I Was Reincarnated as the Villain Who Confines the Heroine in an Eroge World, But for Some Reason I'm the One Getting Confined by the Heroine Instead

Chapter 11: The Only Option Left Is to Confine Him

A week had passed since then.

I stepped up the pace of my investigation.

Specifically, I decided to gather information inside the dormitory, where Safira’s eyes couldn’t reach.

To my surprise, the pieces came together almost too easily.

A senior who lived two doors down (he ran a strawberry farm) told me this:

“I hear Duchess Safira Hearts has been buying up vineyards left and right lately. A few grape-farming friends of mine said people working for the duke’s house came to them with offers.”

“Really?! But why…?”

“Word is the ducal house is planning a major redevelopment. With relations worsening with the neighboring country, people are whispering about war.”

“War?!”

“The duke’s territory borders that country, so the risk of invasion is high. Some experts say they need the vineyard land to build fortresses.”

“But this whole region depends on grape growing, right? If they tear up the vineyards, the industry will collapse.”

“Yeah, I’m worried about that too. Still, grape yields have been huge lately and prices have crashed. For grape farmers, a higher prices wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

“That can’t be… The more grapes the better!”

“Grapes are great, but strawberries are delicious too, you know.”

“You can’t make wine out of strawberries!”

I picked up another important piece of information as well.

A senior who lived upstairs (apple farmer) brought up the broken engagements.

“This is the third time Duchess Safira Hearts has called off an engagement. First the third prince, then the eldest son of an earl, and the third was the fifth son of a baron.”

“The rank keeps dropping, huh.”

“Of course. No matter how beautiful she is, nobody wants a woman who breaks engagements. The ducal house is desperate for an heir, that’s all.”

“Because Safira is the only one carrying the direct bloodline?”

“Exactly. If the lady fails to produce an heir, the house could tear itself apart in factional fighting. Rumor says it’s already happening.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Hey, this isn’t someone else’s problem. There’s talk that hostile factions are hiding inside the academy too. We could get dragged in any day.”

“So when you break an engagement, karma really does come back to bite you.”

“Hah?”

“By the way, do you know why she broke them?”

“Apparently she’s in love with someone else—a commoner, and a grape farmer at that. The recent rise in grape prices is supposedly because of that rumor. It’s killing us apple farmers.”

“I see. Do you happen to know the name of that grape farmer?”

“That part hasn’t spread yet, but people say he’s a student here. The ducal house is already on edge about the succession issue. If word got out that the lady is dating a commoner student, it’d be chaos. That poor commoner guy is probably being hunted by the duke’s house right now.”

“Wha—?!”

“Why’d you suddenly whip around like that?”

“N-No reason… I just felt like someone was aiming at my back…”

“Gahahaha! You’re putting yourself in the commoner’s shoes, aren’t you? You’re hilarious.”

“I-I’m not putting myself in his shoes or anything! Hahaha…”

Putting all the information together, I could see the ducal house was in a truly desperate situation.

And my own life was probably only a matter of time.

—I should probably flee the country.

That honestly felt like the best option now.

For a moment I pictured Safira chasing after me across the border, but a duchess couldn’t just stroll into another country, and once I disappeared, she’d have no reason left to break another engagement.

Grape cultivation would flourish again too.

A perfect two birds with one stone.

But this plan had one fatal flaw: the neighboring Northhild Empire barely grew any grapes.

Because of the climate, apples were the main crop, and instead of wine, people mostly drank beer while eating sausages.

As someone with a deep-seated hatred of beer, I had zero desire to live in a nation of malt fanatics.

The reason I hate beer? In my previous life I got gout. Purines… I’ll never forgive them.

So I spent my days in deep anguish.

—Wine or my life.

There’s no way I can choose between those two!

※

【Side — Safira Hearts】

This past week I thoroughly investigated the secret behind Ask-kun’s love for grapes.

What I learned was that his love had been abnormal since the moment he was born.

Here’s the information my maid Lavanda gathered in Ask-kun’s hometown, neatly summarized:

—When Ask-kun was a baby, he refused his mother’s breast milk. He stubbornly turned away and reached for grape juice instead. His eyes, they say, were scarily intense.

—The very first word baby Ask-kun ever spoke was “wine.”

—Once he learned to crawl, he escaped the house. His panicked father searched everywhere and finally found him panting in the middle of a vineyard. His eyes were still intensely fixed, and he kept muttering “Pinot Noir.” It was extremely creepy, apparently.

—For his fifth birthday, the only thing Ask-kun wanted was a wine glass. After that, he would pour grape juice into it and sniff the aroma.

—When he turned ten, he dragged home a huge barrel from who-knows-where. When his mother asked what it was for, he said it was for a “science project.” They left the barrel alone, but soon the house smelled of grapes. When they checked inside, it was full of grape liquid. Yes—Ask-kun had been secretly making wine at home. Making alcohol at home is illegal, so they took it away immediately, but he apparently kept making it in secret after that too.

That’s roughly how it went.

Ask-kun’s obsession with grapes has been abnormal since birth.

Yet every single day without fail he trained—push-ups, running, practice swings. That part of him was just too cool.

Still, I never uncovered the real reason for his grape love. Maybe he was simply born that way. An outside investigation could only go so far.

—Looks like the only option left is to confine him.

If I confine him, we can learn everything about each other. True understanding requires confinement.

But if I suddenly locked him up, would Ask-kun be shocked?

If I scared him, there’d be no taking it back. I kept overthinking it and couldn’t bring myself to act.

In the end, I’m just a coward.

A coward who can’t trust others, yet wants to trust Ask-kun. I’m full of contradictions.

Having Lavanda investigate behind his back, refusing to ask him directly—everything I’ve done is contradictory.

What on earth is the right thing to do?