First Year Second Semester – J of Hearts (Part 4) 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’.
Btw, ‘big-shots’ (大物) in j.a.pan apparently all have the quality of not being fazed by the ‘trivial’ things that other people would find incredible.
Also note once again that in j.a.panese, you don’t address people as ‘you, but by their name. Ergo, they could be talking about both the game character, or the person themselves (or both due to intentional use of the ambiguity).
I more or less understand Camille’s story now. According to her, she came from another world, and before she knew it she had entered a little girl, Camille Rhodolite. And, we’re just like the characters in a story in her world… She also said that the girl who called me out behind the auditorium also has a high possibility of being from the same world as Camille. It’s somehow, an incredibly suspicious sounding story, but Camille is being serious, isn’t she… And I don’t know why, but it’s incredibly embara.s.sing.
“Sorry… I’ve always kept quiet about something so important. And for me to have read something like a romance story where Royce-sama and a bunch of other people appear… And in the beginning I even overlapped these people with you…
Camille sniffled and ended up breaking into tears again.
“Don’t hate me…”
Ahh, geez. Why did her thought process take her there?
“There’s no way that we’d hate you, right?”
I embraced her. Camille was being obedient in my arms.
“That’s right. Both Achille and I wouldn’t hate you over something like that. Aren’t we friends who’ve spent over ten years together?”
“Uu… but, I, kept quiet about this for over ten years… -”
“Don’t worry about it. Honestly, I thought it would be something more incredible, but it was nothing that bad, after all.”
Your Highness… It seems that you’ve unexpectedly become quite a big shot.
“At the very least, you’re an important enough friend to me that I ran around sending for forbidden magic books, spending over half a day researching various things, and frantically using trial-and-error to dispel magic, for you.”
“Royce-sama…”
Your Highness… Your spent over half a day trying to dispel the magic on us? Like Camille, I also sent a look of being deeply moved towards His Highness. His Highness averted his eyes, just a little embara.s.sedly.
“You two did nothing but sleep for two whole days after all, so you two rest for a little longer. I’m going to go prepare food, okay?”
With that, His Highness promptly left the room. I’ll sure be in debt to him for a while…
“Camille…”
After thinking about things for a little while after His Highness left, I told her about the contents of my dream. Camille listened to my story with wide eyes… Or so I was thinking, when her face turned bright red and she began writhing about.
“UWAHH, UWAHHHHHHH, HEROINE YOU IDIOT! WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU SHOWING ACHILLEEEEEEEEEE!”
I doubtfully gazed at Camille who was screaming in a loud voice whilst writhing atop the bed. Camille began telling me about it embara.s.sedly.
“…That was, the tale that I told you about. It’s completely different from the reality of this world, right?”
“Yeah, honestly it was a sickening story.”
“Sorry, I’m sorry that Camille was a piece of sc.u.m.”
“No, that’s not what I mean! And, if I had to say, I was more of a piece of sc.u.m. Doing that kind of thing to you… No, let’s stop this. Even if we apologise about something that didn’t actually happen, there’s no point, Camille.”
“M-, Mmn. But I’m,”
“No matter what you are, it’s fine, you know? Even if we say you did come from another world, it’s fine.”
Honestly speaking, I don’t really believe her though. Even if that really was the case, I’ve spent more than ten years with her, so there’s nothing to be said about it after all this time.
“…Are you really fine with it, Achille?”
“Of course. I should be asking you what’s wrong with it.”
Camille looked at me, dumbfounded. Did she really think that I’d hate her or something? If so, I’m pretty indignant.
Her face went bright red, and she immediately became to fidget. It seems that having come to this, my words have finally gotten through.
“Um, Achille,”
Camille looked at me with upturned eyes. This Camille has no relation to that kind of cunning, so she probably did it unconsciously.
“Thanks… Umm, for continuing to like me… You know, Achille? It’s not the character in the story, but the you right now that I like, so…”
Camille who was giving her all to convey her love to me despite her turning bright red up to her ears was so cute that I couldn’t help myself. Were this anything but His Highness’ bed, I might have pushed her down.
“But still, we have to come up with a way to deal with that Heroine, huh.”
For some reason, Camille refers to that schoolgirl as Heroine. When I asked her why, replied that it’s because the girl was the protagonist of the story in the dream. It seems that the protagonists in those types of stories are called the heroine as a whole.
“You’re right! I’ll come up with a new tattoo! It’s because the tattoos up until now have been too weak that we weren’t a match for the Heroine after all!”
Because magic tattoos only give support functions in the end, they can’t truly defend against poweful magic. At best, they can only weaken impacts, or disable weak attacks. And it seems that Camille plans on strengthening those.
“While I’m at it, let’s have you and Royce-sama get magic tattoos as well!”
And while she was at it she spouted some incredible words. Leaving me aside, you plan on giving His Highness something like a tattoo?