It was currently a nice afternoon on a Saturday, the weather was good, and there was no homework to do, nor any chores to be done, it was the perfect afternoon for doing whatever that one wanted to do, and it was in such an afternoon that Masaru was going through an existential crisis as he laid on the sofa and looked at the ceiling.
"…"
What a horrible existential crisis, I know very sad. At such a saddening fate, Masaru continued thinking about what he should do, and as he did so, his brain decided to give him a little bit of motivation to do something other than lazing on the sofa!
"… I feel a sudden urge to feel horny… … … Hng!… HNNNNNGGGGGHHHHH!!!"
At that sudden urge of motivation, Masaru extended his hand to pick up the tv controller on top of the coffee table, however… It was out of reach, and he didn't gain levitation powers either no matter how much he tried to gain it in these past few seconds. So he began to extend his hand even more, as he squirmed his body to increase his reach, and then he managed to touch the controller!
But then he felt his body slowly sliding down from the sofa as he squirmed himself too close to the edge… But he managed to get the controller though! In a way that would've just been easier and quicker if he had just gotten up.
But alas, he turned on the TV and sat up, this time extending his hand once again to get his video game controller, but it was still very out of reach as it was located on the other side of the living room from his position.
"… Haa…"
And so he just gave up trying to levitate the controller and did the much simpler action of getting up on his feet and picking the controller by hand. So much work, am I right?
With all of that done, Masaru sat back down on the sofa as he waited for the console to boot up, once that was done, he began looking around his game library, but he still didn't feel like playing anything, until his brain once again gave him another bout of motivation. Causing him to look at a certain game he had forgotten about.
"… … … Eh, I'm alone right now, so why shouldn't I?"
And with that, Masaru booted up Doki Doki Magical Love DX, once all of the unskippable opening screen scenes finished, he went to the load save option, and clicked on the save with an ongoing timer.
But instead of finding a scene where something naughty with girls was about to happen, all that Masaru could see was… Four dudes having a meeting inside an office, the exact opposite of what he wanted to see. Still, Masaru kept pressing the continue button, hoping that the scene would end soon and change to something naughty with girls.
However such hopes were quickly broken as the scene kept on going and going, and he could only watch with empty eyes a character that he had seen before in the game talking with three new characters (in Masaru's view), about something since he was skipping all of the dialogues and nor was he paying any attention to what they were talking about either.
But seeing that the scene at hand wouldn't be ending anytime soon, Masaru decided to just put the game on auto-play and do something else as he waited for the game to get into a more motivational scene.
"… … … Hm… I think I still have some unread parts of this game's guidebook… Now… Where did I put it?"
Still not feeling like checking his phone, Masaru got up from the sofa and went to search for the DDML DX deluxe plus edition box… That he didn't remember where he had stored it, so he began searching for it.
First, he looked at the living room's drawers, but he had no luck, so he went to his room and opened his closet, but another problem arose, the boxes were all stored at the highest part of the closet, and he couldn't quite reach it. Now he needed something to increase his height, he looked at the chair inside his room… But he quickly gave up on it as it was a wheeled one, and he was too much of a coward to risk his life trying to stay up on that chair.
So instead, Masaru did the sensible thing and went to get a normal chair from the dining room, and he got on top of it and checked his closet… But it was no good as well, this left only one option for where the DDML box could be! His little sister's, Arisu, bedroom!
So with that new objective, Masaru returned the chair to the dining room and then went on to enter his little sister's room without a single care, just like in his room, he immediately went for the closet, but again… All the boxes were on the highest part of the closet.
"…"
Meaning that Masaru would have to get the chair once again from the dining room, to which he could only respond with a scrunched-up face at his lack of foresight. After a second short trip to the dining room, Masaru got the same chair from before, got on top of it, and checked the boxes in his sister's closet.
And bingo, he found the DDML box! So he went down the chair and put the box on his sister's bed and opened it, then he began taking out the other contents of the box until he found the guidebook at the very bottom of the box, and he picked it up.
"Hm?"
But in doing so, he noticed the sound of something hitting the floor, and when he looked for the source, he found another guidebook lying on the floor, but this one had a big number 2 on it.
*Picks the magazine up* "Doki Doki… Magical Love… Volume 2… … … Oh well!"
Having found a better time waster, Masaru put everything else back inside the box, before storing the box back in the closet, and then putting the chair back on the dining room table. After all that trouble in finding a single magazine, Masaru returned to the sofa with the Doki Doki Magical Love Official Guidebook Vol. 2 under his arm. Seeing that the meeting scene was still ongoing, he could only sigh and lay down on the sofa as he began checking the guidebook.
"… … *Flips page*… … … *Flips page*…"
Added in the DX version due to the increase of capture and rival blah blah blah… She works similarly to Edward but with a focus on assisting with the main blah blah blah… Overall, a nice NPC to maintain a good friendship level with, especially for the special gifts you can get from her quests that give far larger bonuses if used on the right character, and that also helps in tracking your progress with each capture character blah blah blah… Appearance details… Long dark… about 170cm tall… Green eye…> "… *Yawns* *Flips page*… … … *Flips page*… … … *Flips page*" Befriend the demon lord Strat… Through the use of glitches, bugs, or cheats… Enables all of the interaction options with Lysette blah blah blah… Due to no gift limits, the player can reach max friendship in one go blah blah blah… This weakens the final boss due to blah blah blah… The final act may not trigger properly with this strategy, so it's only recommended to be used in the DX version… … … This strategy can be used on all the other rival characters as well… … … The full interaction options can also be applied to side NPCs as well…> "*Yawns*…" Edward's secret relat- *Yawns*… Due to the… mechanics used on… Are the same as his… The devs… Simply copied… His code… … … But forgot to change… … … Leading to the two… … …> "… … … *Snoring*" Before Masaru could finish reading that page of the various trivia about the game, he ended up falling asleep with the magazine covering his face, just as he had reached one of the many trivia related to Edward, as for the game… Just as he had fallen asleep, the scene on the TV screen changed from the meeting between four guys to one of three girls talking inside a library as they sat around a table with several books around them, almost as if they were studying, followed by Edward arriving shortly after, and soon after he began flirting with them. . . . Hours later "Up… Ke up… Wake up… Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up" "*Snore*… Huh!?" At the sound of a familiar female voice repeating the same two words very annoyingly, Masaru didn't have much choice other than waking up as he felt rather confused, while the magazine slid down his face. "… Hm? How long did I sleep?" "No idea, but we need to get going, today we're going to visit Auntie since it's her birthday" "Oh, that's true… *Yawns* I'll go change my clothes" "Okie-dokie, Father will be arriving soon to pick us up" "Got it" With a big yawn, Masaru lazily made his way to his bedroom to change into some more presentable clothes, leaving only his sister, Arisu, in the living room, meaning that she had noticed the game currently displayed on the TV. "… Hm?" And at seeing the current scene being displayed on the screen, Arisu decided to just quit the game and turn off the console, as she felt pretty sure that she wouldn't have enough time to play a significant amount of some game that she liked more. . . . "Then, I'll be taking my leave, Nanako, Lysette, Atsuko" "Have a safe trip, Edward-sama" "Good luck on the exam, Edward-sama" "See you later and good luck, Edward-sama" "*Nods* Camilla-san, please take care of my wives while I'm away" "Of course, of course, Edward-sama. And also, be sure to get a good score on the entrance exam" "I will so see you all later today" And with that last farewell, Edward went aboard the train before its doors closed as it began to make its way to the royal capital. And as for why he was the only one boarding the train today, it was all thanks to the king, who used his position to give Lysette, Atsuko, and Nanako, special scholarships that allowed them to skip the entrance exam, due to their new appearances and positions. As to how the king found out about that, he had heard from Hamilton, who in turn heard from Edward himself after he had told his father, Oliver, about what happened to the girls, which caused him to get a stomachache, which caused Oliver to ask Edward to share the news to Hamilton, as well as to Yuudai, Atsuko's father, but since he was back to his country various thousands of kilometers away, he couldn't do much to help. So as the train slowly got smaller and disappeared over the horizon, all that Lysette, Nanako, and Atsuko could do was simply look in the direction of the train as it got farther away from the station. "… … … Are you girls, already feeling lonely?" " " "!?" " " Then with Camilla's surprise question, the three couldn't help but twitch at the same time as they all blushed from embarrassment due to her teasing. "Sorry, sorry, anyways… Do you three want to walk around a little or return to the manor?" "Hmm… I think I will go have a look around a little since it is not always that I get to walk around without Edward-sama" "I will join Lysette-sama as well, this is a great opportunity to have a proper sightseeing walk" "I see, what about you Nanako?" "Erm… I… Will go back to the manor, since… I'm already from here, I know most places already, so… I will pass on sightseeing today" "Got it, then see you back there. I will accompany Lysette-sama, and Atsuko-sama on their walk around" "Understood, Camilla-san. Lysette-sama, Atsuko-sama, see you two later" After Nanako with some trouble, managed to find the right words to refuse to accompany Lysette and Atsuko on their sightseeing of the town without Edward, she quickly made her way out of there and back to the manor. Leaving the remaining two to have their walk around the town, with Camilla accompanying them in case anything happened. "Now, where do you two want to go first, Lysette-sama, Atsuko-sama?" "Hmm?… How about the market square?" "I think that's a nice idea" "The market square? Alright, let's go then" With that, Lysette and Atsuko began their little sightseeing walk around the town that Edward grew up in… … … And they shortly after found out why Nanako didn't go with them. . . . A few hours later At the royal academy's entrance gate, a certain scene very reminiscent of those seen in the first pages of a shoujo manga was happening at this very moment "Do you need some help?" "Ah! T-Thank you" A boy could be seen helping a bluish-purple-haired girl with white sidebangs, who had tripped down, get up near the royal academy's main gates. Her bangs hid most of her face, and part of her long hair was tied in a twin-tail style, although her face couldn't be properly seen, it was clear that she was a rather cute girl. From what could be seen, she also had a rather modest figure, as she had no particular feature stuck out even from under her clothes. Accepting the boy's hand, the girl got up and then took off the dirt that got stuck on her clothes, before introducing herself to the boy. "Ahem… My name is Florence Callaghan, and once again, I thank you for helping me just now" "You don't need to, it was only natural for me to help someone in need" "Fufu, you say that, but out of everyone here today, you were the only one who came to help me now, so I must still thank you for coming to my aid" "If you say it like that, I can't refuse it then, haha" "Fufu, please do. And, if possible, may I ask for your name as well, sir…" "Edward, my name is Edward Harding" "Sir Edward Harding?… Fufu, I see. It is a pleasure to meet you today, Sir Edward" "It is also a pleasure to meet you too, Lady Florence" Yup, of course, it was Edward the person involved in that Shoujo-esque scene, who else could it be?