Chapter 20
At Gregorio's signal, the door opened, and I went inside.
We continued down the lavish corridor.
This place positively reeked of illegal activity.
The atmosphere was unpleasant, too. There were guards posted, but they clearly didn't look like respectable men.
Here and there, muscle-bound behemoths chuckled. "Heh heh heh."
Scary.
Moreover, Gregorio didn't stop talking as we walked.
"There are two kinds of people in this world."
"………Two kinds?"
"That's right!! The chosen, special people, and everyone else. And you're clearly one of the former. The former can treat the latter however they like."
The mayor, Gregorio, was naturally instilling elitist ideas into an innocent child.
In short, the place Big Brother Gregorio had brought me to was a playground exclusively for the sons of high-ranking nobles. Thoroughly influenced by Big Brother Gregorio's words, young Kuzutos in the story got fired up, thinking, "I'm powerful and special because I'm a noble...!!!"
To put it mildly, he was a terrible mayor.
Still, Gregorio really was an astonishingly smooth talker.
――I'm special.
It was true that children of high-ranking nobles enjoyed privileges to some degree.
He spoke in a way that seemed to stroke the egos of people like that.
And.
As I walked beside Gregorio, who was still proclaiming that I was one of the chosen, I was honestly nervous.
In other words, even though I'd spent all this time trying to avoid scummy behavior, this time, of all times, I had to deliberately play a rotten young master who gave himself over to women and debauchery—all to move the event forward.
That's why I'd already told Liera she could feed me as many bites as she wanted, with the whole 'Aah' routine.
Of course, if I overdid the spoiled-young-master act, I'd go straight down the 'comeuppance-and-death' route. So while I wanted the heroine, Iris, to get a bad impression of me,
I also wanted to leave her with a good impression, like, "Huh? Maybe this guy's actually kind of decent??"
Right.
In other words, to sum it up:
This had gotten ridiculously complicated.
"――Now, this is a place befitting someone special like you."
He led me up to a room and stopped in front of it.
From beyond the door, I could hear people chatting. It was probably a hangout for noble brats just like me.
This sucks.
Why, just when I thought I'd escaped that noisy, glittering venue, did I have to be brought to an even more depraved playground?
Let's just get this over with, I thought.
I'd get through this event quickly, and from then on, live like a decent person.
A spotless background character, with nothing to be ashamed of from any angle.
When I looked beside me, Gregorio was smiling faintly.
Gregorio was probably looking down on me.
Thinking I was just an easily manipulated noble brat.
For now, I had no choice but to play along.
――Liera, I'm counting on you.
I signaled to Liera, who stood behind me, with a glance.
Liera's cooperation was absolutely essential to this plan.
"Ah, you mean the maid there? Don't worry about her."
Gregorio apparently thought I was concerned about Liera.
"If there are any unfavorable rumors about you, I'll make sure to bury them, too. The future head of House Randall and the mayor of Lyon— with our power, there's nothing to fear."
Gregorio spoke to me with a smirk.
To Gregorio, I said,
"I'm special...?" I replied, giving it my best performance.
The image I was going for was a noble brat impressed by Gregorio's speech.
"Exactly...!! You can do whatever you like with this maid, too."
Gregorio whispered, spreading his hands.
Gregorio was at the height of his excitement.
This was the climax.
Gregorio must have thought he'd successfully corrupted me.
"...................."
But I was feeling nothing but awkward.
Normally, I should have been moved here and acted like the Kuzutos in the story,
saying, "I'm special...!!!" and acting completely enamored with Gregorio...
But I had witnessed it.
Behind Gregorio and me as we faced each other, Liera heard him say, "You can do whatever you like with this maid, too," and quietly pumped a fist.
"............Ah, yeah."
In the end.
Because my attention had been stolen by that,
"Oh... I guess I really was special after all..."
I ended up saying something that sounded completely deflated.
...Liera.
I'm taking this pretty seriously.
I really do want to avoid dying after getting my comeuppance in the end.
So.
Could you please not pump your fist in this seriously tense atmosphere???
Everyone around me was an enemy.
To make matters worse, everyone gathered here was an ambitious noble brat.
In the middle of all this, I had to do my best to move the event along as it did in the original, while making sure it wouldn't lead to my future comeuppance.
In the midst of this incredibly difficult mission—
"...Is this going to be okay?"
I muttered so Gregorio wouldn't hear.
The maid who should have been my only ally, and the person I could count on most, was the one I was most worried about...