ââ¦â¦ A derivative work..â¦.?â
âYep.â
The night after we decided that we were all going to the Empire together, Claire-sama and I were having a meeting to discuss our plans.
Mei and Alea were already asleep.
The materials that I prepared were laid out on the living room table.
âAs I explained to you during the revolution, when I woke up in this world, I already had prior knowledge of the world.â
âYes, you did say that. You mentioned that there was something like a prophecy book in your previous world, or something along those lines.â
âThatâs right.â
Thatâs what I told Claire-sama, although in reality, it was an otome game.
âThe prophecy book is titled âRevolutionâ, but thereâs also a derivative work thatâs called âRevolution Lily Sideâ.â
Revolution Lily Sideââor commonly referred to as âRevoLilyâ instead, was a work that spawned based off of âRevolutionâ.
As you may have guessed from the title, RevoLily was a yuri game.
To be honest, I actually played RevoLily before âRevolutionâ.
I was an omnivorous otaku who would consume all genres of games, but because of my own sexual orientation, I was particularly fond of yuri games.
Back then, there were hardly any yuri games that were released, but among the few that were, RevoLily was considered a well-known masterpiece.
âRevolution Lily Sideââsince that name is a bit long, letâs call it RevoLily for short â had some information on the Empire. I think we might be able to put that information to good use.â
Due to the popularity of âRevolutionâ, RevoLily was only one of many derivative works of the main game, and the story was set in the Naa Empire.
The main protagonist was an imperial princess who had the option of romancing either the emperor, a bureaucrat or fellow classmates at school.
Of course, all of the main characters were female.
âThe imperial princessâ name is Philine. If we can use her to our advantage properly, we can destroy the entire structure of the Empire.â
âI-Is that really possible?â
âIt is.â
This is similar to the revolution route that takes place in RevoLily.
In RevoLily, you could enter a romance route like normal and enjoy the love that spurs between the protagonist and the love interest; however, if you choose not to pursue a love interest at all, that would raise the revolution flag, which is a route that involves overthrowing the imperial government.
In other words, it was the same as how I managed to enter the revolution route in Bauer Kingdom.
âWell, if the entire structure of the Empire collapses, itâll probably bring about too many problems right now, so thatâs something we should think about one step at a time. For the time being, our goal should be halting the Empireâs attempts at invading other nations.â
âI have no objections.â
Iâm almost certain that this talk hardly made any sense to Claire-sama, but she still agreed with my plans nevertheless.
âI like you.â
âW-What are you saying all of a sudden?â
âWell, it feels like you really trust me.â
âIsnât that obvious?â
âKufufu.â
After Claire-sama reaffirmed her love for me, I continued.
âWhen it comes to neutralizing the Empire, there are a lot of key figures that will play a part in it, but the most important target is Philine.â
I pointed to her name on one of the documents that I had laid out.
âShe is a rather quiet, shy and timid girl.â
This is probably a bit judgmental and prejudiced of me to say, but a lot of main heroines in otome games seemed to be quite weak in terms of personality.
It seemed that if the main protagonistâs personality was too strong, a lot of players found it more difficult to relate to them, but I also just wasnât really a fan of that type of character.
Philine, the main protagonist of RevoLily, was one of those heroines that had a weak personality at the beginning.
However, as the story progressed, Philine gradually grew to become an independent woman.
She grew a lot during individual capture target routes as well, but in the end, Iâd say her development during the revolution route took the spotlight.
By the way, the guest character, Claire-sama, was the biggest obstacle that stood in Philineâs way.
She was a villainess just like her role in the base game, but she had more cool scenes in RevoLily.
Like the scene where she was sentenced to execution by Philine, or the scene where she laughed pridefully as she was beheaded â I completely lost count of how many times I reread them.
â¦â¦ Well, I was depressed for about three days after that.
âWell, in any case, weâll need to make contact with Philine first, and itâs important that we make use of her well.â
âI understand. So is there anything you want me to do? I cannot just make you do all of the work, Rei.â
Claire-sama said, offering her support.
Unlike how I struggled by myself before the revolution happened, I felt reassured now that things were different this time around.
If itâs like this, I feel like we can do anything.
âFirst, weâll need to make sure that the knowledge I have of the Empireâs history is correct by doing some fact checking. In the history that I knew of, you were a prominent noble in the Empire, Claire-sama.â
âIn the Empire!? What even happened for things to end up that way!?â
âWell, thatâs just the gist of it.â
I mean, itâd take too long to explain.
âAnyway, the position youâre in right now is different, Claire-sama. The Claire-sama in the prophecy book sided with the Empireâs system, but the you of right now is the complete opposite of that.â
âThatâs true. In other words, are you saying your knowledge may not be as useful this time around, Rei?â
âCompared to what I knew during the previous revolution, yeah. But I donât think itâs completely useless.â
âIâm counting on you.â
What should I do? Iâm incredibly happy.
I wanted to give Claire-sama a hug out of nowhere, but because we were in the middle of a serious conversation, I had to hold the urge in.
âWell, Claire-samaâs position may be different here, but it might actually make things easier for us.â
âWhat do you mean by that?â
Claire-sama tilted her head as she encouraged me to continue.
Yep, sheâs cute.
âSince Philine is kind and quiet girl, I doubt she appreciates what the Empire is doing right now in regards to their foreign affairs.â
âSo?â
âSomeone like Claire-sama, who successfully fended off the Empireâs forces and led an entire revolution to success without shedding any blood, surely must be somebody worth admiring in her eyes.â
âDo you really think soâ¦â¦?â
Claire-sama looked puzzled.
âWell, I donât think itâs that simple, but at the very least, her interests should be aligned with ours. Letâs use that to our advantage.â
For the time being, it seemed that Claire-sama approve of the plan.
As I watched Claire-sama take a sip out of her teacup, I continued.
âSince weâll be going to the Empire as exchange students, we can probably try to get in touch with Philine there. Letâs start from there.â
âIt seems like we are leaving much of it to chance.â
âCall it âadapting to the situationâ, if you will. Besides, Iâll be writing out everything I can about RevoLily and then Iâll have you thoroughly memorize the contents of it.â
âAre you sure about this? If I am not mistaken, didnât you mention last time that if I knew anything, youâd end up losing your advantage, Rei?
Claire-sama sure remembered a lot.
âLast time was because it was something that directly involved you, Claire-sama. This time, weâre teaming up to capture Philine.â
âPlease donât say that weâre âcapturingâ her. It sounds indecent.â
ââ¦.. Claire-sama, you pervert.â
âOh, did you want to get burned?â
âIt was just a joke, Claire-sama. Please spare me from your magic rays. Youâll set the house on fire.â
Fearing that Iâd see the François familyâs crests appear above her head, I tried to soothe Claire-sama.
âLetâs start with everything related to Philine. There are a lot of topics to cover.â
âMemory is one of my strong suites. Leave it to me.â
And so, that was how our plan to capture the Empire began.