One day, at dinner, I suddenly heard Stannard Sterling speak for the first time.

“Your debut is coming up. I trust you won’t embarrass me.” Despite the harsh tone, the always overindulgent Dolores doesn’t say a word.

“I shall do my utmost to live up to your expectations, father.” I am unsure how I should speak to the man, but I play it safe and take a respectful tone, in contrast to the casual way I speak to my mother and sister. It seems it was the correct guess as Stannard merely solemnly nods.

I knew I was going to interact with the noble society sooner or later and apparently, that was around 13 years of age. I also knew that Hannibal will at some point be considered to be engaged to princess Zoenna. I remember Zoenna’s story fairly well, since it was one of the routes I played through.

The reason Hannibal was so fixated on her, was not only his possessive and spoilt nature, but also that he already considered them engaged. A few years prior to the academy starting, they should have met up to negotiate an engagement. Part of this process was to let the young nobles spend some time together alone, but the princess didn’t take to the young ducal heir. He was described as being selfish and boorish.

That didn’t matter to Hannibal, though. He had already considered them to be engaged when he thought she was beautiful and the talk was set up, so although the royal family declined, Hannibal ignored it and pursued Zoenna regardless, eventually by force.

I plan on rejecting Zoenna in much the same way. I only have substantial knowledge of the plot, should the protagonist be male and choose one of the routes I had played through. Even if I should be the villain in the Zoenna route, I would prefer it to be on bare ground. Should the protagonist choose Alicia, for example, I only know the bare basics of the story that I heard through the friend who recommended me this game in the first place.

I only know that Alicia falls in love with the protagonist and that her father, or rather our father, won’t allow her to marry a lowly baron, and that a political dispute between house Sterling and House Victorius ensues in the second act, culminating in a civil war in act three. I don’t know the important people, I don’t know exactly how things develop or what schemes are going down.

In contrast, I know much of Zoenna’s plot. From her past, to her love of the commoners and country, to her wishes and hopes. I know of the assassination attempt of the king, of a few of the houses that betray the kingdom and of the forbidden magic that is being researched for the war.

Should Zoenna’s route be initiated, I will almost be psychic and one step ahead of everything. This should give me ample opportunity to do well. I can also cooperate with the protagonist, rather than being an antagonist in the second act, and have a much easier time in the third. It is perfect.

Unfortunately, I don’t even know the gender of the protagonist yet, and won’t until the start of my third year at the academy. But I should still try to force the story down the path I am most familiar with.

“To think my darling little Hanny is already so old. Only two more years till you get sent to the academy.” My mother started crying…

Wait.

Two years?

I am only 13…

It struck me like a lightning bolt. The localization of the game was not just a translation, you see. Many elements of the story were changed to be more palatable to a western audience.

One of such things were the age of the people. In the localized version, people would start the academy at 18 years old, since the first sex scenes take place there, but in the original Japanese, they apparently started as 15-years old, making the academy more akin to a high school.

Shit. I try to remember what differences I heard from my friend. Apparently the original game had one additional capture target for each gender, but they were dwarves. The dwarves in this world is not like the bearded, stout, fat and strong warriors one finds in usual fantasy. First off, they should specialize in earth magic, not strength and secondly… Well, they look exactly like children and their routes were thusly removed from the game.

Secondly I remember my friend rambling about the protagonist pair. In the localized version, whichever you didn’t choose is from a distant branch family of the Victiorius house and a childhood friend, but that was changed from the original Japanese, that had them as fraternal twins. The issue was, that whichever protagonist you didn’t choose would be target and a route, and apparently the American publisher didn’t think incest would go down smoothly with the American market.

And lastly I remember a bunch of comments like “It was so much more fucked up in the Japanese version.” Or “They really toned that down in the localization.” In other words, what I may happen to know of the future will no longer be the game I played, but the game I played was based on. I griped a little with the reality of it all.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nevertheless, the main plot points should stay the same. I can only try to direct the protagonist away from content, I knew was radically altered.

Back to matters of now and not of eventuality, the social debut in this world was rather strange. Noble children seem to be almost locked up until they were about thirteen years old. When I inquired as to why, it was explained it was to prevent outside forces from manipulating the young.

Debuts were different for boys and girls. Girls would have massive parties thrown to celebrate their coming of age, while boys would simply start attending parties, usually a girl’s debut party at first.

The first of these parties available was the one of Barbara of House Sitarion. This was another target for male players of the game, though I was not too familiar with her, as she fell a little outside my personal preference.

For the protagonist, Barbara was a busty, older-looking woman who would spoil him. It carried an almost oedipal tone to the relationship, as she acted typically more like a mother than a girl of similar age, and to be honest, that kind of creeped me out. She would lick her finger and wipe the protagonist face, if he failed an etiquette check at the cafeteria. She would hug and stroke him and ask him to tell of his worries. She would worry about his diet and cook for him, if enough points were collected. It truly gave off a motherly vibe. And to score points with her, you basically had to act like a child.

House Sitarion was a prominent count’s house. Their value lied in sitting on the most fertile lands of the kingdom. The bread basket of the kingdom, they were often called and though they were only a count, they were sometimes called “the fourth ducal house” in jest. Though their rank and people couldn’t measure up to a duke’s, their wealth could.

The only house richer than the Sitarions were the Sterlings. Our territory, situated at the souther end of the kingdom, had all of the biggest ports, which brough in tons of tolls. In addition, our territory also encompassed the mountain ranges, where the vast majority of metals came from. Heck, I might be biased since I mainly learnt about the territory from here, but from what I could understand, the Sterlings were even richer than the royal family.

All that aside, I was finally going to the debut. My parents didn’t come and my sisters debut was still some two years away, so she couldn’t come either. My only escorts were a handful of guards and my weird, but immaculate, personal attendant Holger. The only adult nobles, that would be present, should be the parents of Barbara. These debut parties were mostly intended for children, after all.

I was thoroughly briefed on how things should go down. I was carriage bound for two days, then I would be greeted at the estate on the third morning and have a room where I could prepare myself. My gift had been selected for me, a silver hand mirror with adorned with a single red gem on the top. I had already been told where I would sit, that is, next to the young Barbara, as my status was the highest of the participating guests. Everything from what I should say to what I should do and how others would treat me was planned.

But two days was a long time to do nothing but read, and eventually, an idea popped into my head. To maximize my chances of the protagonist, should he be male, taking a route, shouldn’t I close off the others. If I could play to Barbara’s preferences, couldn’t I have her fall for me, and thus increase the chances of being partially clairvoyant? It seemed to be worth a shot.

When we finally arrived, Holger presented our invitation and I was quickly shown to the prepared room and had a nice bath. Holger did the actual washing for me, as always. I was embarrassed at first, but two years of having my attendant bathe me has knocked it out of me. With a fine cloth, every part of me is rubbed down. I am then to put on the outfit mother picked out for me.

It was a long, dark red doublet, coupled with black pants, black boots and a pretty massive hat sporting a massive feather. The doublet was padded, especially over the chest, the top of the arms and shoulder. I actually had a pretty lean figure, but the padding made me seem almost comically buff and broad-shouldered. I thought I looked like a tool.

A few hours in, the reception was starting. The young Barbara stood in front of a massive hall and received gifts, and exchanged greeting before the young nobles and their attendants were let in. Had I not known it was Barbara from the game, I would never have guessed it. Not only does this take place a few years before the game, and thus the art, that I knew was relevant, but the translation between animesque art and the real, breathing, living figures before was actually difficult. I wonder if I ever would be able to recognize someone from the game based on their looks and not their name.

After handing over the gift and exchanging a few pleasantries, an elf maid came and escorted us to our seats. I remember that in the game, elves and dwarves were often discriminated, seen as subhuman and the only jobs they could find were those in service to others. I didn’t think of it until now, buy why does our estate not seem to employ any? Guess I will ask Holger later.

The main table only had five seats and they were all slowly filled out, but the middle seat. More than an hour passed from when I was at the door, before the young hostess finally approached us. I did as I was taught for etiquette and rose from my seat and pulled out her chair. After I had pushed it back under her and she was seated, I sat down again.

We exchanged another greeting and then she started a small speech, where she tanked all present for attending, for their gifts and hoped to be able to return the sentiment someday in the future.

The first dish brought out by the elven and dwarven servants was a clear soup. I saw dwarves for the first time in this world. I had a hope that they wouldn’t take after the game, but I was let down. They really looked like young children, perhaps around 8 years old, while the elves all looked to be in their late teenage years. The only thing separating the dwarves from normal children was their ears. Where I had a normal human ear, and the elves had long, pointy ones, the characteristic of the dwarves was their earlobes, that hanged all the way down to the neck.

I was thinking about starting my plan, but the first dish was not suitable. It was a clear soup. But once the second dish was brought in, there was a sauce accompanying the meat and bread, I cut off a piece of the meat and dipped it in the sauce and purposefully stained my face, waiting to imitate the scene, where the motherly Barbara would rub my face. I could feel it and was drowning in embarrassment, but I held strong.