Saving and Loading an Impossible Route [ONESHOT]

ONESHOT

However, this time, Luverne made plenty of preparations. For one, she made sure she and the second prince were never engaged in the first place, and although Luverne did meet him once as a marriage candidate, that was their only meeting, and the role of Arnold's fiancé was passed to someone else. For two, Luverne, unlike the original, was aware of her surroundings, and joined the crowd to make way for the carriage.

In this way, Luverne's first encounter with the royal siblings was safely avoided.

《Wait. Stop the carriage.》

Or not. The cool voice that sent the command came from, not the second prince, but rather the crown prince Luke Bran Gheurstrat. The carriage promptly stopped near Luverne, and the carriage door opened, revealing the royal siblings inside, donning the black and blue uniform. They both had golden hair and golden eyes, although one looked intimidating, while the other looked foxy.

《Aha. I knew I saw a familiar face.》

Arnold commented upon seeing Luverne in the middle of the crowd. Luke ignored his remark and faced Luverne with a stern face.

《Pleasure to see you, Lady of Vernas. I've heard of your exploits in your duchy, and I couldn't help but wish to speak with you. If you don't mind, how about a chat while you ride with us?》

...What.

Luverne did not expect this turn of events. She properly cut off any relationships she may have had with the royal family, and while she did clean up an underground society in her father's territory to clear up any route with another target, apparently that exploit caught the eye of the crown prince, which she didn't want. And so, now that it's come to this, there's only one way out of it.

《...Load State. 04.05.08.08:47:33.》

After she finished listing the coordinates to her time reversal abilities (loading states), the world froze. Everyone, everything around Luverne stood frozen in time, all while Luverne herself moved freely.

《Didn't think I had to load that soon.》

Not long after, the world began to move again, but in reverse. Luke and Arnold went back into their carriage, and the horse-drawn vehicle moved backward, the crowd that moved to the sides returned to the unorganized jumble of new and continuing students alike, each donning the black and blue uniform, all walking in reverse motion.

Luverne also made her way back to the place she originally was at when she made the save state, but unlike everything else around her, she was moving normally. Only when she was doing the exact same thing she was doing when she made the save state, would the world return to normal. So, just like when she made the save state, Luverne took out the pen and paper she used to write down the time of the save, which was now blank just as it was before the save, and stood the same way she did when she saved.

Then, time returned to normal. Luverne wrote down the time of the save again and put the pen and paper back into her pocket. She thought she was safe by just mixing with the crowd before, but now she knew better.

Luverne took a step forward again. And just like last time, not even a second later,

《Make way, make way!》

You already know what's going on. Luverne moved over to the side, but unlike before, she didn't stop to look at the carriage, instead continuing on to the academe. It may have been rude, but to be fair, the nobleman only said to "make way", not to "behold". What's so wrong with continuing on while making way for the carriage? In this way, it would also be hard to see Luverne's face from the carriage, and the crown prince wouldn't just stop the carriage upon seeing what looks like Luverne from behind without making sure it was really her.

In other words, it was a perfect strateg—

《Wait. Stop the carriage.》

Oh, c'mon.

《Load State. 04.05.08.08:47:33...》

Time reversed once more, and once Luverne was ready, time resumed. Seeing as playing onlooker and ignoring the situation didn't work, Luverne stopped to rack her mind for a moment before stepping into the gates. To the others passing by her, she probably looked strange.

《Make way, make way!》

Startled, Luverne quickly joined the crowd in moving aside. She knew it was the real world, and that her actions didn't actually define what would happen, but seeing the first event happen before taking step into the game's settings was strange for her who's seen the opening scene thousands of times before.

Unfortunately though, Luverne hadn't come up with a plan to avoid the royal siblings yet. She opened her mouth to load state once again, but then she realized that the carriage carrying Luke and Arnold passed right by her without stopping.

...Interesting. So if I'm not there when an event occurs, it'll skip it entirely?

Although she's played through the game hundreds of times, although she's already used her save and load cheat multiple times after her reincarnation, this is the first time she's experiencing the game story as a real person, Luverne Vernas, with real events that happened coincidentally instead of just merely following a set path.

Yet strangely, despite the only difference being whether Luverne was or wasn't past the gate, the difference in the event was huge. To test her hypothesis, Luverne loaded state a few more times. Each time she entered the gates, the carriage would stop upon seeing her. However, if she didn't enter the gates, the carriage would ignore her.

《Load State. 04.05.08.08:47:33.》

Satisfied with the results of her experiments, she reversed time yet again. As usual, everything around her began to move in reverse.

Except for one thing, one person.

《Oi, you—》

The voice that came from the only other person apart from Luverne moving normally in this reversed time. He had a slightly intimidating voice at first, but then he cut himself off abruptly. His imposing figure quickly shrunk, and his menacing eyes turned melancholic.

《...Luvie?》

The voice belonged to Millford Chance, Luverne Vernas' childhood friend. The Impossible Route character that, no matter how much her past life tried, couldn't romance despite trying everything. Originally, he was just Luverne's childhood friend, and nothing more, but to this Luverne, he was the love of her life.