I once heard the saying, “If you remain a virgin past 30, you can use magic.”
Of course, it was just a silly joke. However, it seems that if you meet some additional conditions, you might gain a different kind of unique experience instead of magic.
“You said you wanted to date, right?”
I absentmindedly nodded at the voice that came from behind me while walking down the street. But before I could even turn around to see who it was, my vision blurred.
“I’ll send you to the dating sim world you’ve always wanted, so go ahead and date to your heart’s content.”
When I opened my eyes again, I was in the body of a young child.
It seemed that the “dating sim world” I’d heard about last wasn’t just an idle remark. I had numerous enhancements granted to me. First and foremost, there was the “status window” enhancement that let me read others’ stats and thoughts. Upon checking, I noticed that many of the stats had rigid names like Military Power or Administration. A territory conquest-style dating sim, perhaps? Well, how complicated could a dating sim get?
But the more I discovered about these enhancements, the less confident I became.
The enhancements organized hard-to-understand information into clear statistics or numerical data for me to see. That part was fine, even great. The problem was that there weren’t just one or two things to look at—there were way too many categories. Most were inactive because I wasn’t in the right position to access them, but even so, the sheer variety of items made it clear that this was no ordinary territory conquest-style dating sim. Typically, such games focus on heroines and lightly dressed-up strategy elements. The gap between generic units and named heroines is enormous, so the focus is usually on compatibility, skills, and combos—not things like this.
Tax efficiency, production efficiency, trade efficiency, inflation, bonds, military upkeep, budget allocation—on and on it went.
Normally, in a territory conquest-style dating sim, it’s just about income and expenses, right?
I got chills. Something felt seriously wrong.
And soon enough, my ominous premonition turned out to be correct.
Sure, as a dating sim, they’d given me a somewhat unique status. I was a prince of an ancient and prestigious empire. What a glorious title that sounded like. The problem was that this wasn’t a medieval fantasy world. It was smack in the middle of history. An era of upheaval, where one epoch was ending, and another was dawning. The days when a once-dominant empire was declining while a new one—the one that would later terrify all of Europe—was rising.
Many historical turning points had already passed. When coincidences pile up, they become inevitabilities, and repeated outcomes turn into destiny. On every street, despair-filled faces and sighs abounded. The air was so heavy it didn’t take long to realize—everyone, regardless of status, had the specter of collapse looming in their minds.
As I absorbed this atmosphere without filter, I abandoned the thought that this was a simple territory conquest-style dating sim.
Citizens who alternated between joy and despair depending on the latest news. Officials holding grave discussions with tense faces.
Amid people struggling just to get by each day, how long could I afford to remain complacent? Sure, flirting with cute girls sounded fun, but if I died, it would all be meaningless.
At some point, I devoted myself entirely to making the most of the “enhancements” given to me and training my abilities.
But maybe because I was just an ordinary person at heart, my growth felt unbearably slow. Even after pushing my body to its limits for a hundred days straight, my Military Power barely increased by 1. Even the most dedicated scholars, poring over advanced books and countless annotations, could only hope to see Administration increase by 1. It was slow. Far too slow. Time marched on, but the results I achieved were pitiful.
As the final chance to change the empire’s fate drew nearer, my sense of urgency only grew.
And yet, there were those who decided to toy with me in such a desperate situation.
The first was a beautiful maid, rumored to have caught the eyes of many palace servants.
Apparently, she had made some strange bet that involved trying to grab my attention. But seriously, what kind of person thinks it’s appropriate to show cleavage to an 8-year-old? The next day, I sent a letter to the steward, dismissing her from the palace without hesitation. It reduced unnecessary expenses, and she could move on to a new life—a win-win, I thought. Then I focused on training again.
Even though the experience points were painfully slow, the fact that I was making progress kept me going.
After many days of eating, sleeping, and training, I suddenly received an unexpected summons to attend a matchmaking meeting.
This was the second incident.
It might be rude to say, but the girl who was a candidate for my fiancée—someone around my age—didn’t interest me at all. Not that I was boasting about being royalty, but what kind of attitude was that to take in front of a prince with a claim to the throne? Saying something like, “Hmph, I don’t like you at all, but I suppose I wouldn’t reject you as a servant. Be grateful!” She had clearly picked the wrong target for her patronizing. Once again, I promptly advised the steward to sever all ties with her family.
The steward later told me that she cried her eyes out, begging for forgiveness, but honestly, nothing good would come from being tied to a prince of a crumbling empire.
Cutting ties while the connection was still thin was probably for the best—for both of us.
The third issue was with a tutor.
Typically, a tutor should be a seasoned scholar with extensive knowledge. However, I had advised my father, through the steward, to appoint someone more affordable to save even a little of the empire’s finances. Supporting a dying empire required capable talents, but how much would it cost to gather such people? Just imagining it sent shivers down my spine. Although I didn’t know the exact state of the finances, I understood the concept of cost-effectiveness. From that perspective, the often-overlooked existence of women seemed revolutionary and worth considering.
They were cheaper than men and possessed comparable abilities.
It felt like treating people as disposable tools, but in this era, even such an approach seemed progressive and forward-thinking.
“You have much grander ambitions than I expected, Your Highness.”
While women’s rights in the empire were relatively strong, few had ever been granted full access to administrative positions. The tutor must have been referring to that. From this point on, her behavior subtly changed. She would gently approach me to turn the pages of my books for me or stare intently at me during lessons. Frankly, it was incredibly uncomfortable. Worse, the closer she got, the heavier her breathing became—dangerously so, in a way that made me fear for my virginity.
Was this what they called a Tsundere ?
Naturally, I couldn’t let this threat slide. While I still felt the need to save money, this was a case of putting the cart before the horse. Once again, I advised my father through the steward, and the results were immediate. The new tutor, an elderly scholar with a calm demeanor, conducted lessons without hesitation, even if his approach was slightly rigid. I do feel sorry for the previous tutor, but I hope she refrains from dangerous behavior in the future.
Oh, and by the way, she was 23 and already married.
After experiencing such incidents three times in a row, people stopped approaching me altogether.
Of course, as a man, it would be a lie to say I didn’t feel a twinge of regret. However, the results of rejecting all these temptations and dedicating myself to my training were clear. I gained a new “trait” that would accelerate my previously stagnant experience gain.
[Solo Devotion]
You receive growth bonuses proportional to the number of months you’ve remained single.
…They told me to date.
They sent me to this so-called dating sim world to experience romance, and now they give me a skill like this?
Eroge protagonists grow stronger the more they pursue their love interests, but I grow stronger the longer I stay single. The absurdity of it all was palpable. In a way, it might be my own fault. But the era had driven me to this point.
This wasn’t what I wanted. It really wasn’t.
How could I build a harem when the country was on the brink of collapse?
If the other party were ordinary, I wouldn’t even be complaining.
This so-called dating sim world I was sent to wasn’t an idyllic place for love—it was an era of upheaval. A time when one empire was rising while another fell into ruin.
A fledgling power, once a small roaming tribe, had built a massive nation encompassing the Balkans and Anatolia and was now setting its sights on the ancient capital of the thousand-year empire.
And here was the old empire, struggling to survive, making its final desperate stand.
The year was 1412.
The empire’s final turning point was fast approaching.
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