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 9: The Duke’s Daughter Seems to Have Broken Off Another Engagement

Chapter 9: The Duke’s Daughter Seems to Have Broken Off Another Engagement

“Ah, the protagonist.”

“Protagonist?”

The next morning, as I stepped out of my room to head to the academy, I ran right into my next-door neighbor.

The words slipped out before I could stop them, but he just looked away awkwardly, so I guess it was fine.

“Well, I’m off.”

Luxol took a step as if fleeing, but since we were going the same way, I naturally ended up walking behind him.

“I’m not stalking you or anything, okay?”

The next time he glanced back, I called out.

“We’re in the same class, so it can’t be helped.”

“…Yeah, that’s true.”

He let out a sigh, gave up on something, and fell into step beside me.

We walked together to school.

“Hey, Ask.”

“Hm?”

After a while of walking in silence, he suddenly stopped and asked,

“Why are you so close with the duke’s daughter?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“Hah!?”

“No, seriously. I really have no idea.”

I stared into the distance as I answered, and Luxol gave me a complicated look.

“You’ve got your own troubles too, huh.”

“Yeah, man. I seriously don’t get it at all.”

“O-Oh.”

“Listen to me, protagonist!”

“Stop calling me protagonist!”

“You’re fine with it, you’re literally the protagonist.”

I gave up hiding anything and told Luxol everything that had happened so far.

How the duke’s daughter, with whom I’d only exchanged one sentence five years ago and had zero contact since, suddenly started clinging to me. How I truly had no clue why. How she must have the wrong person. And how heavy she was.

After I spilled it all without holding back, Luxol gently placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Good luck.”

“That’s it!? Nothing like ‘I’ll save you’ or ‘Leave it to me’?”

“Why do I have to save you!?”

“That’s the protagonist’s job, helping people in trouble!”

“That’s the knights’ job. I enrolled here to make money.”

Oh yeah, that’s right.

Luxol grew up in an orphanage and his goal is to earn enough to feed everyone there.

In the original story he became Safira’s knight, but until then he was aiming for high-paying jobs like merchant.

“I get it. But please, do something!”

“What exactly do you want me to do? She’s scary. I’d rather not get involved with the duke’s daughter if I can help it.”

“But yesterday morning you greeted her first, didn’t you?”

“That was before I knew anything.”

He made a bitter face.

“After that, I found out. What the nobles call her behind her back.”

“Eh? She has some weird nickname?”

That wasn’t in the original story…

While I was wondering, he spoke in a fearful whisper.

“Safira Hartz keeps breaking off engagements and every time makes brutal statements, so among the nobles she’s known as—”

“Ask-kun, what are you two talking about?”

It happened in an instant.

I had been straining my ears to catch Luxol’s words when a woman’s voice suddenly cut in.

Before I knew it, the person herself popped up between us, forcing me and Luxol apart.

There was no need to check who it was. Safira.

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”

Terror made Luxol scream. He fell on his butt, hugged his head, and rolled backward once.

Wait, what was that move? It’s straight out of the original story.

I didn’t have time to be impressed. Safira immediately grabbed my arm.

“Hey, Ask-kun. Tell me in detail what you were talking about.”

She asked with a beaming smile.

Eh, I’m the one getting interrogated? Ask the protagonist.

※

After a thorough questioning session, I walked toward the academy with Luxol, whose soul looked like it had left his body and was now staggering along.

On the way, something suddenly bothered me, so I asked Safira.

“What’s this about breaking off engagements?”

“…………”

“You really shouldn’t do that so much. You’ll get what’s coming to you.”

I said it while remembering all the engagement-annulment stories I’d read in my previous life.

But she didn’t seem to like my question. Her cheeks puffed out as she answered,

“Breaking an engagement is only natural. It’s natural.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s natural.”

I see. I don’t really get it, but apparently it’s natural.

Well, a duke’s daughter is basically meant to have her engagements broken, so I can kind of understand, but it still felt like she was dodging the question.

“This topic is over. By the way, Ask-kun.”

“Yeah?”

“When did you get so friendly with that classmate over there?”

“You mean Luxol?”

Safira silently nodded.

She looked like she didn’t even want to say his name.

“We’re not really friends. We just talked because we’re neighbors.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It really was just a coincidence.”

“Not fair!”

“I mean…”

I glanced at Luxol. His soul was still gone; he was just shambling along.

“Why do I commute from the duke’s estate while you live in the dorms, Ask-kun?”

“My house is far away.”

“Why is my house so close to the academy?”

“Isn’t it for emergencies?”

I vaguely remembered a setting where the academy’s instructors were former knights, so the school also served as a shield for the ducal house.

I don’t know if that’s actually true, though…

“I want to live in the dorms too.”

“Don’t tell me that…”

While I was troubled by the duke’s daughter’s selfishness, her gaze suddenly turned to Luxol.

“Hey.”

“Eh, me?”

“Will you switch rooms with me?”

“Th-that’s a bit—”

“Why not?”

Luxol looked down awkwardly, and Safira pressed him sternly for a reason.

“If we switch, that means I’d live in the duke’s mansion, right? Obviously impossible.”

“It’s fine with me.”

“It’s not fine with me! I’d get arrested as an outsider!”

Luxol yelled with tears in his eyes.

I always thought anything goes against the protagonist, but now I actually felt sorry for him.

This really makes me the villain. Well, that’s fine. I’m supposed to act like one anyway.

“Safira, the joke’s going too far. You’re really scaring him.”

That said, she couldn’t possibly be serious. This had to be her idea of a joke.

That’s what I thought when I spoke up…

“A joke? I’m completely serious, though?”

Her eyes were dead serious.

“Oh. Okay.”

If that’s the case, I have nothing more to say. You two work it out yourselves.

“Hey! Don’t look away! Help me!”

“Good luck.”

“That’s it!? Nothing like ‘I’ll save you’?”

“Why do I have to save you? You’re the one who didn’t help me first, protagonist.”

“Stop with the protagonist thing. Don’t give me weird nicknames!”

As Luxol and I argued,

“…Not fair.”

Safira glared at us with fierce, sullen eyes.

“You’re leaving me out… Having the next room really isn’t fair.”

“Don’t complain to me.”

If you’re going to protest, take it up with the headmaster or someone higher up.

Me and the protagonist are just powerless commoners.

Also, I honestly don’t want the next room? It feels scary. The distance would be way too close.

In the end, the best thing with neighbors is a moderate distance.