What was happening? Lucina didn't know why on earth Olivia was appearing this soon. What was more shocking to her was the blatant flirting she was doing. Although everyone was playing with each other, she would "fall" against the prince.
She did try with Claude at first, but he just avoided it by stepping aside and making her faceplant in front of them. It was ridiculous but no one laughed. Felix who looked like her loyal servant, hurriedly helped her stand before chastising Claude for not catching her.
Olivia quickly put herself together and shyly stopped him while batting her eyes sweetly at the other boy.
"_It's okay, I'm sure young lord Valentine was just surprised and didn't mean it.
_No, I just hate germ."
Her face burned red as Claude answered flatly. She looked at him in shock at how blatantly he was rude to her. The young Claude she remembered was indifferent at first but always polite. This one was outright hostile.
Between Claude and Alexander's actual behavior, she wondered if it had anything to do with the error system she had last time. Olivia looked at her system window it returned to normal a few days ago. She even changed the difficulty level to easy. So why were they still like that? Only Felix's affection was high. Did she take his route by mistake? She wanted the harem route.
The sad part and maybe the most worrisome one, was how she couldn't reset the game. She tried to do it last time, but ever since that bug, the resetting option was shut down. This means she had to finish the game before restarting the whole thing.
As Felix was arguing with Claude about his mean action, Lucina was suspiciously staring at Olivia. She could see the green-haired girl staring in the space. Her light green eyes moved like she was watching something, her finger moved from right to left as she frowned. She could see her sometimes point her finger but when the white-haired girl followed the direction, there was nothing. The young lady looked around to see if it was only her before meeting Alexander's stare. The prince also noticed the Baron's daughter's strange behavior. They exchanged a look before Lucina avoided her eyes. It was uncomfortable to be around the people who had a part in her death. She could do nothing about Claude, in fact as long as she played along he acted tame and cute. It was worrying her even more since he was a regressor like her. None of them said it out loud but they both knew.
"_Alright, I'm sure my brother didn't mean to hurt anyone. So how about we play something else? Something someone as delicate as Lady Grandel could play?
_Good idea Lady Valentine."
Olivia frowned she was implying that she was too clumsy to play like them. But she couldn't argue because she did act clumsy during the whole game. The green-haired girl looked pitiful grabbing Felix's sleeve. She looked up to him trying to gain some pity and maybe grab the others attention. To her shock, Alexander looked uninterested and Claude outright disgusted.
Claude was a bigger shock to her. He was always the second easiest to go along with. She was always tempted to try to win his route but somehow she could never reach the maximum affinity level. She would always reach the neutral ending but never the Happy ending. As they walked the girl tried to open his character status. Olivia paled and gasped when she saw Claude appearance on his profile. His face was completely black, no eyes, no nose, just a Cheshire like smile. Aside from his name, her affinity meter was far in the negative. For some reason, this Claude was hating her. No at this level, it was pure loathing.
This time, they all played calmly. To Lucina and Claude dismay, Alexander invited them to stay the night. All of them. The reason he did that, was first because his sweet fiancee rejected to stay, under the excuse that she couldn't sleep well without her brother. This didn't surprise him since the twins were known for this. A bond so strong that they can't be far from each other. Somehow the idea that of another man was so close and sharing a bed, her pissed him. But this was her twins. Twins were said to share their souls and to have a strong and strange bond. Alexander quelled forcefully his anguish. He just ignored his intuition that there was more to it.
It was late in the night, Claude looked at Lucina lovingly playing with her hair while she was peacefully asleep. He silently got out of the bed and quietly strolled outside of the side palace they were in. He remembered it, actually by heart as this was Lucina's residence as a crown princess in the last timeline. Reaching the garden, he saw Olivia seating and looking down. With a seductive smile, he walked to her.
"_Couldn't sleep, lady Grandel?"
Olivia looked surprised before shyly nodding. She wasn't expecting him to be this charming and forgot his anormal hate level for her.
"_Sorry, I had so many things on my mind. It's nothing.
_My sister didn't give you a hard time, right?
_Oh, no... Well I can understand. Me and Alex became rapidly close friend after all. I'm sure if I explain it to her she will understand."
It was ridiculous how this was the same discussion they had in the past. The same first discussion, the same exact question and answer from their first meeting in their previous timelines but sooner.
Following the same pattern, he give her his hand.
"_I see, I hope you will be able to. I'm also sorry for my sister behavior. How about we go on a stroll? I can show you my secret place.
_Really? I would love to."
Olivia naively took his hand and followed him deep in the garden. It was like they were in the forest. They were dancing under the moonlight surrounded by firefly. Olivia blushed looking at Claude who looked like an angel under the moon. She just followed his step almost in an enamoured state.
"_I have to thanks you.
_For what?
_For having told us about Lucina's true lineage at that time."
Olivia's eyes grew up but she couldn't detach herself for his hypnotizing eyes.
"_Thanks to you, I don't have to hold back anymore.
_What...?
_In the past I just wanted to ruin their marriage and take care of her as her beloved brother since I thought we were siblings."
Olivia felt shiver down her spine. She never saw him smile this brightly, not even look nearer to this much infatuation.
"_But we are not! Which mean I CAN have her too. My sister... No! MY Lucina. This time I can love her as her lover and not a brother.
_Then, maybe we ...!"
Claude laughed while looking at her. He sounded so sweet, so different from how the air around them felt so chilling. He made her twirl before stopping near a lake.
"_Whatever you wanted to say would be a good proposal but ... You have no use for me anymore.
_What?
_You don't know how to swim if I recall well."
Before she could react, Claude threw her in the lake. The last thing she saw before the cold water invaded her lung was his bright smile. At that moment her only thought was on how he never once smiled at her sincerely even in the previous lives. She could only see him leave as she struggled to call for help while falling deeper in the lake.