Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 167 – Dear Tenma, I Realized How Disappointing I Was III
Second-highest priority over the succession of the throne?
Eh, what does that mean?
Did that mean Remiel was a member of a royal family?
The moment Sophie understood that, the feeling that overflowed within Sophie was fear toward the royal family―or not, it was actually a fierce anger.
“You’re kidding me?! You are part of the royal family?! Yet why are you only saying such foolish words and deeds?!”
Sophie completely forgot about being ladylike and questioned him with the momentum of her anger. Her true thoughts without a shred of lies spilled grandly… No, not spill, but flood. That was how great the momentum of her anger was.
“F-foolish, she said…”
Evert muttered, dumbfounded. Not only did Sophie not put her attitude in order, she instead pursued it more fiercely, which made people around her pale all at once.
As expected, even Gerald thought it would be bad if things kept up that way, so he was about to call out to Sophie, but Remiel, who received such insults, instead declared smoothly without distorting his beautiful white face.
“I see. It’s my first time being referred to as a fool. You have given me a new insight. As expected of my best friend(shinyuu) Sophie.”
“…………………………Shinyuu?”1
Who was the one who muttered that?
Was it a few or a large number of people, or perhaps even everyone else present spouted the same word and they turned their gaze from Remiel to Sophie with jerky movement.
Their turbulent gazes seemed to wordlessly ask,
What does shinyuu mean――？
Sophie put her white finger on her forehead and sighed exhaustively with anger.
It went back to the board game that was held back in the library.
Remiel’s wish as he won was he wanted Sophie to be his “best friend,” that is, to develop friendships.
“I told you…… which part of this man isn’t that of a fool…?”
Where in the world would a man ask others to be their best friend after only meeting them a few times?!
Even people of the same sex couldn’t establish best-friend relationships over such a short period of time. It didn’t need to be said if it was between a man and a woman. Within the Orlando Kingdom, the concept of a friendship between a man and a woman was hardly established at all.
If a man and a woman were together, they were immediately thought to be in a romantic relationship, and if one of them already had their fiancé/fiancée, then they would become targets of sneering.
Sophie didn’t understand his request at first, so she asked why Remiel wished for a best-friend relationship, but his reason was――
[“You mentioned that there is friendship between a man and woman last time, but I’ve always thought such a thing doesn’t exist. However, I came to the conclusion that I might just be ignorant. That’s why, to prove which of our opinions is correct, I decided to experiment it with you.”]
Sophie quietly thought once again.
Yep, he’s a fool after all, she thought.
Moreover, things didn’t end there.
“You suddenly asked for a match out of nowhere, then you declared we are best friends because you won, then you said it’s obvious to come play with your best friend and brazenly intruded into a maiden’s room in the middle of the night. Does such nerve come from the royal family?!”2
Last night, Remiel suddenly appeared and naturally invited Sophie for a board game. He didn’t listen to the paladins’ attempts to stop him and continued as if it was the most obvious thing to do.
Sophie was too dumbfounded about that and had no leisure to confirm things with the paladins back then, but now Sophie could understand the reason for their agitation, haggardness, and their deep apologies. Since they were paladins, they were naturally aware of Remiel’s existence. As expected, it was hard for them to forcefully stop a person with a higher status than they were.
As Sophie’s fist trembled and she complained to Remiel, Evert muttered in a whisper,
“Wow, his strange behavior is as rumored…”
Evert did have complaints due to Sophie’s treatment of the black star, but in fact, Remiel’s behavior was quite famous.
Remiel wouldn’t even show his overwhelming talents over things that didn’t even interest him, and he wouldn’t even bother to commit anyone who didn’t interest him to his memory. Even now, the fact he still didn’t remember the face and name of his half-brother’s fiancée, Christina Wellin, was also well known, illustrating how quirky he was.3
“You didn’t even introduce yourself at our first meeting, what did you learn from your tutor?! What the heck is with that short hair? In the first place, why is a royal family member even enrolling in the academy?!”
Sophie’s questions overflowed at this time, but Remiel didn’t answer. Then he muttered after a moment.
“Sophie. It seems you really forgot about me.”
“Forgot about you?”
What does that mean?
Just as Sophie tilted her head out of confusion from Remiel’s words,
“――Sophie-sama!”
Luca, who had been stunned all this time, made a rare loud voice.
His expression paled, and he seemed to recall something and desperately tried to convey it.
“Luca, what’s wrong?”
“…was present.”
It was a mumbled voice.
“Eh?’
“He was present… Remiel-sama was among the people who gave his greetings on the first day…”
“……Eh?”
Sophie didn’t immediately understand when Luca mentioned the greetings on the first day.
“He was the sixth person. He’s the last person who gave his greetings!”4
After listening to that much, Sophie finally realized Luca was talking about Sophie’s first day in “The King’s Sword.”
Err… Remiel was among the people who greeted me on the first day?
As Sophie still wasn’t convinced and looked at Gerald’s face, she saw his most surprised expression ever as his eyes went wide. Looking at how surprised he was, Sophie realized. “Ah, it’s for real,” she thought.
“…………You were present on my first day?”
When Sophie timidly asked, Remiel emotionlessly affirmed.
“I have no such memories, though…”
“My best friend Sophie. You thought of me as a rude man who didn’t even introduce myself, but I also think you are a rude person for forgetting the greetings I gave the first time. I think we can get along well.”
Not only did Sophie not feel happy about getting along that way at all, it was also among the worst things to do as a lady.
While Sophie felt like fainting at her blunder on the path of a lady, Remiel put his finger on his chin, thinking for a bit, and muttered,
“Well, I did say you could just forget about me, but I never thought you would actually forget about me that cleanly.”
“?”
When Sophie asked what he meant, it seemed Remiel’s greetings on the first day went like this.
[“I’m Remiel Karlfeldt. However, there’s no need for you to remember my name. I have no interest in what you are going to do whatsoever, and I won’t perceive your existence. Therefore, I don’t mind you treating me as if I don’t exist as well.”]
It was definitely not a proper sentence to say to a girl he met for the first time.
So he thinks I took his words seriously and erased him from my memories? ――There’s no way that’s the case! This is completely my fault!!
Sophie was too desperate from the difference between heaven and men’s hell, so she mourned to escape from reality. She didn’t expect the price of doing so to come to her just like this.
Suddenly, Sophie recalled his best friend’s words that ran through her mind two days ago.
[“You don’t have as good an outline as you think you do. You are the type who won’t bend your decision and end up drawing the short stick in the end, so you might fail spectacularly when it counts the most.”]
Fail spectacularly when it counts the most…Does that mean I already failed spectacularly from the start?
Sophie felt the blood drain from her face.
She never thought things would turn out as his best friend said it would and come back to haunt her.
However, that opened more questions. On the first day, Remiel didn’t perceive Sophie’s existence. Then why did he overturn his own opinion now?
“I apologize for forgetting you since it’s my fault, but even though you declared you didn’t have interest in me, why did you ask me for a match then?”
Sophie wouldn’t have minded if Remiel stayed uninterested in her.
She would have preferred if he didn’t perceive her existence from now on as well.
“When we met the second time at the library, you completely erased me from your memory. Then I noticed something. Now that I think about it, I often erased people from my memories if I deemed them unnecessary, but I never got erased from someone’s memories.”
That would be the case normally. Rather, it was rare for people to actually erase it from their memory just because they were asked the way Remiel did.
Now that Sophie thought about it, Remiel had an expression of wonder when Sophie asked his name, so that was what it meant.
“I’m the one who asked you to not remember my name. I know well that it’s wrong of me to complain about that. However, I found myself unconvinced about it. I felt doubtful about such a contradictory feeling. That was the beginning.”
“Eh… Does that mean if I remembered you properly when I met you the second time, you wouldn’t be interested in me?”
“I couldn’t say for sure that I wouldn’t be interested, but maybe I wouldn’t go through the trouble of asking Lorenzo and Alan about you.”
“…Gh”
He naturally called the apex of the silver star, the director of the Institute of Medical Science, and the one known as the leading figure of the gold star, Alan Aubin, casually by their first names and summoned them without minding their time. It was totally the thought process of a royal family member.
Of all the people out there, why do you ask those two!!?
Sophie had no idea how the two described Sophie, but she was sure whatever they said made Remiel grow more interested in Sophie.
If I at least behaved as if I recognized him back then, then I wouldn’t be dragged into all this mess!
Sophie really hated her past blunder.
However, there was something she needed to ask before regretting. Why did Remiel introduce himself using the surname of “Karlfeldt”? Sophie didn’t understand that part.
When Sophie actually asked, the one who answered wasn’t Remiel, but Gerald.
“Remiel-sama was demoted. Right after Sophie-sama departed from the girls’ academy, he was demoted from the royal family into the Karlfeldt duke family.”
“D-demoted?!”
Want early access to Cannon Fodder, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer, and I Was a Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse a Reverse Harem? Support the translator on Patreon!
