“No way. Even if he’s a ‘gong’, it’s not like he gets excited just because a man cries. He probably just said that because he’s the top student in the grade.”
I comforted myself like that and forced the corners of my mouth to lift.
However, I couldn’t hide my twitching lips.
I forced myself to nod, opened the door, and stepped out.
Cool air enveloped my skin.
I pressed down on my twitching mouth as I squeezed out, but as soon as the door closed, a wall-like presence blocked my path.
“……What is it? Why are you here?”
It was Cedric. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
His attitude was as if he had been waiting on purpose.
“You didn’t look so good.”
At those words, my stomach churned momentarily.
I frowned to hide my emotions, and Cedric took a step closer.
He was a head taller than me.
The gaze looking down at me felt unreasonably sorrowful.
Cedric suddenly approached and said, “Because you were crying, which isn’t like you.”
“It was worth crying over.”
I muttered softly.
The situation.
And this crazy reality.
And your attitude, acting like you know me so well.
The silence grew long.
After just walking silently, I finally changed the subject to break the mood.
“You were listening to the lecture with such focus.”
I wondered if he felt a sense of camaraderie because we were both from Crown Maker.
Cedric narrowed his eyes slightly, as if gauging my words, which had hidden intentions.
Then he slowly nodded.
“Because we think alike. I saw your thesis earlier, and I thought our tendencies were similar.”
“……Thesis?”
Now Ludger is even writing theses?
I asked back in absurdity, and Cedric continued naturally.
“That professor, among the theses written a few years ago, there was one called ‘Flexibility of Legal Interpretation in Political Decision-Making.’It was about how the same clause could have completely different meanings depending on how the law is applied, and that was interesting.”
As he continued, Cedric reached out and draped my bag over his own shoulder.
I watched the bag move away, saying “Uh, uh,” but Cedric tapped my forehead.
Thud.
“People think law is an absolute standard, but that’s not actually the case.
Depending on who interprets it, the law can be a weapon or a protective shield.
The important thing is what purpose the person handling it has.”
I paused to catch my breath and muttered, “……So.”
Cedric smiled very briefly and added, “You asked why I’m taking Political Diplomacy classes, right? I wanted to know enough to handle it in my own way, so I studied it.”
At those words, I got goosebumps for a moment.
They said there are two types of people called geniuses.
One is a person who learns faster than others in a given environment.
And the other is someone who makes the environment their own. Cedric was the latter.
I muttered indifferently, “……You’re a real lunatic.”
“What?”
“I said you’re amazing. Having a brilliant brain and putting in the effort, too.”
It was sincere.
It was on a different level from those who just do everything easily with a natural brain.
Because this was literally the mindset of a ‘made emperor.’
Cedric looked at me with his eyebrows slightly raised.
“……Isn’t it boring?”
To that question, I replied with a smirk, “Better than a conversation without nutritional value.”
Kim Semo usually enjoyed discussing women’s physiques.
In particular, it was exhausting to listen to him have heated arguments while applying ridiculous standards about breasts or pelvises.
I let those stories go in one ear and out the other. I’d rather have this conversation.
Discussing the relationship between law and politics is much more productive than debating big breasts.
But to think that even the subject of conversation would change so drastically just because Semo was replaced by Cedric.
I let out a hollow laugh.
When I shook my head and looked at Cedric, he opened his eyes wide for some reason.
Like someone who had heard an unexpected answer.
At that moment.
Ding-
Startled by a notification sound ringing from somewhere, I took out my phone and found a message.
[Master, today’s lecture is over, right? Please let me know when you’re coming. I’ll prepare a meal.]
‘Master?’
I hurriedly checked the recipient, wondering if I had gotten drunk and formed a master-servant relationship with someone.
Lucian Bellos.
……No, why does a game character have a phone? Is this right……?
Only then did the moment Lucian appeared at my house this morning come to mind.
I ran straight to campus as soon as I saw him.
Because I believed that if this was a dream, I would wake up soon.
But they say there is no paradise where you flee to; as soon as I arrived at school, I encountered other ‘Gongs’.
…Now there’s not even a place to run, damn it.
In a nightmare that still hadn’t ended, I raised my hands to my head as if to squeeze it.
An incomprehensible reality continued to tighten around me.
At that moment, Cedric quietly covered my hands from the side.
“Why? Do your ears hurt?”
His red hair shook and leaned toward me.
As the wind brushed by, thin strands of hair tickled my cheek.
Glancing at the position of my hands clutching my head, I realized I was covering my ears.
Inheriting the childhood friend setting of Kim Semo, Cedric seemed to know about my hearing loss as well.
“……No. I’m just craving an Americano.”
I brushed it off and headed to the cafe where Gongi and Ian were waiting.
The campus was now in full swing with the spring atmosphere.
Cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and petals scattered in the light breeze.
Students sitting on benches drinking coffee, groups of people sitting on picnic mats on the grass, laughing and talking.
Gentle conversations and music heard from everywhere blended to create a peaceful atmosphere.
However, my mind was not like that at all.
My heart was pounding frantically, and my mind was still in disarray.
I was watching the traffic light change and absentmindedly took a step.
At that moment—
Whoosh!
A sudden gust of wind blew strongly.
My hair blocked my vision, and cherry blossom petals scattered wildly, dancing in the air.
While the wind was blowing, I reflexively raised my hand to sweep my hair back.
But, at the same time as something brushed past strongly, a rough force firmly wrapped around my waist and pulled me violently.
“-Hick!”
CRASH!
A roar that seemed to tear my ears apart exploded.
My whole body froze in an instant.
I blocked my ears instinctively, but the echo that kept ringing in my ears did not disappear easily.
At that moment, a warm warmth covered one ear.
Separate from the arm Cedric had wrapped around my waist, he had covered my ear with his remaining hand.
And he whispered lowly, “Are you okay?”
The subtle heat transmitted to my ear brought me back to reality.
The sudden shock slowly subsided. Thump, thump.
As I took a deep breath, trying to calm my frantically beating heart, a familiar voice was soon heard from the side.
“Tsk tsk. It’ll be in the news again. Will it make the front page of the newspaper, too?”
I came to my senses and turned my head; Gongi had approached and was clicking her tongue.
Her short hair fluttered lightly in the wind.
Just as I was ruminating on Gongi’s words with a dazed mind, the scene in front of me slowly came into view.
Tire marks left long on the asphalt.
A broken car.
And a man was slowly getting out of that car.
Intense red hair resembling Cedric’s fluttered in the wind.
The golden eyes located underneath curved leisurely.
Messing up his tie with one hand, the man walking out slowly had a languid expression, as if everything was annoying.
However, his movements were precise and without a single flaw.
Looking at his face, I held my breath instinctively.
……Adrian Krause Crown.
The 1st Prince of the Crown Empire.
[Crown Maker Gallery]
[[Chat] Is this guy Adrian really a love interest?]
No, why is it always just talk about Cedric and Ludger?
Has no one played Adrian? Lol
It’s a game where you have to choose a love interest and make the main character (the player) the Emperor, but this guy’s choices are all blackmail, confinement, body mutilation lol.
He even ignores my choices sometimes.
A choice window pops up, and when I press it carefully while agonizing over it, my character (Adrian) ignores the choices and acts on his own. (Of course, not as much as Lucian. Lucian just forces the game to close if he gets pissed off lol.)
Is this a dating sim or a villain-raising simulator lol]
└lol, that’s why no one plays him because he’s a lunatic.
└He’s a lunatic after Lucian. Of course, Lucian >>>>>>> Adrian
└No, he’s a love interest, why don’t you think about making him Emperor lol
└You don’t know anything. From the beginning, this guy doesn’t have the concept of raising the main character, he’s a love interest who breaks the main character.
└lololololololololol
└But looking at the settings, he’s not even a character with an inferiority complex, so why is he like that?
└Isn’t it an inferiority complex? Because he couldn’t become Emperor?
└└It’s ‘dae’ not ‘doe’. And no. If Cedric is a character who calculates, Adrian is a genius swordsman + legitimate bloodline character. It’s actually strange that he didn’t become Emperor. It’s not an inferiority complex, it’s just madness.
└└lol, he was a crazy lover lol
└But honestly, I’m so pissed because he’s so damn handsome. His face is insane, but 10 minutes into the playtime, the main character’s hand is cut off lol
└└That’s because the Adrian route itself is about not letting them escape, so he cuts their wrists on purpose lol
└└Then what should I do to get the main character Emperor route?
└└Impossible. That route doesn’t even exist.
└Is this game even a dating sim?
└It’s just a villain ending maker, f*ck lol
└That’s why Crown Maker failed.
└No. 1 love interest who doesn’t live up to his face.
└Agreed. He lures players with an amazing appearance, and the ending is the main character’s ruin lol
└At this point, it’s just a horror game.
[[Chat] Is there anyone who has a play record of Crown Maker’s Adrian? Honestly, I only played Cedric, Ludger, and Raphael, and I didn’t even touch Adrian, can you make this guy normally take the main character Emperor route?]
└Impossible.
└Truly the greatest failed character lol
└The choices are either ‘body mutilation’ or ‘making a pet’.
└lololololololololololol
└No, f*ck, is this a dating route lol
└If you take the pet route, the main character becomes a puppy instead of an Emperor lol
└Real lol. There’s a choice to put a collar on the main character and train them.
└└What is the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ route lol
└└Even if the affection level is maxed out, the main character becomes a character who can’t live without Adrian lol
└Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable? It looks like a criminal-defending game;
└└Ugh, f*ck, you sensitive prick. If you’re going to be uncomfortable with this, you should have complained about it being an incest game first.
└F*ck lol, it’s a mess with incest and crime, really lol
I stepped back instinctively. ‘Adrian.’
A guy who was rumored to have only vicious routes in the game.
He was one of the impossible-to-conquer/date characters who ignored the player’s choices and fell into violent routes, let alone the Emperor route.
The only difference from Lucian, if any, was that Lucian killed the player if he didn’t like them, while Adrian at least saw the ending through.
……And that is now, right in front of my eyes.
With my trembling hands balled into fists, I barely managed to ask Gongi.
“……Do you know who that is?”
Gongi narrowed her eyes and replied, “Who else? He’s the third-generation conglomerate heir who takes the front page of the newspaper every day. And he’s the representative of an investment firm. He wouldn’t even blink an eye if one of his cars was smashed.”
I swallowed a harsh curse inwardly.
Suddenly, seeing the broken car, I felt a strange sense of camaraderie.
Because my mental state was also shattered and rolling around like that.
