chapter 22

“Ooh, so this is your home. It’s just like a dog house!”

We had barely reached my home when Nolan insulted it with a smile. I politely apologised for the cramped conditions, but I silently retorted about how my former step-brother, Shade, had already said the same thing.

(ED: Changing Nolan to Nolan.)

I brought a table over and sat across from Nolan, who sat down on his own while stating that he was not bothered by the size of the house. Zero took near him. I tried to escape reality by absentmindedly wondering how I managed to continuously get into this type of situation with the capture targets.

Since I was just listening, there was no reason for me to pursue the conversation. Although, in this case, even if I didn’t poke the hornet’s nest, I would still be attacked.

“Well then, go ahead, Zero.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Nolan gave his orders to Zero and looked around my house as he rested his head on the table. I wondered about his poor manners, since he was a member of the Royal Family, but since his poor manners made him popular and he actually acted properly during formal occasions, there probably were no issues.

Anyway, Nolan was harmless for now. The new problem was the intimidating Zero, who was staring at me through the bottom of his spectacles with his deep blue eyes.

“Felicia-sama, do you have any knowledge regarding the prophetess who saved our country?”

…Aah, as I had thought, it was about that. Gosh, why had that information leaked out now?

Even though I thought the timing was strange, I made a blank expression, as if I had no clue what he was talking about. I naturally rested my chin on my hand and tilted my head, like I was thinking hard.

“No, none at all. When you say prophecies, do you mean the revelations about the future that are, in extremely rare cases, bestowed by the members of the church?”

“No, those are similar to the made-up stories that are occasionally used to scare children when they lie.”

Yup, prophecies didn’t have much credibility. Though, it would be a different story if, for example, Nana-chan’s beloved Saint-sama officially came out with a prophecy.

That was why no one would take an aristocratic little girl’s prophecy seriously. That was simply how it was.

“However, the young prophetess is different. She definitely saved our country. She predicted our country’s future, spoke to His Majesty, Edward Cabot, and splendidly saved us.”

Zero looked at me as if he was testing me.

… ‘Spoke to His Majesty’, meant that that was where this information had leaked from. However, why was he asking about this now? I had wondered many times before, but really, why now of all times?

When Nolan didn’t transfer into the academy and Zero didn’t become a teacher there, I had thought that I managed to avoid them without issue. It was obviously strange for this conversation to be happening now.

“What the prophetess did wasn’t that big. She didn’t cause a scene, nor did she head to that place to act on her own. It is said that she simply told His Majesty about her prophecy like it was a passing remark. However…because of that, His Majesty became concerned about our country and sent aid when he realized our crisis.”

That was right. At first, I had thought that it would be difficult, but my last resort of claiming it was a prophecy as my excuse was incredibly successful. I…had already fulfilled my duty as “Lady Rose, the National Saviour.”

I should explain.

The world I was in right now was the game I had played in my previous world, “Nation’s Saviour, Lady Rose.”

Just like the name said, in the game “Nation’s Saviour,” the player would save the country in the Happy Ending, no matter which route was chosen . In many cases, the capture targets would get involved, but that could be ignored for now.

As for what the country was being saved from, it was the neighboring country. Basically, a war would break out between these two countries at the finale of the game. The story was about the Heroine who recognized the omens and saved the country while dealing with various internal affairs and military operations. She was then called the Nation’s Saviour, Lady Rose.

In other words, if I had just selfishly left the stage, the country may have been ruined, resulting in enormous casualties. I couldn’t accept the deaths and poverty that would follow. If I didn’t do my best, then the war would be prolonged, and we would lose to the horrible neighboring country.

That was why I had decided to use the same tactics that reincarnators commonly used in fiction. ――I could do whatever I wanted as long as the war was prevented from happening.

“If it wasn’t for the prophetess, our country would have been driven into a corner and started a war with that country. Though, that is just a hypothetical situation which fortunately did not happen.”

“…With all due respect, even if that is the case, it is something that should not be said thoughtlessly.”

“Yes, I apologize.”

I sighed at Zero’s light-hearted apology. It really wasn’t something that should laughed about.

Especially since it actually happened in the game.

Fortunately, since it was a game, the enemy had courteously explained the sad events that had led to the war. In summary, the neighboring country had no choice but to declare war, as their country had been plagued with poverty and diseases.

Moreover, the king of our country was a kind person who would have helped, had they consulted with him. It was rather vexing that he hadn’t noticed beforehand. According to the game, they wouldn’t have invaded at all, if given a choice. It was an unfortunate turn of fate, wasn’t it?

I had decided to follow the simple guide to avoiding this sad incident by either preventing it from happening or solving the problem.

I had struggled with how to relay this to the king in order to prevent the war.

Just to clarify, I had not planned on telling the king by saying, “Your Majesty~ I heard the voice of God~ Ufufu hahaha,” the way that Zero had described it.

First of all, I needed evidence in order to appeal to the king. During my youth, I had used my weak connections to investigate the situation in the neighboring country. However, they could not confirm anything due to the neighboring country’s tight control on information. I had thought about expanding my network, hiring someone talented in the field, or even forcing my way into the actual place, but it troubled me, since these methods would have prevented me from reaching my goal of a commoner life.

Yes, if I had clearly hinted at the neighboring country’s situation from the very beginning, my evaluation would have risen considerably, even without being named the “Nation’s Saviour.” I wanted to prevent that from happening. Even though being a commoner was a selfish wish of mine, I had to at least save the country.

Day after day, my mind churned as I tried to find a loophole to sidestep this difficult problem. It was completely different from the studying and everyday life I used to have in my previous world.

As a result of constantly going around in circles, my stressed and frazzled brain finally came up with a crazy idea.

A prophecy―a rash claim that I had seen God’s Revelation.

This was not a country that placed more faith in God than the country in my previous world did, but if a seven-year-old girl were to, for example, claim that a plague was going to happen at a certain time in the neighbouring country and came up with ways on how to deal with it, it would definitely arouse suspicion.

That was fine. Even if he found it suspicious, it was fine as long as he took some notice of it. Regardless of if it was reported directly to His Majesty himself or simply mentioned in passing while chatting, the point was to imprint it in his head.

After that, I had used a child’s innocence as a weapon to indirectly mention the matter while chatting with the king, who I couldn’t meet very often. I had also mentioned it to Nika-sama and Ore-sama prince.

My crazy and flawed plan splendidly bore fruit, and everything went on without issue. I didn’t even have to do anything, as the king realized the situation of the other country himself and sent aid, preventing the war. I then continued down my path of becoming a commoner without regret.

Yes, it had been ten years since this story ended.

“I am convinced that the prophetess is you.”

I shot a troubled expression at Zero, who smiled lightly. If you showed that sort of face in this business, then you’d be referred to as the Brilliant Black-hearted Devil with Glasses, you know? It was true that he really was black-hearted, but a devil…probably not. Not now, or at least not yet.

However, I could not afford to affirm this. If the people making these claims weren’t the two of them, but another person from the country, for example, then things would have been different. It would have ended with me forcing a smile while accepting the affirmation and claiming that I didn’t remember much from my childhood.

Aah… Nolan and Zero were two of the people I really didn’t want to meet in terms of Death Flags. What beloved game characters? The only thing I liked was being in my safe zone.

“By the way, Felicia-sama, have you been interacting with Liliana-sama from time to time?”

“…No? With such an obvious difference in our statuses, there’s no way that someone like me could interact with Liliana-sama, who is the prince’s current fiancée.”

“I see.”

Zero nodded once, and I continued to look at him with a troubled expression.

What was that question about? There was no way Lily-chan would speak with me. While I loved Lily-chan, she hated me.

“By the way, it is all thanks to Liliana-sama that I learned of you.”

At that moment, I didn’t understand what he meant when he said, “learned of.”

Following the flow of the story, I realized that he was talking about the prophetess, and I was bewildered once again.

Lily-chan… How was she involved in the case about me being the prophet? In the first place, there was no way Lily-chan could have known that I was the one who had made the prophecy. Things weren’t adding up.

…No, wait, if Lily-chan was like Mel-chan, who came to investigate me because of the incident that I had caused… If she had found out about my deeds from when I was the prophetess, and if she had felt the possibility of my return… or rather, the danger of me coming back, then she must have teamed up with Nolan and Zero to get rid of me.

――Alas, for the prophecy to pop up at this time, for the two of them to have confirmed my whereabouts, and to have my connections with Lily-chan questioned… This entire conversation suddenly made sense.

My straightened spine tensed further as Zero’s expression turned serious.

… If I had to guess the worst outcome, it would be if I was killed right now. My knowledge in martial arts was limited to some self-defense. I would be killed before I could even try to escape.

Putting Lily-chan aside, since they were convinced that I was the prophetess, I was probably an “existence that had become an obstacle” to them.

“Well then, the next question is from Nolan-sama.”

The fact that Zero left the questioning to Nolan meant that this was the end of it. It was likely that my fate would depend on how I answered this next question.

Nolan, who had shown a smile that was without malice before, slowly revealed his real personality as a mad villain. It was the smile of a beast thirsting for blood.

“Lady Rose, won’t you start a war against this country with me?”

Aah, it was the second worst outcome.