After Starting a Thread as a Reincarnated in an Unknown Otome Game, I Got Caught in a Battlefield of Beauties - Chapter 36: Realization

Chapter 36: Realization

—What on earth is going on?

I watched the scene before me and thought to myself.

Sure, I’ve done a lot of things up until now… really, a lot of things.

I admit it. I was the cause of all of it.

I cheated openly during the magic exam before entering school.

I confessed to Leticia on the first day of school.

I skipped all the classes on the first day to make bombs.

I took a bunch of bombs to Leticia’s house.

I ended up getting engaged to Leticia.

…

Wait, that was all on the first day?

No, that can’t be it.

Next is the second day… still only the second day… what did I do on the second day?

Oh, right, I remember.

On the second day, I sold bombs like crazy to the nobles and made a fortune.

I skipped school during class, not after, to buy spirit stones.

I got chased by the student council and got caught.

I faced the threat of expulsion on the second day.

I had a duel with the prince and the duke’s son.

I destroyed the Spirit Forest.

I made a contract with the spirit god.

I was summoned to the royal castle and met the King and Princess Lara.

Leticia barged in, turning everything into chaos.

I kissed Leticia and Princess Lara while drunk.

Is the second day finally over?

No, that was long.

Even I’m shocked, and I was there.

The third day was… oh, everyone at school found out about my engagement to Leticia.

I awakened some power and beat up Senondor and the Prince, then fell into a coma.

When I woke up from my coma… ten days had passed, and Leticia and I had crossed a line I hadn’t even known about.

Just when I thought I could pay off my debt, the King found out about the kiss.

Turns out, the debt collector I’d been friendly with was the protagonist’s father.

I helped Aria, only for Leticia to find out and cause another mess.

…

Lately, I thought things were getting better, but that wasn’t true at all.

I’ve messed up so many times it’s hard to even count, but this time, I had absolutely no memory of doing anything to cause this situation.

Not a single clue, not even a hint.

“—Hey, what exactly is going on here…?”

Leticia, standing next to me, seemed to be thinking the exact same thing and spoke up in my place.

Right, it’s not just because I’m clueless. 

If Leticia doesn’t understand, there’s no way I could.

…What’s happening?

I want to know that too.

We were just attending classes at the academy like usual.

Then, during the lunch break, I met up with Leticia.

We decided to have lunch together since we couldn’t do it yesterday, and just as we were about to start eating—a bunch of soldiers and spirit users showed up and surrounded us.

The soldiers surrounding us looked even more hostile and filled with hatred than when I destroyed the Spirit Forest.

Doesn’t make any sense, right?

I swear by the gods, this time it wasn’t my doing.

Well… the guy in front of us will explain why this is happening.

The man, who introduced himself as a general, heard Leticia’s question. His eyes widened with fury, and unable to contain his anger, he practically shouted.

“—Leticia Freezing!! Your Freezing family is accused of leaking our country’s confidential information to the enemy nation, the Raid Empire, for years!! Stop resisting and surrender peacefully!!”

What… the Freezing duke family leaked secret information…? Wait, what??

Hold on a second, let me process this.

…Huh??

Hearing the general’s words, my brain couldn’t handle it and practically shut down.

But there was one thing I understood.

—This time, it wasn’t me who messed up, it was Leticia.

Next to me, Leticia made a face like she had accepted her fate… like she had given up on everything… then she stepped forward and spoke.

“I see… so, he hasn’t stopped yet… fine. I’ll surrender.”

“Good, then—”

“—But!! I have a condition.”

Leticia’s voice made everyone stop moving.

The general, the soldiers, and the students watching from behind the soldiers all froze.

In the midst of this, Leticia glanced at me and then spoke.

“…Alto has nothing to do with this. Swear that you won’t lay a hand on him.”

“Hmph, who would listen to a criminal and let an important witness go—!?”

The general’s words were cut off in shock.

In his line of sight—.

“—If you won’t swear, then… I’ll resist with everything I have. How many deaths will there be, I wonder?”

Leticia had summoned the highest-ranking ice spirit, Fenrir, and was clad in an ice dress with a crown on her head.

She used the spirit’s power to create an overwhelming number of ice swords, far more than the hundred soldiers and spirit users surrounding us, and aimed them in all directions to threaten the general.

“Is this okay? With a single command, these swords will pierce your soldiers faster than the speed of sound. If you don’t want that, swear you won’t touch Alto, General.”

“…Alright-alright, I swear we won’t touch him. So stop this.”

“Yes, that’s the agreement.”

Leticia said this, then made the ice swords vanish and sent Fenrir back to its place.

In that moment, the general himself jumped forward, pushed Leticia to the ground, and chained her wrists.

He left the soldiers to handle her and walked away.

The soldiers lifted Leticia, grabbed her arms, and started walking.

“L-Leticia…?”

I felt like I was dreaming as I muttered in disbelief.

Leticia turned her head towards me and gave a small, wistful smile.

A smile that seemed familiar, like I had seen it somewhere before.

“Alto, the two weeks I spent with you were fun. A lot happened, but… I finally got to be with you… so, no regrets. Not a single one.”

“L-Leticia… what are you saying…?”

As I said this, I realized it.

I understood.

Like pieces of a puzzle suddenly falling into place.

Ah, I see… so that’s what it was.

Ever since I learned from the first thread that this world was an otome game world, there was something that had been bothering me.

It was the role I played in the game.

The protagonist is Aria.

I don’t know how many romanceable characters there are, but from the recent conversation among the female students, at least the second prince and the strategist’s son are confirmed.

The first prince was there as a supporting character.

Right, that leaves one missing.

I used to think I just hadn’t met that person yet.

I thought the thread members’ unusual kindness and obsession with Leticia, who was famous for being difficult, was simply because she was a beautiful girl.

That’s how I interpreted it.

But now, seeing this scene, it all made sense.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t met the person with that role.

The thread members weren’t kind because she was a beautiful girl.

“—Thank you, Alto. And… goodbye.”

It was because she, Leticia, was the villainess.

—————————————————————————

[Author’s Note and Additional Information]

Sorry for not updating yesterday.

I still haven’t fully recovered from my cold, and because this was such a heavy chapter, I ended up using my brain more than usual—it took me the whole day! Oops.

…Sorry. I’ll do my best to post every day at midnight from now on.

Well, I’ve been meaning to write about Leticia’s past in an interlude someday, so this was perfect timing.

I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit, haha.

As Alto mentioned, Leticia was the villainess in the original story, engaged to the second prince (a romanceable character), and bullied Aria.

In the original story, she admired the confident second prince at the first party.

She then tried to act more like a noble… her engagement to the admired second prince was arranged, and the story began.

But due to some twist of fate, she met Alto.

The words Alto said to her made her follow her own will without worrying about others. She did not accept the engagement to the prince and eagerly awaited the day she would meet Alto again, leading to the start of the story.

So—from that party where she met Alto, the original Leticia and the Leticia in Alto’s world took completely different paths.

Alto, you really messed things up.

So please, don’t be too hard on the hardcore fan…

Oh, and I came up with this setting halfway through, so if there are any contradictions, please let me know!

I’ll fix any inconsistencies right away.

This might be an afterthought, but it’s the correct setting from the author’s perspective, haha.

That’s all for the long afterword and additional info!!

Thank you for reading this far!!

My writing speed changes with motivation, so if you want to read more, please give it a star and follow me!