Volume 2 Chapter 4 - Love Simulation Part 2
It would be embarrassing if everyone from the Witch’s Mansion saw them off, so Kazuki and Lotte met up at the school’s gate. This was a great and clever plan by Mio.
Kazuki got out of the mansion and waited in advance, then a flowery excited voice rang out.
“Kazuki-oniisan!”
Lotte ran ‘patapata’ steadily toward Kazuki while her skirt fluttered about.
She was wearing a dress, like the one worn by an upper class young lady to a party.
Her skirt’s length was not too long, so it was not hard to run in it. Their appearance to the world was different when they lined up. Just like the scene of a commoner escorting a princess…
“This is the dress that I wore when I sought asylum here, the only clothes that I brought from Seinmundo desu.”
“So you are coming here wearing your special clothes. I mean, it’s pretty. Like this…”
Rather than pretty, it was beautiful. The bottom of the neck and the shoulder were exposed boldly, the part on the hips was slender, and the skirt spread out like flower petals. Those clothes combined with Lotte’s own loveliness made her look like a character that came right out from a fairytale.
“Receiving a man's honest praise from the heart…my heart is beating so fast desu.”
Lotte looked down while fidgeting and holding the tips of her skirts.
―Now, which way is good to leave from here?
It would be a mistake to walk in front of her and guide her with a distance between them, he already received instructions from Mio beforehand. What he learned was to link their arms together or to hold her waist.
But the initiative to hold the hand of the lady couldn’t come from the man. If it became like this…!
“Well then, shall we go?”
Kazuki gently embraced Lotte’s hips that was so slender, it looks like it could break with his one hand.
…Mio said that for an adult, it was only natural to do this, but as he thought, this was overdoing it.
However, Lotte looked up to Kazuki in a daze and a heart mark flew out from her.
The advice from Kaya to treat Lotte properly like a girl flashed inside his head.
“Kazuki-oniisan…this is what people call as a date between a man and a woman, right desu? I have never participated in something like this, but this is completely like the royal dance party desu!”
When he thought about it, this kind of exaggerated way might have originated from a foreign country.
“I…thought that romcom of a man and a woman would not ever happen in my life. …This is like seeing a dream, I feel so light desu. Is it really fine to believe this desu…?”
Lotte whispered so while snuggling closely to Kazuki’s arm that was holding her.
―And then their destination was the [Alchemy Cyberbrain CityAlchemics Mega City - Akihabara].
Once called the Electric Town, the plot of land became the town of Anime afterwards, and when it entered the age of magic, it became known as Alchemics Mega City.
There they were pursuing the use of alchemy for the use of entertainment however much.
What they were especially pursuing was the genre of entertainment known as <Moe>.
The alchemists that were specializing in Moe, the <Otaku> were gathering in this town to set up their workshops.
Various Moe were created from those Otaku workshops and released to the public.
Using alchemy, alchemic figures in advanced model and all possible colors, and also three-dimensional illustrations were projected freely using magic light slide projector devicephantasmagoria.
And then using telepathy to transmit sound, image, and even unfamiliar tactile sense to the player, applying alchemy to anime and galge, so to speak the <Ultimate virtual reality of Moe>.
Even though Kazuki had watched anime with Kanae before, this was the first time he had ever stepped foot in this zealous town. When Lotte got off from the train, she “Oh my godMein gott!” leaked out cries of joy.
“Mein gott! How amazingKlasse desu! Anime I have never seen before are scattered all around the city desu!”
“…Looking carefully, posters of galge with warning of 18+ was pasted boldly all around in the open during daytime, is this really okay? Shouldn’t this be sold more secretly than this?”
Now that was mentioned, was this really a place for a date?
“No, this is…this is…magnificent!”
The one who appeared so suddenly beside Kazuki was Prophet’s avatar.
A diva felt that galge was magnificent…?
“In short, this is the place where greed was materialized by the transcendence of material control using their mental activity…the human race does not need to be shackled by their flesh anymore regarding their sexual desire. The significance of flesh was eliminated in an ultimate civilization. The people who have their mind sublimated using this galge have transcended the concept of their flesh and transformed into hermaphroditic angels, though having said that is not an exaggeration at all. Like what was mentioned in Kabbalah, when the conclusion of the age of the Earth come and humans step into the age of the Ram. The most beautiful of the human race are already here! Lotte, let’s go buy one souvenir and return home.”
With tensions that looked completely like a drunk person, Prophet said some incomprehensible things.
Even Leme also materialized besides Prophet and “Uh huh” nodded along.
“A love simulation game huh…It might be useful for Our King's education in love.”
“Prophet! Leme-san! Today is the date of Kazuki-onii-san and me, just the two of us desu!”
Lotte said so while puffing her cheeks, Prophet twitched in surprise and disappeared.
Leme too said “Sorry, I became a hindrance just now” and withdrew.
“Well then, first let’s visit some of the workshops. How about if we look around for some new anime that Lotte hasn’t seen yet? Well, not like I know anything in that area though. What kind of anime does Lotte like to see?”
“Man and woman…I like man and woman romance desu!”
Lotte pulled Kazuki’s hand happily to a workshop that was decorated with Moe illustrations.
“If Onii-san is not well-informed of anime, then as someone without background knowledge, I want to ask which one is Onii-san’s number one preference, seeing from the girl’s illustration desu. Let’s discover Onii-san’s [Moe]!”
Kazuki smiled wryly to Lotte’s words. Somehow it was scary to reply thoughtlessly.
“Okay, let’s buy everything that looks interesting and go home. We’ll watch a lot until we drop as soon as possible.”
“…Watching until we drop, is it?”
―After all from now on, Lotte would have a future to look forward to.
“I watched anime and manga the whole time I was in the sick bed desu. Though in the area around Germany, everything that are categorized as contradicting the Mythology there, are prohibited desu.”
Lotte talked suddenly while taking a package of anime.
“As I grew older, I could feel in my skin how the country rapidly idolized the teaching of the faith. Originally there were no scriptures of Norse Mythology. Then for the sake of spreading the faith, they compiled a new scripture. There was a lot of really strict taboo and commandment. An example is the teaching of Odin where the creation of things to fulfill their own desire must be denied desu. The truth is that the weapon and tool of Norse gods, everything, were only presents from others.”
The alchemists were producing new things everyday, and while they were looking around in the middle of the workshop that displayed and sold those things, Lotte whispered “Strange isn’t it, those teachings?”
“There are also people that were able to live well rather than being tied to commandments. However I could only think about how all of it impaired my heart. From the start I already have my body impaired, and with all that, even my heart also became impaired. I thought that I couldn’t be called alive anymore, right?…Then I ask for something unreasonable for the butler and maid to collect manga and anime for me desu.”
Lotte started to recollect the days she spent on her bed.
“Even when I was in the middle of watching anime, various events were happening outside. For example…the successor fight. Humans that are strong in magic power have high status in Seinmundo. I am a human with very strong magic power desu. That’s why, even though my life was already like a candle in the middle of a blowing wind, people that planned to elevate me started to appear. Even though I don’t have any intention for that.”
A fight for succession in the royal court. It was a world unknown to Kazuki who was born and raised in Japan, except for those inside the tale.
Human relationship that was like a swamp where they couldn’t escape, a whirlpool of conspiracies―such things might have happened to this girl just like the image of that tale.
“People who wanted to use me and got promoted…people who ostracized me as an existence who brought chaos in the royal court…everyone around me turned into people who had various ulterior motives, everyone hid their real intention from me, saying things that didn’t exist in their heart. They took attitudes full of sympathy as family, on the surface desu. …Despite my power to perceive their real intention by telepathy.”
Lotte smiled wryly in cynicism. She had that kind of ability, so she got to this point of her life having more experience being betrayed than anyone.
“My environment was surrounded by people who wore masks, I who was dying at that time didn’t want to live in the world of reality anymore, I wanted to live in the fickle world of anime. So…I felt that I was born again when I escaped to this country desu.”
Inside that workshop, there was no love anime that was Lotte’s favorite.
Exiting the workshop, Lotte squinted her eyes from the radiant clear sky of Akihabara.
“…Even so, in the end, I couldn’t become free…the dark shadows came to chase me.”
At that time, figures of knights in the road of the spacious pedestrian mall entered their eyes.
Among the white knights who patrolled Akihabara, a black German knight was mixed in.
Lotte was startled and afraid.
“It’s okay.” Kazuki embraced the shoulder of the shivering girl.
“Those guys absolutely couldn’t do anything in this place.”
While keeping Lotte’s shoulder in his embrace, the group of knights walked towards their direction. Then they passed them. The moment they passed each other, the black German knight glanced their way.
“It’s okay to only think about fun things today. I will absolutely protect you.”
Kazuki transmitted his feelings to Lotte using telepathy and a heart mark flew from Lotte’s chest.
“I somehow…have no other person I can rely other than Onii-san, so I’m scared of my own feelings desu. Somehow keeping like this, I want to cling to Onii-san so much…Is it really okay, for me to be spoiled by Onii-san…”
Rather, Kazuki thought that Lotte is too over-conscious to the expression of their surroundings.
Her telepathy magic might be a sad tendency, because it made her learn that there were only people that she couldn’t rely on around her.
“I wonder, the characters that Onii-san prefers are similar to everyone in the Witch’s Mansion, isn’t it?”
Lotte made fun of Kazuki amusingly.
“I, I don’t have any background knowledge of anime, so I was influenced unintentionally by reality.”
Lotte laughed heartily hearing Kazuki’s excuse.
“So Kazuki-oniisan likes everyone in Witch’s Mansion desu. I wonder if I’m also like that, my preference of anime character has also changed. If it’s Onii-san, to everyone in the Witch’s Mansion…”
Kazuki hoped that Lotte would also turn like that to everyone in the Witch’s Mansion. So that the current Lotte can also have a place where she belongs.
Kazuki held bags from workshops packed full of anime’s Ultra-shortwave Ray DiskURD that was their war gains, in both hands. All those anime were filled with the appearance of characters that resembled the Witch’s mansion’s residents. Kazuki would also watch it together and have fun with Lotte.
…However the problem was which one (which character that’s going to come out) that they were going to watch first in turns.
“Well then, how about going to a game center next so we can play a two person game?”
There was a large scale game center in Akihabara that they wouldn’t be able to find around the Knight Academy.
The game center business that was once thought to be on the decline, received their second wind because of the alchemic game’s craze.
Objects that were invented using advanced alchemy, whether it was a game or something else, were unsuitable for mass production, that’s why alchemy game was more suited for the use of large scale businesses rather than for residential use.
The alchemy game in game centers had even more dynamic virtual reality that could be experienced personally compared to the alchemy game for residential use.
On the contrary, gal game had became the mainstream for residential use because it didn’t need high specs.
When they entered the game center, the atmosphere couldn’t be compared to anything they saw until now, what with all the overflowing sounds and lights. Everywhere was filled with over the top devices and clamoring people. Lotte’s eyes were darting about.
“All these devices just for the sake of playing…what a lovely pointlessness isn’t it?”
“Looks like it’s not the style of this town to consider playing as pointless. What kind of game should we play?”
Without even a bit of hesitation, Lotte chose the gun-shooting zombie to the death action game that can be experienced in person.
“Somehow, I feel that I have the confidence to handle a gun desu!”
―After the game ended, Lotte told Kazuki while keeping her face from laughing.
“Kazuki-oniisan…is not really strong in a game isn’t it desu?”
“…No, damn, why, it’s eerie how I cannot read the enemy’s movement in the game! That was not real at all! For them to be proofed against my father’s Hayashizaki-style…if only they also focused more in reproducing the muscle actions or their breathing!”
“Kazuki-oniisan, it doesn’t matter what kind of excuse you make desu! …Pupuu!”
Kazuki was one-sidedly helped by Lotte, who attacked splendidly with her gun, even though she was surprised and going ‘kyaakyaa’ by the approaching zombies. …How frustrating. He wanted to train more and improve.
“…It’s fun to play with two people rather than playing alone desu! Onii-san who needed to be saved by me is somehow cute desu?”
A heart mark flew from Lotte by her smiling face, Kazuki was thinking “Well, this is fine.”
The next thing Lotte was interested in was the print sticker machine.
“I have seen this before in anime! Both of the boys and girls enter and it can photograph small stickers of commemoration picture, right desu? It’d make a cute photo ornament!”
“Though I think it’s also okay for two boys to enter.”
“Kazuki-oniisan, logically that’s true but…!”
This print sticker machine had a strong image related with couples, and today they came for dating, so Kazuki and Lotte entered the box without hesitation.
The two of them were isolated from the crowd inside the narrow space, it really made the mood like that of an embarrassed couple. Kazuki didn’t understand what kind of face was good to make in front of the camera, in the end, he made a peace gesture while his expression was half grimacing and half smiling―
In his side Lotte was tiptoeing on her feet while kissing ‘chuu’ Kazuki’s cheek.
The sound of the shutter’s click reverberated at that moment.
Lotte laughed in embarrassment ‘tehehe’ looking at Kazuki who stiffened his body.
“The meaning of what Onii-san said before, about how it’s no good to kiss someone who is not your special person, I understand it properly now. I already understand it so…it’s okay right desu?”
Lotte held the sticker’s result showing the two idiot couple happily in her hands.
“The memory of the two of us desu.”
Memory―By chance if there was no future for Lotte, all this would be meaningless.
“This is a weird story but, I, from the time when Onii-san scolded me in the bathroom because I was naked, I feel that Onii-san really saw me as a human desu. Then Onii-san also said that he’d protect me…Onii-san looked so reliable and I was so happy that my heart beats so fast and my feeling felt like it was going to burst…Right now, I, I love Onii-san so much desu. If I could have a future, I want to have even more special relationships between man and woman. …Am I too spoiled?”
Lotte who peeked above at Kazuki’s expression with upturned eyes shyly caused Kazuki to be filled up with the desire to impulsively hug her. From that sort of Lotte, a vision of a key floated from her chest. <The key of the heart>. It was absorbed into Kazuki’s ring.
They were tired from playing games, so now they are planning to relax in a café.
“…Summon cosplay café-Solomon Wonderland?”
Among the lined up cafes in the main street, Lotte chose this one by saying “I want to enter this desu”, a store that feels like it was taking too much freedom in their naming scheme. Having said that, the other cafes were all maid cafés only though…
“Klasse desu. There is nothing but cute premonition from the store’s name.”
Lotte pulled Kazuki’s arm while breathing excitedly from her nose. What is it with this kind of hobby.
When they opened the door, a dazzling Solomon space awaited Kazuki and Lotte.
“Welcome―! Astaroth Keiko de―su!”
“Welcome! Zepar Fujiko desu!”
Welcome, Gamygyn Kanako desu.”
Various older girls each cosplaying a different Solomon 72 Pillar with bright voices, crowded around Kazuki and Lotte.
Astaroth was a fallen angel that grew black wings, Zepar was a demon that wore a red bikini armor, Gamygyn had the form of a death god who wore a skull necklace.
Of course their appearances were totally different with the Solomon 72 Pillar that the knights and knight cadets summoned. Each of the cosplayers were arranged to look like girls, it exposed their navels and thighs.
{Oi…what is with this café? What happened with Leme and the other’s copyrights!?}
Leme kept her silence throughout the date, but she couldn’t bear it any longer and retorted to Kazuki.
“Cute!” Lotte raised her voices. . Though he thought that whichever of them he saw were more sexy than cute.
“Is this your first time coming to this shop?”
The fallen angel, Astaroth Keiko-san was asking while jolting her black wings.
“The theme of this café is the present-day era of magic, a concept café.”
“Of course the café employees are cosplaying as Solomon 72 Pillar, we also lend the Solomon outfit to the Guest-sama.”
The knights were hero to this country, Solomon 72 Pillar were also popular to the general population. This was surprising but it might be natural for this kind of development to make an appearance in Akihabara.
“The corner where we served the food and drinks is separated, we also arranged for petting corner where the Guest-sama can pet and play around with the fearsome Demon Beasts.”
“Demon Beast…petting them?”
To Kazuki’s doubtful expression, the god of death Gamygyn Kanako-san, pointed to the space where it was partitioned by glass walls in the depth of the café. There was a door in the glass wall where people could freely come and go. Over there, a few customers were―frolicking around with puppies.
“…Hey, those are not Demon Beasts but puppies right?”
It seems this café was a cosplay café cum puppy café.
“Wrong, those are the existence of Demon Beast that should be talked about with dread, the [Holy Temple WatchdogSaint Bernard] from the dreadful legend of [The Dog of Flanders] that couldn’t be told without tears flowing.”
“Adding that ‘Saint’ is only to appeal to the chuunibyou even though that was only a breed of dog, isn’t it!?”
“I want to cosplay desu!” Lotte announced her choice excitedly.
“Then please this way.”
Zepar Fujiko-san took Lotte’s hand and guided her to the changing room. There was a legend about the demon called Zepar that she would take the opposite sex the summoner wished for, though it didn’t have any relation at all with this occasion.
“Please play with the Demon Beasts while waiting for that Guest-sama changing her clothes.”
For the moment Kazuki passed through to the food corner and came to the petting corner.
There was a puppy inside that cramped space, when Kazuki came, it immediately dashed at full speed and frolicked at Kazuki’s feet. Kazuki received a shock like he was hit in the chest.
…Cute. Kuh, a swordsman of all people had his heart stolen by this fluffy creature, like a girl caught by a smooth talker in the street…! A swordsman must keep his composure at all times!
Kazuki sat in place while feigning calmness and then while he was petting that puppy,
“Guest-sama, look here, this child was just born not long ago.”
Astaroth Keiko-san led a especially small puppy, like she was trying to tempt Kazuki to fall into depravity, and made him carry the puppy in his arm. Exactly like the deed of a fallen angel.
With white and brown patterns characteristic of the Saint Bernard, it also had the trait of clever and friendly personality to humans. Saint Bernard was a type of dog that was large and strong, but there was nothing but puppies in this place.
The puppy that was just born not long ago had a cute and chubby face, its round eyes looked up to Kazuki with a sure-kill devilish cuteness. Kazuki couldn’t hold back anymore and finally “Sheet, it’s cute! This animal…is super cute!”, he buried his face to the puppy to enjoy its fluffiness and smoothness like a man possessed.
“Onii-san, I have finished changing!”
Sounds of footsteps came from the direction of the changing room, when he turned back―Lotte had transformed into a cute puppy.
“Wha, what kind of Solomon 72 Pillar is that?”
“Glasya Labolas desu wan!”
{That was just a puppy! Glasya Labolas has a pair of griffon wings, possessing high power for bloodshed, a huge dog like a monster you know!}
Leme yelled inside Kazuki’s head, vehemently expressing her protests.
Lotte donned a drooping dog’s ears, fluffy fur around her neck, and wearing a fur bikini while nonchalantly exposing her white skins. A poor excuse for wings were attached to her back.
“So, somehow isn’t the exposure degree too high…!? Even if you compared it to the other people’s cosplay!”
“Fufufu, I know that Onii-san’s heart was beating so fast right now! This is well matched for me, furthermore I chose this so Onii-san will be aware of me as the number one girl desu!”
Lotte unexpectedly thought such a thing like a little devil…!?
Lotte hugged Kazuki along with the other puppy. Did the other puppies thought of Lotte as their comrade? They also came together to frolick at Kazuki.
When the puppy licked Kazuki’s cheek, Lotte also licked Kazuki’s other cheek with ‘peropero’.
“Onii-san…wan!”
“Lo, Lotte, what in the world are you…!”
“Lotte is a dog wan!”
Damn, as a swordsman, I won’t be shaken by this kind of animal cosplay…!
{No, Glasya Labolas is not cute like that…he look more like a gorilla dog…}
Leme’s words couldn’t enter Kazuki’s head anymore.
“Onii-san, please be [affectionate] to Lotte like what you did to that puppy while you were waiting for me!”
“You, you saw that! The moment when I lost my senses to this puppy!!”
Kazuki was “Cu, cute, cute” and stroked Lotte’s head stiffly.
“Onii-san, you were more intense when you were affectionate to that puppy desu! Please do the same to me, is this puppy cuter than me desu?”
There was no way the puppy could be cuter than Lotte.
“Cute! Sheet, you’re so cute! Super cute!”
“Onii-san, right now you’re thinking that I’m super cute, it’s so thrilling desu?”
Kazuki turned desperate and hugged Lotte’s hips as tightly as he could and nuzzled her. “Wan, wan?” A heart mark flew from Lotte and she kept licking Kazuki’s cheek happily.
It was a space where their strange hobby awakened.
“Kazuki-oniisan…this, might be the happiest I ever felt in my life…”
“Guest-sama, please try to present them with this food.”
The god of death Gamygyn Kanako-san came and handed over cookies to Kazuki.
Lotte opened her mouth and ‘a―n’, so Kazuki fed her the cookie, then Lotte was ‘Wan, wan! Ku~n?” and chewed with a large smiling face. This high spirited behavior…!
“The normal Guest-sama usually were too shy to do this, but…this is the first time a Guest-sama turn completely into Solomon like this.”
{Uuu, Leme and the other Solomon 72 Pillar are not like this at all!}
“Please accept this Best Solomon & Summoner award.”
For some reason Kazuki and Lotte were awarded with a trophy.
“Onii-san, next time let’s bring Mio-oneesan here too.”
“Wh, why?”
“Mio-oneesan dressed in a slightly indecent costume, imagining her blushing red face and her licking Onii-san ‘peropero’ while acting embarrassed…that’d be extremely cute desu. That’s Moe desu.”
What is this devil’s plan?
Kazuki tried to imagine it…A troubled Mio shaking her head in fluster with her twintails going ‘bunbun’.
“This is the best day in my life desu?” With those Lotte was laughing.
Lotte's positivity level increased up to 80.
It was possible to use Prophet’s magic up to level 3 with those numbers.
―Thus in the next day, Kazuki would face the fight of his destiny.