The next day,
I headed to the café with a heart full of excitement.
Although I got scolded for not being able to focus in class, who cared about something like that?
If I ended up with the three women who were preparing to confess to me and we started having kids one after another, wouldn’t that be the ultimate act of patriotism for the country?
With this much effort, even the professor should acknowledge me.
After finishing afternoon sword training, I took a quick shower, dressed up neatly, and walked nervously through the café door.
It was just before dinnertime, so the place wasn’t very crowded.
“Welcome~ Please feel free to sit at any available table.”
“Ah, no. I have a reservation for a private room.”
After glancing around briefly, I made my way toward the section with private rooms designed for guests who wanted a quiet conversation.
Soon, I found the room marked “Room 2” and after standing in front of it, I gently knocked on the door.
Knock knock—
“……”
“Haven’t arrived yet?”
Since there was no response, I figured the first girl hadn’t shown up yet and decided to go in and wait.
“…Huh?”
“Welcome.”
However, sitting quietly in the room from which I had heard no response… was a beautiful, familiar blonde.
With skin as smooth as if carved from marble, a chest so large it almost felt like an act of violence, and a beauty further enhanced by the tear-shaped mole beside her eye, she was…
“Princess?”
What was “she” doing here?
“I understand you’re surprised, but instead of standing there dazed, won’t you please come in?”
“Ah, y-yes.”
Caught off guard, I quietly closed the door and stepped inside as she had said, but I simply stared at her, unable to comprehend the situation.
Her? Me? Why?
“Please have a seat. This is something important.”
“…Then, if you’ll excuse me.”
There was nothing on the table, perhaps because she hadn’t ordered anything yet.
One would normally be thirsty in such a tense situation.
“You are Mars Noctus, correct?”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
“Let’s get straight to the point. The reason I called you here today is because of something quite important.”
“Something… important?”
It felt strange.
Her calm and composed demeanor didn’t match someone sitting in front of the person they liked, and it made me feel uneasy.
The fact that she hadn’t ordered a drink also added to that.
To not order anything in a café’s private room like this… it usually meant the conversation would end quickly….too quickly to even finish a drink!
“I would like to ask you to help me get together with Pollo.”
“…What?”
“I would like to ask you to help me get together with Pollo.”
“Ah, no. I understood what you said, but… my brain’s just not processing it.”
The princess had called me here via letter for a confession.
Of course, the twist was that I wasn’t the one she was confessing to. It was about Pollo…
Right… What business did someone like me have with love anyway? That word had never belonged in my world, not for as long as my soul continued to exist.
In an instant, all the tension drained from me. Princess or not, I was completely disappointed, and a sense of resignation took over my mind.
“Um, can I just ask one thing… Why did you use that particular stationery for the letter?”
“Oh, my secretary wrote the letter for me. I didn’t have any stationery of my own. I was too busy with work, so I had my secretary write down what I wanted to say. He also delivered it to your desk in my place.”
…Well, I guess that made sense. Not everyone carried stationery around all the time.
She was the student council president, after all. Someone with a lot on her plate. It was understandable that she’d ask a subordinate to handle something like a letter.
Sure, I could accept all of that, but still…
Her secretary is a guy…
And not just any guy….he was the stereotypical muscle-bound brute…
Damn it. That faint sweaty smell from the paper wasn’t the scent of a beautiful girl….it was the sweat of a muscle man?
I needed to go burn that thing right away.
To think my precious olfactory cells had been tainted by the scent of some strange guy’s sweat… That called for serious punishment.
“I did a little digging and found out you’re childhood friends with Pollo, right? I heard your territories are close, so you’ve had frequent interactions. And I believe you were sitting together during the entrance ceremony too…”
“You say you investigated me so openly, huh.”
Wasn’t that the kind of thing people usually kept hidden?
I didn’t know whether to be impressed or terrified by this bold princess who so confidently admitted to digging into someone’s background right to their face.
“Hmm? Isn’t gathering information on the people around someone essential if you want to learn more about them? Besides, there really wasn’t much info available on you.”
“That’s not exactly the issue—no, well… never mind.”
I guess there really was a huge difference in mindset between high nobles and people like me.
Not like I could say anything back. I just had to endure it. What else could I do?
“Then let’s meet here again at the same time next week. By then, please bring me a detailed report on Pollo.”
“I never said I’d do it, though?”
My once-in-a-lifetime confession simulation had already gone down the drain, and when the princess tried to force me into selling out my friend’s information without even asking for my consent, I instinctively responded curtly out of rebellion. I noticed one of her eyebrows twitch ever so slightly; maybe she was a little offended.
“Are you saying you’re going to ignore the words of a princess of this empire?”
“Well, I mean… There’s nothing in it for me, and selling out a dear friend’s secrets like that just feels… wrong, you know?”
I didn’t know if she approached Pollo like this in the original story, but this so-called request of hers which was better described as a threat backed by power, only gave me an uncomfortable feeling.
Not to mention, there was nothing in it for me.
Nothing in it for me! (Yes, it was important enough to say twice.)
After all, the one who stood to lose here was the princess, not me.
“Pollo’s lived cooped up in his territory since he was a kid, so I’m basically his only friend~ He really hates people who treat others poorly—”
“Would ten million gold be enough?”
“Would you, by any chance, like to know the color of Pollo’s underwear?”
Ah… money, I can’t resist.
Money is everything in this world. Money is always right.
“To think you’re Pollo’s one and only friend…”
Excuse me, Your Highness. I can hear you just fine even when you mumble. You’re the one who tried to threaten me with your authority in the first place.
“If money isn’t quite your thing, you could also introduce me to one of the student council members?”
The academy’s student council was an elite group.
It wasn’t just about family background; they judged academic performance, behavior, and individual talents. If I could get close to a girl from such an elite circle, it would certainly brighten my future prospects.
“…Let’s just go with the money.”
When I asked her to introduce me to her close aides, the Princess gave me a quick once-over with a sideways glance and then replied that she would pay me instead.
So basically, she meant that introducing someone like me to the people she valued was beneath her, right?
Damn it, that stings…
“Send it to me once the details are sorted. Here, you can contact me through this communication stone.”
Without a word of thanks or even a simple “I’m counting on you,” the princess placed a communication stone, which served a similar function to a terminal in this world, on the table and left, just like that.
To her, I was nothing more and nothing less than a treasure goblin there to hand over information about Pollo.
It’s okay, Mars. There are still two more left, right?
I tried to shake off the emptiness in my chest, clung to that sliver of hope, and gently tucked the communication stone into the pocket of my school uniform like it was something precious.
As I stepped out of the private room, I bumped into a waiter who was just about to come in to take an order. I turned away from her sympathetic eyes and decided to spend some time outside.
***
By the time six o’clock rolled around, an hour had passed.
The café I returned to was a little busier than it had been earlier.
“Welcome ba…ck?”
“…Hello.”
The clerk who recognized me looked a bit puzzled to see me again, but I pretended not to notice and walked straight into Room 2 as planned.
Knock knock
“Come in.”
The voice that responded was slightly low, yet carried a graceful, almost mystical tone.
Thinking at least her voice passed the first test, I opened the door and stepped inside—
“……?”
“You’ve arrived, Brother. Please, have a seat.”
A stunning woman whose snow-white silver hair glowed like moonlight immediately drew my eyes.
The saintess was sitting across from me with her eyes closed in meditation.
As I entered, the saintess, who had been sitting with her eyes closed, slowly opened them and looked straight at me.
“Lady… Saintess?”
“Yes. I am someone referred to as a saintess, though I may not be worthy of the title. As for my real name, I can only share it with the one who is to become my future husband, so I ask for your understanding.”
“Ah, yes…”
Well, I already knew her name from the game… but that wasn’t the point here.
“Did you… happen to be the one who sent that letter?”
“It seems you received it well. Yes, I was the one who sent that letter.”
Thank god. If it had turned out to be another love letter written by a man, I might’ve seriously started considering ending it all.
“Ah. I’ve been a bit busy this week preparing for the annual ceremony, so I asked one of the holy knights who guards me to write it on my behalf. I worried it might be taken as a joke or prank, so I specifically asked him to make sure it felt feminine. Looks like he did a good job.”
…Time to die. That’s the only answer.
My first love letter in life was written by the hands of some muscle man.
And what the hell was with that handwriting? It was so neat, cute, and precious-looking? I totally fell for it. Damn it.
“So… may I ask why you sent me that letter?”
“Ah, I haven’t told you why I called you here yet, have I?”
Ahem.
She cleared her throat softly, then her expression turned serious as she revealed the reason she had summoned me.
“I wish to form an eternal vow with Brother Pollo. If Brother Mars would help bring us together, I’m sure the goddess would be pleased.”
The exact same pattern as with the Princess.
The saintess who thoroughly trampled on the heart of a pure boy (mental age in his 40s). At this point, it felt more fitting to call her a heretic inquisitor rather than a saintess.
“So, what exactly do I get out of this?”
“…Are you already weighing the pros and cons?”
At the request for compensation in exchange for information, the saintess’s expression subtly twisted more than before.
“If I give something, I should get something in return. Isn’t that the basic rule of any exchange?”
“…I felt this the last time we met, but you really are someone who should never be matched with Brother Pollo.”
The “last time we met” seemed to refer to the time with the cat.
Back then, I had tried to ignore an injured cat so I wouldn’t be late for my first class. Apparently, that left a bad impression on the saintess.
“I couldn’t exactly let myself be labeled as the guy who showed up late to his first class because of a cat, right? Unlike you Saintess, people like us don’t get forgiven for skipping class just because we have a name to lean on.”
“So, are you saying you tried to ignore the life of a small creature over something so trivial?”
“Not exactly. I’m just saying everyone has their own circumstances, and we all value different things. It’s about recognizing that.”
I actually liked cats. In my previous life, I often watched videos of cute cats.
But reality was reality.
If the saintess hadn’t shown up, we probably would’ve taken the cat to the infirmary to try and save it. But using medical supplies meant for academy students on a cat didn’t feel quite right, and the school nurse wasn’t a veterinarian either, so treating an animal like a cat would’ve been a bit much for her.
Of course, there were people like Pollo who valued the value of life above all else, but I was a strictly rational person. I was someone who believed my own well-being was more important than some unknown creature.
It might’ve seemed selfish and cold-hearted, but I wasn’t a god or Superman. I wasn’t born with that kind of compassion.
“That mindset will come back to you someday. When you’re badly hurt and in desperate need of help, the goddess will ignore your pleas just as you once ignored another’s.”
“Well, that could happen. The goddess is a very busy person, after all.”
Speaking as if I were talking about some friendly older sister from the neighborhood must have rubbed her the wrong way. The saintess was clearly upset. She placed the communication stone on the table and abruptly stood up.
“I can’t bear to listen any longer. If you hope for her grace, then bring me the answer I want. Soon.”
She stormed out without even waiting for a reply, clearly unwilling to face me any longer.
Having already made a terrible impression on two of the three heroines, I took out and read the last remaining love letter… no, the last declaration of war.
“Two down… so the last one must be… her, right?”
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