Chapter Twenty-Five: The Otome Game’s Footsteps can be Heard (Part II)
“Gōhō?“
“Ah, no.”
Oh no, I don’t think I can communicate with a shota this way.
Ah, no, I think I just mistakenly said that in Japanese.
What’s the corresponding word for that in this world…?
Shounen ai? That sounds like something else.
Boy’s love? Is that it?
It just came out of my mouth suddenly.
That’s because the original term was shotacon from Shota Complex; I cut the last bit, shortening the terminology to shota.
If I translate it further into Japanese, it could equal to shounen-ai or boy’s love, but that still doesn’t feel like it’s coming out right.
Having said that, then… A legal shounen…?
Of course, it’s still strange.
But it seems like that’s the only translation I can give for it…?
It isn’t easy to translate something derived from a Japanese term!
That’s why the word shota inadvertently came out.
In my head, I often mix up Japanese with this world’s language.
However, this was the first time the mix-up actually came out straight from my mouth.
I’ve been speaking this world’s language ever since I woke up in Annelier’s body.
There was no doubt that this body belonged to Annelier, and because I’m using the same brain, I can read, write, and speak as eloquently as she did.
I don’t know why Annelier’s personal memory was wiped clean when the brain we used were one and the same. However, I thought this may still be the case as even people with actual memory loss, although they could still speak, read, and write, sometimes still retain no personal memories.
And I think that was why I got diagnosed with having memory loss.
That’s why I’ve never had a problem with words, but maybe it’s because my actual experience with vocabulary was limited that I’m having trouble now.
Maybe it’s because of that… That I haven’t come across any words that I could fit in with my previous language to this world’s vocabulary.
Also, I hadn’t had the chance to talk about the things that didn’t exist in this world because I’d been holed up in my room for so long, only undergoing Reinhardt-sama’s training.
I was sure Japan’s a more advanced country in almost every way compared to this world, but that was also why I’ve avoided saying any strange self-destructive things in my conversations with Reinhardt-sama… Though I wouldn’t say I’ve never actually accidentally said some things that got me in trouble.
I was able to analyze it… But there’s also the fact of how Reinhardt-sama was looking down at me with suspicion in his eyes.
Will… Will I be able to deceive him…?
I felt sweat starting to form on my back, but I still didn’t know what to say, so I just kept spinning things around in my head. Before I knew it, the door, which was only half open, shifted a bit more.
“Hey— Are you still—?”
“Wait a little longer.”
“Isn’t it okay already? I don’t need any proper greetings, and she’s already dressed properly.”
Uhhh… He knows I don’t usually wear any clothes, doesn’t he?
The legal shota, as it was set in the otome game, was the guardian spirit of this country and the Royal Family.
Since he was a spirit, he’d already existed way before the foundation of the country, so technically, in terms of age, he can legally claim, “I’m way long past 18 years old!”
His blessings to the Royal Family were the type that also worked for the country that was being protected by the king, so the object of the blessing was the country itself, not the people who were direct subjects to it.
Given that, I… Whether I’m Annelier or Anna, I’m definitely not a target of his blessing… Sigh.
There should be no reason to see me, though.
But this… This was the setting of an otome game made into my reality… I wonder if it’ll actually be different.
“That… That child?”
I couldn’t think of a good way to deceive Reinhardt-sama, so I decided to ask about the boy by pretending to be unfamiliar with him.
…But from the way he was still looking down on me chillingly, it didn’t seem to be working…
My heart was pounding hard…!
“…That is the guardian spirit of our country.”
Was, was I able to fool him?
“Vint, you may come in.”
“Again! Reinhardt doesn’t have enough respect for the guardian spirit.”
The half-open door was pushed all the way, and the legal shota waltzed inside.
His name was Vint, after all.
“This lady…”
Vint came straight to me and circled around to observe me.
Already, I was completely scared out of my wits by his behavior of observing me so openly.
I wanted to escape, but he circled me so closely that I couldn’t even if I tried to.
Honestly, I couldn’t move at all in the dress, so most probably, even if I wasn’t being circled, I probably couldn’t move well enough to escape.
“Rein… Reinhardt-sama…”
When things like this happened, there was only one person I could call to.
“Compose yourself, Vint.”
Before I could ask him to help, Reinhardt-sama had already grabbed Vint’s head as he passed in front of him, effectively stopping his movements.
“Hey! Again—! Reinhardt really doesn’t have enough respect for the guardian spirit! I get it, I understand, so let go.”
“Do you really?”
“Yeah.”
When Reinhardt-sama released his hand from gripping his head, Vint looked at me again.
“Wernhardt’s blessing, which belongs to neither I nor the beast’s, must’ve been inherited from this lady. However, I don’t know why exactly that is, either. It doesn’t seem to be from another spirit, evil spirit, nor demons.”
“Eh…”
My heart started pounding too loudly, and I felt like my head was about to crack from the stress.
No, he should already be aware that the soul inside Annelier was different.
Probably, that fact was already widely exposed.
I heard from Reinhardt-sama the other day that it already wasn’t that much of a secret, so I shouldn’t be in a hurry to rush to conclusions.
Even if that wasn’t the case, Reinhardt-sama already knows of this face the entire time.
But now, he’d started saying something else.
“What’s the matter with Wernhardt…”
“Those in the Royal Family are born with the blessings of the Guardian Spirit Vint and the Guardian Beast Karel.”
Ahhh, I just heard the name of some essential hidden character.
It’s been about three years since the original timeline from the otome game had ended. However, it’s hard to imagine how I’d still continue to hear the names of possible target captures previously unknown going forward.
The tentacle elf that I heard was coming earlier… Lucian-sensei had yet to make his appearance.
“When we unveiled Wernhardt the other day, Vint had told me that Wernhardt had blessings that were neither his nor Karel’s.”
Eh? Then… Whose is it?
“If it wasn’t inherited from my blood, then that can only mean that he inherited it from you.”
M… Me—!?
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