I haven’t exactly made my general dislike of MidCin MC’s internal monologuing a secret. But The Secrets He Keeps takes place almost entirely from the suitor’s perspective, and for that alone, it’s definitely really fun. 🙂
An alternate title for Albert’s story is “The Case of the Missing Quill.” Long story short, Albert misplaces a lovely quill that MC gifts him, right smack in the middle of one of MC’s state visits to Stein. Unfortunately for him, MC’s also super easy to watch Al test out the quill. Awkward. The poor guy is reluctant to tell MC for fear of making her sad, but in reality, by being so preoccupied with searching for the missing quill, he’s unable to properly enjoy their time together. Things come to a head eventually, and in the premium ending, Albert fesses up. Far from being angry, MC instead helps him search for the quill, and with the help of an old Wysterian tradition, they in fact find it under his bed. Aww. Albert reaffirms his love for her (“I love you wth all my heart”) and they make up).
I don’t know too much about Albert, but even though he didn’t behave ideally, I thought it was a cute story, with a lovely lesson about the importance of communication!
Personal enjoyment: 6.5/10
Alyn’s route is kind of crazy. It begins with a random side story featuring a missing MC, the orphanage, and a random orphan boy who shows up on MC’s balcony somehow. Also featured in this story: Alyn kabedoning MC (lol), and love advice from Sid. But the main theme of Alyn’s route is love. Or, to be more specific, Alyn’s inability to tell MC that he loves her, using words. I’ve been annoyed with Alyn ever since his terrible Ever After story, so I picked the sweet route, in which Alyn ultimately still finds himself unable to tell MC how he feels. But he has a solution in mind: “I’ll tell you with my body all the things I can’t with my words.” …Turns out MC’s pretty okay with this, haha. And so am I.
Most of Alyn’s route was nonsensical (esp. the orphan part), and I don’t understand his hangups over three stupidly simple words. But I did enjoy the almost-sex scene, fwiw!
Personal enjoyment: 5/10
MC and Giles make for an sexy forbidden love pairing in his route. To make a long story short, a maid overhears them during their usual canoodling session, and Giles is forced to step down temporarily as MC’s tutor to allay suspicions of any romantic relationship and appease the ever-annoying bureaucrats. He keeps all this to himself, but, it works. When confronted for the truth by MC, he (at least in the premium end) reveals everything, which pleases MC. What follows is a gratifying smut scene, featuring, among other things, Giles fingering MC, as well as a bunch of super sexy lines! (“Now that I’m your tutor again, I think it’s time I taught you a few new lessons.”)
I hate the bureaucrats, but Giles is absolutely wonderful in this route. He’s an incredibly attractive character. 🙂
Personal enjoyment: 7/10.
Nico’s route is a story about jealousy. Here, Nico, aka MC’s secret boyfriend/lover, has been tasked by Giles to play matchmaker for MC, by finding her some good husband prospects. Which he does, albeit unhappily – but he tries to keep his jealousy a secret from MC. MC’s none too happy about this setup as well, but for different reasons (“I know we have to hide our relationship and all, but— I thought you’d try a little harder to protest the idea of me marrying someone else”). They eventually talk it out, and the route ends with a surprisingly satisfying foreplay scene, which, tbh, I totally didn’t see coming, given how innocent looking Nico is.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of this route, mostly because I’m admittedly biased against Nico as a love interest, but also because his internal monologuing is almost as annoying as MC’s. He spends a fair amount of time angsting over whether it’s ethical to use ghost stories to get closer to MC, for example…
Personal enjoyment: 3/10
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