My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 4

by Satoru Yamaguchi

  Katarina...!

  ★★★★★★

  “!”

  As I heard what sounded like a cry of agony, I flew out of my bed.

  Sunlight was already flooding in through the windows. For an instant, I panicked. This was a strange place that I didn’t recognize! But I quickly recognized it as the inn we had stopped at for the night yesterday. In the other beds of the room, Maria and Larna were both still asleep.

  I felt like I’d had a terrifying dream. I wiped away beads of sweat from my forehead. I felt like I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I left the room.

  Although it was still very early in the morning, the people who lived in this town were already up and about. I could hear their voices from outside the inn. The rural sights that greeted me as I looked out of a window reminded me of my home in my previous life.

  As the nostalgia washed over me, I decided to step outside for a little bit, still dressed in my pajamas. The smell of the sun and the fields tickled my nose. I felt myself finally calming down a little, despite the terrifying dream I’d had. I stood for a while, looking out at the scenery.

  “Katarina?” A voice called out to me from behind.

  I turned around and saw that it was Jeord. The normally impeccably-dressed prince seemed like he wasn’t entirely ready for the day — he looked a bit unkempt. But despite this, he exuded a unique, seductive aura. As expected of Prince Jeord.

  “Good morning.” Although I was dressed in my pajamas, I did my best to offer Jeord an elegant greeting... only for him to respond with a surprised expression.

  “Katarina... what happened to your head?” he replied.

  “Eh?” What happened to my head? Jeord smiled tensely as he slowly, hesitantly reached out to my head.

  “These are stuck in your hair...” Jeord said, holding out something in his hand.

  I peered at the object, only to find that it was none other than one of the stickseeds I’d found yesterday. Eh?! Stickseed? I ran my hands through my hair in a panic, only to find that the prickly seeds were indeed scattered all over my head.

  Why would something like this...? I thought I remembered all of the seeds I’d found yesterday being stuck onto the bear. And then the bear was trying desperately to remove them...

  “...Ah!” That’s right... what happened to the stickseeds that got stuck on that Ugly Bear, then? Come to think of it, Maria did offer to throw the seeds away, only for the bear to respond with a gesture that seemed to suggest, “Oh, I’ll do it myself.” But I didn’t remember seeing the bear toss the seeds away.

  In other words... the stickseeds in my hair were most likely... the work of that Ugly Bear!! Ugh! Just when I served it its just desserts, and it returned the favor!?

  I’ve been had! The bear strikes back! I’ve been too careless! I stomped the ground savagely in my rage. Jeord merely stood still, regarding me with a vague gaze as I clenched my teeth, stomping my foot at odd intervals.

  My anger subsided after a while, and Jeord began to remove the stickseeds from my hair. I had tried to remove them myself, of course, but I couldn’t see where the seeds were and I was never good at this sort of thing, so I couldn’t quite get them off at all.

  Jeord, on the other hand, always had an eye for detail and was quite dexterous with his fingers. His smooth, long fingers weaved through my hair, and soon all the seeds were gone. “There you go, Katarina. I have removed every last one,” Jeord said, before patting me several times on the head.

  “Thank you very much,” I said, blushing for reasons unknown even to myself.

  “You are most welcome, Katarina. On another note... whatever are you doing out here, at this time of the day?”

  “Ah, yes. Well... I had a terrifying dream and woke up...”

  “A terrifying dream, you say?”

  “Yes. I don’t really remember it very well... but it was really unsettling.” Just recalling what little I could remember of the dream sent shivers down my spine. I folded my arms, holding myself reflexively.

  Jeord’s expression clouded as he saw this. “...As I thought. Of course you would be worried in some capacity.”

  “?”

  “While he is a most troublesome opponent in my eyes, he is an important member of your family to you, no doubt. Originally, I had planned to be a little more aggressive in my approach during this trip... but I suppose I should restrain myself.”

  “?” I didn’t understand what he was talking about.

  Upon witnessing my confusion, Jeord smiled at me, looking somewhat lonely. “And then there is that, too... you had finally noticed, and then you went and forgot all about it, it would seem. And so, Katarina... I suppose this is enough, for now.”

  Jeord suddenly reached out to me, pulling me in with both his arms. Before I knew it, he was hugging me tight. It was very surprising and sudden, yes, but I felt my shivering eventually cease as I was held in his strong, warm arms.

  Ah, I see. He’s trying to comfort me. He really is a gentle person at heart. In fact, I was surrounded by gentle and kind people. I really was blessed.

  For a while, I remained in Jeord’s embrace... only to be suddenly removed from it. Hmm? From what I could see, Jeord hadn’t let go of me intentionally. I guess someone had pulled me away.

  “Ah, good morning, Prince Jeord, Lady Katarina,” said Sora, who was now suddenly standing next to me.

  “...Sora. Surely you could overlook something like this, no?” Larna said, a somewhat pained expression on her face as she did so.

  Sora merely grinned as he offered a response. “Merely doing my job.”

  “I feel like there is more to that, perhaps,” Jeord said as his gaze swept over Sora.

  But Sora’s smile didn’t falter as he said, “Nothing of the sort, Prince Jeord.”

  As usual, I had no idea what the two of them were going on about. But soon my shivers had gone away, and now... I was hungry.

  Upon hearing the loud rumbling of my stomach, the two of them smiled wryly, and I headed back to my room.

  When I came back, I changed my clothes and then headed for the dining area. I sat down for my breakfast, and after having my fill, promptly looked into the matter at hand — finding the culprit who had put the stickseeds in my hair. As expected, it was none other than Ugly Bear.

  The bear had an excuse for this, claiming that it had accidentally spilled the seeds on me after gathering them into a pile. That was a lie, of course. For the record, the bear couldn’t speak; it just gestured to explain the chain of events.

  No one else knew about the bear’s true nature, so they all believed it! As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just declare, “It’s a lie, a complete lie! It’s obvious that the bear did it on purpose!” After all, I had put the seeds on the bear with a similar lie to begin with.

  In the end, the bear and I suffered equally. I was not happy at all about the situation, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.

  And so we all got in the carriage, bear included, and set off again. This was the third day of our journey. Larna soon pointed out that we would reach the kingdom’s rural borders soon. If we kept going like this, we might end up entering the neighboring country’s territory.

  Honestly, I hadn’t expected Keith to travel this far. It was surprising that he’d come all this way. Was Ugly Bear really right? Were we really following in his footsteps?

  In this life, I had never set foot outside the kingdom where I was born, though it’s not like I had in my previous life either. Japan was an island, after all. Anyway, the kingdom I’d been reincarnated into was large and developed, so I’d always stayed within its borders. Jeord and Alan were a different story. They had been on many diplomatic trips abroad, though usually the other kingdoms would come to us, given that our land was the largest.

  If we kept our pace, I would soon be on my first cross-country trip of this life. Although they were foreign kingdoms, people there spoke the same language and had a similar culture, so it wouldn’t b
e that different. And unlike in my previous life, we didn’t need a passport or any documents like that. Even so, going abroad was still something new, and I was excited at the prospect. I wonder what these foreign lands are like?

  At a town some distance before the kingdom’s last settlement on its borders, Sora decided to go out on his own again to gather information.

  “I’d like to go too!” I said in response. Up until now, I had been paired with Larna. From our previous conversation, it sounded like Sora’s way of life was like a spy’s, the kind of thing you’d see in the movies. I wanted to see it in action at least once.

  But when I made my declaration, Jeord immediately said, “I shall accompany you, Katarina.”

  I see... Jeord wants to observe Sora’s professional techniques up close as well, huh?

  But Sora was quick to refuse. “In that case, Prince Jeord, please conduct your search in the opposite direction, if you would.”

  Only for Jeord to respond, “In that case, I shall accompany Katarina. Surely you alone would be sufficient to conduct a search in said direction.”

  “But you see, I am more used to places such as this, and as such, Lady Katarina would be more safe with me.”

  “Is that so? I, however, cannot help but feel that you yourself carry a sense of danger.”

  “Surely you jest, Prince Jeord. I am at least more of a gentleman than you are.”

  “I am thoroughly surprised that you would make such a claim. After all, I have already heard from Katarina the... specifics, of your actions during that incident.”

  Larna, seemingly oblivious to the atmosphere between those two, soon intervened in their conversation (which I didn’t understand at all). “I’m not exactly clear on what you two are talking about, but it’s a waste of time to stand around talking. As Sora says, he is more used to places like this, so Katarina should stay with him on this excursion.” And with that, Larna sealed the deal, without waiting for input from anyone in particular.

  Jeord seemed displeased about this right until the end. “You really do understand, yes? I am Katarina’s rightful fiancé,” he said to Sora. Then he turned to me. “Do be careful from here on out, Katarina,” he said, and then repeated it several times.

  It was all a little too much for me. “I get it, I understand! I won’t get in the way of his questioning, or his work! I won’t become lost either!” I said, puffing out my chest as I did so. Jeord, for some reason, merely responded with a faraway gaze. I wonder why?

  And so Sora and I set off for the small town in hope of finding some information on Keith. Maybe it was because we were a lot closer to the border, but the general feel of the town we were in was very different from the last one. Since it was so small, there weren’t many shops. But there were all kinds of plants that I’d never seen before. My eyes wandered over the foreign elements of the architecture of the buildings around us. I was ogling at my surroundings without even realizing it.

  When he noticed this, a mild smile flitted across Sora’s face. “Is all this new to you?”

  “Yes, everything is new to me! Each of the towns we’ve been to up until now has had something new, and this one has all kinds of things I’ve never seen before. After all, I’ve never been outside the capital before, so a trip like this is really different for me.”

  “Come to think of it, you did mention somethin’ like that.” Sora started laughing softly.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Ah, well see, I just never thought we’d actually go on a trip like this, you know?” Sora had reverted back to his normal way of speaking.

  Now that he mentioned it, I remembered listening to Sora’s stories about his experiences abroad during that time I spent with him. And now it had become a reality, and so soon!

  “We live in different worlds, I thought. Thought we could never be together like this, heh.” Just like he had said back then! And I responded the same way I had before.

  “What are you talking about? We’re here in the very same world, you and I.”

  “Yeah. Here we are, taking a trip like this together after all. And this is thanks to you, too." Sora withdrew a familiar-looking object from his pocket. It was the blue gemstone brooch that I had given him before.

  “Wow! You held on to it all this time...” It was just a souvenir I’d bought during the school festival, and the brooch wasn’t worth very much, of course. But it made me happy that he was holding on to it like that.

  “Of course I did. It’s a special stone, right? The color of your eyes and mine. I’ll treasure it forever.” Sora smiled at me — an innocent smile, like the one I saw back then. Compared to the refined smile he’d had plastered on his face during this whole trip, this suited him much better.

  “Haha, you see Sora, this smile suits you a lot better than that polite one you’ve had on your face all this time!” I said.

  Sora froze in response, smile and all, and then suddenly took me into his arms.

  “?” Huh? What’s this all of a sudden? A hug? Hmm. Come to think of it, something similar happened before.

  Hmm... could it be? Sora is foreign, after all. Is this some sort of foreign greeting?

  Sora merely smiled at me again as I stood, rooted to the ground. His smile was a little more reserved this time, though. “You really are something, huh? How do you have such a knack for reeling in the guys, left and right...”

  Reeling in? Hmm? Reeling in... fish? How did we end up talking about fishing?

  “...And you really don’t have your guard up at all. It’s no wonder Prince Jeord is so worried about you.” With that, Sora released me from his hug. “Honestly, I’d like to keep whiling the time away with you like this... but it would be a pain if Prince Jeord found us, huh. Shall we go on with our questioning then, my lady?”

  “Ah... okay.” I didn’t really understand how this conversation had turned out this way, but I suppose he’d meant it as a greeting, right? And what was all that about dumplings, again? Well... I guess everything’s fine.

  After that, we headed into the town, wandering about and searching for any information on the whereabouts of Keith.

  Although we did make several rounds through the town, no information was to be found here either, as expected.

  “Hmm... If there really is nothing here either, we might really enter foreign territories during our search...” I said, with just a little of my excitement showing.

  “Aren’t you having a little too much fun?” Sora replied, shooting me a surprised look.

  Ugh... I’ve been found out! I decided to tell Sora up-front about my excitement about entering a foreign land.

  But when he heard what I had to say, Sora’s expression changed; he seemed troubled. “But... it’s not all fun and games, you know.”

  “Why? After all, you told me so many interesting things when I was listening to your stories back then, right?” Back during the kidnapping incident, I had heard all kinds of stories from Sora about his adventures in foreign lands. As I had never been abroad before, I was swept up in it all. It made me want to take a little trip myself.

  "It is true that foreign lands have all sorts of things this kingdom doesn’t. Interesting things. But on the flip side, there’s a lot of dangers too.”

  “Dangers...?” I couldn’t imagine what kind of dangers he was talking about.

  “Well ya see, the kingdom you were born in — the Kingdom of Sorcié — is known for its peace and order. There’s a lot more crime in other lands.”

  “Eh? Really?” The area where I’d lived in my previous life was known for its peace and quiet too. It was a rural part of the country. Did we have any crime there? Hm... Tanuki stealing from gardens, maybe?

  The Kingdom of Sorcié, where I’d been reincarnated, was that way too. I was lovingly raised in Claes Manor, and usually had servants with me when I went to towns outside the capital. So I had never come into contact with any devious crimes. Maybe that was why I never really thought much about safety.<
br />
  When I said as much to Sora, he looked even more surprised. “Huh? But I used the Dark Arts on you, ya know? And I kidnapped you. That’s a crime, right?” He started muttering under his breath to himself, but then regained his usual composure. “Well... I suppose we can chalk this up to your perceptions being completely out of whack...”

  Huh? What’s this about my perception, now?

  “...Anyway, the surrounding lands can’t hold a candle to Sorcié when it comes to things like law and order. Especially Le Sable, the nation we’re closest to. It’s known as a lawless hell-hole. Certain things are outlawed on the surface, but the slave trade is huge there.”

  “...Slave trade...” Since I was raised in a peaceful environment, those were words I had only heard in books. It was a lot to take in, and for a while, I fell silent.

  Sora seemed even more troubled. “It happens in all the other countries. In fact, it’s very normal in the place I was born.”

  “...” Born and raised in peace, I had only heard the interesting tales about foreign lands, so I always thought they’d be interesting to visit. I guess I don’t know anything... I felt ashamed. “...I wanted to rush in head-first without thinking... I feel like an idiot,” I said, hanging my head.

  “You really are honest, huh. But that’s fine, see. If there’s something you don’t know, then all you have to do is to learn about it, right?”

  “Learn if there’s something I don’t know... Yes. Yes, you’re right.” All I had to do was keep an open mind, and I’d learn about all these things that I’d never experienced before. Acting on that idea immediately, I decided to ask Sora about the nation of Le Sable, and also about Noir, the town that we were going to next.

  “As I mentioned, Le Sable is infamous for being lawless. So criminals are really common there. I’ve heard the slave trade is huge there, and is a lot bigger than anywhere else nearby. Noir is a town that sits on Sorcié and Le Sable’s border. Even though it’s in Sorcié, Noir has a bad reputation when it comes to safety.”

  “Is... that so...” Even here, there was a place like that... I now felt a little afraid to go in that direction.