Chapter 1
This was in the royal castle of the Centraren Kingdom's Capital, Lurden. At the height of the Royal Academy's end-of-the-year celebration.
The owner of the voice was His Royal Highness Prince Karlheinz Bartille von Centraren. He had the Centraren Royal Family's traits, their fiery red hair and blue eyes. His body was also thin, yet muscular. Truly, his handsomeness was befitting that of a prince.
Beside him was a cute girl of short stature with pink hair and green eyes. She had an air around her that would make people unwittingly want to protect her. This was the baron's daughter, Amy von Brayes, who hid behind the prince with an uneasy face.
As if to protect her, aside from the prince, 4 other men gathered around her
Starting from the right, the first person was a handsome youth with dark hair and brown eyes who wore a pair of glasses and gave off an intelligent air. This was Markus von Beinz, the heir to the count and eldest son of the court magician.
The second was Leonardo von Jukes. A brown haired, muscular and handsome youth who had a look of strength behind his blue eyes. He was the heir to the Viscount and eldest son of the Chief of the Imperial Knights
Next was a handsome youth with long wavy golden hair and emerald green eyes who had a beautiful effeminate face that could be mistaken for a woman's. His name was Oscar von Wimlet, heir to the Marquis and Firstborn to the Richest Man in the Kingdom.
Lastly, was the wild and handsome black-haired, black-eyed and brown-skinned youth, Claude Justine de Westerdale. The 3rd Prince of the western neighboring country, Westerdale.
And the one who was on the other end of the broken engagement, the ex-fiancée, was Anastasia Clynel von Ramslett. Her long hair was pale gold, reminiscent of the soft glow of the moon in the night sky and her eyes were of a beautiful ice blue. This dignified and strong-willed girl was the daughter of the Duke of Ramslett. One of the three most prestigious dukes of the country.
"Your Highness, I don't understand what you mean by that."
"Hmm. As per usual, you are a woman with little understanding. Rather than a rotten woman like you, a kind and gentle person like Amy is much more appropriate as my fiancée."
Anastasia's eyebrows momentarily twitched. But without any change in her expression, she argued.
"This woman who knows nothing of Etiquette, Noble mannerisms, and feudal law is more appropriate? Does Your Highness truly believe this woman is an appropriate Queen for the state?"
Without a change in her expression, Anastasia sent Amy a cold glare.
Meeting her gaze, Amy shrunk back with a jerk where she was softly embraced by the Prince.
"Don't be ridiculous! It is exactly her kindness that the country needs. There is no place here for you to keep spinning up your foolish theories. In the first place, we know about the many bouts of harassment you've made Amy face! A person like you is not fit to be Queen!"
And so His Highness the Prince denounced Anastasia with fiery rage in his eyes, joined in by the mockery of the other four youths.
****
And so the story I remembered went something like that.
My name is Allen. I am an ordinary 8-year-old boy Living in the Centraren Kingdom's Capital, Lurden. My only family member is my mother. We're pretty poor, but somehow we still get by.
But what was unusual, was from the moment I sneezed a moment ago, Memories from my previous life, like me being an aerospace engineer, came flooding back.
It's alright. My memories have returned, but I'm still Allen. I'm sure about that.
I've acted largely the same as I would have in my previous life, and so, though my previous life's memories have returned, I'm feeling really confused but nothing else feels different.
Alright, it was kind of sudden but I know this situation is bad. Like, really bad.
First, I'll explain. This world is most likely the same one in the hit smartphone dating sim [Magical☆Fantasy~Love's Heart-Racing♡School Life].
…For now, let's not talk about the game's… unfortunate naming sense.
Now, what's bad about this situation is that if things stay this way, me, my mother, and everyone in this town will die in 8 years.
I realized this because of the name of the country I live in, and the news of a certain 8-year-old Prince Karlheinz' engagement with the Duke's daughter Anastasia, reminded me of something.
So anyway,
Oops, I may have gotten carried away.
First, let's finish talking about the game.
After this, Anastasia who couldn't bear the one-sided mockery took of her glove and threw it at Amy, challenging her to a duel.
Anastasia was a girl many would consider abnormally calm and rational but all she really was, was a strong-willed girl who knew how to keep her emotions in check. But because of this course of actions, her anger overwhelmed her self-restraint and so she acted the way she did.
And so, as Amy's fiancée, the prince stepped up to fight as Amy's representative.
As expected, there was no one who would have wanted to fight against the Prince, and so Anastasia was made to fight for herself and lost.
Defeated, Anastasia couldn't bear to show herself again at the academy and so she was sent off to a Provincial Convent. On the way there, her carriage was then attacked by bandits, and from then on she disappeared.
Up until here, it was pretty much the story of a pretty shitty ga— *cough* I mean, it was truly a lamentable development but the story didn't end there.
First, what was really disgusting was that those bandits were all hired by the Prince and his group.
This wasn't exactly explicitly said in the game, but it was definitely implied.
It was this event that led to an imbalance in political power which eventually spiraled down into a civil war that sent the kingdom into chaos. Taking advantage of the chaos, the neighboring Est Empire to the east declared war. With their lightning-fast march, the kingdom consumed by internal strife had no time to react, and before we knew it, the capital Lurden was already razed to the ground.
This is the really bad situation I was talking about. I just want to tell them straight to their faces.
'Don't drag us into your bullshit!' Or something like that.
And so, my goal right now is to keep my Mom safe.
To do that, I need to create a situation where we won't have to be invaded by the empire.
I also can't just abandon Lurden altogether and flee south. It's not just because I'm kind of attached to the town I was born and raised in but the concept of "moving to another tow" doesn't exist in the first place. Because in this strict hierarchal feudal system, the amount of people in the fief directly increases the influence of the local lord. So unless there was a valid reason like marriage, it was really hard to just move to another town.
Now, I could think of a couple ways to solve this problem but what I want to go with is overturning the punishment of the Villainess Anastasia.
I have two reasons for this. The first reason is that if this world is really going to follow the game's event progression, then I already have an idea of how to do it. And the other reason is simply wanting to save her.
Anastasia was the only character I really liked in the game. I don't want her to die.
The "Villain Anastasia" is what she was called but thinking about it, she's decent in every way.
"We have a place in society, so mind your actions."
"Keep your manners, whether it's during ceremonies or eating."
"You have a fiancée, so you can't do anything that might lead to misunderstandings, you mustn't!"
"You live off of the taxes of the people. Think about what this political marriage will do and do your best for the country and the people!"
"The Prince has his. The nobles have theirs. You yourself must fulfill your own duties as well!"
There might have been a few differences in words and nuances, but this was what Anastasia believed.
Those who were told this, bullied her. Told her she was condescending and annoying. Petty and uptight. Because love and peace were the best, right?
But look at how things that turned out. The destruction of the royal capital, huh?
Not only that, Anastasia was just 8 when the marriage was decided. Ever since then she's worked herself to the ground to be suited to become Queen.
Not only did she show manners appropriate to her position as the Duke's daughter and future Queen but she was also an incredibly hard worker who never let her abilities get to her head and developed her talents in her studies, magic, arts, and even her sword skills.
Don't you think it's unfair that, after all that, this is how it would end?
What's more, after being having her carriage attacked by the bandits Anastasia didn't die. Instead she was turned into the bandits' plaything and sold to the Est Empire after being exhausted both physically and mentally.
After that, she was given a cursed sword and became the empire's Black Knight who spearheaded the war against the Centraren Kingdom.
In the end, Amy awakens to the power of a Saint(lol) due to her compassionate heart that only desired peace. Along with the prince and the aforementioned youths, they were 6 in all. Together, they joined their powers in order to defeat the Empire and Anastasia who had fallen into darkness, as well as reclaim the lost kingdom, and finally, Tie the knot. That was the ending plot of the story.
By the way, Anastasia's parents who had maintained a neutral position during the civil war for political reasons, were still framed by their own family and accused of being the ringleaders of the event. Naturally, they were executed. This was another of the reasons why Anastasia fell into darkness.
Just…wow.
I can't help but think the development team had some sort of agenda.
So. The reason why I know this is because of my shitty sister. One time when she got dumped by her boyfriend she kept coming to my room drunk and bothering me every night. She then brought this game and forced me to complete it and unlock every single event picture. 'If it makes me feel better, I'll leave.' she said.
She made the excuse 'You're good with games right? So just do something and beat it.'
I couldn't just throw her out of the room. And if I didn't then she would just keep bothering me so I reluctantly did it. Well, I was pretty good at the game anyway. And at the end of the day, even if she's a shitty sister, she's still my sister.
But what was especially painful was for a guy like me, to try so hard to increase some bastard's affection level. It just kept going on and on and on until I just felt empty and stopped thinking about it.
Ah. Just thinking about it gets me mad.
But even though it's a dating sim, it had some absurdly difficult RTS-style battle parts. The reverse harem route felt almost impossible to complete without paying for micro transactions. Because of that, I had to say goodbye to quite a few of my precious ¥10,000 friends.
Ah…Ugh…Let's stop thinking about it. This was something from my previous life. Let's bury it deep within my memory. No, if we could remove it altogether, that would be even better.
Yeah, so to sum it up, I'm going with the plan that lets me save Anastasia.
This is my own personal choice. Of course, it's not that I'm not thinking I have a chance with her. I mean she is really pretty. And I think she has a really cool personality…
It's just that realistically speaking, what are the odds of a Duke's daughter getting together with a completely random townsman?
In the first place, I'm not even part of the game. Nowhere in the game does a character like me appear. And so without even appearing in the game, I'm less than even a mob character.
If I had to say, the closest anything related to me appears in the game is when the screen shows the message 'After that, the townsmen of Lurden were never seen again' during the 'Surrender of Lurden' event.
So. 8 years until destruction. I'll do the best I can.
I'll definitely break through this fate, save my mother, the townsmen, and Anastasia!