The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs - Volume 9 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Part 1
“Claire turned one of the capture targets into a girl.”

I heard of this dreadful news in my room at the boys' dormitory, the day before the new semester started.

One of the boys in the third Otome game had been changed into a girl before the game scenario had even started.

I, “Leon Fou Barfort", understood it in my mind, but the same could not be said for my heart. This poor self is a student who, due to circumstances, has been harassed into becoming a Marquess.

It was all Roland's fault, that shitty bastard king.

Unfortunately, this isn't the time to think about Roland. After all, a male capture target for an otome game of all things had become female.

The ones who caused this disaster were my sister from my previous life, “Marie Fou Lafan”, and an artificial intelligence disguised as a metal sphere the size of a softball, “Claire”[1].

During spring break, I was forced to take a break at my parents' estate halfway through the school year; so the two of them took charge at the Academy on my behalf. I was hoping for interesting insight about that third otome game, but Claire turned a male student named “Aaron” into a female student with her “pay-to-win” science, calling it an experiment.

What a predicament...

The worst part of it is that Claire only experimented on new humans in this world. Old humans' creations, such as Claire, have a deep hatred for the new humans; the latter is able to use magic while atmospheric magic particles are lethal to the former. It's hard to say whether these AIs have their own soul or not, but in any case, humans who can use magic, including myself, are their enemies.

Even Claire, whose temper is more moderate than my close confidant, the AI “Luxion”, would commit such immoral acts, considering new humans no more than mere lab rats.

That's scary as well but... the immediate problem here was the fact that she went through with gender transformation.

Technology for sex change… it is not supposed to exist in this setting of the game.

I demanded Marie and Claire to my dorm room and sat on a chair in front of them. Marie was kneeling on the floor and Claire was on the bed, rolling ever so slightly while staring up at us.

“Now then, let’s hear your excuses.”

In front of my pitiless tone, Marie looked down and trembled.

Floating around my right shoulder was Luxion, who was in charge of this investigation:

[The issue is that you turned a boy into a girl, depriving us of one important game character. At the same time, it's a serious concern that you performed something akin to eldritch witchcraft in the eyes of people in this world.]

The main problem was that by turning Aaron into a woman, that’s one of the capture targets in the game scenario gone; who knows how this will affect the protagonist?

Was she always a woman deep down? Nonetheless, it seemed that she preferred boys now, so getting her to like the main character, also a girl, is out of the question.

Still, it didn't change the fact that one window of possibility was lost due to Marie and Claire.

The other problem was how Claire unnecessarily flexed her futuristic capability.

We had shown the people here an essentially “otherworldly” technology.

It was going to end with the demonstration of Claire high technology. There was a possibility that people who want to change their gender would hear about the story and come to us, as well as the ones who wanted to obtain the technology for themselves.

It might be too late, even more so now that it stands out badly, but I'm not happy about it.

It seemed that Claire had prepared an answer to Luxion’s question in advance. She showed no sign of remorse or confusion:

[It’s true that one capture target was basically eliminated, but according to analysis on her preferences, it’s highly unlikely that she will become the protagonist’s lover, right?]

[I agree.]

[Then there's the problem of showcasing our capabilities; there should be no further concern, I’ve explained to Aaron that the gender change was a Lost Item that could only be used once.]

[Well, that's fine, but…]

Luxion seemed to show some comprehension of Claire's excuses.

[...why did you not report in advance? It’s also quite troubling that you kept the subject of your experiment a secret. You were here on Master’s behalf, no? If we knew about this beforehand things could have turned out better.]

Claire, turned her single blue lens away from Luxion; she had been looking relaxed so far, but for a moment, she showed subtle guilt:

[Well, that's because Marie-chan forgot to notify you…]

Marie, who felt she was being victimised, lifted her face at once and protested:

“It was too late when I remembered! Real quick on your feet huh? To sell me out and save your own skin!”

[You! What about the money you begged from me? Did you keep quiet, Marie-chan?! Accomplice, accomplice!]

“Money to... keep quiet?”

I was curious and averted my gaze at Marie, who broke out in a cold sweat. Then, she mumbled while bowing her head:

“N-no it's… it’s not like that, l-listen to me Onii-chan”

“I’m listening. Perhaps if you can convince me, I might consider forgiving you.”

“C-Claire got paid by Aaron for his gender change! It was a huge amount of money and I asked her what she was going to do with it…”

[Marie-chan, why are you so terrible?! I thought we were partners! You had half of the profits, didn't you?]

“S-S-Sh… Shut up!!! I needed it for my living expenses!”

The fact that Marie, along with her confidants, “Kyle” and “Carla Fou Wayne”, desperately scrapped barrels to take care of the five idiots as a burden, makes me shed tears of pity.

Not like I can sympathise right then. After all, I was forced to be the patron for Marie and her miserable entourage.

Besides, seeing Marie's constantly pulling hair because of the idiot brigade is my morning sunshine.

I let out a sigh and decided to listen to the full story:

“Just tell me in detail what happened during the spring break.”

Marie and Claire glanced at each other and then began to speak up:

“Uhmm, so, actually…”

Part 2
◇

During spring break, the Holfort Academy settled on a gentle and peaceful mood. The walls between its hallways, without noisy students on the foreground, stood imposing like the interior of a castle.

The usually crowded halls were then occupied by skeleton staff and seldomly, teachers.

Of course there were students who did not return to their home and remained on-site, the number was few.

Marie, accompanied by Claire, was on a stroll down the hall passing a bulletin board she had seen everyday, pinned with all kinds of papers and posters.

But that day, something strange on that bulletin caught Marie’s attention:

It was as if the sky was falling.

Normally, Marie would just ignore the board, but seeing a familiar face there, she stopped to check it out.

“Onii-chan is on a “Wanted” list!?”

It was the face of her brother, a person hated by half of the Academy… Upon closer inspection, the placard dated back to when he fought against Rachelle’s force in the Republic of Alzer.

The painting was from that time when Leon made a loathsome smile to the commander of the captured Rachelle expeditionary fleet. The illustrator even made the Bartfort son look like a villain, to boot.

There was an amount of money written underneath the illustration, but the currency was not in dia.

Claire scanned the whole placard, her blue lens brightened up:

[Oh my oh my, Master has become quite infamous! It’s a five-million-dia bounty in Holfort currency.]

When Marie heard of “five-million-dia”, she immediately converted it into Japanese yen.

“That's... five hundred million[2]! Onii-chan can be worth that much yen!?”

[Marie-chan, you are terrible.]

“What are we going to do? Onii-chan has become a criminal.”

Seeing that Marie misunderstood the meaning of the placard, Claire commented:

[This is a "Wanted List" for the Holy Kingdom of Rachelle. Sure, some people are going to be out for him, but that's proof that the Master is being taken seriously now.]

“Ah, I-I see… through, this's written overseas, isn't it? What is a foreign placard doing here?”

Marie still could not grasp the meaning of posting a foreign "Wanted" placard in the Holfort Kingdom school. Meanwhile, there were two boys who passed by Marie and Claire.

They were having a conversation about the bulletin board, but didn’t stop by:

“A foreign country is looking for the Marquess? As expected.”

“That’s five millions in dia, right? To be worth that much, the senior is quite the celebrity.”

The boys took this fact in a calm manner even though the subject in question might essentially be an international criminal. Marie tilted her head as she looked at the backs of the two who were leaving:

“What kind of reaction is that? Being wanted is no joke.”

[Having a foreign country resents you is like proof of your success. For new humans, that’s the kind of achievement they value as knights.]

Hearing that knights in her own country proudly flex foreign warrants like some kind of trophy, Marie made a complex expression:

“New human culture is more bizarre than I thought; to know there are still things that caught me off-guard despite having been reincarnated for a long while...”

As Marie stared with a disgusted look at Leon's loathful face, someone approached her.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

Marie, knowing whose voice was it, sighed a little and then turned only her upper body to the second person:

“Oh, you again.”

The boy had such a beautiful, neutral form that Marie couldn't help but admire him. His skin was smooth and tawny, his lips were fresh and lush.

“Haizz… your hair looked good before, what have you done to it...“

Naturally, Marie had a thing for beautiful boys, but she still felt complicated due to her past life…

Claire though, was curious and acted a tad enthusiastically in front of the guy:

[Looks like you’ve already prepared yourself. Most importantly... do you have the money?]

Claire, who had gotten acquainted with him for quite some time, was eyeing the leather travel bag he was carrying with her single blue lens.

The boy presented the travel bag in front of the two:

“I have retrieved all the treasures I had obtained during my adventuring days.”

Claire nodded satisfactorily after quickly examining the contents of the luggage:

[Very well. Then it's my turn to fulfil the promise. I shall use a Lost Item to change your gender.]

Hearing Claire's words, the boy in front of her shed a tear of happiness:

“Th-Thank you!”

Marie, who was observing what has transpired, whispered to Claire so the boys couldn’t hear their conversation:

“Hey, are you sure about this?"

[No problem, I have Master's permission.]

“On… Onii-chan gave you permission!?”

[This guy used to be that scumbag who tried to have his way with Lady Olivia before. Master told me I can do anything with him.]

Marie turned a spiteful gaze at the boy when she heard that:

“Did you really attempt such a despicable act?”

The boy nodded regretfully at Marie:

“...D-Did you know that? I... I was truly the worst. But… it did help make me realise what I really wanted...”

“Your true feelings?”

Seeing that Marie was not getting it, Claire explained:

[If you want something you can't get, you will harbour a strong negative sentiment, wouldn’t you? That's exactly what happened to him.]

Marie reminisced about her previous life. The only thing she couldn't get after all was a happy home. As a kid she lived in sunshine and rainbows, but everything changed when she became an adult and had her own home, everything went downhill.

Because of that, when she saw a happy family from time to time, she felt jealous.

It would be a lie to say Marie did not resent those who had something she couldn't have:

“...Well, I can relate… kind of...”

She could understand the feeling. But still, she detested the boy in front of her who actually took disgraceful actions.

Feeling Marie’s intense stare, the boy accepted it as a natural reaction:

“I'm glad that you could empathise, I desperately want to realise this selfish wish...”

He paused for a moment.

“I… want to be a woman”

Facing such determination, Claire was content. The AI then made clear the arrangement in a loud, professional tone of voice:

“Good, then let’s get started right away. If we don’t get it done before the new semester, we will be in a lot of trouble.”

“Y-Yes! Thank you!!”

While the boy was overwhelmed with emotions, Marie grabbed Claire with both of her hands:

“Hey, this is some serious stuff!? I still think you should double-check with Onii-chan first.”

Marie kept telling Claire that she should confirm it with Leon first, however her sparkling eyes were fixated at the bagfull of fortune prepared by the boy; needless to say her heart had different ideas.

[Oooooh? But didn't the Master entrusted you to follow my lead?]

“Ehh!!!!!?”

Before Leon returned to his parents' house, he repeatedly told Marie to follow Claire’s instructions. It was obvious Leon placed more trust on an AI than his own previous-life sister.

Marie couldn't possibly defy Claire, as that was what her brother specifically asked not to do.

[In addition, I cannot speak to him whenever I want. The comm isn’t working all too well recently]

“I-Is that so? Then wouldn’t it be wiser to wait until…”

Noticing that Marie had been staring at the bag for a while, Claire offered her a deal:

[Fine, how about this? If you follow me, I will give you a share.]

Marie, for all of her wisdom and humility, wasn’t feeling too comfortable asking for all, demanded:

“Really? If so, give me seventy percent!”

Claire was undoubtedly amused at the sight of her partner-in-crime:

[Mariiiiee, it’s not like I hate your personality or anything... but you are being too greedy! I’ll give you... forty percent.]

“T-Then… sixty percent! Pleeeeeease, my life is getting too hard!”

[No, but…]

“Fifty percent is fine! This time I'll settle for half!”

[What? “you will only be satisfied with half”!? Marie-chan, this time you didn’t do anything.]

“Come ooooon, who is buying whose fidelity here? If you share half of those, I will support you to the end of the earth, even if Onii-chan is going to be suuuuper mad! Think about it, Claire! Think!!”

Marie, who put on a convincing act, managed to sway Claire.

…Three days after the operation, and Marie was already crying out loud whenever she heard the boy’s name.

Part 3
◇

“...So.... yeah, that’s what happened.”

Inside my room in the boy’s dormitory, before the new semester.

I felt like giving them a good scolding all over again after hearing what the two bird-brains were up to during the spring break.

But before that, there was something that needed to be confirmed.

“Ok hold on. What did you mean by “Wanted”? What have I done?”

When I heard that I was wanted by Rachelle’s Holy Kingdom, my soul briefly left my body. I could not have foreseen that they would offer a five-hundred-million-yen bounty on me.

Immediately after my question, the room’s mood made a complete 180° turn as the two culprits exchanged glance and started making dumb comments about me:

“Even if you tell me what you did, there are so many things, it's hard to tell which one is it”

[I agree. Judging things from the perspective of Rachelle, it is inevitable that they feel nothing but contempt toward Master.]

“WHAT. DID I. EVEN. DO. TO THEM?”

Just when I thought I didn’t deserve such rancour, Luxion spoke up with a serious tone:

[Master, let me remind you: It was the Holy Kingdom of Rachelle that supported the Alzer’s rebel faction. And you were the one that thwarted their schemes. Not to mention the sheer humiliation Rachelle force had suffered when they went over to assume control of the Republic's domain?]

I began to recall the events back in Alzer. What happened was the Holy Kingdom of Rachelle deployed an expeditionary fleet to occupy Alzer’s territory; so I simply “invited” their flagship to my area of responsibility and peacefully dissuaded the remaining enemies. Then I handed the Rachelle fleet commander over to Republic’s force as a prisoner-of-war.

After that, it was all His Excellency Alberg that pulled his strings to handle the aftermath.

“Their commander was kept alive and well, yes? I tried to settle things as peacefully as possible.”

[For you, Master, it was peaceful, but for them it was a slap in the face of an entire nation. They proudly marched forth to liberate the damned; but you kidnapped their commander, they could barely do anything, they returned to their country after accepting an embarrassing defeat where neither side received any casualties.]

Claire, agreeing with Luxion, also added:

[A failed uprising and a shameful loss without much of a fight; that’s two consecutive losses of face! And they didn’t see much of Holfort; they knew they lost to Master alone!]

I thought I handled it nicely, but of course I somehow still faced retribution. I couldn’t even speak and Marie looked away as if she couldn't look at me.

“...I-It can’t be helped if there is a bounty on Onii-chan because of that.”

I never thought the day my head was put on a bounty would come...

While I was busy worrying about it, Luxion and Claire suddenly acted like they were zapped by lightning, their movement became cautious and their lenses were scanning all over the place.

The casual atmosphere of a few moments ago is gone.

“We have a situation?”

Luxion’s usual robotic voice showed unprecedented level of concern:

[Severe disruption in our drones datalink. We are analysing what happened at the last moment, and it seemed like the work of a magic unit. Master, we are being actively intercepted.]

When I heard “magic unit”, my eyes became sharp.

Magic armed units are operated by new humans; unlike old humans’ creations like my AIs. These weapon systems are like banes to Luxion and Claire.

Marie, who was becoming increasingly distressed, asked a question while recalling the magic armours we had encountered so far:

“The things that parasitise people and create destruction? That's what magic armour is, isn't it? There are more of those nearby?

I averted my gaze toward the windows, but the Academy’s scenery remained calm as before.

Whatever that thing was, it certainly knows to take caution.

The answer to Marie’s question came from Claire, who was still on high alert and was clearly under stress:

[This unit was smart enough to locate, identify and sabotage our network of drones inside the Academy. It’s not the rag-tag stuff we had dealt with in the past. This thing is a proper magic armour with a complete core.]

When Marie clutched her head, Luxion explained more in detail about the magic armour.

[These are the standard of armours that the new humans I knew used to operate. These armed units function with a biological core, which is also the “artificial” intelligence. The ones without biological cores, they possess humans and go berserk.]

Marie turned pale when she learned that a proper new human relic was near.

“Y-You can win, can’t you?”

Luxion couldn’t afford to let Marie have any wrong idea:

[It depends. However, we had a glimpse of its cyber-warfare capability judging from how it paralysed our network… What range and power...]

A dangerous subject has made its way inside the Academy, and we had no way of tracking it.

It was very troubling.

I asked Luxion about our next course of action:

“There is no more that you know of this armed unit?”

[We are blind and deaf, it’s going to get tricky. But at least we know that an unknown hostile is inside the school’s periphery.]

“I take it we will be inconvenienced for a while? There are still things to investigate.”

I wanted to gather information for the third otome game, but at this rate that has to be cast aside.

Claire was already rebooting her firewall:

[We have no choice but to cover the perimeter with fewer drones, for the sake of subtlety. Still I don’t like the fact that we have to sneak around in our own turf!]

Claire was visibly agitated at the new human relic lurking inside the Academy; Luxion then turned to me and warned:

[Master, you should also refrain from acting alone for the moment.]

“I always prioritise safety above all else, so I’ll back off this time. Anyway…”

[What’s the matter?]

“...uhmm, I just remembered that I did purchase a magic armour through microtransaction in my previous life.”

The other item I bought from the in-game shop from my first playthrough was of course Luxion, the old human immigrant spaceship. The magic armour looks spiky, it had an overall unnerving appearance with its black livery.

Hearing my “former life” talk, Marie too felt a sense of nostalgia:

“Ahhh... I remember now. I previewed it but had no interest in it all. The thing looked too menacing, not cute!”

Marie’s opinion was to be expected because the item’s design didn’t look like it catered to female players; it was obviously designed for boys.

Luxion became unhappy when I said that I bought a magic armed unit:

[You even bought a magic unit? Oh, I can’t believe you have done this. Master, you have messed up severely in your previous life.]

Luxion’s mood turned sour just because I bought some cheat item.

Claire also voiced her complains:

[Master, there is nothing good about having magic armour, It’s such a poor investment! You should give more thought before you spend your money next time.]

I knew Luxion and Claire harboured nothing short of disgust for new humans’ relics, including magic armour. That was what I would get whenever I got involved in one.

The two machines continued to beat my life choices like a dead horse...

But if the enemy really had a magic armed unit, the next few days are going to be tough...