Chapter 3: Chapter 01 ─ Irregularity

After anchoring in Aster harbor, I had a talk with a diplomatic man.

I told him how we were taunted and spat on my ship by some military men.

The size of the sacred tree is amazing, it is bigger than a mountain.

He was telling me various things about how they work here.

Apparently the kingdom and Aster are exchanging a lot of magic stones.

The diplomat asked me to not cause havoc, I promised my girlfriends I wouldn't do that.

The carriage stopped and I got out, a servant brought me helped me to bring my bags down and leave them inside.

The diplomat apologized for not being able to prepare a better house or servants.

But someone would come to clean twice a week, I could choose the days.

The neighborhood where I would be living for the next few months it looks good, it was upper-middle class.

A beautiful development.

After saying goodbye, I went inside and told him to get out.

"It was a tiring trip."

Ixion came out of my carry-on suitcase and got angry with me.

"Those military men were very rude to my little boy. You should have let me take them out or at least have them crash."

My airship was spit on by these individuals, I am very angry, but I can't cause trouble.

Ixion began to use his powers of science to get the clothes out and upstairs to arrange them in the drawers.

We started talking about our itinerary.

"Okay, let's recap what information we have."

The clothes kept moving on their own as he looked at me.

"According to Erselica, there are six capture targets in this sequel, there's also a heroine."

"During the prologue it was mentioned that one of the capture targets from the first game was supposed to come here, there was also the target that can be obtained by buying it, but no one wanted it and it was rejected."

"Our goal is to make sure everything goes well among the heroine, whose name is unknown as the player was writing it down, but her last name is Algrand and she belongs to a crumbling baronet household."

"Well, you have to work hard."

"I'll be the one working hard, you can't investigate anything because you don't have the resources to do them."

"I'm a flesh and blood human being, don't ask me to spy on the conversations of people like you!"

"It's called gathering information and that's not even what you would be good for, go take a walk or something while I take care of everything. I'll let you know about it early tomorrow morning."

I got so mad I threw the pillow at him, he dodged it of course.

"It missed me."

I threw another one at him and it hit him squarely in his body which is also his face.

I laughed victoriously and ran out of there.

Before, this guy's way of talking and expressing himself were cold and insipid, now they're better.

Just remembering the problems, I had last year with the idiots Liam and company, Erselica looking for her reverse harem, the bastard Klein orchestrating a manipulation of Liam and destroying the kingdom.

It's a headache I don't want to let happen again.

As I was running I realized I had reached the woods near the development.

I was about to turn around to go home when I noticed something on the ground.

It was a small white rabbit that had an injured paw.

Someone had left it injured.

I took it in my arms and checked my wallet if I had it in my pocket.

It was there, I will look for a vet to cure it.

First I checked if it had any more external wounds, it seems there are no more.

Why do I help this rabbit?

I like animals, what's more to say than that.

◇

A new day came, the rabbit I found turned out to be a bunny.

The veterinarian didn't detect a thing, but when I returned home Ixion was going to lecture me, but suddenly he scanned the rabbit, which I christened Lucy because of the pure color of her coat.

Ixion informed me the sad news that she had several damaged organs.

Even if he performed an operation on her, which he did later, she would only live a few weeks.

It seems that her ribs and some organs were broken.

Ixion suggested giving intensive care to Lucy the rabbit.

I thanked him for that, he just said "It is the normal thing to do in this situation, you only bring problems". Despite saying that, Ixion did not seem unhappy from my perspective.

I was eating my breakfast while a floating bottle was giving its nutrients to the bunny and Ixion informed me the following.

"I managed to gather information on the capture targets based on the names Erselica gave, of course, it was very sketchy information, but apparently their last names were enough."

"As you may know, there are seven islands here, each island occupies a ruler being seven great families who rule this place."

"They are called the six great nobles."

"That's too ostentatious a name for me."

"You have odd names too, back to the subject."

"I found this out, the main family called themselves the Vermillion Household and it was the one that always spawned a priestess who was in charge of uniting the people and the sacred tree."

I remembered what Erselica said as we drank tea.

"If I remember correctly, the heroine came from that house, right?"

"Correct, so we just have to look for the name of the last daughter or daughters there were in the main and secondary branch."

"That's a lot to be sure."

"There are a lot of surnames with the name Algrand as well as a lot of 17-year-old girls and twintails here."

"Turning to the capture targets..."

"What's wrong?"

"It's really bad."

"...Don't tell me they're dead?"

"It's not that. It's something else."

Scared at the thought of the boys dying, I asked.

"Don't make me scared, just say it."

"Well, starting with that prudent tile, Lugh Eliol Lunor, he's currently in a relationship with a girl named Diana Algrand."

"Really!"

"Yes. He seems to be serious, he wants to propose to her according to what I heard. The next of them is Romeo Ciel Rosenberg, rejected."

"Why?"

Ixion informed me something unexpected and interesting.

"Rumor has it he's a bookworm who won't leave his room, at the same time his father is the Acting Chairman."

Acting Chairman, a man Erselica told me is the final boss.

He will merge with the sacred tree and destroy everything.

He also has a daughter, who is a villainess by default.

The Acting Chairman is responsible for murdering the heroine's parents, so for one of the capture targets to be a candidate partner I see it impossible to happen.

"I understand, what about the others?"

"I heard that Tom─ Thomas Ian Exner is the younger brother of the current head of his house, soon to be engaged to a daughter of a great nobleman."

"I see."

(I can't imagine that unlike Romeo, the heroine wants to be with a man who will have a wife.)

"His older brother worked as a teacher until last year, but his father passed away and he had to leave the academy, now he is the head of his house, Linus Ian Exner is the secret capture target that is unlocked in case Tom is not caught."

"Th-That's very interesting information."

"The last two candidates, heirs to their houses, Jude Gaia Banfield and Zack Noctis Wayne, are currently missing."

"Missing?"

Now that really terrified me.

"From what I heard, Zack is an adventurer and likes to go out and poke around, Erselica said for that reason he was hard to catch and they had to place Linus as a replacement."

"As for Jude, they report that they haven't heard from him since last vacation."

"I understand."

I brought my hand to my chin.

(Excluding Romeo, that's five capture targets, two are missing, Lugh has a girlfriend, Tom will have a fiancée, that only leaves one option.)

"Linus is 24, I doubt the heroine wants to be with an older man who will be forced to marry to protect his inheritance."

"I-It's scary that you read my mind."

"But that makes it more complicated to ensure the heroine's good ending with these guys. Why can't they all be normal!"

I held my hands to my head as I said that.

Ixion reported.

"Master it will soon be time for classes to start. Don't worry about Erselica and the rest."

He showed me a video, Erselica and the idiots were having trouble with breakfast and getting dressed.

I was horrified to imagine Liam as my future king, what a pitiful future.

◇

I arrived at the school, I was listening to the principal's message welcoming everyone.

After finishing the presentation, a teacher called our names and we were sent to separate classes.

I ended up with Clovis in the same class.

Even here, the guy is still a clown, at least he's popular, which I find odd.

Recess came and Clovis with an angry expression on his face said.

"I'm going to lunch with Erselica and the others, I hope you don't want to join us either."

"As if I'd want to be with you."

My relationship with the idiots was always bad.

They picked fights with Alisa, Liam being her fiancé, all because of Erselica.

Good thing I was able to beat them up.

Before I left the classroom, a teacher stopped me.

He instructed me to go to the teacher's lounge where I will meet a guide who will teach me and my classmates the school like personal rules.

I went to the indicated place, the idiots wanted to have lunch with Erselica so I forced them all to come.

I knocked on the door, someone answered and I opened it.

There inside I could see a single person checking a document.

"You guys must be the foreign students from Altfode Kingdom, right?"

"Nice to meet you, my name is Sara. Sara Ciel Rosenberg."

The girl by the name of Sara was beautiful, fluffy golden blonde hair that reached down to her shoulder blade, green eyes and most of all a chest so large that even wearing a thin shirt really marked how big they were.

When I stopped looking at her chest and looked into her eyes, for some reason she looked like she saw a ghost.

Clovis whispered to me.

"Hey, did you do something to her? She's looking at you."

Warren next to me backed him up.

"We've barely been here a day and Count Bradford has already started bothering the locals."

I wanted to shut the four-eyed man up, but the truth was I'd never seen her before.

Her look left me a little scared, she returned to normal and shook her head, getting her hair to shake as well.

I heard Erselica mutter.

"Guh. Her hair is silky, I hate it when someone has nice hair unlike mine."

Said the dwarf girl with the carrot hairstyle.

Sara took the board and said to us.

"W-Well, let me show you around the facility, first let me take your attendance to memorize your names."

She started naming us all by our first names instead of last names like in the kingdom.

When he got to my name.

"... Ru...del?"

She froze, I fearfully raised my hand.

"H-Here."

She saw me and shook her head again.

Her eyes now looked like those of a frightened puppy.

"L-Let's go see the grounds."

Sara hurried out of the room, we trailed after her.

◇

"Hey, don't you think she's weird?"

"Yeah, very."

Erselica was talking to me while eating her bread.

Rather, she was stuffing many loaves of bread into her mouth and chewing them like there was no tomorrow.

We were all eating since we were given permission to see the academy.

It is bigger than the kingdom academy.

The kingdom academy looks like a college campus but this place looks like a regular school with many rooms for sports clubs, drama among others.

The idiots were asking Sara various questions, for that reason Erselica and I can converse without being disturbed.

"Still, she's supposed to be the villainess."

"She really is a villainess?"

"She's the daughter of the Acting Chairman who is the main villain. Take her as a secondary villainess."

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"But... she doesn't look like a bad person."

I looked at Sara, she looked like an ordinary model student, even now she was answering Chlust and Frey's stupid questions.

Though every now and then she would glance at me.

Maybe that's what the strange feeling of being watched I had been having for a while now.

Erselica pointed her finger at me as she spoke with her mouth full.

"You shouldn't trust her. She's a villainess."

I told her. "You said the same thing about Alisa and in the end the only villainess was you."

She behaved like a preachy puppy dog.

But with all this... is she really a danger?

◇◇◇

On the stairs of a nearby building, a group of students looked at Rudel's group with bad eyes.

"Tch, look at those foreign rats. Behaving like they're the kings of this place, skipping classes and eating lunch at whatever time they feel like."

"Don't we do the same thing?"

"No. We're special, they're not."

"Shut up."

Said a boy sitting awkwardly on the stairs.

He seemed to be the leader of them, for a second year boy, his body was in bad shape.

His limbs were thin and he looked anemic because of his transparent skin.

His stomach was bulging from all the junk food he ate.

His purple hair was a mess and his eyes of the same color showed a hateful expression.

He was the second son of one of the great nobles, Derrick Zaja Herring.

Derrick looked at the students of the kingdom who were happily conversing with Sara.

"Guh, that bitch Sara, again she's seducing them with those huge tits."

In his head, Derrick believed that Sara was his woman, the reason for that was due to a psychological problem of him when she greeted him with a smile when they were kids.

"Do you want to teach them a lesson Derrick-sama?"

Derrick looked at the boy next to him.

"A lesson? Umm, yeah, why not."

"I'll teach them not to mess with my woman."

In his hand he held a bottle of wine, he tossed it and then they all walked out of there.

"Sara, I'll teach you that a bitch like you should only look at me and no one else."

◇

When I got home, I told Ixion to make a video call home for me.

That's right, video calls exist.

Ixion says he uses magic power to generate the link so we can connect in real time in conversation.

He says it's unstable, so it can't last very long, maybe about 10 minutes.

I lay down on the couch and made myself a homemade sandwich.

He said he sent Bell the IP to connect to.

Why would an AI have an IP?

I don't care.

Ixion came over and out of his red eye came a holographic box, it had static like TVs that weren't digital.

After a while the image cleared, there were the girls.

"Alisa, Airi! I'm glad to see you!"

I said happily.

Alisa smiled at me, she looked very pretty.

"Rudel, I'm glad to see you're doing well. Everything okay over there? You haven't caused any trouble? His Highness hasn't given you any headaches?"

I laughed a little, this was the kind of reassurance I wanted.

"Everything's fine, how about you guys?"

"Rudel-san listen!"

Airi stood in front of the screen.

"Today a lot of guys tried to hit on me! I turned them down saying I had a boyfriend, they kept insisting that they wanted me as a lover! Don't you think it's very cheeky?"

"Airi, tell me the names of those guys. When I come back I'll kill them."

I was showing a sinister expression without being told.

"Rudel, don't worry, I'll take care of them."

Alisa corrected me while showing that kind of look.

"Whatever. Rudel-san, what's a foreign country like?"

"I-I want to know too. I only know the kingdom."

I told them both everything except for Sara.

I noticed how their eyebrows raised when I mentioned that a girl was our guide.

If I had told them she was a big-breasted blonde beauty, they would have undoubtedly questioned me.

The 10 minutes were almost up.

Suddenly, I felt a discomfort, not stomach pain but something else.

I looked at Ixion for a while thinking what he would tell me if he heard it.

I decided to ignore that question and told them.

"Girls, I have a problem."

"What is it?"

"It's something I don't want to say in my current situation."

Alisa looked concerned.

"Whatever problem you have, if we can help you solve it just tell us."

"I don't have any kind of power, but you can always count on me."

Seeing that they are determined to listen to them I told them.

"I... I'm in the mood."

There, I said it.

"In the mood? Haven't you eaten yet?"

Airi didn't understand, Alisa who was looking to the side in embarrassment grabbed Airi's shoulder and whispered it to her.

Airi turned red.

"S-Something like that... are you really this desperate?"

Weeks ago I got a taste of the adult world.

I liked it.

I never thought something like that would feel good.

For that reason, I want to keep trying it.

They agree, too.

Alisa said.

"R-Rudel, if you can't stand it, I can give you permission to go with a female companion."

"Y-You're a man, you must satisfy your primary needs."

"We are not there to help you so─"

"I don't want to. I don't want to go with a prostitute!"

I shouted at Alisa who was staring dejectedly at the floor.

"I love you girls, I want it to be with you only!"

Hearing me say that, they blushed more.

"But Rudel-san, weren't you in the mood? I'm sure you can calm it down with another woman."

"I am in the mood, but I want to be with you two."

"I-I see."

The embarrassment on both of their faces was cute.

"In that case, Rudel, how about that?"

Alisa suggested an idea.

"Ixion's body is on its way between half the kingdom and Aster."

"Ixion said that if he moves his body it will be for an emergency, it's possible that something will happen while I'm somewhere else and only he will be able to help us. I can't move him, just like that."

"Rudel-san, what if you just wait for us?"

Airi suddenly gave another solution.

"We just started the school year, you should just wait for the next vacation and then come here."

"That way... we could help with that problem."

"I can bear it if I know you girls would wait for me."

It seems that with that said, the desire of my desire calmed down.

"Master, the communication will soon be over."

Ixion said that, it seems Bell said that too.

"In that case, there is nothing more to tell you."

"Take good care of yourselves, I love you and we'll see each other again soon."

They nodded with their heads bowed and communication was cut off.

I looked at Ixion and said.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He flew off as he seemed to enjoy the moment, like I really hate it.

◇◇◇

The morning came of a new day.

Liam entered the classroom where there were many highborn boys and girls like him.

The class was being taught by Viscount Ressel.

At first, Liam found the class strange.

The viscount was talking about how to develop his territory.

But it was in a way that left him disturbed.

"The most important thing for territorial management is balance."

Viscount Ressel believes in the importance of balance and was encouraging young people to combine good and evil, to combine the best of both worlds to create harmony.

"The sky pirates are a good example. Many of them are former Lords. Some nobles think it's a good idea to defeat pirates, but that's a mistake."

"They don't understand that there are compelling reasons for pirates to appear. Many have become pirates because they couldn't survive."

Viscount Ressel explained and continued.

"Many nobles are short-sighted enough to think that these pirates should be destroyed. Originally, it is rust that comes out of their bodies. They think the right thing to do is to rule without creating pirates."

Listening to Viscount Ressel, a girl raised her hand.

"Professor, how do they deal with those who only do piracy?"

It was a simple question. The viscount answered as if it was a matter of course.

"That's a good question. If they were nothing but ruffians, we would have to eliminate them. But there are some pirates who are intelligent. They are needed to control the slums. It's only fair that we join forces and work for the development of the territory."

Several people looked at each other uneasily. When a nobleman openly said he was willing to join forces with the pirates, it was tempting to suspect he was involved in bad deals.

Liam asked after having a lump in his throat.

"Isn't it a noble's duty to protect his territory and his people?"

"That is correct. That's why it's necessary to protect the territory, even if it means doing some evil. It's all very well to be clean, but that's not how the world works."

The shocking content surprised the children, but they were also excited and interested.

It wasn't a problem to get them interested.

This was the exciting part of Viscount Ressel's class. He could talk about impactful content and get the youngsters interested. It was the eighteenth time in his teaching career that he had done so.

"Originally, a Lord's job was to keep pirates away. However, that's impossible. So, don't you think it's more efficient to control the pirates?"

Then Liam, who began to feel a stomach ache interjected.

"I'm sorry professor, but in my country we had many problems with pirates. Some even tried to harm the royal family."

Viscount Ressel was taken aback. In what was examined of Liam's royal family, it seemed that they were taking the initiative to subdue the pirates.

The viscount smiled as he saw that he would be pleased with the idea he said.

"Your Highness Liam, don't you think everything could have been made better if they had dealt with them as if they were merchants?"

"A pirate is a merchant, he seeks to get something, he does it by stealing, but it is his desire to get it. If you guys had given them a safe deal, they would currently be part of your fleet to protect the country."

Liam sat up when he heard that, the other students also asked questions.

The viscount was happy that the children are so moldable.

But Liam who lived through problems with the corrupt thought.

(Bradford. This place is weird, I think I understand a little how you felt when the traitors used me to attack Duke Bismarck's family.)

"Now, back to the story. By turning a blind eye to some bad things, you guys can avoid further losses. It would be problematic if pirates attacked merchant ships, took it over and sank them."

"But what if they pay a toll and let them go?"

The Viscount explained such a thing and concluded as follows.

"We have to get along with the pirates. That's the right way to run a territory."

Educated by Viscount Ressel, the children had a convincing look about them.

Liam was all the time with his stomach aching from what he was hearing, deep in his belly, he apologized to Rudel for the trouble he caused him in the past.

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