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

by Satoru Yamaguchi

  “Oh? I see that you have finally learned to speak up, Keith...” Jeord said.

  The two of them now glaring daggers at each other — with me sandwiched in between. Ugh! What was even going on? I don’t know anymore!

  Maybe it was because I was in a panic, or maybe it was because the room had become so lively... or it may even have been in response to the strange sounds I’d made earlier. Before I knew it, Pochi had leapt out of my shadow, and was soon busy running circles around me and my friends. Between laps, he would stare at Alexander the bear, who was currently perched on Maria’s shoulder.

  All I could do was stare at this portrait of chaos, with my jaw hanging open in a daze. It was then that I heard a familiar voice...

  “Cleared the Keith Claes route, huh! One on each arm, hmm?”

  It was as if, in my ear, I could hear the voice of my best friend from my previous life.

  The Worries of Those Who Held the Fort

  ~The Frustrations of Mary Hunt~

  Having finally finished organizing the stacks of paperwork, I slammed the pile down on my table with a flourish and sighed deeply. This was work that I could have very easily finished in the blink of an eye under normal circumstances. I was unable to set my mind to it, however, and so it took quite a while.

  With this, my work was finally finished, and I returned to my quarters at the academy’s dormitories. Work, life, it was all the same. I just couldn’t focus.

  It had been like this for the past few days. I knew the reason full well, of course. It was simple, really — Katarina and her group had left in search of Keith... and I was not permitted to join them on their trip.

  Katarina Claes was a very special person to me. She was very important in my life. When I had closed myself off from the outside world as a child in response to my stepsisters’ cruel bullying, it was she who had saved me.

  I did not have a shred of self-confidence then — it was Katarina who inspired me, and allowed me to live with my head held high. Whenever I faltered, it was she who extended her hand toward me. To not love someone like that was all but impossible.

  Before I knew it, Katarina had become the most important person to me, deep in my heart. That was why I wanted to be by her side. In order to be with her, always, I worked hard in various ways.

  However, Katarina was simply overflowing with charm. There were many others in her life. The tip of the spear, if I could describe it as such, was Katarina’s current fiancé, crown prince Jeord Stuart. The prince was a genius — he was capable of anything, and had eventually become fond of Katarina. He employed any means necessary to ensure that she fell into his hands.

  Although Jeord looked like any other dashing youth, I knew that he was quite the villain on the inside. Using his standing as Katarina’s fiancé, Jeord had planned to immediately take her hand in marriage after her graduation from the Academy of Magic. As much as I hated the idea, I could predict that this was what the prince would do. After all, we had similar ways of thinking.

  However... Katarina was, how do I put this — extremely dense. She did not notice any of Prince Jeord’s advances, of course. If anything, my efforts over the years had paid off. I told Katarina at every opportunity that “becoming a royal was most tiresome.” As a result, she was hardly eager about the entire marriage affair.

  With the assistance of my allies, who were all also rather fond of Katarina, we planned to have her somehow cancel her engagement with the prince. To this end, we were deliberating a possible solution when...

  After a complicated incident that caused much ado a short while ago, there was an unexpected development: Katarina, who was quite possibly the most dense person in the entire Kingdom of Sorcié, suddenly became aware of Prince Jeord’s feelings toward her.

  Riding on that success, Jeord began aggressively escalating his advances at a pace I had never seen before. While the rest of the council attempted to shield Katarina from his attempts, Jeord was quick to pile extra work on us. So despite our best efforts at interrupting his plans, Jeord managed to give us the slip time and time again.

  And amidst all this, Katarina and Jeord left together on a trip, of all things! The reason was that Katarina’s adopted brother, Keith Claes, had seemingly run away from home. He had returned to Claes Manor during a holiday period when he had suddenly gone missing. Shortly after a letter arrived addressed to the Claes family, claiming that Keith had left home of his own volition.

  This was unnatural on numerous counts. Why would Keith, who loved Katarina so, suddenly choose to leave her side...? Many others thought the exact same, I’m sure, but there was little a young girl like me could do.

  It was not like Katarina, however, to think that way. Before I knew it, she had declared that she would go on a journey to find her brother. In the most straightforward way, too! “Keith surely ran away from home because I caused him too much trouble!” she’d said.

  In that case, I would accompany her too...! Or so I thought. Unfortunately, there were more complex circumstances at play, and I was unable to join Katarina on her journey. This was a tragedy in and of itself, but there was an even bigger problem: Jeord would be accompanying her!

  Given that his approaches toward Katarina had been rapidly intensifying over the past few days, and he would be together with her the entire time, who knows what would happen. I was incredibly worried, to put it lightly.

  Yet Katarina had become transfixed with the issue of Keith’s disappearance, and had apparently all but forgotten about Jeord’s advances, for now, at least. Try as he might, Katarina was no longer receptive to Jeord’s efforts. A good thing indeed, but...

  Just in case, I entered a formal request via the Ministry for another member of her journeying party to keep an eye on Jeord, so as to ensure that he would not unduly approach Katarina. Even so, this was the prince we were dealing with. I could never quite read his hand.

  Ahh... if only I, too, could follow her on this journey! I was worried. Terribly worried, and also greatly displeased that I had been left behind.

  Ever since Katarina had left, these feelings inside me had been swirling uncontrollably. In fact, they were getting in the way of my work at the council, and even preventing me from living well!

  Ugh...! Just how long will it be until Katarina returns? Is she safe? I wondered, pacing meaninglessly in my quarters. My usual image of the infallible noble lady of high society had crumbled. I did not look anything like that now.

  As I continued to pace around my room in pointless circles, I heard a knock on the door — a guest had arrived for me, according to my servant.

  The one who had showed up was my current fiancé, crown prince Alan Stuart. He might have been Jeord’s twin, but the two were nothing alike in terms of personality. The most striking difference was that Alan was... honest. A less flattering word to use might be “simple,” or perhaps even a little childish at times. He was also among the many who were fond of Katarina.

  Alan had actually only noticed his feelings for her just a year prior. He was dense too, though nothing near Katarina’s level. Although everyone around him knew that he had feelings for her ever since he was a child, it would seem that he himself hadn’t noticed the entire time.

  I suppose it was I who was responsible for that. I had done everything in my power to ensure that Alan would not notice how he felt about her. Why would I do such a thing? Well, it was to reduce the number of rivals competing with me for Katarina’s hand, of course. It was nothing as sappy as, “Oh, because Alan is my fiancé.” Do not misunderstand, I am somewhat fond of Alan. But Katarina will always come first.

  When he finally noticed his feelings for Katarina, Alan turned to me, so trusting, and said, “There’s someone else I like. Maybe my feelings will never reach her, but I can’t lie to you. That’s dishonest. We should cancel our engagement.”

  Truly, I was stunned at how honest Alan could be. In fact, I could not help but be worried about his future, given that noble society was swirling
with snakes and other dark elements. Alan claimed that he could not tell me who this mystery person was. All I could do was think to myself, But everyone already knows!

  However, my answer at the time was a firm “no.” After all, if my engagement with Alan was called off, I would almost certainly be immediately engaged to someone else. And if that happened, it was likely that I could be married off on the spot. Perhaps it would come across as me tooting my own horn, but as a result of my countless years of hard work, I had quite the reputation as a refined lady in noble society. I was most popular indeed.

  Honestly speaking, I would greatly abhor being married off to some man I did not know. I didn’t think I could endure being apart from her. A compromise I could make was to be by Katarina’s side, even if it would only be for a while.

  My life goal was to spend the rest of my life with Katarina. This was no time for I, Mary Hunt, to go off getting married to men I didn’t even know! That was why I also told Alan that there was someone else I loved, and that this person may never answer my feelings either.

  “But... I will not give up! The possibility of it is low, yes, but I would like to at least try. So... I would greatly prefer it if you stayed, Prince Alan. After all, you are in a similar situation — you would be much more preferable to a new fiancé I did not know. So please, let us keep the engagement intact for now,” I said, with tears in my eyes.

  Alan, being the dense prince he was — and one of my rivals, no less — was quick to agree, without even a single hint of suspicion. “I get it. Until you and that person end up together... I’ll continue being your fiancé.”

  I did feel bad for him, but at least now we shared a common goal! I pulled Alan into our little alliance, and plotted to nullify all of Jeord’s aggressive approaches. But this time, he undoubtedly had the upper hand. Now that Katarina was out of my reach... would Jeord do something to her? I could not get that thought out of my mind.

  Despite my obvious frustration and my markedly different behavior as of late, Alan still managed to hand me a letter — although he did seem somewhat cowed by my fury.

  “A letter’s arrived addressed to the council. Thought I’d bring it to you,” he said, offering the letter to me.

  “A letter, you say? From whom, exactly?” But upon taking a peek at it, I noticed a word that I loved dearly written there.

  “Yeah. From Katarina, about her journ— hey!”

  Before Alan could finish his sentence, I snatched the letter out of his hands and immediately set about reading its contents. Written in the letter was nothing to be alarmed about. It was simply Katarina happily describing the highlights of her trip in a relaxed manner.

  The letter put me at ease. I sighed deeply once again, in spite of myself — this time in relief.

  “H-Hey. Mary... I can read it too, right?” For some reason, Alan seemed terrified.

  “But of course!” I replied, handing the letter over to the prince with a ladylike smile.

  ~The Worries of Alan Stuart~

  My fiancée, Mary, had been weird lately. Guess you could say she’s distracted — like her mind is on someone else. She keeps getting a grave expression on her face. The reason is probably— or well, definitely, the fact that Katarina had left on a trip.

  Katarina Claes was my twin brother Jeord’s fiancée, and me and Mary’s close friend. The only daughter of Duke Claes was kind of a weirdo in many ways. But I liked how straightforward she was.

  Mary was really attached to Katarina, ever since they were kids, and they were still good friends. That’s why she was lonely now, because she got left behind.

  Well, I didn’t feel great about having to stay either. After all, I thought about Katarina as much as Mary did. But then, I guess my feelings for Katarina weren’t quite the same. Mary just admired Katarina, and that was that. But for me, I loved her as a woman, even though she was my brother’s fiancée.

  But I’m dense. Even I know that. I only noticed these feelings last year, when Katarina was almost killed. I was surprised when I found out, but when I did, everything suddenly made sense.

  But I couldn’t just go and snatch away my brother’s fiancée just because of my feelings. Everyone knew it was a political marriage, so maybe I’d be able to do it if they didn’t get along. But look at Jeord — parading around pampering Katarina whenever he could.

  I decided to lock my feelings away deep in my heart. But having thoughts about another girl like that wasn’t fair to my fiancée, Mary. It was dishonorable. I couldn’t just tell her who I liked, obviously, but I told her about my feelings.

  I figured that Mary would be happy to call off the engagement, but then she said something totally out of the blue. She said that she liked someone else too, and that she couldn’t talk to them either. She was in the same boat as me, with some kind of forbidden love.

  Come to think of it, the place I saw Mary the most was at Katarina’s manor. There was always a distance between us, and it seemed like Mary didn’t really like me that much. But I was surprised that she had feelings for someone else this entire time.

  If she canceled the engagement with me, she’d just be married off to someone else immediately, she said. So we decided to keep the engagement intact. It had been a year since then, and I still had no idea who the mystery person that Mary liked was.

  Mary seemed to be working hard. With my position, there wasn’t much I could do about my secret love. But seeing Mary give it her all made me hope that she and the person she liked would find happiness. Now that we’d both told each other about our feelings, I felt fonder of Mary, who’d just been my fiancée in name.

  With that lovely face of hers, she’d declared, “I do not want for my dear friend, Katarina, to be monopolized by Jeord!” and asked me to tell her about what Jeord was up to. Well, I didn’t want Jeord to do that either. Though the way Mary went about it felt like she was trying to get between the two of them.

  Maybe because of what we were trying to do, Jeord and Katarina’s relationship didn’t really go anywhere. Jeord was always approaching her, but she was too much of a blockhead to notice his feelings.

  But then, not long after she was rescued after being kidnapped, Katarina finally realized what was going on. Like this was some kind of trigger, Jeord’s advances got way more intense. And then after that, this trip happened. Katarina’s brother, Keith, apparently ran away from home. She went off to look for him, and Jeord went with her... which made me worried.

  Mary wasn’t just feeling sad because she was lonely. She was probably worried about Katarina being taken away from her forever, and that’s why she was acting so weird. Honestly I was feeling the same way. I said I’d hide my feelings, but the more I thought about it, the more I was upset when I thought about Katarina marrying Jeord and becoming his... well, I didn’t want to think about it. Guess I’m selfish in some ways after all.

  I really hope nothing happens between them while they’re gone, I thought as I finished up the rest of the work in the council chambers. With Jeord gone, our workload was a lot heavier. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the traveling group, wondering where they were and what they were doing. I couldn’t keep my mind on my work, so I ended up staying here late recently.

  The sun was setting. Time to get back to the dorm, I was thinking, when a letter arrived. “To everyone at the student council,” it said.

  It was definitely written by her. I wanted to read it right then, but if it was something to do with something happening between Katarina and Jeord, I didn’t want to think about it. So I hesitated before opening it. Well, I guess I should let Mary know first anyway.

  Making up my mind, I cleaned up the place and headed back to the dorms. When I got to Mary’s room, I saw that she was looking pissed off again.

  “A letter’s arrived addressed to the council. Thought I’d bring it to you,” I said, showing Mary the letter.

  “A letter, you say? From whom, exactly?”

  “Yeah. From Katarina, about he
r journ— hey!”

  Before I could even finish, Mary violently snatched the letter out of my hands. Unlike me, she didn’t hesitate at all. She ripped the letter open and read it all quickly with the same look on her face.

  Then her expression softened and she sighed deeply. Seemed like nothing bad was written in it, at least. She looked a lot more relaxed now, but she still had an edge in her expression. It was hard to deal with her when she was like this. But even so...

  “H-Hey. Mary... I can read it too, right?”

  She replied with one of her ladylike smiles, apparently not upset anymore. “But of course!” she said, handing me the letter.

  I read it, and found that it was just Katarina happily describing her journey, and that was that. All’s well that ends well, huh.

  Relieved, I handed the letter back to her. The anxiety in my mind seemed to calm a little. Since the letter was addressed to everyone in the council, I guessed Sophia would be the next one to read it. I said this to Mary, who had already gone back to her usual self.

  With a small smile, she said, “Indeed. I shall deliver it to her personally.”

  ~The Melancholy of Sophia Ascart~

  “Haaah...” How many times have I sighed like this today? I’ve lost count...

  I returned to the dormitories as the sun began to set. I even picked up a book I had been interested in as of late in an attempt to cheer myself up, but I... just couldn’t concentrate.

  If I were to even get slightly absorbed in the book’s contents, my mind would wander back to Katarina. Is she all right? I would think. No matter the book before me, even if it was one of my favorites... they simply could not win against the existence that was Katarina.

  Katarina Claes... a dear friend of mine ever since childhood. We were friends even now. She was someone most important to me. I had first met her when I was ten, at a tea party held at the royal castle. I was born looking somewhat different than the people around me... and they would always stare at me as if I were some sort of curiosity.