If you asked me which character had left the deepest impression on me while playing Dawnstar Academia, I would pick Dante.
In the main story, he was just Male Lead No. 1.
But in the DLC, he was the protagonist, and the only male character you could actually control.
And more than that, before I got transmigrated into this game, Dante was the very last character I played.
The DLC had come out right when I had just cleared my twenty-eighth run, so there were no guides or strategies to speak of. He was a character I had to tackle completely blind.
The fact that the story was far more devastating than the main game also played a part.
Forget a heroine—every single person who seemed like they might become an ally ended up dying.
The second prince, who had once been a complete delinquent, only came to his senses much later, gathered the non-human races together, and then died after entrusting everything to Dante.
With Kyle’s death at the very end, Dante’s entire family was gone.
And with that death, the throne of emperor—naturally the position everyone used as a scapegoat—fell to him, and he fought.
Like the hero in those old tales, bearing all living things on his narrow shoulders.
After stepping over countless sacrifices, he finally drove his sword into the heart of ruin.
But no one praised him, and no one could cheer for the victory.
Dante was not rewarded, either.
Because by the time he killed ruin, the world had already been destroyed.
It was a contradictory story: he tried to kill ruin in order to save what he wanted to protect, but in order to kill ruin, he had to sacrifice the very things he wanted to protect.
And then—
Right before the ending credits rolled, the final CG showed the landscape he had fought so hard to save reduced to ashes, even though he had, in the end, defeated ruin.
Maybe that was why I remembered it so vividly. Dante’s CG, standing in those horrific ruins with a blank, shattered expression, had been that unforgettable.
I had been planning to get home from work and do my thirtieth run with this guy, but...
Well. Uh. Things turned out like this.
Back then, I got transmigrated here instead, so I never got to see any other ending.
Though honestly, I was not even sure there had been any ending other than that one.
"Ah, so you’re Ian...? I heard about you from Kyle... my brother. He said there was someone impressive in the Department of Swordsmanship."
"It’s nothing special."
[Dante de Astoria]
◈ Level: 38
◈ The target is hiding something.
As expected of the protagonist of that DLC where unfair bullshit flew at you from every direction.
His level was nearly the same as Angelica’s.
Among the male leads, he was probably second only to Cassian.
He had been top of the class in the game too, and if the player took first place, he usually came in second, so maybe this much was only natural.
If Dolnesia had not pulled Rocinante from that spring, she might have lost her place as runner-up.
More than that, what bothered me was the information [Insight Eye] was giving me.
He was hiding something?
Game Dante had not been the sort of character with a shady side.
He must have done something in the dorm room while I was on my way here.
No wonder it had been locked.
Dante went on speaking with an easy, friendly smile.
"Ian, you’re a freshman just like me anyway, right? Then we’re the same age, so just speak comfortably."
"In that case..."
Well, if he insisted, I would not refuse.
#
The next day.
After the morning classes passed, and then the afternoon classes as well, in one of the club rooms—
Bang!
The sound of something being slammed echoed through the door and out into the hallway.
"...Why is no one coming?"
The woman staring at me with hollow eyes and a devastated expression after pounding the desk was Eileen de Astoria.
The first princess of the Astoria Empire, and the club president desperately trying to save a club on the verge of collapse.
"No, seriously, Dolnesia is here, and Angelica is here too. So why! Why is no one coming?!"
She was currently in full denial, flailing in outrage.
And as a bonus, she was even hissing like a cat.
Yesterday and today alike, she had been doing more than anyone else to thoroughly destroy the dignified image of the imperial family.
The sad part was that no one was around to witness this side of the princess.
Beside her, Dolnesia was simply enjoying tea as if the princess throwing a fit had absolutely nothing to do with her.
As for Angelica—
"Ian? We’re sparring again today, right?"
The girl who simply loved sparring was busy looking forward to beating me up.
"Why on earth are they not coming? What is wrong with our club?"
The princess was half right.
Until the first princess joined, this had indeed been an obscure club among obscure clubs, one that had consisted of nothing but fourth-years.
But the addition of Angelica, the top student, and Dolnesia, the runner-up and daughter of the Logres family, had caused quite a stir. It was true that the club had risen from a "what even is that?" group known only to those in the know to something cadets actually talked about.
So plenty of people had come to check it out.
But—
"What do you think, Ian?"
Eileen slammed the desk again and fixed me with an intense stare.
About half of the resentment in those golden eyes was directed at me.
"This is not my fault, though."
"No! Every junior who comes by takes one look at your face and runs away!"
Why would you rub salt into an old wound like that?
That was right.
Who could have guessed that the one sabotaging this club would turn out to be me?
Every cadet who came in carrying an application form took one look at my face, panicked, and fled.
Was my face really that scary?
Though to be fair, it was not as if every cadet who came to submit an application ran away solely because my face frightened them.
According to Dolnesia—
"Ian, you stepped on Owein once, remember? So it seems you’ve been marked as someone to watch among the nobles."
Because of that incident where I had "educated" Irien and the Owein family had fallen out of the second prince’s favor, I seemed to have become famous among the noble children in a very different sense.
In cheap, blunt terms, the message was basically: that bastard is a honey badger, so do not poke him for no reason.
But that was not my fault either.
It was that idiot’s fault for losing all sense and starting shit.
Who threatens someone with a sword when that person was perfectly willing to stay quiet?
If he did not like it, he should have been born into a grand ducal house himself.
"Anyway, this is all because of you!"
"We have no need in our Ancient Documents Club for weaklings who run away just because of my face."
"This is not a swordsmanship club!"
That was why we recruited Dolnesia, though.
People did not say you needed courage to win a beauty for nothing.
If anything, this was a good thing. It filtered out all the skirt-chasers who only came because of pretty girls.
Let us look on the bright side.
For the record, I had tried casually bringing up the club to my classmates in the Department of Swordsmanship.
"How could we possibly dare join a club that Sir Ian and Lady Angelica have entered...?"
"If those two are there, then surely ordinary people like us would not even be worthy of presenting an application form."
Hey. It is not that kind of club.
Had we set the bar too high with all the sparring?
Those guys were not even considering joining.
Even when I explained that it was not that sort of club, they still refused, saying it would be impossible for them.
There was a reason people said admiration was the emotion farthest from understanding.
Just then—
A knock sounded at the club room door.
Had another foolish moth flown into the flame?
Eileen did not seem particularly hopeful either, and only managed to force out a weak response.
"Come in..."
With a creak, the club room door opened.
"Looks like... I found the right place."
A woman with brilliant platinum-blond hair and eyes glowing a bewitching ruby red.
It was Isabella von Eterna.
...Why?
No, really, what was someone so exalted doing in a shabby place like this?
"Isabella!?"
After confirming who she was, Eileen slammed the desk and stared at her.
At this rate, that desk was not long for this world.
I had no idea how many times it had already been assaulted by that princess.
Come to think of it, though, had Isabella not broken off her engagement with Kyle...?
Then again, that did make Eileen’s shock understandable.
For Eileen, a member of the imperial family, Isabella ought to have been an awkward presence...
"Come on, is it not a little hurtful that you broke off your engagement with that idiot Kyle and never contacted me even once?"
"I have been busy, so I was unable to reach out."
Apparently not.
Contrary to my expectations, the two of them looked very close.
Normally, I would have assumed that breaking off an engagement with the imperial family would leave them on terrible terms...
Then again, if they were still close, that only meant the second prince’s behavior had been so outrageous that it went beyond even that.
What the hell had that bastard been doing before he reformed?
Even Dante had seemed uncomfortable around him. What kind of character concept did you have to commit to in order to end up with absolutely no one on your side?
"But what brings you here...?"
"Why else would I come to a club room? Obviously, I came to join."
Isabella pulled out an application form from the inner pocket near her chest.
As she drew the paper from that area, her already ample breasts swayed with the movement.
Where in the world was this insane woman pulling an application form out from?
But more importantly, she wanted to join our club too?
This was escalating fast.
The academy’s top student and runner-up, Isabella, a mage every bit as formidable as they were, and then the club president on top of that.
Forget interpreting relics—with this lineup, we could walk into a demon realm to excavate artifacts and come back alive without much trouble.
"But Lady Isabella, did you not already have another club you were attending?"
"I never joined any club in the first place."
What did she mean, she never joined one?
Unlike us loners gathered from all across the country, was Isabella not the very definition of a social butterfly, famous enough to be called the Flower of Eterna?
And someone like her had not joined a club?
"Then for what reason..."
"Could it be... because of me?"
Eileen cut in, eyes sparkling with hopeful anticipation.
"Actually, no. To be honest, I did not even know a club called the Ancient Documents Club existed."
Her rudeness, disguised as honesty, tore the princess’s heart to shreds.
Clutching her tattered chest, Eileen shrank into the corner of the desk.
At least this time she had not slammed it again.
"If I had to give a reason..."
Isabella closed her eyes for a moment, as if considering it.
"It is because of you."
And with that, she pointed at me.
"Why me?"
"It seems you have not noticed, but between Lady Dolnesia, Angelica, and even Lady Iris... there are widespread rumors that you are rather notorious with women. Are you aware of that?"
Wow. That was a new one.
Out of everything I had heard so far, that was easily the closest to complete bullshit.
How exactly did anyone look at me and decide I was notorious with women?
With this face?
I was just a guy who spent all day getting beaten up by Angelica and praying our sparring would end with a little less pain...
"Myself included."
As she said that, she stepped closer.
"So I intend to drive in the final nail while I have the chance."
She lifted my chin with her hand.
At that, Dolnesia flinched, while Angelica simply watched with a blank expression and did nothing.
But Isabella paid them no mind at all, only smiling as she gazed at me.
"If I do that, I think the rumors about you being some womanizing knight might finally die down..."
Then she placed a finger against my chest.
"Well? Shall we try it, Ian de Logres?"
...?
Try what, exactly?
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register