CH 43

I will now review the second Love Interest, the one who supposedly caused an uproar after being kidnapped from the tea party...

The son of the head of the Mage’s Order, Gijs Nei Torrend.

He has light blue hair resembling his father's─the current Magician Head, blue eyes and a pretty face befitting of a Love Interest.

His personality was that of a mother's, and he was good at taking care of others, but...

When angered, he's the type who would smile gently and speak politely all while a blizzard blew in the background.

The rival characters for Gijs' route are as follows.

The duke's daughter, Isabella Ali Rottenstein.

Gijs' follower (worshipper), Ryan Tom Martin.

His fiancée candidate, Marianne May Hoffman.

The daughter of a viscount, Milliana Lily Hilson.

A total of 4 people.

First off, as I explained before about my rival character, Isabella; her eldest brother had married Gijs' sister, and should Gijs marry the heroine, she would then become relatives with a commoner. Not liking that fact, she had relentlessly bullied the heroine. Regarding this, there is not a problem at all as I will marry Ursch-kun and become a merchant after graduation.

Next, the fiancée candidate Marianne was a count's daughter and what is called a muscle-brained "rival lady".

In Gijs' route, there are multiple duel events with her. If you don't raise your combat stats via minigames and the like, you can't clear them.

And the thing about these duel events.

Was 『Love☆Magical』actually an action game or something?

...is what one would think after seeing the amount of people who couldn't clear Gijs' route because of those.

However, the most surprising part is that Marianne's duel events are only tutorials.

Then there's Milliana, the Viscount's daughter.....

She was a "Villainess" character, and the half-sister of the heroine.

She hated the heroine, who was an illegitimate child of the Viscount Hilson household, and bullied her.

Milliana had a younger sister of the same age as the heroine, who appeared in the son of the Head Knights, Brian’s route.

And last but not least, the rival character, Ryan.

Among the Love Interests in Ver. 1 Gijs was the only one with a male rival character, but please be aware that this wasn't BL.

In fact, this rival character named Ryan was Gijs’s guard that Gijs himself didn’t know about.

Why does Gijs have a guard, you ask?

When Gijs was younger, he was "kidnapped". Although he managed to escape on his own, the culprit had not been caught and may target him again.

That's right. The son of the head of the Magician’s Order, Gijs’s route contained episodes related to this kidnapping.

However, that kidnapping episode is said to have occurred when he was seven years old, yet this kidnapping happened a year earlier and apparently ended in an attempt.

By the way, the reason Marianne's duel events were tutorials is because of the battle events you have with Ryan and the kidnappers.

In Gijs' route, you'll think: Just how many times do you plan to make us fight?! That's just how many battle events there are. Really makes you forget that it was an otome game.

I liked it though.

Incidentally, the kidnapper was only vaguely hinted at Ver. 1, and you could only defeat them in Ver. 3.

Furthermore, starting from Ver. 2, the heroine would also be targeted. Oh my.

Now then, I should confirm if the kidnapping incident this time is the same as the kidnapping scenario Gijs had in the game.

"Well... regarding the carriage incident and the kidnapping of the Magician Head's son.  After the knights witnessed you throwing the carriage, they went to confirm the identities of the children who were riding inside as well their safety. Thanks to a report from the servant managing the tea party, the identity of Miss Amaryllis was confirmed right away, but they were unable to figure the identity of the child in the bag..."

Well yeah. They're in a bag after all.

It would have raised a huge commotion if they knew the second prince was in the carriage. Thank goodness the queen stuffed him in that bag.

"This led to the question of: 'Which child is not at the tea party right now?' and 'The Magician Head's son, Gijs isn't here!' which caused the belief that the bagged child was Gijs-sama. But then the Queen testified that the bagged child playing with Miss Isabella was the gardener's child..."

Thank you, your majesty.

I almost became the prime suspect of Gijs' kidnapping.

"So the question was: 'Where is Gijs-sama?', and the Imperial knights and servants conducted a large search within the royal palace."

"So..... did they find him...? Ah, here's your omurice, Isabella~ Bon appétit~"

Ursch-kun brought in lunch.

Before I knew it, it was lunchtime, and Marcus-san had prepared lunch.

"Wow!! Thank you for carrying it to me, Ursch-kun. Is there anything left for me to help with?"

"You can all stay seated~ If anyone unfamiliar entered the kitchen while Marcus is cooking, they'll get shot~"

".... Get shot? He's cooking right? Not having a gunfight, right?"

"I don't know what a 'gunfite' is but.... you know how they call the kitchen a battlefield? It's like that~"

No, even if you say that, I don't get what you mean....

"Are there 'guns' in this world?"

"Gu-ns? I've never heard of that. Why?"

"No, it's because you said we would 'get shot'.... If there's no guns, what would we be shot with? In cooking, at that."

I'm starting to get anxious about Marcus-san's cooking method.

Oh, the omurice was heart-shaped, with lots of flowers drawn on it with ketchup...

The food arrangement (?) is as cute as ever.

"Hmm~ You'll get shot by... Fireballs or waterballs I guess?"

Wha-!! I want to go!! I want to go to the kitchen!!

I want to see some cooking done with fireballs and waterballs!! I'm fine with getting hit so!!

"Ursch-kun!! Can I--"

"Nope~ There are many other dangers there, so you can't go~"

I was denied before I could even finish.

Ursch-kun. I think you're being a little too overprotective.

It's me, you know? King Kong? It'll be fine, okay?

With that in mind, I stared at Ursch-kun.

"Nope~ Even if you look at me like that, it's still a no~ Look, there are other tasks you can help with, like arranging the spoons, so how about those?"

Looks like Ursch-kun really won't  let me in the kitchen. What a shame.

Since it was time for lunch, we paused the conversation and prepared tea, spoons, etc.

I couldn't very well ask the second prince to work, so I asked him to stay seated. But he insisted on helping so we all prepared together.

Allis-chan and the prince were happily working together to pour tea for everyone, so this may have been for the best.

As we cheerfully finished our preparations and everyone sat down to eat, we resumed our talk about the kidnapping incident.

"U~m, so about how Gijs-sama was found. The squad leader of the knights spotted a suspicious maid carrying a large clothed mass and walking towards the back door. It was a high-grade cloth, so it seemed odd that she was taking it out."

"Paul-san. By any chance, was the clothed mass Gijs-sama?"

"That's right. It seems that when the knights called for her to stop, the maid started running and tried to escape, but was ultimately apprehended by the knights. And when Gijs-sama was found sleeping in the cloth, this became a case of attempted kidnapping. The knights tried to question the captured maid for more details, but...."

"Before they could, the maid coughed up blood and died. Am I right?"

I completed Paul-san's sentence for him, and his eyes widened as he held his breath.

So I was right.

"Miss Isabella, how did you... Do you perhaps know something about this kidnapping incident?"

Paul-san came to his senses and asked, but I didn't answer and replied with another question.

"Was the 'high-grade cloth' Gijs-sama was found in of 'blue' colour? And the exact same shade as Gijs-sama's hair, at that. Am I wrong?"

"...Yes. It was indeed a 'blue cloth'. I don't know if it was exactly the same shade as Gijs-sama's hair, but I heard that it was blue."

The original kidnapping episode took place about a year later, when Gijs was seven years old and attended his first tea party.

Furthermore, it didn't happen at the royal palace, but at the Head Knight's house.

In other words, it was supposed to happen at a tea party hosted by the Underwood County, the house of the other Love Interest, Brian.

And in response to Gijs getting kidnapped at the tea party at his house, Brian would feel weak.

The kidnapping incident this time and the kidnapping episode of the game were of different time and place.

But there were alot of common points too.

First, it was Gijs' first time attending a tea party.

The perpetrator prepared a cloth of the exact same colour as Gijs' hair, and wrapped him in it during the kidnapping.

Those involved in the kidnapping would cough up blood and die in agony before they could be brought for questioning.

With these common points in mind, I'm convinced.

The current kidnapping incident was the game's kidnapping episode brought forward.

I'd be troubled if there were more than one other kidnapper with the same modus operandi.

It seems the game's most troublesome enemy is on the move.

Don't get me started on the countless times I've had to redo Gijs' route because I couldn't beat him.

The psychopath pretending to be an artist.

A criminal who is obsessed with his own delusions and had repeatedly kidnapped others.

The 『Colours Collector』