"How are we supposed to conduct research like this?"

I sighed and shoved another book back into place on its shelf. Asa and I were clustered at the bookcase with our heads together, watched intensely by three people sitting and standing at a table nearby.

Marion Ranunculus gazed at me with a dreamy expression on his bespectacled face. Surprisingly, there were no girls accompanying the poet with the coral-colored hair today. Unless you counted my fiancée, who sat glowering a chair over. I already told her Marion was joining us and I wouldn't be alone with “Prince Vel”, but she still insisted on coming. As did my lanky guardian, who stood behind them tensed up as if awaiting a skirmish.

"Once I finish helping Marion with his math homework, we can probably get rid of at least him and Rixton." Rixton would hate to leave me alone with Asa, but he couldn't refuse my orders for long.

"There's no way," Asa shook her head regretfully, "This is one of his major 'events.' As 'Prince Vel,' I'm not even supposed to be here."

This again, with the "events." Several times during our school year, Asa has acted suspiciously around the "love interests" and me. I finally coerced the truth from her, which was that she wanted to see if I would advance the storyline following the original game dynamics of Garden of Dreams.

"I already told you, I have no interest in playing your little game. Maybe you have forgotten, but I am the real Prince Vel. I have a duty to this country." I couldn’t help but glance back at the group. I didn’t like that there was only a chair between Camellia and Marion. I'd prefer it if there were an entire moat. "And to my fiancée. I just want to switch back as soon as possible."

"Well, I haven't found anything useful so far. There are some ancient spells, but magic was eradicated from this world centuries ago. I think we'd have better luck trying to contact the deity who put me here."

I put a hand to my chin. "That's not a bad idea. What was your initial experience?"

Asa ruffled her/my silver hair. "I dunno. I don't remember much…My life in my world was pretty rough, and I had wished plenty of times that I could enter the game world. I had finally decided to end the game after replaying the last scene in the route a bunch of times, and I must have passed out, because everything went black.

After that, I saw this text box with the words 'would you like to play again?' and ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options underneath hovering in my mind's eye. I remembered my friend telling me she had seen the same thing on the screen when she finished the game, and it let her start a second playthrough on the same save file.

I must have clicked yes somehow, though I don’t recall having a body or arms in this weird state. Basically I just wished super hard, and the button looked like it had been pressed. Then, there was a flash of white light, and this disembodied voice started talking to me. As soon as I told it what I wanted, I woke up in this world, in your body. Since then, I haven't heard that voice again."

Half of the words she said sounded like nonsense to me…but aside from that, it was clear this world involved a “second playthrough” on her part.

Our whispering had definitely become a bit obvious. Alongside our three companions, Asa's beloved librarian had also arrived to observe us. The beautiful man with long lavender hair spared us a glance before returning to pushing his cart of books through the area. However, he seemed to be taking his time putting them back.

I'm going to be in trouble when we switch if Asa's already made him interested in her.

"How is the search for clues on the rebellion going?"

I looked at Asa pensively. "Not well, unfortunately. I am unsure where to begin. Do you remember hearing anything in your world about the origin of this rebellion?"

Asa screwed up her face, thinking. "It might have been one of the love interests. Usually anything that can be triggered to go differently in the second playthrough happens through them. You could start with investigating them a little."

I looked towards the group once more, frowning. Investigating them might involve talking to them, and they might take that as a sign of interest.

There was no help for it. Asa would have to deal with the aftermath.

I let a giant tome flap open with a thud in front of Marion.

His vacant gaze sharpened, and a wide smile bloomed across his face. He looked delighted to be facing me, even if we were not alone. I wanted to discount Marion, who is an airhead, from being capable of leading a rebellion, but something told me there was more to him than meets the eye.

"Why don't you start with a couple of these practice problems, and you can tell me if you have any questions. Some of these will likely be on our next test."

"Ummmm" Marion scratched his head, still smiling widely. "I think I have a problem already, teach."

"What?" I asked tersely.

Marion pointed his finger at the formulas in the key at the top of the page. "What do these mean?"

I dropped my head into my hands. It was going to be a long day.