“I will return when it’s time for dinner, young master. Please rest well.”

Emma bowed once more and left the room. Her expression was a little strange, but who could blame her? I spent the last hour interrogating her on things that should be common knowledge in this world. Hopefully she just accepts my explanation of memory loss. Though even if she suspected something, she won’t dare tell anyone for now. That would be suicide.

But man, Alexander was even more of a scumbag than I thought. The bastard enjoyed bullying people for the tiniest reasons. Usually this meant kicking or slapping them, but he was also fond of more humiliating punishments. For example, making them get on their hands and knees then using them as a footrest while he drank tea. Worst of all, he sometimes even groped the maids! Unforgivable! Emma had a hard time talking about it, but finally spit it out after enough prodding. At that moment I really wished there was a nearby pit I could just bury myself in.

Fortunately, Alexander never crossed the final line. But I’m sure that’s only because he thought it was beneath him to sleep with a commoner.

Sigh… thanks to my chat with Emma, I now had a much better idea of my situation, and even learned some things that weren’t mentioned in the game. The most important of which was that Lady Francesca Ettrick was actually my fiancée. Our engagement was decided by our parents long ago, but the two of us were supposedly a very lovey-dovey couple. Bah!

I felt a headache just thinking about spending the rest of my life with that psycho. Doesn’t matter how hot she is or how amazing her curves are, or the way her chest practically spills out of her dr- *ehem*, as I was saying! That girl is pure trouble.

Anyway, the game’s story will start in three years when my little sister and the protagonist enter the kingdom’s Magic Academy. As for me, I’m currently sixteen, and will enter a full year ahead of them. There’s a lot I need to do before that happens.

...

First things first. Let’s take stock of my possessions, shall we?

My bedroom was absurdly large. If this were my previous life, I could host a great party here. Anyway, the first thing that caught my eye was a glass case near my desk, which contained jewelry made of gold and precious gems. Almost everything was decorated with a distinctive crest… my family’s coat of arms.

This jewelry case did have a lock, incidentally, but a useless one considering that the key was left in its hole. Maybe Alexander believed that no one would ever dare steal from him? I curiously picked up and opened an elegant heart shaped locket near the center of the display.

“Ugh.”

Pictures of me and Francesca. Nauseating.

I hastily shut the locket and placed it back in the case.

The next thing that caught my attention was a sword hanging off the wall. It also had the Halesworth insignia on its crossguard. I went over to pick it up.

Oof, this thing was way heavier than I expected. With its length, I suppose it’s a two handed weapon? I carefully drew it out of its scabbard, and was immediately awed by how shiny the blade was. Hmm. I plucked a stray hair off my clothes and dropped it on the blade.

The hair slowly fluttered to the ground, and as it reached the blade, it was cut in half without even the slightest hint of resistance.

“Scary.”

This thing was sharp.

Unfortunately, I had absolutely no experience with fighting of any kind other than the rare schoolyard scuffle, so this sword may as well be a prop on me. No, it was a self-amputation waiting to happen. I placed it back on the hook without another thought.

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Then I began rummaging around my drawers for anything else that might be useful. My curses and disbelieving exclamations filled the room for the next hour. I found a lot of stuff, but let me summarize it with this:

Alexander was filthy rich. Like, “I’m shocked that no one has ransacked this bedroom yet” rich.

All of the gold and silver coins I found just lying around in random places was enough to fill a pillowcase (yes, that is now a unit of measurement). There were several gems too like rubies, opals, and even a few multicolored stones that I’ve never seen before. Why wasn’t this locked up in a safe!? Was he pretending to be a dragon sleeping in the middle of a treasure hoard!?

I had a rough perspective of Lost in Love’s economy, thanks to all the scenes of Mary getting taunted by rich kids with their extravagant spending. This was a staggering amount of wealth for any commoner, and even for most noble houses it wasn’t something you could scoff at.

Now the scariest thing was that someone of Alexander’s status didn’t even need to carry money on him. The household would get him anything he wanted with just a word. In the game, Christine Halesworth was known for going on huge shopping sprees and leaving a butler to deal with the aftermath. So all of this gold wasn’t his life’s savings or anything like that… it was just loose change.

Pocket money.

I knew House Halesworth was rolling in dough, but damn. For a while all I could do was arrange my hoard of coins and gems into neat stacks. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about my travel funds if I ever decided to escape from this place.

Other than that, I didn’t find anything else important. I was hoping that Alexander had a journal or something for me to read, but it seemed like that was too optimistic. With a sigh, I accepted that I would just have to rely on my memories of the game and any information I can safely dig up.

Best to write this down then before I start forgetting.

...

“Here we go.”

I sat down in front of a desk and tried to recall as much of the game’s story as I could, compared it with what I learned from Emma, then wrote it down on a notebook. It’s been a while since I finished Lost in Love, but fortunately I could still remember the major plot points. Most it would only happen once the protagonist shows up, since the game opens with her entrance ceremony.

It’s too bad I don’t know where she’s from though. The game never mentioned where Mary lived before awakening to her magic powers. With a slight feeling of regret, I continued writing and making plans.

“Let’s see… as expected, my sister will be the biggest problem,” I muttered.

Christine Halesworth was a ticking time bomb. Her persistent bullying of the protagonist will disgust the capture targets, earning us some very powerful enemies and giving other noble families opportunities to attack us. I needed to find a way to reform her or else we were 100% doomed. This goal was priority one.

However, my sister’s not the only factor that could drive us towards a bad end. Our destruction is caused by different things depending on the route. Sometimes it’s the servants feeding confidential information to our noble rivals, sometimes we get trapped in a plot. My parents even had a bunch of illicit dealings that would be very hard to explain away if they ever came to light. I needed to reduce the chances of my family getting ruined as much as possible, while preparing a way for me to survive and escape if everything still goes wrong.

I also had to fix my own image. I’d rather not be known as a sadistic, maid-molesting jerk forever, thank you very much! This was going to be an uphill battle, but I’ll show everyone that Alexander is now a respectable human being. Oh, and there’s the engagement with Francesca to worry about... breaking it off was easier said than done, since my parents would never agree to it. Medieval marriage alliances were no joke.

“And I can’t be too reckless either,” I sighed while rubbing my forehead. “Not for now, anyway.”

These first few days would be dangerous. Without Alexander’s memories, it won’t take much to make my family suspicious, and who knows what that would lead to? They might drag me off to a dozen different doctors to get my head checked. If I was unlucky, I may even get locked up in an asylum or brought to a church to be exorcised. Shudder.

Last but definitely not least, there was the ever present threat of the True Ending. If Mary somehow manages to open the demon portal in this timeline, then in the best case scenario a lot of people will die before it is closed, including the four capture targets. In the worst case? We’re all fucked.

Going on a journey was looking more and more appealing every second.

Time passed like that as I scribbled away, and before I knew it the sun was already about to set. While I was watching the gardens outside slowly get dyed in the sun’s orange light, several knocks sounded on the door.

“Young master? Dinner is ready. The lord and madame have requested your presence.”

It was Emma’s voice. Looks like it was finally time for me to meet the Halesworths.