larna sitting in front of it.

“You’re done? Sit here, then. I’ll make you something to drink,” Regina said, inviting us to the seats near Larna’s.

As we sat down, I thought that the atmosphere was too relaxing for us to actually be going to work.

“There you go,” Larna said after pointing at the glasses on the counter in front of us. They were full of an orange liquid and decorated with a slice of some kind of citrus on the rim.

It’s a tropical drink! I thought, a bit excited, as I took a sip.

“...Hmfg!”

I did my best not to spit it out.

Wh-What is this?! It looked like orange juice, but it tasted sour, bitter, and spicy... In a word, it tasted disgusting.

I considered that maybe it just didn’t match my palate, but I looked at Maria and Sora and, sure enough, their faces had turned blue with disgust too.

The person behind the drinks, however, didn’t seem to notice.

“So, how does it taste? Did you like it?” Regina asked.

Having no idea how to reply, the three of us silently looked at each other.

“Have you seen their faces?” Larna asked coolly. “Do you think that’s a face that people make when they drink something they like? You still couldn’t throw together something half palatable to save your life, it seems.”

Now that I looked at it, I noticed that the glass in front of Larna only contained water. She probably knew that Regina’s drinks were terrible.

I stared at my superior as if to blame her for not telling me before I drank that, and my thoughts reached her.

“I just thought that making you taste it for yourself was the easiest way to do it. And these drinks are no exception. Everything that Regina makes is awful. Food, beverages, you name it. Her sense of taste is awful too, so she doesn’t even understand just how bad the things she makes are,” Larna explained with a shrug.

Regina then took a sip of the drink she had made for us before asking, “Is it really that bad?” thus proving Larna’s point.

“If so...who is cooking at the restaurant?” asked Maria, who had finally recovered from the attack on her taste buds.

I was actually wondering the same thing, since I’d seen no one else but Regina in the restaurant.

I seriously hoped that she wasn’t serving customers things that tasted like this drink.

“There are people who help me with that. I mostly manage the restaurant by myself, but they come around to give me a hand.”

“So you have employees,” said Maria. “Do they also work at the Ministry?”

“No, but they know what’s going on. I’ve performed background checks on them, and they’re trustworthy. They’re an old couple living near here.”

“Is it only that old couple?” I asked Regina, surprised.

“Yes. So what?” she replied.

We were all surprised by this reaction. The restaurant was quite big, and it had a lot of seats. How could three people, two of them elderly at that, be enough to manage it?

I explained my doubts to Regina, who then casually replied.

“Oh, that’s not a problem. This place is never full. Even during lunch time, the most we ever get is maybe ten people at once.”

“And is that enough to keep the restaurant going?” Maria questioned, her eyes wide with curiosity.

“No way,” Regina simply replied.

Huh? We all looked at her in confusion.

“This place exists to gather useful information for the Ministry, so they give me enough money to keep the place running. Getting a few customers is more than enough!”

“So this restaurant does not make enough of a profit to cover expenses?” responded an even more confused Maria. Her eyes looked grimmer than usual.

“Exactly. We just buy food and beverages and resell them as is, after all.”

“You are not cooking the food you serve?” Maria attempted to clarify. She was surprisingly forward with her questions today.

“Yes. That couple told me that cooking would be too taxing for them, and that they couldn’t cook anything worth selling anyway. I’d cook the food myself, but my dishes aren’t very popular,” Regina explained as she cocked her head to one side.

If the drink she had served us was anything to go by, I could see why that was.

“So, long story short, this restaurant just sells the same food and drinks you could buy everywhere and isn’t even popular at all, right?” Larna mercilessly summarized the conversation so far.

“Hm, yes, I guess that’s about it,” Regina replied without looking very concerned.

“But wouldn’t it be weird to get two new employees, Katarina and Maria, if the restaurant is doing so badly?” Larna asked, raising an eyebrow.

Indeed, that did sound a bit unnatural.

“No need to worry about that. This restaurant still hasn’t closed despite drawing in so few customers, right? So everyone around here thinks that I have a rich lover who gives me money to keep the place afloat and that I only do this as a pastime. People will simply assume that the two new girls are just other lovers of the same guy,” Regina said with a smile as she slightly moved her head to one side.

That elegant, womanly smile definitely made her look like a rich guy’s lover.

“...I see. Fine then,” Larna said, still looking somewhat unconvinced. Personally, being thought of as someone’s new lover was anything but fine...

“There’s not much to do around here, so you just need to stand there and kill time!” Regina said while looking at Maria and me.

I was ready to give my best as a waitress, so I was actually disappointed.

“If we have the time...may we try to cook something?” Maria asked.

As always, she was such a diligent girl that she couldn’t forgive the idea of just standing there doing nothing.

“You can cook?” Regina asked.

“Maria’s a wonderful cook! Especially when it comes to baking, she’s even better than your average pâtissier!” I replied before Maria had a chance to respond.

“N-No, that is not true...”

“It is true! The things you cook are delicious!”

Maria was being humble, but as the daughter of a duke, I’d eaten my fair share of delicious cuisine. I knew a good cook when I saw one. Every time she made something for me, it was always delicious.

She was beautiful, cute, kind, and even good at cooking... I wished I could marry her.

“Really?” Regina answered with a grin. “In that case, come to the kitchen with me.”

Fearing for Maria’s life, Sora and I followed her and Regina.

Despite its only regular use being for plating food bought somewhere else, the kitchen looked impressive. Regina mentioned that when they first built the place, they actually planned to use it to do real cooking.

“So there used to be someone able to cook?” I asked her.

“Yes. We hired a cook back then,” she answered.

“And did that person leave?”

“Yes,” she explained, “but there were many more after him. But they all left one after the other.”

“What? Why did they do that?”

“You see, all of them ended up proposing to me. And when I declined, they’d up and leave.”

The three of us looked at each other, not sure how we should comment on that.

I remembered what Larna had said earlier about Regina keeping several men around her. Most cooks were men, so they probably left after some romantic disappointment...

“I even tried hiring married cooks, thinking that that’d solve the problem, but then their wives would come in to complain to me... Eventually, I couldn’t find anyone willing to work here.”

And so, the only people left for her to employ were that elderly married couple.

After hearing this incredible story, I started feeling anxious about working for this woman.

Anyway, the restaurant’s kitchen was well furnished; it was just missing a cook. At first, Maria was just as taken aback as Sora and I, but after taking a good look at the kitchen, her eyes started sparkling. I never cooked, and I was even forbidden from entering the kitchen in the Claes manor, so I couldn’t be sure, but it turned out that the equipment in this kitchen was state of the art.

“Not using this kitchen is such a waste!” Maria declared, clenching her fists.

“I agree. So, why don’t you try to cook us something?” Regina said as she did her usual gesture of cocking her head to one side.

“Yes. But...about the ingredients...” Moments after replying, Maria realized that the kitchen didn’t seem to have anything other than herbs and spices stocked in it.

“Oh, that’s right. Wait a second,” Regina said, noticing Maria’s worried expression. She then left the kitchen through the service entrance.

“She’s always freewheeling...” commented Larna, who had come to check on us.

She was right, but that also equally applied to herself.

After a while, Regina came back with a basket containing vegetables, eggs, meat, flour, and other ingredients.

“Did you go to buy them?” Maria asked, shocked by the short time it took her to gather so many ingredients.

“No, I just got them from some kind neighbors!” she replied.

We were surprised by how kind the people living here were, but Larna quickly dispelled the illusion.

“You asked men for those, didn’t you?” she said, and Regina laughed like a child whose prank had been found out.

Larna was probably right. Now I was even more anxious about working for this woman.

“So, let’s try this. Maria will cook something with these ingredients, and Katarina and Sora will go get the food I’ve ordered for today,” Regina told us while sitting in a corner of the kitchen, probably planning to watch Maria while she cooked.

We all began our first actual task since starting to “work” at the restaurant. Sora and I left Maria with Regina (not without worrying) and then departed the Harbor Restaurant. Regina had drawn us a map to show us where we needed to go and had told us what we had to get. Since her map was extremely crude, we had to ask for directions several times but eventually made it.

We arrived at an eatery much bigger than Harbor Restaurant. This place also seemed to do takeout, and despite it still being a bit too early for dinner, there already were quite a few customers.

Regina had told us that she bought food from here, plated it, and served it at her restaurant. I wondered if she actually had permission to do that.

With this and other doubts in my mind, I approached a girl, probably a waitress, who was walking between tables with dishes in one of her hands.

“We’re here from the Harbor Restaurant...” I told her, and the girl blinked a few times in surprise.

“Regina’s place? Are you new hires?” she asked.

“Yes. We just started working there today.”

“I see. I’ll go check, so just wait here for a second,” she said before disappearing into what was probably the kitchen, still carrying the dishes.

Sora told me to come to the edge of the dining room and quietly lean against a wall, so I did. Despite it being so early, there were already many customers, as well as numerous waiters weaving through the tables bearing dishes and glasses. They looked like what I’d pictured in my mind when I was told I was supposed to work as a waitress. I was expecting to do something very similar...but according to Regina, reality would be much different.

The girl from earlier eventually returned, and reported, “The owner said she’s heard from Regina. She’s waiting for you in the kitchen,” before pointing us toward a door on the other side of the dining area. We thanked her and quickly headed for the kitchen.

When we opened the door at the back of the restaurant, a gust of steam came out accompanied by a delicious smell. In front of us there was a small counter, probably a place to put dishes that were ready to be served, and behind it, the kitchen proper. There was another door in the far wall. We didn’t know whether it was okay to open it ourselves, so we asked one of the people who was cooking.

“Excuse me, we’re here from the Harbor Restaurant and we were wondering where the owner—”

“Oh, you’re from Regina’s place?” Before I could even finish my question, a stout old woman approached us from the back of the kitchen, pushing a cart with a metallic gray box on it.

“Yes, we are,” I replied.

“I see. When I heard that Regina hired new people, I thought that it’d be young men, as usual, but I see that this time there’s a girl too. I’m the owner you’re looking for. Nice to meet you,” she said with a big laugh. She was a really pleasant woman.

“Nice to meet you too,” I replied as another person walked up behind the owner, pushing another cart bearing another box.

“Here you go, these are the dishes that Regina ordered,” the owner said, pointing to the two boxes, gesturing as if she wanted us to confirm their contents.

The big metallic boxes reminded me of those we used in my previous life for school lunches. We opened them and found lots of delicious-looking food. You could tell how freshly cooked it was by the fact that it was still steaming.

After checking both of the boxes, we paid the owner with the money that Regina had given us. We thanked the owner with a bow, then received the carts with the boxes on them.

“Are you two going to be cooks?” the owner asked while she was counting the money with a charming smile.

“No, we are going to work in the dining room,” I replied, and she was taken aback.

“Mm...” she said to herself as she took a good look at us. “Are you sponsored by the same guy as Regina?” she asked.

Sponsored? What does she mean? Oh! I remember! Regina said that people think she has a rich lover sponsoring her restaurant...which means that this woman thinks that I’m also one of that guy’s lovers!

I was being mistaken for a playboy’s lover...

“N-No! We’re relatives of hers, which is why we’re going to be working at the restaurant,” I hastily explained.

“I see, I see,” she responded, laughing dryly, “I only thought that because you’re a young lady, and that boy there is very handsome himself.”

Without any doubt, Sora was very handsome, and he had a sexy aura around him that totally made him look like someone’s lover. The reason why she thought the same about me despite my villainess-face was probably because I was standing next to him.

“But even if you’re relatives, it seems like a waste to hire two people to wait on a restaurant that gets so few customers,” she continued while looking intently at Sora. “Say, young man, why don’t you work at my place? I can pay you better than Regina!” she told him.

She scouted him to work at her restaurant! This businesswoman wasn’t playing around.

Smiling, Sora replied, “I’m also going to work for Regina, but not as a waiter. I’ll just be carrying crates around at the harbor.”

Exactly. Maria and I would be working as waitresses, and Sora would be working at the harbor. This was so that we could gather information from a wider variety of sources. The owner, however, didn’t know that.

“Working at the harbor?! With looks like those?! What a waste! You’d be able to make much more as a waiter! Come and work here!” she said, trying to scout him again.

I also agreed that waiting tables fit him better than harsh manual labor.

“I’m sorry, but I’m really bad with people. I wouldn’t be able to work a room,” he replied, making the owner’s face darken.

After knowing Sora for a while, one thing I knew for sure about him was that he was certainly not bad with people. When I first met him, he was working as a butler in a huge mansion, overseeing the other servants. If anything, he was good with people. He was obviously lying, but his troubled facial expression made one feel sorry for him.

The owner blushed and smiled, saying, “That’s too bad. But if you ever want to give it a try, just let me know.”

“Thank you very much. I certainly will,” he replied.

The owner had completely fallen for him.

“Take this, it’s on me,” she said, offering us some sweets.

As I looked at Sora, smiling and waving his hand as he normally never did, he reminded me of the handsome boys in host clubs who make it their job to gratify women.

The owner then showed us to the kitchen’s back door, which led us outside behind the restaurant.

Sora was pushing the heavier of the two carts, and I the lighter one. After walking for a bit, we felt the wind’s salty smell get stronger and heard a big splashing sound.

“Could this be the sound of waves?!” I exclaimed, so excited that my voice crackled.

“Yes. We’re close to the sea,” he answered, sounding uninterested.

“I thought so! Are we, like, very close? Why don’t we go and take a little look?” I asked him enthusiastically.

“Hey, we’re working right now,” he coldly replied.

“Th-that’s right...”

I’d almost forgotten about that. But now that we were so close, I really wanted to take a peek at the sea for the first time in my (current) life. My shoulders drooped with disappointment, and I heard Sora sigh.

“Fine. It looks like we’re really close anyway. But just a short look and then we’re going back, got it?” he said bluntly.

Deep down, he was a really kind guy.

“Yes. I’ll just take a peek and then get back to work. Thank you, Sora,” I rejoiced.

I was so happy that I left my cart and went to hug him, but he quickly pushed me away.

“Stay with your cart!” he snapped.

We followed the sound of the waves and left the street to find a white beach leading to a blue sea that seemed to have no end. The sight was so stunning that I was at a loss for words. The water was clear and sparkly, nothing like the muddy sea I was used to in my previous life. I’d only seen water like this in TV programs about tropical islands.

“It’s so beautiful...” I finally managed to say.

“This place is famous for its beautiful beaches,” Sora explained. He had lived in several different cities and countries, and thus was very knowledgeable. The first time I met him, back in that mansion, he also told me a lot of things about foreign countries. Now that I think of it...

“You’ve kept your promise,” I said.

“What promise?” he wondered, confused.

“The first time we met, you promised me that you’d show me the sea one day,” I said, and he gave me a surprised look. I guess he’d forgotten about it. “Thank you, Sora.”

Even if he’d forgotten, he’d still kept his promise. His blue eyes remained wide open. Was he really that surprised? Looking at him, I recalled something else.

“Do you remember the brooch I gave you as a sign of our promise?” The stone in the brooch changed color depending on how the light hit it. I’d bought it during the School Festival and then given it to Sora.

“Oh, that thing? I forgot where I put it,” he said.

“But it was such a beautiful brooch, with the colors of our eyes!” I cried, puffing my cheeks in outrage over the way he’d forgotten about the brooch too.

Out of nowhere, he put a hand on my head and started ruffling my hair. He kept doing it even longer than usual.

“Wh-Why are you doing this?”

I told him that, if anything, I should have been the one mussing up his hair, but he looked away from me, saying, “As dense as always. You’ve seen the sea, so now let’s go back to the restaurant.”

He then started pushing his cart, and I hurried to do the same.

I didn’t get why, but Sora had probably taken offense at something I’d done or said. He just kept walking and pushing the cart without looking at me. Sora was a really mysterious guy. At this rate, I didn’t know whether I had any chance of finding out what he really thought about Maria.

We silently walked all the way back to the Harbor Restaurant, and, when we finally reached its kitchen, we were greeted by a row of tasty-looking dishes laid out on the table. Those definitely weren’t there when we left.

“I tried cooking something with Regina’s ingredients. What do you think?” Maria asked.

“She was so fast!” Regina exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah. Incredible, huh?” Larna agreed.

What did I tell you? Maria is the best.

“Now that we’re all here, we should taste them,” Regina said, giving each of us a small plate and a fork.

“Yay! Finally!” I said. After pushing around that cart full of food, I was starving. I took the first bite without waiting even a second.

“Th-this is...”

“I-Is it bad?” Maria asked, worried.

“Not at all! It’s delicious. I knew that you were a good cook, but this is the first time I got to eat something just as soon as you cooked it. And it’s great!” I explained, and Maria’s face broke into a smile.

“She’s right. This is really good,” Regina said, putting a hand to her cheek.

“As if you can tell? I mean, it is good though,” Larna said as she moved her fork to take another bite.

Even Sora was murmuring, “Delicious...” as he kept eating, looking impressed.

“I know, right? Maria’s a great cook. She wouldn’t even lose to a pro,” I declared, proud of my friend.

“Lady Katarina, you are exaggerating...” she said, shaking her head as she blushed.

Regina, after complimenting the taste once, had just kept on eating silently. She eventually stood up.

“This is good! You’re on par with the professional cooks I’ve hired before! Maria, get back to cooking! We’re going to serve your dishes!”

“Do you mean...right away?!”

Maria was the one who had offered to cook in the first place but, now that she was suddenly told to do it, she looked taken aback.

“Exactly! Right away!” Regina smiled and ignored Maria’s shock. “It’s almost time for dinner, and I want to serve the things you make. Let’s start preparing!”

She sounded so convinced of what she was saying that we, as her employees, could only do as she had said, and so we started preparing for dinner according to her orders.

The Harbor Restaurant was now open for dinner.

I changed into the waitress uniform I’d received and went to the dining room.

Maria was supposed to wait tables with me but now she was working in the kitchen, and Sora was standing in a corner as a bouncer.

The old woman who normally worked here and I were the only two waitresses. Regina was standing behind the counter to serve drinks, so she wouldn’t come out among the customers.

The old couple came in about one hour before opening. They were calm, kind people who had been working here since the start of the restaurant, making them almost more knowledgeable about it than Regina herself. The old woman gave me a detailed explanation on what I was supposed to do and then told me to come and tell her if I had any problems. Those words gave me strength, but as I was standing there waiting for the store to open, I felt anxious.

I hadn’t worked as a waitress since my previous life, after all. Back then, I’d gotten to the point that the restaurant manager would even praise me for my work, but things were probably different in this world. I wondered whether I would be able to do it...but then again, no point in worrying. I just had to do it!

Right when I’d found the motivation not to give up, I heard the shopkeeper’s bell ring and saw the first customer walk in.

“Welcome!” I said with a smile.

The shopkeeper’s bell rang as the last customer for the night walked out.

“Thank you! Please come again!” I said before letting out a sigh of relief.

All the anxiety I had at first quickly disappeared as the training and experience from my previous life kicked in, and I somehow managed to finish my first shift as a waitress in this world.

If anything, this was much easier than working at a Japanese family restaurant. There were only a few items on the menu, I could jot down the orders on paper instead of inputting them at a computer terminal, and as Regina had told us before, there weren’t that many customers.

“You did well, girl,” the old woman who was working with me said with a smile.

“Thank you!” I answered, blushing at her compliment. Just then, Regina also walked out from behind the counter to approach me.

“I was surprised. When I read about your experience, I thought you wouldn’t be able to do much at all, but you proved me wrong. The customers praised you as well.”

“Th-thank you!” I stammered, blushing even more. I wasn’t used to being praised.

“We had more customers than usual today, so I’m glad you were here helping me out,” the old woman said.

“You usually get fewer people?” I asked, confused. It wasn’t as completely deserted as Regina had said, but I thought that she was just being humble.

“Yes. Usually most of the seats are empty,” Regina admitted without batting an eye, “but the news that we’re serving Maria’s cooking instead of just warming up stuff like usual spread throughout the neighborhood. The customers liked her dishes, so tomorrow could be just as busy as today.”

Her eyes were already sparkling at the idea.

When she first explained to us about the restaurant, she sounded so detached, but maybe that was just because she’d lost motivation thanks to the lack of customers.

“Maybe we could even fill the whole place up, like when the restaurant had just opened,” the old woman mused as she looked at Regina warmly.

I was looking at the women, feeling happy for them, when Sora came back. He’d been checking outside the store and putting out the “Closed” sign.

“Well done. Nobody seeing you work like that could guess that you’re a noblewoman,” he told me.

“Hehe, thank you!”

I’d never received so much praise in a single day since I was reborn.

“So, how did things go?” he asked me.

“Very well! A lot of customers came in to try Maria’s cooking, and maybe tomorrow will be just as busy too. We’ll have to give our best!” I proclaimed, shaking my fists with enthusiasm, but Sora sighed.

“I meant, how did our mission go? Did you get any information on the kidnapping?”

“Ah!”

I was so busy waiting tables that I’d completely forgotten about our mission!

“You forgot about it, didn’t you? Just as I thought. You probably had your hands full though, it being your first day as a waitress,” he said with scary accuracy.

“S-Sorry...”

“But if there are even more customers tomorrow, gathering information will also be even more difficult,” he said.

I thought that the restaurant being busy was a good thing, but that also meant that I couldn’t concentrate on my mission.

“You’re right... What can we do?” I said, concerned.

“Don’t worry,” Regina, who was listening to our conversation, intervened.

“Huh?” I looked at her in confusion as she smiled.

“I’ll be the one gathering information.” she said.

“You? How?” I asked, remembering that, the entire time the restaurant had been open today, she never left her counter in the corner, making drinks. That is, pouring already made drinks from bottles into glasses.

She was only listening to the chitchat of the customers sitting close to her, probably trying to hit on her, and she didn’t even seem particularly interested in that. She certainly didn’t look like she was gathering any information.

“I’m actually a Wind Magic user, you see. And by using that magic, I can control the vibrations in the air to pick up on distant sounds. I can hear pretty much everything that goes on inside this restaurant,” she said, explaining her unbelievable trick.

“And you’re gathering information like this all the time while the store is open?”

“Yes. I’m always listening to people talking.”

That’s incredible! She looked like she was just half-heartedly listening to the customer in front of her but she was actually working! She’s a respectable Ministry employee after all, I thought, but...

“Well, to be honest I’m mostly listening to local rumors and such because standing there doing nothing is too boring. I get to learn a lot about this town,” she said, making me unsure of what I was supposed to think about her. Was she a respectable worker or not?

“And did you hear anything about the kidnapping?” Sora asked.

“Uhm...” she replied, “I didn’t hear anything about that today. But the more customers we get, the more likely we are to find something.” She then looked at me and said with a smile, “If you all work hard, I’m sure we’ll find the information you need!”

So we basically had to bring in even more customers.

“Anyway, I’ll worry about the intel, so you can focus on waiting tables,” she concluded before disappearing to the back of the restaurant.

Knowing that I could focus on just one thing was a relief, at least.

When most of the cleaning up was done, the old couple went home, and Sora and I finished tidying the dining area.

Maria was still in the kitchen, preparing for the next day. She looked tired after having to cook that much on such short notice, but when we told her about the many customers her cooking had brought in, she got even more motivated and happily promised to do her best the next day too.

I mopped the floor while I thought of how much I had to learn from her.

This wasn’t a high-class restaurant for nobles, and the clientele’s manners weren’t exactly high-class either. The floor wasn’t very dirty, and thankfully I was used to this kind of labor from my job at the Ministry. The restaurant’s dining space was actually smaller than the huge surfaces I sometimes had to clean there.

As we were almost done, I started a conversation with Sora.

“Since we also serve alcohol here, I was worried that I’d get harassed by drunk guys, but thankfully nothing of the sort happened,” I told him.

“I think that’s because most of the men that come here to drink just want an excuse to speak with Regina. She’s good with those kinds of guys, so there wasn’t any problem.”

“So you don’t really have much to do as a bouncer, right?”

I heard that, around here, a lot of the places that serve alcohol hire a bouncer just in case. Regina said that one from another restaurant came by every once in a while, but now we had Sora taking care of that role. In the end, though, I didn’t get to see Sora doing anything.

“...Right. Anyway, I think we’re done here. Let’s go to bed already,” he said, taking my mop and walking off to the back of the restaurant.

It still wasn’t that late, but he was probably tired from the new, unfamiliar job. I followed after him and found Regina, who I thought had left behind, giggling to herself in a corner.

“The reason you weren’t harassed by drunks,” she revealed, “is that he was constantly on the lookout. As soon as someone even thought about bothering you, he’d give them a stare so harsh that they could feel it stabbing them. And then he’d also escort those people out of the building. But he was so smooth in doing it that you didn’t even notice.”

“...I didn’t know.” Just as she said, I hadn’t noticed at all. Why didn’t he tell me, anyway?

“He’s always looking out for you,” she observed, and I agreed.

As a colleague and fellow newcomer at the Ministry, he was always helping me out.

“Thank you for telling me what was happening,” I told Regina, before going back to chasing Sora.

He was waiting for me in the hallway that connected the restaurant to the employees’ rooms.

Sora always waited for me, now that I thought of it. He never left me behind.

“Sora, I heard from Regina that you were actually keeping the drunks from bothering me. I’m sorry I didn’t notice! Thank you,” I told him as he was facing away from me.

“...It’s what I was hired to do. You don’t have to thank me,” he said bluntly.

“But you’re always saving me in one way or another. Thank you, really,” I said, pulling his arm to turn around, and he ruffled my hair again.

“What?! Again?!” I puffed my cheeks in frustration, and he blushed and looked away.

He was probably embarrassed about being thanked. Seeing him blush like that was so cute that I stopped complaining about the hair-ruffling. I was planning to ask him about Maria, but instead I witnessed this unexpected side of him.

“...Go back to your room already.”

“I will. Goodnight, Sora,” I told him and went to my room.

Working as a waitress for the first time in this world had really tired me out. “I’m spent...” I murmured as I got into bed, and seconds later, I was asleep.

★★★★★

I, Sora Smith, was once again on a mission with my colleague Katarina Claes.

After meeting her through some unconventional circumstances, I thought that I’d never see her again...but then she started working at the Ministry alongside me. We ended up in the same department and often worked together. Given how reckless she was, I always had to look after her. But Katarina was the daughter of a duke and the fiancée of a prince. I had to be careful not to forget that normally someone of her rank wouldn’t even speak to me... No matter how I felt toward her.

Regina asked Katarina and me to go to the restaurant that always prepared food for the Harbor Restaurant. Not ingredients, just food. Already cooked food. The so-called “Harbor Restaurant” secretly funded by the Magical Ministry didn’t even prepare anything; it just served stuff that it bought elsewhere.

As I imagined, this meant that it didn’t draw in enough customers to be profitable and only stayed afloat thanks to the Ministry’s money. As a citizen (though I wasn’t born in Sorcié, to be honest), I didn’t know how to feel about that.

Maria Campbell, another Ministry employee who I often worked with, probably felt the same as I did and tried to do what she could to get more people coming to the restaurant.

We left Maria with Regina and went to the restaurant we were told to go to. I looked at Regina’s hand-drawn map and sighed. It was the roughest, most barebones map I’d ever seen. She confidently told me that we’d be fine with that, and I’d believed her...but we obviously weren’t going to be fine at this rate. It didn’t take long to understand that the map wasn’t going to do us any good.

I shouldn’t have believed her, especially since she reminded me of Larna, our boss who also couldn’t really be trusted with this sort of thing. At that point I didn’t feel like going back and having her draw another map. Even if I did, I knew that the second map would be just as lousy as the first. We decided we’d just ask for directions.

It took us a while to reach the place we’d been sent to, but at least I had more time to enjoy the sight of Katarina looking around with sparkling eyes at the unfamiliar surroundings.

We eventually got to a restaurant much larger and busier than the Harbor Restaurant. We told one of the staff about our errand, and she let us know that the owner was waiting for us in the kitchen. Katarina thanked her and we set off.

All the nobles I’d met before always looked down on commoners and took their help for granted. They’d never thank one of them for doing something. Katarina, however, was different. I was impressed by how grateful she always was to anyone who helped her, but at the same time, I asked myself what kind of education she had received to become like that.

When we walked into the kitchen, full of its delicious smells, Katarina asked one of the cooks for the owner, but before she was even done asking, the owner herself had started walking toward us, pushing a cart. She had known that Regina’s new hires would come, and she had already prepared boxes full of food for us.

While we were paying for the food, she asked us whether we were cooks. When Katarina replied that she was a waitress, the owner looked surprised and then turned her gaze on me.

I already knew what she’d say next, so I wasn’t surprised in the least when she asked Katarina whether she was being sponsored by the same guy as Regina.

It was weird for an establishment with as few customers as the Harbor Restaurant to hire new waiters, so it was obvious what people would think about them, especially because Regina had the same rumors going around about her. Katarina, however, wasn’t expecting it, and she nervously explained that she was just a relative of Regina’s.

The owner laughed and said that she only thought that because there was a young girl and a handsome boy. She then said that it was a waste to hire two new waiters and looked at me. I could see her eyes sparkle.

As expected, she asked me to come work for her. What a bother. I told her that I wasn’t even going to be a waiter, with a smile that always worked on older women.

However, she looked surprised and told me that it was a waste not having me working in the dining area. To be honest, I agreed, so I just came up with an excuse on the spot, saying that I was bad with people. I made my best sad face, knowing that this was usually enough to make this kind of woman step back. She blushed, smiled, and gave up. Again, all as expected.

I finished her off by smiling and telling her that I would certainly love to work for her one day, and she completely lost it.

Getting on good terms with the people around me was also part of the job. I used to make a living out of getting women to like me, so this was no hard thing to do. It just never worked with the girl who was standing right next to me...

Anyway, the owner even gave us some sweets free of charge.

As we were going back to the Harbor Restaurant while pushing the carts with the food on it, the salty smell from the sea became stronger, and we could even hear the sound of the waves. Katarina excitedly asked whether she was hearing the sound of waves, and when I confirmed that she was, she insisted that she wanted to go and look at the sea. I reminded her that we were working, and she gave up. But she looked so disappointed, with her drooping shoulders and darkened eyes, that I just had to let her see it.

She immediately cheered up and hugged me. Why is she so extreme in everything? I told her not to forget about her cart as an excuse to get her off of me. I felt pitiful doing that. Since when am I so uncomfortable with women?

It had been a long time since I last saw a sea this lovely. The water was clear and the sand was white.

Katarina was looking at it in awe. The first words she finally managed to say were, “It’s so beautiful.” I told her that this place was known for its picturesque beaches, and she looked at me.

“You’ve kept your promise,” she told me.

I had no idea what she was talking about, but she then explained, and I remembered about the time when I first met her.

Back when I still didn’t know much about you, you kept asking me to tell you stories. And then I made you that promise...but I just said that without thinking. I never meant to keep it. I’d already forgotten about it, since I thought that someone like me couldn’t meet a noblewoman like her ever again.

The blue brooch you gave me, and your words... “We’re in the same world.” I thought that having those two things to remember you by would be enough...but you also remembered that promise.

I felt as if she had clutched my heart with her bare hands, and I couldn’t speak anymore.

“Thank you, Sora,” she told me with a smile. I could feel my heart beating faster and my face getting hotter. I made dozens of women fall for me for work, and to be honest, I thought I’d had enough... Why am I reacting to this like someone who has no experience with women at all?

I was already nervous enough, but then Katarina made it worse by asking me if I remembered about the brooch. Remember? I was wearing it at that very moment... But I lied and told her that I didn’t know where I’d put it.

“But it was such a beautiful brooch, with the colors of our eyes!” she protested. How can she be this romantic without noticing it?! I’m at my limit here!

I was so frustrated by how oblivious she was that I grabbed her head and started ruffling her hair. She asked why I was doing it, and since I didn’t want her to see my (probably red) face, I turned around. I told her that we had to go back to the restaurant and started walking. My face still hadn’t cooled back down. If someone as experienced with women as I was reacted like that, I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for the prince or her brother.

By the time I’d finally stopped blushing, we’d already arrived at the restaurant, where we found some dishes waiting on the kitchen counter.

As it turned out, Maria had made them in the short time we were away. I was really impressed. She was beautiful, diligent, a Light Magic user, and even a good cook. She was fit to be the protagonist of a novel. If she’d been born in high society, Katarina’s brother and her fiancée would probably have fallen for her...but everyone was too busy being in love with Katarina and her antics, and that included Maria herself—she was crazy about Katarina.

When we later tried the dishes she had cooked, Maria seemed to be the most concerned about Katarina’s opinion. But the food she’d prepared tasted even better than I expected, and Regina liked it so much that she asked Maria to cook more of it to serve at the restaurant.

Everyone was shocked at that absurd order, and I was reminded of a certain someone in charge of the Magical Tool Laboratory. In the end, Maria ended up working in the kitchen while Katarina and an old employee waited tables. I’d be standing in a corner, acting as a bouncer if anything happened, as we had previously discussed.

Eventually it was time for dinner, and the Harbor Restaurant opened.

Katarina looked nervous. She had put on her waitress uniform and received some explanations from the old woman who had been working here for a long time. To be honest, I thought that for a noble lady—even one as weird as her—working in a restaurant like this would be too much. I was surprised when she said that she’d do it, but I thought that she only said that because of her usual curiosity. I expected her to give up as soon as she actually had to work.

Back at the Ministry she was always doing stuff like cleaning the floors and delivering packages, but everyone there was well behaved (except my own department, unfortunately) and knew about her being a noble lady. They’d always treat her with the respect that her rank commanded. But here, she wasn’t a noble. She had to work as a normal girl, and I knew how difficult that could be.

What’s more, employees must always respect customers, and someone who’s never had that kind of experience would find it hard to extend such courtesy. I had my fair share of experience with that kind of job, so I was prepared to jump in and replace her as a waiter when she gave up.

Regina probably had me stand in the corner because she was expecting the exact same thing to happen, but Katarina defied all our expectations by being a perfect waitress. She was so good that you’d think she’d already done it before, like me. She was even good at interacting with customers. You’d never guess she was the daughter of a duke. I was so surprised by this that, at first, I just stared at her in silence.

The one problem with the way she was working was that she was so pleasant to customers that people started approaching her. There were already a lot of men coming to the Harbor Restaurant just to see Regina, but a girl as cute as Katarina couldn’t help but draw unwanted attention. They’d ask her things like, “Do you want to go eat somewhere else?” or, “Are you free after work?” but, Katarina being Katarina, she didn’t even notice that they were trying to pick her up.

“I’m sorry, I’m busy right now!” she’d say with a smile, or she’d reply, “Is there anything you need help with?” which didn’t even make sense in this situation.

Some of the customers were drunk or too forward with their advances, so I approached them and kindly asked them to leave. More than a bouncer for the restaurant, I was Katarina’s personal bouncer.

Regina, who noticed, grinned and told me, “You don’t need to scare away all the men who try to get close to Katarina, you know?”

I was just thankful that Katarina herself, being as dense as she was, didn’t notice what I was doing.

The shopkeeper’s bell rang, and the last customer left. The restaurant was closed for the night. Regina told me to go outside and put up the “closed” sign, and when I came back, I found her talking with Katarina and the old woman working at the restaurant. The three seemed to be having fun.

“Well done. Nobody seeing you work like that could guess that you’re a noblewoman,” I told her, and she thanked me and smiled. It was kind of a back-handed compliment, but she was so happy nonetheless. Her innocent joy was really a sight to behold.

I then asked about how things had gone, and she started giving me details about waiting tables at the restaurant. That wasn’t what I’d meant. She had obviously forgotten about her mission. I sighed and explained what I was talking about, and her eyes widened.

“Ah!” she gasped, looking shocked. She really had forgotten. Katarina always tried her hardest, but when she focused on one thing, she tended to forget everything else.

“You forgot about it, didn’t you? Just as I thought. You probably had your hands full though, it being your first day as a waitress,” I told her, and she apologized.

“But if there are even more customers tomorrow, gathering information will also be even more difficult,” I added.

“You’re right... What can we do?” she asked.

Things weren’t looking good. I wished I could help more, but since I was standing in a corner, I could only hear the conversations going on close to me. Also, as a bouncer, it’d be weird if I just started prowling around the restaurant.

“Don’t worry,” Regina chimed in.

She explained that she used her Wind Magic to listen to all the conversations that were going on in the restaurant at all times. I thought that, when she was being hit on at the counter, she seemed very uninterested, and this explained it. She wasn’t just bored... She was actually busy listening to all the other customers.

My opinion of her changed now that I knew that she was actually working surprisingly hard. Unfortunately, she also said that she hadn’t heard anything about the kidnapping. It wasn’t going to be so easy.

“But the more customers we get, the more likely we are to find something. If you all work hard, I’m sure we’ll find the information you need! Anyway, I’ll worry about the intel, so you can focus on waiting tables,” Regina finally said before disappearing to the back of the restaurant.

Katarina looked relieved that she could just focus on one thing. I then joined her and the old woman in cleaning the floor.

Katarina was used to cleaning from doing it at the Ministry, and she was actually so good with a mop that, yet again, she really didn’t look like a noblewoman. When we were almost finished, Katarina started talking with me.

“Since we also serve alcohol here, I was worried that I’d get harassed by drunk guys, but thankfully nothing of the sort happened,” she told me.

Just as I thought, she didn’t notice what I was doing. To be honest, I thought that I overdid it, but as long as she didn’t notice it, that was fine. I went along with the misconception she had formed of how things had gone, and she commented that I must have had little to do as a bouncer. She easily accepted my agreement.

I thought that the more we talked about this, the more likely it was for me to slip up and say something that I shouldn’t, so I decided to go straight to bed.

However, I was worried about whether Katarina could make it to her room. I was so used to waiting for her that I did it here too. When she finally came out, I told her that we should go to our respective rooms, but all of a sudden, she said, “Sora, I heard from Regina that you were actually keeping the drunks from bothering me. I’m sorry I didn’t notice! Thank you.”

I didn’t know how to reply. That woman and her big mouth.

“...It’s what I was hired to do. You don’t have to thank me,” I said. Being thanked after pretending not to have done anything was embarrassing, and I couldn’t manage to say anything more than that.

“But you’re always saving me in one way or another. Thank you, really,” Katarina added while tugging on my back to turn me around. My heart rate immediately rose and my face went red.

I was frustrated, and I showed that by ruffling her hair. She complained, but when I told her to go back to her room, she said goodnight and thankfully did as I ordered. After seeing her enter her room, I went into mine.

It took a while for my heart and face to go back to normal.

Being around Katarina always messed me up, and maybe because of that, that night I had a dream about something I hadn’t thought about in a while. It was a memory of when I lived in the slums and I got on the wrong side of some thugs. I thought I was going to die, but a friend came to help me at the last moment. Everyone had their hands full trying to survive, so being saved like that stood out even more. I clearly remembered that being the only time such a thing ever happened. I wondered how that friend was doing right now.

Just after I woke up the next morning, I heard a loud noise nearby. It sounded like it came from the hallway, but we were supposed to be the only ones using this employee space. I walked out of my room to check but I saw no one. That didn’t make sense though, so I went down the hallway toward the restaurant and glimpsed someone in the kitchen. I took a better look and saw that it was Maria Campbell, working on something.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, and she looked surprised.

“Sora? Why are you here?”

“I heard a noise and came to check.”

“Did I wake you up? I’m sorry...” She bowed her head apologetically.

“Don’t worry, I was already up,” I told her, “and anyway, what are you doing so early in the morning?”

“I wanted to prepare some things before having to cook for the restaurant...” she said, blushing.

“Isn’t this way too early?”

The restaurant served lunch as well as dinner, but there was still a lot of time until it opened. I didn’t understand why one would need to already start preparing.

“I talked with Regina, and we decided that, starting from today, we’ll be serving different dishes, as well as dessert at lunchtime. So I wanted to be ready,” she explained.

Maria was a really diligent girl, and Regina was taking advantage of that to make her work. I’d already noticed it during our undercover mission at the castle, but this girl never spared any effort. And, unlike someone else, Maria was actually talented enough that her efforts usually bore fruit, making people’s expectations grow, and in turn, making her work even harder. One really had to worry about her.

“Listen, Campbell, I agree that getting more customers to the restaurant could help us gather information, but you don’t have to do it all by yourself. If there’s anything that I can help with, just tell me, okay?”

She looked shocked for a moment. “You talk just like Lady Katarina...” she said with a smile.

“Lady Katarina?” I repeated after her, confused.

“Yes. She always tells me not to shoulder everything alone and to rely on her more,” she explained, looking delighted as she did so.

Her face practically had “I love you, Lady Katarina!” printed on it.

“You really like her, don’t you?” I asked her.

“Yes!” she said, looking even happier, “Lady Katarina is...”

She started rambling about the noble lady she loved so much. She told me about how Katarina had stood up for her at the Academy, how cool she’d looked while doing so, and so on and so forth. Her stories, which made Katarina sound like anything but the daughter of a duke, were really interesting.

“Oh, sorry... I got heated up and talked so much...” she concluded after a fair bit of time.

“No, I had fun listening,” I told her, and she smiled again.

“I want to become more like Lady Katarina, and I want her to rely on me too. This is why I am here in the kitchen so early... I want to improve myself,” she said. Her eyes were so passionate that you could tell at a glance how strong of a girl she was. Maria wasn’t your stereotypical damsel in distress.

“I see. Let me help though. What should I do?”

“Oh, th-thank you. In that case...”

I started helping her, just a little bit, as she gave me directions. I couldn’t help but feel that while Katarina’s fiancée, her brother, and all the other men around her were vying for her affections, Maria could actually be the strongest candidate to win that race.

★★★★★

I got up because I needed to use the toilet, and the sun was already up.

As I sluggishly returned from the bathroom, I heard voices coming from the restaurant and went to check. I spotted Maria and Sora speaking enthusiastically in the kitchen.

I wanted to ask them what they were doing up so early, but I also didn’t want to bother them, since they seemed to be having fun, so I just went back to my room to sleep again. The restaurant wouldn’t be open until lunchtime anyway. The blankets weren’t warm anymore, and I couldn’t fall asleep straight away, so I thought of Sora and Maria, together in the kitchen.

Those two, a beautiful girl and a handsome boy, looked so good together. They were just like protagonists in a story. Well, in Fortune Lover II one of them was the protagonist and the other one of the main characters, so, in a sense, they were protagonists in a story. That also explained why they looked so good together. They seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, and I didn’t want to turn it into a crowd and stifle their romance.

In the world of that otome game, I was a villainess, so I couldn’t really help it... Hm?! I remembered that, indeed, I was still the villainess even in the sequel! Stifling the romance between Maria and her love interests... That was exactly my role in the game. Katarina Claes was, after all, the heroine’s main antagonist.

The previous day, while I was going through my belongings, I remembered this fact after I saw the Dark Covenant and I thought I had to ask Sora about his feelings... But I’d already forgotten about it again. What’s wrong with me?

Even in my previous life, I never noticed danger and forgot about everything else the moment I started focusing on something. Teachers even wrote that on my record. But this kind of careless behavior wasn’t going to cut it now that I was threatened with doom. I have to try harder! I got out of bed and started rummaging through my stuff.

Not this one... Not this one either... Here it is!

I threw things here and there on the floor until I found what I was looking for: the Bad End Avoidance Notebook II. I had actually happily disposed of the first one as soon as I graduated from the Academy without any Bad Ends actually happening, thinking that I didn’t need it anymore. So I had to make a new one for the sequel.

This notebook also contained the mysterious note that I’d found in one of the books that Sophia had lent me. This note, written in Japanese, explained some details of Fortune Lover II, which I’d never played myself. Since nobody knew Japanese in this world, it was probably written by someone who, much like me, was reincarnated here after playing the game. I tried finding out who was behind it, but it was all in vain. Still, for me, who hadn’t played the sequel at all, this note was worth its weight in gold. I unfolded the note and started reading it.

“A new tale of love at the Magical Ministry!” it announced, listing all the new romanceable options, including Sora.

“The old love interests are back along with the old rival characters, and befriending them or gaining their approval will be vital to progress through the game. The main hurdle in finding success with the new love interests will be fighting a mysterious girl who has come to hinder the protagonist,” it then said before disclosing that girl’s identity.

“It is later revealed that this girl is Katarina Claes, who was exiled from the kingdom in the previous game. Katarina holds a grudge against the protagonist for having caused her exile, and she becomes a Dark Magic user to sneak back into the country and into the Ministry, looking for revenge against Maria. In order to obtain the Happy End, the protagonist, together with the love interests, must overcome the threat of Katarina and reveal her identity to the authorities, resulting in the villainess being thrown in jail. Should the protagonist fail, Katarina and Maria will kill each other in a duel and the love interests will fall prey to Dark Magic.”

The truth was too much for me to handle. Every time I read it, I ended up depressed and asking myself why Katarina would want to go back to the kingdom. If it were me, I’d just live the rest of my life peacefully as a farmer...

And this time, my options were either jail or death, making it even worse than in FL1. At least back then I could angle for being exiled and then go work on a farm somewhere abroad...but I’d have no such option in the sequel.

The most important thing, however, was that I risked interfering with Maria and Sora’s romance. The three of us were on missions together so often that I’d forgotten about it. And I also wanted to ask Sora how he felt about Maria, but his expression when talking with her earlier told me that he probably liked her.

I had the Dark Covenant, I had a Dark Familiar (Pochi), and now I even risked hindering the protagonist’s love... Could I ever be set up to be more of a villainess?!

I really have to do something! If I don’t...

Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.

Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.

Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.

“In consideration of both the treacherous situation we find ourselves in and the need to avoid any Catastrophic Bad End, let us commence a strategy meeting.”

“This is bad. Why are we getting closer and closer to really being the game’s antagonist?”

“We’re just living peacefully, without bothering anyone...”

“Are we though?”

“What? You mean we aren’t?”

“I don’t think we’re actively bothering anyone, but are we really, like...peaceful?”

“I think we’ve always been. Right?”

“Ahem. Let’s focus here. We should talk about the current situation.”

“So, the fact that Katarina risks being an obstacle to the development of Sora and Maria’s love?”

“Precisely. In the sequel, Katarina begets her doom by hindering the protagonist in her romance. Our standing as an unwanted third wheel is precisely what the game expects and, therefore, it is very bad.”

“So we’re doomed?!”

“We still aren’t done practicing lock-picking! How are we going to escape from jail?!”

“Jail is the best-case scenario! What if we’re killed?!”

“Ahhh! This is awful! Terrible! What can we do?!”

“Please, everyone, calm down. Doom may be a threat, but not a close one yet. It will only fall upon us if we fail to act swiftly.”

“I see... So we’re only going to be doomed later. Whew.”

“Oh, then why don’t we go and check on Maria? Yesterday she said she’d make sweets!”

“That’s nice! I wonder what she’ll bake. I’m already looking forward to it!”

“Don’t calm down that much! How can you be so relaxed all of a sudden?! Going near Maria right now is the last thing we want to do! We’d intrude on her and Sora while they’re having so much fun talking together!”

“...Indeed.”

“...You have a point.”

“If we keep acting like that, without thinking of the people around us, we’re definitely going to be doomed!”

“So...what should we do?”

“Isn’t finding that out the reason why we gathered here in the first place?”

“...That’s true.”

“Now, does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Yes.”

“Go ahead, Miss Katarina Claes.”

“Let’s root for Sora as he tries to woo Maria just as we did for Cyrus and Dewey!”

“That sounds good! Let’s root for him!”

“But wait, does he even like Maria? We should make sure of that first.”

“Didn’t you see how happy he looked while chatting with her? He never looks that relaxed while talking with people he doesn’t trust. Which means he trusts her, and if he trusts her, he probably likes her!”

“Well, yes...but even so, what would rooting for him entail?”

“What about creating chances for the two of them to be alone?”

“Interesting. But how?”

“Like, not walking in on them.”

“Yes. We’d just be a nuisance.”

“I agree, but saying it like that makes me a bit sad...”

“But it’s the truth...”

“D-Don’t make that face! Let’s think about how not to be a nuisance for those two.”

“Y-Yes... The problem is that we’re always relying on Sora and Maria for help, which means that we’re always close to them. Maybe we should be more independent.”

“Great point!”

“Great point indeed!”

“If we were more independent and acted on our own, those two would have more time to be alone!”

“I-Indeed!”

“Well, that was easy!”

“Good. Henceforth, we shall strive to be more independent and act on our own. Any objections?”

“No, ma’am!”

“No, ma’am!”

“Let’s do our best and act alone!”

And thus, yet another meeting of the Katarinas came to an end. Relaxed, I got into bed and managed to fall back asleep. I slept until Maria, worried that I wasn’t showing up, came to wake me because there was little time left to prepare. Later on, Sora got mad at me and said that I should learn to be more independent.