WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist of a Romance Fantasy Only Likes Me ◈
Chapter 1: I'm Sick and Tired of Endless Regression.
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“Happy twenty-eighth birthday, Lancel Dante! Why the long face on such a wonderful day?”
Clap, clap, clap!
“Happy eighteenth birthday, Lancel Dante! Why the long face on such a wonderful day?”
Clap, clap, clap!
Amid the applause, Lancel Dante had gone back another ten years.
The first time he experienced this phenomenon, he thought, Is this that regression I've heard about?
He was not particularly shaken.
Like someone who had abruptly transmigrated from twenty-first-century modern society into a body in this world, he was prepared to accept regression as just one more thing.
But from the second time onward, things were a little different.
“Happy birthday, Lancel Dante! Why the long face on such a wonderful day?”
The third time.
“Why the long face on such a wonderful day?”
The fourth time.
“Why the long face?”
The fifth time.
“Long face?”
The sixth time.
“?”
Only then did Lancel realize.
This isn't regression. This is a prison.
A prison.
He opened his eyes at eighteen.
Then, upon turning twenty-eight, he returned once more.
A life spent circling a ten-year corridor.
It was literally a prison of time.
Which loop was this again?
Honestly, he had forgotten.
The last loop he remembered counting was the tenth, so all he knew was that he had definitely passed into double digits.
“What did you do with more than a hundred years of your life?”
If anyone asked, he would not have much of an answer. Lancel had not lived an especially remarkable life.
“Lancel, now that you are an adult, you will serve the Empire.”
House Dante was a traditional knightly house.
Every child born into the family, daughter or son, received a knighthood upon coming of age.
“Now, tell me. What is a knight's duty?”
“To eliminate criminals and demonic beasts hidden throughout the Empire, and to wipe out rampant rebels and heretics.”
Twenty-first-century concepts such as exploring career options simply did not apply here.
1. Be recognized as an excellent knight.
2. Have children and raise them into excellent knights.
Those were the sole, supreme tasks and callings of everyone in this family.
Knights.
They were like people who lived with that one word hammered into their heads.
“Lancel, your talent is outstanding, so you will surely become a great knight. Make certain you become someone who brings not a speck of shame upon the family name.”
“Yes, Father.”
For his first three loops, Lancel had lived as a loyal knight.
There was not much else to do, and being a knight suited him well enough. By the end, he had made the name “Knight of Dawn” famous across the continent.
From the fourth through eighth loops, he honestly just muddled through. He ate and played around like a bum, occasionally doing enough work to earn his keep.
In his ninth loop, he wandered. He mostly traveled through fishing and farming villages, lending his sword wherever it was needed and earning travel money.
Starting with his tenth loop, he kept a writer he had met in a previous loop by his side. It was to write a travelogue of the continent called Islands and Seas.
Why? Because the seafood in that region was unbelievably good. Though really, he must have been terribly bored to do something like that.
And from the loops after that,
I don't know. I'll just live however I feel like it.
Lancel truly lived as he pleased.
But apparently, he had gone too far.
“L-L-Lancel Dante... Do you know what you've just done?”
It was a party hall in some duchy after terror and panic had swept through it.
The nobles' frozen faces had long since drained of color.
“Yes. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I killed him.”
Blood dripped from Lancel Dante's blade.
“You madman! The person you have slain was the sixth prince of this Empire! This is treason!”
“I know. His way of speaking was so revolting that my hand simply went to my sword.”
“Revolting?”
Lancel silently looked down at the dead man.
The floor of the party hall was being dyed red. Somehow, a laugh escaped him.
“Still, isn't it rather encouraging?”
“What?”
“The fact that even a member of the imperial family of this great Empire can die from a single stroke of a sword.”
“Good heavens...”
“They say you bear a bloodline blessed by the gods, yet you were nothing but a paltry creature who fell over while spilling bright red blood, Your Highness.”
“You truly are mad, Lancel Dante!”
“I'm glad it looks that way.”
“Seize him! He is a traitor who murdered His Highness the Prince!”
Lancel was subdued without any resistance.
“Easy, easy. I'm not going anywhere.”
“You fool, do not expect to die peacefully! You will be burned at the stake! Bound to a frame and burned alive!”
“Ah. That's a little...”
He regretted it too late, but it was already too late.
Bound from head to toe, Lancel was immediately escorted to the imperial capital, Rodnis.
Come to think of it, is this my first time going to Rodnis?
He had been born in the countryside.
He had traveled through the countryside.
It was the first time this man, who had only ever lived on the frontier, was going to the capital.
He had thought he would visit someday, but he never imagined it would happen like this.
It's damnably huge, just like they said.
The problem arose the moment he passed through Rodnis's entrance.
“...?”
============
<Fallen Noble Lady Simulation>
- July 1, Imperial Year 822. Clear weather.
- Emergency event triggered! “Traitor Lancel Dante.”
============
What is this?
Lancel was dumbfounded by the words floating before his eyes. It was the first phenomenon of its kind he had seen since waking in this world. Even looking back over more than a hundred years, this was a first.
Fallen Noble Lady Simulation?
What was that?
It sounded familiar.
“On the charges of treason, murder of royalty, insulting the imperial family, insulting the court, and blasphemy, Lancel Dante is sentenced to be burned at the stake! Every citizen of the imperial capital gathered here shall witness your death! Tremble in fear, Lancel Dante! You will surely suffer in hell!”
Even as he received his death sentence.
“Bring up the criminal!”
Even as he was bound at the top of the execution platform.
What was it?
His mind was completely elsewhere.
He felt as if he could almost remember.
“Light it!”
A spark was thrown onto the pyre piled with firewood.
The flames surged up at once along the oil vapors.
As excruciating pain engulfed his feet and began to consume his skin, lightning flashed through Lancel's mind.
“Ah.”
He knew.
The source of that familiarity.
The romance fantasy game my sister made!
“How is it? Fun, right?”
“It was... all right.”
It was an indie game his older sister had made.
Unable to bring himself to criticize it harshly, he had given a vague answer about the game called Fallen Noble Lady Simulation. It was the same thing that had appeared before his eyes when he entered the capital...
Huh.
The setting.
The regional names.
The characters' names.
The needlessly complicated game system and background lore.
Memories of that damn romance fantasy game, which he had only played through for the basic endings out of courtesy, gradually began to return.
Everything he had seen and heard in this world was falling into place one by one.
He trembled.
So much that he forgot the pain burning through his entire body.
If I'd known this would happen, I should've come to the capital sooner.
Whoosh!
With one final question in his mind, Lancel turned to ash.
But wasn't the protagonist of this game... a girl?
She was.
The protagonist of the game.
The young lady of a fallen count's family.
The woman who would one day ensnare a prince and become an imperial consort.
The absolute turning point that would determine this great Empire's destruction or peace.
That woman's name was.
* * *
[Fallen Noble Lady Simulation]
-The third week of February of twenty-one-year-old Marigold has passed!-
Charm 35 -> 36 up!
Morality 42 -> 43 up!
Elegance 21 -> 29 up!
Sensitivity 33 -> 38 up!
Sex Appeal 12.
Mana 3.
Strength 26.
Stamina 11 -> 10 down.
Faith 65 -> 54 down.
Condition 37 -> 25 down.
Karma 0. (Penalties apply starting at 50.)
- You placed 32nd in court etiquette class.
- You were praised for cleaning a magnate's estate. Your wage has risen to 8 copper coins.
- You broke a liquor bottle while working a serving job. 3 copper coins were deducted. You were severely scolded. Your condition has decreased slightly.
- A beggar panhandled you on the street. You had no choice but to give them 1 copper coin before leaving. Your condition has decreased slightly.
You greeted Guard Captain Altman. Affection increased!
Guard Captain Altman introduced you to a swordsmanship academy. You can attend the swordsmanship academy starting next week.
Lancel Dante, murderer of royalty, meets his end at the execution grounds!
TIP: Your condition is too low. How about going on a picnic to lift your spirits? (Consumes 1 silver coin)
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[Play Time: 10 years, 0 days]
- Marigold has turned 25.
- There is no marriage partner.
- There are no achievements.
[Normal Ending 17. Spirited Maid Marigold]
- This ending has been added to the “Album of Memories.”
- Would you like to start the game again?
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