It was a normal day of school like any other. The only difference was that rain was pouring down from the sky.

Having finished class for the day, I was returning to the girl's dorm with an umbrella over my head before taking notice of a sight that piqued my curiosity.

Stopping in place, I noticed a small kitten sprawled up on the ground. Its fur was soaked and it looked like it was having trouble moving around with all the rain.

However, that wasn’t all I saw. I also noticed a boy standing there looking at it.

His hair was a brownish orange, and it nearly covered his entire head to the point I had a hard time making out his face.

Had I not seen him multiple times before, I wouldn’t have recognized him.

The boy watched the kitten for a few moments as it meowed quietly.

Then, he bent down on his knees and picked up the kitten.

“Hey, little guy. Want to come with me? I’ll get you warmed right up.”

The boy gently held the kitten in his arms before turning to leave. All the while, I watched the sight in silence.

Suddenly, I felt my heart begin to beat faster and faster and my cheeks started to warm up.

I couldn’t explain why, but something about what just happened struck a chord with me.

Holding my hand close to my chest, I took in a deep breath and continued walking back to the girl's dorms. All the while, my heart continued to beat rapidly. Once I had gotten back to my room, I laid in bed and looked up at the ceiling. Even after getting back to my room, my heart was still beating like crazy. Thinking it over, I began to slowly put things together in my mind.

And as I once again brought my hand to my chest, I finally realized what this strange feeling was. When I came to this realization, I couldn’t help but smile as my cheeks grew warm once more.

But even so, if these feelings are what I think they are, then I know exactly what I must do. As a plan began to form in my head, my smile continued to widen more and more. And before I knew it, I had fallen asleep with a stupidly large grin stuck on my face.

Letting out a yawn, I got up the next morning to find Nia lying in bed with me. Clinging to my chest.

“Do you really have to do this?”

“Of course! You replenish yourself by sleeping, and I replenish myself by sleeping with you. Simple as that.”

“What’s simple about it? That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Getting up from bed, I walked over to the bathroom in hopes of cleaning myself off before class. As I was doing so, I glanced around the room.

“Hey, where’s Vey? Did she already leave or something?”

Taking one more look around the room, I couldn’t see her anywhere. Guess she really did leave early.

“Oh. About that...”

“Meh. Not a big deal. I’m gonna go get a shower.”

Throwing a towel over my shoulder, I pulled the knob to the bathroom.

“Um…Master. Maybe you shouldn’t open that do-”

Before Nia finished her sentence, I pushed the door open and walked into the bathroom only to be met with a load of steam.

“Huh?”

As my eyes adjusted, I was met with the surprised face of no one other than Vey who stood there completely naked washing herself down with the showerhead.

I looked at her for a moment before shrugging.

“Sorry. My bad.”

Then walked out of the bathroom and closed the door behind me. After doing so, a scream came from the other side of the door.

“Geez. If she’s that embarrassed about it, why would she try to join me so many times when she first became my squire?”

Sitting down, I saw there was still another hour before I had to leave, so I plopped down in a chair and opened my grimoire.

Nia’s physical form vanished from sight and she returned to said grimiore.

“We have some time to spare, so how about teaching me some random information?”

“There’s nothing you want specifically?”

“Nah. There’s nothing I really want to know so choose whatever you want.”

“Really? Cool. Then here’s some stuff about the uses of spells and magic circles.”

Giving me a bunch of random information, Nia happily showed me a bunch of things that explained the intricacies of spell casting. Honestly, it kinda opened up my eyes and helped me realize just how detailed the magic of this world could be if you decided to learn it. Including things such as magic circles which have long since become obsolete for magic casters.

About five minutes later, Vey came out with her face bright red. Glaring daggers at me.

“Just lock the door next time,” I said trying to offer some advice.

Why she didn’t lock it wasn’t something I understood. But more than likely she just forgot about it.

Vey continued to glare at me before turning around.

“At least act a little more flustered. Geez,” she muttered so quietly I barely heard it. Or maybe she hadn’t intended for me to hear it. Either way, sorry kid. But I’m a little too old to get flustered from someone of your stature

That being said, she technically wasn’t that much younger than me in this world. Only two years apart in fact. I think maybe it's just because of my personal feelings on the matter. Maybe it’ll change when she’s a bit older, but as of now, I still think of her as a child.

Continuing to read for another twenty-five to thirty minutes, I finally closed the grimoire as a bunch of new and mostly useless information had entered my mind.

I grabbed my towel, got a shower, then came out, slipped on a uniform, and left with Vey traveling a little ways behind me.

Walking out of the dorm, I glance up at the sun in the sky.

I had planned to walk with Xara today like I had over the last week or so, but she had some urgent business to attend to with her club so she had to put that as her primary focus.

Normally, something like that would make me feel a bit lonely, but considering this is exactly what I asked her to do with putting her own interests first, all I feel right now is pride. Is that weird?

Well anyway, once the two of us reached school, Vey went off to the squire classes and I went on my way to my own classroom.

Walking through the door, everyone in class ignored me as I walked up to my seat in the back of the classroom.

Flipping open my grimoire, I picked up where I left off and spent a few minutes reading before I heard footsteps walk up to me.

“Um…Axel?”

Lifting my head up from the book, I found Dianne standing there shaking nervously with her cheeks glowing a light pink.

“Do you think…I could talk to you after class?”

“Hm? Sure.”

I had no reason to refuse a friend. But weirdly enough, she looked relieved when I said that.

Millions of different theories began to form in my head. Some led towards confessions, but that wasn’t possible as I don’t recall doing anything worth gaining her affection. Some might consider what I did to save her from her butler was something, but I highly doubt that. She may be a princess, but I don’t think she’s one of those save them and they fall in love with you people. At least, that wasn’t how she was in the game.

Then again, I have seen a few things change from how they were in the game. So if she did have a personality change like that, it wouldn’t be impossible.

However, if we include all the experiences I’ve had with her so far, her personality does appear to match her game counterpart. Meaning this more than likely isn’t a confession of any kind.

Deciding not to dwell on it for longer than I had to, I went back to reading for the rest of class.

When class ended, Dianne and I went to our group's favorite spot on the roof a bit earlier than the others so we could talk about what she had wanted to ask.

I ate a burger which, as usual, had high-quality meat expected of a school mainly teaching royals and listened to Dianne as she fumbled her fingers.

“This thing is…um…I…If you can…”

What was with all this stuttering for?

Sipping some juice, I waited for her to compose herself.

She took in a deep breath and made it clear she was ready to ask what she needed.

“If you can…I want you to help me get close to Sir Riko!”

“...Huh?”

Well, I wasn’t expecting that. I was about to ask why when I suddenly remembered yesterday we had some pretty heavy rain.

“So that event finally happened huh?” I muttered to myself.

Eating into a pear I had on my tray, I pretended not to know what brought this on.

“Why Riko?” I asked.

Dianne fidgeted with her fingers.

“Well…As crazy as it sounds, I think I…might have fallen for him.”

“Hm? That so?”

“Huh!? Why do you look so bored while asking that!?”

“What? Were you expecting me to freak out or something?”

Why would I freak out over something I already knew about?

Letting out a sigh, I decided to humor her for a bit longer.

“If I’m being honest, this is kinda sudden. What brought this on?”

“Oh..Well, I…”

After that, she started to go into more detail. She mentioned how she saw him yesterday helping a kitten in the rain. She couldn’t explain why, but after watching that scene, her heart wouldn’t stop beating when thinking about Riko.

In short, the MC triggered the love at first sight event. Well, it’s called love at first sight, but that’s just a name fans used to describe the event where Dianne first falls for the protagonist.

During my playthrough, the MC came across a kitten in the rain and he decided to help take care of it. The kitten ends up staying in his room for the rest of the game and only really comes into play by bringing the MC and Dianne together at the end of her route.

The reason for this is because after the MC leaves with the kitten, we cut away to learn someone was watching the whole time and fell in love with the MC after seeing his act of kindness. And, as you might have guessed, that person was Dianne. Honestly, I almost completely forgot about that event. I guess it triggered yesterday and now Riko’s going down the path for the Dianne route.

“If you want to get closer to him, why do you need my help?”

I struggled to see how I was relevant to helping her accomplish her route with the MC.

“Well…you’re dating Xara. She’s really close with Sir Riko, correct?”

“I guess.”

I actually didn’t really know what their relationship was at this point. Especially since I ended up taking Xara for myself meaning her route is completely destroyed.

Normally, she just stuck by the MC’s side as a close friend if he didn’t choose her. But is that still the case?

“You see, I was hoping she’d be willing to introduce us to each other properly.”

“Really? But didn’t you two already meet each other a little while ago?”

“I…I guess you’re right about that, still, as I said, I’d like to meet him properly. So if Miss Femashito could give me an opening in order to interact with Sir Riko more, I’d appreciate it.”

So in other words, I acted as the messenger so that Dianne could turn my girlfriend into a wingman. Geez. Just go talk with him. Are you really gonna go through all these extra steps?

I rubbed my eyes. While I hate to say it, this was probably all she could think of. After all, she seems to have a similar mindset to her game counterpart. Both overthink their plans and struggle to come up with ideas if others aren't there to help her out.

In short, she can be kinda stupid when it comes to dealing with stuff outside of her royal education.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

But as stupid as she was acting right now, I knew it would just hurt her motivation if I pointed out how dumb it all sounded so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I may be brutally honest at times, but even I know when to avoid saying something. Even if it’s the harsh truth. I’m not that kinda person…I think.

Sighing, I looked at Dianne.

“Fine. I’ll see if she can help,” I said with a groan.

“Really!? Thank you!”

Giving me a smile that almost made my heart skip a beat, and by almost I mean I made sure it didn’t since I don’t want to seem like a cheater, Dianne gave me a hug before waving goodbye as she left me behind to reflect on what just happened.

“Well that was certainly interesting.”

Ignoring Nia, I stretched out my arms and let out another groan.

“Why do I get the feelings thing are about to get a lot more complicated?”

“If they do, it’ll probably be your fault.”

Harsh. But she wasn’t entirely off base to think that way. I did seem to cause issues everywhere I went.

Finally done standing here, I was about to leave just as Flynn and Roy arrived for lunch. Not wanting to make things awkward by leaving, I sat back down and chatted with them about a bunch of random topics for a while.

After school was over, Xara came to my dorm room to hang out and I told her what Dianne had said.

She thought for a moment, then sighed.

“I wouldn’t mind doing it, but I don’t think Riko really wants to talk to me right now.”

“Ah. Because of the rejection, right?”

Xara nodded.

Apparently, right before Xara had met up with me, Riko tried confessing to her first. She said she was ready to reject him when a part of her felt like she wanted to say yes despite not having much romantic interest.

If I had to guess, that was probably the part of her mind that still had some form of connection to her mindset in the game. I couldn’t be sure how connected this world it was, but the most I could come up with was it was either a part of her mind was trying to cling to the MC again, or she might’ve had actual feelings for him at one point that still lingered somewhere in her heart.

I know I shouldn’t say this since I did technically win against him, but something about her hesitating to say no made me kinda jealous.

But ignoring that for now, it doesn’t surprise me that the MC was trying to avoid Xara.

“Even when you and I aren’t together, he runs away the minute he sees me. So even if I tried to get the two of them together, I highly doubt I could be of much help.”

“I see.”

I guess that’s just how it is. Sorry Dianne. Looks like you’re on your own for this one.

That’s what I should’ve said to her when I talked with her the next day. However...

“Xara isn’t able to help you on this. Sorry.”

“Oh...It’s fine…”

...when I saw how sad she looked after hearing that news, I couldn’t help but groan internally as the next words left my mouth.

“While I may not be too close to him, I’ll try to support you and help in any way I can. Does that sound good?”

Those words seemed to reach her since her expression softened and she smiled at me.

“Thanks, Axel.”

With that, I had officially shifted wingmanship from Xara to myself.

Not exactly something I’m proud of, but it is what it is.

Even now, a few days later, I wish I just told her to deal with this herself. Thanks to what I said, the two of us are stuck hanging out almost twenty-four-seven trying to figure out how to get Dianne closer to Riko.

We hang out so much, that Xara’s started to grow jealous and has given me several murderous glances while Dianne and I talked.

If it was like before, I would’ve just chopped her in the head and said to grow up, but this dating stuff seemed to come with a guilty conscience since the idea of even trying to hurt Xara left my mind as soon as it entered.

By the end of the week, I found myself feeling exasperated as Dianne discussed another idea to get closer to the MC.

I didn’t know how much more I could take.

“So then, if plan three thousand four hundred and seventy-two doesn’t work, then we move onto plan three thousand four hundred and seventy-three. While similar to plan two hundred and forty-six, it actually has a pretty big twist that will guarantee he notices me. What we have to do is-”

Screaming eternally, I let Dianne babble on with stars in her eyes. Was she always this obsessed with the MC in the game?

I wouldn’t know since I played as the MC and didn’t really get to see much of Dianne out of the main story events. But at this point, this just felt like torture.

However, every time I tried to call it quits, Dianne would give me a sad look and I forced myself to get right back into it. Geez. Am I really this mentally weak?

Finished talking to me, thankfully, Dianne got up and started leaving my room. It seemed like the day's blabbering was finally over.

“Well then, see you tomorrow Axel,” she said as she waved me goodbye.

“Er…Yeah.”

I already wasn’t looking forward to it. Especially since it’s a weekend which meant she’d be in my room all day talking about plan after plan to win over Riko.

However, right before she closed the door, Dianne turned back to me.

“Oh. Sorry about this, but we won’t hold a meeting on Munday.”

Munday was this world's Monday. Not exactly original, so I find myself chuckling when people mention the days out loud. But moving past that, I gave Dianne a look of curiosity.

“Really? How come?”

I wasn’t complaining, I just didn’t know why.

“Did you forget? We have the big school expedition next week.”

I instantly remembered what she was talking about.

To explain, the big school expedition is an event in the game where several flying ships are sent to the school and they take the students out to explore different environments from a sky view.

While exploring, students are meant to write about the kind of stuff they saw as something kinda like a report or essay.

As cool as the event sounded, I didn’t really get to experience it while playing the game thanks to the game company wanting to save money by only showing off one of the environments as an illustration. It looked incredible, but it still would’ve been nice to see all the different environments the MC described.

So as exciting as it was for me to finally get to see it for myself, I didn’t exactly have much enthusiasm for the people I’d be stuck with.

Apparently, the school hadn’t learned its lesson about leaving me alone with a bunch of royal assholes and stuck me on a ship where no one I knew would be on it.

From what Xara told me, she, Roy, Ella, and Flynn were all on the same flight, meanwhile, Dianne was apparently going on a flight with Riko. That was good for her, but then there was me. I wasn’t traveling with anyone I knew. Meaning I was gonna be stuck by myself with only Nia at my side.

With news like that, I found myself down in the dumps over the last day or so which wasn’t helped by Dianne’s rambling.

With those two things taking up most of the space in my brain, I was bound to forget about one of them. Thus, it completely slipped from my mind that the event was happening from Monday morning all the way to Tuesday night. Or, I guess the people here call them Munday and Toosday. The game's creators really weren’t that creative when it came to names. Actually, now that think about it, the only real saving grace of this game was its story and art. Everything else seemed either cheap or lacked creativity.

“Sorry. I actually did forget. Thanks for reminding me.”

Dianne giggled.

“Well then, see you tomorrow.”

“Er…Yeah.”

I chuckled awkwardly as she closed the door before walking over to my bed and collapsing on top of it. I let out a loud groan which was muffled up by my sheets so that I didn’t wake the already sleeping Vey.

Nia chuckled at the sight from inside the grimoire.

“What’s so funny?” I growled.

“Nothing. I just find the way you’ve been acting rather hilarious recently.”

“Haaah. If even you’re saying I’ve been acting differently then it has to be true.”

As the one doing said acting, I couldn’t really tell. To me, I felt like I acted the same way as always.

“So tell me, how different am I acting?”

Nia appeared before me with her finger on her chin.

“Hmm. Let me ask you, if one of your closest friends suddenly asked for your help, would you help them?”

“Of course.”

“Alright. Then let me change things up a bit. What if instead of your friends, it was a complete stranger you never met that asked for your help? Would you still help them?”

“I don’t see why not. I’m fine with helping as long as it doesn’t get me in trouble.”

“And there’s the difference.”

“Huh?”

“If you were the same as before, you’d have first considered whether they were trying to lure you in or actually asking for help. A completely different reaction from what you’re saying now.”

“That so?”

Did I think like that before? If I’m being honest, ever since I started dating Xara, everything's just felt like sunshine and rainbows. Even now, despite my frustrations when it comes to Dianne’s scheming, I still have this overwhelming sense of happiness inside me.

“Yeah. It is. At this point, I’m worried if you’re coming down with something.”

I shrugged.

“I don’t see what’s so bad about my personality changing. If it means I can hold onto this feeling of happiness, I don’t see a problem with it.”

Nia sighed.

“If you say so.”

With that, I curled up in my bed and closed my eyes. Nia joined me a few moments later, and then, I fell unconscious. All the while, my excitement slowly began to grow at the prospect of all the different environments I might get to see during this trip.

After a grueling weekend, Munday arrived and I stretched out my arms while getting up for the day.

As excited as I was to see the environments I couldn’t while playing the game, I was still trying to recover my energy from the two days of plan rambling Dianne had just put me through.

Apparently, she’s gonna attempt one of them during the trip. I just hope it works out for her.

Since this trip was only for actual students at the school, the squires weren’t allowed to come. Thus, Vey stayed behind to continue her studies.

Leaving the building, Xara was standing there with a smile.

She walked over to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“That’s for the road.”

I chuckled.

“Thanks.”

After that, the two of us made our way to the front of the school building to find teachers guiding students to their respective groups.

Waving goodbye to Xara, she ran off to join the others in her group. Meanwhile, Dianne walked over to me.

“Well, it’s time to put my plan into action.”

Seeing her hands fidget nervously, I patted her back.

“You’ll be fine. Just try your best.”

Those words sounded fake when I said them out loud thanks to how generic they were, but they appeared to help as Dianne stopped fidgeting and nodded.

“Thanks. Anyway, I should be on my way now. Goodbye, Axel.”

Giving her a thumbs up, I smiled.

“Right. Good luck. I look forward to hearing how things go.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

With that, Dianne went back to her own group and I walked around to find mine.

A few minutes later, I found the group I was looking for and made my way over.

Upon reaching everyone, they glared at me with disgust. Do you guys seriously still hate me? It’s been almost a year now. Learn to grow up.

Actually, speaking of growing up, there's another thing I forgot about. This trip takes place at the end of the year. It also acts at the point where the MC has to pick his heroine. I don’t know how things have been going with the other heroines, but I wonder if the MC’s made any progress with anyone other than Xara.

This may sound like a stupid concern, but ever since I took the MC’s spot in Dianne’s class, it’s felt like the whole story’s been a little off.

For a quick explanation, the MC was originally supposed to go on the trip with all the heroines. After doing so, one last event occurs that ends with the MC having to pick which girl to follow. But right now, the only girl he’ll be traveling with is Dianne. Meaning the story is already off course. Not that I’m gonna try and fix it. Why try and fix what’s already beyond repair?

Still, it does make me wonder how thing's are gonna end.

But moving past that for now, I made my way onto the floating ship we’d be traveling on, and was immediately handed a card that was apparently to my room on this ship. I didn’t mention this before, but these ships are actually quite big. In fact, I’m still amazed I wasn’t paired with any of my friends since, in total, there were only four ships and they were all as big as the school’s front gate. Just what’d you expect from a school with such a high budget.

Making my way to my room, I took a look around.

Just like my normal dorm room, it was way fancier than anything I could’ve imagined. So much so, that when I heard some of the other students say they were too small and disgusting to look at, I wondered if they needed therapy or something.

Flopping down on my bed, I snuggled up in the mattress. It was softer than I’d expected.

Despite only staying here for a single night, I was more than satisfied with this room.

Suddenly, a voice echoed from above.

“Attention all students, we are about to depart. If anyone thinks they might be missing anything, please make sure to check your things before we leave.”

Knowing I was good, I continued relaxing in bed. After my time in the dungeon, I’d learned to always think ahead so that I was prepared for anything.

So, closing my eyes, I began to imagine what kinds of stuff I was gonna see on this trip. With all the kinds of environments to be explored, the adventuring side of me started to get excited.

About half an hour later, I got up from my bed. From how light my feet felt, we probably already left the school.

I stretched out my arms, then let out a yawn. It looked like I was still tired.

Wondering if there were any spells to help with sleep deprivation, I decided to ask Nia.

“Hey, Nia, are there any spells I could learn that would help wake me up a little bit?”

I waited for her to say something like “Learning any spell could wake you up.” or “Why would you need a spell like that?”

However, all I got was silence.

“Hm?”

Confused, I looked down at my belt where I normally kept my grimoire.

“Wait…Where is it!?”

Feeling a sense of fear wash over me, I tried feeling around my belt before running over to my bag and tearing through it.

“It’s not here…”

I slumped my arms to the floor.

Crap. This wasn’t good. Did I seriously forget to bring my grimoire with me!?

Just when I said I was always prepared, I happened to forget my most powerful weapon.

“DAMMIT!”

I rustled my hair in frustration.

Of all the mistakes I could’ve made, this was the worst.

To explain, besides the spells Nia, the spirit in my grimoire, burned into my brain, I am unable to cast anything that isn’t a basic spell. Not to mention the amount of magic I cast normally gets absorbed by the grimiore which gives me the ability to cast more spells.

In short, I’m screwed without my grimoire.

Wanting to go back and get it, I prepared to use my teleportation spell to return to my room.

But when I tried to do so-

“...Huh?”

-the spell instantly vanished.

“What the hell?”

Confused, I tried a few more times but to no avail.

Not sure what was going on, I left my room and made my way over to a crewmember taking care of the ship and asked them what was going on. Looking at me as if I asked a dumb question, he explained it to me.

Apparently, the type of metal this ship ran on required some kind of special core that would explode if it absorbed any kind of magic. Meaning that in order to ensure our safety, they set up a magic-blocking barrier so that the core didn’t blow up by accident if one of the students carelessly cast a spell.

Honestly, it sounded like complete bullshit to me.

But sadly, it seemed like that was just how things were. Meaning I had to go two days without using any magic at all. Kinda hard to hear when magic is literally the only thing keeping me from being snapped in two by the other students here.

Sighing, I walked over to one of the boat edges and looked out into the sky.

Despite these horrible circumstances, the view was still nice.

Deciding to make the best of it for now, I took in the sights. Trying my best to keep myself positive.

Meanwhile, Vey let out a yawn as she got out of bed and found a girl sitting there in the room tapping her foot. She had a rather annoyed look on her face.

“Um…Miss Nia.”

“He forgot me,” Nia mumbled.

“Huh?”

“That stupid Master forgot me!”

“Eek!”

Not sure what she was talking about, Vey jumped in surprise and tried to prepare herself for class while avoiding Nia’s intense aura that was practically screaming bloody murder.

Once Vey was gone, Nia puffed out her cheeks and curled herself up into a ball.

“...Master you jerk.”