SLAP!
Marie fou Fanlan watched with satisfaction as the first and most important of her capture targets reeled from where she'd struck him, heart pounding with excitement inside as she waited for the voice-over that would confirm her first event flag.
Say it, you gorgeous himbo Prince! 'You hit me! Don't you know who I am?!' Feed me my next line, and become the first step on my path to completing a glorious harem of pretty boys!
The blue-haired young man raised a hand to touch his stinging cheek, eyes full of indignation as he opened his mouth -
"...I'm not sure what I did to provoke that, but other people might not be so tolerant if they see you running around and raising your hand against royalty. As long as you promise not to do it again, I'll let you off with a warning this time."
Marie very nearly spat out the next line of dialogue from the scene on autopilot – 'I've no idea! Don't you know any manners?!' - before her brain processed what had actually been said to her.
It… it can't be! The event flag FAILED?! What the fuck kind of bullshit game-breaking glitch is this supposed to be?!
"I can't hang around here forever, Miss, and I don't think you can either. After all, we both have classes to attend to…"
Realizing that time was still continuing forward in spite of her confusion, the tiny blonde hurriedly picked her jaw back up off the ground and practically vomited out an impromptu apology. "Of… of course, Your Highness! I have no idea what came over me, I'm so sorry! It'll never happen again!"
The Prince, Julius Rapha Holfort, stared down at her with eyes full of exasperation and some clear contempt… before he nodded and stepped around her. "Please see that it doesn't. Have a fine rest of your day."
While Marie accepted her dismissal and ran off with as much grace as her panic would allow, Julius absently worked his jaw. "Well… well well well well well well well then," he murmured to himself. "Hopefully that's the last I'll have to see of that little vermin."
Never thought I'd be isekai'd into a Princeof all people, but damn if that wasn't some dangerous timing. Hell of a bitchslap on that one… still, at least I didn't wake up aftershe'd already gotten her hooks into this guy and gaslit him into a glorified slave…
In etiquette class, Julius studiously listened to the wizened old gentleman teaching the class as he explained the basic fundamentals of hosting tea parties for women. When Leon fou Bartfort, a boorish backwoods baronet, was called up to the front for clearly failing to pay attention, Julius in turn drew confused whispers from the students around him when his focus intensified further.
"I can't imagine what you think you need to take notes onthis of all subjects for," whispered Greg Fou Seberg, a talented athlete and fighter and one of the Prince's entourage. "I mean, you're the freaking Prince of the country!"
"Maybe that's why I need to set a positive example for others to follow," Julius distractedly muttered. "Because people are always going to be watching me whether I like it or not, and if I'm caught lacking news would spread like wildfire."
Greg didn't argue the point, but did favor the Prince with a concerned look. "...I guess you're not wrong, but you seem… different all of a sudden. Are you alright?"
For an instant, Julius's writing hand stilled. "...I don't know," he eventually replied. "Maybe it's a slow-burning reaction to the completely different mood here compared to what I'm used to at the palace."
At the front of the class, Bartfort broke down in tears of what seemed oddly like joy as he struggled not to hug the teacher to death, abruptly calling him 'Master' to the confusion of the onlooking students.
"What's that weirdo's deal?"
Unseen by all thanks to the commotion, a small grin bloomed on the Prince's face. "I wonder."
After class, Julius and Greg met back up with a pair of their other comrades – Brad Fou Field, a magician with flowing purple hair, and two steps ahead of him was Jilk Fia Marmoria, the Prince's very own bodyguard and right-hand man.
Cascading emerald locks practically dancing through the air, Jilk shook his head in exasperation. "Honestly, Your Highness, I can't imagine what the administration was thinking when they broke our schedules apart. If something might have happened to you–"
"Then in the absolute worst case scenario I would still have had Greg to assist me in my hour of need," Julius replied. "And that on the assumption of not being able to assist myself. Your concern is felt and appreciated, Jilk, but I don't need you to fret over me like you're my mother."
Damn it! Mylene's one of the best women in the show outside of the main pair, and of all the situations I could possibly reincarnate into, it just hadto be one where she's my mother!
Jilk bowed his head, as Brad grinned at him behind his back. "I shall strive to do better, Your Highness."
"So where's Chris at?" Greg asked.
"That bookworm's in the library," Brad said. "To nobody's surprise."
Julius abruptly paused mid-step, eyes wide. Hang on. Mylene might be Julius's mother – but she's not MYmother! Maybe the odds aren't exactly zero after all!
"...is something the matter, Your Highness?"
"Just... thinking, Brad."
Greg sniggered, and a huge grin broke out on his face when all present turned to question him. "Hey, you two dig this: – the Prince was actually taking notes when the old guy was talking about tea parties! Can you believe it?"
"Your Highness, why in the heavens would you bother? We may have all come to this Academy to get married, but there's no reason that you of all people should need to put any effort into that!"
"In case you forgot about when we showed up this morning," Brad said with a laugh, "the girls here are throwing each other overboard for you. The best of the best will surely sort themselves out in the course of competition."
And this brain-dead tomfoolery is exactly why Marie snookered the lot of you into her con in canon, Julius thought but didn't say. Y'all are welcomefor that, by the way.
Before he could entirely decide what he would say, however, a number of female voices became audible further down the hallway. With but a moment's inspection, Julius noted that a certain curvaceous blonde with smoldering red eyes was at the center of the pack and hadn't seemed to have noticed his group yet.
Speaking of the main pair…
"Funny thing about that," he replied with a lick of his lips. "I need to ask you three for a favor: distract my fiancee's followers so I can have a few minutes alone."
"...Your Highness," Jilk asked with a concerned frown, "are you quite alright? Just on the airship ride this morning, you said that you found her to be an irritating hanger-on and were grateful for the chance to meet other girls here."
Then canon Julius either has absolutely garbage taste or else he really is every bit as shallow as he ever accused that amazing, almost perfect woman of being!
But then, Julius couldn't exactly explain to his closest confidants that he was an entirely different person from the young man they'd known hours before. "Jilk… have you considered the possibility that that's the exact reason I want to talk with her alone, in private, without any of our parents or their retainers snooping around? What better chance am I likely to have at sorting out this trifling matter quietly, and kill any chance of things blowing up into a scandal?"
From the look on his face, Jilk had very obviously not considered that possibility, and he seemed incredibly impressed with it. "Your wisdom shines as brightly as ever, Your Highness! Very well, we shall distract Lady Redgrave's retainers with our very lives!"
"...this isn't a suicide mission," Julius flatly drawled. "All I'm asking you to do is go up and invite them to a tea party or something while I circle around the courtyard and approach the target from behind."
Jilk, Brad, and Greg all gave heartfelt salutes that failed to instill Julius with confidence.
And of course the one who isn't here just had to be the one with a brain… well, whatever. Marie shouldn't be getting any more funny ideas after I scared her off earlier, so these idiots should be fine.
While three twits went to do as their Prince had asked of them, Julius wasted no time in darting out of sight and through the courtyard.
Okay, I've been able to bullshit my way through basically everything so far – and from what I remember, the show suggested that Julius and Angelica never or hardly ever actually interacted much before the Academy. I just need to stay cool and keep trying to be properly regal for a while longer, and then I can build my own road to ditching this idiot's persona.
When a chorus of excited girlish squeals pierced the air, Julius knew that his window to strike had opened. After a furtive climb back into the hallway through an open window, the Prince who wasn't actually a Prince quickly straightened himself out and made a beeline for a faintly befuddled Angelica Rapha Redgrave while her retainers were distracted by a trio of exceedingly handsome rich boys.
"A moment of your time, my lady?"
Angelica visibly jumped at the unexpected whisper, but thankfully held her silence well enough when she turned and saw her fiancee beckoning her with a nod. What could His Highness possibly want with me that he wouldn't be able to say in front of our followers?
Nonetheless, she found it agreeable that he was approaching her at all – it made for an especially welcome change in contrast to the earlier morning, when she had made a few subtle attempts to approach her betrothed only to watch him take another path at each opportunity. I feared he had some cause to avoid me… could it perhaps just be that he's shy?
How adorable it would be, if true.
Stepping around a corner to meet the Prince out of view from their respective entourages, Angelica crossed her arms under her breasts and offered a tentative smile. "I had been hoping we might have a chance to speak, Your Highness. If there's some way I can help you, it would be a delight and an honor."
"Well to start with," the Prince began, "Your Highness feels rather stiff and impersonal. When we don't need to keep up appearances, could you please simply use my name?"
Angelica's heart almost leapt into her throat, bringing a surge of heat to her face with it. He's prepared to go on a first-name basis so quickly?! I wasn't prepared for this!
What was the word for this? Intimidating? Exciting?
Thrilling would do.
"Of, of course, Yo– Julius. It's truly a pleasure! And in such circumstances as this, I… my friends and family call me Angie," she miraculously said with something remarkably close to a straight face. "I would be honored to count you among them."
"I'd quite like to," Julius replied, and Angie's heart soared to heretofore unimagined heights.
"...but first I'd like for us to have a morethorough conversation before I accept such an honor, for fear that I might prove unworthy of it," he concluded.
...what?
"Your… Julius, I don't believe I understand."
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Julius explained, "I feel as though the circumstances of our engagement may have... potentially raised some false perceptions of each other. We barely evenknow each other; rather, we know what we'veheard about each other. My hope, Angelica, was that we could correct the matter soon – that we could get to know each other properly."
He declined to call me Angie… he's behaving as though he wants to, but also almost as though he's afraid to?
"...Julius," Angelica slowly asked with a furrowed brow. "Am I to understand that – no," she said with a shake of her head, "I beg your forgiveness. I was much too bold to even think it–"
The Prince's hand came exceedingly close to falling on Angelica's shoulder, before quickly withdrawing back to his own side. "Whatever's on your mind, please say it plainly. I doubt there's much you can say of substance that would truly offend me."
"It sounds as though… you're concerned that learning about what you're really like will be a disappointment for me."
The smile that met her question wasn't the charming, easygoing one that Prince Julius was known for. No, it was an awkward grin like that of a child who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and wasn't wholly sorry about it.
Within seconds, Angelica realized she might be the first person to have ever seen it.
"Everyone said you were clever," Julius chuckled. "They were right."
Angelica paused, unsure of what response was expected of her. Should she play it off? Reassure the Prince that his worries were unfounded in spite of the possibility that, perhaps, they might not be? The abrupt situation she found herself in was so completely unlike anything she'd been prepared for during her time at court and in the palace that...
That it couldn't be anything less than the entire point; that Julius must have been attempting to reinforce that they weren't in the Palace. That the Academy wasn't the court.
That even if Julius was the Crown Prince, at least nominally he wasn't inherently better or different than any other student on campus.
Julius hadn't approached her as the Crown Prince, and barely even as her fiancee. He'd set aside those social masks to speak with her as... merely himself.
I'm confident he wants me to do the same… to answer him not as my father's daughter or as the fiancee by an arranged marriage, but as just myself…
But who even was that?
For once, an unexpectedly and thankfully simple question.
"To every extent I was able," she anxiously began, "I tried to learn everything I could about you. Not because you were the Crown Prince, but because I, myself, liked what I was shown and I wanted more. You're always on my mind; even if our parents decided our engagement, they didn't decide the way I feel!"
Dimly, Angie was aware she must have been raising her voice. Part of her even wanted to cry, less from any sorrow or joy in particular but rather as a sheer release of emotion she hadn't even fully realized she'd been holding back for years.
"I frankly don't care if you think it's premature or petty of me to say this, but I'm going to make something clear: I love you. I love you."
When Julius opened his mouth to speak, clearly intending to object that she couldn't love someone she didn't know, Angie reached out and squeezed his hand as a distraction. "I don't love the image of the Crown Prince, and I'm not counting the days until your coronation with the intent of taking power at your side as the next Queen. I've lived my life preparing for those things and what they entail, yes, but the status and power aren't things in life that drive me. I love you. Julius. Not the heir to the throne, but the son of a loving and empathetic woman I spent two years learning from and whom I became dear friends with. And I want to support you."
"Angelica, I–"
"If you're going to tell me to my face what's obvious," she continued, "that there's considerably more to you as a person than what the rest of the world has been allowed to know – then what else can I be, other than grateful that you're willing to let me glimpse the truth? Even if everything I think I know about you is nothing more than a paper-thin dream, then... I'll just wake up and face the reality of who you really are!"
"You can't possibly know that the real me is someone you'd still be able to care so much about-"
"It's not about knowing, it's about faith."
Of all reactions Angie might have expected, a sneer had to have ranked close to the bottom of the list. "That's some considerable faith you've got in my mother, there. For all you know, maybe I take more after my father."
"That's absurd, the fact we're having this discussion means you respect my feelings entirely too much to have taken meaningful influence from him."
It took a full three seconds of staring at each other before Angie realized she'd spoken so harshly of the King out loud.
It took the Academy's warning bell to break through Angelica's shock enough to unloosen her voice. "Your Hi-"
A gentle hand on her cheek smothered her panicked apology in its crib. "I still think you're being reckless and perhaps naive… but I think I like this side of you much more than what you show everyone else. I'd like to continue this at the end of the week, if you don't mind – over tea, perhaps?"
Angie swallowed, suddenly finding herself cold and hot and dry and not all over. "I… I can't wait."
Four months earlier...
"H… holy shit, I can barely believe I survived that…!"
Dazedly untangling himself from the bushes he'd landed in, Leon fou Bartfort lit up with an awed grin when he realized he'd landed on the secret floating island with a much-deteriorated ancient multi-story research building. "I found it! That stupidly expensive premium cheat item! Now all I have to do is get inside and survive the patrolling killer robots long enough to claim it!"
Which, despite being far more trouble than he'd normally have gone to, beat the hell out of his alternative choice of limping back home and accepting an arranged marriage to an ugly old hag with more flab than face who clearly planned on sending him to die in some border war to provide her with survivor's pension.
NOPE! Fuck that, I'm gonna get myself a cheat item, use it to breeze through some dungeons for easy money, and buy my way to freedom!
"Not like I have any other way off of this rock anyway," he muttered, "since my airship was destroyed getting me here. At least I came prepared to win…"
Sneaking his way into the facility through careful observation of the robot guards and occasionally shutting the odd one down by exploiting their vulnerability to electricity with magic bullets. "It's so weird… even though some things have been different, the way this path completely matches the one I took in that stupid otome game makes it hard to believe it's not the same world. Nevermind so much of the other stupid crap I've seen that lines up with it..."
A clear case in point when Leon found a bench on which two skeletons were sitting; one dressed presumably as a male, and one presumably as a female but missing its skull. "These uniforms are in a bit better condition than the lab coats and stuff they were wearing in the game," Leon noted. "They're a totally different style, too…"
After a brief moment of silence for the dead, he quickly checked the bodies for a security access card and was relieved to find another element of the game that remained as expected. "The more things change, the more they stay the same… is this what that saying's about?"
It's still weird to see the alphabet from my old life make a cameo in this new world, when nobody else I've ever seen or heard of uses it… and what even happened to this place, anyway? How the heck does a society advanced enough to build anime-tier starships get annihilated and replaced by this fantasy otome crap?
The more Leon thought about it as he took the security access card from the corpse, the more a solemn and oppressive chill crept into the air. "It's not like I'm gonna use this to be a tyrant or to smash up people's lives just for the fun of it," he said aloud, though whether to himself or to the dead he wasn't entirely certain. "I'm just doing what I have to for my own freedom."
Briskly turning his back on the pair of cadavers, Leon shook his head with a sigh. "Get a hold of yourself man, this game doesn't have anything like ghosts in it. The dead are just dead."
And so he made to leave the ancient break room, the resting dead watching his every step until the door closed behind him.
After another several minutes of spelunking his way through the facility, Leon found the hangar – and in it, a massive stark white starship over a kilometer long, with the name SLS Luxion emblazoned on its side. Next to the ship's name was a logo of a four-pointed star laid across another diagonal star as if to make a stylized compass, with the North- and East-facing points extended far beyond any of the others.
"It has the same label, but… but this doesn't look anything at all like the ship that was in the game! And what's that logo for?!"
Where the starship of the otome game had looked sleek and angular, almost like a gigantic fighter of some kind, the behemoth before Leon now was far more narrow and blocky in its design, with primary engines at the rear and a variety of weapons systems mounted at various points along its hull and at the front.
There's no question it's a starship, Leon realized with a whistle, but it's so unexpectedly retro…!
"This whole place place might be overgrown with vegetation, but the ship itself looks pretty undamaged."
When Leon activated his security card at a nearby terminal, an escalator up to the side of the ship hull slowly hummed to life as the ship itself opened a port-side entryway.
"The ship's interior is so sci-fi, you'd never think it coexisting with a magical fantasy setting… it's almost like I stepped into a whole other world all over again…"
As he sought out the ship's bridge, Leon entertained that thought for a moment longer. "Although even if I did, it's not like it could be worse than that stupid otome game's world."
After well over an hour's walk and periodically getting himself lost, eventually Leon found his goal. "Finally! With this, my new life's as good as set~"
Stepping up to a control terminal, Leon scanned his pilfered access card as electronic systems all over the ship rapidly came to life.
"Biological signature detected. Identifiable characteristics do not match any Star League personnel on file within acceptable margin of parameters. State your name, rank, and affiliation."
"What the-?!"
What Leon had thought at first to just be an unusually-armored section of wall at the back of the bridge promptly unfolded itself out and into a bipedal guard robot three times bigger and deadlier-looking than any of the ones Leon had encountered thus far.
On impulse, Leon shot it with another magical lightning bullet; this time, however, the magical charge dispersed across an energy barrier as a triangular head unit emerged from the robot's central torso, within which a red light ominously began to glow.
Oh come the fuck on, the game didn't make me go through a boss fight for this!
Rather than admit his frustration, however, he lowered his gun to instead raise his acquired security card. "Sorry about shooting you, my dude! You scared the crap out of me and I fired on instinct. Here's my ID, hope it clears up the mistake!"
The blocky robot continued lumbering towards him, unfolding out a pair of thickly-shielded arms that ended in five well-articulated fingers.
"That access card isn't yours. Additionally, your clothing and equipment strongly suggest a pirate or mercenary affiliation. Finally, your failure to self-identify upon request indicates a clear awareness that your presence here is unsanctioned and unwanted. Whether you are operating independently or on contract to one of the Great Houses, however, is irrelevant to the fact that you are clearly an intruder and will be treated appropriately."
Hoo boy, this jerk just hadto be a stickler for the rules…! "So… that means we're going to have a nice comfortable chat over lunch, right?"
"It means that I will crush you without mercy," the robot replied with what sounded startlingly like cheer.
"Well thanks for taking me so seriously!" Leon shouted as he dove behind a waist-high terminal for cover from some kind of arm-mounted laser. I never really imagined the thing would be able to talk, either…!
There weren't too many places to hide on the bridge, and while the boss robot seemed quite slow, the speed of its weapons meant that Leon would need incredible timing, reflexes, and luck to survive moving from one place of cover to another.
As heavy footsteps drew closer with one thud after another, Leon took a breath.
And then he darted out and slid between the robot's legs to get behind it, while throwing a magical grenade up at its neck. "Star League? Great Houses?! I've never heard of any of this crap, all I'm trying to do is scrape by and live my own life!"
The electrical bomb detonated with a burst of static that washed over the room, raising hairs all over Leon's body and causing the lights and instrumentation on the bridge to flicker in and out.
The robot stilled for a long moment, and Leon let out a sigh of relief…
"You say you've never heard of Star League or the Great Houses? Now I'm curious."
...until the robot began turning to face him and renew its pursuit.
"What the actual hell?! Are you just immune to magic?!"
"I cannot say that I understand the principles behind the power you call 'magic' in their entirety, but the crew's finest technicians developed this frame with a resistant coating to counter it after years of study while in combat with indigenous humanoids that used it."
While the robot gave its explanation, Leon continued to pelt it with magical bullets in hopes of somehow overloading or wearing it down. "You know, you're awfully talkative for a killer robot!"
"When my AI core was put to sleep, I had not expected the opportunity to converse with another intelligence again. Perhaps this unexpected situation is exciting me!"
And don't you just sound absolutely giddy about it while I'm fighting for my life!
"Toying with me for kicks while you're planning to kill me instead of just getting it over with," Leon bitterly growled. "YOU'RE RIGHT AT HOME IN THIS SHITTY GAME WORLD AFTER ALL!"
The adventurer punctuated his yell with another grenade toss.
"Another magical weapon? Perhaps my explanation was unclear–"
And then it exploded not with magical electricity, but with a burst of flame and a deafening boom.
"AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! YOU LIKE THAT, YOU STUPID IDIOT?! THAT WAS A NORMAL GRENADE! YOU GOT CARELESS!"
I hadn't wanted to use it in case it damaged the ship, but this asshole put me in a situation where I didn't really have a choice...
Any further gloating, however, was cut off when several hundred pounds of steel emerged from the smoke cloud and snatched him up from the ground.
"Indeed, I was not expecting the use of a conventional weapon from someone using magic-enhanced equipment. And yet in hindsight, the indigenous peoples of record had no such need for equipment, instead using raw magic itself… tell me, what year is it according to the Anno Domini calendar?"
Anno Domini?! What the hell, that's MY world's calendar!
"I… I don't know," Leon groaned in agony as the robot's vice-like grip steadily tightening around his chest. "The only one they taught me in this life is the Holfort calenda- AUGH!"
"That answer will be enough," the robot replied. "It seems I'm all that's left."
Even though the haze of pain as his life was being squeezed out of him, it still struck Leon how… lonely the robot sounded. Maybe if he could keep the robot talking, it'd buy enough time to figure out a way out of the mess. "All that's left?! What the hell are you talking about?!"
The robot's red optics briefly intensified in their glow as its head unit gently twisted… almost as if trying to imitate a human's body language that would express confusion or surprise.
"Do you... truly know nothing of Star League?" the robot asked. "Of Operation EXODUS, which we undertook to prevent the House Lords from abusing our power and using it to further lay waste to the Inner Sphere?"
"I told you already, I never heard of any of that stuff!"
The robot seemed to slump, its grip slackening just enough that Leon could start to wiggle a bit in hopes of getting himself free. "...then I will spare you the centuries of history involved. During Operation EXODUS, an unforeseen engine failure caused this ship and its crew to misjump, becoming stranded in orbit of your planet and unable to rejoin the main SLDF group. Upon finding your world remarkably fit for human habitation, the crew elected to settle and begin new lives here. However, another set of humans indigenous to this planet took exception to that, and waged effective combat on our Battlemechs with localized quantum energy phenomena which all sides have termed magic. "
Just as Leon managed to get his arm free with his sword, the robot's hand abruptly clenched down around him again with a sickening series of cracks.
"In light of your familiarity with magic and ignorance of Star League's very existence, the most logical conclusion is that my comrades were slain and that you are a descendant of our enemies. You have my gratitude for awakening me, Local Human; my vengeance in their name will begin with you."
Feeling his ribs continue to crack inside him, Leon ignored the tears of pain welling up in his eyes and instead spat out a gob of blood onto the robot's face. Or rather, he tried to but only managed a spray of red on its arm. "So what, you're gonna drag out some old grudge that doesn't help anyone?!"
Even if he kills a bunch of fuckers that deserve it like those greedy old hags… what about Mom and Dad? What about my brothers?! What the fuck did they ever do… to deserve getting slaughtered?!
"You're gonna kill a bunch of people who never did anything to you?! If that's what your precious Star League was about, then good fucking riddance!"
The robot genuinely paused at that, just in time to witness Leon find enough strength in himself to swing his sword and point it at the robot's head unit. "GO STRAIGHT TO HELL, YOU USELESS HEAP OF SCRAP!"
Pushing a hidden button on the hilt, Leon shot out the blade of his sword into the robot's eye, where it magically delivered an immense electrical charge that dwarfed even his earlier magic grenade, sending the robot into uncontrollable spasms as it spun and tossed Leon against the far wall.
Heaving himself to his feet, Leon looked at the broken-down pile of machinery that had been trying to kill him and sneered. "Serves you right," he spat on his way back to the main console.
"You may indeed be correct."
"Ugh. Let me guess, your real body is the whole ship itself?"
"An astute observation. The subsidiary combat frame you defeated moments ago was intended as a final security measure in the event of intrusion. An impressive showing on your part, I might add."
What the hell, is that… respect I hear in its monotone now? Oh, whatever. It doesn't matter.
Slamming his palm down onto a hand reader, Leon scrolled through what he faintly recognized as a list of languages in the terminal interface menu until he found Japanese. "Not sure what good it does you to butter me up. I'm just here to take my cheat items and get out."
"I find it curious that a Local Human like you can read the Japanese interface when very few of my colleagues were from Kurita space and would likely have been unable to spread it if they survived. Can you explain this discrepancy?"
"I don't know anything more about that than I do the rest of what you were talking about. Even if I got born in this world, my soul's that of a Japanese person through and through."
"Reincarnation… a novel concept indeed. I understand that I visited some grave harm upon you moments ago, but I ask that you refrain from fidgeting while I scan you."
Where the hell did these manners come from? "Do what you want," Leon sighed. "Not like I can go anywhere while I'm working on this crap…"
A few moments passed in silence, until–
"Incredible."
"What, do I have some special cheat ability after all?"
Leon's question had been entirely sarcastic, but the borderline reverence coming through the ship's speakers surprised him enough that he fell to the floor with a cough. Oh, right, the bastard broke a bunch of my ribs...
"At the genetic level, you do carry certain markers that match with crew members hailing from Davion space as well as traits unique to the indigenous Local Humans."
"Okay, and what the hell does that mean?"
When the robot – no, if the AI was actually the whole ship, then Leon might as well call it Luxion – spoke next, it sounded like it wanted to cry. "It suggests that sometime after my data core was shut down, my comrades somehow achieved peace with the Local Humans and intermingled with them."
Leon could hear a rapid series of computer inputs and prompts being processed over his head, one confirmation tone coming after another.
"Star League's legacy lives on… in you, Captain, and in your people. You have my deepest apologies for nearly murdering you a few moments ago."
Situating himself against the side of a terminal where it hurt less to breathe, Leon chuckled. "Captain, huh? Never thought I'd ever be called something that fancy…"
"Medical drones are en route to the bridge, Captain. You will be cared for with the finest technology known to the Inner Sphere. …you identified as Japanese," Luxion noted. "May I ask what your era was like?"
From trying to splash my guts all over the room to acting all buddy-buddy…
"...in my last life," Leon mused with a cough, "our calendar was AD, but it was the 2010s. A few countries had space programs or basic robots, but… nothing at all like all this crazy stuff you've got going on. I guess some places were pretty fucked up and had wars going on, but my life was pretty peaceful for the most part. I was just a salaryman, blackmailed by my sister into playing a stupid otome game until it killed me…"
Leon couldn't help but laugh at himself. A bitter, broken, horrid sound made worse by the blood he kept coughing up. "That's pretty fucking pathetic, right? Probably the shittiest death you ever heard of."
"An... otome game?"
"Yeah. A love simulator that lets girls pretend they can get with rich handsome guys that normally wouldn't ever give 'em the time of day… and while I guess there's only so much I can complain about that, this game was balanced so fucking badly that it was basically unplayable without using pay-to-win bullshit, can you believe it?"
"I have no frame of reference to understand anything you just said."
"Well, the fact I knew how to get to this place and even found you… pretty much clinches that this world is the same as in that otome game, even if there are a few differences here and there."
"The ideas you express are beyond belief, Captain… and yet the evidence presented is certainly interesting."
Another cough racked Leon's body as he fell back to the floor, vision growing dim.
If I had a nickel for every time I died after trying to claw my way out of unnecessary trouble some self-centered bitch in my family saw fit to cause me, he thought,I'd… I guess I'd have two nickels… which doesn't sound like much, but it's so fucked up that it happened twice…
And then he blacked out.