Title: Red String (Pending title. Suggestions are welcome.)

Summary: Clearly, Olivia is just Leon-sexual. Refer to Anoseka Vol. 3 Chapter 10-11.

Olivia

As I stepped off the ship, I quickly looked around the harbor. I was looking for the boy who had helped me out the previous night on the ship. If it had not been for him shouldering my debt, I did not know what I would have done.

Just remembering him coming to my rescue made my face flush. He was like a noble knight (was, not like) as he had strode in. Leon had no reason to help me and everything to lose. He was not like any other noble I had met. Leon was selfless and self sacrificing.

Julius and his friends, as nice as they were to me, just couldn't compare. Their actions were often mixed in with selfish wishes and repercussions. As much as they provided a temporary reprieve for me, I was not blind to the fact that their interactions were the source of my problems.

Eyeing Kyle, I also believed that even their gestures of goodwill often were problematic in of themselves. Because of their desire for me to have a "friend", I was saddled with paying for Kyle's services. An additional strain on my meager budget. Worse yet, Kyle had been a large proponent for my most recent predicament.

"Master, are you looking for the boy from yesterday?" Kyle asked in a rude tone.

"Yes, I was hoping to talk to him some more. I wasn't able to thank him properly."

"Showing gratitude is fine enough, but I think you should try to not get too close with him. It could prove troublesome for Julius and his friends if you are too friendly with the boy."

Says the boy who invoked Julius's name.

As I was about to lecture Kyle, someone grasped the top of his head. Judging by Kyle's wince, it was a tight grip.

"Says the brat who invoked Julius's name," Leon said in an acerbic tone.

"Gah! What do you think you are doing?! Let me go!"

"Look here. Clearly you aren't a wise elder who hasn't hit the point of elf puberty but just a snot-nosed brat, so I'm going to do you a solid and teach you a lesson for free. Don't invoke Julius's name so casually. Regardless of the fact that Julius would want to rain hellfire on those girls, the other nobles would just see Olivia abusing the prince's authority."

"Well, what was I supposed to do when the girls were already trying to drag out Master before! I had to do something!" Kyle said while trying to justify his actions.

After a few moments, Leon took a look at me. He seemed to be coming up with a proper response. Truth be told, Kyle likely had little choice in the matter.

"Fine, next time just invoke my name. Ironically, it'll likely be a more effective deterrent since I've already crushed two houses and was rewarded for it," Leon scoffed as he finally let go of Kyle.

"Why did you even come here," Kyle whined as he massaged his head.

At this, Leon dumped a sack of coins into my hands. Opening the top, I saw it was a rather substantial amount.

"It's about half of what those two girls were carrying with them. Considering I was gambling using your money, I felt it right for you to at least keep the winnings."

"But you won that. I couldn't possibly keep it," I said frantically. As much as I could use the money, it didn't feel right to take money from the boy who had helped me out.

"Relax, I'm still holding onto those two's debt. This here is just chump change compared to that," Leon said dismissively.

What he refused to acknowledge was that those IOUs were effectively meaningless since he wouldn't be calling them in. They were meant to be a threat and thus held no real monetary value.

"... Thank you."

Leon didn't respond to my gratitude and looked back towards the ship.

"Where is that girl?" he muttered.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

"Just my fiancée. She said she had to go take care of her friends. They're quite the lazy bunch. I swear, Marie acts more like a mother than a friend to them."

I felt myself wilt a little. Of course Leon was engaged. He was a noble after all. Even if he weren't, he was beyond my reach.

I was a commoner after all.

But would it not be possible to at least be friends? It's not as if I haven't gone against the social norms before. While more on Julius and his friends' part, I was on good terms with them. And they were royalty.

Leon was an upstart baron. The divide between us was much less offensive.

With my mind made up, I decided to take a leap of faith.

"So what's it like as a baron?"

He quirked his eyes at me.

I frantically waved my hands and explained, "It's just that I heard that you were recently promoted due to your success as an adventurer. I was wondering how noble life has been treating you since you come from... maybe a similar background to me?"

His eyes softened.

"Trying to figure out how to blend in better?"

"Of sorts. More just curious."

"Well, honestly not that different from home, I guess."

"Err, in what way?"

"Generally woman just demanding money from me and looking down on me," he said flippantly as he looked back at the ship. He missed the horrified look I had from the response.

"But why? Why would your family do that?"

"Well, Zola never liked me in particular. Probably thinks I'm a threat to her precious son. As for my sisters, well they learned from her."

"A mother shouldn't be favoring one son over another."

"Ah, I see where the misunderstanding lies. Zola isn't my mother. She's my father's legal wife. My mother is my dad's lover."

I gasped at how scandalous the nature of the family dynamics.

Leon, rather than getting irritated over my rudeness, gave a chuckle.

"Sounds like the plot of one of those trashy novels. Unfortunately for me, Dad can't exactly separate himself from Zola since Mom's a commoner. She can't exactly take on the role of legal wife," Leon said bitterly.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thanks."

"... It may be presumptuous of me, but are you worried for yourself?"

"Hmm? About Marie? Nah, she's a good girl," Leon said. It was the way he said it that was odd. He seemed... distant. Why only good and not something like great?

"You don't love her?"

"... Has anyone told you that you are perceptive?"

"... Sorry?"

"It was just an observation. Well, the circumstances between Marie and my engagement is more of a matter of convenience rather than any feelings of love."

"But that feels wrong. Shouldn't you be marrying for love?"

"It is what it is. Noble marriage isn't for love. I'm just glad Marie has a reasonable sense of common courtesy. It's a bonus that we get on well enough."

"But... don't you want love? To love and be loved?"

"If you want love, find a lover," he said jokingly.

Even though he was joking, I could tell he meant it completely. His history told me everything I needed to know. He didn't see marriage as a commitment to love. It was a transaction.

He would only be able to find love through a lover. A position I could achieve.

"Ah, looks like Marie finally rounded up her girls," Leon said as he got up to meet his fiancée.

"Ah..."

"Hmm? Something you need?"

"I was hoping I could accompany you and your fiancée," I said nervously.

"Err, not to be rude, but this trip was sorta planned for Marie and me to get closer together," Leon said with an awkward expression.

"I do apologize. I promise to not intrude as much as possible. It's just that..."

My mind scrambled as I tried to come up with a reason to intrude his trip. Leon patiently waited. He made no sound or motion to hurry me up. He was willing to let me go at my own pace.

As I panicked, my eyes met Kyle who gave me a disapproving look. It was then I remembered something important.

"It's just that I'm likely going to run into problems later in the future. I do apologize in advance, but it is also likely I will have to use your name. The problem is, people may not believe Kyle or me if we do name drop you if they don't believe we are at least on friendly terms."

"... Yeah, that checks out. Even if I did help you out last time, people might have thought it to be a onetime thing."

"So please, at least for the duration of this trip, could I accompany you and your fiancée?"

"... Let me talk it out with Marie first. At very least, I'll get her to agree to have you hang out with her friends. That should at least sell the image that you are one of hers. Lend some more credibility to being able to call on me."

"Thank you very much. I don't know how I can repay you," I said while grabbing his hand.

He looked away with a slight blush.

"It's no problem."

Leon

While Marie had acquiesced to the idea of having Olivia join her friends, she was not happy with me. She made her displeasures known in our private room in the inn.

"What in the hell are you thinking?! The whole gambling event was one thing, but to actively interact with the heroine?! What happened to just giving her spending money?!" Marie angrily lambasted me.

"Well I was trying to curtail scenarios like last night from happening again! We can't have the protagonist being so sick from harassment!"

"Yes we can! It's literally the reason why we stole the flutes! We don't need her to use her light magic anymore!"

"Inhumane! So damn inhumane! How can you be so cold, woman!"

"Well excuse me! I very much do not want to be a blip on the royal entourage's radar!"

"Bullshit! What happened to Ms. Reverse Harem?!"

"This and that are completely different! It's one thing to try to win their affections and another to try to steal the object of their affections!"

"I'm not trying to steal anyone!"

"Bullshit! I saw how shy you were with the girl! Blushing like a virgin! I bet you just loved that fat tittied cow holding onto your hand!"

"..."

"Oh my god... It's literally because of her breasts isn't it!"

"... No?"

"Could you sound any less convincing?!"

"Regardless, it's only for this trip. I'm sure this is better for us in the long run. Fake a good relationship and making people wary of starting shit with her is less likely to blow up in our face compared to having to wreck multiple families."

"Oy! Don't change the subject you titty fiend!"

"If I may interject, Master is correct in his assessment. While I could easily subjugate any of the New Humans, actively taking down noble families could cause problems for you two. Multiple incidents would likely brand Master as a threat to be put down. Additionally, the source of last night's incident was likely the unintended side effect of Master striking down House Offrey and House Lafan. The prince and his friends are not on this trip because they are attending a meeting in the palace to discuss the current political climate with the houses' removal," Luxion broke down analytically.

"Doesn't change the fact that this idiot only cares about breasts!"

"... No it does not."

"Hey, it's natural for a man to be fascinated by breasts!" I hollered back as my AI betrayed me once again.

"Die, scum!"

Olivia joined Marie and me on our exploration of the festival. Marie's friends had picked up on the fact that Marie really didn't want Olivia near us and had unfortunately given her the cold shoulder. Ironically, there attempts to push Olivia away had inadvertently cause Olivia to get into closer proximity to us... and pissing Marie off more.

I definitely owed Marie an apology. Please bear with it. Just a single trip is all that it will take to prevent us from getting involved more in the future. Even if the prince decided to warn me away, that would be a relatively quick fix. Just explaining that I was just a convenient deterrent, and one not as restricted in my methods, would resolve the issue.

Looking at Olivia, I saw she was vibrantly smiling. A stark contrast to what she had been like up until now. I couldn't help but smile softly. Kids should be able to smile like that.

Marie punched me. It freaking hurt.

"Stop mooning over the cow," she hissed.

Pulling out the charms, we saw that Olivia had pulled the War Fortune charm, Marie had pulled a Lucky Charm, and I had pulled a White Element charm.

None of us pulled the charms we were looking for. More specifically, Marie and I had been unlucky. I had been hoping on acquiring the War Fortune charm while Marie had been hoping to acquire the Gold Fortune charm. Instead, my White Element charm boosted light magic of all things and Marie's upped her luck stat by a small amount.

Olivia had just done the draw because we were. How is it that the one person who didn't have anything specific in mind got the lucky draw. Hax I say. The box must have had a desire detection. It's gatcha hell all over again.

Looking at my pull, I decided it was useless to me. Better to just give it to the girl who would benefit most.

"Olivia," I said as I offered the accessory to her.

"Eh?" both Marie and Olivia said.

"Supposedly this charm has the ability to amplify light magic. Won't do me a lot of good."

Olivia looked at the charm longingly. Guess she could understand the value of the charm for her. Propriety was probably the only thing stopping her.

"Then take mine," she said as she offered the charm I wanted to me.

A part of me wanted to greedily snatch up the UR pull, but another part of me told me it would be better if Olivia gifted the charm to one of the love interests.

Greediness edged out a bit as I asked, "Are you sure? That's one of the top pulls from the vendor."

With a look of determination, Olivia nodded and confidently said, "It's only fair. Plus, you really wanted this one, did you not?"

How did she know? I never mentioned it to her.

Ah, she must have seen me eyeing it earlier. Perceptive protagonist.

"If you're sure," I said as we traded charms.

Olivia looked at the charm as if she was handed something beyond precious. Her smile was rather radiant. Made me feel bad. Wished I had pulled something like the Mystic Fortune charm so that it would have felt like a fair trade.

Marie

Stupid! Dense idiot! Gigolo! How can you not realize what you are doing?! Trading special charms with a woman?! Hello, I can also use light magic too, you dolt! Also taking her along to the shrine for marriage?!

Titty obsessed freak! Enemy of all women! Die!

AN

1) Surprise, another quick update. I wasn't expecting to be able to chug one out so quickly. Reading the latest translation of Anoseka, bruh. Olivia is just incredibly down bad for Leon. Like damn. I get he swooped in to her rescue, but she literally cannot fathom Julius and company being anywhere near Leon's status. Made writing this chapter extremely easy.

2) Also, Kyle is such a punk ass child. Says the five are great and mentions nothing about personality. Rags on Leon despite having his ass saved by Leon. Also, seems to not have learned his lesson as he is still talking about Olivia being Julius's favorite despite the fact his use of said status causing problems.

3) Olivia would totally not give a shit about breaking engagements. Otome games encouraging heroines to ruin engagements.

4) You can imagine that no one liked Olivia pursuing Leon. Except Angelica, but only because Olivia is not staking a claim on Julius.

5) Here we see Marie experiencing what it is like to be cucked.

Side Note: Looking over my last chapter, I realized I made a mistake in describing Commander White. She is in fact blond... and doesn't wear white... curse that black and white Bunker filter. How was I supposed to know!? Also, why name your character white if her design doesn't specifically use that color element!

Review Response

Zero: Eh, Arroganz more or less is already a Gundam by the standard. Not bashing, just noting that the main difference between Mobuseka and Gundam is that Mobuseka barely responds to the appearance of Arroganz compared to the Gundam universe despite Arroganz already being far above the capabilities of every other character except the Black Knight. Basically, the story would be more about the side development, which doesn't necessitate the use of Gundams.

Alternate Rouge: Could be doable if the two humanities differ by the Maso contract, with one being attached to some sleeping god and the other to a hostile god. Probably something to add either to a second chapter or in the future updated version on AO3.

Masked Guest: So my whole moon goddess spiel wasn't that far off. Not that I was going to use that, but at least it does kinda work.

AlternateFutureFan27: Eh, Claire would be a pod. The more I think about it, the more inclined I'm to have Devola and/or Popola being more involved with the return of humanity.

NewFanDamz: Probably have it so that alternative Maso element is involved in bringing back humanity. New Humans getting involved with a hostile god as the reason why shit hit the fan afterwards.

Halo: Everyone wants a piece of android action.