It Seems I've Been Reincarnated As A Mob Character In An Otome Game World, But The Prince Dropped Out Before It Even Started - Episode 1

“This is bad,” I thought, staring at the scene before me, as cold sweat trickled down my back.

I don’t let it show on my face. I’ve been trained to do that.

To an outsider who knows nothing, I must seem like I’m carrying out my duty as the First Prince’s bodyguard without showing any expression. I want to cover my ears and run out of the room, not wanting to hear the truth.

This is the student council room of the Royal Romancia Academy.

It is a room that evokes the academy’s rich history and tradition, furnished with meticulously polished furniture that gleams like amber.

For me, it was a place I was somewhat familiar with from my “previous life.”

Because this world, where I have been given a second life, is the setting of an otome game.

“Prelude of Love: Welcome to Romancia Academy”

That is the name of the game where “I,” Alexis Irving, was reincarnated into another world.

The trope of light novels, reincarnation in another world.

I can hardly remember any personal information from my past life, including my name and cause of death, but before I knew it, I had been reincarnated into a world different from Earth.

While tilting my head at the vaguely familiar feeling, I grew up and finally realized it when I stood in front of the gates of Romancia Academy, ready to enroll.

This is the world of an otome game, huh?

But, it can’t be helped, can it?

In my previous life, I was also a man. I remember being an otaku, but I never got into otome games.

I realized that “Prelude to Love: Welcome to Romancia Academy,” abbreviated as “Ai Roma,” had been adapted into an anime.

I remembered the story of “Ai Roma.”

It’s a spin-off of the original game with the same name, featuring the villainess as the main character. It wasn’t a genre I was particularly interested in, but since I was a fan of the animation studio, I got hooked while watching it. They even made a movie adaptation, so I watched it on the big screen.

However, what I clearly remember is two years ago, just before entering the Royal Academy where the story takes place.

This was probably due to some great force at work. Even though I’m just a mob character.

Yeah, it should be a mob reincarnation.

It feels like they might be deeply involved in the story, but they should be a mob character.

The character named Alexis Irving was not in the anime.

I think they were probably introduced in the final credits as either Bodyguard A, Servant A, or Classmate A. Either way, it would be A.

It’s certain that I’m not the target of the strategy.

They are already here. Five of them, all together, without missing anyone.

There is also a villainess who is an anime heroine. In the original game, she supposedly had magnificent vertical curls, but in the anime, she deliberately leaves her silver hair loose and flowing down her back, unmistakably making her an anime heroine.

Speaking of which, the villainous noblewoman who is the fiancée of the first prince seems to be a reincarnated Japanese person, just like in the anime.

The reason I don’t make a definitive statement is that there is no personal interaction between her and me.

I don’t tell those around me that I have a past life.

I have no intention of actively altering the original work.

In the anime, the only ones with past lives were the heroine’s rival and the transfer student who was the heroine in the original game.

Only the two of them have past lives. There’s no need for me, who is almost irrelevant to the story, to butt in and say, “I remember too.”

It’s scary to stick my nose in. After all, I’m on the opposing side of the villainess.

Alexis Irving’s—my lord is Crown Prince Cedric Cunningham.

The current fiancé of the villainess. A black-haired, golden-eyed, self-important prince.

I don’t know the game, but in the anime, I get completely fooled by the game heroine who transfers in halfway through.

A character who, after bullying the villainess and causing a ruckus by breaking off the engagement at the final graduation party of their school life, ends up getting completely defeated.

It wasn’t a work with such a strong sense of “serves them right,” so the ending involved losing the previously granted right to the throne due to “illness” and living a life of recuperation as a noble in a rural territory… In other words, a combo of disinheritance, exile, and confinement.

But I’m not dead, so the “serves you right” element is weaker, right…? I don’t remember much about my past self, but what kind of light novel was I reading?

Prince Cedric is the last remnant of the former empress.

I, Alexis, am the bodyguard, servant, and classmate mob assigned to him.

Since we are in a master-servant relationship, I have a strong sense of loyalty. My adoptive father, who is a loyal dog of the royal family, keeps brainwashing me with the same message. He says to serve with my life on the line.

So, I didn’t intend to actively intervene in the story (since it seemed like there might be some strange compulsion), but if it looked like it was going to follow the same development as the anime, I planned to keep murmuring in the prince’s ear.

Stay strong, Lady Cedi! Hang in there!

The other party is a baron’s daughter, and she was adopted from an orphanage. It’s impossible for someone of her lineage to marry into royalty! (Not that I, who was also adopted from an orphanage and became a noble, can say anything about it.)

Besides, you have a fiancé, so you can’t just ignore the villainess! You’ll be in for a world of hurt!

If you want to fall in a fateful love with a baron’s daughter, first, do something about your own engagement.

Cheating is absolutely not allowed.

Actually, I don’t speak like this, but I intended to keep reciting.

If Prince Cedric became a third-year student, the highest grade at the academy, and a pink-haired game heroine transferred in.

The villainess heroine probably ends up with the second prince due to the world’s coercive force. The anime had that kind of development.

Then, what if we had amicably separated before the breakup? The reason for condemnation would disappear, and the first prince who was a mere pawn wouldn’t be ruined.

Since they were just background characters unrelated to the main plot of the anime, I at least wanted to eliminate any points that would put the prince at a disadvantage.

However, it seems that reality did not unfold according to the anime’s plot. There are suspicions that there is no coercive power.

Finally, the year when the game begins, April, when the new school term starts. The student council room at Romancia Academy.

The current student council president, Prince Cedric, addressed the summoned villainess and fiancée, Lady Beatrice Wenham, and her half-brother, Prince David, who had accompanied her.

“Beatrice… no, Lady of the Wainam Duke.”

I am breaking off our engagement.