I left that ragtag bunch of delinquents to Edward and waited outside the women's restroom for Patricia. She had bolted there the moment we arrived.
"What exactly are you doing hanging around the ladies' room? Are you some kind of pervert?"
Patricia finally emerged, scoffing as she wiped her hands with a handkerchief.
How insulting. I have zero interest in the small, waifish type.
"I can't have you scurrying off every time I look away," I said.
"You’re really annoying, you know that?" Patricia snapped.
She clearly had a massive height complex; the word "scurrying" made her face contort with visible irritation. She let out a heavy sigh and finally turned to face me properly.
"We're from the same place, aren't we? That game was only ever released in Japan."
"That would be the case."
"Since when? I’ve had my memories since I was born."
I was a bit caught off guard by how frankly she spoke. It was far more casual than I’d expected. I brushed back my bangs to reveal the scar on my forehead.
"I realized it when I was three. An orc split my skull open. Of course, I didn't know back then that this world was a game from my previous life."
"Hmm." Patricia peered intently at the scar and muttered, "Imagine playing an otome game as a guy... You really are a creep."
How annoying. This girl is seriously annoying.
"I won't deny it," I replied.
I’d wondered myself why I’d even played it, but my memories of that time were fuzzy. I just had the knowledge. It was an undeniable fact that I was a heavy user, well-versed in the community's slang and theories. I’d just have to own it like a man.
But I wasn't going down without a fight.
"The same could be said for you," I shot back. "Using your meta-knowledge to build a reverse harem is its own brand of weird."
"Ugh, gross! I hate you! You're so gross and annoying!"
Because of that one comment, Patricia refused to come within a three-meter radius of me.
"Well, I’ve noticed that you weren't forming that harem just out of pure desire," I noted.
"Oh really? So you're not just a baldy after all."
Being an idiot didn't necessarily mean being a baldy, but I decided to stay silent. From the hallway a short distance away, I could hear Edward's voice elegantly threatening the delinquents. It was the kind of situation where it was easy to see why people conflated "idiot" with "baldy."
"This is what one calls the Kingdom's hospitality," Edward’s voice echoed. "A certain clan is said to consume trace amounts of poison daily to build resistance. Naturally, I practice this as well. Since you are Duchy Students who believe strength is everything, you should be fine with this level of toxin, right?"
"W-What... what the hell are those cookies?!"
"These are specially formulated Toxin Cookies—'Dokookies' for short."
"Who makes something with such a shitty name?! Wait—stop! Get that away from me! Don't shove it in—mmph! No! Stop it! Aggghhhhh!"
"Ugh... gah... my stomach! What did you...!"
"The one I just fed you," Edward continued calmly, "is a cookie I developed specifically for training against enemy-administered laxatives. If you ever dare defile this Academy again, consider your lives forfeit."
"Hieee! Hieeeee!"
Patricia and I both stared at the scene, our faces blank with exasperation.
"..."
"..."
"Well?" I asked. "What are you going to do? This is your fault."
"Don't pin this on me. How does just getting dumped turn someone into... that?"
She had a point. Where exactly had Edward gone wrong? Still, the root cause was the tiny woman standing next to me. It was all her fault. She was the one who had beguiled the prince and then tossed him aside. It definitely wasn't my fault.
"Let's get back to the point," I said, ignoring the chaos. "What is your objective? You went as far as using Substitution Magic to steal Mariana's role. If your goal isn't just a reverse harem, what are you after?"
"We wasn't 'getting back' to anything. I never agreed to talk about that."
Patricia turned away from me to look out the window.
"Tell me," she said softly, gazing at the scenery outside. "From your perspective, what do you think of this world?"