The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs - Volume 8 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue 

Airship Einhorn had arrived at the grand harbor of the Holfort Royal Capital.

At the port, where airships were coming and going, Finley, who had a bulky travel bag, was very much thrilled.

-I'm finally going to live in the reaaaaaaaaalll capital!

Does it feel like you have fulfilled your dream of moving to Tokyo?

It wasn’t sunshine and rainbows in my time, as it was the start of the marriage hunting season.

-You really are exhilarated at the prospect of living here. Though, you have already visited the capital several times, haven't you?

After disembarking from Einhorn, we were about to board a small airship that was about to land in the royal capital. Angie and Livia took Noelle to the Redgrave Mansion in the capital, so there were only three of us left here: Luxion, Finley and myself.

-It’s great to finally be able to live here. I'll become a city woman in no time, just you wait.

What my younger sister declared was shockingly similar to what Jenna used to say.

-Ah, with pleasure. By the way, how are you going to afford living here?

When I asked Finley about her future plans, she gave me an expected answer.

-It’s obvious! I'm going to marry a rich man who lives in the royal capital. I'll look for a handsome, tall, well-to-do guy.

-It's good that you uphold such high ideals. Enjoy it to your fullest because you will face reality very soon.

It's good to harbor a dream; but the important thing is to understand reality and adapt your life according to the circumstances. The sooner you do that, the more well-off you will be later on.

However, Finley would not be convinced even if I explained it to her. She is fixated that destiny has a prince for her own.

Sometimes I forget that this is the world of that otome game; since there certainly are some Prince Charming out there, the possibility isn’t zero, but the odds are terrible.

The reason why people have frankly audacious dreams is that there are some that can be achieved. They aren’t likely to reach their target even if they are close, but they would still dream because of the limited interaction they have in the same school.

I too, would have dreamed if my idols were in my class at my school from my previous life.

I'm sure I would have fantasized of how we could have been together.

That's why there should be time for daydreaming.

Though, reality is usually harsh, so I can't do that without wasting precious time.

Finley puffed out her cheeks at my attitude.

-You really are ambitionless, aren’t you, brother? Don't just boss around just because you have made your dreams come true.

I've got Angie, Livia and Noelle, so in a sense I’ve already reached the finish line.

I haven’t fulfilled my goal for a peaceful quiet life however, but I'm not going to put myself in any more trouble than I have to.

-I just got lucky.

-Awfully honest today, aren’t you?

-It's because I'm a man who likes to be honest. Besides, let me tell you this honestly, once I have settled with all these marriage shenanigans, I would have a comfortable and self-sufficient school life. You too should strive for marital activity.

-You just went out of your way saying such needless gibberish.

Finley, who turned her face away from me, looked at the surroundings with interest.

At this time of year there are many new students and quite a number of them, like Finley, were very aware of their surroundings. However, what differs from two years ago...... was the appearance of the subhumans in the harbor.

In the past, demi-humans doing “heavy work” was commonplace; but now, they are working in sweat. Nowhere could you see the usual sight of well-dressed subhumans trailing behind their beloved ladies.

Most of the demi-humans we saw were sturdy and strong, the likes that excel at heavy-lifting.

[Behind us, Master.]

As I looked in the direction Luxion was pointing his red lens in, some young noble freshmen were forcing through as if they wanted to skip the queue.

They made their way through the columns of people and passed us to get into a small transport vessel.

Although it was an entourage of young noblemen, the boys behaved much cockier than the girls, which was quite unexpected.

Though knowing the school’s practice has changed, I would be lying if I say the appearance of those boys didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.

However, they nudged Finley with their hand, who looked away and didn't notice the group.

-Out of our sight, ugly!

She was not sent flying, but Finley was put out of balance, confused.

The curse words thrown at triggered Finley.

-Ah! Just what was that?

Two years ago, this would have been impossible, but not for the new students in front of her.

When the boys looked at each other, they began to laugh as if Finley was a fool in front of them.

-Woah, woah, what do we have here, an uncouth nobody? You’re from the middle of nowhere, aren't you? You'll end up graduating unmarried for sure!

What did I think to myself when I heard this line? Uuuuuuugh... Utter cringe.

The contents and hostility of the dialogue is the same as before. The only thing that has changed is that the girls have been replaced by boys.

The cohort of girls looked inferior, if not downright pathetic.

Directed at by such derogatory, Finley’s blood boiled and she started making a fuss, attracting the attention of the crowd.

-Stuffs and nonsense! You lot are the ones stepping out of line, so cut the crap.

The other party to whom she said that glared at us.

-Be careful, I'll remember that undisciplined peasant face of yours.

The boy told Finley that he would get back at her and tried to get into the boat that had arrived.

The people in the vicinity did not stop these young men, but it seems that some of them noticed my presence.

-Wait, that person, next to the girl?

-Isn't that Leon-senpai from third year?

-You're serious!?

-That must be him! I've seen him once. I heard he came back from studying abroad this year.

-So, did you hear how those boys were talking just now? Hey, didn't they call Leon-senpai a peasant?

-Ah~, they're done for.

As the murmuring around got louder, the guys must have realized something was wrong.

I looked around and felt uneasy. At first, I was actually planning to retaliate back right away, but I ended up standing out so it couldn't be helped.

This time, I decided to stop it just enough, to issue them a warning.

-Hello. I'm the older brother of this country girl~. I'm sorry if we caused you any trouble.

-W-Who the hell are you?

The boy did not lose his demeaning posture.

Perhaps he still hasn't realized who I am.

-I came from the backwater, but I myself am a marquess.

-M-Marquess? Y-You jest.

-Not at all. You can confirm with the staff of the Royal Palace.

-This is getting ridiculous! I-if you still intend to apologies, there is still time.

-I can't and I won’t.

Using my position like that to intimidate others...honestly, I really find it amusing. But you never know who are the scary people and who aren’t. If intimidation works, chances are the other person is a ridiculous person. It's my way of knowing who they really are and getting back at them.

For better or worse, there are a lot of naive folks like the guy in front of me, who tend to get the wrong idea and brush me off like it’s no big deal.

-Look. You're throwing some dirt in my eyes; better get in line quietly, or I’ll show you ferocity, freshman boy.

When I squinted and looked at him, the boy looked away from me.

He tried to climb into the little boat to escape, so I grabbed him by the shoulders to stop him.

-Get. In. Line.

I made a low, domineering voice, and the other party gave a dejected "Hiii" cry and backed down. The entourage grew quieter and returned to the end of the line.

I quickly ushered Finley into the transport boat.

Inside the vessel, the seats were lined up and all seat belts were fastened.

Finley, sitting next to me, complained about the boy.

-What's wrong with him? He's too rude to the girls, isn't he?

-That's right.

-You too, big bro. Things would have turned out better if you had used your name in the first place.

-I hate getting in trouble, you know...

When I said that, Luxion, who was on our side, said I was lying.

[You are scheming to take revenge later, aren't you? See? He's a really detestable Master!]

Finley forgot what she had just said, showed visible disgust and leaned herself away from me.

-Isn't that... worse?

What an unmannered sister.

Even if I were to get revenge, I would simply look into their parents' house and confirm the rank disparity at a later date, and then declare "They treated me wonderfully at that time."

Since they come to the academy, sooner or later they will hear about who I am from their surroundings. If that happens, it will be a wonderful payback.

-If we meet again at the academy, I will just answer them politely~. - I replied.

-You consider that a small thing then?

-You can say it was to a degree I could still tolerate. Oh well...

Inside the small boat, there is a noticeable mood shift between men and women, contrary to my freshman year. Two years ago, there would have been no one like the guy before.

... It's saddening to see how societal positions simply switched; because it means that the fundamental remains rotten, and men and women at their core aren’t very different.

◇

-Seriously, it has to be even bigger than the last...

When I got to the bedroom all tired, I sighed when I saw my new room. I would have felt more at home with a smaller room; but since I am an acting marquess, of course... I was given a special room.

It is a room that would normally be used by the former Crown Prince and his entourage.

I put down my small luggage in the large room and sat on a chair while Luxion was thoroughly checking the room.

[There's nothing suspicious.]

-Aren’t you being too cautious?

[Master, you are just too laid back all the time. And more importantly, Marie and the others should be meeting us soon].

Claire is supposed to debrief me upon Einhorn’s arrival. So, it will soon be time to ask her about the investigations.

-I'll prepare some tea and sandwiches.

Getting up from the chair, I took out the sweets I bought as a souvenir and placed them on the table. Luxion was floating around me.

-Is there something you want to say?

[No, I just thought you're having a lot of fun. Are you that happy to see Marie?]

-Dumb~. It means she did a great job collecting lintels. That girl always tries her best, let’s reward her with some good delish.

[Always steps ahead of the “younger sister” you know soooo much about. As expected from a siscon].

-Oi?

[Isn't that so? It was you, Master, who raved when Angelica and Olivia treated you like an older brother. Acting all enthusiastic like that, I didn't expect you to cry out of joy].

-You just don't get it, do you? There is a clear difference between heaven and earth, just as between a younger sister and younger sisters without blood relation. The former are supreme! Marie is different!

Saying that, Luxion caught a contradiction.

[Oh? Master has no blood connection with Marie at present. From Master’s philosophy, does Marie not belong to the category of supreme sister?]

-She's my younger sibling in soul, so she's definitely different!

[... Sister in soul? You’re saying Marie belongs in a special category, then?]

-Yes~, she is special. And by that, I meant... she's especially bothersome.

[Nevertheless, this is out of your character, going out of your way to prepare tea for a

“bothersome” sister.]

-I told you I'd give her food, didn't I? Even the slowest horses can do their best with a carrot on a stick in front of them.

That time Luxion also said that she tried her best, so I should give her preferential treatment. That way, even if she is already trying her best, Marie would be excited to eat sweets.

... Why? I feel sorry that Marie, who in her previous life would already touch brand name items or expensive things, now willfully settles for simple candy.

When I started taking care of the five idiots, I could understand a little about the difficulty of ”babysitting” them.

- ... Well, that's just it. I'm starting to think it doesn’t hurt spoiling her juuuuust a little bit.

[So, you’re a tsundere siscon? Ahh, that’s not good.]

-Can't you at least let me finish?! Perhaps you’re malfunctioning? Shall I get Claire to run diagnostics for you?

[I'm better off without that research AI.]

It's annoying to see an artificial intelligence acting all superior. Claire, who is more flexible, is smarter and overall seems better to me.

While the two of us were busy exchanging deplorable remarks to each other, the door was knocked faintly.

-O~i, is that Marie? Please come on in. I'm preparing the tea now.

It was Marie who stood in front of the door.

However, there was something wrong with her; Marie, who was depressed and sweating, didn't dare to look me in the eyes.

-... Hey, is there something wrong?

-B-Brother, y-you see....

That attitude of hers, I remember it from my previous life. That was Marie's default attitude when she made some serious mistakes.

I held Marie's trembling face with both hands.

Marie's cheeks constricted, her mouth tightened tightly and she was crying.

-What did you do? Tell me!

From the way Marie looked at me, I wondered if she and co. had done something irreversible. I began to have a bad hunch.

Luxion scanned around with his red lens.

[No trace of Claire anywhere, Master. I would assume she cloaked herself.]

My bad feeling was getting stronger. I asked Marie about the situation with a devious smile.

-You better talk, no messing around.

-P-Please don’t get angry?

-It depends on the content.

Marie used to ask for such a promise when the problem grew considerably. She knows I'll get angry, so she wants me to tell her I won't.

At this point even my made-up smile had vanished and I was probably left probably without expressions. Marie, seeing a toneless face, knew resistance was futile and tried to talk, so I let her go.

Then Marie uttered an unthinkable sentence with a pale face.

-... Claire turned one of the capture targets into a girl.

-Ha~?

For a moment, my mind refused to comprehend what she had said.

The capture target is not a man? He turned into a woman?

Huh? J-Just… hold on.

Why would he become a woman? W-Wait a second, can he even?

-Marie, l-let's… one step at a time, okay?

-Okay.

-First of all, the capture target was male, right? It's not like he changed his gender from the beginning or anything, right?

I thought about the possibility that he was born a woman even though he should have been born a man.

Marie shook her head.

-Then let's go on to the next thing. You said she became a woman, but to what extent?

There must be several stages like cross-dressing, hormonal recalibration ... right?

Then Marie spoke as she was still in a cold sweat and her eyes were wandering all over the place.

-S-She's turned into a perfect, full-fledged girl!

-... It's okay if I take it that you were involved, right?

I applied more strength to my hands that gripped Marie's shoulders. Despite her pain, Marie spilled the details.

-The boy Claire was experimenting on was one of the targets to capture! In the third game, he was a senior student character who enrolled at the academy last year!

-Why didn't you tell me that first!! And what “experiment”!?! It wasn't just an observation, but a real, unauthorized experiment?!?!

-I just recently found out! I didn't think Claire would go that far!

Needless to say, I am completely dumbfounded by this turn of event.

-What is he doing? We'll return him to the way he was right away. Tell me where he is.

-It's... out of the question.

-Out of the question?

I looked at Marie who denied me with a glance, but the answer didn't change.

-Because... he himself said he wanted to be a girl.

-You can’t be joking. Wasn't he a target boy?

-... She told me she had found her true self. When Claire changed her sex, she cried and was very happy. She thanked us again and again and again, persistently. She said she can finally be herself because of this. I can't simply convince her to go back to the way she was at this point.

Marie, who covered his face with both hands, was crying because it seems the situation is beyond saving.

-But we still have to follow the scenario!

I was confused and tried to put it back together somehow, but Luxion stopped our idea of trying to return him to his former sex by force.

[Not recommended.]

-Why?

[She has been changed to a gender of her preference. We don't know the details, so we can't make a judgment, but if we try to force her back to her original gender, she will resist. Also, if she is mentally female, it is possible that her preference is male. If you try to force him back, there will be unforeseen consequences.]

What Luxion intended to say was that it was unlikely that he would be able to connect with the main character if he is forced to change his sex.

-... Is yuri development on the table?

Among this suffering I expected that even if he had become a girl, he would still be a target for capture. However, as I looked at Marie, she was trembling and demonstrating that the idea Luxion has is correct.

-She aspires to be with a manly gentleman.

-What are we going to do?

Both Marie and I put our hands and knees to the ground.

If we had known this was going to happen, we wouldn't have left it up to Marie and co.

-Luxion and I were better suited.

[Are you sure about that? There's the matter of the pairing of your older brother. If it had been Marie who managed it, the result would have been less than satisfactory, wouldn't it?]

Marie looked up and asked Luxion for a detailed explanation of the pairing.

-What? Pairing? How was it?

[Master's older brother Nicks and Dorothea from the Roseblade family had a pairing. His older brother was not enthusiastic about the idea and wanted it to be a failure. However, the Master’s effort in assisting the pairing has led it to a resounding success. Also, the initial probability of success was quite low].

Marie looked at me with pulled cheeks.

-How did you do it, brother?

-I don't want to hear it from you. Where's Claire?

[She escaped first, quite quick on her feet. Claire is 99.99% responsible for this predicament.]

◇

I was walking into the school building with my shotgun.

-Where are you, Claaaaaaaaaaaiiiire!!!!?

With bloodshot eyes, I searched every corner.

Claire was not only using stealth function, but also set up decoys to distract us from our search.

Every time Luxion caught a dummy, he became increasingly frustrated

[Abnormality detected. Master, this way!]

I passed by the seniors and newly-admitted students several times, but none of them looked at me or even approached me. The teachers didn't bat an eye at me when they realized who I was.

But in such a situation, I could not afford to worry about that.

Luxion was floating next to the door of a janitor's closet under the stairs and nodded with his eye, which just now started to shine an intense red.

-You sure Claire's here?

[No doubt, this should be it.]

When I opened the door, the room was dark and dusty.

The light shining through the entrance made the dust very visible.

As I took a look inside the unfamiliar place, Luxion waved-scanned the proximity for Claire, who had been hidden from plain sight using active camouflage.

[No use in hiding, Claire!]

[Hiiii!?]

The shotgun was loaded with less-lethal rubber shells.

I readied my shotgun so that I could open fire at any time, so I began conversing with Claire.

-What a pity, I was expecting better from you.

[Listen to my words, Master! I didn't know. I didn't know he was a capture target!!]

-Silence wench! You think it's okay to experiment on people recklessly? There are clear lines when you’re under my command! It seems that ethics is not in your programming.

I was too soft on Claire, and she did something like changing sex for just for the sake of experimenting. I forgot that this was a dangerous artificial intelligence from old humans. I had thought Claire is somehow better-natured than Luxion, yet she revealed her true nature in front of me.

[Ethics applies only to old humans. It doesn't apply to new humans!]

-Oh, so that kind of logic applies to me, too?

[It's different! Master and Marie are in a separate category! Luxion, don't just stand there and watch, do you see I’m not in the wrong?]

Ignore Claire’s plea, it's clear Luxion was fed up with her nonsense, having to move around the academy just to grab useless decoys many times.

[Claire, I cannot describe how disappointed I am with you. Plus let’s not forget the fact that you deviated from Master's orders.]

[W-What? Who cares if it was only Aaron?! There are still substitutes, yes?]

Certainly, there were still capture targets left, but if the chances are reduced by one, the story would certainly change. If you do nothing, there is a risk that no capture target will end up with the main character, the story will derail.

-We now have one less option and I find your remorseless attitude extremely concerning, running away like that.

[Not at all.]

Claire muttered, as if sensing that Luxion and I were not about to change our attitude.

[Humanity has advanced not without hardship, some of them may suffer, but that’s the sacrifice I’m willing to make. I’m a laboratory AI, it’s my purpose that I gather intelligence about another species, our enemy no less! In the first place, it was just by chance that while I was experimenting that a capture target became collateral damage! I'm innocent!]

Enemy? Collateral? Is this AI for real?

How can it assume it can plead not guilty after carrying out an unconsented experiment that involves complete change of a human being?

Technically it isn’t against the law to change one’s gender in the Kingdom of Holfort. First off, how could we have anticipated such a situation? However, with capability comes responsibility to show restraints.

-Claire, any last words?

When I aimed my shotgun at her, Claire finally gave up and chanted.

[DOWN WITH THE NEW HUMANS!!]

With that, the trigger was pulled, no hesitation.

Claire, who was hit by a rubber slug and bounced around the warehouse like a pinball, finally rolled under my feet.

[T-That was truly terrible. Master is a detestable demon.]

-Not as terrible as what you have done.

[Reflect on this, Claire.]

Luxion and I, who subdued Claire this way, still had a huge complication ahead of us. I didn't expect the boy who would be a target for capture to become a complete woman.

What will go wrong in the third installment of this otome game, and the fate of this ridiculous world?