"Reincarnation? Like being reborn after you die?" Clarice asked with pursed lips.
Livia's face suddenly turned sour. "Ugh, Anne is saying she knows all about that."
"But what are Alternate Worlds?" Clarice followed up with the other half of the equation. I wasn't surprised that they weren't familiar with the concept.
"Well, they're worlds like ours, but different. Like imagine a world that doesn't have flying islands and everything is just floating on the oceans. Basically, what you might consider as fantasy worlds from books of fiction." I tried to explain as best as I could. I'd probably need a better analogy later.
"That makes more sense." The third-year voiced out with a nod.
"Wait, what does that have to do with your relationship with Marie?" Angie suddenly cut in with narrowed eyes. Fair, as it sounded almost like I was trying to change the subject.
"It has everything to do with it because the two of us are both reincarnations as well as from an alternate world." I watched the three girls glancing at each other. Well, at least they haven't called me crazy just yet.
"What are you talking about?" Clarice asked in continued incomprehension.
"Leon, dear. Can you please hand me the necklace again?" I blinked at the request, but I handed the haunted accessory all the same.
"One chance. Behave yourself or I will never touch this thing ever again." Livia threatened the necklace before once again putting it on. Anne immediately made her presence known. "Ahh, I knew that you are the reincarnation of my beloved."
"Sorry to disappoint, but that's not what I mean." I shot her down immediately, making her pout. Pretty weird to see that with Livia's face while knowing that it was some ancient ghost. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself. "Now, I'd like to tell you all everything that is really going on with me, and Marie by extension."
"Why? You could simply just tell us what we would have wanted to hear." Angie asked simply.
I closed my eyes for a moment, only opening them once I was ready to speak. "Because I hate having to hide such important things from the women I love. You can all decide if you want to continue having a relationship with me afterwards."
"I trust you, Leon." Livia told me with a smile, with Anne chiming in. "Anything for you, beloved."
"Alright." Clarice added with a nod.
"Tell us everything, Leon." Angie closed things out, leaning forward on the table.
So, I began telling them my real story. Starting with a better analogy of what happened to me. "Imagine this world, with everything you know, is a book on a shelf. Each of you has a dedicated page on that book that defines who you are. This is the same with everyone and everything else."
"Now, imagine that there is another book on a different shelf. One that has wildly different contents than your own. Some things may be similar, some things may be identical, but a lot of things don't match at all." I continued, giving them a few moments for the concept to sink in a bit.
"The thing that happened to Marie and myself is that our pages in that other book got moved to this book and replaced what would have been the pages of Leon and Marie of this world." I continued on, making hand gestures to try to help them visualize the analogy. "So, instead of a Leon and Marie that are born and grew up like everyone else, we have the memories and experiences of our lives from that other world as well."
"So you are so protective of Marie because you are both from the same book, as you describe it?" Angie posited with a raised brow. I shook my head in response.
"It actually goes deeper than that. Marie was my younger sister in that other world." The three girls' eyes widened at my words and they all looked at each other.
"How are you sure?" Livia asked the obvious question.
"We both told each other stories from the childhood we had in that other world and it all matched up. We only really discovered it during the school trip, before the monster attack." I saw the comprehension dawning on Livia's face when I mentioned the school trip.
"That's why the two of you suddenly started behaving differently back then." She muttered while looking at me.
"But when were your pages moved? Was it some sort of magic spell from your other world?" I winced at Clarice's question since I knew they probably weren't going to enjoy this part.
"No, I'm pretty sure that we only got reborn here after we…died." Yep, the look of horror on their faces was definitely something I never wanted to see again.
"You died?" Livia whispered.
"Back in my old world, yeah. I don't know her circumstances, but I have a feeling that Marie is in the same situation." It was a topic my sister skillfully kept avoiding whenever I brought up the subject of our previous lives.
"How did you die, if I may ask?" Anne asked in a surprisingly serious tone.
"That actually goes hand-in-hand with another thing. Something that you all probably have the right to hate me for." I said with a loud sigh while wiping my face with my hands.
"I already knew things about Holfort, the Academy, and all of you before I was even reborn. Well, except for Anne's existence." I just ended up laying the cards down on the table. The three girls were silent until Clarice looked like she had an Idea.
"Did we have equivalents in your old world?" That was a pretty clever assumption. Sadly, it was wrong.
"No. I mean, not as people anyway. Okay, this world doesn't really have an equivalent to this so I'll just go for an analogue. Are you all familiar with a play or stage performance?" I breathed a sigh of relief when they all nodded.
"Great. So, in my old world, there is a particular performance that centers around a girl who wasn't a noble but was enrolled to a prestigious academy for nobility because of her talent for healing magic. There she meets five heirs of great noble houses, including the crown prince. She befriends them, and even ends up falling in love with one of them. There are variations of the outcomes for each of the five heirs." They all blinked at my words and I could see them slowly piece everything together.
"Through trials and tribulations, three years worth of experiences, the girl and her chosen love eventually prevent disaster from descending upon the capital of their country and live happily ever after." I closed my eyes as I continued telling them a summary of what happened in the game.
"That girl's name was Olivia. The heirs were Julius, Jilk, Brad, Chris, and Greg. It was your story, Livia." I opened my eyes and smiled at the gobsmacked girl in front of me.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! What does that mean? Livia with Julius or Jilk? Were we not there?" Angie suddenly protested.
"You were actually, both of you were. But you two were cast as Livia's antagonists depending on the variation you would see. Either of you would serve as obstacles for her and her lover." I explained and the three of them looked distraught at the idea of being enemies with each other.
"How did this relate to you dying?" Livia finally asked, looking like she didn't really want to know the answer.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes as I told them. "I may have pushed myself to experience every single version of the story in a short span of time, of which there are a lot, until I died of exhaustion."
"You died because of me?" I quickly reached out and took Livia's hands in mine when I saw her face as she said that.
"No! No! That was all my stupidity!" I vehemently told her while massaging her hands to try to calm her down. Angie and Clarice also helped by cuddling up to the panicked girl.
"You said that you saw all these stories play out?" Clarice started once Livia finally calmed down. "Did Marie?"
"Yes, that was the reason why she was able to have them fall in love with her so easily. She knew things about them that no one else probably did." I winced at the anger and hurt in the eyes of Angie and Clarice.
"Five heirs, you say?" Anne suddenly piped up. She didn't even comment how I was still holding Livia's hands, which she could probably feel as well.
"Yeah, why?" There was a flash of anger in her eyes but it vanished a second later.
"Nothing important right now–then why did you bother taking control?!" Livia growled out as she took her body back. She then looked into my eyes and asked her own question. "So, if Marie hadn't interfered, then I would have ended up getting together with Prince Julius or one of his friends?"
"That's the likeliest outcome." She nodded at my answer and smiled.
"Good, I should thank her sometime." The rest of us looked at her like she grew two new heads.
"What?! Livia!" Angie voiced her incredulity.
"If she hadn't done what she did, then the three of us probably wouldn't be here talking right now." Livia pointed out as she reached out to caress Angie's face, making the other girl blush. "I might have even ended up being enemies with either of you. I certainly would not have met Leon or had become close to him. I can't even imagine a life like that."
"Dammit." Clarice suddenly muttered.
"What's wrong?" I asked as Livia and Angie continued being affectionate with each other.
"Marie actually spoke to Angie and I while you two were away during winter break." We were both surprised to hear that. The hell was Marie thinking, doing that while I was away?! "She mentioned that her interfering with our respective engagements was the best thing to happen to us because it directly led to the two of you. We are both very angry that she is likely correct."
"I'll talk to her about that and make her apologize." I said with a sigh and a shake of my head.
"So, was that why you kept trying to make me meet Chris and Greg during the first term?" Livia asked in a way that made my spine crawl. I gulped and nodded gingerly.
"Yeah, I was still operating on the assumption that I could still put everything back to the way it was supposed to be. Back to how the stories would have gone. I wasn't even supposed to interact with any of you. Leon Fou Bartfort wasn't part of Olivia's story." I explained, they looked pretty alarmed at the last part.
"What changed then? Why help Livia? Why help myself and Clarice?" I chuckled at Angie's question as that was probably the first big turning point in my life here. Well, one that didn't involve giant robots.
"Because Control made me realize that this world isn't just a story with a set script. That you aren't actors or characters that only behave a certain way. Everyone and everything changes and grows in their own ways." I smiled at the memory of that conversation. I couldn't even imagine what kind of person I'd be if Control wasn't there to talk me through things I never even considered at the time. If only I had someone like them in my old life. "It also didn't help that Marie's actions had already changed so much that the story is barely even reliable for reference."
"How much do you actually know about us, Leon?" I hummed at Livia's question. It wasn't as much as I thought I did, actually.
"Anne? Nothing. Angie and Clarice? Not all that much since they were just treated as adversaries you would overcome. Most of the story revolved around you and the boys." I admitted. Livia then looked down and pursed her lips.
"Then you were nice to me before because I was a character in a play that you knew?" I winced at that since it was true.
"At first, it was because you were the main protagonist. Then we started spending time together and I started caring less and less about that. By the time my talk with Control happened, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore. I think I was falling in love with you by that point." I told her with as much sincerity as I could, making the girl smile and blush.
"Leon, what happens to me and Clarice in your stories?" Angie suddenly asked in a small voice. "What happens when we try to stand in Livia's way?"
"Are you sure you want to know? It's not going to happen anyway?" I carefully asked. There was literally no benefit to telling them that.
"Humor me." She insisted with a sad smile. I nodded and started telling them.
"Right. Basically, for you Angie, it's everything you went through with Marie but spaced out for three years." All three girls winced at the thought of having Angie still go through the same things she did earlier in the school year. "You basically slowly watch Julius slip away from you and into Livia's open arms. The duel you challenged Marie to would have happened at the early part of our third year with Olivia. Your chosen champion would have lost and we don't hear about you until the end where it would be mentioned that you were banished and forced to marry a remote lord."
"What about me?" Clarice nervously asked as Angie digested that information.
"You…just sort of stopped appearing in the story around the end of the first year. Livia's story with Jilk revolved more around his own family and his friendship with Julius." I told her and she mutely nodded.
"That's enough of that from you two." Livia forcefully said, getting all our attention. "I would never do that to either of you. Angie, Clarice, I love you both. Leon loves you both. So stop thinking about a possibility that will never happen."
"You're right. Thank you, Livia." Angie said gratefully while Clarice just opted to embrace and kiss Livia right in front of me. Well, that was definitely something I was going to remember for a long time.
We took a few moments so that everyone could recover before we moved on. I was about to start when Livia's expression changed and she started speaking.
"You mentioned a disaster that my host and her love were supposed to prevent. What was it in your story?" Ah, so I was talking to Anne now. Kind of hard to tell who was in control unless they spoke up.
"The Principality of Fanoss." The three of them stiffened at the name. Their eyebrows shot up at the next thing I said. "They declare war on Holfort in the third year of Olivia's story."
"Leon?" Clarice called out to me while I was thinking about the Black Knight, Hertrude, and all the other things that could eventually be coming in the future.
"Sorry, I just remembered something else that complicates things. Let's go through everything in order first." I waved off her concern and decided instead to summarize what we've talked about so far. "So, Marie and myself reincarnated from a world where this one is the setting of a story about Livia. It's why we know things about people, places, and events. Things have changed because of our actions and our foreknowledge isn't as useful anymore. Any questions?"
"Good, because that was the easy part." I said when they shook their heads. I cracked my neck before diving into another big topic. "So, Marie. Here is her story."
I proceeded to tell them about Marie's childhood as a Lafan, her motivation for taking Julius and the others, and her eventual end goal.
"I still hate that girl for what she did, and how devoted you have become to her." Angie said in obvious jealousy. She then harrumphed and continued. "But I understand why she did it and I can at least begrudgingly respect her tenacity."
"We still probably will never forgive her." Clarice added and Angie firmly nodded. Well, that was definitely something to work on between them.
"So the child wishes to usurp the role that was originally meant for my host? She has ambition at least." Anne spoke up again to comment on Marie, Livia seemed fine with her taking over for a bit.
"Most of her problems have been taken care of with the Lafans being dissolved and my adoption of her as my sister. I'll talk to her once she comes back and tell her that she doesn't really have a reason to want to go after any of the other Relics and be declared as the Saint." I explained and assured them that Marie was probably no longer a threat at all to any of them.
"Pffft! They actually call myself and my possible successors Saints? Who was the delusional fool that started it?" Anne's mocking expression suddenly shifted to a confused one as Livia took back control. I can't believe how fast we were all getting used to that. "So I can become this Saint?"
"If you can acquire all three relics. The necklace I was able to get from the pirates we fought over the holiday. The bracelet is somewhere in the Capital's main dungeon. The staff is at the Temple itself and would be given once you have the other two and demonstrate your superiority in magic." I listed out the remaining two relics and their locations.
"What happens if Livia gets all three?" Livia's expression once again changed to a haughty one at Clarice's words.
"Then she will inherit my power or we will become one–I haven't agreed to either outcome." Livia quickly shut down Anne's developing narrative on what was going to happen.
"This all seems so very complicated." I laughed at how tired Angie sounded.
"Welcome to my world. Besides, all this is supposed to be spread out over our three years at the Academy." I told them. Some things were out of order, but we hopefully still had more time to deal with things before it all came to a head.
"If you know so much of what will happen, couldn't we warn people about problems that will arise?" Ah, the obvious thing that someone with future knowledge would probably want to do. Clarice's idea wasn't bad, just a bit too late.
"There is a way of thinking back in my old world about foreknowledge. The more you change the past, the more the future becomes uncertain. Honestly, the only thing I have a good idea will still happen is Fanoss since they're definitely still angry about all the invasions Holfort did decades ago."
"What invasions?" The three of us were quiet at how innocently Livia asked that question. Angie decided to educate her about the campaigns that Holfort conducted in order to try to reacquire Fanoss back into their territory.
"I didn't even know that happened." She admitted in disbelief that such a thing occurred.
"Most commoners probably don't, but that'll be the main motivation." I said, trying to make her feel better.
"Shouldn't we still warn the Crown at least? I'm sure Queen Mylene would listen to you." Livia then asked and I had to sigh because of what I was about to tell them next.
"That's probably not a good idea because of the last wrinkle in this whole thing. Getter."
I started telling them about going to the island where I found the Saotome Labs and Control. Then, I explained that they weren't supposed to be there along with all the other Getter related things that have been popping up. This included what happened in Elven Island and maybe even the increased monster activity everywhere.
"Then things are even more misaligned since Getter and the things related to it were never in the original stories you knew about." Angie summarized with a thoughtful nod.
"You've been burdened by all this the entire time we've known you? All by yourself." Livia sounded a bit angry when she asked that.
"Well it's not as bad as you think. I have Control to bounce ideas off of." I tried to play it off with a laugh.
"Leon, Control told me about the nightmares." And I wasn't laughing anymore at how Livia was looking at me.
"It's more of a recent thing." I weakly stated as I sank back into my chair with how they were looking at me.
"And you told this to the Queen?" Livia continued her questioning.
"Just the Elven Island stuff when she brought it up as one of the reports she read. I'll tell her about the rest of it once we get another chance to meet." I informed her. She then narrowed her eyes like she was going over something in her head. She then nodded and smiled.
"I think I understand why she led you to her bed." I blinked at that. It was so weird to hear how okay she sounded about it.
"Leon, meet us at Angie's dorm room after dinner. This will probably be the best chance we can get before classes start up again." She continued as the three girls looked like they were having an entire conversation with just eye contact. Why was I breaking out into a cold sweat?
"What? Why?" I managed to ask. The three girls simply gave me a smile that made me feel certain things.
"Don't worry about it." Livia said before her face soured and she rolled her eyes. "Fine, you can get one, afte–at last! You are a worthy successor!"
I was very worried.
The rest of the day passed and I had dinner with the girls at the cafeteria. I went back to my room to inform Control about going to the girls' dorm and to check on Yumeria and Kyle.
Please remember to hydrate.
Those were Control's parting words when I told them about going to Angie's dorm room. It seemed that Julius passed by and said that Marie would be released tomorrow, so Kyle was going to be sleeping with Yumeria for tonight. Neither sounded bothered by it when I asked them.
I arrived in front of Angie's room and knocked on the door. It opened and I beheld three lionesses prepared for a hunt. I instinctively started looking down and gulped. Angie and Clarice pulled me in the room as Livia closed the door. I blinked when I noticed that Livia was wearing the Saint's Necklace.
The only thing I thought as the three of them closed in on me from all sides was that Control gave me sound advice.