“Say, can I borrow this for a while?”
“Please, consider it yours.”
“Eh, really?!”
“Yes.”
Raze nodded readily. She no longer needed that spear with its blunted tip.
“Thanks! I’ll definitely return the favor somehow!”
“Don’t worry about it. -Ah! While it’s good to train your spear skills, don’t go swinging it around in the snow again, or I’ll confiscate it, got it? You’re heading into the tournament, so mind your conditioning.”
“Got it. I’ll train carefully!”
Ian’s eyes were fixated only on the spear.
Like a child who had received a new toy and couldn’t wait to play with it, his eyes were innocent, yet burning with ambition beneath.
Raze let out a faint smile.
The ability to charge headlong, striving wholeheartedly, was also a talent.
She reminisced about the red-haired elder she had met at a council meeting long ago – perhaps Ian really could aspire to the same seat of captain of the knights. It might not be a mere fantasy.
“ – An event. It is. ”
“Hm?”
Having finished explaining what she had been doing with Ian that morning, Raze blinked in puzzlement at the words that came back.
Not understanding what was said for a moment, she stared at the lady beside her.
Swaying her long lavender hair styled in a braided bun, Carne looked at the bewildered Raze and gave an awkward smile.
“There should have been an episode where the heroine consoled the dejected Lord Ian, right? An important scene affecting his affection levels.”
“Ah, she hadn’t noticed.”
Carne patted down the mound of snow she had gathered, her hands clad in fuzzy fur-trimmed gloves.
Past noon, the snow had stopped, and Raze had invited Carne to join her and Folia in playing at the edge of the training grounds. What the two ladies were currently making was an igloo, quite a large one since they used magic to gather the snow. Initially, it was Carne , the noble lady, who had seriously proposed making an igloo so the three of them could huddle inside and eat snacks. Moments like these reminded Raze that Carne was a reincarnator.
Further in Raze’s view, Folia was diligently rolling up a snowman that she had wanted to make.
The peaceful holiday time flowed leisurely between the two of them.
“–…Ah, that was!?”
Raze finally understood what was being talked about and let out a surprised voice, a bit delayed.
“So does that mean I hijacked a rather important event in the otome game!?”
She hadn’t forgotten that this was the world that became the setting for the otome game.
However, that event in question had blended so seamlessly into the everyday this time around.
Unlike Carne , a fellow reincarnator who had played the otome game [Blue Orchid], Raze had no memory of it, so she couldn’t discern it.
Carne had given her a notebook with the scenario written down, but what Raze prioritized memorizing were the events related to Ruben, Carne ‘s fiancé and the prince of this country. She had largely disregarded any low-danger events.
If she could protect the villainess Carne , fated for doom in the scenario, and allow Carne and Prince Ruben to graduate from this academy on good terms without any scandals, her mission would be complete. Her life as a soldier had been peaceful as well.
From that perspective, this event wasn’t one she particularly needed to care about…….
(You’re kidding….. I didn’t feel any romantic elements at all…???)
What shocked Raze lightly was that it was herself, someone honed by military training, who had ended up in the position that the heroine Folia should have been happily building a snowman instead.
It was completely unbecoming of her. She hadn’t intended that at all.
She couldn’t have imagined that her actions born of circumstance would end up disrupting the scenario of a romance simulation game.
“Fufu. That’s just how it turned out.”
Carne seemed amused by Raze’s unusually flustered demeanor. Raze’s wording made it sound like she was worried about obstructing someone else’s romantic path, which was uncharacteristic of her, so Carne couldn’t help but laugh.
“……It seems I’ve become an irregular that disrupts the scenario too……”
Seeing Carne ‘s smile, Raze shrugged her shoulders.
She had intended to act as inconspicuously as possible and observe from the sidelines, but she had grandly ended up in the spotlight instead.
It was conduct unbecoming of her former career in intelligence.
“Raze is part of the anti-scenario group like me.”
Carne said so, appearing pleased to have secured a comrade who shared her enemy.
“……I suppose so.”
Regaining her composure, Raze took a shovel and began digging a hole.
Carne was concerned that Raze, being a mob character, might be eliminated from the scenario as an irregular element for getting involved in the game. Hence, the “anti-scenario group.”
In reality, Raze also had to stop any undesirable events for the scenario as part of her mission to watch over the promising young individuals, so what Carne said was correct.
As she dug into the snowy mound, Raze pondered.
[A meddlesome mob character should take her leave, if you please.]
The words that flashed through her mind were uttered by an agent of the Magenta Empire, hostile towards the Cyan Kingdom she had made contact with during the summer games. It was certain that there were indeed those on the Empire’s side who understood this was the world of an otome game and were trying to eliminate any obstructions. The coercive force to eliminate mob characters may very well have been at work.
It seemed she needed to have more awareness of being a relevant party to the game as well, she reconsidered.
“In a situation like this, I wonder what happens to the scenario. If the system applied itself to Raze, would that mean Ian would come to like Raze?”
“Huh!?”
Raze was startled by Carne ‘s outrageous suggestion.
From her perspective, it would be extremely awkward to have the person she was guarding develop such feelings for her.
“No way. I doubt he would feel that way about me……”
“Who knows? At the very least, the two of you grew closer from this incident, right?”
“I wonder about that…… Ian is friendly with everyone. And I can’t treat him at all like a heroine would.”
“Well, that’s true. Originally, the heroine was just supposed to encourage Ian and watch him practice his swordsmanship.”
Carne tilted her head slightly with an “Hmm.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
“[Someone is cheering for me. I have someone to protect, so I’ll become even stronger!] That was the idea, where he would power up.”
The main story was meant to connect Ian and the heroine through mental growth.
The line that sounded vaguely familiar made Raze grimace.
(Why did I insist so much on the spear? What an overly intense thing for me to say!)
She now regretted it, unable to shake the feeling that she had overstepped.
It would have been better to simply suggest practicing at the dojo since the match was coming up.
Without thinking, she had ended up taking the same attitude of speaking through action over words, just like when she was in the military.
Come to think of it, she had also casually sparred with the vice-captain of the knights after the wildlife observation session, laughing at her overly spirited subordinates.
She had thought she was still on the tamer side, but it seemed she had unconsciously picked up that method of communication beyond just words.
“Raze is a full-fledged scenario crasher too.”
Raze had no words when Carne called her “impressive” with a laugh. It wasn’t exactly a compliment she was happy about.
“Raze-chan! Carne -sama!”
Just as the conversation lulled, the one who suddenly popped her face out was Folia, her cheeks reddened from the cold.
“The snowman is done!”
Engrossed in building an igloo nearby, Folia announced the completion with a beaming smile.
The two paused their work and looked at each other.
“Ta-dah!”
At the spot Folia led them to were three adorable snowmen.
“One for Raze-chan, Carne -sama, and me! And I made some animals too!”
Surrounding them were small, pure white snow animals like rabbits, squirrels, and cats.
“Wow! They’re so cute!!”
Carne was in raptures at the impressive craftsmanship beyond her expectations.
Folia’s creative talent shone through in the snow figures she had made in such a short time, like artistic masterpieces.
Impressed, Raze said to the chest-puffed, proud Folia:
“You’re really skilled. I’d love to just leave them here forever.”
“Hehe. I always made them with the kids at the orphanage every winter.”
Folia said shyly as she squatted down.
“This bunny is easy, so everyone loved making it.”
She easily shaped the snow and added leaves for ears to make a rabbit.
(A…a bunny!?)
Raze’s heart was struck by Folia’s choice of words.
There was hardly anyone in the military who would use such an adorable way of referring to things.

“I have some extra leaves, so do you want to make one too, Raze-chan?”
“Ah, yeah!”
Momentarily stunned by the adorableness, Raze snapped out of it and tried making the same thing beside Folia.
“Like this?”
“Yeah! It’s tiny and cute!”
Imagining Folia’s time in the orphanage made Raze feel tender.
Folia truly was kind-hearted and sweetly innocent, perfectly befitting the story’s protagonist.
As she smiled back at her, thinking she could certainly develop feelings for Folia if they became especially close, Raze reaffirmed:
(There’s just no way I could replace Folia.)
She had put a lid on the possibility Carne had suggested—or so she thought.
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