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Episode 21: The Villainess Is Back (XX)
“Since I fixed Hou, please do me one favor. I don’t want to marry that Rodrigo.”
“What?”
“I have a pretty good idea. A way to easily overcome Prince Heaton’s pressure…”
“Kiana!”
Seukali yelled as if it was absurd. He definitely looked angry.
‘Ah… Is it difficult to completely ignore imperial pressure?’
Just as Joshua let out a deep sigh and strode into the office, trying to side with Kiana.
“Kiana, hold on. Just listen to me.”
“Please don’t be angry. I’ve already roughly thought of everything…”
“That’s why I’m mad at you.”
Seukali firmly cut Kiana off.
“You didn’t need to fix Hou to ask me a favor.”
<What are you talking about, Seukali!>
Hou, who had recovered quite a bit and was in the office rather than the greenhouse, widened his eyes and flapped his wings indignantly.
<She did a great thing!>
“Of course that’s a good thing!”
It was a mess. Regardless, Seukali looked straight into Kiana’s eyes and said,
“All you have to say is, ‘I don’t want to marry that bastard.’”
“Yes?”
“Remember. From now on, you just have to say what you want.”
Kiana had a resolute face as she looked at Seukali, but she muttered rather timidly.
“But it’s true that he had engagement talks with Melissa…”
“Do you think if she didn’t become a priestess, she would have been quietly betrothed to Rodrigo?”
Seukali reacted sharply.
Kiana nodded coldly.
“Right, Grandpa… You are surprisingly insightful. If it’s Melissa, she would have rumors of infidelity with numerous men, and the engagement would drag on all year long.”
It was a simple yet detailed prediction, too quick to agree.
Looking at such a Kiana, Seukali slowly said,
“Anyway, just ignore this.”
And he tore up the letter from Heaton.
“…Yes?”
“Besides, it would be difficult to get along with Prince Heaton even if your marriage went according to his will.”
Tossing the fragments of the letter in the trash, Seukali looked at Joshua and asked sullenly.
“Why are you here?”
“Uh… That is…”
Joshua realized he no longer had anything to do in this house.
“I will go.”
So he immediately shut the door and left the office. And after lingering in front of the door for a while, he muttered so loudly that it could be heard even at the back of the office.
“Well, I wonder if someone will see me off…”
The office was silent.
“Anyway, I’m a noble myself, so according to etiquette, I can’t go out alone, right?”
The office was still silent.
“Since Grandpa has bad legs, shouldn’t the younger one come out?”
Eventually, the door burst open.
Kiana came out with an expression that seemed to say many things. She stared at him.
Joshua shrugged his shoulders and said,
“As expected, you couldn’t bear to let me go off alone, so you came out to see me off?”
“What.”
Kiana answered bluntly.
“Why will I walk you out? I’m just going to exercise.”
Joshua laughed.
“Why do I want you to walk me out? I’m just going to exercise.”
“What kind of exercise? Walking exercise? Breathing exercise?”
Weren’t these the same words she spat when he tried to see her off when she came to his house?
It was so cute that Joshua gazed at her a little more.
“What exercise? The exercise of bringing your brother out? Ah, let’s seriously not talk about walking or breathing.”
Kiana glanced at Joshua and replied as she walked straight.
“Constant velocity motion.”
“…….”
“It is motion with constant speed.”
“…If only magic engineering is ruined.”
─➽⊰
An informant brought news of Rodrigo’s marriage proposal to Marquis Cesare’s residence.
“Ragnac.”
Like a painting, Cesare sat resting his chin on his fist and listened to the report, then lazily uttered.
“I can’t pretend not to know the plight of a benefactor. I guess I’m going to go for a walk in the capital tonight.”
“Oh, oh, tonight?”
Ragnac asked with trembling eyes.
“Too… I think you’re in too much of a hurry. You always emphasized that the relationship between you and the princess was ‘a simple relationship where we can only use each other’. But the reason for doing this…?”
“It’s what I was originally going to do.”
Cesare calmly replied and laughed fiercely.
“It’s just a matter of getting the timing right.”
─➽⊰
Joshua climbed into the carriage with an awkward expression.
“It bothers me very much that servants keep looking at my head, so I have to go quickly.”
According to the spy maid, when Joshua left, he said something like, ‘If I come back here, my head is not normal.’
I also felt awkward as I looked at Joshua, who had climbed into the carriage.
It was the first time I saw Joshua since we abruptly parted yesterday because of Peep. In other words, it meant that yesterday’s conversation hadn’t ended properly.
I thought we were like strangers, but the realization came flooding in that it wasn’t to that extent.
Then wouldn’t it be possible to trust a little… a little more than I thought?
As much as the number of letters I didn’t know, as much as the loneliness of the graduation ceremony without a bouquet of flowers…
‘If all of us had joined hands and prepared before the regression, the result could have been different.’
But ultimately, this bean flour family could not cooperate at all, and were struck in the back.
The members of this family had excellent individual abilities, but that was all. We did not have the minimum personality, so we couldn’t overcome the crisis by sticking together as a family.
‘This time, we… We should try to do even a little bit of cooperation.’
Everything could have been a lot easier if I didn’t struggle alone and trusted my family bit by bit.
“Hey, Brother.”
“What?”
“Are you going to look into His Highness the Crown Prince?”
If the reply was uncooperative as yesterday’s, I would try to explain it in more detail.
However, Joshua gave a different answer.
“I thought that the plump prince who ate happily was already dead. But, well, it’s not like I know everything. I’ll investigate first.”
“Huh?”
“For example I… I didn’t even know Hou was hurt like that. I didn’t even know he was sleeping in the greenhouse. Just…”
His eyes sank.
“…I just thought he went somewhere far away to carry out Grandpa’s orders. He often did.”
Well, there was no way that the unfilial grandson, who didn’t even care about his grandfather, would care about his grandfather’s summon.
“And I have no idea when, where, or why he was poisoned so badly.”
“…I guess that’s something that Grandpa would never tell us about.”
Yesterday, I subtly asked why Hou was so hurt, but Grandpa didn’t answer. Hou also immediately shut up on related topics.
“Then, Brother.”
I spoke in a low tone, looking at Joshua.
“Can you also investigate when Hou has not been seen?”
“Well, it’s not that difficult.”
Joshua shrugged his shoulders once and replied indifferently.
“Anyway.”
Then he got into the carriage and looked at me.
“I’m glad the marriage ended well.”
“Did it really end…?”
I let out a sigh and clicked my tongue.
Grandpa’s ignoring solution wasn’t bad. After all, Rodrigo and I weren’t officially related.
But for me who knew the future, it wasn’t a particularly welcome solution.
‘I still don’t know what Prince Heaton is thinking. I don’t have to feel anxious.’
In any case, it was the opinion of the imperial family. They liked a soft refusal with a justification over blatant ignoring.
Even if I made a cause like ‘I don’t like Prince Rodrigo anymore’, it was obvious that it would not work because of what I had done in the past.
If the answer came back as ‘You were so obsessed, but it was just a momentary whim? Let’s take some time and try again’, there was nothing I could say.
So I needed a justification that didn’t even have a little room. For example, such as having a lover.
“Joshua, and…”
I grabbed Joshua and made another request.
“Find someone. Probably in the capital city. I want to meet him, but the sooner the better.”
“Finding people is my specialty. Who?”
“Marquis Cesare Levin.”
“Huh?”
Joshua blinked and tilted his head.
“Why are you looking for that shitty bastard?”
…Shitty bastard?
Ame: y’know it’s gonna be fun when brother calls ml ‘shitty bastard’