The tutoring sessions were going smoothly for the most part. Julius and his entourage initially made a scene when they heard that Olivia's time would be limited, but Angelica pointed out how Olivia seemed troubled by their squabbling. Angelica picked up on the fact that the boys' obstinance would instantly fold if she mentioned how the boys were inconveniencing Olivia. As a result of Angelica's efficient handling of the boys, they were not made aware of my involvement which saved me the headache of dealing with them for now. I still needed to assess their development.

A month passed, and Olivia's development had been progressing phenomenally. The only aspect that I found lacking was her physical conditioning. Even with Luxion's training regimen, her conditioning and sword technique plateaued at an unacceptable level. Thankfully, she took to magic like a duck to water. I'm so glad that I offloaded the advanced theoretical work to Angelica. Even with Luxion's aid and my game knowledge, Olivia was rapidly outstripping what I could teach her.

Speaking of her, Angelica, to my chagrin, developed the habit of questioning my methods at every turn. She trusted that I had no intention of harming the boys or Olivia, but she thought my prophetic delusions would inevitably cause me to drive the boys and Olivia too far. The possibility that my mental health would devolve into insanity was also something she feared. It didn't interfere with my plans, but it was a pain trying to reassure Angelica all the time.

Her nagging will worsen after I take an active role in assessing and training His Highness. It sucks that I was about to assess Julius's development. It doubly sucked since I was about to out myself as Olivia's tutor. In addition to having to reassure Angelica, I regularly will have to reassure the boys that I was not trying to romance Olivia.

"Considering that you convinced the staff to reschedule the dungeon exploration date, I'm assuming you had a plan for today's activities?" Angelica asked.

"You make it sound like I'm up to something nefarious. I was merely giving my fellow rural Barons an opportunity to show their worth. With the royal entourage, they need the extra Dia to even hope to have their tea invites looked at. But yes, I do have another reason for doing this," I said with thinly veiled disgust.

It was sickeningly easy to have changed the date. The faculty didn't even need any bribes. They were fully aware of how badly the first-year boys had it this time around.

Angelica had a concerned look on her face when she asked, "Is it that bad?"

"I wouldn't know personally. I gave up looking for a wife the moment I decided to help Olivia and the boys."

When Angelica didn't immediately respond, I looked at her. She looked incredibly uncomfortable. My offhand comment wasn't meant to be a complaint, though I suppose she was seriously considering how my reputation as a noble would suffer. It was a surprisingly sweet gesture from the nagging girl. I had thought she reserved such care for Julius only.

"... I had no idea that you're sacrificing so much for His Highness... Bartfort, I'm sorry you had to sacrifice your time here. I know that this is a pivotal time for boys to find a wife, and it's only because of my failure that you had to sacrifice your happiness. I'll find a way to make it up to you," Angelica said awkwardly. Her apology made me feel awful. She was blaming herself for her fiance's incompetence. How was her attempt at trying to console me making me feel worse? I just couldn't deal with sad women.

I made a dismissive waving gesture to reassure her.

"I'm not sacrificing much. Just watching how they treat Raymond and Daniel is enough to tell me that I would not touch any of the girls here. Not that I would even get a foot in the door. I'm just a rural Baron."

"But you attained that rank from adventuring. The Kingdom recognizes your success. That has to count for something," Angelica said rather passionately.

"That still makes me a lower six rural Baron. It is highly unlikely that I will achieve a higher status in my lifetime. My monetary wealth is more or less set in stone which is the only thing the girls here care about. Unless I were to gain another promotion or gain a substantial amount of land in a year or two, I'm unlikely to attract anyone, good or bad."

"... There are ways to get yourself promoted. If you want, I could ask Father to recommend you for a promotion."

"Don't trouble yourself over it. Even if I were promoted, I don't have the land to pay the taxes. But thank you for the thought. It's nice knowing that there are good women like you."

"... I'm not a good woman. If I were, His Highness wouldn't even be looking at Olivia," she muttered darkly.

What to do? Angelica's jealousy and low self-esteem were festering. If I did nothing or prodded it along, I could drop the Offrey scenario and revert to the original scenario. It would be easy to direct her to a confrontation in our third year.

Yet I found myself hesitating. I knew sacrificing Angelica would align with my goals more adequately. The life of one girl for everyone else. She wouldn't even die since I didn't think Olivia was the vengeful type. Hell, Olivia wouldn't want to harm one of her tutors.

But as I stared at Angelica, I realized something. I was a coward. The idea was simple enough, but I couldn't personally destroy this girl. Even when I was playing the game, I felt for her. She was just the loving fiancee that was jilted by that poorly written love interest. I wanted to help her.

"You are a good woman. His Highness only looks at Olivia because she doesn't treat him like the crown prince."

"But she does?" Angelica quizically stated.

"Mentally, she sees him as the crown prince. In actuality, she does small things that would normally insult nobles. You know that she calls His Highness by name in his presence. She doesn't use his titles around him unless addressed by someone else. It's a small gesture, but His Highness adores the act." It was disgusting how basic Julius's thought process was if his personality and behaviors could be so perfectly described by character tropes. If it wasn't for the fact that Angelica had a personality far beyond the scripted bitchiness in the game, I would have blamed the developers for how the prince turned out.

"It's something so simple?" Angelica asked with an eagerness in her voice as the concept of Julius falling for was on the table. Even she understood how basic Julius was. She was still a bit off, but she was on the right track.

I had my doubts that changing how she addressed Julius privately would affect their relationship much due to how he must already perceive her. First impressions sucked. There was also the fact that Julius already seemed completely infatuated with Olivia. At least I could say that I tried, though my guilt didn't alleviate.

"There's more to it. For example, what's his favorite food?"

"It's a fish dish that is_" Angelica started in an eerily rote manner. She had it memorized to the point it sounded as though she was reading from a script. I couldn't tell if it was creepy or not. No wonder Julius developed such a distaste for her.

"Before you finish, was that Julius's or the crown prince's favorite dish?" I quickly interjected as I realized that she was still going.

"... Wouldn't it be the same thing?"

"Remember Julius is a person underneath the title of the crown prince. The image he has to maintain may not necessarily match who he is. Put yourself in his shoes. Have you ever wanted to try something unsuitable for a Duke's daughter?"

"... I think I see what you mean."

"Good, so you know what you need to do now."

She gained a panicked look in her eyes. Angelica has to know what to do, right? It wasn't a difficult problem to solve. She just needed to treat the crown prince as a normal person.

"I don't know how to act like a commoner," she mumbled.

"It's not about acting like a commoner."

"Let me rephrase it then. I only know how to act like a noble."

"Ah... That... Really?"

Angelica just nodded with a blush. It was born from either embarrassment or indignation.

"I suppose you don't feel particularly comfortable with consulting Olivia about this?"

She shook her head as she said, "Not something I particularly want to discuss with her directly."

Of course, she wouldn't no matter how much things would simplify if she did. Why was I still considering giving her more help? It was going to end poorly. I was getting her hopes up. I needed to stop.

"Do you want to go practice with me in town?" I asked.

AN:

1) This chapter feels a lot like filler in my opinion even though it does establish a lot of things. It does detail what occurred in the time skip, build more on Angelica and Leon's relationship, develop their current character mentalities, world-building (mostly things you could intuit if you read the novels), and set up a couple of details/events later on. I was initially planning on doing the dungeon exploration for the chapter but found that I already made it to 1,500ish words.

2) Even though Leon logically shouldn't want to help Angelica for the sake of the game plot, I wanted to highlight that he doesn't currently have the mentality to go through with every aspect when confronted with the situation nor would he ignore his partner's plight. I felt that this was in line with Leon since he makes a point to minimize killing people, and he always tries to help people even if he knows he shouldn't. The only times he's ever been ruthless has been when he was either backed in a corner or has a personal vendetta against an individual.