“It’s a pleasure to see you, Bram and Michael. There was something I wished to ask you today,” Aileen responds, smiling primly.

  Michael shrinks back in an adorable way. “Yikes. Isn’t that where you’re supposed to be all ‘No need to be so formal, my brothers’? Who says something so ominous right from the start…? I guess you’re my sweet little sister, so I’ll forgive you. Oh, I’d like iced coffee. A jelly dessert, too; something refreshing and citrusy. Don’t just stand there, Aileen. Hurry and sit down; you’re expecting, aren’t you?”

  “That’s right. How are you feeling?” Bram asks.

  “They wouldn’t have let her come if she wasn’t feeling all right. Any ladies-in-waiting too incompetent to stop her would’ve been evicted by Cyril ages ago. Oh, right, we bought you a present. You can eat dried fruit, can’t you? It’ll keep quite a while. We also picked out cute clothes for the baby.”

  While Michael chatters away, Rachel and the others hastily fill his request for coffee and jellies.

  Aileen reproaches her wayward brother with the best smile she can muster. “Thank you very much. Still, even if you are my brothers, I can’t have you making decisions about the infant on your own. You haven’t even discussed it with Master Claude.”

  “Well, that’s true. But Mother is unbelievably excited. It would be awful if she got to decide everything, wouldn’t it? There’s no telling what she’d give you. So I convinced her to let us do it. Or, what, could you have stopped her? Are you telling me you are happy to eat whatever bizarre variety of meat that might show up one day just because it’s supposed to give you stamina or whatever?” Michael asks pointedly.

  “……Thank you very much for stopping her.”

  “You’re very welcome.”

  Michael 1, Aileen 0. As sarcastic as Michael can be, he’s equally considerate. Incidentally, Aileen has never once beaten him in an argument, which explains how Michael talked her into a corner.

  As Aileen stands there trembling, a fretful Bram comes over, scoops her into his arms, and sets her down gently on the sofa. He may be gruff, but he always takes the safety of those around him into consideration. Quite fitting for the captain of the Holy Knights.

  “Are you in any danger? If you have enemies, tell me their names. Don’t hold back.”

  At the same time, Bram gives off this air of a man who lives on the battlefield. He’s constantly searching for strong foes. Aileen often hears the next candidate for captain lament that his training is “inhumane.”

  “This is the imperial castle, Bram. It would be a serious problem if there were enemies here. Please calm yourself,” Aileen says.

  “I see…”

  “Could you not look so disappointed? I have no desire to be anywhere dangerous. Besides, we just got back from Kilvas,” Michael says with a sigh.

  “Y-yes, that’s right! That’s what I wanted to hear about!” If Aileen lets this chance slip past her, there’s a good chance the conversation will be derailed indefinitely, so she jumps on it. “I’m told the two of you went to observe the Kilvas Empire.”

  “That’s right. Me and this big lump,” Michael answers readily, stirring his iced coffee with a straw.

  “Did you accompany Michael as his guard, Bram?”

  “Yes. They called me up while I was on a journey to improve my combat skills.”

  Aren’t you the captain of the Holy Knights, pride of Imperial Ellmeyer? she thinks, but she opts not to say it. The vice captain or a certain individual who’s angling to be the next captain is probably hard at work climbing the ladder.

  “I was coordinating our approach to the issue of Hausel with other nations when I got a message from some sort of squid demon, telling me to head to Kilvas. Seriously, I wish he’d send slightly cuter demons. The messenger said the demons on that continent might not be as friendly as ours, so I should meet up with this guy and take him along as a guard.”

  “H-how was it? The Kilvas Empire, I mean. I heard rumors about a revolution brewing…”

  “Why don’t you ask our uncute brother-in-law?” Michael asks.

  “…Master Claude is very busy!” Aileen says, a little worked up.

  “Making this report twice is a real pain.”

  “I am the empress, Michael!”

  “And I’m your older brother, Sister.” Michael gives a smug little laugh.

  Aileen growls in frustration, and Bram raises his head, looking keen-eyed and efficient. “I could tell you about the demons and Valkyries, at least.”

  “Could you? Please tell me what you know, Bram.”

  “I only saw them from a distance, but the demons looked powerful. It’s a pity they aren’t organized. The Valkyries, who have always protected the people in that land, were splendid, well-trained soldiers. That is all.”

  Her brother has talked about nothing but strength, and before Aileen can say anything, Michael bursts out laughing. “Could you have picked anyone worse to ask?!”

  “Better than you, Michael! You won’t tell me anything!”

  “If you can convince the Oberon Trading Firm to custom-make some souvenirs for me, I’ll think about it.”

  Isaac has already taken over the Oberon Trading Firm, but if Aileen leans on him, he’ll probably grant her brother’s wish. Asking Claude for more information would only make him suspicious, and who knows what might happen then.

  Plus, her brother will most likely be using the gifts on diplomatic missions. Convincing herself it will ultimately benefit the nation, Aileen nods grudgingly. “Very well. I’ll arrange it. However, if you don’t tell me anything worthwhile, I have no intention of keeping my word.”

  “We have a deal, then. What you want to know involves the demon king or the demons, right?” Scooping up a spoonful of jelly and popping it into his mouth, Michael begins, “Like Bram said earlier, there are demons in the Kilvas Empire. There’s a legend that demons who turned away from the demon king gathered there, but no one knows if it’s true. Granted, the things the demon king says really don’t seem to reach them.”

  “Is it safe to assume that means there are demons who won’t obey Master Claude?”

  “That’s currently under investigation. We should have our answer after my uncute brother-in-law goes over there. It may just be an issue of distance. However, from what I saw, the demons over there don’t resemble the ones we see in Ellmeyer.”

  “…Now that you mention it, you’re right,” Bram agrees.

  Bram is the captain of the Holy Knights, an organization formed to fight demons, and he has plenty of experience defeating them. If he says Kilvas and Ellmeyer have different demon species, it seems credible.

  “Can you be more specific? How exactly are they different?” Aileen asks.

  Michael launches into his explanation. “You know how most of Ellmeyer’s demons seem to have developed from animals? That’s not true over there. How should I put it…? They seemed like true monsters. The sort you’d expect to find in the demon realm. If I had to describe them, I’d say they resembled dragons… The fact that they all had roughly the same shape was another thing that made me wonder about their nature.”

  “True, their sizes varied, but there were no major differences.” Bram confirms everything Michael said.

  “…Does that mean only one species lives there, perhaps?”

  Aileen’s brothers don’t answer her question. They may not have seen a large enough sampling or learned enough about them to be able to say with certainty.

  “In any case,” Michael says, speaking up again, “since the distant past, Kilvas has relied on a cadre of women who specialize in fighting demons to keep them at bay. Those are the warrior maidens, the Valkyries. And the creator of this elite fighting force was none other than the Queendom of Hausel.”

  “The Queendom of Hausel…” Aileen frowns.

  Michael nods, looking grave. “Apparently, after they undergo surgery in the Queendom, they’re armed with magic lances and then sent to fight demons.”

  Magic lances. Surgery. Warrior maidens. These words evoke flashes of a certain title and its art in the back of Aileen’s mind, but that’s probably just her imagination. It has to be. For now, she should focus on more immediate concerns.

  The Queendom of Hausel declared war on the Ellmeyer Empire because Claude, their emperor, is the demon king. After taking on Ellmeyer, the Queendom lost and subsequently collapsed. At present, it is essentially a failed nation.

  “Incidentally… If the Queendom of Hausel was supporting Kilvas’s imperial family, and Ellmeyer defeated the Queendom, does that not put us in a rather awkward position…?” Aileen’s concerns are growing.

  “Well, that’s a bit complicated. Earlier, you mentioned a close call with revolution. The Valkyries are the ones who were responsible for that. They’re making excuses now, saying it was only a misunderstanding, but I suspect they were just shy of rising up in open rebellion.” Michael scoops a spoonful of jelly out of his glass. “The revolutionary army insists that the Valkyrie system was nothing more than the Queendom experimenting on humans: turning women into weapons. The general claim is that the Kilvas imperial family has been selling out its citizens in return for the Queendom’s support. ‘This is unforgivable. Valkyries, now is the hour to rise up and transform this nation,’ or something to that effect.”

  “…Regardless of what the truth is, how do they plan to deal with the demons?” Aileen asks this while thinking of the concerns of the common people of Kilvas.

  Michael doesn’t turn a hair. “They won’t be a problem. If the Valkyries overthrow Kilvas’s imperial family and eliminate the Queendom, the demons will disappear. After all, they’re being sent from Imperial Ellmeyer, home of the demon king. And they enter Kilvas via the Queendom. What more proof of that do the Valkyries need when Kilvas’s current emperor has black hair and red eyes? That makes him the same as Ellmeyer’s demon king, and yet he can’t make the demons withdraw—because the demons are secretly communicating with the demon king.”

  Aileen’s eyes widen, and she puts a hand to her forehead. “…And he is Master Claude’s cousin, isn’t he?”

  “Right. But here’s where it gets really complicated. The Valkyries got furious and attempted a revolution, but before they could do away with their imperial family, the Queendom of Hausel fell. Not only that, but it was the Kingdom of Ashmael and Imperial Ellmeyer that took it down. The revolutionary army raised its fist, but it no longer had anything to strike.” Michael eats another spoonful of jelly. “There’s no knowing whether the fight between the Valkyries and the demons was really human experimentation, joint research between the imperial family and Hausel. The most important thing is that Kilvas can’t make Valkyries anymore. Hausel’s gone, and while they exported completed ‘products,’ they wouldn’t let the technology leave the Queendom.”

  “But if Hausel hadn’t fallen, those revolutionary Valkyries might have attacked us next, correct? That is rather complicated.”

  “Well, I for one am glad we took the wind out of their sails. And all of that is what’s behind this wedding.”

  Apparently the motives surrounding this event are more diverse and tangled than Aileen first assumed. “Now that you mention it, he is marrying the young woman who was leading the revolutionary forces, isn’t he…?”

  “The princess, Emperor Kilvas’s elder sister, is a Valkyrie. So they had someone in common.”

  So Claude’s cousin is a Valkyrie princess?

  Oh, the villainess—no, no, no!

  With his spoon still in his mouth, Michael goes on, sounding bored: “It’s a perfect match for both sides: an imperial family whose authority is so weak, they were a step from being deposed, and the leader of the Valkyries, a group with an abundance of energy but no direction. That princess is a clever one. Recommending the Valkyrie who led the revolution as a wife for the emperor of Kilvas isn’t something just anyone could think of. I hear she’s extraordinarily capable on the battlefield, too.”

  In other words, the leader of the revolutionaries, a nobleman’s daughter who became a Valkyrie, is marrying the emperor on a recommendation from the emperor’s elder sister, a fellow Valkyrie. With a buildup like that, she could easily be the heroine of an otome game.

  No, that isn’t what we’re focusing on here!

  This sounds like a certain game, but it didn’t have Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens in its title. It wasn’t part of the same series, and it wasn’t a spin-off.

  That means this shouldn’t be possible. This is the world of an otome game called Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens, so there’s no way a different game can force its way in. It shouldn’t be possible.

  “In other words, this wedding is an important turning point where we’ll see whether the imperial family and the revolutionary Valkyries can join hands and avoid civil war,” Michael concludes succinctly.

  “Like a broken engagement event that raises a death flag?!” Aileen is verging on panic.

  “Huh?”

  “N-no, it’s nothing—”

  “Lady Aileeeeeeeen!”

  The voice that suddenly reaches Aileen’s ears makes her lightheaded. Her brothers also look startled when the doors fly open. Bram hasn’t moved, but only because there are technically no enemies to confront.

  “L-Lady…Lilia…” Aileen barely gets the name out.

  The heroine has arrived. Like Aileen, she has memories of her past life. With a smile so bright that it could convince people spring has just arrived, she comes right up to Aileen, pressing so close that it’s almost hard for Aileen to breathe. “Lady Aileen, I just heard! Why didn’t you tell me right away?! Honestly, you’re so mean! I have no interest in diplomacy, but if this is about the Kilvas Empire, that’s an entirely different matter!”

  “Y-y-you… You’ve evaded your guards again…”

  “Oh—I might be pregnant, Lady Aileen! I came for a medical exam.” Lilia just casually dropped a bombshell, but she keeps rolling along. “I can’t believe myself! I thought there really were no more sequels. If there was anything at all, it would just be a fan disc. I was so sure of it that I got careless and overlooked another possibility! We’ve lost our All Ages rating, so I thought it couldn’t happen. Plus, if I really am pregnant, I assumed I wouldn’t be the protagonist anymore, and that made me a bit sad… What a blind spot. Not only that, but the wedding means the game is in full swing, and it’s about to heat up! The fight’s just beginning!”

  “Wait! Please don’t say anything else!” A nasty chill turns into goose bumps that spread all over Aileen’s body. She’s turned pale, and Lilia stares at her blankly.

  “Wait. Lady Aileen, haven’t you played that one? Valkyrie of the Magic—”

  “Lilia! Why would you run in your condition?! Please think before you act!”

  Cedric, the younger prince and Lilia’s husband, dashes into the room. And not far behind is Marcus, the one in charge of watching Lilia. The room has rapidly grown noisy, but the words Aileen can’t afford to hear still echo in her ears.

  That’s right. Valkyrie of the Magic Lance. Yes…

  That was the title. Aileen’s pondering whether that’s better or worse than a fan disc is, for her, just another attempt at escapism.

  In her previous life, Aileen lived in a country called Japan. Science and civilization were far more advanced there; at the same time, it had neither demons nor magic… None that were publicly acknowledged, at least. Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens was only one of countless otome games sold in Japan. As a fairly serious gamer, Aileen played more than a few of them.

  That was all, though. The world Aileen has reincarnated into belongs exclusively to the otome game known as Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens.

  “Don’t talk about impossible things like other games. You’ve stopped being the player and decided to live your life properly, haven’t you?! Not only that, but you may be expecting!” Aileen strikes the table with her fist.

  Across the table from her, Lilia laughs a little. “Don’t worry. I’ve decided I’ll give birth on the exact same day as you, and we’ll raise our children as twins. They’ll be our children, Lady Aileen. I can’t wait.”

  “Stop that. Don’t be creepy. I really do feel sorry for Master Cedric! Besides, if you’re pregnant now, I’m definitely a month further along…!”

  “I believe I can do it! It’s me, after all.”

  “Well, I believe that is absolutely not going to happen!”

  No one interrupts Aileen and Lilia’s incessant shouting. Aileen’s brothers are nowhere to be seen now. Cedric insulted Aileen and the rest of the d’Autriche household when he broke off their engagement. Given Lilia’s and Marcus’s involvement, it’s not surprising that Aileen’s brothers loathe the lot of them. The moment Michael and Bram saw the trio’s faces, they left without so much as a good-bye.

  Aileen has no plans to forgive Cedric, Lilia, or Marcus, and she certainly doesn’t consider them close friends, but Cedric is her husband’s half brother. Not only that, but because Claude is still childless, Cedric and Lilia are currently Ellmeyer’s crown prince and princess. Pretending they don’t exist isn’t an option for Aileen.

  She assures Cedric and Marcus that she’ll speak with Master Claude on their behalf and manages to convince them to leave Lilia in her care. It was quite rude of Cedric to doubt her, so of course she won’t actually give her husband an explanation. If anything, Aileen hopes Cedric gets a good talking-to about Lilia going out without permission yet again.

  Never mind that. I have more important things to worry about!

  Lilia was apparently an even more hopeless otome fanatic in her previous life. This means she has more game knowledge, Aileen can only presume. They certainly aren’t on such good terms that they would casually congratulate each other on their pregnancies.

  “You’re always such a square, Lady Aileen. We already have all this game knowledge. We might as well enjoy it, or we’ll miss out. So getting back to what we were talking about—”