Telling myself that it had all been a dream had worked so well that I now wondered why I was so scared in the first place.
A few days later, it was time to start working at the Magical Ministry. Wearing the uniform with its cloak was enough to make me excited. It was just like the wizards I had seen in the manga and movies of my previous life.
After the entrance ceremony, all newcomers would have to go through orientation so that they could settle in at the Ministry.
I’m an adult now! I’ll do my best! I thought to myself on my way there.
The Ministry itself was located near the academy, so it was familiar to me, but seeing the fifty or so newcomers gathered into the auditorium for the entrance ceremony made it seem so imposing. All the recruits from other branches of the Ministry were there, so that could explain why there were so many of us.
I was nervous being among all these people, but then I heard two familiar voices.
“Good morning, Lady Katarina.”
“Good morning, Lady Claes.”
It was Maria and Sora. The two had met by coincidence while coming here, and they had come to greet me. Despite having worked unofficially at the Ministry for a while, they were both going to attend the ceremony with me and all other newcomers.
Seeing two faces I knew made me feel relieved. Although I wasn’t as close with Sora as I was with Maria, he was also my friend, and we’d traveled together when Keith was kidnapped. Since the ceremony hadn’t begun yet anyway, I started chatting with them.
“When did you two meet up?”
“I ran into some trouble while coming here, and Sora helped me. Then we went the rest of the way together.”
“Yeah, some nasty fellow had laid eyes on her, so I made him get lost.”
So Sora helped Maria get rid of the man that was troubling her, and then they came to the Ministry together… That really sounded like a scripted event in an otome game. The boy saves the girl, and then they find out that they work at the same place.
The blue-haired and blue-eyed Sora was one of the boys that the protagonist could choose to hook up with in the game from my dream, so that would make sense.
No! It would make no sense! Because it was just a dream! Not reality! Just an incredibly realistic dream! I should stop thinking so much about it.
I shook my head to get all my weird ideas about FL2 out of it.
“Lady Katarina, is something the matter?” asked Maria, wondering why I did that.
“Oh, it’s nothing… I’m just a bit nervous.”
“Me too. Starting today, I will be an official member of the Ministry,” she said with an anxious expression on her face.
When she looked like this, she really triggered one’s protective instinct… I shall protect you from any danger! I wanted to tell her… but, unfortunately, there were only so many dangers that my Dirt Bump could protect people from. And saying something like that would be even weirder after considering that I was quite anxious myself.
“Let’s do our best, together!” I told her, shaking her hand.
She blushed and nodded, saying a very cute “Yes!”
Only the game’s protagonist could be so lovely while doing something so trivial. Even Sora, standing next to us, murmured “Look at her go, charming people left and right.”
He’s so right! Maria was so cute that she always ended up charming everyone.
After all the newcomers gathered into the auditorium, the higher-ups entered, silencing the whole room. I recognized Larna Smith, Raphael’s boss, who had helped us during Keith’s disappearance. Around her were other people… probably the heads of the various departments.
I looked through each one of them to make sure that the men I had seen in my dream weren’t amongst them. Of course it was just a dream, but, you know… just to be safe. I was relieved to find out that, luckily enough, I knew none of their faces.
As everyone was now finally there, the ceremony started. Except for the higher-ups, there were no chairs for the people in the auditorium (including the newcomers and the other employees), so we’d have to listen to the speeches and such standing up. Since that’s exactly what happened at the entrance and graduation ceremonies at the academy, I had already suspected that it would be like this. Oh well.
Everyone was probably used to standing up for so long because of the balls, where you couldn’t sit to eat, so we were probably safe from accidents like the one in my previous life where a girl passed out during the school’s entrance ceremony because the headmaster’s speech was too long.
Still… I’d appreciate a short speech. The one at the academy ceremony had been really brief, so maybe this would be too.
I don’t really like listening to people while standing up… I wish they’d at least let us sit down on the floor. That would probably be difficult too, in this outfit… If only I had my PE uniform. Or at least my farming clothes…
I kept myself busy thinking things like that while one speech succeeded the other, until, at last, the single most important person in the country walked up to the podium.
“From now on, you are all going to become part of the Magical Ministry, one of, if not the most important organization in the whole kingdom,” said the King of Sorcié.
As a duke’s daughter I had greeted him a couple of times, but the king still felt like someone that I had little to do with. At the academy it was his advisors giving the speeches, but he had come himself for the Magical Ministry, the entity that had the most power after him.
He looked very young despite having kids more than 20 years old, but he also had the regal presence one would expect of a king. His silver hair and blue eyes were the same as Alan’s, but his face looked more like Jeord’s. One thing was certain: he was just as handsome as his sons.
Thinking that such a chance doesn’t come often, I was staring at him intently… when our eyes met and he sent me a telling look.
Uh, uh, e-excuse me, wh-what? What does this mean?
I was a bit scared, but then I heard another newcomer, standing beside me, saying “My eyes just met the king’s!” to a friend.
Oh, that’s just like the idol concerts back in my previous life, then. They look around the crowd and everyone thinks that they are staring at them. Whew, I got scared for a second there.
After the king spoke, the ceremony ended and the bosses left, relieving most of the tension in the room.
“Well, it is over then. Now our older colleagues will show us around, I believe,” said Maria, who now looked much more relaxed.
“Will they come to meet us here?”
“Yes, a few of them will come from each department to introduce themselves,” said Sora, who had been working at the Ministry for a while.
Older colleagues introducing themselves… None of the newcomers looked like the new characters I saw in my dream, but I hadn’t met the people who already worked here yet. I waited for them to come, secretly anxious.
Around a dozen of them walked into the room… but none of their faces looked familiar. I was extremely relieved upon finding out that my dream the other night was, after all, really nothing but a dream.
The newcomers were then split up in groups of seven or eight and they were shown around the various departments. Being in the same group as Maria and Sora, who were standing next to me, gave me courage. Sora actually knew the Ministry well enough already, but he had decided to join the tour anyway to rekindle his enthusiasm as a newcomer.
“Welcome, everyone. I’m Nix Cornish, and I will be showing you around,” said the Ministry employee who would be leading our group.
His words weren’t particularly weird, but he had said them without looking at us and while stroking his hair, which was styled really strangely, with the bangs longer on one side. His clothes, too, were different from everyone else’s. They were sparkly and fluttery, and the opening on the chest was very deep… Did he fix it himself?
As I stared at him, a woman employee who was nearby said, “Don’t worry too much about him. He’s just a narcissist and a bit of a weirdo.”
Now, to be exact, it wasn’t the woman employee who said that. It was the raccoon-shaped puppet in her hand.
“By the way, my name is Lisa Norman,” continued the puppet, while the real Lisa Norman’s lips barely moved at all. She was a great ventriloquist. Her expression hadn’t changed one bit during the whole thing, either… Is she trying to break the ice with us?
“Who are you calling a weirdo, Lisa? Everyone, this is Lisa Norman, my weirdo colleague who only speaks through puppets,” Cornish told us, seeing our confusion.
What do you mean, she only speaks through puppets? I was baffled.
It seemed that she wasn’t trying to break the ice with her ventriloquism, but that, for her, it was an everyday thing. This already makes two weirdos… Do they allow normal people into the Magical Ministry?
I tried looking at the employees who were showing the other groups around, but there were no custom-fixed uniforms or puppets, and everyone’s speech sounded normal. We probably just happened to get the two weirdest ones, but that was a relief. I don’t think I’d stay sane if everyone was that weird.
But, as we newcomers were obviously in no position to complain about older employees being weird, we just went through the Ministry tour guided by this strange pair.
“This library, the pride of our Ministry, is said to be the most comprehensive in the whole kingdom,” said Cornish, our narcissistic guide. He wasn’t saying anything out of the ordinary, but the fact that he ran his hand through his hair every single time he spoke was really distracting.
All the groups being guided through the Ministry started from different rooms, so we wouldn’t be crowded into the same place at the same time, and ours started at the library. Apparently, it was generally restricted to Ministry employees. When we stepped inside, the only thing I could think about was how huge it was. It wasn’t only large, but very tall too. Rows of shelves ran up to the towering ceiling, filled with a breathtaking number of books.
“Here you will find all the books ever written about magic,” said the raccoon puppet… that is, Ms. Norman. She really never spoke without her puppet, and she was extraordinarily good at it, too; her mouth never seemed to move at all.
“Basically, all books are free for you to read. If you want to borrow one, just get permission from the librarian,” said Cornish, gesturing toward a girl sitting behind a counter and sending her a wink, making her visibly wince in response.
“You can also ask her if you want to know about the location of a particular book,” said the racco— said Ms. Norman, ignoring Cornish’s flamboyant gesturing.
Looking at the huge shelves covering the walls, I thought that just finding a specific book would indeed be quite the feat. There were more books than I could ever count.
“Say, Maria, since they have all these books…” I quietly said to Maria, who was standing next to me. However the reply came from Sora, who was standing on the other side.
“They have none of the romance novels you love so much,” he whispered so that only I could hear.
“How did you know I wanted to ask that? Can you read minds?”
“You’re just too predictable,” he said with a grin.
…Am I? Well, if they didn’t have any romance novels, this mountain of books didn’t really interest me. If only there was a library this big, but only for romance novels!
Our two guides went on to explain what kind of book was in which section, but it was all too complex for me to stand a chance at remembering it. Okay! I’ll just ask the librarian if I ever need anything!
After that, we were shown around the various departments, starting from the one closest to the library: the Biomagic Research Department.
“Here, we perform research on magic animals and plants,” Cornish explained. He then knocked on the door, and loudly called to those inside. “Hey, I’m guiding the newcomers… Can I come in right now?”
A series of weird noises came from inside, followed by the voice of a woman. “N-Not right now, wait… wait a second, will you?”
We heard another round of undecipherable noises, and the woman then opened the door from the inside.
“S-Sorry to keep you waiting! Here… please… come inside,” she said, with her face covered in sweat and her hair all mussed up.
What had happened, and what were those noises? Once inside the room, we saw papers scattered all over the place, broken tableware, and general chaos. A group of people, probably the employees belonging to this department, were busy collecting the things that were on the ground and sweeping away all the broken stuff.
Was there a storm or something in here? While we newcomers were astounded by the state of affairs, Cornish didn’t look the least bit surprised.
“You never get a break, huh?” he said.
“…I really don’t. I wish I could do something about it,” said the woman from before, sighing.
So this mayhem wasn’t anything peculiar… But what caused it in the first place? I stared curiously at her and the other employees.
“I’m really sorry, everyone. We were trying to conduct an experiment and took it out of its cage, but it got out of hand…” said the woman, and then a man walked in from a door on the other side of the room.
Seeing the man, with long hair kept in a ponytail and big round glasses, the faces of all other employees changed to bitter expressions.
“Boss, how many times has it been this month alone? Have you no sense of responsibility?!” the woman said to the man, who was apparently the head of the department. Her voice sounded much sharper than when she had spoken to us. She was obviously mad.
However, the target of her anger wasn’t fazed at all. “Oh, sorry, sorry. I got distracted for a second and it all went awry,” he said nonchalantly.
Wow. How can he stay that cool while getting scolded like that?
As it turned out, this man had taken something out of its cage, and that something was the reason the room was now in this state. I couldn’t help but wonder what that something was.
I looked at him, and our eyes met. He seemed to only then notice that we were there. “Who are all those people?” he asked the woman.
Clearly annoyed at how he didn’t feel sorry in the least about what he had done, the woman looked at him sideways while replying. “They are the newcomers, and they are visiting our department.”
“Oh, that’s right, today was the entrance ceremony. I’d completely forgotten that.”
“That does not surprise me… I tried calling for you, but you would not reply, so I went to the ceremony in your stead,” the woman said with a bone-chilling stare.
“Oh, really? Thank you,” the man said before turning to us. “So, let me introduce myself. I’m Hector Delius, the head of the Biomagic Research Department. Welcome to the Magical Ministry, everyone,” he said with a smile.
Knowing that this Hector Delius was the most important person within the department made me feel anxious at the possibility of being sent here. Delius, on the other hand, was the opposite of anxious and looked excited to have visitors.
“Since you’re here, I’ll show you the rooms in the back!” he said enthusiastically, but the woman from before started to panic.
“N-No, we can’t do that! It just got out of its cage and turned the place into a battlefield! What will the newcomers think if they see our department in this state?!”
“Don’t worry, we put it back in its cage! It’s safe now. Okay, everyone, follow me,” he said, casually guiding us to a room in the back. We were scared, but in no position to decline, so we followed Delius through the door he had come out of earlier.
When I saw what was behind it, I let out a surprised and impressed “Wow!”
Much larger than the previous one, which only had a few tables in it, this room had rows of cages and little huts containing all kinds of animals I had never seen before. Unicorns, winged rabbits, half-horse half-fish chimeras… they all looked like creatures out of a fairy tale.
I was still amazed at the sight before me when Delius started bragging about it.
“I know, it’s incredible. We’ve collected these rare species from all over the world, relying on all kinds of methods and connections. Cute, aren’t they?”
“Y-Yes.” I wasn’t so sure about cute, but they really were incredible. I’d never seen creatures like these.
When I was first reborn into this world, at first, I expected to encounter fantastic animals like the ones in front of me now, but I only ever saw dogs, cats, and other normal animals. I was so busy avoiding my Catastrophic Bad Ends that I never bothered to research the local fauna, and I started assuming that it was the same as in my previous life… But I was wrong, and I was deeply moved by this revelation.
“This is amazing,” I said in awe.
“I know, right?!” replied Delius with flames in his eyes.
I had inadvertently set him off, triggering a series of passionate speeches about his treasured pets.
“And this one, you see,” he went on explaining about another creature that nobody had asked him about, leaving no time to be interrupted.
We still have to see the rest of the Ministry, and we have limited time… If he keeps on with his tirade, we’ll be here all night… I thought before the woman stopped him.
“Mr. Delius, please stop. They have other things to see,” she said coldly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I got a bit worked up,” he said, seemingly snapping out of it before continuing. “Okay then, just one more…” He produced a potted plant, and started explaining. “Lately this has become increasingly rare, and…”
“Please stop already! You will make the newcomers think that this is the second-to-least-popular department!” she said angrily, forcefully dragging Delius out of the room.
Second-to-least-popular…? So what’s the one that people want to go to the least?
Our visit to the Biomagic Research Department ended as the department head was removed from our sight.
Cornish and Ms. Norman were leading us to our next stop in the tour when we were stopped by an incredibly handsome man.
“Are you guiding the newcomers? Perfect timing,” he asked our guides. He had deep brown hair, and, under his frameless glasses, he had penetrating green eyes that made him look handsome and smart.
“Yes, we are. Can we help you?” Cornish replied.
“Very much so,” replied the handsome man. “One of the newcomers was late to the ceremony and I had to go back to get him, but now I’m running behind schedule and have to get back to work… Would you mind guiding him together with your group?”
Someone was late to the entrance ceremony? That’s such a shame. I wonder what happened. And this handsome guy here… where have I seen him? He looks familiar… Why?
I was looking at him, trying to figure out who he could be. Maybe noticing my stare, he introduced himself.
“I wasn’t at the entrance ceremony, so this is my first time meeting all of you. I am Cyrus Lanchester, head of the Magic Powers Department. It’s a pleasure,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose with a serious expression. It reminded me of something I’d already seen.
It was a scene in Fortune Lover II.
A smart-looking handsome guy with brown hair, green eyes, and frameless glasses, with the name “Cyrus Lanchester” written below him…
I had managed to convince myself that it was just a dream and almost forgot all about it… but those memories now resurfaced at once.
I-Is FL2 really happening?!
I was frozen with shock.
“I leave him in your care, then,” said Cyrus, leading the late newcomer to our group.
This boy had orange hair and beautiful blue eyes, making for a very handsome figure himself. He was very short, even shorter than me or Maria. So short, in fact, that we hadn’t been able to see him while he was standing behind Cyrus. Essentially, he looked like just a child.
I heard Maria’s quiet “Huh?” of surprise, and I saw everyone else in the group look puzzled as well. They were probably shocked to see that he looked so young.
I was shocked too… but not for the same reason as them.
I was shocked because I had known that he would be here — I had already seen him, though only through a screen.
“I am Dewey Percy. I am thirteen years old, but I have already graduated school and passed the Ministry’s exam,” said the boy with a hint of impertinence in his voice, looking exactly like the character I had seen in my dream.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo! This can’t be true! Did the sequel really start?! Was that dream a vision of the future?! I thought to myself in horror before hearing the voice of Delius, the head of the department we had just visited.
“No, wait! Elizabeth, wait right there!”
I then felt my right shoulder get heavy. What?!
I looked at my shoulder, and perched there was a monkey that had escaped from a cage in the Biomagic lab, with the potted plant that Delius was talking about in its hands.
Monkeys now? Can’t I get some rest? And isn’t this plant supposed to be rare or something? What is even happening? I thought, but my confusion was cleared up soon enough.
“Elizabeth… it would be really bad if you yanked that out…” Delius said, moments before the monkey yanked the plant out of the pot.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!” I heard the pot above my shoulder scream. But it wasn’t the pot… it was the plant inside it. Its root, now out of the soil, had a face on it, and this face looked like Munch’s Scream.
I think I saw one of these in a movie once… what were they called… madeleines? So is being killed by a magic plant one of the Catastrophic Bad Ends in FL2? I despaired.
“Oh, sorry,” Delius nonchalantly intervened. “You’ll lose consciousness if they scream directly into your ear, but they’re not dangerous.”
Just lose consciousness? That’s not so bad, I guess, was the last thing I thought before passing out.
The pink walls, the black table, the metal-frame bed with azure duvets and blue cushions… This was Acchan’s bedroom…
Is it that dream again?!
“Hmm… I’m not making any progress,” said Acchan… but her voice felt as if it came from my own mouth. My consciousness was inside of her body, just like last time. Once again, all that I could do was look on as she played Fortune Lover II.
“Maybe I’ll check out the gallery…”
Tired from not being able to make any progress in the game, Acchan opened the gallery, a collection of still images from the best scenes in the game.
I used to do the same in my previous life.
In my first dream Acchan had just started playing the game. But once she opened the gallery, almost full with pictures, I saw that she had come quite a long way since then.
Being stared in the eye by Cyrus Lanchester, hugging Dewey Percy, being sensually pushed against a wall by Sora… they all were exciting pictures like these. Oh, this is wonderful. I wish that were me.
I was enjoying the gallery with Acchan when… Uhm? What are they doing there? My friends Mary and Sophia, who weren’t supposed to be in the Magical Ministry, appeared in some of the pictures.
I could understand seeing Jeord and other love interests from the prequel coming back for FL2, as well as my father and other noblemen who had to go to the Ministry for work, becoming possible targets for the heroine to romance. But those two girls had no business at the Ministry… so what were they doing in those pictures?
Acchan reached down to get a drink, and, through her eyes, I saw FL2’s manual lying spread out, explaining that Mary and Sophia had come back in the sequel as either rivals or friends. That would explain why they appeared in the Ministry.
“Almost all the characters from the first game are in the sequel, now that I think about it,” said Acchan, giving voice to what I was thinking myself.
Some games change most characters for their sequel, but in Fortune Lover, they just added a couple of new ones while keeping the old roster intact.
“Is that why Katarina’s coming back again? Did they think that it would be unfair to leave only her out?” Acchan said to herself.
I wouldn’t have minded being left out. Actually, I wish they had done exactly that. Why did they feel the need to bring me back? Hadn’t I been the villainess for long enough in the original game?
“She really has too much screen time, though. She gives me trouble in pretty much every route…”
What?! In every route?! Please, Acchan, I need to know more about that!
“Do the game’s staff like her that much?”
If they did, why would they give me all of these Catastrophic Bad Ends?! More importantly, I need to know where and when Katarina appears in the story!
“They gave her a really sad ending, though…”
Sad? What happens to Katarina? Does she get killed? Please, Acchan, just…
“…Let me know more!” I screamed, waking up in an unfamiliar place which wasn’t either my home or the school dormitory.
Huh? I looked around me and saw my friends looking at me, perplexed.
“L-Lady Katarina, are you alright?” asked a nervous Sophia, who was next to me.
What is Sophia doing here? Where even am I?
Seeing how confused I was, Mary explained it to me.
“Lady Katarina, you lost consciousness after hearing the scream of the plant that the monkey pulled out of the soil, and you were brought to this infirmary,” she said.
So this is the Magical Ministry’s infirmary…
I now remembered how I’d passed out after that monkey yanked the plant out of its pot. That stupid monkey… but now that I think about it, wasn’t it all the department head’s fault?
“I remembered passing out, but why are you here?” I asked.
Sophia and Mary weren’t employed at the Ministry. And as I looked around, I found that Jeord, Alan, Keith, and even Nicol were all there.
“I asked my father to let me help with menial tasks here at the Ministry. I think that this will teach me a lot about being an adult,” said Sophia. Her father loved her so much that it didn’t come as a surprise that he’d let her do whatever she wanted.
“I also threatened my father into letting me help here, along with Sophia,” said Mary. Did I just hear the word “threaten”? I must have misheard.
“The two of us are here for similar reasons,” said Keith.
Nicol nodded and added, “We will help with work at the Ministry, which will give us valuable experience.”
“My brother and I, as royal family, will be performing research at the Ministry in the hope that it benefits our future studies,” said Jeord.
“What he said,” agreed Alan.
I’d thought that after graduating from the Academy, I wouldn’t be able to see my friends anymore. However, be it for studying, gaining experience, or whatever else, they all ended up at the Ministry with me. That, of course, made me very happy… but it was exactly like the dream I just had.
It seemed that Fortune Lover II had really begun. What I saw wasn’t a dream, but a vision of the real future. Well, not really real, since it’s a game, but…
I thought about having to become the villainess once again, risking exile if not execution… and that was enough to make me dizzy. I held my head in my hands and gazed down in despair. Everyone got worried about me, and it was decided that I’d be going home for the day.
While I was on my way out, I was stopped by the woman employee from the Biomagic Research Department, who had dragged Delius and the monkey (not that I care, but its name was Elizabeth) to apologize to me.
“This is the first time I’ve seen the effects of that plant on a human, and they were stronger than I thought! How did it feel?” asked Delius, obviously not very sorry at all for what happened, enraging the woman next to him.
Of course, the monkey didn’t show any remorse at all. While Delius was busy being scolded by his subordinate, it started eating the bananas that my friends had brought me to eat once I woke up.
I looked at this weird scene, suddenly scared about my future at the Ministry.
After arriving home, accompanied by Keith, I went to my room to rest by myself for a while. I needed to think about the events of that day. That dream turned out to be real, and all of my friends would be working at the Ministry…
I threw myself on the bed and sighed. FL2 has already started, hasn’t it? We met the new characters in a first encounter event…
The fact that Maria, who was currently single, could find love at the Ministry was a wonderful thing… except for the fact that it entailed Katarina coming back as villainess…
Why’d you come back after being exiled?! You idiot! Just enjoy your life as a peasant abroad, tending to the fields! I mentally got mad at the game’s Katarina, but that just made me sadder.
After all this effort to overcome doom, here came new routes and new catastrophes. I have the worst luck. But I’ve survived all of this! I can’t be defeated now! I have to think of something!
It’s time for a Bad End Avoidance Strategy Meeting!
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
We shall henceforth start the meeting to discuss possible solutions to the new Bad Ends awaiting Katarina Claes.
“Does anyone have any suggestions?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Katarina Claes, please go ahead.”
“We could pretend to have a terrible stomachache and refuse to go to the Ministry until the end of the game.”
“That’s a wonderful plan! But we are not a child anymore! We could never make that work. And we also don’t know how long we should wait until the game is over.”
“…You have a point.”
“Could we not just avoid all of the love interests?”
“All of them? That’s impossible!”
“We don’t want to hinder our beloved Maria, do we? So would the Bad Ends be triggered anyway?”
“I believe so. After all, at the academy we didn’t hinder or bully anyone, but the ‘dining hall trial event’ was triggered anyway.”
“We cannot let our guard down.”
“And this time we don’t even know when and how doom will come.”
“Indeed. We don’t know which ends lead to death and which, if any, only to exile.”
“We have too little information! We haven’t even played the new game!”
“But how can we get more information? We can’t buy the game in this world…”
“We have to have that dream again. If we keep watching Acchan play the game, we’ll gather a lot of useful information!”
“That’s true!”
“You’re right!”
“Then it’s decided. We must have that dream again. The order for today is to sleep well.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
It was thus decided that I would sleep. I would just have to sleep and have that dream again.
Perfect! Sleepy time!
Why? I asked myself, with my head in my hands, two days after the entrance ceremony at the Ministry.
Having realized that FL2 was going to take place at my workplace, and that it had new Catastrophic Bad Ends to bring with it, I had planned a new strategy to avoid them.
I would just need to sleep well and gather information in my dreams again… but no matter how much I slept, the dream I had in the castle and then in the Ministry’s infirmary didn’t come back to me. I had just wasted a day of vacation by sleeping too much.
At least sleeping a lot meant that I felt full of energy and my skin looked shinier than usual, but I had made no progress in avoiding the Bad Ends.
Tomorrow I’ll have to go to work at the Ministry… What can I do?
I bit into a cookie while despairing about my current situation. My friends and the servants had brought me snacks while I rested, probably worried that I was sleeping for so long. They were really delicious. I needed to ask them where they bought…
No time for that! What am I going to do now? Was that even a dream? Was it a vision sent to me by a merciful god to save me from danger?
I thought that I just needed to sleep, but that had obviously not been enough. Then I thought that maybe the problem was where I was sleeping, so I tried napping in the garden and in the dining room. Not only did that not work, but I also got scolded by Mother.
Ugh… What should I do?
I thought about it long and hard, but thinking had never been my forte. My brain’s getting tired… so I’ll take a break! I’ll read the romance novel that Sophia lent me during the tea party at the castle the other day.
While coming back home, I had even insisted on bringing in the bag I’d put the book in myself, instead of letting my maid do it. However, I had been so shocked by my nightmare that I’d forgotten it at the castle, and in a hallway no less.
Thankfully, someone had found it and had given it to one of the castle’s servants. They’d held onto it because nobody was able to tell who it belonged to, as it only contained sweets and books. I had actually forgotten about it for a while because of the shock of FL2 and everything. Jeord then happened to look at the bag, realized that it was mine, and brought it back to me.
I was so relieved… I couldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d lost a book lent to me by a friend. Now that I have it back with me, I might as well read it, I thought, and opened it.
This looked like an average romance novel involving a man and a woman. Lately Sophia was into more particular genres, such as romance between men — what we used to call “BL” in my previous world — and her recommendations would sometimes include those.
I used to be an otaku, but not a fujoshi… I couldn’t say I wasn’t interested in boy-on-boy romance at all, but it always felt like a dangerous rabbit hole to fall into…
Hey, this novel is so interesting. The hero is nice, and… huh? What is this?
A folded piece of paper fell out of the book. Was Sophia using it as a bookmark?
I took the piece of paper and casually unfolded it, revealing that it wasn’t blank, as I had first thought.
Fortune Lover II
A new tale of love at the Magical Ministry! The cast of characters from the original game have grown up and returned, standing alongside the new characters.
– The story:
The protagonist, a commoner girl who can use Light Magic, graduates from the Academy of Magic at the age of 17. She goes on to work at the Magical Ministry, the most important organization in the kingdom. There she will meet strict superiors, weird colleagues, and difficult work, all the while looking for love.
– The characters:
(Protagonist)
Maria Campbell: A lowborn girl and one of the few Light Magic users in the country. A positive, energetic person.
(New love interests)
Cyrus Lanchester: A strict and sober superior. Good at this job, but not so good at speaking to women. A very powerful magic user and Ministry executive.
Dewey Percey: A child prodigy who graduated from the Academy of Magic early by skipping grades, and is now working at the Ministry. He cannot use magic, and instead entered the Ministry on account of his knowledge. His family is very poor, and he learned most of what he knows by himself. A hardworking tsundere and a bit of an airhead.
Sora (orphan with no surname): Came to know Maria through a certain incident and is now staying at the Ministry. An orphan with a casual attitude and a Dark Magic user.
The old love interests are back along with the old rival characters, and befriending them or gaining their approval will be vital to progress through the game.
The main hurdle in finding success with the new love interests will be fighting a mysterious girl who has come to hinder the protagonist. It is later revealed that this girl is Katarina Claes, who was exiled from the kingdom in the previous game.
Katarina holds a grudge against the protagonist for having caused her exile, and she becomes a Dark Magic user to sneak back into the country and into the Ministry, looking for revenge against Maria.
In order to obtain the Happy End, the protagonist must overcome the threat of Katarina and reveal her identity to the authorities together with the love interests, resulting in the villainess being thrown in jail. Should the protagonist fail, Katarina and Maria will kill each other in a duel, and the love interests will fall prey to Dark Magic.
This… This is a report on Fortune Lover II!
Why is this inside the book?! And how come all routes lead to doom for Katarina once again?!
Jail with the Happy End and a double-death-duel with the Bad End… Give poor Katarina some rest! Do the developers hate her? If they liked her, they would never have her face all this pain!
At least in the prequel, exile was an option… Even now, if I were exiled, I could just get by with my trusty hoe! Why is there no exile in this game?! Bring back the exile! Exile forever!
But no matter how much I wailed about it, what wasn’t in the game just wasn’t in the game. If I keep looking back at my past, I’ll never go forward to my future! It said so in a manga I once read!
I had to calm down and use the information at hand to avoid these new Catastrophic Bad Ends.
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
With the new information at our disposal, we shall henceforth start another meeting to discuss possible solutions to the Bad Ends.
“Oh, come on! More doom?”
“And we can only choose between jail and death?!”
“…Please, everybody…”
“And Katarina’s involved in the storylines of all three new love interests! It’s even worse than before!”
“…Everybody, let’s calm d…”
“And Dark Magic?! Is it about Pochi? It must be about him! This is too scary!”
“Is that why he liked me so much? Was it all because of the game? What am I going to do?!”
“I SAID, CALM DOWN!”
“…Yes…”
“…Yes…”
“There’s no point in losing our cool here! Let’s get some good ideas out! Got it?”
“…Yes…”
“…Yes…”
“M-May I speak?”
“Yes, Katarina Claes, you may.”
“I suggest we research jail, and whether it is possible to escape from it.”
“Should we practice picking locks?”
“Would a year be enough for that? Wouldn’t it be better to find a way to get exiled?”
“That could be true. Maybe we should bribe some officials. We must prepare enough snacks for that.”
“Good idea. And what about fighting off the new love interests?”
“This time around we have no clue…”
“We could search for their weaknesses, like snakes are for Jeord.”
“Oh, that’s very good. We should spy on them.”
“It seems that we’ll be fighting with Dark Magic or something, so maybe we should teach Pochi some tricks? Not just playing fetch and stuff like that, more like growling to scare people off and such…”
“Yes, that sounds good. We should maybe start by teaching him how to sit.”
“Okay, so, to sum it all up… Lock picking for escaping jail. Trying to get exiled. Finding the weaknesses of the new characters. Teaching tricks to Pochi. Anything else?”
“I don’t think so. Well, we have a lot to work on!”
“We can do it!”
“Having something practical to work towards really gives you hope.”
“Very well. We may get busy with work at the Ministry, but let’s do our best and overcome doom!”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah!”
Hence finished the meeting of the Katarinas. It was already late at night. Relieved that I had found some practical solutions to work towards, I fell asleep.
I forgot to think about why that note on the game was in Sophia’s book, and, despite having slept almost all day long, I fell into a deep and pleasant slumber.