Oh?! What’s that next to the bushes?!
I saw the monkey standing next to some bushes and ran towards it at full speed. I slid on the ground with a shout, managing to catch the animal between my hands.
“Ha! I’ve finally got you, you troublemaking monkey! Give my barrette back!” I said, staring at my prisoner as menacingly as I could.
And then, it tossed my barrette over the bushes.
“Hey! What did you do that for?!”
I let go of the monkey and waded through the thick foliage, getting to the other side. Luckily, I found my barrette lying on the ground. I picked it up and was relieved to see that it wasn’t broken. Still, that monkey was a real nuisance. I even considered complaining about it to the Biomagic Department.
At least I got my barrette back. Now, to find my way back...
“Whaaa?!” I screamed, surprised at what I saw in front of me. It was a beautiful vegetable field. “Wh-Why is such an amazing field in a place like this?”
It had ridges, seedling supports, and even nets to keep the birds away. This was no amateur field — it was the work of a professional. It looked like the proper fields I’d visited back in the day. The one I’d made at home would pale in comparison.
But why is this here? This is the Magical Ministry, right? Is it a Ministry field? I thought to myself, staring at it.
Some distance from where I was standing, there was a small hut. Its door opened loudly and someone came out of it wearing a hat and work clothes and holding a hoe. That person must have been the one tending to the field.
“Excuse me,” I said, walking towards the hut, relieved that I had finally found someone that I could ask for directions.
Hearing my voice, the person in front of me looked up, and I could now see the face that was previously hidden by the large hat.
“...Uh?” I said, so shocked that I couldn’t move any further. I knew that face. It was...
“Director Cyrus Lanchester...”
The words slipped from my mouth as I stared at him. He fidgeted around for a bit, and then, straining his voice as if to camouflage it, he said, “That’s not me.”
“What?!”
“I said that’s not me. I’m not Cyrus,” he said coldly, turning his face away from me.
Nope. Nope. He doesn’t have his usual glasses, sure, but these green eyes, brown hair, and handsome face are Cyrus Lanchester’s.
I wasn’t that good at remembering faces, but I’d last seen him only two days ago.
“...But, you look just like...”
“I said that’s not me!” he said with such determination that it sounded like the truth... But he’s even trying to hide his face. He’s definitely Cyrus.
Maybe he was embarrassed being seen with work clothes and a hat, since he was always nice and tidy in his uniform in front of people. Nobles didn’t usually dress like this, and I remembered that Mother once told me to “change out of those unsightly clothes.” Now she was so used to it that she didn’t say anything anymore, but still.
Hm... The smart thing to do here is just pretend he’s someone else and ask him for directions. But then again, this is a rare chance to talk with Cyrus... I was thinking about the best course of action when a majestic row of asparagus caught my attention.
Asparagus? That’s the sign of a real farming pro.
“Wow, you can tell that they’ll be delicious just by looking at them,” I said, unable to contain my excitement at the superb vegetables in front of me.
“What?! Duke’s daughter Katarina Claes understands the beauty of this asparagus?!” Cyrus replied, matching my excitement.
“Yes! I’ve never seen ones with stalks this big and tips this straight! They’re perfect!”
“I know, right? Yer good with them greens, ain’t ya? When they’ve got them tips all plump like that it’s when they’re the yummiest! And take a gander at the... Ah...” Cyrus had started sounding like a bumpkin in his enthusiasm. He caught himself, stopped speaking, and sighed while putting a hand on his forehead.
“Lady Katarina Claes,” he said with his eyes closed, “there is something I would like to discuss with you.”
He had gone back to his usual cool way of speaking, and his expression was grave and intense.
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
And then he started to explain.
Cyrus Lanchester was born as the second son in a land-owning, high-ranking earl’s family. However, their land was located in the middle of nowhere, far from the capital, and the rank of earl didn’t hold the value it once had. His family had lost all of their fortune long ago, and they now lived in the country and tended to the fields just like all other farmers.
Cyrus was no exception. Despite being born a noble, he was raised as a peasant. He grew up sweating in the fields, and since that was what his whole family was doing, he never thought twice about it.
However, when he turned ten, he discovered that he had magical ability and would have to attend the Academy of Magic. In order to prepare for his new life surrounded by nobles in the faraway capital, he studied as hard as he could, even learning about the etiquette and manners of high society all by himself.
He entered the academy armed with a reasonable amount of knowledge under his belt, but he still couldn’t fit in with the other nobles and the way they talked and acted. His studies had taught him about them, but, as someone raised as a lowly farmer, he could not become one of them. He would sometimes accidentally revert to his peasant speech patterns when he was caught off guard — another reason why he dreaded even speaking with his classmates.
Cyrus kept to himself, never making any friends, trying his best not to slip up, and studying as diligently as possible. This lifestyle led him to great academic achievements and, eventually, to being scouted by the Magical Ministry.
Tired of having to fit in amongst the capital’s nobles, he actually wished to go back home to work on the fields. But partly because his parents had been very happy about his potential job, and partly because he wanted to send money back to his younger brothers and sisters, he ended up accepting the Ministry’s offer.
Even at his new job, he remained his strict, friendless self. People started calling him things like “the lonely genius,” making it even more difficult for him to show his true self to others. He had kept playing his role as a strict, dedicated department director... until, a few years ago, he couldn’t take it anymore.
Cyrus eventually pushed himself too hard, and his body just couldn’t keep up. The doctor told him that his collapse could have been caused by psychological stress rather than physical illness, and he was suggested that he find a hobby he could enjoy in his free time to forget about work.
Cyrus chose as his hobby what had been his work for many years before joining the Academy of Magic: farming. He created a field for himself in an area within the Ministry where people hardly ever set foot.
He soon realized that working on his field after work or on days off was relaxing, making him feel happier and even increasing his productivity at work. And so, he had been tending this field all of this time as a hobby.
After telling me this very long story, which covered most of his life, Cyrus let out a deep sigh.
“Now you know what I’m doing here. After you saw me like this, I knew I could not lie to you... But please don’t tell anyone about it,” he said, looking dejected.
Personally, I thought that keeping a field as a hobby was a wonderful idea. If anything, I was just impressed by how good he was at it, but I understood why he wanted to keep it a secret. After all, the difference between Cyrus’s public image within the Ministry and his real self was huge.
“I won’t,” I said, and his face sprung up, making his eyes, hidden behind his frameless glasses, meet mine.
Oh! I have an idea...
“...But on one condition,” I added.
Cyrus looked at me, perplexed. “A condition? As long as it’s something legal and within my power... Let’s h
ear it.”
“Let me help you with this field. And, while we are at it, I’d love it if you could teach me what you know about growing tasty vegetables,” I said.
He stared at me with his mouth open.
Did I push it too far?
“Is that not okay...?” I asked, staring at his green eyes.
“...I don’t really mind...” he replied.
Yay! If he teaches me, I’m sure I’ll be able to grow all kinds of delicious veggies!
After agreeing to my request, Cyrus told me how to get back to my department, and I returned.
Since it had taken me so long to come back, my colleagues had started looking for me. As I’d feared, Hart, feeling the responsibility of having sent me on the errand that made me get lost, personally joined the search party and inevitably got lost himself.
Luckily he was found by the time I came back, but I was scolded for running around in a place I wasn’t familiar with, even though it was that monkey’s fault from the start. But I could clearly see how much my colleagues had been worried about me, so I decided to be more careful going forward.
Sora saw me off to the carriage again, and I was so tired from chasing the monkey that I fell asleep as soon as I got inside.
From the next day forward, I started visiting Cyrus every evening right after work. I helped him with the field, and he taught me about growing vegetables. The more he taught me, the more I realized that he was a pro — leagues ahead of an amateur farmer like me. His many years of farming before coming to the Ministry were showing, and I was deeply impressed by his skill.
I need to learn as much as possible so if push comes to shove and I’m exiled, I’ll be able to make a living abroad as a peasant.
I learned about farming with much more passion than I had ever put into my studies at the academy.
Of course, I also did my best at work. It had been around a week since I’d started my job at the Ministry, and Sora and I were slowly being entrusted with more unsupervised tasks.
I still wasn’t very good with paperwork, but when it came to delivering packages and cleaning, I was doing a decent job.
Today the janitor even praised me, saying that I was always full of energy! Heehee!
After I was done with my work, as had now become usual, I went to Cyrus’s field.
“Good evening,” I greeted him after changing into the work clothes that I stored in the small hut near the field. I had come to think of him as my farming teacher.
“Hey,” he greeted me back while cleaning the sweat off his forehead.
Usually he came here later than me, but today he was already here working.
Cyrus, as the director of the Magical Powers Department, the most popular department in the whole Ministry, seemed to be endlessly busy. But he would still come to his field every day, no matter how late it was.
“Isn’t that exhausting?” I’d asked. But he said that on the contrary, being able to work the soil, even if just for a little bit, made him feel much better. He probably used it as a way to relieve stress.
Actually, no matter how tired I was from work, I always found myself overflowing with energy as soon as I stepped onto the field too, so I understood how he felt.
“Mister Cyrus, where should I put these seedlings?”
“Oh, right over there,” he said. His face looked relaxed and peaceful.
During the day when he was doing his Ministry job, he always looked so tense and strict, but now his expression was soft and calm. And lately he had even started using his unfiltered countryside speech sometimes, making him sound much more natural.
He sounded like the old women who used to gather in the field near my childhood friend’s house in my previous life. Hearing him speak like this made me feel at home, so much so that I risked forgetting that I was a noble lady.
“Hey, Miss Katarina, let’s rest for a while and drink a cup of tea.”
“Oh, sure!”
Cyrus’s policy was to rest and drink tea whenever work was almost done. “If you try to push harder, you’ll just get tired and get nothing done,” he had said, and I had promptly written that down on my farming notes.
We sat on a blanket laid out on the grass, sitting on either side of a tray that Cyrus had prepared with tea (green, not black as was the custom for tea parties) and pickled vegetables instead of snacks.
Ah, this is just wonderful.
The first time he served me pickles, I’d been so surprised that they even existed in this medieval Europe-inspired world that I’d ended up stuffing my mouth with them.
Cyrus explained that, in fact, they didn’t exist near the capital, but that they were common where he had grown up and the ones he had served me were homemade by him. I asked him for the details of how to prepare them, but no matter how much I tried, they never came out tasting like his. I still had a lot of trial and error to do.
I ate one of the pickles that I was determined to replicate, enjoying its crunchy texture and pleasantly salty and sour flavor. It was delicious on its own, but I had always eaten pickled vegetables with rice in my previous life. The more I thought about it, the more I craved rice. With pickles as delicious as these topping it, I could devour bowl after bowl of rice.
“Ah, I wish I had some rice,” I said without thinking.
“Rice? Do people also eat rice around here?” Cyrus asked, confused.
“You know about rice?! Wait, first of all, there’s rice here?” I asked him, leaning towards him.
“...Yeah, it’s just like with the pickles. I never see it around here, but we ate it all the time back in the country,” he replied while leaning ever so slightly away from me.
He told me that they ate rice more often than bread in his hometown, and now that he couldn’t get it, he was craving rice too.
“My town’s near the border, so the culture and food resemble the ones in the neighboring country, rather than this one.”
It turned out that the food there was similar to Japan’s.
Ahh, he’s so lucky! I want to go there!
“Mister Cyrus, I want to visit your hometown!”
“Well, it’s a really lovely place, so I wish I could just tell you to come visit it, but... it’s so distant that the fastest carriage around would need four days to reach it from here.”
“...U-Ugh...”
It was on the border farthest away from the capital, even farther away than I had imagined. But... I want to eat rice... Rice...
“Well,” said Cyrus, noticing how shocked I was, “I’ve also been really wanting to eat rice, so I was thinking of asking my mother to send some over. Of course it’ll take some time, but it could be here by next week. You can have some then.”
Cyrus Lanchester, my Lord and Savior! My angel! My only deity! You are so wonderful!
“Thank you so very much!” I said, bowing deeply, but he gestured for me to stop. “But really, doing something like that for me...” I thanked him again.
“No, I’m really just getting homesick. For some reason, when I’m working here on the fields with you, I can’t help but think about my farmer grandma and the others...” he said nostalgically.
“I’m glad,” I said.
I see, I remind him of his grandma, and... Uh?
“Excuse me, but... does that mean I look like your grandmother?”
I was kind of shocked that he didn’t even say farmer sister or something, and instead went straight for grandma.
“No, I mean, yeah, you kinda do, but not in looks. Ya kinda got this air ’bout yerself, y’know...?” He was clearly flustered as he tried his best to come up with an explanation.
But does this even count as an explanation?
“...So I do remind you of her...”
“But it’s in a good way. Like, yer easy to talk to.”
“Easy to talk to...?”
“Yup. Back home the young’ns all left fer the big city, so the whole place’s chock full of grandpas and grandmas, y’know? Young girls were so
rare I ain’t ever had much of a conversation with one. And then I done come here, and there be lots of girls, but I ain’t fond of speakin’ with them. But ya got sumthing ’bout ya, just like grandma back home, which makes ya easy to talk to. And that’s a good thing.”
So he had been trying to compliment me by saying that I was easy to talk to. That was one of the most backhanded compliments I’d ever received.
“Oh, I see. You also remind me of the old man who helped me with my field at home, so I know what you mean.”
We basically saw each other as old people. At least it was reciprocal.
“So you don’t like speaking with young ladies... I never noticed, since you seem to be doing that just fine at work,” I said.
At work he was always calm and collected, even when he was speaking with girls. I even saw him escort one like any other noble would on one occasion, and he didn’t look like he was having any trouble with it.
“Of course. I pay extra attention to hide it when I’m speaking with girls. Can’t have them notice I don’t like doing it,” he said, sounding proud of it.
To be honest, I didn’t think there was anything to be proud of there... If all the girls who swooned at “the intellectual, handsome, wonderful Lord Cyrus” knew about it, they’d be really shocked.
“And now that there’s a girl in my own department, I have to be even more careful...” he said, sighing.
So there were no girls in his department until now... Hm? A girl in his department? Does that mean...?
“Excuse me, do you mean Maria Campbell?”
“Oh, so you knew about her. She’s also famous throughout the Ministry, even if for reasons opposite to you.”
So he was talking about her. She was known as an extremely talented Light Magic user, whereas I was followed by bad rumors... But did he have to say that right in front of the interested party (me)? Maybe Cyrus was too relaxed when working on his field.
That also meant that he was comfortable around me, but it wasn’t exactly flattering. And yet he was always so thoughtful of people during work...
My Next Life as a Villainess Page 6
