Chapter 36: Too Enigmatic
"Whew..." I let out a sigh as I flop onto the bed, at least I won’t have to go through the tension of that meeting between the candidates for the throne and the heroine.
It turns out that in the game, the route system was based on two types routes, fixed which are events that necessarily occur in any route and are entry points for a romantic target’s route, and random routes, which are random events that occur during certain occasions in the game, one of those random events being in that room with all the romantic targets and the heroine alone.
But what happens in that room often turns into a mess, for example in one of the routes Laplace tries to do "improper" things with Grace right there in front of everyone, pinning her against the table.
He planned to commit indecent acts with her in front of everyone, not just as a show of force but to demonstrate that as a human, Grace has no value whatsoever.
And of course, he gets it wrong Grace is really strong, so she breaks his nose with a punch, which surprises everyone in the room, and this is the beginning of the route with Lucien, who has more of that warrior style, with that literally being his title [Warrior].
And in many other routes, dangerous things like that happen, because starting a route can create enmity with another romantic target from another route if Grace had broken Laplace’s nose, naturally Laplace would have developed hatred for her.
Grace is probably the strongest human on her continent, being a heroine is literally gaining a huge power, becoming comparable to angels and demons, and that’s why to come to the demonic continent in search of peace, only a hero can do it.
Because a hero is strong enough to survive here without too many real problems trying to kill them.
Humans are probably considered the weakest race, but they have a large population and diverse skills, because they are considered the weakest race for not having specific advantages, everyone here in the castle except the Demon King, Esther, Evelyn and Augustus underestimated Grace in the game.
This is a mistake, Grace is crazy OP, like a final boss, precisely because the focus of the game is romance and not seeing a girl trying to farm power to get strong.
In short, if you pick a fight with Grace, you’ll just get punched once and the fight is over Grace is only weaker than the romantic targets when they’ve already trained and reached their true strength.
This was probably also a game mechanic to prevent any of the romantic targets from killing Grace at the beginning of the game, since without Grace there was no game to play.
But now it’s no longer a game, which is why I’m being careful, since the beginning of Esther’s route in this meeting occasion is terrible for me.
For Grace to attract Esther’s attention at that table, something simple has to happen Lucien has to get so annoyed with Grace that he would resort to aggression.
And Grace, being the pure scripted appeal that she is, would beat up Lucien, and since Lucien is a formidable warrior, this would catch Esther’s attention... in short, about 70% of all events at that table involve Grace humiliating someone.
That’s why I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to be humiliated too, since this is the beginning of Marie’s route.
Even worse is when the events involve destroying the scenery, like Grace fighting with Lucien right there I could really get hurt, luckily most of the events don’t involve such dangerous things.
And even in that chaotic table, there are still about 30% of events that aren’t so bad, like Grace just bumping into the table, which is slightly pushed, causing Augustus to reduce his concern for her being careless.
Or Laplace trying to "flirt" in his own totally wrong way with Grace, which would end with Grace pinning Laplace against the table but letting him go soon after without a fight.
’But...I’m not there anymore...how much will this change the plot?’ I hope not much, I don’t want to be the cause of some bizarre event just because I wasn’t there.
It’s because fate is mean to me, so I always end up being the one who gets the short end of the stick in things like this, I’m sure being there would give the universe that golden opportunity to screw me over.
"Hey Eve, could you go get Clarissa for me?" I say, slightly lifting myself from the bed to look at Eve.
"Of course, Evelyn-sama. Is Clarissa the short maid who was here before?" Eve asks.
"Yes, that’s the one. Please bring her here for me?" I say as Eve smiles at me.
"Okay, one moment, Evelyn-sama," Eve says, quickly leaving the room, while I lie back down completely on the bed. Talking to Esther was really very tense.
Honestly, I feel more nervous talking to Esther than anyone else, and the reason for this is that I don’t know the reality behind her personality.
Even the Demon King, I know that his personality is not what he portrays, but in Esther’s routes, she always lied there were so many and so many lies that you never know what’s true and what’s a lie.
If there’s one thing that didn’t change in the game, it was Lore and Personal Tastes no matter how you started a route, your choices, and what happened, Lore and Personal Tastes never changed.
Because that’s something from the past, and Grace can’t change the past, but Esther in each route always tells a different past and totally different tastes.
There are just a few confirmed realities that even her mountain of lies can’t hide the first is that Esther is cruel and sadistic, the second is that Esther hates sudden changes that she can’t control.
The third is that she’s someone who likes to always be on top, so any R-18 scene with her ends with her on top of Grace, the fourth is that she doesn’t like to be bothered or interrupted abruptly.
"Ah yes, there was also that weird part of the fandom that said Esther likes cute animals... obviously that’s a lie" Esther is too sadistic to like cute animals.
Besides, I was addicted to this game, there’s not a single part that shows Esther liking animals it just happens that she likes to speak in metaphors with Grace.
So sometimes she uses weird analogies involving cute animals as well as metaphors to talk about certain things, but that doesn’t mean she likes those things.
In fact, it’s more a elegant way of belittling others, after all she’s literally the definition of the "noble villainess manipulator" archetype when she uses animal metaphors, she’s actually belittling the person as inferior.
"Wait!!! THAT’S IT!!! DAMNED!!!" Now I understand, it seems that when she suddenly talked about a hamster, she was talking about me and calling me inferior.
"Damn, I fell right into that one" She’s so genius, how should I have noticed that she was belittling me in a "polite" way?
’I have to get smarter to catch these indirect insults!!’ These indirect insults are important the more indirect and metaphorical she is, the more she’s showing how she sees me.
So it’s a way to measure it if she speaks metaphorically about disgusting animals, she’s basically considering me absurdly inferior and trash that should be discarded if I get in her way.
’If she’s comparing me to a hamster, then...I’m not in danger’ Basically, to her, I must be someone who isn’t even a threat at all I never really understood this, but in the game, Esther seemed to evaluate people as things that demonstrate power or weakness.
So much so that she compared Grace to a swan, a beautiful animal that can attack but is ultimately just a decorative bird which may have even been a sign of true love.
There’s no way to know, I never managed to figure out if Esther truly loved Grace in the game she always acted in that way that hid everything deeply, and she even killed Grace in the game while saying she loved her.
So it’s hard to know, and I have to say that this may speed up my heartbeat a bit this world can be absurdly dark in some points, but it’s also captivating with its hidden secrets.
I’ve always wanted to know, what does Esther hide so deeply in her heart? Maybe when I’m strong enough to stop her from destroying the world, I’ll find out why she did all this.
And why she wants to end all lives on the planet so badly it’s kind of scary, but it also piques my curiosity, one of the feelings I had in the past, curiosity for this fantastic world.
"[Your destiny...I am the King, I decide...in my domain there is nothing I cannot kill...]" I murmur one of the most enigmatic phrases Esther said in one of the routes when Grace asked why she was doing this.
This phrase may seem gloomy, but Esther said it in a strange way to Grace in the game, as if there was something more behind it, especially the fact that she cites destiny and her domain, since Esther’s domain is completely empty.
This phrase, when analyzed, can be used to extract many things first, Esther calls herself King and not Queen as she should, considering her gender; second, she cites domain and destiny as if the two were connected.
And finally, the act of her saying that she decides everyone’s destiny, as if killing everyone was her choosing each one’s destiny, something strange but not necessarily pleasing to her.
After all, she never smiled, laughed, or found the act of eliminating everyone entertaining at least in the game, she didn’t even show a reaction, even when Grace cursed her as a monster in the route where the two got closest, all Esther did was look coldly and say that enigmatic phrase.
’It doesn’t matter!! Even if I don’t find out why she’s doing this, I’ll still stop her’