“When we’re here,” Cyrus, who had probably completely forgotten about me, said in his sweetest, gentlest voice, “don’t call me Lanchester. Call me Cyrus.”

“Yes, Mister Cyrus,” Maria cutely replied.

Now this really looks like an otome game! It’s so beautiful.

I’d managed to get Cyrus, who was one of the romanceable options, to fall in love with the protagonist, and we all decided to go home for the day. After all, Cyrus had just fallen in love (probably for the first time in his life) and was spacing out so much that there was no hope of him getting any work done on the field.

From the next day on, Maria would be coming to the field together with me.

“I want to talk with Mister Cyrus more, and if I go to that field, I will be able to see Lady Katarina every day!” she had explained.

It seemed that Maria was interested in Cyrus as well. Very good. You’re on the right path.

Not being able to work the field today, I went back home earlier than usual.

“Haah, I’ve done my share of good deeds for the day,” I said to myself while lying down on my bed. I had helped Cyrus overcome his nervousness with girls and cleared up Maria’s misunderstanding. I felt like a generous Cupid.

Hehe, me? Cupid? Nice... I was grinning to myself and staring at the ceiling when I remembered the cute young boy who had eaten lunch with me today.

Now that I think about it, Dewey’s been in MARIA-LOVE mode since the examination.

We weren’t on the best terms at first, but now that we were friends, I also felt that I wanted him to succeed in his romantic aspirations... But there was only one Maria. What could I do?

To be honest, I had almost no experience with romance, so I was at a loss.

It was time to summon them.

Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.

Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.

Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.

“Very well. We are now going to think of the fairest option in regards to the romance between Maria and two of the romanceable options for Fortune Lover II, namely Dewey and Cyrus.”

“I am afraid that we Katarinas have little to no experience with love, but we shall nonetheless put forth our best efforts in dealing with this issue for the sake of Maria and our two friends.”

“Does anyone have any good ideas?”

“Ideas? Well, we haven’t really done much romancing, neither here nor in our past life. I’m clueless.”

“But our performance today was outstanding!”

“It was, yes, but we weren’t really going for that, were we? It just kind of happened.”

“Whatever the case, Maria said that she’ll be coming to the field too from now on. Maybe we should stop going so that she can spend some time alone with Cyrus and get closer to him.”

“That sounds good! But wait, wouldn’t that leave Dewey out?”

“What about inviting Dewey to the field as well?”

“Hm... Would Dewey be interested in farming work? Also, Cyrus wouldn’t take well to that many people knowing about his secret...”

“I am sorry to interrupt, but may I speak?”

“Katarina Claes? What is the matter?”

“The two of you seem to be focusing on how to make Maria and the two love interests come together...”

“Yes, we are! We are Cupids, angels of love! Hehehe!”

“...I see. But, are you not forgetting something very important?”

“Important? We definitely didn’t forget dinner, nor did we forget dessert, and we certainly remembered to secure some late-night snacks for today.”

“...It will just be faster to tell you. Katarina Claes is a villainess — the antagonist in FL2, and the romance between Maria and the other characters will put us on a route that leads to doom!”

“Gasp!”

“Gasp!”

“Judging by those reactions, you had both forgotten about it, had you not?”

“Y-Yes... I had been paying attention at first, but there was a lot to learn at work, and working on the field was so fun that I just forgot about the whole villainess thing...”

“For some reason I’d also forgotten that detail...”

“That’s the problem with us, Katarina. The second something new catches our attention, we forget the important stuff. We have to be careful.”

“You are right. Maybe we should write important things on sticky notes, or better yet directly on our hand.”

“That’s smart! We’ll put the notes up in our room!”

“Yes. What should we write on them?”

“...Pardon me, but maybe that can wait. For the time being, can we discuss how to avoid doom?”

“Y-You’re right. Chairwoman Claes, please change today’s agenda from ‘making Maria grow closer to Dewey and Cyrus’ to ‘avoiding doom.’”

“Yes. Good. Let’s start our meeting on avoiding doom in FL2, then.”

“So, does anyone have any good ideas?”

“Yes. We must stop helping Maria and the others fall in love and give up on being angels of love.”

“...That makes sense, but they are already on friendly terms, and both seem to be in MARIA-LOVE mode... I am afraid that we are headed for doom.”

“What can we do? Should we shut ourselves in our room?”

“That does not seem reasonable...”

“If that is the case, we should study how to dodge attacks, how to run away from jails, and how to get our sentence reduced to exile abroad.”

“I agree. That is the best thing to do.”

“It is decided then. We will investigate Dewey and Cyrus to see if they have any weaknesses, like Jeord.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We successfully went through the plot of Fortune Lover while (somehow) avoiding doom. In the process, we became smarter (even graduating from the academy, somehow) and stronger (at tilling the soil). We shall survive! We shall spend a peaceful retirement with a cat on our lap!”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

And thus, another Katarina meeting came to an end, even though the agenda changed halfway through. I sat up on my bed and raised a clenched fist.

Yes! I’m going to do my best!

★★★★★★★★

My name is Cyrus Lanchester. After graduating from the Academy of Magic, I started working at the Ministry. I was appreciated for my skills, and, perhaps due to how diligently and passionately I worked, I became a department director before others who had been there longer than me.

Many envied me for this... but sometimes I wished I could go back to the country, where I was raised — that peaceful village where there were more cattle than people.

Colleagues at work considered me a high-ranking noble, but I was brought up as a farmer, and surrounded by other farmers for all my childhood.

However, I’d been hiding my heritage since the time I enrolled into the academy so that people wouldn’t laugh at me. It was too late to stop pretending, so, day after day, I did my best to play the part of the noble. The only place where I could relax was the field that I’d secretly built in a little-visited part of the Ministry.

Everything changed one spring day, a short time after newcomers had been welcomed into the Magical Ministry.

I finished work and, as I always did, made for my field. I entered the small hut next to the field and changed into my farming clothes, grabbed my hoe, and went out. Nothing unusual so far.

But the second I left the hut, my life took a strange turn.

“Excuse me,” I heard a voice call out to me. Nobody was supposed to know about this place, so I was surprised to find someone there, but what was even more surprising was who this someone was.

Katarina Claes, daughter of Duke Claes and fiancée of Prince Jeord. She was a real-life high-ranking noble who had nothing to do with a country boy like me, who was only noble on paper.

What was she doing in this empty place at the edge of the Ministry?

Unable to grasp the situation, I froze in place, staring at her.

“Director Cyrus Lanchester...” she muttered, making me snap out of my trance.

“That’s not me,” is all I managed to reply. This surprised her, and made her stare at me even harder. I repeated my lie while hiding my face, fully aware of how unconvincing I was. We had met just a few days ago, and now I could feel her gaze piercing through my profile.

However, I could not admit that Cyrus Lanchester, director of the Magic and Magical Powers Research Department, was in farming attire with a hoe in hand, ready to plow a field. The image of me that I’d worked so hard to maintain would be utterly destroyed.

Katarina remained silent for a while. I couldn’t look at her face, but I hoped that she would just give up and leave. And then...

“Wow, you can tell that they’ll be delicious just by looking at them,” she said all of a sudden.

I turned to face her, and she was looking excitedly at the asparagus I was so proud of.

Those feelings that I had repressed for so many years started flowing back inside me.

When I was living in the country, we would show each other our vegetables and comment on how good each other’s harvest was. However, here in the city, no one did any such thing. All I could do was anonymously bring my vegetables to the dining hall, so I couldn’t even ask what people thought of them directly. I was proud of them, but I was longing — nay, starving for external recognition!

“What?! Duke’s daughter Katarina Claes understands the beauty of this asparagus?!” I asked her in my excitement.

When she said that she did, I felt happier than I had in many years. I started extolling the virtues of my asparagus, before realizing that, in my enthusiasm, I had gone back to the accent that I had been struggling so hard to hide all these years. Understanding that I couldn’t salvage the situation anymore, I sighed, and asked Katarina Claes to listen to my story.

She nodded with a serious face, and I went on to explain my background for the first time.

Once I was done, I asked Katarina not to tell anyone about my secret, and, surprisingly, she immediately agreed.

I was extremely relieved, but then I noticed her eyes squint ever so slightly as she said, “...But on one condition.”

I frowned, but I wasn’t surprised. Knowing the secret of my field and my story was a major weakness. Anyone who knew this secret could use it against me and blackmail me with it. I had already realized this when I’d started talking to Katarina, and I was ready to pay to keep her quiet. I just made sure to tell her, while staring at her blue eyes, that I could only meet requests that were legal and within my power.

“Let me help you with this field. And, while we are at it, I’d love it if you could teach me what you know about growing tasty vegetables,” she said, betraying all of my expectations.

I predicted she would ask for special treatment at the Ministry or something to that effect, but... helping with the field?

First of all, why would a noble young lady understand the value of my asparagus? Most nobles have never even seen vegetables before they are prepared for them to eat, so why?

I was so confused that I stood still, unable to answer her, as more and more questions popped up inside my head.

“Is that not okay...?” she asked me timidly.

Utterly perplexed, I told her that I wouldn’t mind, and she seemed overjoyed at my answer.

Still unable to process what had happened, I saw Katarina off from the field. She was smiling as she said that she looked forward to starting work on the field the next day.

I was too confused to keep working, so I went back to the dormitory.

Even when I thought about it more calmly while lying on my bed, the situation was just as perplexing. Was it some novel kind of prank? Was it a dream?

However, the next day, I got confirmation that our exchange had not been a dream.

“Good evening,” a smiling Katarina greeted me, in full farming attire and even donning a kerchief on her head as only the oldest women used to do, even back in the country.

It turned out that she hadn’t been joking, and actually planned to work on the field. I decided that thinking about it wasn’t worth the effort and started farming with her.

I quickly realized that she had some amount of experience with growing vegetables. She still had a lot to learn, but she wasn’t a complete amateur either, and she picked up new information fast.

“Have you ever worked on a field before?” I asked her.

“Yes! In my garden at home and then at the Academy of Magic,” she replied briskly.

The garden of a duke’s manor and the Academy of Magic... I was working a field inside the Ministry myself, but I was still taken aback. And the biggest question still remained.

“But why would a noble like you do something like that?”

“Well, I just wanted to learn some practical skills in case I needed to find a job in the future.”

“...You are the daughter of Duke Claes, and you’re engaged to a prince... I don’t think you’ll ever need to find a job...”

“You never know what life has in store for you, right? You’ve got to be prepared.”

After that reply, I found myself at a loss for words.

And, anyway, why farming of all things? She could use magic and had received the training and education of a noble — she could choose any practical skill that she wanted. I had tons of doubts, but she looked at me with twinkling eyes, saying, “So, please teach me more about farming!” and I decided that I didn’t really need to inquire any further.

I stopped asking her questions, and we started working together as I taught her all I knew about vegetable growing.

A few days passed with Katarina coming to the field every evening, and, before I noticed, I had grown closer to her. Because of the environment that I grew up in, I wasn’t comfortable around girls, but she had none of the girly aura that made me nervous.

For example, when making tea for the two of us, I ended up serving pickles with it out of habit. I thought that that would make any young person squeamish, but she happily munched on them while praising their taste. She reminded me of the old women back home who worked on the fields with me.

Therefore, I eventually stopped feeling any hint of nervousness around her, and I occasionally even spoke with my old accent, despite all the efforts I’d made to hide it so far. After all this time farming alone, it was fun to have someone do it with me.

One day we were taking a short rest, sitting on a blanket on the ground with tea and pickles between us.

“Ah, I wish I had some rice,” she said after sipping on the tea and eating the pickles with delight. That was a word I hadn’t heard in a while, and I was surprised at hearing it, because I thought that the people here in the capital had no custom of eating it.

I asked her about it, and, suddenly excited, she leaned towards me and asked, “You know about rice?! Wait, first of all, there’s rice here?”

Shocked by her enthusiasm, I explained that, just as with pickles, I hadn’t seen it since moving there, but that I used to eat it as a child. I also told her that the culture and food of my town were closer to that of the neighboring country, which made me all the more nostalgic.

Katarina, who apparently loved eating and appreciated my native cuisine, said that she wanted to visit my hometown.

I told her of how far that was, and her expression changed to one so dejected that you’d think the world was coming to an end.

Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but feel pity for her, so I told her that I’d share some rice with her when my mother sent it to me. She rejoiced at that, and for some reason started genuflecting in front of me with her eyes filled with sparkles. I’d been thinking this for a while, but Katarina was really an unpredictable girl.

“Thank you so very much!” she then said, bowing deeply. At least she wasn’t genuflecting anymore, but still, a noble being so grateful for sharing some rice was weird.

I didn’t want her to feel so indebted to me, so I told her that I was really just growing homesick myself, and that I’d have that rice sent to me anyway.

“For some reason, when I’m working here on the fields with you, I can’t help but think about my farmer grandma and the others...” I then followed. I’d felt like that for a while now.

“Excuse me, but... does that mean I look like your grandmother?” she said.

That’s no good. I was so relaxed I ended up being too honest.

“No, I mean, yeah, you kinda do, but not in looks. Ya kinda got this air ’bout yerself, y’know...?” I tried to explain myself.

“...So I do remind you of her...”

My explanation had backfired.

“But it’s in a good way. Like, yer easy to talk to.”

“Easy to talk to...?”

“Yup. Back home the young’ns all left fer the big city, so the whole place’s chock full of grandpas and grandmas, y’know? Young girls were so rare I ain’t ever had much of a conversation with one. And then I done come here, and there be lots of girls, but I ain’t fond of speakin’ with them. But ya got sumthing ’bout ya, just like grandma back home, which makes ya easy to talk to. And that’s a good thing,” I said, noticing that I’d completely switched to my old accent.

She seemed to be satisfied this time, but she also said that I, too, reminded her of an old man. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“So you don’t like speaking with young ladies... I never noticed, since you seem to be doing that just fine at work,” she then said. I’d talked too much and let her know about another one of my weaknesses.

However, I understood that there was no point in hiding the truth from Katarina, so I told her about the efforts I was making to mask my nervousness, and about how much more tiring it had become since a new girl had been assigned to my department.

I sighed. I grew up surrounded by men and old women, and now that I had a young girl amongst my subordinates, every day was stressful.

“Excuse me, do you mean Maria Campbell?”

So she knew about Maria Campbell. After all, even if it was for reasons opposite to Katarina, she was also famous enough throughout the Ministry that it was no surprise that someone from another department would know her name.

The rumors (which I now knew to be completely false) about Katarina were that she was an entitled noble girl who’d come to the Ministry just to kill time, whereas Maria was spoken of as a talented Light Magic user.

Every department wanted Maria to work with them, but the higher-ups decided that, if she was so talented, she would make a wonderful addition to my team. I wasn’t grateful in the least.

“She is just as talented as they say... but she’s no good,” I honestly said. She was skilled and a fast learner, but she was too much to handle for someone as nervous around girls as I was.

“Wh-Why?! Maria is a very good girl!” Katarina said, her eyebrows slanted all of a sudden.

I asked whether she personally knew her, and she proudly said that she had known her since her time at the academy. I hadn’t known that.

As Katarina said, she was a very good girl, and a kind and talented one at that.

“Are you trying to say that there’s something wrong with my Maria?!” she asked, with a stare more menacing than I’d ever seen before.

It turned out that she really liked Maria, so I had to explain myself properly.

“Please calm down, Miss Katarina. I’m not trying to say that there’s anything wrong with her. I meant that she’s no good for me, since I get nervous when talking to girls. It’s nothing personal,” I explained, shaking my head.

She sounded perplexed that I still wasn’t used to girls after so many years in the capital, and I couldn’t restrain myself. I leaned forward and emphatically explained the heavy burden that a girl-less life had placed on my shoulders.

After catching my breath, I went on to explain the biggest problem I had with Maria. Sure, she was talented and kind, but she was also prettier than any girl I’d ever seen. Even someone used to dealing with girls would feel nervous around a girl so beautiful.

“I agree that she’s beautiful, but isn’t it a problem work-wise if you can’t even talk to her?” Katarina asked.

I told her how, with many years of training, I had learnt to communicate while keeping my voice and expression unchanged. Of course, since she was a newcomer, I had to care for her now that she was in my department, and I actively talked with her about her tasks and frequently checked on her. Obviously, the more I did that, the more exhausted I would become. I knew that I was being too tense around her, but I couldn’t help it.

“All the more reason to do something about it, I think,” she said, and started silently thinking about something.

“I have an idea. I will help you get used to speaking with girls, as thanks for teaching me so much about farming,” she said with a smile that, for some reason, gave me a bad feeling about how things would turn out.

She told me she’d help me with my problem, and then, without explaining what she was actually planning to do, she left.

The very next day, Katarina visited my department and asked to speak with Maria. She was too far away for me to hear what she was saying, but I could sense that it wasn’t good, whatever it was.

Before leaving, Katarina noticed my gaze and gave me a proud, satisfied look. I started feeling even worse about it.

After she had left, I overheard one of my subordinates saying, “The director always looks at the people from the Magical Tool Laboratory so sternly...” My preoccupied stare probably looked like a disapproving one to them.

It was true that I wasn’t particularly approving of that department. They were talented in their own way, but Larna, their director, didn’t care about rules in the least. I couldn’t stand that, maybe because I was envious of how free she seemed to be. As a result, I was sometimes stern with them... but I didn’t hate them.

However, since I had no friends to speak of in this department, I couldn’t do anything about that misunderstanding. And since that didn’t cause any issues with my work, I didn’t care too much about it.

For the first time, I realized that there were many more things about me that I’d never made any effort to improve.

Once I was done with work in the evening, I went to my field despite still having a bad feeling about what Katarina was doing.

I went into the hut and changed into my farming clothes. Just wearing that outfit that I was so used to was enough to relax me. I then grabbed my hoe and left the hut and saw something that, for the second time, made me freeze.

Katarina was standing in front of me... next to Maria.

I had known that Katarina’s smile meant nothing good, and that she was planning to do something terrible, but I had felt safe enough in assuming she wouldn’t go as far as bringing Maria Campbell here. But that girl had a way of betraying my expectations.

I’ve never seen a noble girl so bold and unique... I thought to myself, before coming back to my senses and turning around to run away. However, Katarina, running at an unfathomable speed, quickly reached me and grabbed my arm, asking me why I was running away.

In return, I asked her why in the world Maria was here, and whether Katarina was the one to blame for that. Of course, I was already almost certain that she was...

Katarina explained that she wanted me to get used to talking with Maria, and that the only way to do so was to actually go ahead and do it. What she said made perfect sense, but I didn’t understand why I had to do that in my field.

Her response, that I could only be myself when I was here, once again made perfect sense. She was right, but it was all too sudden. Katarina was really unpredictable.

She then went on to say that she chose Maria because, if I managed to speak openly with her, I would be able to do the same with any girl. That was true, sure, but Katarina obviously understood nothing of how sensitive a man who wasn’t used to girls could be, especially when it came to one so beautiful.

Katarina insisted that everything would be fine and forcibly dragged me back to Maria, who, this time, realized who she was looking at.

“...Mister Lanchester...” she said, surprised.

I noticed what I was wearing, and I hurriedly tried to explain myself. Being in front of a young woman made it so difficult to come up with anything coherent.

While I was still mumbling, Katarina, out of the blue, intervened.

“This is Mister Cyrus’s field. He’s really knowledgeable about farming, and he’s also very skilled with a hoe!” she said, sounding proud. Why was she proud of that? This girl was such a mystery.

Maria, understandably, looked very surprised. Then, Katarina started proudly explaining my background before I managed to cover up her mouth. For some reason, seeing her so pleased about what she was saying made me feel calm, and I decided to continue the explanation myself.

I looked at Maria and told her all the truth about where I had come from.

When I’d done the same to Katarina I still didn’t know her that well, but having to reveal my secret to a subordinate who worked in the same office as me made me feel miserable. However, I had no chance of lying my way out of this situation, and all I could do was wait for Maria to laugh at me.

“You act all high and mighty at work, and this is the truth about yourself?” she could have said. But she didn’t.

“Mister Lanchester, I have nothing but admiration for your beautiful field, and I see no reason to laugh at you,” she said.

That was so unexpected that I stared at her, trying to ascertain whether she was serious, but her blue eyes were not those of a liar.

Looking into them, I realized that, just as Katarina and others had said, Maria Campbell was not only beautiful on the outside, but on the inside as well.

“...Maria Campbell... I’m the one who admires you now,” I said, letting words that I would never utter at work slip from my mouth.

And then, even more surprisingly, Maria asked me whether I hated her. That was so confusing that I ended up panicking slightly.

“H-Hate? Why, I would never...” I started mumbling. But as I stopped to think of what to say next, she opened her mouth once again.

“You see, Maria, Mister Cyrus has always lived in the country, with nobody but old men and women around him, so he isn’t used to talking with young girls. He says that he gets nervous around them, especially cute ones like you, and mfghfgh...”

I forgot about delicacy and shoved a hand over her mouth. Couldn’t she choose her words a little more carefully? Did she have to be this blunt? She really didn’t understand anything about the fragile hearts of men.

“Katarina Claes, could you be any less subtle?!” I said, glaring at her.

Maria, whom I’d been avoiding looking at out of embarrassment, spoke up again. “S-So, does that mean that you do not hate me, Mister Lanchester?” she asked.

I told her that no, I did not hate her, and that yes, what Katarina had said was true. Surely, this time, hearing the truth about me after seeing how I usually behaved at work, she would laugh at me. I nervously waited for her answer, wishing only that my position as her superior would keep her from berating me too much.

“I am so glad...” Maria said with a lovely smile on her face. I couldn’t hide my surprise.

She told me — sounding genuinely happy — that she had feared that I hated her, and so was relieved by the truth. I could tell that I was blushing, and for a different reason than before.

“And I am also happy to be able to speak with you like this, Mister Lanchester, since I do not get the chance to do so at work,” she added, making my face feel even hotter and my chest tighter.

“B-But... aren’t you disappointed seeing how different I am when I’m here compared to when I’m at work?” I managed to ask her despite how nervous and confused I was.

“You are as wonderful here as a farmer as you are as a superior at work, Mister Lanchester,” she said with a smile so cute that I felt my whole body warm up.

She was a very beautiful girl to begin with, but now she looked even prettier. It seemed as if even the air around her was sparkling.

Wh-What is happening to me? Why does my chest hurt like this?

Still dazed, I asked Maria to call me Cyrus when we were here. What had I done? Under normal circumstances, I’d never have said something like that. I felt as if I had a fever.

Yet, Maria smiled once again as she said, “Yes, Mister Cyrus.”

I could hear my heart pounding even faster inside my chest.