Living a Maiden Game in Hard Mode

Chapter 1 – Trying to Tip the Military Police Squad off on the Villainess

“Keep in mind, this is not an interrogation. Of course, you understand, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know. Principal.”

The principal, who has Western roots, made his case with exaggerated gestures.

On the other hand, Hart, a 15-year-old boy with Japanese roots, nodded back obediently.

Even if there was no choice in this interrogation, even if the police regiment is here from the military, it’s not an interrogation for now, as no violence will be committed so long as he obediently responds.

Hart is a third-year middle school student at the Royal Magic Academy in Diros, the Capital planet of the Monarchy of Diete.

And this middle school was also one of the settings of the maiden game, ‘The Galactic Prince’.

In the game’s story, it was an important place for the heroine to establish a network of connections while also determining her general abilities before moving on to high school.

In addition, based on the detailed knowledge of the play through, which he had gained for some reason, Hart in the story should have a supporting role, a mob character whose name is not even mentioned.

That changed completely when the conspiracy of the Duke’s family, the household of the villainess, was destroyed.

The villainess, Digitalis Takrham, is the Duke’s granddaughter.

It’s a great aristocracy with only five families in the Diete Monarchy, which has a population of 40 billion.

The Duke of Takrham’s family installed ‘a device that absorbs 10% of the magic power of all students and allows it to be accumulated to their own daughter when the magic power value is anchored’ by smuggling it in with various items donated to the school last year.

The Duke of Takrham’s goal was to gain a thousand years of prosperity by marrying off his granddaughter to the Crown Prince’s son, who as the Sovereign’s grandson was the foundation for a very long term of power.

The current life span is 100 years, and those who can use expensive aging stagnation technology can live up to 150 years.

Moreover, technology is advancing from generation to generation, and it is believed that while the grandfather generation was 150 years, the parent generation is 200 years, and the child generation will be 300 years.

In other words, the prosperity of 1,000 years is as good as promised if the granddaughter is married to the grandson of the Sovereign.

To that end, the Duke of Takrham tried to gather the 10% of the magic he had taken from the third-year middle school students at the Magic Academy last year.

Knowing of it as if he had seen it in a precognitive dream, and based on his knowledge of the maiden game, Hart sneaked onto the scene on the day when a hole opened in the security, entered the master code, and used the device himself, throwing the wheels of the storyline off its rails.

Of course, it wasn’t immediately discovered, but because Hart showed an abnormal reading on the day of Magic Anchoring, this interview was being conducted first.

“Then let me ask you. What the hell, you read at 90,000 magic power value? That’s an impossible figure.”

In the past, Earthlings defined the mass and energy of the entire universe into three categories.

The first, “Normal Matter” 4.9%。 This was all the matter that could be recognized at the time.

The second, “Dark Matter” 26.8%。Long ago, only mass was observable.

The third, “Dark Energy” 68.3%。 It was only a theoretical existence.

The third one, Dark Energy is now referred to as the “Magic Element” in 3737 A.D., and the power used to handle it is called “Magic Power “.

In 2487 AD, the practical application of hyper navigation type warps that did not cause the  UrashimaTime Dialation effect using dark energy was successful, and thus the value of magic power jumped explosively.

Ten light years took only one year each way, and humanity began to expand beyond the solar system, with only one in 10,000 people possessing magic power as ship captains.

In 2521 A.D., mankind survived for the first time in a star system outside the solar system.

In 2754 A.D., humanity settled in the Hercules star system, 120 light-years away.

In 2823 A.D., settled in Diros, the main planet of the Diete star system, 180 light-years away.

In 2928 A.D., settled in Nephthys, the main planet of the Frodi star system, 240 light-years away.

In 2992, settled on the main planet Fynn of the Myrna star system, 270 light-years away.

However, with the economic domination of Earth, each stellar system, that was a substantial colony, was burdened.

In 3167 A.D., the Diete government rejected the Earth’s demands and was subsequently sent a punitive fleet to punish its leaders. After that, humanity’s first interstellar war broke out, with Earth in a state of extreme deterioration.

In 3282 A.D., the Diete side dropped a giant meteorite on Earth, ending the war.

In 3301 A.D., the returning troops, of which only 10% of their ships survived, reported their war results, and from that year on, the Dietes abolished the Christian era calendar and changed it to the 1st year of the Diete calendar, achieving independence from Earth as the Monarchy of Diete.

At about the same time, the Frodi star system also declared its independence as a neutral state.

But the stellar systems Hercules and Myrna were taken over by the Coalition of Humanity, who had fled from the devastation of Earth.

Since then, the Diete Monarchy has made the Human Coalition a hypothetical enemy, expanding its resident star system and devising various countermeasures.

One such countermeasure was to protect precious bloodlines by granting status based on magic power possessed to those who have achieved independence from Earth by dealing with Dark Energy.

Magic was provided by a set “reference value”, and the statuses could be divided on a scale of 1 to 14.

Specifically, 2-3 were Knights, 4-8 were Baronets, 9 were Barons, 10 were Viscounts, 11 were Counts, 12 were Marquises, 13 were Dukes, and 14 were Royalty.

The magic power value can be indicated by [(Reference Value)3 x 10].

In other words, for a knight with a reference value of 2, magic power value would be 80 (2× 2×2×10=80).

As a knight with a reference value of 4, magic power value would be 640 (4×4×4×10 = 640).

Therefore, the magic power value of a knight with a reference value of 2 to 3 is between 80 and 640.

Magic power value of 640 is enough to move a spaceship of less than 640 meters length.

In case of an emergency, a suicide attack order against Earth could be decided. This will guarantee peerage in exchange.

Hart, who was being interviewed, is a student of the Magic Academy Middle School, attended by children of the aristocracy, who are among the 1,500 families of the Monarchy of Diete.

Hart’s father is the second son of a Baron family, and his mother is the eldest daughter of a Baron family.

In order to become the head of a Baron family, a reference value of 9 and magic power value of 7290 or higher were required, and Hart’s magic power was measured at 8,140, which was appropriate for the lineage of the Baron family.

Then, at the end of the first semester of the third year of the middle school, when the magic power generally reached the maximum value, the magic power value was anchored, a process to immobilize magic power to prevent it from decreasing with age. His was anchored with magic power value of 91,150, more than 10 times the previous value for some reason.

This was overwhelmingly higher than the magic power of Sovereign’s Grandchild, which is chanted as the highest peak in the State.

It was clearly an outlier, so it was not unreasonable that the Military Police would come.

“I had high level of magical power to begin with. This time, I got a magic power value of 91,150, but I thought it might be about that.”

The interview is being conducted by adults who are unaware of the Duke of Takrham’s plot.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a Duke Family, if it was discovered that they extracted 10% of the magic power from the children of 100 aristocratic households was taken, the entire clan will be subject to execution.

Therefore, only a few people know of the situation, and the evidence has already been destroyed. Even if you try to expose the crime like in the main story, it was now impossible because no evidence has been gathered.

Therefore, Hart gave the most plausible excuse.

“You should possess the magic power required of a Baron Head.”

“I’ve hidden my high magic power up to now.”

“Why is that?”

A sharply questioning tone was uttered.

“The principal is aware that Miss Digitalis Takrham has been using her family name to brutality bully her classmates. Boltzmann, Miss Olson, Miss Dolores, Miss Cohen. They were either driven to suicide or forced to transfer. Do you need another explanation from the students in our class as to what exactly was done?”

“…………”

The principal, who received a sharp gaze from the military police, remained silent with a stern expression.

Basically, the principal is the type who is wound up by powerful people.

After all, the other party is one of the only five Duchies in the Monarchy.

This is a world where the strong feast on the weak, so if the damage is limited to a very small few the principal will look the other way.

Of course, if the heroine can accumulate evidence on her own, she could sway the children of the royal family and senior aristocrats who are capable of opposing the Duke of Takrham, and possibly deliver judgment on the side of justice.

However, without a feasible authority countering them, the matter will be hushed up and brought to an end, like they did before.

“For that reason, those of us in our grade who are of Viscount families and lower have made great or small efforts to avoid being noticed by Miss Digitalis. My family is also a branch household, at the level of a Knighthood. Therefore, being the final exam, I was finally able to reveal my true magic power value.”

On the other side, as Hart explained, the principal was being glared at by the Military Police from both sides.

Thus, Hart’s point was made and he was released without further ado.

Afterwards, the military police didn’t come to independently look into the situation, suggesting that Miss Digitalis was not pursued again. Though he casually tipped them off, it was not enough for them to pursue the matter because the event was not ripe enough.

Although the Duke family was the mastermind, it was unexpected that someone else would use the device without permission.

Hart, who should have no information on it, can’t possibly do that.

Even if the heroine had interfered, the fact that the device did not work in the first place suggests that it would not last for a year if the magic stone was filled with 100 people’s worth of magic power.

The villainess’ role as the Last Boss has been avoided, but since the heroine has not obtained her magic power, it is unknown what kind of impact it will have in the future.

In the first place, Hart had just recognized his dream as a reality.

“Or more precisely, I don’t want to go on to High School.”

The progression from middle school to high school is an escalator system.

However, if he goes on to high school with the villainess, he may be the target of harassment instead of the heroine because of his high magic power value. Also, as a man, there is no way the prince or the son of the prime minister would protect Hart.

After reconsidering his career path, he decided to escape from the muddy maiden game setting and enroll in a Military Academy where even the Duke’s family could not reach him.