I Am Troubled That My Fiance Is A Villain Chapter 10

“How did we even manage to rent this place out?”

“Well~ our adviser's actually someone high up.”

Who…? It's been two months since I entered school, but I still don't know who the Hidden Student Council's adviser is.

On the other hand, it seems that even Ionius knows who it is. Then that means that Bern isn't the only one who knows. So I tried asking him this time around though it doesn't seem like he's going to tell me.

There's usually students in the lounge, but this time, the only ones surrounding the unlit fireplace was me, Katerina, and Ionius.

Bern went to investigate something outside of the school. Normally, students aren't allowed to leave, but I wonder what kind of trick he used.

I mean, to be able to freely borrow the lounge, isn't the Hidden Student Council too scary?

Our agenda for today was His Highness Edwin and Lila.

It's kind of late to talk about it now, but at least this way, we're accomplis.h.i.+ng something.

Since Bern suddenly made up his mind to discard someone, that means he doesn't want to give them a chance. I tried to talk him out of it, and he finally relented and instead set up this place to give His Highness a chance to explain.

“Bern's impossibly honest and behaves like a spoiled child. I think if he were to walk a righteous path, he'd seriously turn out to be a virtuous king. Ah, but because he thinks of himself as the most righteous, there's no point in talking to him, no matter what I say.”

Somehow, he sounds like a real villain, though that was a completely terrible way of going about it.

Or rather, to call out His Highness…

Ah, when Bern manages the Hidden Student Council, he seems like a different person. He looks scary, but he also looks cool like that. Like a villain.

I also like his usual absentminded self, but how do I say this? It's cause of that, what was it called, gap moe*?

There's not that many people who would comment about that Bern, who I call the villain-mode Bern.

And although I'm confident that Katerina will sigh at me, like scolding a kid. Even so, I still complained to her about Bern.

“Isn't that a little too harsh? I mean, His Highness has been trying his best so far, so I think he should give him a chance at least.”

I don't know much about His Highness, but I'm pretty sure he's not a lazy person.

Besides, I think Katerina wants to properly talk to His Highness at least once. She has to advise him as his fiancée.

That's the one thing I want for her.

I told her that, and she was pacified for a moment. Finally, we got the go-ahead from Bern.

He thinks His Highness should thank me for this!

Even though there's no chance of His Highness getting a.s.sa.s.sinated, I prepared myself to persuade Bern, just in case.

I'll even tell you how to make ice cream! I'll even feed you! Chocolate is fine as well!

Deep down, I was screaming that it's stupid to go head-to-head with His Highness. Katerina, who was beside me, was making a tense expression and glared in front of her.

“Katerina, stop looking like you'll bite them over and over again.”

“Don't treat people like they're wild animals, please!”

I've always thought this, but Ionius and Katerina are really close, aren't they?  Is that what this is? A good mood?

It seems he was trying to calm her down, since she's been tense until now.

Ionius's good at taking care of others. That's probably cause he's the eldest of five children. I think that's also why Bern left her in his care.

I casually waited as my body sunk into the soft sofa, and then there was a knock on the door.

Katerina answered the door, and His Highness and Lila both entered the lounge.

We quickly stood up and bowed our heads to them.

“Thank you for coming, Prince Edwin. And Lila Carneille-san.”

Katerina took the lead, and gave thanks.

His Highness raised his hand to stop her.

“We've thought of talking to you as well.”

Glancing at Lila, she looked slightly pale from the tension.

“First off, the relations.h.i.+p between Your Highness and Lila are that of good friends, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then, what about us?”

“We're fiances.”

With Katerina's way of asking questions sounding like an interrogation instead, it destroyed the mood. I became worried.

“Your Highness, I don't want to stop you being friends with Lilsan. However, you are next in line to rule this country. Have you forgotten that you have me as your fiancée?”

“What do you mean?”

He answered, playing dumb.

Slightly impatient, Katerina moved on.

“I'd like to tell you that you're lacking awareness.”

At that moment, Lila suddenly got up.

“I'm sorry!”

And bowed her head.

We all gaped at her, with her head bowed, as tears dripped down her face.

“Yes?”

Without thinking, Katerina asked in return. Slowly raising her head, Lila said.

“It's my fault. I knew it was my fault. But, but…”

“But, what is?”

“I've always liked His Highness ever since I was a kid. I thought of being close to him, even though I knew it was useless in the end.”

“You're not the only one who likes His Highness.”

At Katerina's words, her face twisted with bitter guilt and tightly grasped her small hands.

“Yes, I know. Because Alois onii-sama and Johann treated me as a friend, I happily forgot my own position with His Highness as well… It was like a dream for me. A really happy dream.”

“Lila…”

Hmm. It's no use, I still can't quite grasp what kind of person Lila is.

Although I can't decide whether or not she's acting just by looking at her, knowing that this would happen, I wonder why she didn't stop.

Ah, if it was Bern for example, and he had gotten engaged to somebody else, then of course I would give up my right to be by his side, and I'd simply just give up on him. At most, I would just stay at his side as a friend, is what I think.

His Highness is as Bern says he is. For better or worse, he's a good man.

If there was anybody who'd forgive others, it would be him.

If we were to say anything aside from accepting Lila's apology, I'm pretty sure he's going to defend her.

In fact, he's soothing Lila's back as tears rapidly fell down her face. It doesn't look to me like his expression is void of yearning for Lila.

“Katerina, certainly, I forgot my own position and just did however I pleased. And I also offended you.”

“…No, it's fine.”

“Sorry. But I…”

He likes Lila. I'm pretty sure that's what he was going to say after those cut off words. Hesitating, His Highness falls into silence.

There simply stood a young man, far different from being a prince.

In these short two months, he has already fallen in love. There wasn't much I could do about that anymore.

If he weren't next in line to be King, then it wouldn't have gotten this bad.

I then realized that Katerina had been clenching her hand so tightly that it was turning white.

It looked painful, being clenched that tightly, so I softly took her hand with both of mine.

Upon touching her hand, her pale, stiff expression that looked like that of a doll's, slowly relaxed.

Her eyes that was shooting daggers at them, slowly disappeared, and in a soft whisper, she said.

“…I understand. I will not hold you back. You're free to do whatever you want… As long as you're ready to see things through.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No… Just an encouragement.”

With Lila's sobbing resounding in the lounge, the conversation ended.

After His Highness and Lila left, Katerina cried. It was the first time I had ever seen her cry.

After that talk with His Highness, the two of them started being more careful about where they met up, and with them being less public as before, the rumors settled down.

But with this, it seems that he chose not as a prince, but as a man.

For a while, Katerina was dejected. I mean, that's to be expected. She came so far, all for His Highness. Of course this would happen, after having been told to her face that he chose Lila.

Whenever we could, Helena or I would take care of her, while Ionius would tell her funny stories about himself. During this time, Bern was also kind to her.

I don't know why the engagement between Katerina and His Highness wasn't cancelled yet.

Because the story's changed so much from the game, the situation is now out of my hands.

If this was the game, Katerina would start hara.s.sing Lila around this time, and Bern would get along even more with His Highness and his friends.

The situation has headed towards an unexpected direction again.

First off, questions popped up about Katerina not hara.s.sing Lila.

Actually, there was that time we talked at the lounge, but none of the students knew about that. I mean, even though there was another girl getting close to His Highness despite Katerina being his fiancée, she hasn't done anything about it.

The few things that people knew about Katerina was that by no means did she have a gentle temperament and that she was extremely devoted to His Highness.

There was no way she wouldn't hara.s.s Lila.

Moreover, she's been depressed recently.

If they just thought a little bit about it, anyone would see that His Highness chose Lila and not Katerina.

And then another kind of rumor popped up.

That Lila was Duke Rottger's illegitimate child. That kind of rumor.

“They got us.”

Ionius said with his feet on top of the desk and looking up at the ceiling.

“Excuse me, could you please stop with your vulgar way of sitting?”

Katerina, who was fussy about manners, repeatedly hit his leg, and reluctantly lowering his leg, Ionius donned an extremely worn-out face.

Nowadays, Katerina has finally gone back to how she was before. It seems that I was worrying for nothing.

“Don't tell me they're trying to involve Duke Rottger? What do they plan on doing?”

By the way, as far as I know, Lila isn't Duke Rottger's daughter. That wasn't the setting in the game.

So that means, either Lila, or someone who wants Lila to be queen, is planning this.

If Lila was Duke Rottger's daughter, then she'd be able to stand in the same ring as Katerina. Meaning, Katerina is in a disadvantageous situation.

Suddenly, it's been almost three months since I came here.

Also, in that time, Lila and His Highness' relations.h.i.+p has deepened. It's only a matter of time before they become lovers.

At this point in time, even if they were told to stop meeting, they'll fervently do the opposite instead.

Even so, the troublesome part is how Duke Rottger is rumoured to be Lila's real father.

With his old age, he has several children, but I haven't heard of him having philandering habits either. Most likely, someone's trying to involve him in order to make Lila queen.

From what I know, Lila gets married to His Highness as a viscount's daughter. Which is why it became a mystery to me as to how this situation became so troublesome.

I wonder if it's because Katerina, who was supposed to get in the way of their relations.h.i.+p, and Bern, who was supposed to be the final obstacle, aren't taking action anymore.

This is probably because of that. Because what His Highness was doing wasn't enough, troublesome things have started happening.

Although falling in love is one's own business and he has a will of his own, because he's the crown prince and has various expectations placed on him, it can't be helped.

When I think of it that way, I feel a little sorry for him.

Speaking of, there's a person that I would hate to appear. I'm really bad with that kind of person.

Even though I have a lot of things that I worry about, my number one worry is if a certain person appeared in front of me.

That guy's name is Lucas Marco Rottger. The last love interest.

He's the third son of Duke Rottger and teaches at this school. If I'm not mistaken, it was art?

An artist by nature, he's a natural airhead.

Or well, pretending to be.

He's a special person in the game.

But in order to explain that, I first have to talk about the t.i.tle and theme of the game.

The t.i.tle, “My Lilac”, are the words that Edwin uses to propose in his route. He's the one that mentions the t.i.tle*. Of course, if I was proposed to like that, I'd immediately ask that person to marry me.

In the language of flowers, lilac means first love. Meaning, it has that whole feeling of, “You're my first love~ Marry me~”

And it's as you guessed it. This game's theme is first love.

But the only love interest who shows up whose first love isn't Lila, is Lucas.

I mean, it'd be kinda sad for a man nearing 30 years old to not have had a first love yet.

Nonetheless, that's the theme.

It's not because of Lila not being his first love, but about him being a prisoner to his first love.

He's that guy that can't forget his first love.

To be honest, it's really annoying.

That's cause whenever you're with him, all he ever talks about is his first love. Despite him being a handsome, it just makes you wanna punch him, doesn't it? Eh, I can't?

Anyways, that's why he's different. His personality's really annoying.

As I said earlier, he's an artist by nature, and although he has a carefree att.i.tude, he's a sarcastic person and has a destructive personality.

They never reveal who his first love was. It seems like she already pa.s.sed away, like a ghost of the past.

Living in despair in a world without her, he meets Lila, is healed by her, and finally lives facing forward. Although he wasn't able to draw a picture of his first love, the last thing Lucas gave Lila was a picture of herself, which really moved me. Incidentally, the reason I was moved was because he finally stopped talking about his first love~!

He's a complicated love interest, but whatever.

But, even though he was happy being with Lila, he felt guilty about it, and committed suicide. I wish he'd stop doing that.

And that's why I dislike Lucas.

Because I haven't taken any art cla.s.ses yet, and he doesn't appear in Edwin's route, I'm not concerned about him at all but… He might appear… Y-yeah.

It's not like I hate his appearance…

I groaned as Bern happily poked at my eyebrows. That hurts.

Brus.h.i.+ng off Bern's hand, I let out another sigh.

*Gap moe – for those who don't know, it's when someone does something they don't usually do, or contrary to their appearance. Like let's say if a megane character actually sucks at studying, or the usual yankee actually being nice.

*What Lizia actually uses is タイトル回収 which translates to t.i.tle Recovery or something like that, but couldn't think of a right word for it. It's basically where a character mentions the t.i.tle of the game (or the subt.i.tle) during the game, and gives you hints on why that's the t.i.tle.

Let's hear it from the back. LILA'S A SHADY b.i.t.c.h. SHE HURT KATERINA. IONIUS, GO AFTER HER AND THE STUPID PRINCE. But anyways, as always, please do consider buying the ebook (instructions on ToC).

Also, Lilac no Kun ->Lilac no Kimi, which means ‘My Lilac.' And I've been thinking of making an LCD thread for this story over on NU. If anyone is down for that, please do let me know and I'll get that done asap. That way, we can all fangirl over there lol.

E/N: Yeah, I don't really trust Lila either. Good thing our protagonist is smart.

On another note, who else s.h.i.+ps Ionius with Katerina? They'd make a much better couple, and honestly, the prince doesn't deserve her at all.