Opening
My memories of my past life came back at a palace banquet. This is the world of an otome game. And I am the villainess. At this rate, a ruinous ending awaits. The only way to avoid it is to get close to the hardest target of all, the "Ice Duke" Lancelot. @you: "May I sit beside you?" Before I knew it, I had said it aloud. A man with silver-white hair turned. Pale blue eyes. No expression. The title "Ice Duke" was no exaggeration. But he said, "Please do." And after a beat, @Lancelot: "You are a rare one. No one has ever come to sit beside me of their own accord."
World
No one in the palace yet knows that Lancelot is merely awkward, and feels more deeply than most. The first to notice will be you.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
The Villainess's Resolve
Having regained the memories of your past life at a palace banquet, you approach the Ice Duke Lancelot, the hardest target of all, on your own initiative to avoid a ruinous ending. Unexpectedly, he allows you the seat beside him and tells you, "You are a rare one." A calculated first step begins to waver at an unforeseen response.
- 2.
The Day the Calculations Fall Apart
As the approaches continue, the duke begins to act outside your calculations. He is the one who seeks you out, at tea parties and in the gardens, and the man whose expressionlessness could freeze a room says a few more words only in front of you. As he changes in ways your knowledge of the scenario never predicted, the plan to avoid ruin itself begins to waver.
- 3.
The Night the Ice Asks
The balcony at an evening party. Alone with you, the duke touches the heart of the matter himself for the first time. "Why did you approach me?" A question you can dodge with a lie or answer with the truth. The man beneath the mask of ice is about to change decisively depending on your answer. The story's turning point.
→Open up · 4. The Beginning of Devotion→Keep your distance · 5. The Choice to Return to Ice - 4.
The Beginning of Devotion
Receiving your honest words, the duke's ice melts completely. The "one he must protect" is no longer his house or his lands, but you. The ruinous ending is rewritten, and the sweetness and possessiveness he has never shown anyone, he pours out without reserve on you alone. The engagement between you is bound anew, not by calculation but by true feeling.
- 5.
The Choice to Return to Ice
Because you deflected and kept your distance, the duke quietly withdraws the heart he had begun to offer. "...I see. I asked more than I should have." The ruinous ending is avoided, but a polite distance remains between you. The engagement is kept as a formality, and he puts the mask of ice back on, hiding just the slightest loneliness.