"You're not moving swiftly enough!" Cruige adeptly sidestepped Stephen's attack, causing the child to stumble. "Move quicker, a faster opponent will always overwhelm you!"
"I understand!" Stephen hastened towards his instructor, his sword slicing through the air in rapid succession, yet none of his strikes found their mark.
Eventually, his instructor tapped him on the head with a stick, leaving him fatigued and breathing heavily on the floor. How had he gone from almost copping a feel to this?
In a nutshell, the kingdom of Eldoria stood as one of the four great nations of Nox. In the original context of the game, he was the sole male heir of Eldoria's king and queen.
However, in this current file, he had an elder brother and an older sister, both of which harbored an apparent dislike towards him for some unknown reason. Rising from the ground, he respectfully acknowledged his instructor, signaling the conclusion of the lesson.
He navigated the palace's corridors, examining his current stats:
[Host: Stephen Eldoria]
[Age: 16]
[Level: 20]
[Class: Knight]
[Rank: Prince]
[Current Love interest: Claris Grandbelm]
[Reputation Meter: Somewhat a good boy]
[Strength: 100/99999]
[Speed: 200/99999]
[Toughness: 400/99999]
[Magic: 1000/99999]
[Health: 1000/99999]
[Stamina: 7000/99999]
[Intelligence: 200/9999]
[Luck: 5/9999]
[Charisma: 0/9999]
[Skills: None]
"I'm still quite weak. Why is that?" He asked, pondering over his sixteen years in this new world. "In the game, I should have reached level 40 by now. I haven't missed a single training session."
"I dunno."
"Of course you don't," he said, nudging the system stat screen aside as he headed to his room.
The game's narrative was straightforward: the objective was to win the heart of one heroine from fifteen potential love interests.
While some aspects remained constant, others differed. There was a pivotal event when he was ten years old—an encounter with 'Claris,' the first of the fifteen women. Oddly enough, that event had never transpired. "Have things changed in this world?"
He asked himself, walking toward one of the maids who pulled up the hallway.
"Good day, your highness." The maid, Grapha. A dark haired woman with a robust chest and dark round glasses said.
Stephen hadn't responded to her, he merely stared at the small gap within her top. Searching for that inch of cleavage he could never see due to the pixelated graphics the game had. Also, furthermore, in the game, none of the maids could be dated, and that alone deserved a zero star review.
Then just before his eyes.
A notification appeared.
[Reputation Meter: Is he still a good boy?]
"Oh, Grapha." He came back to. "Good day, I hope the palace work isn't too overbearing."
"Not at all." She said, side-eyeing him as she walked past.
"I have to be careful," Stephen said to himself. "It might not right now, but having my reputation high is important."
Then he walked into his room.
Waiting there for several hours, until he lost his patience and almost screamed. "What is happening, mom should've been here an hour ago, is the route not really going to stay the same?"
"Hmm. I am your system, I'm not privy to the world's current state. I observed your gameplay, that's all."
"Specific events are absent, but everything else seems to be functional. Even this glitch-prone wall," Stephen pressed his face against a wall and found himself staring at the palace gates.
"That would've earned you the [Glitch Master] achievement." The system said.
"They really designed an achievement around shipping a glitchy game," he chuckled.
"So, what's your strategy for making all fifteen women fall for you?" the system inquired.
"—again," he corrected. "By echoing the dialogue choices of the main character, I should be able to navigate this quite smoothly."
"Solid approach."
"Yep." He tapped his feet restlessly on the ground, waiting for his mother's entrance into the room. The second time she mentioned Claris in the game was during her palace visit, set for today.
"Come on." He tapped with growing anxiety. If she entered the room now, it might imply that the game's events were starting to align, to some extent at least. He couldn't justify missing Claris's initial event, but he could potentially make up for it with this one. "Come on!"
"Stephen!!!!!!" His mom burst into the room, and he leaped up in excitement, hugging and kissing her.
"Thank you so much!!!" Stephen exclaimed, before realizing his enthusiasm had been a bit excessive. He cleared his throat. "What has brought you here, mother?"
Rosette, his mother, also snapped back to reality, reflecting on the last time her son had hugged her. It had been when he wanted to nurse. "Oh, we have visitors. The Granbelm family. They want you to meet their daughter. So freshen up and be there in ten minutes. It's going to be fun!" Rosette dashed out, her joy evident.
"I recall hidden dialogue if you refused this event multiple times. She asked if I was gay."
"Are you?"
"Haha, very funny," he replied, sarcastically.
He swapped his sweat soaked attire for an ensemble that bestowed a +2 luck boost to his stats, even though he was well aware of the key dialogue options.
A touch of supplementary assistance never hurt anyone. Exiting his room, he headed to the waiting area where the Granbelm family had convened, accompanied by his brother, sister and mother.
"Pleased to meet you, sir. I am Stephen Eldoria," he said with a respectful bow to the head of the Granbelm family, who responded with a slight nod.
"The pleasure is mine as well. I am Lucien Eldoria," his older brother said, bowing in unison. "Four years Stephen's senior."
"It is a pleasure, Lord Granbelm. I am Silviette Eldoria," she added with a graceful curtsy. "Two years older than my younger brother, Stephen."
"Such well-mannered children." Violet remarked, holding her husband's arm. Her voice echoed in the same high pitch as Rosette. "Introduce yourself, dear," she encouraged her daughter.
"I am Claris Granbelm," the red-haired daughter executed a genteel curtsy, her gaze locking with Stephen's in a manner reminiscent of the game.
Everything unfolded seamlessly.
The adults made their way to the expansive living room, while the palace's exterior pool was chosen as his destination. Following the initial pleasantries, his siblings wandered off, granting Stephen and Claris some private time for outdoor play. However, their activities did not escape the watchful eye of one of the maids.
"So you don't have any siblings?" Stephen asked, following the exact same dialogue patterns he had in the game.
"Look. The only reason I'm here is because my parents forced me to. Let's not make this any more insufferable than it already is." Claris said, walking towards the flower garden.
Stephen smiled sheepishly. Although what she had said was mean, it made him happy to know it was the same line from before.
But while that was a good thing.
The fact dawned on him.
He was going to have to replay all the scenarios with all fifteen girls, many of which were cringe-worthy. He sighed and pinched his palm, a coping mechanism. "So, what do you do for fun?"
"What part of 'don't talk to me' did you not understand?"
A stake stabbed his heart mentally. "Is that so." He managed to say, suppressing the disappointment he felt. "I heard rumors about your dad arranging a betrothal..."
"How did you find out? Anyway... It's none of your business." She walked away from the garden, dipping her hands into the water before pacing around the pool.
"We can talk about it if you want." This was the dialogue the game had provided. He considered whether he should have persevered and written that bad review anyway.
"I'm good. I'm not talking to a good for nothing prince about my life—" she tried her best to keep her balance but she failed and she fell into the pool, a smile popped up on his face though he did his best to hide it.
"Are you okay!" He ran toward her, making gestures at the maid for help.
She was pulled out of the pool and taken to a spare room within the large palace, just like in the game they didn't bother notifying her parents since the king, his father was currently having a conversation with them.
He stood outside the room she was in, he watched the maid leave with her wet clothes. This was the part of the game that had a little bit more promise.
He walked toward the door, he leaned over it. "Claris are you okay?" He asked through the door, the keys to the red-haired heroines heart were constant persevering and an emotional tone.
"I'm okay. Sorry I was mean to you earlier. My parents just piss me off sometimes."
"Tell me about it. Mine are just like that too, telling me what I can and can't do."
"It's just so infuriating you know?" She said, "my entire life has just been decisions made for me and all I can think about is, at what point do I stop being a puppet that only listens to what she's being told."
He said nothing, as he had before.
"And now, I'm getting betrothed to a prince in the middle of nowhere, all so my parent's can acquire more fortune." Then, she sighed. "You know, at this point, I would be happier if it was you."
"Huh?"
"No! Don't mistake me, it's not that you're cute or anything, I'm just putting the pro's and con's together and you just happen to be the... better... one..." She quieted down.
If it wasn't already obvious, Claris was a tsundere. The classic Japanese character trope, where a female would make things unnecessary difficult just to avoid acknowledging her own feelings.
It was cute the first time around? After the second and the third though, or in his case, the 897th? It became extremely annoying.
But somehow, for some reason. It didn't feel that way now.
"Is that so?" He laughed, "well I'm happy that you find my existence tolerable."
"Yeah..." she muttered.
"So that just leaves crashing your betrothal,"
"What?" Claris said, her voice pitched. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about bringing you to the point at which you can finally begin living your own—" The door of the room fell inwards, it never did this before. And in the next moment, he was dropped into the steamy bathroom.
"Ouch. Sorry I didn't know the door was open." He looked above him and on his eyes reflected a line. "Umm."
"You pervert!" She slapped him across the face, running out of the room.
"System. What just happened?" Stephen said, holding his swollen cheek.
"It seems the events of the game have been updated."
"So you're telling me."
"Yes sir. It's as you feared... a new game plus."