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“My lady, what would you like for dinner?”

As soon as she got home after class, the young lady dove straight into bed, and Mina, as dispassionate as ever, called out to her.

“…You eat it, Mina…”
“So that means you don’t want any. And why would *I* be the one eating it?”
“…It’d be a waste otherwise.”

You’ll get divine punishment if you waste food, you know. Food waste reduction is important.

Mina gave her a light pat on the back through the feather quilt.

“I’m glad to see you’re not crying, but then, what are you doing under there?”
“Thinking…”
“Why like that, though? If I’m bothering you, I’ll stay out of the room until you call for me.”
“…”
“Then please call me once you’re done.”

After saying that, Mina left. Ekaterina slowly sat up.

With a *hiya!* she threw off the down comforter.
Still in her uniform, she sat cross-legged, folded her arms, and assumed a serious, manly deep-thinking pose.

Whenever she really ponders something over, she ends up like this!
But she could never let anyone in this world see her like that! She’s a *noblewoman*, after all!

.

Aahhh… Still, what should I do…
I know this is the world of the game, but I’ve come to realize again that this really *is* a whole different world. Flora-chan, Onii-sama… they really embody that mindset of a country where social class is codified into law.

I don’t mean to criticize it, really. That’s just the way things are here.
My brother said something like, “And even within the same rank, there are constant rivalries.” Come to think of it, the Three Great Ducal Houses really are like the Tokugawa Gosanke, huh? And those families were constantly plotting and clashing. My brother is fighting on that same kind of political battlefield. So, really, I can’t just spout idealistic nonsense.

But still, the gap between that and my modern sense of values is hard to swallow. I can’t even imagine what sort of disadvantage one could suffer just from having a commoner friend. And besides, from what I remember of the game, Flora-chan will prove her worth eventually. Ekaterina, who used to have those Yes-Yes Trio around her—girls of higher rank than Flora—ends up condemned and ruined. So it’s hard for me not to think “Rank shouldn’t matter.”

But then again, in my previous life, Japan still had a nobility system just seventy years ago. GHQ only abolished it after WWII.
And even the concept of human rights—what was it, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”—that was postwar too. Though I guess the idea existed before that, like with the French Revolution’s slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” So maybe similar ideas exist in this world too.
But, well, the French Revolution was bloody, and then Napoleon crowned himself emperor, so what *is* equality, really?
Yeah, even in my past life, things weren’t truly equal. People just had a shared understanding that they *should* be.
People were still worried about growing inequality even right before I died of overwork. Japan’s “everyone’s middle class” era was really just a blip in history, probably thanks to GHQ’s reforms that temporarily closed the wealth gap. Things were just reverting to the way they’d been before.

So, really, I shouldn’t be so shocked by all this hierarchy.

Then again, the fact that I’m mulling this over so much *does* mean it shocked me, huh.

.

Oh, and that turmoil—it wasn’t just from the clash with *Rina’s* modern values. It hurt *Ekaterina* herself too.

I mean, she’d been practically imprisoned in a detached building her whole life. The only glimpses she ever got of other kids her age were of her brother passing by the estate gates from afar. Even after moving to the ducal manor, she stayed silent and distant—a child being stubborn, maybe, but really it’s because everything just terrified her.

That’s why talking with Flora-chan, cooking together with her—it was so much fun both for Rina and Ekaterina. It reminded Rina of friends from her previous life, yes, but for Ekaterina, it was literally the first time she’d ever had that kind of joy. The first real friend she’d ever made.
And then, that same Flora told her they shouldn’t associate, and her brother delivered the final blow, saying that was for the best… ouch.

I mean, come on.
Maybe they were just being considerate—but I was the one who kept pushing myself into Flora-chan’s life. Just the thought that maybe she genuinely didn’t want to hang out with me really hurts.
She probably got weird looks from everyone just being near me. She has plenty of reasons to think of me as annoying. …Uugh, this is so depressing. I want to bury myself in a hole.
I can’t even remember a single thing from the afternoon classes! Waaah.

But wait! When I think about it!
In the otome game’s true route—when the heroine starts raising the prince’s affection and he begins to approach her—you’re supposed to push him away at first.
Exactly like, “Someone like me isn’t good enough for you!”—the kind of self-sacrificing rejection that proves the heroine’s love.
That’s the right choice. And only then, the prince starts chasing her instead. Push and pull, give and take—that’s how you win him over.

That’s the classic tactic in love! Yup, I could never pull that off in real life!

Such was my thoughts when playing the game, but now that I’m living *inside* that very game, I see it differently.
It’s not a trope—it’s Flora-chan’s natural personality. Or maybe, the game was written to fit her personality.
The chicken or the egg, who knows.

Either way, that’s the kind of person Flora-chan is. So this time too, she’s probably just stepping back out of concern for me.
That means, just like the prince in the game, I should chase her. Forget the bystanders—if I keep saying “What’s wrong with wanting to be with you?”, she’ll understand eventually.

…I am definitely in the route of romancing the heroine here, but.. S-so what?! She’s going to be with the prince soon enough anyway, no big deal!
Actually—if I flip the perspective, doesn’t that make *me* the prince figure, being captured by the heroine…? Ahaha.

All in all, Flora-chan will be fine. The real issue is my brother…

.

At some point, Ekaterina’s arms had dropped, and she was now resting her elbows on her knees, chin in hand, deep in thought.

.

But what exactly *is* the problem?
I’ve always known Onii-sama is a man of thoroughly aristocratic values. He’s born to be a duke, he has immense pride and sees himself as different from others. Even as a seventeen-year-old student, he handles his daily workload with quiet diligence—because that’s his *noblesse oblige*. Just as he fulfills the duties of his station, he believes those of lower birth should fulfill theirs. Naturally.

And, if anything, that’s what I like about him. He’s so strict with others that people call him cold, but he’s even stricter with himself. He’s rigid, serious, terrible at empathy, misunderstood by others, and burdened all alone.

Yeah. I love Onii-sama. That doesn’t change, and never will.

His words today were shocking to someone raised with modern human-rights values. And since I was already shaken from what Flora-chan had said by then, so I probably overreacted.
But it shouldn’t be surprising that Onii-sama would think or speak that way—it’s logical for this world. So why am I still so down about it?

Maybe because this is the first time, since regaining the memory of my past life, that I felt any kind of distance between us…
I wonder what Onii-sama thinks of me. What if he thinks I’m a little sister who’s unworthy of being a noble…

…No, he wouldn’t.
He’s a dyed-in-the-wool siscon.
If anything, he’s probably the one feeling down after seeing Ekaterina cry. Especially since I told him he was just like that horrible old hag who tormented our mother.

“Ah!”
My voice spilled out.

Oh, that’s it!

Onii-sama’s sister complex—there’s some mother complex mixed in there too. The love and guilt he feels for our late mother, whom he couldn’t save, gets projected onto his little sister who resembles her.
And that’s also why he despises that old bat who tormented our mother.

And even though I *knew* that—I went and said he was the same as that old hag!
That’s like hammering a spike into his trauma!

So *that’s* why I’ve been feeling so heavy—It’s not because I was hurt, It’s because I *hurt him*. And now I’m scared he might hate me for it!
Wow, I really *am* a brocon!.
No, actually, I’m still just an amateur in the ways of brocon. I’ve got to work harder so this never happens again!
Not sure if that’s something one should really aspire to, though!

Either way—hurting my favorite person is unforgivable!

Alright. I’ve identified the root cause, planned my countermeasures, and sorted out my feelings.
Time to take action.