Helena's Point Of View

This is quite frankly... awkward...

I'm sitting in a fancy carriage next to the Princess of Crinia, also supposedly a creator of the 'Doki Doki Flower Academy' game we are currently in. That in itself is fine and all, but the atmosphere in here is thick enough to cut, and I don't think it's because of me. The black haired dark magician Prince Jacques is currently across from us with a scowl on his face while cautiously looking out the window. There is no apparent intention of making conversation. You'd think he would be on a horse if he hates being near us that much.

I'm curious about Catarina.. but she's been staring at me excitedly for a while now which makes me a bit embarrassed. More importantly, I have questions for Prince Jacques. I should be able to count on Catarina's support if things go awry. I know from Lily that dealing with powerful people is a problem, and I just exactly got the chance to be with Jesmaine. I couldn't screw it up.

"Your highness, Prince Jacques, why did you decide to take Jesmaine as your fiance?"

A perfectly polite question. He could still deny answering though, but there should be nothing wrong. The tall dark haired figure finally turned his attention towards me for a little while.

"Ho~ that matters to you?"

Somehow his words had a hint of lingering bitterness in them and his violet eyes narrowed at me with suspicion... why was he already suspicious?! I note Catarina's lips curl up into a small grin at his words and their eyes meet. Catarina's grin widens while her eyes light with curiosity. Jacques glares at her in return.

"Of course. Jesmaine is important to me, and in the game you were a cruel and cold hearted villain." I gamble. If Catarina is a creator and she talked openly about having created me, then prince Jacques probably already knows... wait... if he knows then why wouldn't Jesmaine have known he knows? Furthermore, why wouldn't he have told Jesmaine?

"A villain... huh..."

Jacques' hands squeeze tight and he looks back out the window with another scowl. He turns his body to the side away from us with crossed arms, and his lips twitch a bit from little momentary frowns. Somehow... it looks like my words hit a weak spot.

Catarina's grin fades as she now looks at me with widened eyes of shock. Then between Jacques and I multiple times. She even goes as far as to glare at him once. Then she suddenly smiles wide and grins at Jacques as if she found the perfect way to mess with him... I'm a bit worried. He doesn't look like he is in a mood to be messed with.

"Ooooh! That's right, Jes-chan called you a villain in front of all the handmaidens and the guards and compared you to Alstair and called you more evil than him. I told you before that she hates you but to even say she thinks you think of her as property, just how cold have you been to her?"

Jacques ignores her blatantly. His body twitches at her words and he lets out a long breath, but other than that he ignores her. That said, that is how Jacques was described in the game after all.

"Jesmaine is honest, kind and has a warm personality. She would never consider using my position for her personal gain. She'd make a good wife and a brilliant mother. She may be bad... even horrible at dealing with intrigue, but a loyal handmaiden should be able to help her when needed once the war ends... If I had left her back then she would have ended up in deep trouble and used by the people around her that she believed were her friends."

I didn't expect an answer like this out of him, but Jesmaine did say he was prone to lying. Catarina looks pretty sullen she was being ignored though. She had crossed her arms and legs only to click her tongue at him now. Again, Jacques ignores her.

More importantly! There was something here that seemed off since he responded naturally!

"How long have you known about the game, and why haven't you told Jesmaine?"

Jesmaine was sure that there was no other reincarnated people and that she had kept the secret from Jacques all these years. If Jacques hadn't known about her being reincarnated that would be one thing... but by his response just now he was fully aware of what was going on... with Jesmaine as well. He hasn't looked surprised in the least, so he had known about me as well. At this point we aren't having a face to face conversation. He doesn't seem to want to talk about it, but these questions are things I need to know.

The dark haired Jacques glances at me from the corner of his eye rather than look at me directly. He's about to speak as Catarina barges in with her happy cheerful voice while leaning towards me. She's close enough that I can feel her body heat. She looks interested and curious, so her red eyes seem to gleam and shimmer like they have sparks of fire in them. Much different than Jacques haunted violet ones.

"Ah, that. Jacques is an idiot that didn't want her to know that we were planning to slaughter most of the people in Ristaze and his own father to make a sort of final peace. If she knew, then she was going to be a part of the plan and Jes-chan is so cute she'd refuse something like that without questioning the necessity, right? 'I do not want her messed up in intrigue' or 'I do not want her to bloody her hands' or 'She would just cry even more'. He has too many of these excuses. I still argue he should have just told her... or well... let me tell her since she doesn't believe a single word he says."

She casually brushes my hair back with one of her warm tanned fingers. She almost seems unnaturally warm... and she's leaning in a bit too close. Jacques seems to have gone distant. He doesn't care about what Catarina is doing even though I'm sure it counts as inappropriate. Catarina is a bit in the way, I wanted him to answer the question.

I brush away Catarina's hand from my hair and look insistently at Jacques to make it visible that I wouldn't take no answer to my next question, and to tell Catarina that she shouldn't answer it.

"Jesmaine told me you kept her locked up in the castle every day and only let her out yourself and that you isolated her from her family and friends and that you kept lying to her. Why would you do something like that?"

I hear a stifled snort of laughter from Catarina. I end up staring up at her for a moment as she sends this look of mocking pity towards Jacques. Jacques however doesn't seem amused at all. He visibly twitches at my words and keeps staring out the window though his eyes draw into a glare. I don't know if it is meant for me or for Catarina..

"She's under a tight protection to keep Gilbert Salender from kidnapping or killing her because of the status of her parents, and her status as my fiance. Traveling is dangerous, and her 'friends' are greedy noble girls hoping for favors and expensive presents."

The answers are quick and simple with an undertone of irritation. He answers just as Jesmaine said he would.

"You... I'm a bit surprised you answered exactly as she said you would. Even if she's in danger you cannot just keep her locked up in a castle. She's not a pet that needs to get a bit of fresh air once in a while, and buying toys or things to make her happy again after you made her angry doesn't work, it's just pathetic."

I know that Gil-sama wouldn't hesitate to assassinate someone that knows too much, but Jesmaine wasn't one such person. Also, I'm pretty sure Jacques 'bought' me because of Jesmaine after she must have gotten angry with him since he kidnapped her ba- back...

A shiver runs down my back at the look in Jacques' eyes. He finally looks at me, and the cold anger in his eyes is the same as Lily's. I stepped on a landmine just now. I know that instinctively.

"Ho~ she seems to have talked of me quite a deal."

He turns towards me fully with this cold gaze and leans back against the seat of the carriage. He's confident, and he's angry. I'm poking my nose into their fight... but I need to face him if Jesmaine cannot.

"Then, do you know what her favorite food is? Do you know her preferred colors for clothing or her preferred style? Do you know what kind of things she have sewn and embroidered or what kind of pastries she prefers baking?"

His sudden barrage of questions overwhelms me a bit. His voice has raised an octave and the questions sound irritated like he's trying to prove himself and make some kind of point with this that he knows her well.

"Ah... she did say you were a bit of a stalker and would interrogate her."

...It was like the air kind of went out of him after I said those words. His lips even parted from his jaw just dropping for a moment. There was no hints of grace left, just shock and... I think bits of disbelief. His eyes search mine insistently as he tries to regain composure. His expression flickers.

I glance up to Catarina... as she's stifling a laugh at the situation. There's even tears in her eyes from laughter and her shoulders shake visibly. She's clearly enjoying how he just lost face. I don't know why she enjoys watching this so much, isn't she being quite mean?

When I look back to Jacques he is looking down and strands of black hair covers his eyes. Uncrosses his arms, but gently rubs one of his arms with a hand.

"I asked her these things properly when we spent time together... I've always tried to make time to take her out and talk with her... but I see... I see..."

You see what?! There is an audible sigh from him as he stands up and slips out the carriage without any further words... even though we're driving... even though I'm not done asking more questions.

"Hey!"

I look out the window after him, but he slips behind the carriage while brushing his hair back and looking down at the ground. I'm tempted to go after him as Catarina finishes laughing and gives me a big smile.

"Good job, Helena-chan. It won't help though, since he is just that stubborn."

I end up frowning a bit. I am having a bit of trouble following what is going on here. I have no idea what just happened, why it's fun or why she's praising me when I've done nothing. I was just getting the situation straight.

"What do you mean?" Somehow my stomach tenses up. Jacques really is an evil character in the game, so that's the only reason I can find that she would laugh... but then what was that just now? Catarina just smiles widely.

"Mmm you see, we wrote Jacques to be a very stubborn one. One so devoted to the people he holds dear, even after they died, that he would do anything to protect them. Even take the duel against Lionel where he was vastly outmatched. He'd never risk Jesmaine's safety no matter how harshly she berates him or how many times she breaks his heart. He's a good but stupid guy in that regard. Even so he needs to understand that what he is doing is wrong. I think you made that painfully clear to him. You just condemned the last thing he was holding onto."

She gives a small hum of satisfaction... but I'm a bit dumbstruck.

"The last thing being him giving Jesmaine all the things she wants? No... wait people he holds dear? You mean he likes Jesmaine?"

Catarina just glances to me with a grin.

"No no, I mean the time they spent talking in the garden every day. Yea he's fond of her. Not that Jes-chan cares."

...eh? What? Wait, talk in the garden? When he was overseeing her?

"That asides, since you're reincarnated too I better catch you up on everything going on rather than their failed little side plot."

Wait... I'm not done dealing with this situation.

What followed were only bad things. I thought meeting the maker of the game would have been a fun experience, but this world was so wrong...why would you make a game like this where everything is a lie? No... it explained all of the bad endings so well... everything fit and... for everything that fit I felt more nauseous.

By the time Catarina ended I has just one question left.

"So... Jacques isn't evil?"

Catarina just gave a shrug.

"No. He lost his mother and sisters to Ristaze and his father beat his half brother to death after finding out the half brother was child of a female Ristaze spy. I think we even considered making another half brother that was a twin to the first one, and talked kind of loosely about Jacques' nanny having disappeared with the child. It wasn't Bertram though," she says with a dreamy nostalgic look before continuing.

"We never really finished the idea though but considered putting it into a sequel. We thought it was kind of cool how Jacques and Lionel would have suffered almost the same fate and ended up fighting each other to the death. He wasn't evil or sadistic like Lionel though. Just kind of pitiful."

... Jesmaine never said anything about this even though she grew up with him.

Catarina went into a rant about designing the characters after that... but I couldn't shake a feeling of discomfort. If he wasn't evil, and he wasn't interrogating her, then he'd just considered them to be talking casually?