《Thousand Roads》 1: Dream ¡±Something the matter, dear?¡± An unknown woman is talking to me. I suddenly feel an intense pain, scream out and hold my head. Fuck! ¡°Dear!?¡± ¡°Young Master!?¡± Voices cry out for me as instinctually crouch and hid my head on the table. Table? I should be in bed. There¡¯s fancy food here and four people seated around it including me, but I feel too dizzy. It grows dark. The next thing I know, I am staring at a ceiling. I do not recognize it. It is made of wood unlike the ceiling I am used to in my apartment building. I lift myself up. I am in an extremely large, fancy bed¡­ The covers and sheets feel incredibly smooth, what even is this material? I look around me to see a room I don¡¯t recognize. It is filled with hefty furniture adorned with beautiful carvings and¡­ are they lined with freaking GOLD? I get down from the bed, but something is strange. The bed is weirdly high up. My feet don¡¯t reach the floor, when I sit on the edge. In fact, does my own body not look a bit¡­ off. During my quick scan of the room, I caught sight of a mirror. I jump off the bed and run up to it in order to examine myself. What is reflected isn¡¯t me, but rather a young boy, maybe nine or ten? In addition, it is like no young boy I have ever seen. My irises are red and my hair is pitch black. What the hell? I think for a moment it must be a weird dream, but I quickly dismiss it. I can feel my weight moving around. I can feel things around me. Dreams tend to be floaty and shifty, but here, everything to be concretely in its place, even if I turn away and look back, the same things are still there. What is happening? At this moment, my door is opened and an old man clad in black and white dress suit, butterfly and gloves steps through. He looks wise and has long grey hair tied up in a ponytail. ¡°Ah, the young master has recovered.¡± ¡°Young master?¡± I confusedly repeat. ¡°Is¡­ Is young master all right?¡± His face contorts into one of worry as he asks me. It is clearly not me, so I end up asking. ¡°This might sound strange, but¡­ Who am I?¡± The old man looks like his heart broke, but only for a second. ¡°Young master is the eldest son of the Sterling ducal house, Hannibal Sterling.¡± I grasp my head. I know that name. But that is impossible. It really must be a dream. A game I played some six months ago, and a source of much enjoyment was called ¡°Thousand Roads¡±. It was originally a Japanese game, and was recommended to me by a friend as it was being localized to English. Thousand Roads was a weird game. It was part RPG, part dating simulator. It was notorious from just how much content was in it. In fact, I should have seen less than a third of it. The game starts off with you picking your gender and immediately sets off at an Academy at phase 1, being 18 years old. There are twelve capture targets in total, six men and six women, only dateable by their opposite gender. And Hannibal Sterling was one of those six men. I never played his route, heck, I didn¡¯t even try to play as a woman, but he appeared as an antagonist in one of the routes I did play. I remember him being tall, burly with red eyes and black hair. I shook my head, not wanting to reminisce. I was now sure it was a dream after all. I started slapping myself. ¡°Yo-young master?¡± The elderly gentleman cried out, but I ignored the figment of my imagination and slapped harder. It hurt. It hurt badly. But I have had dreams that hurt before, it was no reason to quit. I bit my thumb hard, while repeatedly thinking I should wake up. My nail broke and it started bleeding. ¡°YOUNG MASTER!¡± Was said again, and soon, I was completely restrained by the old man. I determinedly bit down on my tongue. My mouth filled with blood. The taste of iron was everywhere. And then it went dark again. The next time I awoke, there was still the unfamiliar ceiling. I started to move, but couldn¡¯t. I was in some kind of weird binding shirt, that wrapped all around my body. I then noticed my mouth was open and I could close it. It was pried open by something. What the hell? I started struggling what little I could, but I merely shook a little back and forth. ¡°Oh! He¡¯s awake!¡± An unknown voice sounded. I tried to move my head to look at the source but couldn¡¯t. It was a somewhat deep male voice. ¡°Can you hear me? Do you understand me?¡± ¡°I hoo¡± I tried to say I do, but my mouth being pried open made it difficult. ¡°Good, good. Now, do you know who you are?¡± A new face appeared in front of me. It was a middle-aged, fat man with a bald head and a pedo ¡®stache. ¡°I hoo.¡± I said again. ¡°Can you tell me who?¡± I wavered a little. Should I tell him who I really am, or should I play to the dream? I could only see the same wooden ceiling above me, so I was definitely still in the dream. And my attempt to escape it really fucking hurt. I sighed and agreed to play along for now. ¡°anni-al serling¡± I said.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Excellent. And who is your parents?¡± Shit¡­ I don¡¯t know. It was something starting with an S. The head of Sterling ducal house appeared in one of the routes, as he was pressuring for the princess Zoenna to be the wife of his son. I gave up. ¡°I on no¡± I replied. The face looked troubled. ¡°hmmmmm¡± was heard. ¡°Do you remember why you were trying to hurt yourself?¡± I wonder what I should answer. If I say yes, what reason could I come up with? I decided to go with the route of complete amnesia. This should at least maximize the chances of me being released. ¡°I urt yselth?¡± I tried to appear genuinely confused. ¡°is that uhy I a tie uch?¡± From my play, an apparent examination of me was concluded. I was asked what I do remember, if I would try to hurt myself again, if I felt anything strange, how old I was. I answered no to all. Then came a series of questions testing my mental wellbeing. Simple math and logic questions, hypothetical situations and how I would react and more. I answered to appear as sane as possible. My efforts paid off, and within the hour, I was released. The weird shirt was taken off me, and a weird piece of metal was removed from my mouth. I smacked as I enjoyed the feeling of being able to move my jaw again. ¡°I will inform your parents of the situations.¡± The man said as he left the room. I wonder who he even was? As I was free to rise and look around, I saw the man with the ponytail from earlier stand in the corner of the luxurious room. He almost looked like he was crying. I felt a bit of guilt. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked him. He burst into tears. ¡°Yo-yo-young ma-maaaaaster!!! I a-am your tru-trusted personal at-atendaaaant!!! Do yo-you not remember meeeee?¡± He wailed out. I truthfully didn¡¯t and shook my head. He started crying even harder. I felt pity and jumped off the bed. I stroked his back. ¡°There, there¡± I said. He immediately stopped crying. ¡°Yo-young master?¡± He appeared very confused and in turn, confused me. I tilted my head. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± but I suddenly remembered. From what little I saw of Hannibal Sterling, he was not a pleasant character. I even remember seeing a bad end, where princess Zoenna was imprisoned by him and whipped. Had he always been a cruel character, even as this child? ¡°For-forgive me young master, I must confess. I hurt you. I saw you trying to hurt yourself and I knocked you out. Please, punish me as you see fit!¡± The old butler said and bowed his head towards me. ¡°I don¡¯t really understand. You only tried to help, right? Why would I punish you for that?¡± I think it is pretty admirable. Had I been left to my own deviced, I would probably have killed myself. Well, it is only a dream, though. ¡°You won¡¯t have me cut? Or pricked by needles? Not even a slap?¡± Why does it sound like he is disappointed rather than relieved? Maybe because I don¡¯t act like the usual Hannibal would, but I have no such hobbies. ¡°No, I won¡¯t.¡± I replied, and he hung his head down. ¡°Oh¡­ I see¡­.¡± I get the feeling he had a weirder, more selfish reason for wanting the punishment. The door was suddenly slammed open. ¡°My little darling, do you really not remember me?¡± The women who appeared immediately close the distance and enveloped me a strong hug. It was the woman who first talked to me in this world. She had long, silky black hair and red eyes to match mine. She was slender and well dressed. And she was suffocating me. ¡°Ca-can¡¯t breathe¡­¡± She was pressing me against her body really hard. ¡°My darling, my poor baby, what happened to you?¡± The lady cried out. I assume it to be Hannibal¡¯s mother. ¡°Cool down, ma¡¯am, you are smothering the poor boy.¡± It was the pedo ¡®stache from before that tried to calm her down. ¡°As I said before, this is likely the result of a curse misfiring. You will be wise to sharpen security around here, but the boy should be perfectly fine and gradually recover.¡± The face of lady Sterling took on a grim appearance. ¡°When I find out who did this, I¡¯ll have them skinned alive, then force them to eat their own hide, before boiling them and serving them to their own family!¡± It was honestly a terrifying sentence. I almost recoiled a little, but couldn¡¯t as I was pulled into her grasp once more. ¡°Oh, my sweet, sweet baby boy.¡± Was said as I was showered with kisses. Had it been my own mother, I would merely think it annoying, but I couldn¡¯t help but draw in her sent a little and feel flustered, as this beautiful lady showered me with affection. I patiently waited for my dream to end after that, but it didn¡¯t. First a few days of staying in bed. I got impatient, but my personal attendant, Holger was there to keep me company. Then, I resumed the apparently busy schedule of Hannibal. Horsemanship and swordsmanship, magic classes and etiquette lessons. I was getting really worried. Four weeks had passed in real time, with all the appearance of actual life, before I gave up. It seems I really was living in this strange world now. On the plus side, a question that nagging me in ¡°Thousand Roads¡± had been answered. Just how could the Sterling family be so sadistic? There were a few clear factors. First off, Holger seemed to active encourage physical disciplinarian tactics, especially towards himself. This old pervert didn¡¯t go a day without suggesting he be whipped, slapped, cut or otherwise tortured for every minor mishap. Secondly, the lady of the Sterling House, Dolores Sterling, had a knack for describing the horrific torture and execution of anyone she took a dislike to. And it was not only triggered by something as horrible as her own son allegedly being cursed. Were there some tiny fault in our food, in our dresses, in our hair, out flew the incredibly cruel machinations of her mind for her children to hear. In addition, she was completely overbearing and spoiled us constantly. If I expressed desire towards anything, I got it. As an example, I once saw a beautiful, black horse, in the city and gasped as I admired it. Mother caught it and sent Holcker to acquire it. When the owner refused, harsh death threats rained down on him, and he was eventually bullied into handing it over. If I was an actual kid, I can only imagine how much my world view would be changed. That everything I wanted already belonged to me. My sister, Alicia Sterling seemed to have adopted the cruel, spoilt persona one could imagine would arise from such treatment. My only saving grace was, it seemed our mother took a staunch approach to no conflict. Alicia had set her eyes upon a piece of jewelry in my possession, that Dolores had acquired for me. It was a precious red stone in silver, shaped into wings, with a pin to attach to your clothes. Alicia demanded I handed it over. I still thought I was in a dream at this point, though doubts had started to build. I thought to maybe change Alicia for the better, if I really had to spend the rest of my life in this world, but as I started lecturing her, she took it from me mid-sentence, and started to run. I then chased her down and pried it from her hands and we got into a bit of a tussle. Holcker broke it up sternly, and escorted us to Dolores and informed that he found us fighting. We were then given a long and exhausting lecture on how one should treat family and were not allowed to leave before we hugged and kissed it out. Alicia complied with a sour mine, and exaggeratedly wiped her cheek after the exchange of kisses, as if it had been something truly disgusting, which Dolores then used as an excuse to start the process over. It is the only time I have seen Dolores or Holcker even hold a remotely negative opinion. My father, Stannard Sterling, I didn¡¯t see much of. Only really at dinner was he present, and the only talk that happened at dinner was Dolores asking to our day and well-being, as well as cursing out any minor faults she had found with people and describing the torture she would put them through. I hadn¡¯t even heard him speak since I started inhabiting this body. Anyway, four weeks had passed and I was now firmly convinced this was a real world and not a dream. And that had some terrifying implications. 2: Knowledge ¡°Thousand Roads¡± was a game in three acts. First act was the academy. Here, our hero would recruit allies and choose their route by way of which individual they accumulated the most points with. It also was how you built your character, as you accumulated skill points by taking classes at the academy, and used them to unlock their relevant associated skills. The only combat was 1-on-1 duels, either at the three year-end tournaments, or in a set of optional fights, either as part of the story or classes, which, if won, would grant better point gains. The problems started with the second and third acts. Each were radically different depending on the route you locked in on in the first act. For example, on the Princess Zoenna route, act 2 consists mostly of a feud with the Sterling house, while act 3 is a war with another kingdom to the south. Should one on the other hand choose the elf maid Lufe, act 2 will be navigating riots and tensions between elf and man, before act 3 triggers a fully-fledged rebellion. The only thing constant is how the combat changes from each phase. Second phase would have you control up to six characters at one time, while you can gather a much larger number of people. It is still an RPG, but instead of focusing on one character, you now have to juggle more as you move them around on a grid in turns. And there is much less growth and decision-making in regards to how they are built. Third phase will have each of the people recruited be commanders in your army, and the game shifts gears to an RTS, where you have to capture supply points that give you resources to recruit more armies for your commanders. More commanders are better, since the effectiveness of their boosts drop by a fair amount with each doubling of the troop size. The problem arises with how I didn¡¯t fully play the game and I am not the protagonist. Depending on what route the protagonist enters, I will either have a bit of foreknowledge and can act to secure my own position, or I will be on bare ground, fumbling through little else other than stories of the friend I had, who boasted a 100% completion of the game. While I only ever attained normal and bad endings, there are a lot different endings to each route. First off, a variety of bad endings from wrong decisions can arise. Zoenna could be kidnapped by Hannibal or forced into marriage to stop the war from unfolding further, Lufe could be kidnapped by a noble who held a weird fixation on her, or she could be publicly executed as the cause for the rebellion. Normal endings are merely cut and dry marriages with the respective girl, whose route you are on. Then, come the Love endings. There are a variety of secondary encounters you can have naughty scenes with, but any of them lock you out from the true love ending. In addition, you need a full score from act 1, something I never achieved, mostly because of the character I am right now. Winning the year-end tournament gives five points towards each target. The problem is the first year, where you only had a single year to grow your character. At the same time, Hannibal, who is two years older than the main character, will be on his final year and much more powerful than the main characters. My friend told me to just save-scum, relying on small percentage chances to proc on each turn, but I never bothered. In addition, it required you to unlock their fetish, by hitting three of five possible points along the first year. I only did one of these, by chance. The elf Lufe has hidden watersports scenes and I quickly skipped over them, every time the yellow liquid came up in a scene. How anybody found that appealing, I wouldn¡¯t know. Each target also has a harem end, where they end up with their main target AND all of the secondary targets from the respective route, which also required a lot of luck and planning. And at last, the True Harem ending, where you get all six targets, though that should only be possible if you play basically perfectly and have obtained the true love ending for each of the possible characters, something that was far beyond what a casual like me could obtain. I only heard a little from my friend, about how this one had an ancient evil, sealed millennia ago rise up once again, and that he could only be beat heroes holding both a massive amount of strength and love for each other. In the end, I am still currently a child and can¡¯t do much, other than focus on growing. Time passed and my incident was quickly forgotten. As I came to relearn all that Hannibal knew, I think it became easier and easier for the surrounding people to ignore it. The only two people who still thought something wrong was Holger and Alicia. All of my lessons went strangely smoothly. I don¡¯t know if I had some sort of talent, or it was the fault of the body I inhabited, but at age 12 I was regularly beating my swordsmanship instructor and only grew stronger from there.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I remember the main character was also supposed to be a great talent, so for the Hannibal, that was a very tough opponent for the main character, I guess it would only make sense to be powerful as well. I also tried to get closer to my sister, in order to correct her behavior. I never experienced it myself, but I remember being told she was an awful character in many of the female protagonist routes, similar to the role Hannibal held for the male character, except rather than competent, she was often just mean-spirited and cowardly. It didn¡¯t succeed very well. She was spoiled rotten and servants encouraged her sadistic tendencies. I shudder to think of what humiliating scenes one could have experienced with her in the game, had they unlocked her fetish, which would undoubtedly be sadism. As such my attempt often ended in her assaulting me, and though I could easily handle her, Holger was sure to appear and escort us to Dolores, who would force us to hug and kiss. It was one day, after such an event, she turned to me. ¡°Why are you so mean to me? Why do you keep harassing me?¡± Alicia lamented. My real reason was that the Sterling house apparently collapsed in many of the endings, and though I could easily not be the horrible person Hannibal often was, my sister could still set us down that path. But I couldn¡¯t very well say that and pulled something out of my ass. ¡°Because you¡¯re my sister and I love you!¡± I stated. She was obviously taken aback. ¡°Why? How? If you love me, should you not give me gifts and praise me like you used to!?¡± Apparently Hannibal used to be very sweet and gentle, only to his sister. But I actually do think my way is what is best for her, so I can answer it. ¡°Have you not seen how people react when mother takes from them to give to us? And sure, one weird servant enjoys the abuse you dish out, but the rest tremble in fear. Our actions make people hate us, and if it continues, someone will surely hurt you one day and I can¡¯t have that!¡± Her face appeared genuinely astounded. And then she became a little red and flustered. ¡°I¡­ It¡­. But¡­. You are still a pain! St-stay away from me, okay?¡± It was somehow effective and her reaction was incredibly adorable. I laid it on thicker. ¡°No! I will rather you hate me and be safe, rather than liking me and getting hurt!¡± I blathered out again. ¡°You!... You!... Do- do as you want!¡± She said, fully flushed and storming off. I think I just found my ticket. I was a little embarrassed being so earnest with a 10-year old girl, but it paid off. After that, she gradually came to heed my words, though her conduct was still really faulty, she would reluctantly correct herself after I bombarded her with words of love. It turns out she was also slacking. I had figured it was simply because she was a girl that she didn¡¯t attend many of the more offensive lessons, but in the game, there were plenty of female fighters. In fact, I think they were even more common than male ones, which wasn¡¯t that strange given the nature of the game. Though ¡°Thousand Roads¡± had both a female and a male protagonist, it was undoubtedly more popular among the male crowd, and I think the developers knew that. Anyway, after discovering it was not due to cultural norms, but rather her own laziness and desire to skip, that had her locked out of lessons, and our overbearing mother that allowed it, she was slowly convinced to take a few up again. It only took me mentioning how I wish she could protect herself, since it would decrease the chances of her being hurt in my absence, and how sad it would make me to make her do so. It didn¡¯t appear to come as easy to her as it did for me. My training was constant, and that was apparently because Hannibal¡¯s greatest wish was to become the strongest in the land. This was a fantasy setting, where excellent individuals could rival the might of armies, and Hannibal had clearly wished to be such a figure. I had merely run along with it, since I thought it was normal, but training most of the day, every day, was apparently outside the norm. Not that I was without faults. I struggled somewhat in magic class. All I was told to do was to repeat chants, while firing off magic. Despite it being called magic, the lessons are extremely boring. When I was going over the basics of fire magic, for example, all I had to do was aim my palm at the target and repeatedly chant. ¡°Lesser shot of fire ¨C FIRA!¡± and out comes a small ball of flame heading towards the target. It has no recoil, it doesn¡¯t feel that powerful and it just makes my mind tired. I can¡¯t help but carry the feeling that it is anticlimactic. I was at first stoked to be using magic, but compared to firing a gun at a range, it was slow, felt weak and was more exhausting. I kept at it diligently, though, since I remember the awesome power of late-game spells. That brings me to the thoughts on the class system. In the game, during your academy years, you earn skill points in subjects by taking classes. Each swordsman class adds three swordsmanship skill, for example. Your class will at first be very simple. Either magician, magic sword or warrior, depending on how your skill points are distributed. However, whenever you get a 100, or max, skill in one subject, you unlock prestige classes and can switch to one of them. For example, a 100 in swordsmanship unlocks ¡°Fencer¡± a class with high evasion and high damage, but frail and bad at magic. Should one then acquire 100 in heavy armor, two new classes show up. For the 100 in heavy armor, the class ¡°Knight¡± shows up, which is very tanky with low damage output, but the combination of 100 heavy armor and 100 swordsmanship unlocks ¡°Samurai¡± A class that despite not using a shield, has immense defense and high offense. Not all combinations of skill has classes attached to them, but the more skills they require at 100, the stronger they generally are. The issue is, I have heard no one even mention classes or skill points or anything of the like. It seems I will be only loosely following the ideas I have from the game. 3: Debut 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.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. 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. 4: Dance There was no reaction. Even as we spoke, facing each other during the meal, not a comment was made about the stain, much less a motherly gesture from her. Has she failed to notice it? But I can clearly feel the stain in the corner of my mouth. There was barely any meat left, and with the last piece dipped in the sauce, I made sure to make yet another stain. Oh god, I can feel it covering a large area between my mouth and chin! I was about to take the napkin, but stayed my hand and held strong. I just had to continue talking to Barbara. Bear with it. ¡°I know my mother is from House Sitarion, but exactly how are we related?¡± I started. Dolores did indeed come from house Sitarion. The top noble houses often intermarried, it seems. ¡°Ah, I know not exactly. I think we share a great grandfather?¡± She replied with an elegant tone. NOTICE THE STAIN DAMMIT! I tried multiple other topics, but she didn¡¯t make any move. I then heard some giggling, and as I turned my head, I was being pointed at covertly. Shit! I finally gave in and removed the stain. I gave up this approach and merely tried to find common ground with Barbara. ¡°Merely two years before we join the academy¡­ Are you looking forward to it?¡± I ask her. She turns her head and has a faint smile as she replies. ¡°Very much so. I look very much forward to the freedom one finds there.¡± I have lessons most of the day, every day, so I can relate to the prospect of having more free time. But at the same time, I could be caught with my pants down if I don¡¯t make sure I am prepared for the future. After all, all routes end in some kind of war. ¡°Indeed. What manner of classes are you planning on taking?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t given it much thought, there are still two years, after all.¡± I faintly remember her appearing in the first year-end tournament. She was a shield-mage, specializing in defense and barriers, but those characteristics didn¡¯t make her very good in single combat. The dinner slowly comes to an end and soon it became a different party. We moved to a ballroom and sweet music started playing. Waiter were standing ready to serve small treats or wine. I knew I had to do at least one dance with Barbara, as she was hostess and I the most important guest. ¡°May I have this dance?¡± I said and extended my hand. She graciously accepted it by doing a curtsey and placing her hand in mine. It was very different to my lessons. In my lessons, I am dancing with a 50-year old instructor that¡¯s taller than me, but now I am the taller one and I must admit, Barbara looks quite lovely, especially if you were to compare her to the old crow that teaches me. I lead and move as I were taught and Barbara follows effortlessly. I notice a lot of people stop up and look at us as we are going at it. People gradually stop their own dances to spectate hours and when we are done, a small applause follows. ¡°Thank you for the exquisite dance.¡± Barbara says as we finish. ¡°I am the one who should thank you for letting me dance with such a beautiful woman.¡± I reply, paying the best lip service I could. She seems a bit taken aback by the comment, but she is quickly invited by yet another young man before we can continue our talk. I also have a duty to mingle some more. I get a drink off one of the waiters and find Holger, who is staying by the wall, as many of the personal attendants of the noble children present are. ¡°Very commendable dance, young master.¡± He greets me, but I have another purpose. ¡°Can you direct me the daughters of counts? I can¡¯t really tell.¡± As a son of a duke, I should only dance with those close to my own position. If I were to invite the daughter of a baron house, which I have no obligation to, it will be seen as me being charmed by her beauty or some weird declaration. ¡°It should have been apparent in the seating earlier, but seems you didn¡¯t pay adequate attention¡­ Very well, the lady in the green dress with the red hair ornament is of House Jorga.¡± He directs me. ¡°Thanks.¡± I had paid too much attention to Barbara and hadn¡¯t paid note to the other guests at the dinner party, which bit me in the ass, but Holger bailed me out. After many, many dances, the evening is finally coming to a close. I didn¡¯t get anything done and feel a bit frustrated. I only danced with a bunch of count¡¯s daughters, and my ploy to charm Barbara completely failed.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Holger escorts me back to the room I was staying at. After a night¡¯s sleep, we once again exchange some pleasantries with Barbara, before leaving with carriage. I am in a sullen mood, since another two days are going to be spent making my ass sore. ¡°What were you doing at the dinner?¡± Holger asks me. I am a bit confused, as he was attending it too, leaned against the wall behind me as most of the attendants were. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°From what I saw, you very clearly stained yourself.¡± I flinched. ¡°I guess I was just nervous, this being my debut and all.¡± Holger¡¯s eyes narrow. ¡°It looked to me like you were doing it on purpose.¡± I flinched again. If he became convinced, how would I explain that? I had already thrown out the idea of letting other people in on my foreknowledge. I imagined a person trying to explain to the me before ending up here that my life was part of a game he played and it seemed absurd. I would not associate with him at all. Maybe if he could predict some future events, but the events I knew of were still four years away and were even dependent on the choices of the protagonist. I steeled myself. ¡°No, really, it was just nervousness.¡± Holger looked like he didn¡¯t buy it. ¡°If you say so, young master.¡± He ended it with that. The journey home was another two grueling days. I was also plagued by why my attempt had failed so fantastically and I came to a possible conclusion. There are still four years till the Barbara I knew exists, and she has yet to develop her motherly personality. With that idea, I found myself somewhat at peace, as I spent the rest of the trip home reading. I didn¡¯t get to rest when I came home. Alicia was mighty curious about what these events were like and I had to tell her all about it. I told her about the reception and the dinner, but as I get to the dance she turned a bit weird. As I started saying I led in the dancing with Barbara, she started questions. ¡°Was she pretty? Do you like her?¡± It sounds oddly cold, is she thinking that I am saying isn¡¯t pretty? ¡°She was very pretty, but if I had to say, my little Alicia is much prettier.¡± ¡°I see, I see¡± she muttered, while turning her gaze downwards and reddening. Our little conversation was then interrupted. ¡°The lord has sent for the young master.¡± A servant announced. He has never called on me before, so I wondered what it could be? I left immediately. I knock on the door and hear an ¡°Enter.¡± Which I do. My father in this world rises from his desk and walks over to me. He towers over me complete and asks in an intimidating voice. ¡°Do you know why I called you here?¡± It was low and almost made me shake. ¡°Forgive me father, but I don¡¯t know.¡± I merely replied. A hard slap was sent across my face and knocked me off of my feet. I tumbled to the floor. Shit! It hurts like hell. ¡°Don¡¯t ever embarrass the Sterling name again, or I will see to it that you have nothing but etiquette lessons for a year! Do you understand?¡± What? I slowly got my feet. Is this all because of the stain on my face at the party? Another slap was sent across the other cheek and I feel to the floor again. ¡°Do you understand?¡± He replied in a heavier tone than last time. ¡°Yes, father, I understand.¡± I said as I got my feet once more. Shit! This asshole has a real temper on him. ¡°Very well, you may leave.¡± He said as he sat down once again. As I left, I could taste blood in my mouth. In the game, Hannibal took incredible offense at even the slightest disrespect and I thought him an ass, but if this is how he was raised, it only makes sense. After my debuts, parties became somewhat commonplace with me attending one every two months or so. The only character from the game I met at them was Barbara, as we belonged to the oldest part of the cast. Every time I received the seat of honor, and when it was time to dance, apart from the hostess I was obligated to dance with, every girl seemed to wait on my call, even Barbara. I don¡¯t know if it was simply the status of being the only one from a ducal house of these parties, but I honestly enjoyed the attention. I didn¡¯t skip out on training either. I soon found myself moving in ways I never could have imagine, my magic appeared to be growing stronger by the day and it was honestly quite surprising. I never really did well at physical activities before. I wonder if I somehow inherited Hannibal¡¯s talent with his body, or if I just were never really forced to do physical activities to the point where I¡¯d significantly improved, but I received much praise from most of my tutors. Alicia was growing ever closer to me. We spent what little free time I had together now, either simply eating together or talking, or doing a variety of recreational activities available to us as a ducal house. The most often pastime we indulged in together was horseback riding and picnics, often together. We would ride out with a few attendant to a suitable spot, have them arrange a picnic for us while we chatted away before returning. A whole year was spent in this manner, and I didn¡¯t have much on mind except bettering myself for the future. That is, until my father called me one day. ¡°I have made arrangements for a talk of marriage with the oldest princess.¡± He said curtly as I showed up in the room. ¡°I believe I don¡¯t have to stress how important this is?¡± ¡°No, father.¡± ¡°Good. You will do well to impress her. If this works out, we could have enough legitimacy to¡­ Well, don¡¯t worry about that. She will arrive for the talk within two weeks. Be prepared.¡± ¡°Yes, father.¡± ¡°You¡¯re dismissed.¡± ¡°Yes, father.¡± The pain from the earlier slaps coupled with his tough frame and stern attitude didn¡¯t leave me much in the way of resistance. I wondered for a brief moment if it was better to follow up on his words, but I had my own plans that I quickly deferred back to. Princess Zoenna¡¯s route is the one I know the best and the one I would prefer the protagonist to go down. As such, it would be best for me to leave her uninterested in me. The only clue that I have from the game is that Zoenna found Hannibal to be selfish and boorish, in those exact words. In other words, I simply have to not accommodate her and speak only of myself, and reply to whatever conversation she starts with only short, dry responses. 5: The Queen The day came, as I was informed by Holger and requested to prepare for the talk. I had prepared by asking my etiquette teacher about the ceremony. She herself was nobility, second daughter of a count, but nobility really seemed to exist in two very different castes. The first caste was real nobility. People involved directly with the count, set to inherit the seat of power or otherwise related to it. This made me part of the first caste as I was the next head of Sterling ducal house. But our family is an exception, rather than the rule. Most families have many more children than we do and this ends up creating the second caste. I think of them as ¡®spares¡¯. They are people who can only call themselves noble by the grace of their family, and don¡¯t hold much power. The only way for them to come to such power is for everyone above them in the line of succession to perish. It is different for men and women, though. Should Alicia end up marrying a head or next head of a house, she would become part of the real nobility too, but should she fail to do so, she will be relegated to a lower class. It was a bummer, since I had thought the huge interest many of the noble girls showed in me at parties were due to my good looks (Hannibal is rather handsome, after all) and charm, but I felt like the reason of hoping to stay relevant in the future is much more prominent. The nobles of this second class can¡¯t just laze away and are most often hired by other nobles. Some oversee a small part of territory, some do research, and other like my etiquette teacher, tutor children. One I had was why the princess was coming to our estate, when the royal family clearly should outrank us, but apparently it is custom for the women to visit the men, as they are looking to join their house. After Holger had finished washing me, he helped me dress in the clothes mother had chosen for the occasion. They look pretty gaudy. I am donned in a long-armed loose, white dress shirt and loose black pants, both seemingly made of silk. On top of the dress shirt, I am wearing a black vest decorated with read thread forming roses. It doesn¡¯t close, but three silver chains hang across the gap. Lastly is the belt in the same bland and red scheme, though no motif is recognizable in the pattern. The buckle seems to also be of silver and is carefully engraved with vines. The clothes I wear always seems to be a fair bit fancier than any other I had seen at parties, perhaps to show off our wealth? Afterwards I am escorted to the main hall of the mansion. It is rarely used but its purpose is to receive guests or people seeking audience with the duke. My father sits atop a throne that is raised off the rest of the floor, with my mother standing behind him. Alicia is nowhere to be seen, though. We wait a good while. I came here immediately after getting ready and I assume, much like was the case when I went to the parties, that princess Zoenna was getting ready in a room prepared for them. I had explored the mansion a little, but there is an entire wing with naught but empty rooms, so I presume they are for the purpose of noble guests staying in or preparing themselves in. Half an hour or so passes, before they enter. A beautiful lady and a cute girl, clearly related to each other, come into sight. They are both slender with beautiful faces and golden hair. The lady has her set up in a bun, while the girl¡¯s is loose and incredibly curly. The lady wears a long, smooth blue gown, while the girl is dressed in a white one, where the long skirt has many layers. My father steps down from the throne, walks down the steps and kneels. ¡°This loyal subject greets the queen and the princess.¡± I had suspected she was the queen. Since I completed Zoenna¡¯s route, I am familiar with her, though she isn¡¯t too present in the story. She was born a commoner, but the king apparently fell in love at first sight, cancelled his engagement and wed scandalously. She is supposed to be against any form of formality, but I somehow can¡¯t picture it. It was apparently due to this trait that Zoenna could back out of the engagement. Usually the children of nobility have no say in who they marry or not, but the queen did not have the same sense of duty each noble was brought up with to strengthen the house and form ties. To her, the happiness of her children were mere important. ¡°Oh come now, Stanny, you know I am not huge on this etiquette stuff. Will you be as kind as to spare me?¡± The queen replies. Huh, she really just said that. Stanny sounds a little cute, totally mismatched with the image I have of my father. ¡°As my queen wishes.¡± ¡°Oh, stop it! You are way too stiff! You have to learn to relax a little.¡± The lopsided conversation where one speaks as an old friend and another like a loyal retainer seems strange to me.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Oh and is this the young fellow? My, so handsome, I am almost jealous. Aren¡¯t you happy, Zoe?¡± The princess retreats a little behind her mother. The queen spoke as if to me, so I have to respond, but I have no idea how. Should I follow father¡¯s example or should I speak casually? I remember my mantra, be selfish and boorish! ¡°This loyal subject greets the queen.¡± I greet as I was taught to treat royalty. ¡°Geez, the kid too? Will no one here humor an old lady? Dolly?¡± Does everyone have a shortened name? ¡°Pleased to see you again, Sara.¡± My mother replies happily. ¡°Right. So, where do you wanna do this thing? Do we just start talking or what? It¡¯s a first for me, after all.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll guide us to a more suitable place.¡± My mother answers, before respectfully showing the way. As we were leaving, I think I heard my father sigh. As soon as we are in the hallway, my mother gives the queen a hug. ¡°Oh, there she is! Really, why you insist to keep up appearances around your husband is beyond me!¡± The queen sounds happy. ¡°Ah, you know how he is. If it isn¡¯t all proper and traditional, he can get real ornery!¡± ¡°How you put up with him is beyond me! You don¡¯t even have the capital¡¯s stores to push away your worries out here.¡± ¡°Oh, hush you, we have plenty of fancy places down here too. I might even say that some are better than anything you can find in the capital!¡± ¡°Show me around afterwards then! But I doubt it, they opened up this amazing store last year, where the confectionary is amazing!¡± I am surprised at how my mother and the queen started talking like two old friends the moment we are out of my father¡¯s sight. They gab on about sweets, clothes and their children. All four of us are walking in a line, which there is room enough for in the wide corridors of the mansion. The mothers make out the middle, while the children walk on the edges. I look at Zoenna. She is very young, but frightfully pretty. I am a bit ashamed to think so, as she should only be 12 at the moment. She looked at me and met my eyes, which caused her to quickly take cover behind her mother. ¡°Huhu, were you charmed by my beautiful daughter?¡± The queen directs the conversation towards me. ¡°Ah, I, this¡­ erhmmm.¡± It took me by surprise. I was about to deny it but then it seemed to me like I would deny that she is beautiful and that would be a hefty faux pas, to insult the princess. ¡°Oh, look he is all flustered!¡± ¡°How cute. My Hannibal is usually so composed, so it is quite a treat to see him like this!¡± The mothers team up to tease me and I can¡¯t help but feel embarrassed. We eventually arrive at the room chosen for the talk. As my mother open it, it is revealed to be quite peculiar. It has a table with six chairs around it, but the unusual part is the view. Dozens and dozens of small windows, bound together by metal make for a clear view to the inner courtyard and the scenery is breathtaking. Trees cut into figures of dragons stand as if guiding our view to the massive fountain with a tall statue depicting a man holding a sword towards the sky. It references the origin story of the Sterling house I had only come to learn from my classes here. Apparently the kingdom was founded by the ancestors of the royal house and the three ducal houses. Each played a crucial part in a group, that subjugated this island, that at the time was home to the dragons. And this man was the progenitor of the Sterling house, who is said to have been a magic swordsman without equal. It made me think of Hannibal¡¯s class in the game, ¡°Dark Spellsword¡±. It was obtainable by the player by maxing out dark magic and swordsmanship, but I never really played with it. After my first playthrough, I was not a big fan of magic with two exceptions. The reason was that many people will have classes that are resistant to either to an element or magic in general, and I often found the wizard I created in my first playthrough to be utterly useless in important fights and doing poorly, having to reload constantly and relying on the recruited people in the second act. The two magic types I like regardless are void magic and light magic. Light magic is heavily centered around healing and buffing, making it work well regardless of who you are facing, while void magic bypasses all resistances, but only deals 90% of the damage other magic deals. I remember my friend disparaging it, though. He thought it was more important to be able to exploit weaknesses of key bosses in the routes he was going for, but I hadn¡¯t played the game many times over like him, and didn¡¯t know what I was going to face, so I couldn¡¯t play that way unless I was prepared to spoil myself about what opponents I would be fighting. I learned about these two magic types from two of the companions I had in my first playthrough, and one of them was the girl sitting before me. Princess Zoenna¡¯s class in the game was Holy Maiden and her buffs and heals practically carried me through most fights. ¡°Well then, I actually have confession to make.¡± The queen¡¯s words pull me back out of my reminiscing. ¡°This whole noble thing, were children are bound to marry each other, I just can¡¯t get behind it. It feels wrong, that they can¡¯t choose who they love.¡± It came as a surprise. If I just agreed here, wouldn¡¯t the problem solve itself without me having to play a selfish prude? And I don¡¯t know if I can keep the act up with the queen, she seems very good at throwing curveballs. ¡°I agree¡±. I answered before my mother did. Both the queen and my mother turned to look at me. ¡°Even if you were so smitten with my little Zoe? Are you saying you are too good for her?¡± Though the words are harsh, the tone is light and it is clearly spoken in jest. Though it is the case, I can¡¯t not respond and try to make an excuse. ¡°That is not so. The princess is very lovely. But I believe love should grow naturally from knowing the other person, not be cultured because the marriage was advantageous to the family.¡± The mothers now look shocked. ¡°Wow! Such a sensitive soul at such a young age! Young Hanny might turn out to be quite the catch, huh, Zoe?¡± Huh? And the little girl is flush red? Did I mess up?