Chapter 2
Chapter 2 – Exploring for Now
I blinked several times under the ornate ceiling.
I muttered “wake up if this is a dream” several times.
But when I looked in the mirror, the time bomb princess was still reflected back.
She’s really pretty. Pretty enough to be believed as a protagonist, but she’s not the protagonist and doesn’t have a protagonist’s impression either.
“This should be a dream.”
It doesn’t seem to be a dream though.
This quick reality recognition!
“I think I have good adaptability myself, don’t you think?”
“Huh? …Ah! Of course. Your Highness is the only daughter of the great ruler His Majesty Rio Grande—”
“Ah, that’s enough. Enough.”
I waved my hand lightly to stop the ginkgo girl’s mouth. The girl pressed her lips shut tightly. So this is what power is like.
Anyway, I decided to accept reality before even a day passed.
[Download progress 7%]
This pops up like a notification every morning too.
Anyway, since accepting reality is always the most difficult, I send cheers to myself.
“Why did I end up coming here?”
“Huh? Well…”
“You don’t need to answer.”
I cut off the ginkgo girl’s words and reflected on why I came to this place.
My last memory before coming here was falling asleep while playing a game.
But thinking about it carefully, I think I was also having a conversation with a friend.
I might have complained about my newly changed team and boss, and talked about notification sounds.
Maybe I was on a call while playing the game and dozed off halfway.
I’m completely scatterbrained.
But…
“Who was it again?”
I can’t quite remember the friend I was talking to before entering this place.
‘…I can’t remember my name either.’
I really can’t remember my real name. The bigger problem was that I didn’t feel the seriousness of wondering who I am.
I couldn’t tell if recognizing reality in such a short time was my ability.
I decided to stop worrying since it seemed like a headache was about to start in earnest. It was closer to deciding to stop thinking because it was getting unnecessarily complicated.
When I gestured with my hand, Ron approached looking puzzled. She flinched like a small animal, but I ignored it and moved my hand.
“Do you happen to have stomach pain?”
“What?! How did you know?”
“Can’t you see this?”
“Huh?”
[A prodigy among maids suffering from stomach pain.]
Name – Ron Endel
Age – 18 years old
Position – Lady’s Maid
Class – Lady’s Maid
Hidden Class – Assassin
Special Notes – Can lift up to 6 times her own body weight.
Miel Kazan’s personal maid. Has excellent abilities not only in maid work but also in management and care activities.
Developed stomach pain after serving as Miel’s maid for over 6 months.
It’s a status window that only I can see and others can’t.
When I reach out my hand, things like this appear… I want to believe it’s a well-made VR game.
Someone please tell me that’s what it is.
“Six times…”
“Huh?”
“Do you happen to know what I’m looking at right now?”
“Looking at? …You’re looking at me?”
The ginkgo girl Ron frowned.
Her fearful expression wasn’t just fear of the villainess’s tyranny.
Right, it was the kind of fear you’d have when meeting a madman.
“Hahaha…”
“Eek.”
She swallowed unconsciously and pressed a hand to her stomach. It must have been a moment when the pain sharpened.
And I think I’m going to suffer from stomach pain too.
* * *
[Reputation has increased.]
This is surprisingly fun.
…I found myself thinking without realizing it.
This world gave immediate feedback whenever I did something.
“I never knew Your Highness cared about this place…”
[Gardener A.]
Name – Thomas
Age – 36 years old
Position – Gardener
Class – Gardener
Special Notes – Has exceptional talent for exterminating bugs that get into flower beds.
Takes care of the West Palace garden.
Newly married. Admires the deceased empress he saw in the garden as a child.
“No, it’s nothing much.”
I dismissed the other person’s status window and spoke haughtily.
“Nothing much… Nothing much, you say! Honestly, it felt so satisfying!”
[Popularity has increased.]
Beside us, men in apprentice knight uniforms were sprawled out.
I was the one who knocked out those men, and every time I knocked them out, phrases like “Experience gained, Level up!” would appear.
“The West Palace garden was a place my mother loved.”
Thomas’s face was colored with emotion once again.
I got this information from Miel’s memories that started downloading and from your status window.
“I-I’m sorry. Once the construction is finished, it will be like before.”
“Construction… Ah, so that’s the reason these ruffians managed to linger.”
They were apprentice knights from noble families in the royal palace.
‘Still, they’re from noble families and part of the royal knight order, is it okay to do this?’
I wondered if Castlevenia wasn’t in a safe state even under the rule of the great king Rio Grande, but I quickly brushed it off.
It had nothing to do with me. There was no need to think about it either.
“Ugh, urgh.”
The group of men groaned. They seemed to be regaining consciousness.
“…!”
I could feel the gardener’s panic. It seemed he had suffered a lot from them.
When I glanced over, I could see bruises all over his exposed skin.
“Too harsh on a newlywed.”
“H-how did you—”
I smiled and approached the knights who had regained consciousness.
“Wha- Hiiiiek!!”
The men who came to their senses and met my eyes let out unseemly screams.
* * *
[Popularity has increased.]
[Popularity has decreased.]
The increase was thanks to helping Thomas, and the decrease was for beating up the apprentice knights.
‘It’s like playing a mobile game.’
I fiddled with various status windows while walking.
When I pressed the map-shaped button above the status window, a map unfolded.
[Royal Palace.]
The map was labeled “Royal Palace,” and it updated as I moved around. Color was added to the gray graphics.
A circle labeled “Miel” walked briskly across the map.
I could see a circle labeled Thomas near the West Palace garden, and above the circles moving away from the garden, I could see things like “Apprentice Knight 1” and “Apprentice Knight 2.”
All of that was both interesting and absurd.
It seems I really have become the villainess Miel Kazan from the game <Cocoa Road.>
I thought it was a dream, but the dream didn’t end. Accepting this as real isn’t easy, not when I’m staring at these strange status windows.
“Isn’t there something like a game exit button?”
I flipped through status windows and pressed around in the air, but I couldn’t see anything like that.
There was no sign of escape like save, load, or anything.
When I waved my hand around randomly, I saw something labeled [Miel Kazan Skill List].
“Ha, skill list indeed.”
[Normal Head Bonk.]
[Hard Shin Kick.]
[Half-learned Sword Energy.]
[Half-learned Holy Power.]
[Royal Authority.]
“How proper!”
It should be cringeworthy, but I got used to it. It was a system I had seen once in <Cocoa Road> anyway.
<Cocoa Road> was really strange. Romance games can have RPG elements, but they put too much effort into that part.
My stepsister, whose face I can’t even remember now, said that was the charm point of this game.
Honestly, I didn’t like that element. I was busy enough just with romance, but there was RPG too…
“Quest.”
[Main Quest: Currently unavailable for viewing.]
[Side Quest: Currently unavailable for viewing.]
“Even after walking around so much, this isn’t available yet.”
In that game where Cocoa was the protagonist, there were conditions for the main game to start.
But I don’t know about a game where Miel is the protagonist. Of course I don’t know since it didn’t exist.
“Hmm…”
I had almost completely cleared <Cocoa Road> itself, except for the hidden character.
What began as a way to connect with my stepsister has turned into me playing with so much energy that OO would probably call me out: “You actually liked it quite a bit, didn’t you?”
I was intensely frustrated that I couldn’t remember my best friend’s name either.
I found out that this place is another world, inside a game, and even that it has game functions, but the more I learned, the further away the original world became.
Physically, I had already left, and even from my memories…
[Download progress 25%]
What exactly is being downloaded? My own memories slip away so easily, but for some reason this damn head of mine remembers <Cocoa Road> in vivid detail.
If that were all, it might have been better.
Leaving behind <Cocoa Road>, memories of Miel Kazan that weren’t in the game were gradually seeping in.
“Now I don’t even know what kind of person I am.”
“Y-Your Highness! You were here!”
I muttered it like a complaint, but Ron happened to be right there behind me.
I glanced at her pale face and smiled slightly.
“Who am I?”
“Huh? Well, that’s…”
“You don’t need to say.”
Ron’s face looked like she was about to cry. Her stomach must have hurt too since she slightly hunched her body.
“You’re quite pleasing to me.”
I laughed like a real villainess with a “kook” sound. At the same time, when I gazed wistfully at Ron’s ginkgo leaf-colored hair, her face was colored with horror.
It was a healing moment. Like the feeling of giving a cat some treats to nibble on.
“Oh, there’s a chair over there.”
“I…”
“Let’s sit together before going in.”
She followed me while suppressing her reluctance, and the real charm was that it showed plainly to my eyes.
“Aren’t you going to sit?”
I sat on the chair, but she was just standing.
“Sit.”
I spoke curtly without asking her opinion, then stared at her intently. Only then did Ron sit down, turning pale.
After nodding satisfactorily, I withdrew my gaze from her.
I looked up at the sky. The sky was certainly not much different from the sky in reality, but if I reached my hand up there, another status window would probably appear.
Because <Cocoa Road> is that kind of game.
“Who came to Marinwood?”
Then I heard a low voice.
Small, clear pronunciation, sweet low tone. And suddenly my mind went blank.
