"Engagement?" My sister faced our father with ease despite the bombshell that'd just dropped. She, Dahlia Claybrook, tilted her head in confusion and just lightly nodded as if it was nothing to do with her. Her long, golden curls and sapphire eyes shone magnificently in the morning light.
"Okay." She smiled. Quite absently, I may add.
Mother and Mary reacted differently.
They each grabbed one side of father's shoulders.
"Let's talk, shall we dear?"
"Come, little Eliie."
And the rest of us were left behind. The doors closed with a bang while father had the face of a man about to go to war.
Vera turned to Dolly. "This is utterly ridiculous." She said through grit teeth. "You don't even know this whatever Prince and your father wants to engage you to him? That flea dares..."
Her tone was chilling.
"Father wouldn't like you saying that, Vee." Dolly said.
"Who cares!" The other barked. "Come on, aren't you angry? You're being engaged to some guy you've never met! Even if your fiance's a Prince, it's too much!"
"I don't see a problem though?" Dolly's delicate brows knit together.
Vera glared. "How can you not see a problem?!"
"I like meeting new people." Was all she got in reply.
Vera threw her hands up in exasperation. "This girl..." She sighed. A sudden thought dawned on her."Dolly, do you even know what a fiance is?" She asked carefully.
"Of course I do." Dolly nodded.
"Well?"
"..."
"Hmmm?"
"..."
"I'm waiting."
"...Friend?"
"Are you saying that just because they both start with the letter F?"
"No?"
Vera fumed, clearly done with the overly-sheltered "Princess" she was talking to.
"Young Master!" She shouted. "Surely YOU'RE not okay with th--... Young Master? Hello?"
But I, who had been silent up to now, barely heard her.
"Sorry." I said distractedly. "I've got stuff to do." I rose from the seat in a hurry.
"What? Hey, don't go! Young Master? Young Master, come back here right now! I swear you two siblings are just...just...! Urgh!"
But I wasn't paying her the slightest bit of attention anymore.
***
From this day forward the pristine walls of a well-furnished room were fated to recieve several solid kicks. A loud thud could be heard, followed by the crack of fracturing brick.
Standing behind me was a young boy in formal wear, shaking nervously. "Young master, the walls, you can't do that!" His high-pitched voice was equally shaky. With anger. " I just got done repairing the damages you made to the others!"
His cowlick defied gravity and stood proudly atop his head where it was seemingly swaying, another indication of his inner turmoil.
Baz. It seems he'd already finished up the tasks I asked him to do. Quicker than I thought.
But I just ignored him and continued to vent my frustrations on the innocent building. I kicked the wall several more times. Seriously? A game? I reincarnated into a fukken game?
I almost wanted to flip over a table. But no. I forced myself to calm down and stood there in contemplation, seriously recalling my knowledge of the game that had long since remained buried within the depths of my mind.
Love Orgy, huh....An aptly-named game in a certain aspect. Considering all the smutty romance scenes that went on and all.
I searched my memory, trying to remember the general storyline. You start with a commoner heroine, then through a series of cliches she meets the Prince, they fall in love...the typical Otome game.
But I mean I bet you're wondering why I, this dude, would be playing an otome game in the first place. Before that, let me tell you to kindly fuck off. Who said only girls can play otome games, huh?
I'm a hopeless romantic, 'aight?
Secondly--The smut scenes were spicy AF.
Hehe. Have I not said it before? I am a man of culture! So much glorious culture!
Not that the smut was it's only appeal. The dialogue options were vast and the main storyline could take a full week to get through even if you played it all day every day. It was polished, that game, and so it was very well liked.
Since the story seemed overly vanilla though apparently the prince is incredibly hard to capture. This is why the game stretched on even after the estimated completion time, because you had to be very careful about what you did or said. To add a little challenge to it. The game was good overall, no real complaints.
For me there was one large complaint, however: The way the Villainess is treated.
People hated her a lot for what she does late-game but forget that she started out pretty decent. It's only once you move in on the prince for real that she starts to change.
And really I couldn't blame her. The Heroine was trying to take away the fiance whom she fell in love with over the years of their engagement.
In all the Good or Bad Ends she is always put in a pitiful position. From public executions, torture, and exile... to being forced to marry a foreign noble, or being stricken with a "terrible illness"--Bullshit, I completely felt it was nothing but heartache. Them feels tho...*sheds tear*--that leaves her bed-ridden for the rest of her life even in the "Good Ends"
Since the story is so expansive, and you can get multiple outcomes based on your choices, the number of Good and Bad ends are just as numerous.
In Bad ones she does something to the heroine, and depending on what you did in the story to affect her crime, the Prince retalliates in kind and almost always ends up dead.
In Good Ends she's left with a broken heart and deep sense of betrayal that can cause her to lash out and earn some kind of punishment. Like exile or torture. No deaths but nothing very much better either.
Good for the heroine, not Good for her. Just something to satisfy the players who think anyone could deserve that kind of cruelty after just a bit of mean-ness.
And why? Because she fell in love with the Prince, as was her right. Most people thought she was only a bitch, but I said no! Rather, everything was fine before the Heroine?
The girl never showed her claws until the Heroine started going after the Prince. Or tried to capture her brother, Damien, if you purchased that particular DLC--which really just never works since Damien as a character in the game was famous for being unconquerable--while simultaneously in the middle of finishing the Prince's route
Hm. Well I made it seem like it was a bit linear but the truth was that after you met the prince it was entirely optional to start romancing him. That was the default story, the route mainly advertised which the devs wanted you to complete since it's the one they worked hardest at.
But you could romance other people besides the Prince.
Since a reverse harem was also possible you could even go after multiple targets at the same time and not have to dedicate yourself to any one route.
And in fact there were several rival characters that you'd meet when doing different routes. The main Villainess herself only appeared as an antagonist if you chased after the Prince or her brother--her brother so popular despite being a minor character that the devs were pretty much forced to deliver the DLC in the first place. Where romancing him was "possible" but not really.
Several scenarios could happen in those cases.
First--If you went after the Prince she became horrible and fights you at every turn, ending up in different sorts of unhappy fates no matter what Good end or Bad you achieve.
Second--If you use the DLC's features and only went after her brother then she also becomes an obstacle but nothing major since you can't conquer him anyway--at least the method was unknown at the time I died--and she actually starts rooting for you near the end... until she gets attacked by one of the brother's admirers later after they discover she was showing favoritism to the protagonist by supporting her.
She doesn't die but she does end up with a scar on her face that ostricizes her from the ladies of the court after she marries the Prince. Not a nice fate at all but still not as bad as her usual ends
Third-- if you were to go after the brother while already having finished half or more of the Prince's storyline, then once you get the inevitable bad end for her brother she hurts the heroine and is severely punished by the Prince for it.
Fourth--if you just up and quit the brother's route after her second warning to stay away from him she accuses you of being a harlot who just wanted to play with her brother's feelings. Ironic considering in the game he's a notorious, sensualistic playboy. After that she treats your even worse throughout the rest of the game which brings her a more terrible punishment than what you would get for the 3rd scenario at some random point in the game even if no Good or Bad ends even take place.
In essense they created a DLC that can only either kick the sister while she's down or bring her a swift punishment without any special fanfare at all. Which essentially makes her just a footnote in the story that can be forgotten or ignored.
Really it made the game worse overall, many agreed, since it made it seem like the protagonist was just a scheming bitch who wanted both of the handsome young men. Most forgave the harem end she could have but since the DLC focused on only two targets it made the entire thing seem like two-timing.
Or that was my opinion anyway...others thought it more of a love triangle but obviously the heroine actively persues the brother in most of the scenarios so I didn't agree.
Other than that, I liked the story. Without the DLC it was just filled with a fluffy goodness that made you eagerly anticipate the moment the heroine and prince--or one of the other targets, didn't matter to the larger plot at hand-- truly got together. Discounting the harem end and fapable moments, that is.
In all it wasn't a bad game to reincarnate into.
Of ourse there's two obvious problems: I'M Damien.
And my sister... was the Villainess.
Now maybe I should be freaking out. But reincarnating into a game was nothing more than a simple slight shift in genre for me.
It took me less than a second to get used to it, I didn't even bother being in denial.
I only concentrated on one thing: Dolly.
Thinking about all the abuse she would have to face in the future gave me stomach pains. All caused by them. That heartless couple and those bad men and women who follow them.
If this world was really the same world as Love Orgy, and if the same events were happening...Then Dolly, some day, she'd....
All those horrible possibilities....
At least one of those miserable fates would become her's.
Poisoned. Stabbed in the back. Exiled from the kingdom. Suicide. Those and so many more possibilities.
....No. No way could I allow any of those! She was my sister! Why did she have to be the sacrificial pawn in this? Why did she have to be the bad guy here? Be hurt just so some ditsy blonde--yes I know Dolly's blonde too, shut up--could play around with guys?
It wasn't fair. No, in fact, it was cruelty. Cruelty of the highest order!
I just couldn't accept such unreasonableness. I wouldn't mind overly much if it were it someone else, but it wasn't. It was my sister. My Dolly.
Son of a bitch, I'd be damned if I let her life end up so twisted!
I promptly made my decision.
"Baz, cancel my trip. I'm staying home!"
The boy's ahoge twitched in astonishment. "What? But Young Master, Sir Kane is expecting you! And not showing up to Young Master Jacob's birthday party is so rude after how you treated him last time, he'll be really angry if you don't go for a remat--!"
"Oh they can all go suck turtle eggs!" I yelled impatiently. "This daddy's sister is in danger and you expect me to play? Screw off , this big bro is gonna go bully a Prince!"