No More Dancing Around the Subject

Watching my lady pacing madly was... interesting.

"How did this happen!?" she cried out. "This is- this isn't supposed to happen, it's- it's all supposed to be, they're supposed to be with Maria!" she cried out in frustration. "What happened?" she cried out.

It was... amusing to watch her be panicking like this. Certainly, the young lady she spoke of was good looking and charming. Maria Campbell had been a great help to redevelop the ability to use magic, and though mine will never be as versatile and as strong as hers, her help was invaluable. I'll leave aside the fact that we've also been confused for siblings many times before. Luckily, she was not related to the parents I had in this world.

Thoughts about the fact that I introduced myself as an orphan more often than not were interrupted when my lady looked at the dress she was to wear for the ceremony.

Due to the newness of the laws and the circumstances, she had to look the most radiant of all, and the dress certainly would achieve that, an image of wealth and taste, multiple designers and multitudes of craftsmen had thrown their hats in the ring to try to create the dress for arguably the single most important women in the whole Kingdom of Sorcier as she was to become the core of the new social status quo...

And the end product was a magnificent white gown that combined elegance and beauty.

"I can't believe this, this dress even looks like hers!" Katarina complained. "ooooh, I knew I was getting into some weird route when things started going crazy... At least you're still following the script, aren't you Cerby? Yes you are!" she said, as her familiar burst out of her shadow.

As per usual, I tried to ignore the existence of the lump of incarnated darkness that had become my young lady's pet after the kidnapping of her brother. Even if every magical instinct in my body demanded I eradicate it where it stood, it was loyal and protective of my lady and so it would get to live, no matter how much my magic wanted it gone.

She sighed and let go of her pet abomination, and it faded into her shadow once more, and then she looked wistfully at her dress once more. "This is my fault, I just know it is - something I did just... made everything go off the rails," she groaned. 

"May I ask, my lady, what you are talking about?" I interrupted, as I finally decided it was time to get her attention, closing the door behind me and bringing the tray with tea and biscuits. "You've been speaking rather strangely today," I added, as I put the tray on the nearby table.

My lady sighed. "I guess you heard that, huh? It's- it's nothing," she said, shaking her head, then going over to the small side table and sitting on the armchair beside it. This entire room was a display room for the dress, because it was an art piece by itself. And the royal family could afford to show it off.

Also it was part of the contract with the designer that it needed to be shown off to people both on and off of Katarina's body, though of course, it wouldn't be made public yet.

"Tanya... you've been with me the longest of everyone, huh?" she asked, grabbing the cup of tea and swirling it a little, then taking in its scent. "This smells great..." she sighed, then took a sip.

"You sound melancholic, my lady," I said, standing behind her with the tray in my hands. I don't think I enjoy the sight of my lady this shook up for something I have no knowledge nor control over. This isn't something I can solve easily... dispersing criminal groups, dealing with attempts to disrupt her every day life, exterminating threats and obstacles to her wellbeing, that I can do, but it seems I can't even cheer her up when she's depressed ahead of an important event. I can only imagine the stress is unbearable.

My lady cried out in frustration, chomping on several biscuits in a row.

"Ngh, if only I'd been willing to look up a walk-through instead of brute forcing the routes, maybe I would've known about this route ahead of time!"

I blinked.

"Excuse me- what did you- my lady, what did you just say?" I asked, my brain trying to process what I just heard.

"I- err- no, don't worry about it, it doesn't-"

There was a moment's pause between us, and I hesitated entirely too long, but at the end of the day... I was neither foolish nor wise enough to remain silent when curiosity burned inside me to this extent. This could not be what I thought it was. This had to be some sort of coincidence. The words were familiar, but perhaps I misunderstood them? At the end of the day, this is my fourth language, and though it has become my mother tongue in my second reincarnation, and I'm as fluent as a native speaker... there's always the chance, always the possibility, of something being misheard, of something getting crossed.

"My lady, I truly need to know - I need you to repeat what you said. You said you... looked up a walk-through?" I asked, closing my eyes and preparing for her to correct what I heard and.

"Yyyyeahh?" she said, having to push the words out, clearly feeling more than a bit awkward. "D-Don't worry about it, it doesn't mean anything, it's just-"

"Young lady, would you perhaps have looked up said walk-through using the internet?" I asked, casting the line into the ocean and seeing what happened. At this point, I have nothing to lose anymore. This, this is it, the moment where my world will either change or... we'll never speak of this again.

The silence stretched.

"Uhh..."

My lady...

"... yes?" my lady asked. "Don't tell me-" she turned around to face me, her face a cross between shock and surprise and realization that was dawning on her. "No way, no waaaay! I can't believe this, no way!! You, Tanya, are you- are you reincarnated also!?"

I closed my eyes and nodded. "Yes, my lady," I said. "Allow me to introduce myself," I spoke, keeping the tray held with one hand and curtseying the way I was taught to serve the rich and powerful. "My name is Tanya Degurechaff, but a long time ago, I used to be a Japanese resident."

"And, and you're from Japan too!" she said. "Me too, I used to be Japanese too, but then I died and next thing I knew- next thing I knew, I was reborn as a villainess from an otome game I'd been playing!"

I could almost HEAR the record scratch.

"Wait... this is the world of an otomege?!?" I cried out in surprise, and it dawned upon me, like a bullet train hitting me and believe me I know what that feels like!

"Yes!" she responded. "I- well, I'm the, I guess you could say I'm the villainess now?" she asked. "Though now that I've apparently screwed things up this bad, I wound up as a capture target instead! It seems like I must've walked into some sort of harem ending since this whole wedding thing is going on, oh, my mother's going to kill me I just know it-" 

My lady is my lady, no matter what.

"My lady, I don't know if I should tell you this - but the reason why this new law is being pushed through," I said, gesturing to the dress as a way of example, "is... well, it started with your parents, and everyone agreed with it."

"Oh. Well, at least that means I'm not going to get yelled at!" she said, instantly perking up. "That's nice!" she added. "But wait- so then- so then-"

"It was the only way for everyone to be happy," I suggested. "Even Geordo agreed - he knew that if he forced things through and tied you down to him, in the end, you'd be upset, and he'd never be truly happy as long as you weren't truly happy," I spoke.

At least, that's the conclusion he'd said he came to. Personally, I firmly believe he saw the writing on the wall about where Katarina would fall if he didn't walk along with everyone else.

"So then... it's... not Maria's-"

"Maria, I assume, was the protagonist of the game?" I asked, swiftly interrupting.

"Yeah," she said. "Isn't she super cute and adorable?" she gushed. "She's always nice and kind to everyone and makes such great sweets, I can't blame the guys for falling for her at all!"

But they didn't, though...

"But- I got in the way of that, I got in the way of their happy ending-"

"Forgive me for interrupting," I said while interrupting and not actually feeling sorry about it at all, "but my lady," I put my hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "You are their happiness," I said.

There was a part of me that had this niggling doubt growing, gnawing at me. If my lady had been acting all along, if she had just been a manipulator that had changed the world to suit her whim - I couldn't accept that. I couldn't bear with that. Especially if my adorable angel of a young lady had been replaced, I needed to know.

"If it wouldn't offend," I said, "may I ask you when you... ah, changed?" I asked.

She blinked in surprise.

"It's been so long," she hummed. "I was... seven or eight I think?" she asked, humming. "Heh, I still remember it... I took that blow to the head, I had the scar for so long," she said.

Wait.

Waaaaaaaaaait.

Then this means- this means that all along, ever since back then- 

"Man getting all my memories back was so strange! Luckily I could still speak and read and write the language, it would've been REALLY hard to explain if I suddenly had to relearn all of that stuff!" she said, laughing. "I also couldn't remember like, half the plot!" she laughed. "Well, it turned out for the best! Even when it felt like all the doom flags were up," she said. "But I guess I owe a lot of that to you, huh?" she asked. "You've always been here with me, Tanya... and to think, you were reincarnated as well... when was it for you?"

I frowned then shook my head. "I believe I was... somewhere between two or three years old. My parents in this world were not the best of folks and so I'm not entirely certain of when I was reborn or how old I was when I regained my memories," she said. "If I had not recovered my memories, we may never have met."

"Ah, yeah, that makes so much sense. You weren't a character in the game."

"Playing an extra without an important role suits me just fine," I responded, nodding. "The work isn't always easy, but I'd like to reach my old age and peacefully retire one day," I said, honestly and unreservedly. "It was just a matter of convenience that I wound up, here..." I admitted.

Katarina giggled.

"It's a small world after all!" she said. "Tanya, could you- would you talk with me about Japan for a while?" she asked. "I've been stressed lately. I've been struggling, I thought I was doing something wrong, I kept trying to steer things properly, to bring Maria and Geordo together like in the game, in a way where I wouldn't wind up dead or exiled or worse," she said, wistfully.

I closed my eyes. "Certainly, my lady," I said, simply and honestly. 

"You... you don't have to do that, you know?" she said, softly. "We're gonna be a family soon after all."

"Oh, not at all, my lady, I- wait what."

"Yeah!" she said.

I swear I heard the wind whistle.

"My lady excuse me what."

"Uh... you didn't know?" she asked. "Did- did nobody tell you? I thought you knew!"

"My lady I am very lost right now, please explain."

"Well - uhm."

There was a moment's pause.

The door to the viewing room opened, and in walked Mary Hunt, among the most powerful people in the Kingdom, once a future Princess, still nominally attached to the royal family through the rather strange arrangement.

"Ah! Good! You're both here!" she said, nodding. "Alright, I've been looking for you two, we need to all get together to pose for the painting that's going to be made to commemorate the occasion!" she said.

"I will help my lady get ready and-"

"Don't be silly, you should get ready too!" Lady Hunt said.

"I really shouldn't be in the picture, compared to the beautiful young ladies I'd-" I insisted, but then I felt each of them grab me from one arm.

"Have you never looked in a mirror?" Lady Hunt said. "You know what nevermind, let's just get you all dolled up! Let's gooo!"

And then, the two ladies dragged me along. I had forgotten how horrible it was to have my hair, nails, makeup and dress adjustments done... okay, I'll be fair, it's a whole lot better now that people are paying attention to my preferences, rather than when I was used as a recruitment tool to drive up the sign up numbers. 

That doesn't mean I like being a dress up doll though. 

I never did find out what my lady meant...