Chapter 38

Derek was quiet for a while, then opened his mouth heavily.

"…If necessary, I will have someone work quietly undercover to fix things.

"Because having the rumor of a noble lady, who hasn't been married yet, looking for a man of unknown origin is a disgrace to this family."

Derek's words made a lot of sense to me. Perhaps I did need to be more careful. I began to look at Derek a little differently.

"Maybe he's not just a stubborn jerk who yells at me all the time and spouts nonsense", I thought.

'So then you'll let me do whatever I want?' I asked.

I looked at the 13% above his head with cold eyes. I didn't want to beg my brother and lower myself more but I said it as humbly as I could so hopefully the favorability wouldn't fall, even if it didn't rise as a result.

"…Penelope."

Derek opened his mouth with a deep sigh.

"You'll be an adult soon, so I won't bother anymore unless I think you're heading in the wrong direction again."

"....."

"But if you're going to go out, don't use the doghole, just walk through the front door proudly. I'll tell the butler that you are permitted to do so."

[Favorability 17%(+2%)]

"Or you can take that slave that you dragged in with you."

Derek's favorability had risen, but I didn't understand why. Not only his favor, but his words to me were much kinder than they used to be.

'Why are you suddenly acting so differently? Not long ago you would have killed me in a moment's notice without me even knowing what I'd done wrong.'

Considering how badly Penelope behaved in the past, his questioning my secret outing was indeed justified. No doubt if he thought that I had started running around like a crazy dog again he'd take me out without hesitation.

However his reaction to my secret outing today was completely unexpected.

"… Aren't you going to punish me?" I asked with a puzzled look.

Derek frowned. "You didn't walk all the way to the mansion wearing that stupid-looking mask, did you?"

"…What?"

He suddenly reached and grabbed the mask that was still on my face.

"For disgracing the Eckart's name, I'm confiscating this."

"Uh…."

With the mask suddenly gone, a cool night breeze pleasantly touched my face. I hadn't realized how stuffy it was having the mask on all day.

When I looked up at Derek through the mask's narrow view, he had seemed very cold and angry. Somehow he seemed different now the mask was off, as if my eyes were suddenly opened and seeing him for the first time. He looked somehow…

"This is your punishment for today."

…happy? Surely it was an illusion.

"But Reynold bought it for me…" I mumbled absentmindedly, looking first at his face, then my mask in his hand.

"Take this instead." He said, suddenly holding something out to me."I carved magic into the jewels. When you wear it, you can activate a protective magic that will change your appearance."

"....."

"The wizards who carved it said that it'll make you look like a boy your age in the eyes of someone else."

On a handkerchief in his palm was a platinum string bracelet embedded with delicate scarlet gems.

"The original gems were broken because they were cheap, so I changed them into the best garnets that would fit."

Derek added in an undertone. He almost sounded like he was grumbling.

I looked down at his big hand astonished. It was the bracelet that Derek had picked out on the first day of the festival when I had picked out the mask and snuck away to save Eclisse,.

After looking at the ripe plum-colored jewels, I realized that it was very similar to my hair color. Who knew that he would give it to me as a gift.

Originally the gems were more pink so I had thought that he'd keep it and give it to the FL later, but...

'This is already the second present.'

Expensive-looking scarves and magic bracelets.

When I looked up and saw Derek's blue eyes again, I felt strange.

"…Why?"

The words popped out before I properly thought of what to say.

"…What?"

"Why did you give me this?"

I glanced down at the bracelet again.

Now that the gems had been switched out to high quality Garnet, the small gems of crimson glowed brightly in the dark. Even I, who was not very interested in accessories, had to admire their beauty.

But rather than being grateful for the gift, my mind was full of questions and doubts. He and Reynold had a bad history with Penelope after all.

"Vulgar thing!" Derek's eyes used say as he looked at Penelope as if he was glaring at something filthy.

But these eyes were different.

"I thought you didn't like me being extravagant?" I asked confused.

"…But you like accessories, don't you?"

Derek seemed a little embarrassed for some reason by what I said.

"I like it."

I admitted mildly. Even in the game Penelope didn't really use her fancy accessories, she mainly collected them as it was a way to fill her solitude and sadness.

"I don't know why you're giving me this, I thought you despised me." I thought looking at Derek.

As if Derek could read my mind, his face became stiff.

"If you don't want it…"

"....."

"….Get rid of it."

Almost lazily he tossed the handkerchief with the bracelet. The sparkling platinum ring crashed to the ground and rolled over the dirt.

While I struggled to understand his absurd behavior, Derek suddenly turned and quickly walked down the slope.

For a moment I was wondered if I should follow.

[Derek] and [Festival View] quest success!

Would you like to receive SYSTEM reward?

[Yes. / No.]

Suddenly, a white square window popped up in front of my eyes.

"…Ha…"

I was stunned into laughter.

"I thought I had rejected this quest?"

I had definitely pressed "refuse" when I was asked if I would like to try it again. Why was is it suddenly a success?

I frowned and nervously pressed [Yes.]. The writing in the square window changed rapidly.

I got [Favorability +3%] and [magic bracelet] from [DEREK] as SYSTEM rewards.

"Oh, this is a SYSTEM reward?"

I looked down at the bracelet that had rolled on the dirt floor with cold eyes.

"…Mean bastard."

Eventually though, I crouched on the floor and picked up the fallen bracelet.

"You really threw it away? Jerk!"

When I was shaking off the soil that had covered it, I suddenly felt sad. Was I in such a desperate situation that I had to be rewarded and receive something like this in such a way.

"Can you even call this a reward?"

[Favorability 20%(+3%)]

I whined, thoroughly dissatisfied as I watched the white SYSTEM writing getting smaller and smaller.

********

Finally the last day of the festival arrived after a long month had come.

Emily was making a fuss that there would be more spectacular parades, acrobatic troupes, fireworks and other attractions than ever since it was the last day. She wanted us to go out together.

But I didn't want to do that at all, so I ignored her and overslept.

Having just got up and had a sandwich for breakfast, I sat down in front of my desk.

It's been a long time since I had last came here. Seeing that I had clashed with almost all the ML one by one throughout the festival, it seemed like it was time to finally move on from this episode of the game.

'But I'm still stuck."

When I first came, every single day was like a dying crisis. I felt like I was at the end of my rope. I couldn't do it. There was such a long way to go.

'I better do an interim check.'

I opened the drawer and pulled out the paper I had kept hidden. It was the paper that had the basic backgrounds of all the male leads, the paper I had written as soon as I had arrived so as not to forget.

I took out a new piece of paper and began to write down my earlier favorability and recent developments.

Derek Eckart 0% to 20%

Reynold Eckart -10% to10%

Callisto Regulus 0% to 2%

Eclisse 0% to 25%

Vinter Verdandi 0% to 15% ]

As I wrote it down, the differences from the beginning was clearly noticeable.

"That's unexpected."

Looking at Derek and Reynold's favorability, I was quite surprised. Especially with Reynold's. It was a far lower favorability than other male leads, but considering that it started in the negative, it had actually risen by 20 percent. So had Derek's.

"Is it because I have run into them the most often?"

I tilted my head and thought about how they currently had strong cases to be the males lead. Looking back at the paper I had written down at the beginning, I had put an X on their names without any thought of consideration.

However, the brothers' favorability was not something to be happy about.

It was highly likely that to them Penelope had simply changed from being "extremely hated" to just "disgraceful." All because I didn't act recklessly like the original fake princess.

"If we keep running into each other like this, I should be able to at least maintain it."

Both were not reliable options, considering that the basic favorability given in Normal Mode was 30 percent.

But as I didn't have a "reset" button, I didn't intend to take risks to raise my favor with them.

Squeak – I firmly drew an X on Derek and Reynold's names as before.

"Next, the Crown Prince."

This guy is, well, I didn't even give him a moment's consideration. I scribbled an X several times over his name without a break and moved on to the next. But soon after, my hand holding the pen stopped.

"Eclisse…"

As planned, Eclisse was currently the number one favorite. I only needed to raise his favorability 5 percent, to finally reach the base of Normal Mode.

Eclisse's favorability raised quickly and therefore he was not as difficult as the other Male Leads. If it goes on like this, I should be able to reach the ending rather quickly.

"Well, I've been so busy lately I really should go and meet him...."

Around Eclisse's name, I sharply drew a circle.

In fact, although I had said I was busy, nothing really had kept me that busy except the day I went out to meet Vinter. Nevertheless, I hadn't bothered trying to find and spend time with Eclisse.

'…Why do I feel so anxious?'

I still remember that day vividly.

In the blink of an eye, a wooden sword pointed at my neck and a young man with uncanny eyes looking at me as if I could become my enemy at any moment.

~~~~~