Volume 3 Short Story – Luxion & Cleare’s Marie Study
TSUTAYA Bonus SS
There was a prison beneath the royal palace.
Within that prison, two softball-sized spherical objects were spinning around Marie.
Marie was crying with her face buried into her knees.
“Stop this already!”
The two spherical objects were Luxion and Cleare.
The two of them were here to interrogate Marie.
『So your goal after reincarnating was to build a reverse harem. Even Master didn’t dare to aim for a harem. Marie is quite bold. 』
Cleare retorted to Luxion’s sarcasm.
『Oh my, I personally think it’s quite wonderful. She trained her healing magic so much just for the sake of building a reverse harem. I think her effort and dedication should be praised. 』
Luxion also acted as if convinced.
『I see. That’s certainly true. Even though she was married and had a daughter in her previous life, I think it’s amazing that Marie was able to boldly aim for a reverse harem. 』
『Yep. It’s amazing. Even though she had a daughter in her previous life and is already supposed to be of a certain age, I think it’s wonderful that she was greedy enough to want a reverse harem. 』
Marie was crying.
“Uwahn! Onii-chan, save meeee!”
Luxion and Cleare performed a scan on Marie’s body.
Cleare then told Marie the unfortunate truth.
『Oh my, this is pretty terrible. 』
Marie looked up. She felt as if she was a patient waiting for a doctor’s diagnosis.
“W-What is it? Do I have a serious health condition or something?”
Cleare simply laughed.
『Hmm? No, you’re not sick. You’re very healthy. But I found out the reason for your body’s stunted growth. In addition to malnutrition during your childhood, you also overused magic. 』
Perhaps having realised the cause, Marie broke out into a cold sweat.
“T-That’s a joke right?”
『It’s true. This problem came about because you kept forcing yourself to repeatedly practise magic despite being malnourished. 』
Even though Marie was from a viscount family, they were poor and didn’t have much food. In such circumstances, by repeatedly practising healing magic she—
『What a shame. Setting aside the malnourishment, if you reduced the frequency of your magic practice, you would’ve been able to grow a bit more. 』
Marie’s body’s inability to mature was apparently related to her excessive use of magic.
“If…If I start eating a lot from now on—”
『Hmm, I think it’s probably already too late.』
When Cleare replied, Marie started crying again.
“Noooo~”
But on the contrary, Luxion was even more impressed.
『You were willing to go that far just for the sake of building a reverse harem? I’m sincerely impressed by your dedication. 』
『Me too. 』
Facing the two artificial intelligences Marie started to throw a tantrum.
“Shut up! You dummies! Isn’t it fine for an impoverished girl to dream?”
Cleare refuted Marie with logical reasoning.
『But if you worked that hard and picked out only one partner then I think things would have gone a whole lot smoother. 』
Luxion also agreed.
『That’s probably true. If that’s all you tried to do, Master would have also been tolerant. In fact, if you cooperated with us, Master would have probably cheered you on. 』
Marie trembled after hearing things would have worked out for the better if she had picked out only one partner.
“W-Would things really have worked out differently if I only picked out a single partner?”
『As long as Olivia paired up with any of the five then there would have been no problem. If the two of you worked together, Master would have surely given you his blessings. 』
Cleare also expressed her agreement.
『I can see that happening. We’re talking about Master here. Even if he badmouths Marie a lot, he has a tendency to spoil her. 』
Marie gave it a little bit of thought.
She could easily imagine Leon giving her backup and covering up for her mistakes.
“Onii-chan!!”
Why did she even try for a reverse harem?
If she simply settled for one partner, she could have easily married a rich handsome guy and obtained happiness. Marie was overwhelmed with regret.
Because she tried to build a reverse harem, she was now stuck having to provide for five guys who had abandoned their wealth and status.
“I didn’t want to provide for others. I only wanted to leech off some rich men.”
Luxion and Cleare kindly comforted Marie.
『You have my deepest sympathies. 』
『Why did you even aim for all five of them at the same time? 』
In response to Cleare’s question, Marie answered whilst wiping away her tears.
“I thought if I had five of them, I could have fun with a different handsome man every day. Also, I’d be able to live five times as luxuriously.”
In response to Marie’s honest answer, Luxion replied in a chilly tone.
『You have my sympathies. I was unable to sound out your true intentions. I was acting on the premise that out of the five, at least one of them would surely be able to pair up with the protagonist. 』
Cleare also turned away from her.
『Isn’t it obvious that this would end badly? In fact, I’m shocked that you actually succeeded in capturing all five of them. 』
On that point alone, Marie had a lot of confidence in herself.
“I knew their personalities and tastes in advance so that made it easy. Despite how I look, I used to be the number 1 girl at a hostess club. It’s a piece of cake for me to seduce those gullible five.”
Seeing Marie’s pride and confidence, Luxion and Cleare looked at each other.
『As a result, you ended up becoming the caretaker for the five of them, right? 』
『I wonder who’s the one who got tricked here? 』
From a 3rd party perspective, it looked like Marie was the gullible one, having to take care of five deadbeats.
Marie started sobbing again.
“Why does misfortune keep happening to me?”
In response to Marie’s question, Luxion and Cleare gave simple replies.
『This was self-inflicted. 』
『Isn’t it because you got overconfident and let down your guard? 』
“I hate you guys.”
Marie complained about the logical answers that Luxion and Cleare gave her.