Chapter 16 - I invited my friend (1/2)

It finally became the promised day, when Sophia would come to visit my place. I waited restlessly for her arrival since morning.

“Ojou-sama, Sophia-sama whom you have spoken about has arrived……”

Anne told me about her arrival, but she seemed strange for some reason. However, I just thanked her and hurried to the guest room because I wanted to see Sophia again as quickly as possible.

And then, I went to the guest room -

Indeed, the beautiful Sophia was waiting there impatiently, but…… For some reason, there was also an incredibly handsome boy next to her.

With black hair and black eyes, his hair and eye color was different from Sophia, but it could be seen that his features were similar and they were related. And, with two such beautiful people in front of me, it was like lining up a pair of dolls.

Ahh, Anne’s expression was surely strange because she was by these two doll-like people.

While I was lost staring at the two beauties, the voice that snapped me back to reality, was the handsome boy’s.

“Thank you very much for inviting my sister. Since my sister almost never goes out by herself, I am accompanying her today. I’m her older brother, Nico.”

I thought they looked similar, and indeed, this handsome boy seems to be Sophia’s older brother. But even so, to accompany her whenever she goes out, she’s had such a sheltered life.

However, I’ve been under pretty strict guard in my own way as well. After all, whenever I go out, mother will say “take Keith with you. Listen to Keith, and absolutely don’t do anything weird.” So, Keith always has to accompany me as well.

Mmm. Since we’re both so overprotected, we should be able to get along well.

While I was thinking this, for the time being I raised the hem of my dress and turned towards Sophia’s brother.

“Thank you very much for accepting my invitation. My name is Katarina Claes.”

“I’m Sophia’s older brother, Nico Astarot. I’ll be much obliged to be in your care.”

The handsome boy introduced himself once again.

And, I froze upon hearing it.

Nico Ascarot…… That name sounds familiar.

“Um, this may be rude but, Nico-sama, would you happen to be the prime minister-sama’s son?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

He is!? This person, I was thinking he’s such a perfect handsome boy, it’s because he’s a capture target!

Honestly, I want to immediately go back to my room to read my “Previous life’s game memories” notes…… But in the meantime, I desperately tried to remember what I could.

Nico Ascarot, the prime minister’s son, Alan and Jared’s childhood friend. He’s one year older than the heroine, and is a taciturn senpai type of character.

Ugh, I can’t remember any more than this. To begin with, I haven’t even captured Nico yet. I died after finishing the Jared route. In the end, I never even got started on Nico’s route. All I know about him, is what was in the game’s character introductions, and little tidbits than I heard from my otaku friend A-chan that cleared the game first.

If I recall correctly, A-chan said…… the rival for Nico was…… his sister!! That’s right, Nico was designed as quite a siscon, and the rival is his sister. And, to capture Nico, I think A-chan told me that you have to capture his affections before his sister does.

Ahh, thank you A-chan. I’m sorry about being mad at you at that time for the spoilers. I can’t believe that A-chan’s spoilers from that time would come in handy here.

If the rival for Nico is his sister, that means it’s not Katarina! That means, even if I get involved with Nico, I probably won’t get any destruction flags.

Anyways, if the rival for his affections is his sister, that means I won’t accidentally steal anyone’s lines like that time with Alan and Mary and get in the way of their affections.

Good, if it’s like that then it won’t be a problem even if I make friends with Sophia. She’s my long-awaited comrade to chat about romance novels with. I won’t let her escape so easily!

“……Uh, Katarina-sama.”

It seems that I was completely lost in my own little world. Sophia was looking at me with a worried face.

“Ahh, Sophia-sama. I’m sorry. Once again, thank you very much for coming. If it’s alright with you, let’s continue from where we left off last time.”

As I said so, I invited Sophia over to a table prepared with sweets and tea.

And then, we spent our time very meaningfully. Although Sophia was nervous at visiting my place for the first time, once we started talking about books, she became quite talkative. It seems that she really loves books. Of course, she knew about all the popular romance novels right now, but she also read a lot of old legends and history books and fairy tales, and those stories were all very interesting as well. She recommended several books to me.

If I do say so myself, her brother Nico has been completely left out of everything…… Well, I don’t have the time to concern myself over such a matter, it can’t be helped. Man, he’s really such an emotionless and taciturn boy like in the settings. It seems like such a waste of a handsome boy.

Time flies when you’re having fun, before I noticed it the sun was going down, Sophia’s family servant raised her voice and said that “it’s time that we have to go now.”

And when the family servant urged Sophia to get up to leave, the sunlight hit her hair as she stood up and her hair sparkled in the sunshine. It’s so beautiful. I’m sure that it’ll be just like touching silk. Ahh~, I want to touch it even just a little bit.

“You really do have such beautiful hair. May I touch it just a little?”

I spoke my thoughts and tried requesting Sophia.

Somehow, since I was using lines similar to the ones in “The Emerald Princess and Sophia,”my mood was completely like the Emerald Princess. However, if it was like the story, Sophia should be blushing now, but……

“……Eh!?”

Unfortunately, she had such a dubious look on her face! I’ve done it now! I realized my grave blunder upon seeing her face. Since Mary happily allowed me to touch her fluffy hair as much as I wanted, I might have forgotten that it could very well be considered rude in this world to ask to touch a lady’s hair like this.

In the first place, I almost forced her during our first meeting as I was breathing roughly…… They might think I’m a pervert…… This is bad! I can’t do anything about my villainous face, but I don’t want to be called a pervert!