Chapter 17

In the notes, the queen was most interested in one thing.

It had said that her son—who was trying to imitate her behavior, how cute—was infatuated with the bit-Young Miss Lovell's brother. Considering that Chris had been trying his best to act completely normal for quite a while and Leo's ramblings about how pretty his "sister-in-law" was... the queen was sure it wasn't a spell or anything like that.

Chris was probably scared to tell his mother that he was in love with a man.

Huh. How adorable.

/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\

In times like these, when Lily was being moody was when Rey missed his family, the one from the last life.

Don't get him wrong, his family here was very good too! It's just that, Lily was... she didn't like him, he knew, but why?

His past life's little sister was very different from Lily, he was glad for that, but sometimes he just missed her and wanted her here.

His past life's parents were very different too.

The fact that they were different made it very easy to distinguish one from another. But then it was the small similarities that struck him with nostalgia.

Like, for example, his father here and there would do the same thinking motion when they were, well, thinking.

Or his mother here and then would sometimes bake them really weird things. One time, he had to eat a chocolate cookie that had smoked beef in it. Another time, it was his little sister's birthday and she baked her a cake that was later found out to be tuna and coconut cake.

Lily would often act a certain way around several people, which reminded him very distantly of his little sister back then. To the family, she was the human equivalent of an overeager fluffy puppy, to her friends, she was stoic but as harsh as a marshmallow and to anyone else, she was the cold and aloof ice princess.

It was almost cute, sometimes very annoying when people get the wrong idea though.

Lily, Rey didn't know how she acted around the other students in school but judging from the fact that no noble has come to claim offense, then it would likely be she was actually acting nicely?

That was... good.

(He was selfish enough to want her to act nicely with him and their family and not with outsiders, was it too much to ask for her to be a good daughter and sister?

Even if it was just pretending?)

Mother and father were always so sad whenever she acted out. It was a good thing she didn't offend any nobles.

It was a good thing, because they wouldn't know how to deal with them. Lily has what most would call a main character halo, her family does not.

In fact, in the otome game, Rey did not remember seeing the protagonist Lily's family even once. It was safe to assume that the parents are largely uninvolved in the plot. Therefore, anything that happens to them would be, well, not connected to Lily.

He himself was something that Rey was sure would have been mentioned somewhere. But, no, so it wasn't as if Rey was supposed to exist.

(What did that mean for him?)

/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\

Empty halls, decorated lavishly. It seemed never ending, the carpet of the hall in front, to the right, to the left and behind reaching out of sight.

She—she? He? (whoamI?shehetheywhisperedwhatamI?)Took a step forward, then another.

And another.

Walking—walking? Running? Sprinting?

No escape, the echoes of her—his footsteps whispered. No escape, no escape, no escape, noescapenoescapenoescape!

She-he-they moved, and the halls moved along.

Doors.

Two doors, replacing the hallway in front of her-he-them and the one behind.

She looks behind her and see flashes of a loving family and friends and a happy and successful life.

He looks before him and see flashes of loving parents, a sibling who doesn't like him and a life hidden behind a mask.

(He sees flashes of light hair and enchanting eyes, a smile gentle for him and a kiss secret to the both of them. He sees—feels butterflies and desire and so, so much.)

Signs.

The halls to the right and left are replaced with walls with signs on them.

Choose, the echoes continue to whisper. Choose and abandon the other.

The door behind him has a sign "Suzuki Ieshige" and the door before him had the sign "Reyham Lovell".

Choose?

Reyham reached up and chose.

/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\

A voice he hasn't heard this lifetime or the last reappeared, what was it's name? E-something, what Rey was used to calling the messenger of the gods.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked Destiny god's blessing, the ability to change fate!]

Fate?

That would mean that he could change fate, but what was his fate in the first place?

/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\

There was a squirrel on the tree.

It was munching on a nut that it had probably scavenged. Biting it until it cracked before putting it inside the hole in the tree, probably where its children were.

There was a bird on the window. It pecked at its reflection, always startling itself, looking everything like a dumb thing trying to endear itself.

There was a dog somewhere outside. It kept barking happily.

The wind blew itself, the dog howled and the squirrel left and the bird was blown away.

Suddenly, everything was quiet and there was nothing to look at.

Chris turned his attention back to the book he was reading, wondering how Rey was doing and knowing he was safe while Two and Three were watching him.

The book was about the history of the continent. There were five kingdoms, one left behind in the annals of history and time and the four still thriving and on a hairline trigger.

It was the book with the most information on the Clara Kingdom and light magic.

Lily had light magic, that usually meant that her family had light magic. However, Rey had rejected going to the academy even though there was a very likely chance that he had light magic.

It wasn't like he'd known that Lily had light magic, so it could be excused to not wanting to fall for something only to get his hopes crushed.

He'd traced their family line as far as he could but didn't find any connection to the Clara.

This was Chris, looking for something he could use against his father so desperately he would grasp for the hopes that Rey's family had been connected to Clara royalty.

(This was Chris, looking for ways to keep someone safe from unexpected things.)

It didn't matter how long it takes, as long as he could find something before anything major happens.

/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\|/|\

The ending feels kind of half-assed. Sorry.

Actually, this chapter feels weird to me, really sorry, I sometimes info dump like this. Probably because I cannot be a normal person and slowly integrate information lol.

Including AN: 1171 words