"Lady Presepe."
Someone's voice was heard, and Presepe, who had been sitting slumped on the ground, spontaneously sprang to his feet.
Before she knew it, her tangled hair was swaying and back in place, and her clothes, which had been disheveled here and there, became neat as if by magic.
Of course, it wasn't her own will. It's just that the game had started.
“Come in.”
This time as well, a voice different from her own flowed out from between her lips.
Then...
[1. Good morning, Ella.]
[2. You really are an ill-mannered child! Coming to see your master at this early hour?!]
[3. What's going on?]
Now, a series of options that she could memorize even with her eyes closed appeared.
Now, she can't be bothered to do anything. She sighed and chose the third option.
“What’s going on?”
The exact words written in the options came out. She was just like a parrot.
"His Majesty has ordered Lady Presepe to be brought here. Right now."
Emperor Dietrich.
The unprecedented tyrant of Ateloia.
Also, the person who killed Presepe for the first time—in other words, the first male character to conquer.
[1. Runs away.]
[2. Says I understand.]
[3. Says I'm not going.]
She bit her lip tightly as she stared at the options that appeared before her.
"Yes."
Then, she chose the second one.
Of course, I would have liked to choose the first one, but anyway, I have to start the game to find the real male protagonist, don't I?
Furthermore, the endings of the remaining options were absolutely terrible.
In the first instance, she was killed by an arrow shot by a soldier sent by Dietrich, and in the third instance, Ella, who had been severely punished by the Emperor, harbored a grudge and poisoned her food.
"Come out now. Don't waste time needlessly like before and make me get scolded."
Ella grabbed her and dragged jer along, muttering. Anyone could see that this was not the attitude of someone serving a master at all.
Anyway, damn it.
She muttered curses to herself that she could not even bring herself to say out loud.
***
Dietrich Ateloia.
As the name suggests, the Emperor who inherited the legitimate lineage of Ateloia.
Dietrich...
He didn't like Presepe at all. Far from liking him, he loathed her.
I even thought, "No, if you hate her that much, couldn't you just kill her...?" but I only realized it after I defeated him.
The fact that Dietrich hated Presepe and could not bring himself to kill her was for the same reason.
Unlike his current appearance, which seems like not a single drop of blood would come out even if stabbed with a knife, Dietrich was frequently ill from a young age.
Furthermore, Dietrich's father, the former Emperor, was attached to the second son born to a concubine rather than Dietrich, the son of the Empress and thus the legitimate eldest son, and intended to pass the imperial power to him as well.
To make matters worse, around that time Dietrich's mother, the Empress, also fell ill and died, leaving Dietrich truly all alone in this bleak imperial palace.
It was young Presepe who stayed by Dietrich's side.
Presepe, the daughter of a concubine whom the Emperor brought in in his old age, was not a Princess who was particularly favored by the Emperor.
Furthermore, since Presepe's mother, Vanessa, was of commoner origin, she had absolutely no power of her own within the imperial palace. The Emperor had no intention of creating one for her. He had brought her here because he coveted her beauty, but he never actually had any desire to do anything for her from the very beginning.
Just as Vanessa received no proper treatment at the Imperial Palace, Presepe also did not receive proper treatment as an imperial Princess.
She grew up unable to do so. The Emperor, whom she considered a father, ignored his daughter, far from showing her affection, and her mother was mentally devastated and unable to care for Presepe attentively.
So she must have been lonely, too. I had seen young Presepe and young Dietrich slowly opening their hearts to each other and spending affectionate time together during the tutorial.
However, Vanessa's infidelity was revealed too late, and Presepe, whose non-daughter status as the Emperor was exposed, was stripped of her title as Princess and expelled from the palace, without even having a chance to say goodbye to Dietrich.
Not long after, Dietrich, who had recovered his health and was waiting for the right moment, killed his younger brother and ascended to the throne, and unleashed his troops to bring Presepe in.
And imprisoned her in the West Tower, the tallest building of the imperial palace.
Dietrich misunderstood many things in the meantime, but roughly speaking, it goes like this.
He says Presepe abandoned him, who was sick like the others, and tried to go and cling to the Second Prince.
However, affection remained, and in the end, Dietrich could not bring himself to kill Presepe and merely imprisoned her in the tower.
In other words, love-hate...
When I first tried to win him over, I felt a little sorry for him, but considering how consistently he had been treated and I already knew the ending, I was just annoyed.
"No, why did you suddenly lock her up when you could have resolved it with a conversation? You have a mouth, so why won't you speak? What on earth are you going to use her for?"
Presepe stopped walking down the hallway and grumbled to herself. Then, she soon let out a self-deprecating laugh.
...Well, I'm just the same; I have a mouth but can't speak.
As the game progressed, Presepe could not do anything as she pleased. All she could do was choose the options that appeared in sequence.
“Ugh.”
Presepe let out a sigh and looked ahead. A firmly closed red door. It was Dietrich's room.
...To think I have to see that dreadful face again.
Annoyed, Presepe took a step while cursing under her breath.
Soon, her arms stretched out, and Presepe opened the closed door against her will.
Then, bowing respectfully toward Emperor Dietrich, who was sitting crookedly in front of her, she muttered to herself.
'You wretched bastard.'
It was a thought that was quite far from a polite greeting.
"...I greet His Imperial Majesty."
Unlike her true feelings, which were full of profanity, very polite greetings naturally came out.
Even though I've been stripped of my status and reside in the Imperial Palace as a nobody, I still look so fine.
To be honest, there is a contradiction in Dietrich's statement.
Of course, it was true that Presepe had been stripped of her status as an imperial Princess and was living in the palace as a nobody, but it was Dietrich who had ordered it, so Presepe had no will of her own.
"They say vulgar people have no shame, and he is exactly like that."
A clear hint of mockery was in Dietrich's tone.
At the first time, I thought, 'Even greeting him is a pain in the ass,' but now that I have gotten used to even that pain in the ass, it is simply annoying.
'Hurry up and finish it.'
Why does this damn game not even have a skip function, making it so tiring? Anyway, it really is a game that is behind the times.
Anyway, you unlucky bastard.
She was muttering to herself for a while when her head slowly lifted. Presepe silently looked at Dietrich, who was sitting diagonally on the throne.
Dietrich's first impression was that he was cold-blooded.
It was because of the uniquely menacing atmosphere, where it felt like saying the wrong thing could get you beheaded at any moment. And well, that was actually the case.
Of course, that doesn't mean Dietrich is ugly. That's just how games like this are. The male characters all have to be good-looking. That's what makes the game fun to pursue.
Dietrich was the character representing the most major yet general tastes in 'There's bound to be one among these that suits your taste'.
"A lowly thing without pride or spirit."
... As you can see, he has a foul mouth and a twisted personality, though.
Presepe's gaze turned over Dietrich's head.
[Dietrich Ateloia/Affection Level 0]
Soon, the empty affection status window came into view, and sparkling options popped out.
[1. I apologize.]
[2. Say nothing.]
[3. Your voice doesn't sound good.]
Up until now, Presepe has unconditionally chosen only number 1. To survive without going against that fiery temper...
This was because the only way to exist was to crawl on the ground without any presence.
It was the same even when she barely managed to see Dietrich's standard ending. Since Dietrich was a strange pervert bastard who craved and thirsted even more for Presepe's personality—who never got angry or showed emotion no matter how harshly he was spoken to.
So Presepe decided to choose number 3. She needed to find the real male protagonist, and she felt that there was absolutely no benefit in needlessly building up Dietrich's favorability right from the start.
But suddenly...
A strange option appeared.
[◆ What are you talking about, you idiot! Mind your own business, you moron.]
...What is this again?
At the sudden turn of events, Presepe's violet eyes were filled with bewilderment.
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