Operetta - Prologue

Location: Overseas Townscape

- In the future, several days after the Knights’ coronation ceremony -

Rei: Fufu. I thought the winds in the western countries would be drier than this, but it is just as one would expect from the waterside…

The air is somewhat damp, and the moisture permeating my skin is rather rejuvenating ♪

Ritsu: Hey.

Rei: Wagyah!? Wh-, just why would you kick your beloved Onii-chan’s back with no questions asked, my dear little brother!

I don’t recall raising you to be such a delinquent!?

Ritsu: And I don’t recall being raised by you at all… Well, that’s a back-and-forth we’ve done to death already.

I never thought it’d come to me having to go over this again after you graduated, and overseas of all places.

So, what are you doing here?

I seriously don’t get it… Aren’t you generally only active in Japan? Don’t tell me you came overseas to chase after me.

Honestly, that’d be a real turn-off. Just how much do you like me, you maggot.

Rei: Uuu… It feels like your treatment of me has gone down a rank for the first time in a while…

Even though I thought I repaired my relationship with you during my time as a student and that we made up, even though I love you so much, Ritsu~!

Ritsu: Enough of that.

It’s not like I’m angry at you or anything, and I don’t care about whether you live or die either, it’s simply that everything about your speech and conduct is impossible to understand and annoying and disgusting-

I’m just getting annoyed because I seriously have no idea why you’re here or why you’re even still alive.

Hey, honestly, why won’t you just die already? Can’t you at least live your life more shamefully?

Rei: Uu, I’m being skewered! My heart is being stabbed over and over from every which way...!

...Kukuku ♪ But this pain is dearly nostalgic to me, so it’s not like it doesn’t make me happy.

Won’t you treat your older brother with more kindness, since there’s no one around to see right now...?

Come on~, don’t be bashful! Let me spoil you plenty, just as I did when we were younger ♪

Ritsu: (Ignoring that.) ...Anyway. We just decided to extend our stay by a few days after our coronation ceremony to go sightseeing.

Well, it’s a graduation trip on paper.

Rei: Hmm. That sounds pleasant, maybe we of UNDEAD should have gone on a graduation trip as well. 

Well, Kaoru-kun is basically traveling with me year-round anyway.

Ritsu: If you’re gonna go on trips like that, at least take your pet along with you. Corgi has been so suspiciously quiet ever since you graduated that it’s making me worry.

He’s unusually gloomy, and keeps asking me if I’ve seen Anija lately, and to reach out to him if I did.

Rei: Dog-... Koga isn’t my pet, but he certainly gets lonely if I don’t show my face to him every once in a while.

Well, Adonis-kun is supporting that child properly, so there’s no need to worry ov-

Ritsu: You know, I think there’s seriously something wrong with that side of you.

Anija, you should be more self-aware of your own scale. I feel bad for Corgi.

Rei: ? What do you mean? I apologize, but the sound of footsteps drawing closer diverted my attention for a second there… I didn't quite catch that?

Ritsu: Haa? Footsteps? Don’t try to change the topic by saying weird stuff like…

Err, wawah?

(What the? There’s a bunch of people with TV camera-looking things on their shoulders coming towards us, and they’re a whole crowd!)

(From their looks, they don’t seem to be tourists, but they’re all foreigners that I’ve never seen before… I have no idea why they’re approaching us! I’m scared!)

Rei: ...Ritsu, get behind “me”*.

Ritsu: O-okay. ...Anija, do you know these people? What’s with them?

Rei: Who knows, to be frank I haven’t the slightest idea… But they all seem to be civilized people, so we should be able to find out who they are by speaking to them.

“Hey the~re! Everyone, do you happen to have some business with us?”**

Ritsu: Wah, there it is, Anija’s strangely only-superficially polite textbook English!

Rei: Are you displeased by it? If I put my mind to it, I think I can choose my words wisely and put on my “grandpa-like” character.

But if I do “that” during my first meeting with someone it will only serve to perplex them.

Humans react strongly to even the most trivial deviation from the norm, and depending on how it goes, I might turn into a target of criticism.

“Such” is the meaning as to why our God who art in heaven collapsed the Tower of Babel.

Well, putting that aside.

Ritsu. I was able to somewhat surmise the reason those people approached us from the words I overheard...

But this might turn into a bit of a bother, so it’d be for the best for you to take your leave swiftly.

Before they crowd around us to the point that you can’t move anymore… Got it?

Ritsu: Eh? But, why? Explain yourself properly, “Onii-chan”!

(Hmm? That’s weird, are there people among them who understand Japanese?)

(For some reason they seem to be translating the conversation we had and explaining it to the others around them?)

(And now they’re crowding around us even faster!)

(They seem to be oddly excited, but naturally I haven’t become accustomed to the fast pace of their foreign language yet so I can’t understand it… Seriously, what is this about?)

Rei: ...This is a fiasco. It was a mistake to be opportunistic and come here to see Ritsu’s face while I was working…

And the last nail in the coffin is that I constructed an unreasonable schedule for this and consequently suffer from a lack of sleep.

Good grief, my thinking has really been too naive.

At Yumenosaki I arrogantly played up the fact that I was the eldest, but now that I’m out in adult society I’m nothing but an inexperienced greenhorn… I see that now.

In any case, this isn’t the time for careless introspection. I’ll explain everything in detail later, so get away from here for now… My cute Ritsu.

Leave this to your Onii-chan ♪

Also, let me apologize ahead of time. For I don’t know when I will be able to meet you like this again.

I’m sorry, my little brother. ...I’m afraid this is going to turn into a horribly troubling state of affairs.

Ritsu: ……? …….?

-------------

*Rei purposely uses “Ore” instead of “Wagahai” as his personal pronoun here.

**Here, Rei speaks English but it’s of course written in Japanese in the game, and his personal pronoun is written as “Watashi”.