Entrance Ceremony – J of Hearts Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
Would like to note that in j.a.pan, instead of saying “you, you”, you can replace you with their name. Let’s say your name is slumberknight, and I am now addressing you directly.
It would not be weird at all to say “slumberknight-san. Which juice did slumberknight-san pick?” or “slumberknight-san said that slumberknight-san would pick up the chicken, so why do I have to?”
At the same time, this means that the way the Heroine speaks could also be taken as referring to the character from the game, rather than the person she’s speaking to. Even more so because she uses no honorifics with the names, which is more than a little blunt considering they don’t know each other.
For this reason, I have left things the way they would be in j.a.panese, even though I would normally replace them with ‘you’.
“Uuuun, uuuun…”
From inside a futon came a groan that seemed to crawl along the ground, unmatching with the clear and sunny entrance day, The owner of that voice was, of course, Camille. This idiot did something quite grand on the first day of school.
Regarding Camille’s vomit that seemed to have been regurgitated due to a stomach forced to drink too much… When I came back with the water, it was completely cleaned up with magic.
And… there, all that remained was a school girl noisily making a shrill fuss, and Camille whose mouth was frothing.
“Hey! This isn’t something that can be dropped just because you cleaned it up with magic, you know.”
The school girl was indignant for some reason.
“Uuun, uuu… Guu…”
“Wake up! After splashing that kind of thing on me, do you think you’ll get away scot-free? What are you going to do if a smell remains!?”
From those words, I could more or less guess what had happened.
“It’s alright… Just that side has been reverted in time by magic, so… Uu-…. Uuu…n, like it never happened… ”
“Camille, are you alright? Here, I brought you water, okay?”
“Achille… Thank… Uu…”
After getting drunk, she was probably feeling bad. It’d be better if I brought her to a place she could lie down, huh.
“Achille Jade!”
The girl that got tangled up with Camille, suddenly shouted my name… What I don’t know any woman like this.
“…That’s me, but?”
“Why is Achille taking care of someone like Camille?”
“I don’t quite understand but, right now I’d like to carry her to an infirmary, so please excuse me. As for what my fiancée did, please seek your apology another day.”
“Fiancée you said? Why the heck are you two engaged?”
I’m the one who wants to do the questioning. Why do I have to explain myself to you?
“Because, Achille… should have been the one to push Camille into ruin.”
“What kind of nonsense are you…?”
Having spoken that far, I suddenly remember a certain matter. The word “ruin”… I’ve heard it somewhere…
―――“For someone who’s going to ruin me… Don’t treat me so kindly…”―――
When was that again? …There was a time when Camille herself had said something like that. Nah, it’s probably a coincidence. At the time, Camille was still young, and the situation being what it was, she was probably just quite confused. It has nothing to do with this woman’s words.
“Achille hates Camille, you know?”
“I will listen to what you have to say at some other date.”
Camille was now feeling too sick to move, so I picked her up in my arms. The schoolgirl was still kicking up a fuss about something, but I let her be and brought Camille to the infirmary.
When I opened the door to the infirmary, n.o.body was inside. It was awkward because the infirmary doctor had apparently gone off somewhere.
“Camille, are you still feeling nauseous?”
“…I pheel bhad. Bud… I threw ub earlier, so ids okey.”
A marquis’ daughter who gets drunk on an entrance ceremony… It’s disappointing, but I’m already used to it. It’s Camille here, so it can’t be helped. I treasure her, that aspect of her included, after all.
“Achille… Sorry.”
Camille who was lying on the bed was looking up at me apologetically. Aahh, if you look up at me with those moist eyes… things will get bad, in various ways. Even though I want to look directly at her, I can’t, so I immediately shifted my gaze.
“It’s okay to sleep. I’ll be here until the infirmary nurse gets here.”
“Mn… Thanks. Huhu, this is just like that time, huh?”
“Which time?”
“In the past, when I was brought to the castle after being stabbed… you nursed me, Achille.”
It seems that she’s talking about the time we went to the castle town with His Highness.
“Yeah.”
“Otousama was really busy as well, so he couldn’t come visit… But because you were there, I felt rea.s.sured.”
“Camille… Saying that right now should be foul play, right?”
My face is hot… Calm down, me. What are you going to do if you take a drunkard’s babble seriously? You’ll just end up heartbroken like usual, you know? Ahh, but still…
“Achille…”
Camille started to fall asleep. Because of her condition as well, it’d be better for her to sleep right now. I immediately began to hear her soft sleeping breath.
“I love you, Camille.”
Of course, Camille didn’t react. She was sound asleep. Unable to bear it, I gave her a single kiss on the face.
“I saw that, Achille.”
Suddenly, I heard a voice I knew well, and stiffened. When I looked in the direction of the voice, I found His Highness peeking in from the gap in the infirmary door. His Highness and peeping… It’s a combo that doesn’t go well together.
“Is Camille alright? I heard that she drank a lot, but…”
It seems that ugly stories of Camille are spreading with certainty.
“She’s fine. She fell asleep just now.”
“Achille… Even if you do that to her while she’s asleep, there’s no meaning, right?”
“…That’s fine.”
“It’s not, right? Have you properly told her that you like her? If you don’t give it to her straight, Camille won’t notice, you know? Even though it’d be questionable even after giving it to her straight, you…”
“Hahh…”
I know that. But I don’t want to force her into that kind of relationship by telling her this. No, that’s not it. I’m simply afraid of destroying the relationship that we have now. Camille distancing herself from me in shock, would be unbearable. I’m not so great a person that I’d be able to silently watch as she left me. It seems more like I’d forcefully keep her tied to me… While I think that I’d like to be sincere with her, at the same time I can picture myself using various ways to keep her with me… I can’t move forward nor backward.
The point is that because of my cowardice, I’m putting off the problem. His Highness has seen through me.
“I’m cheering for you two.”
“Hahh…”
“Geez, I’ve been watching for a number of years now, but it can’t be helped that I’m feeling impatient now.”
“Hahh… But even if you say that, Your Highness, I-”
“The second prince of the neighbouring country… doesn’t seem to have given up, you know? On the contrary, it looks like he’s quite interested in Camille.”
“Even though Camille is engaged to me”
“That an engagement is something that can be overturned, is something that you should know better than I do, right?”
The difference in status between the illegitimate son of a viscount, and the prince of a large nation is too huge. Yeah, I don’t have a chance, do I?
“I don’t want to give Camille to another nation. She’s my important magician, after all.”
Whether for good or for bad, His Highness has grown as a prince. Even though he used to be a frankly gentle person. However, once I consider that I might have contributed to this via my bad influence on His Highness, I feel a little guilty.
“Mmmn… One more drink.”
I could hear sleeptalk coming from Camille. It looks like this idiot hasn’t learnt her lesson yet, so I’ll have to warn her later.
“Geez. Camille likes drinking that much, huh?”
Because he didn’t see what happened today, His Highness is smiling, but this isn’t something to laugh about, okay?
“It would be better not to give Camille alcohol anymore. It seems that she’s the type who’s immediately affected by alcohol, after all.”
“Hm~mm. A drunk who cutely fawns on you, and slurs her words… If Camille was like that, then it’d be fine, but as expected of her, I guess.”
Ah-, I thought that too. But since it’s Camille, it can’t be helped.