Chapter 13

Ruffle.

My clothes are loose and ever so slightly gliding over my skin. Not much, but now that I have had time to stop moving and casting magic, I feel the effects that casting so much has had on my body.

I can’t quite tell, but I am fairly certain that I have lost a size. This is terrible as every percentage of fat that I lose affects my overall maximum mana capacity. Worse, I now feel the movement of my clothes over my body, it isn’t much and I am certain that my undergarments are protecting my modesty, but still, it is unnerving knowing that I am doing the equivalent of flashing my undergarments to the people around. Or at the very least that is what my clothes feel like they are doing right now.

If I had to guess I would at around twenty percent body fat, maybe a bit more.

Compared to the anorexically thin princes and princesses I am still chunky, but I somehow don’t feel as healthy as I should.

Yes, I can move easier, but for possibly the first time in a while I am legitimately hungry. Of course, this will mean that I only eat one meal and gain back all my weight, but that is what I actually want to happen in this case.

Clip-clop.

People all around are almost stomping around in their crisp refined movements, in their exceptionally new boots and gear that can’t help but make sounds that echo around the grand entry chamber.

“With everything that happened, you all will be the last group to have your readings made and recorded.” Lady Von’Graysing states.

With that I can almost feel everyone look at me. For a moment I wonder if they are going to make me go through this process again, though a quick nod and wink from Lady Von’Graysing lets me know that my one demand for entry is still in place.

That is the fact that I didn’t mind if the professors saw my readings, but I did not want to be made a spectacle before all the other noble lords and ladies.

This was why I stayed at the back of the queue as I let everyone go before me. Everyone was very appreciative of this, as no one in the back could truly read the awakening marks from the entry way. Thus the students that went first had the benefit of not having their status read by many students, while simultaneously being able to read everyone else’s.

In a way I followed this tradition, as I had been the first of the new class of students to have their information read. The only problem is that I clearly didn’t get to see everyone else’s information, not that it mattered as I already knew everyone’s information by heart. At least I knew all the main characters that always scored the highest and were of the best pedigree to help the Von’Roseblade’s empire expand rapidly to meet the incoming threat. A threat that had already shown itself.

Jitters.

I still felt alive after having survived the hardest CRET and not only had everyone live, but seemingly managed to make a few bonus interaction points. At least I felt I had made points with Prince Drakerton and future Saint, Lady De’Claire.

Stare.

Feeling the eyes of possible suitors glancing at you was a feature the game made you practice. In your body suit, you could feel the gazes of people on you based on certain pressures that were provided and delivered with minor pressures around your heart. Finding the exact opposite angle of the pressure, would help determined the direction that the various gazes were being sent at you.

After so many playthroughs I knew where all of the pressure points should be.

Yes, Prince Drakerton had low to mild interest in me from my right. A fact that I instantly recognized and then accepted with a head nod. Knowing that my face was mostly hidden by my mask, with only my eyes showing through the eye slits.

However, there was a second set of eyes that I could feel causing a slight tingling sensation. This was an act of infatuation, basically one of the love interests saw you do something heroic and you had an immediate chance to interact with said person and either double down on the event bonus. Or lock in the position in place.

These are nuances that are hard to tell, and quite frankly showed just how obsessively I played this game during my free time. But essentially, by my turning and nodding to Prince Drakerton I locked in the low level interest rating with him.

Now turning to my left, I tried to find the second source of interest and look only to find a bunch of background characters.

Tremble.

No wait, there is the minor shaking of a foot. A foot that is then causing a pristine white robe to quiver. Following the movement up, I then see the ice queen herself just stare at me. For a moment our eyes lock, and I feel the pressure on my chest tighten. This is the tell of the game world that I have found the person who was interested in me.

With the interested party found, I need to either interact with the person or risk losing this.

To make matters worse, this is one of those stupid events where the love interest was nervous so I have to act, or this will turn into negative emotions.

The only problem is that the person who showed signs of being interested, is none other than the class five sealed cataclysm that is the future Saint, Lady Marie De’Claire herself.

This is bad.

If I don’t do anything, then this will turn to hate and might spark the dark saint route almost immediately. Then if I do interact with her and build up a report with her, I could also set up the dark saint route, but only if I in fact break her heart.

Suddenly details of her character come back to me. I never really played with her, as I always hated the dark saint route, and let’s face it, I hated not having Karen in my party. That said, to get all the achievements I had to play with the dark Saint a few times. I had to do the playthrough where she created the civil war and I fought against her and won on the battlefield, forcing her into exile. Then there was the redemption route, where I got her to open up about her true feelings for me, well Claudia, and only then did the darkness and light both leave her, making her a normal person shunned from all magic. There were talks of a third relationship where she married Claudia, but that never worked due to political reasons. First, even as a Saint Claudia outranked Marie. Then by having the Saint as a partner either meant you sided with the Church, and gained followers and had an easier time converting conquered territories to your empire’s way of control. Or you broke away from the ever increasing demands of the church, where the leaders of the church started a smaller scale civil war within your empire. Again, all paths with her were extremely annoying, particularly as it meant you couldn’t get any support from the princes as they were all ultimately pushed away from Claudia. In fact, there was only one way where everything went well with Lady De’Claire in your party and that was if you had a single monogamous relationship, never deviated from that relationship, and even then you still had issues with the church.

Now this albatross of pain seemed to be harboring feelings for me. At least that is what all my highly attuned Otome senses were telling me.

Blush.

As our eyes met, she looked away, and her face went crimson in the way that a love interest always seems to do when they are embarrassed.

Seeing the future Saint in this way towards me, and she is looking at me, as I turn to see Prince Drakerton, to see if it might possibly be a connection with him and no. He is clearly ahead in the line, looking back at the two of us, but otherwise not in the direct line of sight of Lady De’Claire.

Realizing that it might be best not to have a dark Saint flip out and try to gain my attention by making my life a living prison, I decide to go over and at least talk to her.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You nervous?” I ask.

At that, Lady De’Claire still blushing brushes a strand of hair behind her ear before turning coyly to look at me.

She would be cute, if it wasn’t for the fact that I can still see her demonically possessed face staring at me, even now.

“What, no. Well, sort of.” Lady De’Claire says, and then stares into my eyes afterwards.

For a moment, I see what others saw in her. She has that deep down purity that everyone sort of wants to either have or be able to exude at will. Looking at her, you see the model of chastity, of untainted beauty, knowing that you will be the first to corrupt her, if you but follow the path.

Honestly, the whole thing just makes me sort of sick, especially as she is just fourteen, but still beautiful. Again, this is meant to be a game of growing relationships, where you build up friendships and allegiances for four years, before fully committing yourself to one or more people once you are all of the age of consent.

So I know nothing will happen, well nothing more than light flirting, some handholding and maybe the impromptu kiss on the cheek, but nothing more than that. I am thinking these things, when I realize that I need to say something, or else potentially break the interpersonal rewards for this moment. Fortunately, I have interacted with Lady De’Claire enough to know that she is nervous, which I intend to focus on and turn this possible relationship into a firm friend zone material.

“Don’t be, you will be just fine. Just go up there, put your hand on the orb and show the world that you are the next Saint candidate.” I respond.

Silence.

There is a moment when Lady De’Claire scans her eyes quickly over me, before she responds. “You mean it, don’t you?”

I pause, then looking at her, I realize I missed something. “What?”

With my question Lady De’Claire nods to herself before responding. “You truly mean it, that I will be a Saint?”

“Of course,” I begin, but then realizing I really can push this for a true friendship route, I go a little further. “Just close your eyes for a moment.”

Doe eyed stare.

With that Lady De’Claire stares at me with complete shock for a moment as I see her face go completely pale.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” I begin, feigning a bit of indignation at the thought that she might think I would hurt her.

“No, it’s not that… here.” With that the Saint closed her eyes not wanting to seemingly hurt my feelings in this exchange.

With that I smile slightly behind my mask, while going in for the kill. Mixing in game knowledge with this moment, as asking her to close her eyes was the only way to get her to turn away from the dark saint path. I didn’t quite understand it all, something about her being afraid of the dark, but empowered by the person she was interested in. If you were already high enough in relationship points, you could convince her to close her eyes and imagine a world where there was no violence, and then convince her to turn away from her path of destroying her homeland.

Again, I don’t fully understand it either, some weird Otome logic, but I knew that the only way to get her to close her eyes in the dark Saint route, was if she had already done so earlier. Either by you getting her to close her eyes as you gave a birthday gift, or something. Seeing as she was not my retainer, I figured getting her a birthday gift would be cumbersome. That said, this did pose the perfect chance to get her to close her eyes now, making it so she might close her eyes for me later in the Dark Saint path. While also letting me build up the friend zone of the crazy love-struck Saint. A Saint who cannot herself actually fall in love, lest she loses all her powers. Truly the saddest of all back stories, but one that I had to work with.

Now that she had her eyes closed, I exhaled and then walked her through the process that would soon come to her.

“Now look deep down inside yourself. Find that giant golden core of faith and devotion that you all but radiate.”

“What? How did?”

“Shh!” I say, and quickly put my finger on her lips.

Quiver.

Maybe putting my finger on her lips was a bit too intimate of a gesture, but I needed to keep this moment going. Also, my finger had the desired effect as she at least stopped talking so I could continue.

“Now that you found that core of faith and devotion, realize it is the Gods’ gift to you. This is their marking on you showing that you have been given the chance to do great things on this world. Great things that are only possible if you stay the course and do what is right.” I finish my impromptu speech and removal of my finger.

With that, there is a slight pause before Lady De’Claire opens her eyes and stares at me. Then her eyes of course go down my curves and settle on my chest.

I am about to say something to her, but then I realize her eyes are staring at one fixed point on my chest.

Looking down, I see that her eyes are locked onto my green and embroidered ‘V’ that is on my uniform. A sign that I have been blessed with the Blessing of the Virgin. While most might not know exactly what the ‘V’ means, a priestess of the order definitely would.

“I see,” was all Lady De’Claire said. Then she seemed to nod to herself as she came to a conclusion, “you too are forced to walk a path of dedication.”

“Yeah,” I reply. While I am fairly certain this is not the case, as Lady Von’Graysing all but guaranteed this not to be the case for having a female relationship, I choose to let this situation die down right here and now.

“Thank you, I, I really appreciate that you confided in me.” Lady De’Claire, the future Saint candidate said.

Then looking around, she continued, “oh it looks like we are the last two.”

I too looked around and saw that she was correct, during this time Prince Drakerton and the others that were still in line had already gone to be evaluated. In fact, it was just Lady Von’Graysing and the High Priestess who were left back as chaperones for us.

It was fairly obvious that Lady Von’Graysing was back for me. But I honestly couldn’t tell who the High Priestess was here for, whether she was here to recruit me, or if she was honestly looking forward to the unveiling of the next Saint candidate.

“After you,” I say, gesturing for her to go out and be evaluated first.

“Really?” Marie De’Claire asks. A note of surprise and hope in her voice. With this her intention is clear, she will go in, be evaluated and then be able to see me and my status screen when I inevitably go after her.

Of course, this will not be the case as I don’t need to reveal my status screen again, except to my future mentors. But I will not tell Marie that.

“Yes,” I reply then gesture for her to go.

“Thank you,” Marie says giving a half curtsey as she goes out.

While she is moving I also leave the back room, followed closely by the last two chaperones.

Marie seeing me come out, beams at me as she likely thinks I have come out to cheer her on. In a way I have, but not quite.

Instead, I just stand and watch, along with my two shadows.

Nervously, Marie locks gazes with me and smiles, before she visibly exhales and goes over to touch the awakening stone.

As she does, her name status and everything gets presented before everyone assembled in bright vibrant colors that are undeniable.

Name: Marie De’Claire Age: 14 Gender: Female

Magical Affinities: Current Rating Maximum Rating Primary: Healing F SSS Secondary: Light F S Tertiary: Saint F SS

Attributes: Current Rating Maximum Rating Strength: E B+ Dexterity: E B+ Stamina: E A Perception: C B+ Intelligence: E+ A+ Magic: F SS

Abilities:

Saintly Aura: You have the beginning aura of a Saint. This aura can be cultivated to solidify your ranking of Saintly magic to create permanent effects in your immediate area. With this plants will grow stronger, people will heal faster, and undead will cower in your presence.

There it was, the main reason why she was considered powerful. Namely at the low and mid-levels of the game there were a lot of undead swamps and rotted lands where Marie would help with power leveling. Though these spots often dried up quickly, and by the time you got to the upper levels of the game, most of her benefits were able to be accounted for, making her redundant. Especially as keeping her in your party would cause one of the ill-fated futures. Best case scenario, keep her in your party until she awoke as the Saint and then let her leave your party to work for the church. This created a passive effect but was so much better than any of the scenarios that would happen if she remained a constant fixture by your side.

“Ohh!” Everyone gathered cried out in amazement.

“She is a Saint candidate?”

“Yeah, that is so awesome.”

Students began talking in hushed whispers. Then with Marie’s reveal done, all eyes invariably turned to me.

Fortunately, Magister Carthwright was there to draw everyone’s attention away from me.

“With that, we have fully evaluated the entire incoming class of students, and I must say I am extremely pleased with the level and quality of cadets that have all come here.” Magister Carthwright said.

“Wait, we didn’t see her evaluation.” One of the students called out and directly pointed at me.

“No, and you won’t, unless you somehow manage to surpass her as the top student.” Magister Carthwright began.

“But how do we know if we surpass her, if we haven’t seen her status?”

“Well, looks like you might have to just try really hard until we can’t do anything other than admit you are superior to her.” Magister Carthrwight replied.

Then like that, all eyes that had been on me a moment ago in hope and awe, suddenly changed. It was small, imperceptible, but years of playing this game taught me that this was the look and feel of contempt. How I was close to losing the respect of the class, as mob rule was close to being enacted.

Of course, I could go up and show my status and resolidify my relationships with everyone present, but I decided not to. Instead, I would take the rating debuff and accept that, placing me close to the status of the villain of this story. At least the villain until the main enemies fully show themselves.

“Now, it is time for all of you to go to your rooms and prepare for classes.” Magister Carthwright stated.

With that a few kids began leaving, but most of the students just stayed, and stared at me.

FWABOOSH!

With that a giant burst of fire erupted out from Magister Carthwright’s outstretched hand. “I said, dismissed.”

Then with that everyone who had been staying around decided to leave.

“Go on, we will discuss your training first thing in the morning.” Lady Von’Graysing stated.

With that I nodded and tiredly went to my room.

I was tired, as I only had a few hours of sleep before everything had transpired. For a moment I almost wonder if food was served.

Sniff.

There is the deep scent of roasting apple cider and cinnamon. The smell lets me know that food really was served.

Still, I realize that with my now Advanced Survivor’s Bloodline activated, I can avoid drawing more attention to myself by removing my mask to eat or drink.

Realizing that I am still fine and not quite starving, I decided to go to my room and finally call it a day as this really long introduction will finally be over.

Going to my room, I let out a long sigh of relief, seeing that my clothes for tomorrow are already pressed and ready to go.

I keep them out, knowing that I will likely need to change quickly when next I return.

Though, I pause for a minute, and evaluate all that has happened. Then with a deep relieved breath, I decide to end my time here with a quick save, as this is likely the best start I’ve ever managed and I can’t wait to see some of the replay scenes.

With that in mind, I focus and then turning my head upward to the sky, I speak loudly and clearly.

“Logout.”