The New Protagonist

Guy had been mulling something over ever since his confession to Madeline and the others. During that meeting, First Mage Diggory had made an offhand comment about Guy's perspective of this world. His understanding of this world was that it was the game his sister had played which gave him some general understandings about some of the characters and what they might do. After hearing Diggory make the comment that this world might not be the same game, Guy started to reevaluate some of his own assumptions. If this wasn't the world of the game his sister played, what was it? After thinking about it for a long time, he decided that the only way all of the same characters would exist in this world is that he was trapped in the world of a sequel, or possibly the world of a series of games based on the game his sister loved. It might even be a manga or anime based on the game.

With that thought in mind, he started to really consider that he was wrong about Alicia being the heroine. Thus far in this world's timeline, she was a rather unimportant person, it was true that she was an elite who was now even on the Council of Magic, but she had cleared the Claude route in this timeline and was almost a side character. Thinking hard he started to wonder if the real Heroine was someone he overlooked. Who wasn't in the first storyline that was important now? He knew that he was, but it had to be someone else, someone unattached that was slowly progressing from a relative nobody to someone incredibly important. In most of the Otome games, he had heard about it was usually a girl who turned out to be royalty or something like that. He was looking around through the crowds of students for a woman that stood out as more beautiful than the rest.

He was starting to give up hope when he caught sight of something. Walking through the crowd of students was Doreen Leon who was going to continue studying at the Academy this year even though she was already on the Council of Magic, she had said that she felt like she needed to learn more in order to catch up with the likes of Madeline and Guy. As Guy watched her walk through the crowd of students he couldn't help notice that she looked different, more beautiful than he remembered. She smiled when she saw him and brushed her hair back exposing her neck. Guy felt like he was in a trance as he watched her walk over to him. She was wearing the uniform of a female student which was much more low cut than the previous Academy's uniform exposing her considerable cleavage, probably due to Diggory's influence.

It took him a moment to snap out of his trance as he realized she just said something to him, he forced himself to look up and make eye contact with her as he stammered, "Sorry, I was lost in thought, did you ask me something?"

She looked down involuntarily trying to figure out what he had been looking at, thinking she must have had something spilled on her uniform or something. It then dawned on her that he was looking at her chest so she chuckled and bent over flirtatiously and asked again, "I was just asking who you were looking for, you look like you need help finding someone."

He swallowed hard and then said, "Oh, ah, I was trying to find a certain female student, someone flashy looking that would stand out in the crowd. Kind of like Alicia. She would have probably ranked very high on the entrance exam."

Doreen chuckled and said, "Well, I was ranked first you know." She grinned proudly looking almost smug, "But another one of the female students ranked second, one of the Princesses attending this year, that girl Princess Viana from El Pais De Lotharios. Oh, and the fifth place student was Princess Huitfeldt from Odinslund. They are both flashy looking. I don't believe there were any other flashy girls in the top twenty-five on the entrance exams."

Guy frowned and then rubbed his chin in frustration, "This girl would most likely be from a smaller noble house, someone a lot of the more handsome men here would be interested in..."

Doreen made a gagging sound and said, "That reminds me, that Emperor Wolter von Plettenberg and first Prince Albert, Olivier's brother are in my Order this year. They were competing to get my attention this morning, it was gross." She chuckled and then said, "There was this really handsome man in my Order though who was very silent and kept to himself. He acted the gentleman and saved me from their attempts to woo me." She snorted and laughed.

Guy looked all around trying to find this special girl he noticed that he was getting a lot of dirty looks from the men walking past and Doreen was getting a lot of dirty looks from the women. He looked at her again trying to figure out what was going on, was it his Mage uniform? He suddenly had a thought, "Doreen, did Diggory give you a potion to test for him?"

"Yes, he gave me a potion he called the 'Beauty Potion' this morning. Why, do you think it worked?" She batted her lashes at him and gave him a sexy pose.

Guy stared at her for a full minute and then slowly responded, "Yes, it worked. It absolutely worked. You look radiant. No, you look flashy. And you are from a lesser noble house..."

"And I was the top student on the entrance exam." She blinked at Guy and asked, "Are you by chance looking for me?"

Guy gave himself a hard facepalm and then squatted down, "Of course, it all makes sense now. Your best friend being killed, making friends with the third Prince, becoming a member of the Council of Magic, creating the status board when even I couldn't. It's you, all this time. It's been you, Doreen. You are the heroine."

Guy then searched his memory, "But you wouldn't be against Madeline, so maybe someone else is the villain."

Doreen snorted and laughed again, "Maybe she would be a villain if you got friendlier with me though." She laughed. She squatted down next to him and then asked, "Maybe this villain, is one of those Princesses?"

Guy nodded and said, "That's possible. It might also be that we haven't come to a point where a villain is needed. We'll have to be on alert."

*****

Madeline was walking back to the Tower of Magic after visiting with her mother when she saw Guy and Doreen chatting amidst the sea of students getting settled into the new dorms. Doreen was wearing the new female school uniform that Diggory must have had a hand in designing. It had a short skirt and low cut top under a jacket that couldn't hide anything. Madeline started walking towards them but realized she hadn't been seen. She stopped and her heart turned ice cold as she saw Guy staring at Doreen's chest. Then Doreen was laughing and appeared to be flirting with him. Madeline felt a burning hatred in her chest for Doreen and wanted to run over and stand between them holding on to his arm protectively. Instead, she kept watching in case it was just a mistake on her part. Next, she saw them squat down nearly touching cheeks together talking quietly.

Madeline saw Doreen laughing again and then they stood up smiled at each other and walked off in separate directions. Madeline clutched her hand to her chest balled up her uniform in her hand and thought to herself, 'No, not again. I won't let him go without a fight.'