Somehow I’m the Otome Game Villain 5:

Somehow I’m the Otome Game Villain 5:

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by LordMarksman

…

“Augh, that big dummy! I have homework, but he makes me do all of this!?’

“Given your previous life experience, I thought that this would be well within your ability. You are also being compensated fairly.”

“Students can only work part-time, though!”

“You can hardly be called a student.”

“Guh!” Marie glared at Luxion who just kept floating ominously over her shoulder. She took note of the fact that Ideal stuck to Leon, while Luxion stuck to her. “J-just because I’ve got an old soul doesn’t mean I’m not young anymore!”

“The argument of physiology and mentality is best handled at another time, especially if you truly believe in your own words: you were planning on having an underage romance with five young men.”

Marie paused at that statement and shuddered.

“Okay, let’s forget about that argument for a while. Maybe until my deathbed. I don’t want to marry someone my mental age.” Marie grumbled and Luxion courteously bowed out. She focused on her work for the time being. “Can you check my work? Leon’s a huge pain in the butt when it comes to… everything.”

“Understood. Processing document for legibility, proper punctuation, and content verification.” Luxion cast a beam on the document. A few flashes of light in the beam corrected errors in an instant. Marie waited, flipping pages as needed, until the orb-shaped AI stopped. “… PPlease inform me that you’ve made mistakes in content.”

Marie could only helplessly shrug at those words.

“Sorry, but it’s all true. This world’s crazy. Either the female leads get happy endings, or the entire world dies. The audience is teen girls, you know?”

“I do not know, and I don’t wish to know.”

“So, even for an AI, teen girls are too much!?”

“Yes.”

Marie couldn’t help it… she laughed and fell into the very nice and comfy chair provided for her by her boss.

Her boss who made everything far too real.

“I tried ignoring all of this all my life, you know? I tried to pretend that everything will just be happy and work out, while I enjoyed my happy ending.”

“Word choice.”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” Marie growled and placed a hand against her head. Her temples felt hot to the touch and her eyes felt like they were going to pop. “I don’t see you complaining about Leon going after women our physical age.”

“His mental age is far less mature than your own. Mostly. He seems to have a certain preference for mature looking women. He can easily be swayed to marry an older woman, perhaps the Queen of Holfort would be a good choice?”

Marie snorted.

“He’ll be happy with big curves and a nice attitude, just like the rest. He’ll be ecstatic if he gets more than one, or someone who really hits his fetishes though.” Marie mused for a moment, before shaking her head. She was getting off track. A frown formed on her face. “Do you think that’ll be a problem with our plans to keep the world from exploding?”

“My prediction algorithm is not yet complete. Please ask me in a few more days.” Luxion shook from side to side, before settling on a more concrete answer. “However, Leon has been proactive, capable, and is doing his utmost to secure the situation as thoroughly as possible. Your future knowledge, his drive, and our resources should give us a fair chance at handling the issue and securing the planet.”

Marie nodded at that, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head about what the AI and its brother had planned once the planet was secure.

One apocalypse at a time.

That’s how she’ll do things and stay alive.

Leon could worry about how plans meshed after each game.

Her job was purely to make sure he was informed… and maybe have a shelter just in case?

“Hey, Luxion, you can go into space right?”

“…I can.”

“If this all goes wrong, how about we just run for it with some people you can tolerate and start somewhere else?”

“A part of me dislikes the thought, but it is a logical move. I’ll keep it in mind, Marie.”

“Thanks, you’re great.”

Marie stretched, shook her head, and refocused on her task.

The sooner everything was Leon’s problem the better!

…

“Huh, so Marie’s thinking about turning tail and running if things go south… perfect. I should’ve thought of that myself.”

“Of course, you would enjoy the thought of running away like a coward.”

“The human race is built off of cowards! The people who run away and live are the ones who have kids, y’know!?” Ideal scoffed at my idea, while we both went through the Academy. It was largely deserted, since classes ended. We were placing a few devices for surveillance of the area. My memory of all the CG locations and angles was surprisingly intact, so we were getting pretty great sightlines. “Apologize to all the cowards of the world now!”

“I refuse.”

“Tch.”

Ideal and I were butting heads, so I almost walked into the library without looking.

Which would’ve been bad, since it was Jilk and the female MC’s favorite place to make out.

Anyway, I would’ve walked into the library, if not for bumping into a person at the door.

A person whose eyes were filled with tears.

“Uh, hello?” I managed to make some words come out of my mouth, despite how lost I felt with the current situation. Out of reflex, I had a handkerchief on hand, helped her up, and got rid of her tears. Onee-san would be proud of me. Probably. “Wait a second. Hold on for a moment.”

“H-huh?”

“I-I’m just helping you out. I’m not making a move or anything.” I made things clear. This wasn’t a pickup attempt. Dad would kill me if I randomly got with anyone. No, dad would probably give me a thumbs up, but only in private. Mom would swoon at the slightest mention of grandkids. Onee-san would glower and demand to meet the girl… so, I’m holding back purely out of my own ideals! I don’t help girls out just to make them mine. “Here, c’mon.”

Ideal was strangely quiet while I walked the girl over to a nearby, empty room. Naturally, I got her a seat and kept the door completely open, before moving away from her.

You’re not trapped in here with me.

Please don’t implicate me in a scandal.

Now that would get me grounded forever by my family.

“Take deep breaths. One, two, three. Cry all you want, but keep breathing.” Telling people to not cry is probably the worst move, if you want them to stop crying. The best move is to just have them breath and calm down. Naturally, telling people to calm down is a terrible move too, so my instructions were purely to just take deep breaths. It’ll achieve the desired result and I don’t get yelled at, which was the best solution. “Go on. Go ahead. I’m right here.”

The red-haired girl I’d helped sniffled a few times, sobbed hard, and cried for a few minutes, while I just stood by ready with my spare handkerchief.

She laughed when I handed it to her once the first one was soaked.

“Y-you sure are prepared, L-Leon-kun.” Scary. This girl knew my name. The fact that I was scared must’ve been obvious, since she gave a little laugh when I took a step back. She took the new handkerchief, but laid the first one off to the side of the teacher’s desk she sat behind. If someone passed by, they’d see her crying alone, but they won’t see me. The window was also just a few strides away. My anti-scandal preparations are impeccable. Wait, those handkerchiefs had my family crest on them! I need to get rid of them! “Are you sure you aren’t after me?”

“I don’t even know who you are.” Okay, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know who this girl is. “I’m just helping you out. You don’t need to tell me anything.”

Alright, time to salvage the situation by acting like a thug without any manners. I’m sorry, all my teachers in customs and etiquette, but acting like a gentleman now would totally be taking advantage of the situation!

A little hiccup left the girl's lips, followed by another laugh.

“I saw my fiancé kissing another girl in the library, and here I am asking a man if he’s interested in me. Truly, I’m the worst.” Jilk and Olivia came to mind, so I pieced the clues together. This was the daughter of the Atlee family. Clarice, if I recalled her name properly. Man, she must’ve really liked Jilk to have this sort of reaction. Oh, jeez, I must’ve ruined her life so many times going through this shitty game! “I’ll get out of your hair—.

“Hold on. It would be wrong to let you go out looking like you do.” I played my hand as harshly as I could without directly insulting her. Marie, Luxion, and Ideal were all clear that acting like a gentleman towards these broken-hearted girls would make them fall for me. So, I just had to act like the opposite, and help them without being charming in the slightest. “Ideal, help her.”

Normally, Ideal would glower at the prospect of being ordered around, but the AI had a soft spot for Marie.

Naturally, Ideal wouldn’t refuse to help this girl either.

So, Ideal floated forward and tendrils issues forth from its chassis.

Atlee, of course, recoiled.

“Relax, it’s my Familiar. It won’t hurt you. Heck, it’ll help you more than I can.” I deepened my voice, didn’t meet eye contact, and slouched a little. How do thugs act? Should I go the Yakuza route instead? Nah, Kiryuu is super cool, and chicks fall for him easily. That’ll ruin this whole thing. “I’ll step out and make sure no one comes in. Tell me when you’re done.”

“W-wait—

Thuggishly, I ignored her and left the roof and closed the door, while crossing my arms and glaring into the empty hall.

This should be the best way to deal with things regarding the fiances of the love interests.

They won’t like me, and I’ll still help them as much as I want.

It’s the perfect plan!

…

“YOU…”

“…ABSOLUTE…”

“…MORON!”

“What did I do wrong now!?” All three of my advisors and helpers screamed at me, while we gathered for an early dinner. Well, Marie and I were eating. Luxion and Ideal were just given chairs to sit at. “You guys all told me that I couldn’t act like a gentleman if I wanted to help them, so I acted like a thug!”

“You acted like an aloof, caring prince from another land! If you were ugly and poor, then it’d be acting like a thug!” Oi, don’t so casually spout out double-standards like that! You’re making me feel sad for my fellow men out there! Not everyone can be born looking okay and rich, you know!? “You’ve seduced her by acting so nicely! You even made it clear you didn’t know her… so she thinks you just did it for her, right after she got cheated on!”

“Philanderer. A natural-born philanderer.” Luxion intoned.

“Homewrecker. Manslut.”Ideal gleefully insulted me.

“Oi, I’m not breaking anything up. Jilk broke things up already… and I’m not doing any of this on purpose, dammit!” I groaned and let my hand fall onto my face, while I cast my gaze towards the roof. “B-besides, none of you are sure if it actually happened and I’ll be avoiding her all I can! There’s no way—

“No! Absolutely not! You don’t make a girl swoon and let her go!”

“Indeed.”

“Take responsibility.”

“Give me a break! Are you guys just going to keep telling me every move I make is wrong!?” I griped, but each of the three didn’t even blink before nodding at my words. “Why the hell can’t I just ignore her and pretend she doesn’t exist!?”

“Because, you’ve set things up to the point that backing down now will be a rejection! At least, in her eyes! What you need to do now is what you’re doing… and just be her friend. That means no more seduction after this!” Marie insisted and both the AI bobbed up and down in nods at her words. “You have to remember that there’s multiple sides to every story. You see it one way, she sees it another, and then there’s what everyone else sees too.”

“Correct. Lady Atlee has clung to your support and stabilized after her breakdown. Pretending she doesn’t exist now will simply result in her seeing herself rejected twice over.”Luxion chimed in, and I hated how logical this was all sounding. It meant that I was wrong, so a sinking feeling was starting to form in my stomach. “Marie is correct. You must become her friend, while avoiding romance. That is the only path forward that will allow her to heal correctly from this state of affairs.”

“I’m sure that you’ll mess up, so please try your best to make it amusing, at least!”

Ideal, naturally, just smugly informed me to mess up some more instead of giving me any help.

Its smugness, however, confirmed that I was in a messed up situation with practically no way out.

Ideal is only happy when I’m not.

That’s just a law of the universe at this point.

“Alright, alright. I get it. I’ll do my best to just support her and be a decent person without doing anything more.” Those words had my advisers glanced at one another. I was sure that they were already making bets on how I’d mess up. A part of me wanted to take the bet and show them up… but I wasn’t the kind of person who gambled. “Now… how about we start talking about keeping the world in one piece!?”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“Bleh, running away again, huh?”

Man, money can get a lot of things, but it can’t buy respect.

But, I wasn’t the sort of guy whose feathers got ruffled by that sort of thing.

“Alright, then, what’s the status on our MC?”

“She’s going through the CGs like butter. At this rate, she’ll have the whole harem ready for the dance, where Angelica is going to ask for the duel.”

“Meaning that we have four weeks to prepare.”

“I still say that we should just let this country fall apart at the seams.”

All four of us began to discuss our own thoughts on how to proceed together, before we finally settled on one in particular.

The Queen of Holfort will be the main source of conflict between the MC and her harem in the last three quarters of the game.

Angelica, we can theoretically save from social suicide and get her house in our camp, but the Queen was an issue.

I needed to meet her, set up surveillance, and start planning on how to handle her as soon as possible.

To that end, we needed to make a big incident happen where the Holfort Royal Family would have no choice but to acknowledge and invite me over.

Given my status as foreign nobility, it was a difficult job to accomplish.