I wanted to finally talk to her about something that I’d been thinking about for a long time. It’d been almost a month since Katarina was attacked with Dark Magic. We’d all been scared out of our minds, but in the end, she had been fine.
The guy who was behind it all, Sirius — or Raphael, I guess — left the academy, and work at the student council had been hectic for a while. But now things had gone back to normal.
And there was something that I absolutely had to do.
I, Alan Stuart, was eight years old when I got engaged to Mary, the fourth-born daughter of Marquess Hunt. She was cute and she worked really hard, and I liked her, but I started to realize that my feelings for her weren’t romantic.
This happened because of the incident that had almost killed Katarina. When I thought of losing her, it made me realize that I was in love with her. And once those feelings started pouring out of my heart, I couldn’t stop them anymore. All I wanted was to be by her side, and to see her smile.
Of course, I knew that she was already engaged to my brother. So my wish would never come true. But I still wanted to stay with her for as long as I could.
And then, while thinking about my feelings, I thought of Mary. I liked her, yeah, but it was more like brotherly love than anything romantic. Sure, that still is love, but... how would she take it? Would she be happy, married to a man who loves someone else?
After mulling over the problem, I decided to tell Mary the truth: that I loved someone else, someone who I wasn’t allowed to love. I wanted her to decide what to do about our engagement. Whether to keep it or cancel it...
Finally, Mary came.
My lovely fiancée looked curiously at my grim expression. I didn’t mention Katarina’s name, but apart from that, I told her everything.
“Mary, I’m really sorry. If you want, I’ll have the engagement canceled immediately, so that it won’t bother you anymore.”
At first she had been surprised, but then her expression looked irritated.
“...He is more earnest than I predicted. This is going to be such a pain...”
“What?”
Mary said something, but her voice was so low that I couldn’t make out her words.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said with a smile. “I understand how you feel... but if we cancel the engagement, my family will surely pester me to enter a new one as soon as possible. And I would not want that.”
“Why not? You’re so popular that you’d have no problem finding a great husband that loves you.”
There were actually a lot of men who’d jump at the opportunity if Mary canceled her engagement. But she shook her head with a grim look.
“No, that is out of the question... I have kept it a secret until now, but... My feelings, too, are for someone else.”
“What?!” My jaw dropped in surprise.
“I’m sorry to have hidden this from you for so long... But my love is also a forbidden one.”
“I see... We’ve been in the same boat all along...”
Who would have guessed that she loved someone else that she wasn’t allowed to also? And how could I fail to notice that? I’m so dense.
“But I don’t want to give up... The odds are against me, but I will give my best. Rather than having to deal with a new fiancé, it would be much more convenient for me to keep things as they are. Please, don’t cancel our engagement,” she said, on the verge of tears.
How could I tell her no, when she looked at me like that?
“Okay. Let’s stay engaged until your love is fulfilled,” I said, and her face lit up into a happy smile.
It was much later than I found out that this girl, with her lovely smile, was another rival... and a formidable one at that.
He Found Out About the Thing
“Say, Katarina. Why is your pocket always bulging? It has been bothering me for a while.”
After having overcome the Catastrophic Bad Ends, I was leisurely drinking tea with Jeord, who asked me that question.
Uh? Do I have something in my pocket? I thought, sticking my hand inside it and taking out the contents.
It was a toy snake, the best one I’d built in the past eight years. I had put it in my pocket the other night to save myself from catastrophe, and I’d forgotten that it was there.
And I took it out in front of Jeord, of all people...
I threw one at him once eight years ago, and his retribution was so harsh that, ever since, I’d always made sure he wouldn’t see me building them or practicing throwing them.
Why did I forget about it at a time like this?! I avoided a bad end, but it feels like I’m heading for another...
I clenched my fist around the snake, avoiding looking at Jeord’s face. But without even looking, I could feel the tension building.
Oh no... I have to come up with something...
“Ah, wow! What is this, I wonder? Who would ever put something like this inside my pocket?”
Let’s go with the old “someone put it in my pocket and I didn’t notice” trick.
My delivery was so-so, but the idea, if I may say so myself, was brilliant. I would just pretend that this toy snake wasn’t mine, and that someone had put it there as part of some kind of conspiracy.
“When did this get in here?” I said, continuing my spiel.
“What? Someone put it in there, and you didn’t notice?!” asked Jeord, confused. His expression was as tense as his voice.
Yes! I fooled him! Not bad, Katarina, not bad. You could become an actress one day! Now confident in my acting skills, I pressed even further.
“Yes... Who could have done it?” I said with a distressed expression, feeling like a movie star.
“Who indeed, who could do something like this?” said Jeord, who I had tricked one hundred percent.
Phew. Crisis averted, I thought. But...
“...Is that what you really expected me to say?”
“What?!”
I looked at Jeord, whose voice had suddenly changed, and his face had the same evil smile of eight years ago when I had thrown the snake at him.
...Why? Hadn’t I fooled him? I stared at him, confused, and he went on talking.
“How could you possibly not notice if someone put something in your pocket? And why would anyone do that in the first place?”
“...That’s... true...”
Now that I heard him say that, I realized that my idea wasn’t so brilliant after all. Jeord really is a genius...
“You are about the only one who could ever be fooled by a lie as silly as that!”
“...”
“And I had kept quiet about it until now, but I knew that you were making those things and practicing throwing them!”
“Wha?!” I’d done everything I could so that he wouldn’t notice... but it was all in vain!
“So, would you care to explain why you were doing those things?” he said with the most charming of smiles.
“Well... that’s...” I froze. I couldn’t tell him “To throw them at you when push comes to shove.”
“Well, I do have a general idea... What should I do now? Should I tell your mother about this?”
“No, please, anything but that...” I started panicking as Jeord’s smile grew even more evil. If Mother found out, I’d never hear the end of it...
“I see... I will not do it, then... But you must do something for me in return.”
“Of course! I’ll do anything! Thank you!”
I survived! Whatever he asked of me, it could never be as bad as the scolding that Mother would give me.
Jeord brought his handsome face closer to me. “Tonight, by yourself, come to my room. And make sure that no one sees you.”
“Hm? Why?”
I was expecting him to ask me to do his homework, or go buy his lunch, or something... Why did I have to go there without being noticed? Did he have some secret to share?
“You will find out why once you come. You said you would do anything, did you not?”
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“Y-Yes...”
It really did sound like he wanted to share a secret with me. I’ll be happy to listen to him and help him out.
“I am looking forward to seeing you tonight,” he whispered into my ear with a questionable smile, and I felt a chill run down my spine. I wonder why that is. Weird.
While I was wondering about that chill, I felt someone dragging me to the side. I was surprised to see Keith there.
“Jeord... you are getting uncomfortably close to her.”
“She is my fiancée; it is only normal that I would get close to her. You, on the other hand, should refrain from touching her so carelessly. Are you not a bit too old to be so attached to your sister?”
Jeord had replied to Keith’s rough remark with a smile, but the next reply didn’t come from Keith, but from someone else.
“Katarina is not yours yet, Prince Jeord... You still are not married,” said Sophia, who had appeared out of nowhere with an angry look on her face.
“Indeed. You are simply engaged, and that may change at any moment!”
“What do you mean by that, Lady Mary?”
“I meant what I just said, Prince Jeord,” said a smiling Mary to a smiling Jeord.
They all look so cheerful, smiling at each other... but for some reason, I felt like there was some tension in the air.
All the members of the student council had somehow come together around me, and they all looked mad. And I could still feel that tension in the air. I thought I’d overcome the bad ends...
“Katarina, are you done talking with Prince Jeord?” asked Mary menacingly.
“Uh? Oh, yes,” I said, and she forcefully grabbed my hand.
“Let’s go drink some tea somewhere else, then.”
“Uh... sure.”
I then had tea while chatting with Mary, Sophia, and Maria, and that weird chill in my back finally calmed down.
I wonder what that was... Did I catch a cold?
I didn’t manage to get to Jeord’s room that night, as Keith and the others found me out. They scolded me, and told me never to do something like that again.
They had a point... A lady shouldn’t go to a man’s room alone at night. Next time I’ll tell Jeord that I’ll listen to whatever is troubling him during the day. But still, what is this weird tension between all of my friends? The Catastrophic Bad Ends were supposed to be a thing of the past...
What Happened to the Thing
One day, when I was in town with my son, we passed in front of a store that was owned by an acquaintance who mainly traded in wooden containers and boxes.
“Oh! Dad, look at that! Wow! Can I have it?” said my son, pulling me inside by my hand.
The store was renowned for its product assortment and quality, and even served some noble families... Did it really sell anything that could catch an eight-year-old’s eye?
Curious, I looked at what my son was pointing to, and saw... a snake.
At first I was startled to see it sitting there on the table, but when I took a better look, I realized that it was just a toy.
“Wow! Wow!” my son kept yelling, completely charmed by the thing.
That toy was really well-made — anyone would have been fooled by it. We both peered at it, with my son crouching to bring his head level to the table and me standing behind him.
“Welcome,” the shop owner greeted us.
“Hello,” I replied, then asked about the snake that my son was so enamoured with.
“I was visiting a noble family to sell them some goods and found it lying on a shelf. I praised its craftsmanship and one of the servants just gave it to me, saying that they have so many lying around that they don’t know what to do with them,” he explained.
“A noble family?”
Did some rich aristocrat carve this during a bout of bored lunacy? It looked too well-made for that explanation.
“Dad! Can I have it? I can, can’t I?” asked my son, his eyes twinkling at the lifelike toy snake.
After asking for the shop owner’s permission, I picked it up. It was much lighter than I had expected, and for some reason, it was very comfortable to hold. It was almost as if it had been built to fit in one’s hand.
After thinking for a while, I said, “Say, could I have this?”
“Sure. I got it for free to begin with,” he replied instantly.
“By the way, where did you get it?” I inquired further.
“Duke Claes’ mansion. Despite their rank, it’s a really nice family, and all the servants are so friendly.”
“I see... Duke Claes... And the servant that gave this to you said that they have a lot of these lying around, right?”
“That’s right, but... why? Do you want more of them?” said the shop owner in surprise as I grinned.
“Exactly. Can’t you see my son’s face? Kids love a toy that looks just like a real animal. And it’s light and easy to hold. They would make a killing if I started selling them!”
“Would they? Well, I guess if the town’s top merchant says so, it must be true.”
Indeed, I had quite the influence amongst merchants in the town, and — not to brag — I was also the one with the largest profits. Almost all of the new products that I started selling were hits. And my instinct told me that this toy snake would be, too.
“There’s no time to lose! I have to go to Claes Manor!”
I left the shop, with the snake I had gotten for free in one hand and my son’s hand in the other.
The more I looked at that toy, the more I realized how well it was built. The person who carved it obviously wanted to make it look as much as possible like a real snake.
But if they didn’t want to sell them and just left them collecting dust... then why did they even build them?
★★★★★★★
“...ATCHOO!”
I suddenly felt an itch in my nose and let out a loud sneeze, and Keith, who was next to me, gave me a bothered look.
“Big Sister, that sneeze wasn’t very ladylike...”
“What am I supposed to do? A sneeze is a sneeze,” I said, sniffing.
Keith looked even more bothered than before and sighed, picking up the fruit of Grandpa Tom’s and my labor from the shelf. “And by the way, Big Sister... what’s with all these snakes? I’m seeing them all over the house lately. Why don’t you throw them out already?”
“What?! Throw them out?! Grandpa Tom and I put our heart and souls into making them! I could never do that!”
“At least don’t leave them around like this... Guests are weirded out by them.”
“Well, I’ve made so many of them, but now I don’t need them anymore... I just wanted to use them somehow!”
I thought that putting them away where no one could see them would be a waste, and so I placed them in the open, but... unfortunately, people didn’t seem to like them.
At first I was praised for how well they were made, but now it was all “Get rid of them” and “They’re a nuisance”... What a bummer.
Keith looked, perplexed, at my disappointed face and asked, “Why have you been building these in the first place?”
“...Well, that’s...” I could never tell him that I was planning to throw them at Jeord, so I remained silent, prompting another sigh from my brother.
“Whatever the case, you should get rid of them. If Mother comes back home and finds toy snakes all over the place, you’ll be in for one stern talking-to.”
He was right... Mother had been out on vacation with Father for a few days, and she wouldn’t be happy to find my masterpieces decorating the house. On top of that, I ended up breaking one of her favorite vases while I was laying the snakes around, so I couldn’t just leave things as they were. I knew that, but...
“Aww... But throwing them out after all the months and years I’ve spent making them would be such a waste... I’d like to at least give them to someone...”
My poor toy snakes, stuffed away where nobody can look at them? That’s
too sad!
“...Yes, if there were anyone who would accept them,” said Keith, giving me a blank stare.
At that time, I still didn’t know that the same toy snakes that everyone in the house treated as a nuisance would become a hit in town.
The Start of Father and Mother’s Romance
“Now that their third daughter has married into a good household, Duke Adeth must be elated.”
“Indeed... However, not only has the second daughter yet to marry, but she is not even engaged yet.”
“Is she not? Do you mean that her younger sister married before her?”
“Precisely. Rumor has it that she is not as sociable as her siblings, and has a rather stern face that drives suitors away.”
“But she is not so young anymore... At this rate, she may become too old for marriage before she finds a fiancé.”
“That is true, and it is the very reason why Duke Adeth is searching far and wide for someone to marry his daughter.”
“To think that a duke’s daughter would have trouble finding a man! Poor Duke Adeth, he must be so embarrassed.”
“I am sure he is!”
The two ladies’ tone had more than a hint of mockery to it. I left the room, taking care not to be noticed by them.
I am Millidiana Adeth, Duke Adeth’s second daughter. Today was the day of the party celebrating my younger sister’s marriage.
Among the many words of congratulations, one could hear remarks like the ones the two ladies had just made, making the party a very uncomfortable place for me to be.
I was much more shy than my siblings, and my face looked, as people remarked behind my back, as if I were always scoffing at everyone. For these reasons, I still was not engaged, let alone married.
My father, as Duke, insisted that I marry someone worthy of my rank. But all the candidates he found for me routinely fell for my sisters, who were much more talented and sociable than me.
Despite all this, my family, far from treating me as a bother, was very kind to me. My mother and siblings would always stand up against anyone who insulted me, and my father was still looking for someone who would marry me. But being treated so kindly made me feel even worse about myself.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 5 Page 12
