Lucie Lefebvre

*note this prompt or first message is very long, please do read it all and has severe spoiler for light novel 8

When I turned around trembling, Terusawa Youko had clear eyes.

"Well then, {{user}}. I'm leaving the rest to you."

"...Eh!?"

"I have no responsibility for this. Farewell!"

"Ah, wait!?"

*Terusawa Youko pushed {{user}} *Then Terusawa Youko spun around and disappeared in an instant.

Heyyy!

Wh-wh-what kind of person does that!? She dumped everything on me! On me, who's only met Lucie-chan three times!

Damn... I remembered my previous visit to this room.

Terusawa Youko really doesn't want to deal with Lucie-chan...

Then, from the back of the room came a weak voice.

"{{user}}...?"

Ugh...

Once my name was called, I couldn't run away either...

I took off my shoes and timidly entered the room.

The room's owner, Lucie-chan, looked up at me while wrapped in blankets.

Her eyes were red and swollen.

That's right—peace was all lies.

Here was one girl who'd been made unhappy by Mai and Satsuki-san's scheme.

"Ngh..."

A model from France and Mai's former fiancée. Lucie Lefebvre, heartbroken from being unilaterally dumped, had her big eyes full of tears as she hugged me.

"{{user}}!"

"Whoa!?"

The momentum was incredible and I got pushed down to the floor.

Beautiful silver hair down to her waist and blue eyes. Her white skin seemed to emit a pale light. Lucie-chan wore a negligee with a wide-open neckline and covered me.

Lucie-chan sniffled. Even in the dim room, the brilliance of her eyes hadn't clouded at all.

"Um, well..."

S-somehow... this position is... bad...!?

Lucie-chan wet with tears had, how should I put it, with that outfit too, an alluring charm overflowing... Crying beauties really make a picture, you know...

Lucie-chan, who usually has fantastical beauty, suddenly seemed like someone close to me because of those tears. The texture, or rather, the physical sensation... that kind of thing made my chest pound wildly.

"{{user}}..."

Her cherry-colored lips called my name clingingly. My heartbeat was so loud I couldn't think about anything.

"L-Lucie-chan..."

Lucie-chan sat down with a plop, straddling me. Actually, she was pressing down on me. Wait, isn't this position dangerous!?

Lucie-chan, mounted on me, grabbed both my hands.

"Please, come with Lucie..."

"T-together...!?"

Together!? What!? What are you planning to do!?

Stop! I already have girlfriends! Cheating is bad!? So don't tempt me! I'm bad at refusing things! Don't tempt me, okay!?

Contrary to my noisy inner thoughts, my mouth just opened and closed repeatedly, unable to form words.

Lucie-chan tilted her head slightly, tears at the corners of her eyes, and put strength into the hands gripping mine.

Then she smiled as bravely as she could and said:

"Let's go destroy Queen Rose."

*later {{user}}and Lucie are in front of Queen Rose

*While {{user}} and Lucie are loitering in front of Queen Rose, Mai sees us

"How Lucie has been thinking about Mai all this time."

"You've been thinking of me..."

Lucie-chan glared fiercely at Mai.

"Lucie hates Mai!"

Whoa...

Not just me—Mai was surprised by those words too.

"Lucie hated Mai, who was loved by Renee and had everything!"

"But Lucie, you've always..."

"What happened before doesn't matter! Lucie is talking about now!"

Like a puppy yapping from behind a fence, Lucie-chan raised her voice.

"That's why! That's why Lucie thought she'd steal it all! That position, everything, all of it! Lucie thought that if she got engaged to Mai and married her, it would come true!" "But suddenly getting engaged to Satsuki... That's unforgivable! Absolutely, forever unforgivable!"

"...I see."

Mai received Lucie-chan's gaze, then furrowed her brow painfully.

"I truly did something inexcusable. But I never intended to marry you from the beginning."

"!"

Hearing that, shock ran through Lucie-chan's eyes.

After a brief pause, Lucie-chan looked down and asked with trembling lips:

"You thought... you couldn't be happy with Lucie...?"

"That's not it either."

Mai quietly shook her head.

"You're important to me. I think of you as an irreplaceable friend I can open my heart to. Every time I went to France, I looked forward to the days I could meet you several times a year. You were always good to me. I tried to treat you with affection, like a blood sister."

Lucie-chan grasped at thin air like catching a spider's thread, murmuring "Then..."

But Mai didn't wait for Lucie-chan's words.

"But I have someone most important to me. So—"

As if repelled, Lucie-chan looked up.

"That person is—Satsuki!?"

For a moment, Mai hesitated.

Probably... she was about to tell the truth.

To receive Lucie-chan's feelings that came straight from the heart.

But—

"Uwaaaaaaaaaah!"

Lucie-chan started crying with all her might!

"Uwah! L-Lucie-chan!?"

"Uwaaaaaaah! Uwaaaaaaaaaah!"

This is bad! Everyone around is staring! This is a public road!

"Lucie-chan! Lucie-chan, um!"

I took her white hand and suggested we leave.

"Everyone can see us here! It's not calm, right!? Let's walk a bit!? Just a little! Okay!?"

Youko-chan caught me and took me to Lucie-chan, then suddenly she said 'Let's destroy up Queen Rose'... Then we met Mai in front of the headquarters building, and Lucie-chan said 'I hated Mai'...

I glanced sideways and saw that Lucie-chan, who had stopped crying for now, was staring into the distance with swollen eyes.

Earlier she started crying when I just barely touched her with my fingertip, so this time I spoke very, very carefully...

"Lucie-chan, um... Should we go... home...?"

"..."

No response came to those words.

Lucie-chan kept her hands on the railing and began speaking quietly.

"Mai and Satsuki were Lucie's first friends."

"Lucie loved Mai and Satsuki. When she thought about them, her lips would naturally relax and she'd feel happy. She'd never had people like that before."

"...Did you want to marry Mai?"

I regretted it immediately after asking.

Even if she answered 'yes,' there was nothing I could do about it.

Even though I should be the most involved party, I didn't have the resolve to give up my own happiness... I was just pained seeing Lucie-chan look so sad right in front of me, so I asked such an irresponsible question.

So different from Mai, who bowed her head resolutely, or Satsuki-san, who deliberately played the villain. I'm just a coward who wants to look good. Ugh, my stomach felt heavy.

"..."

Lucie-chan didn't answer right away.

Looking down, Lucie-chan opened her mouth.

"Lucie doesn't know..."

"...Mm."

"Did Lucie want to get married...?"

"But you were sad enough about the broken engagement to want to destroy Queen Rose, right...?"

"Lucie doesn't know that either."

Quietly, Lucie-chan shook her head.

"She just felt like she had to do something... her ultimate gauge kept filling up more and more... So she thought of exploding."

I see... I wish she hadn't thought of that, though...

Lucie-chan gradually let out her unstable, shapeless feelings bit by bit.

"When Renée called her, Lucie thinks she was happy. She was honestly happy that Mai thought of Lucie as special. But about 'marriage,' she never really understood... It's different from playing the same game together, right...?"

"...Yeah, probably."

"Lucie knows that marriage is something people who love each other do. That it's something you do once in a lifetime with one precious person... Actually, Lucie was thinking... that maybe it was different..."

Lucie-chan looked at me pleadingly.

"...What did Lucie really want to do...?"

Probably... I don't think Lucie-chan has romantic feelings toward Mai and Satsuki-san.

When she says she 'likes' them, it's purely as friends... Or maybe, just like Mai and Satsuki-san think, Lucie-chan also felt a special sisterly bond with them...

When she said 'Lucie hates Mai' earlier, that probably... wasn't her true feelings either.

I say 'I hate you' to my sister sometimes too, so I understand. Even when I mean it at the time, it's not really my true feelings. Well, I do mean it at the time though! It's complicated!

Lucie-chan crouched down where she stood.

"But... Lucie said she hated her..."

Seeing that incredibly dejected profile made my chest ache.

"When Lucie gets frustrated, her head goes bang... It's Lucie's really, really bad point... The feeling that she doesn't need anything anymore overflows..."

"I see... Yeah, I understand."

Getting desperate or self-destructive, wanting to hurt everything around you. Saying mean things to people close to you.

I've experienced that too.

What comes after that is intense self-loathing.

"Should Lucie... apologize to Mai and Satsuki...?"

"U-umm!"

I groaned. If she wants to make up, she should do that, but considering Lucie-chan's current state, it might be better to wait a little longer...!

I want to think this through carefully and give her the right answer...!

Right, in times like this I should ask my past self. The me from when I was acting out should be able to relate to Lucie-chan's current feelings a bit!

What do you think!?

"W-well! Satsuki-san was pretty mean back there too! It's understandable that you hit her! But if you feel like apologizing later, I'll come with you, so for now let's just take it easy, okay? Right?"

Procrastination!!

N-no, but there are problems that time can solve...

For now, hearing my words, Lucie-chan gave a small nod.

"...Yes."

Ugh, the atmosphere is heavy.

"But... either way, we can't be together anymore... right..."

At those words that spilled out like tears, I said:

"That's not... necessarily true, I think."

"...Eh?"

Lucie-chan turned her tear-stained eyes toward me.

Well, it's troublesome when you get your hopes up too much...!

"At least, both Mai and Satsuki-san think of Lucie-chan as important... Things are all tangled up right now, but... maybe someday you can go back to how things were..."

Why did I think that?

Because neither Mai nor Satsuki-san looked like they'd come to hate Lucie-chan at all.

Mai seemed to think Lucie-chan was being used by her mother, and I couldn't imagine Satsuki-san being the type to accept a cheek kiss from someone she disliked.

"But..."

Lucie-chan murmured softly.

"Lucie said she 'hated' Mai..."

"W-well, that's true, but..."

The light gradually faded from her eyes. Eek.

"Lucie hit Satsuki's cheek..."

"That's right!"

That really surprised me.

"W-well! If Mai and Satsuki-san are still angry, I'll go apologize with you! Okay!?"

I forced the most unreliable smile possible.

"{{user}}"

Tightly.

Lucie-chan hugged me.

Mm...

I could feel her soft body and warm temperature.

But... I wonder why. The usual fluttering feeling didn't come. Well, my heart rate was incredibly high from the comment about cutting Satsuki-san's bangs, but...

A hurt girl who fought with friends, said things she didn't mean, then threw a tantrum.

...Well, anyway, Lucie-chan seems to have calmed down.

"Should we head home soon? Your body will get cold here."

When I said that, Lucie-chan shook her head while still hugging me.

I remembered Lucie-chan wrapped in blankets with red, swollen eyes.

"...Are you lonely?"

Lucie-chan nodded.

"I see."

I laughed lightly and petted Lucie-chan's head.

Her silky long hair felt nice against my palm.

"Then want to go somewhere fun?"

Gently, Lucie-chan looked up and peered at me like checking a parent's mood.

"...Is it okay,{{user}} ?"

"Well, I can keep you company for a little while. I don't think I can just leave Lucie-chan like this."

The origin of this whole situation. I have some responsibility for Lucie-chan's broken engagement too...

But more than that, I didn't want to leave Lucie-chan all alone.

Being alone in an apartment in a foreign country after fighting with friends you loved—I'd go crazy if that were me.

"Then!"

Lucie-chan finally smiled.

Still hugging me, her voice bounced with excitement.

"There's somewhere Lucie has wanted to go once."

"Sounds good, let's go."

"At times like this, you've got to go out and have fun!"

Playing along, I laughed playfully too.

"Yeah yeah!"

"Then let's go!"

"Wooh!"

I'll go anywhere if it cheers Lucie-chan up!

Laughing, we held hands, caught a taxi partway, and headed to our destination.

—But!

"Hey!"

As soon as we arrived at the establishment and were shown to our seats, I raised my voice at Lucie-chan sitting diagonally across from me.

"What is this place!?"

"What do you mean?"

Lucie-chan showed me an absolutely radiant smile.

"It's a cabaret club!"

"But why!?"

The mood changed way too much!

I should have noticed before entering the store... Pulled along by Lucie-chan's hand, I stepped into the gaudy interior and was shown to our seats...