A letter arrived addressed to me.
I was shocked when I saw the sender's name.
Killian Hedrick.
Killian Hedrick was the heroine's childhood friend—the one who became an underworld boss if he fell into darkness.
Killian—I'm not adding Lord inside my own head, give me this much!—was the only child of an earl.
His family was on the verge of ruin because the previous earl's failed territorial reforms had left them buried under enormous debt.
If Killian ended up with the heroine, his romance-addled brain exploded into action: he inherited the house and magnificently restored its fortunes.
But on his bad ending, the earldom collapsed completely.
Killian was left penniless and thrown into common society.
After enduring the cold, merciless realities of the world, he fell into darkness, formed connections with the criminal underworld, and eventually rose to rule it.
Of all the characters, his bad ending was by far the worst.
His relationship with the heroine began at the orphanage where she had lived.
She did not know his social rank, and they became friends naturally.
Incidentally, Killian was also written as having fallen in love with her at first sight and being devoted to her with a single-mindedness so intense it was almost unsettling.
The bonus disc included a story set after he had become the underworld boss.
Although he outwardly congratulated the heroine on finding happiness, he was actually consumed by jealousy and obsession.
He repeatedly plotted schemes aimed at breaking up her relationship, but every last one failed.
I had been thinking how pitifully unrewarded he was when the story dropped a truly outrageous happy-ending epilogue:
Later, he married the heroine's daughter, a girl who looked exactly like her, despite their enormous age gap, and made a spectacular return to noble society.
The game forum had erupted.
You really married your daughter to an underworld boss twenty-four years older than her?!
And now, for some reason, that man had sent me a letter.
It read:
"I would like to consult you about Lilin. Could you spare me some time?"
Why did he want to consult me about the heroine?
We weren't friends.
Not remotely.
Hadn't he chosen the wrong person?
Still, I thought it couldn't hurt just to listen.
So I showed the letter to Myuze and asked for his opinion.
"Absolutely unnecessary!"
Yes.
That was exactly the answer I had expected.
"Why should Ferry have to listen to a consultation about that transfer student?! You have nothing to do with her! If anything, you're the victim—she already endangered you once!"
"Well, yes, but…I thought I could at least listen."
"There's no need! …And I don't want you meeting this man alone!"
"Hm?"
"If it's a private consultation, the two of you would meet alone, wouldn't you? I refuse to allow that! I hate the idea!"
W-was that jealousy?!
Was he jealous over me?!
And what was with that final "I hate the idea"?!
Between his expression and the way he said it, the arrow went straight through my heart.
I felt ready to spray blood from my nose and cough it up at the same time.
"B-but if I can help, I thought I could at least hear him out."
"I fully understand that you're kind, Ferry. But! You're too kind! Are you a goddess?"
What?!
Where had a goddess come from?!
The only reason I'd said I could listen was because a shameless part of me had wondered whether Myuze might get a little jealous.
Where in that was anything remotely goddess-like?!
"Beautiful, adorable, and kind? You're obviously a goddess!"
Myuze?!
Are you all right?!
Come back to your senses!
You're talking about me!
Me!
"U-um, Myuze?"
"So the woman I longed for and finally obtained was actually a goddess…"
No.
His brain had completely short-circuited.
Come baaaaack, Myuze!
Inside my head I screamed it from the top of a mountain and imagined the echo rolling across the peaks.
Myuze did not return to sanity.
How did this happen?
I sent Killian a letter declining.
But he continued sending more.
He sounded so desperate that I finally begged Myuze to permit a meeting.
He reluctantly agreed.
However, he declared, "If people see you together and start baseless rumors, I won't tolerate it!"
So Killian would come to our home—ahhh, I just called it our home!—instead.
Then Myuze insisted, "I absolutely refuse to let the two of you be alone in a closed room!"
Thus the meeting would take place in the garden, fully visible from the house.
Since the topic might be something Killian didn't want others overhearing, Myuze added a special arrangement:
He would sit in the room facing the garden, watching us from close enough to rush out immediately if necessary.
Killian arrived slightly ahead of the appointed time.
His first act was to bow deeply to Myuze.
"I apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you very much for accommodating my circumstances."
"If you do anything to Ferry, I'll kill you."
Myuze's reply was disturbingly direct.
Like the true Absolute-Zero Nobleman, he radiated enough cold hostility to freeze the other man where he stood.
With Myuze's stare drilling into me, I sat at the table and chairs prepared in the garden.
"So? What did you wish to discuss?"
"How do you feel about Lilin's recent behavior, Lady Lambest?"
Lady Lambest?!
What a wonderful sound!
Of course I was Lady Lambest now, but no one had ever addressed me that way before!
"How do I feel? I'm afraid I didn't know her before she transferred, so…I suppose she seems very energetic."
"You are a kind woman, my lady… Her behavior has gone far beyond anything that can be described simply as energetic."
Killian then told me the entire story of how he and Lilin had met and what had happened since.
Just as the game established, they had met when he visited the orphanage as part of a charitable visit.
They had immediately gotten along.
Killian said he had fallen for Lilin because although she was an orphan, she was cheerful, positive, kind, and cute.
He placed particularly heavy emphasis on cute.
Apparently Lilin began acting strangely immediately after the possibility of transferring to the academy came up.
One day she suddenly shouted, "That's it! This is Tru-Love!"
Killian had been stunned.
"Do you know what Tru-Love is?" he asked me.
I said I didn't.
Obviously I couldn't admit that I knew.
From that point onward, Lilin began studying obsessively.
She passed the academy's transfer examination and was delighted.
"Now I can attend the same academy as Killian!"
But at the same time, she had excitedly shouted things like:
"I can meet the romance targets!"
"I can meet Myuze!"
"My favorite! My favorite is here!"
I could practically see it happening.
But…
Wasn't this less a consultation and more a one-man monologue?
That thought kept circling through my mind as I listened.
The characters in the game had always explained things in extraordinary detail without being asked.
They would tell you far more than you'd ever requested.
It had been an incredibly player-friendly design.
And now Killian was doing the exact same thing in front of me.
As someone who remembered being on the player side of Tru-Love, I was fascinated and delighted.
But objectively speaking, this was strange.
Normally, you did not meet someone for the first proper conversation of your life and, within ten minutes, begin recounting your entire relationship history from first meeting to present day.
This sort of thing was so very game-like.
Since he was volunteering the information, I kept listening.
Internally, however, I was thinking some extremely rude thoughts.
After transferring into the academy, Lilin had apparently searched for Myuze immediately.
But Myuze did not appear until a week later.
And naturally, I was at his side.
When Lilin saw us together, Killian said she'd shouted, "What?! That's impossible!"
From Killian's perspective, though, Lilin was the impossible one.
Immediately after transferring, she'd approached the crown prince.
Then she'd approached Hugo Oralis, who was currently one of the prince's aides and would eventually become prime minister—not that Killian could possibly know the future part.
Then she'd approached Marion, the future knight commander.
Killian had apparently confronted her.
"What are you thinking?!"
But Lilin refused to listen.
Then a great many things happened—his explanation was extremely long, so I will spare you the details—and that brought us to the present.
Lilin had earned the dislike of Lady Sharin Lesmond, the crown prince's fiancée.
People around Sharin—her followers, essentially—had decided Lilin was an enemy and started directing barbed comments and harassment at her under the guise of "correcting" her behavior.
According to Killian, Lilin was delighted by this.
"It's finally starting! Now we're headed straight for the condemnation route!"
"Has Lilin gone mad?" Killian asked me.
"…I couldn't say."
From Lilin's perspective, I assumed she thought this was groundwork for the scene in which her chosen man would ultimately take her side.
But judging by how the princes and the others treated her now, none of them seemed remotely passionate enough to gather proof of bullying on her behalf and condemn their own fiancée.
If she continued like this, there was almost no future in which Lilin would be chosen.
Even if some twist of fate caused one of them to become emotionally attached to her, I couldn't imagine that attachment growing powerful enough for him to dissolve a state-arranged engagement.
At best, it would probably end as a sweet little academy romance that existed only while they were students.
Honestly, what was that girl trying to accomplish?
And what had Killian come to ask me?
Everything he had said sounded less like a request for advice and more like complaining.
Hadn't he chosen the wrong person for this?
Was there any reason it needed to be me?
He finally finished talking a little over an hour later.
That was long!
"You really love Lady Lilin, don't you…"
It was the only thing I could think of to say.
"Yes. I loved Lilin…but now, I no longer understand my own feelings very well. The Lilin I see now is bizarre. Sometimes I wonder if she's gone mad. I don't know what I'm supposed to do…"
Yes.
He had definitely come to the wrong person!
Was there no one more suitable around him?
Did this man not have friends?
…Not that I had many myself.
"I don't know what the right thing to tell you would be, but…perhaps you should put some distance between the two of you for a while? Sometimes things are invisible when you're too close. Stepping away may help you notice something you couldn't before."
"Distance…"
"I don't know what Lady Lilin truly wants, and I don't know what you want for your future either, so I can't really say anything more than that…"
"…You're right. Perhaps some distance would be good! I'm glad I came to you! Thank you very much!"
What?!
What part of that deserved gratitude?
Hello?
Are you all right?!
I listened and said, Why don't you take some distance?
That was literally it!
Where in that exchange was the thing he was so grateful for?!
"Would it be all right if I came to you for advice again?"
He looked at me with his puppy-like features turned up to maximum—bright, earnest, and heartbreakingly hopeful.
How was I supposed to refuse that face?
"I-if you're truly satisfied with me…"
Before I realized it, the words had already left my mouth.
The moment Killian left, Myuze rushed over.
"I can smell that man on you!"
That was how I ended up taken straight to the bath.
Despite my mortification, Myuze personally scrubbed me from head to toe.
Then he sat me on his lap and held me continuously for another two hours, until he was finally satisfied.
And when I told him Killian had asked if he could consult me again, Myuze said, with a completely straight face:
"…Should I eliminate him?"
Killian seemed to have started putting some distance between himself and Lilin. I began seeing him going around separately from her.
For some reason, that also meant Lilin had started glaring at me with incredible intensity, but since she hadn't actually done anything to me, I ignored it.
Right now, however, I had found myself in a situation where I wasn't sure whether ignoring things was still the right choice.
I'd gone into a bathroom stall when I heard several girls talking outside. The atmosphere quickly turned ominous, and the voice that snapped back, "Hmph! You're all just jealous of me, aren't you?!" sounded unmistakably like Lilin, no matter how much bravado she tried to put into it.
"You're awfully cocky for someone none of them even wants!"
"Who do you think you are, flirting with His Highness when you're nothing but a former commoner and an orphan?!"
The girls were getting more and more worked up, their voices steadily rising.
I'd already finished using the toilet, and I really wanted to leave, but in this atmosphere I was even hesitating to flush.
No, flush it! That's disgusting!
Then came a sharp smack.
"Someone like you belongs crawling on a filthy floor!"
What?! Wasn't this getting seriously bad?!
Before I could think, my body moved on its own.
I opened the door and found Lilin crouched on the floor, surrounded by several girls.
And yes, I did flush first.
"What exactly are you doing?"
For once, I was grateful for my villainess face.
All I had to do was smile faintly while looking at them with something resembling contempt, and the girls frightened themselves all on their own. There aren't many faces capable of terrifying people without any actual effort.
"S-she fell by herself!"
"My. And yet I distinctly heard someone say, 'Someone like you belongs crawling on a filthy floor.'"
I shifted my gaze.
One girl met my eyes and let out a tiny, "Eek!"
"W-we were only warning her because she refuses to observe proper order at the academy!"
"My. So surrounding someone in a group and hurling abuse at her is considered a warning. How educational."
"W-we weren't hurling abuse…right?"
"R-right…"
"Oh? Then I must have misheard. My apologies."
"Ah! I-I just remembered a teacher asked to see me!"
"Y-yes! We should hurry!"
The girls fled in a rush.
Thank goodness! They scared themselves and ran away all on their own!
Inside, I was drowning in relief.
"Why did you help me?!"
As soon as the girls disappeared, Lilin glared at me and demanded an answer.
"Why don't you stand up first? Sitting there will make you cold, and the floor is filthy."
"Hmph! I was going to stand up without you telling me!"
Once she was upright, Lilin glared at me even harder.
Where had the heroine's adorable face gone?!
"Don't think I consider myself rescued by you!"
With that, she stormed away.
Myuze was waiting outside the bathroom with his back to the door.
Apparently the voices inside had carried, because he told me, "Ferry, you're far too kind."
Personally, I thought that if I were truly kind, I would have intervened much sooner.
When we returned home, the doctor was already there.
I'd completely forgotten that today was the day of my regular prenatal examination.
Miya, the Lambest family's physician, was a rare female doctor in this world.
She looked to be somewhere in her mid-fifties. Her appearance was gentle and easygoing, but she had a sharp tongue and never hesitated to say exactly what she thought.
After asking me questions, she palpated my abdomen and listened to both my heartbeat and the baby's with a stethoscope. It was much larger and clumsier-looking than the ones I remembered from my previous life, with a small trumpet-shaped piece on the end.
"Everything's progressing well!" she announced.
Unfortunately, Miya was a master at lifting your spirits only to smash them back down. Immediately afterward, she began criticizing my diet and lifestyle until my soul felt very gently flayed open.
"Your morning sickness isn't even particularly severe, so are you an idiot for eating such a lopsided diet?! You need to eat properly without indulging every preference so you can supply that child with nutrients! That's part of your job as its mother!"
"Yes… I'm sorry."
"Have you been doing the exercises I told you to do?"
"…I'm sorry."
"And surely you two haven't resumed your nighttime activities yet?"
"N-nighttime?!"
"I'm holding back!"
"Good! You're almost in the stable period. Keep holding back until then."
Myuze had immediately inserted himself into the conversation with that forceful, "I'm holding back!"
Naturally, he attended every prenatal checkup with me.
Afterward he sent me back to our room, saying, "I need to discuss something with Miya," and remained behind with her.
I could guess exactly what they were discussing, so I decided not to think about it.
"Once she enters the stable period, I don't have to abstain anymore, correct?"
"More or less. But don't take that as permission to crush her in bed."
"I know."
"Nothing too rough either! Put too much strain on her womb and she could miscarry."
"Understood."
"I'd always thought you were the sort who could exercise self-control. Apparently Ferry changes the equation. If you don't want to hurt your beloved wife, restrain yourself properly."
"Hah…my beloved wife. You're right."
"…So you really can make a face like that."
When Miya called Ferry his beloved wife, Myuze's expression melted into such a blissful smile that she laughed, watching him as though he'd suddenly become something fascinating.
Miya had known Myuze since he was a child.
She knew perfectly well that almost the only times he smiled were when something involved Ferry, but even she had never seen him smile quite like this.
"I'm glad to see you're happy."
"I'm so happy that sometimes I wonder whether I'm dreaming."
"Never thought I'd live to hear you openly brag about your love life."
People really could change, Miya thought.
And because she knew Chris and Sena as well, she couldn't help thinking that apparently this sort of thing was hereditary.
She watched the awkward young man in front of her—someone who, beneath everything, desperately wanted to love and be loved—with quiet amusement and affection.
The exercises Miya had ordered me to do resembled stretches from my previous life.
In this world, the standard attitude toward pregnancy was basically, "Don't exercise! Don't move!"
Miya, however, was unusually progressive.
"Pregnancy isn't an illness! Not moving enough is worse for the body!"
She believed pregnant women needed appropriate exercise.
The routine was her own invention, and she had even given me written instructions with innovative illustrations—by which I mean stick figures.
"Is this…supposed to be a person?!"
When Myuze saw the instruction sheet, he reacted almost exactly as he had the first time he saw my drawings.
Until the stable period, the exercises focused mainly on the legs to improve circulation and reduce swelling. Once I reached the stable period, I could apparently start adding gentle exercises for my waist and neck.
So I sat on the bed to begin my routine.
For some reason, Myuze was behind me.
Even though I was already sitting on the bed, he had wrapped both arms firmly around me from behind.
Why?!
"Don't mind me. Go ahead and start."
No, no, no, no!
How was I supposed not to mind him?!
I was so conscious of him that he was stealing every bit of my attention!
I started the exercises anyway, but concentration was hopeless.
Not that stretching really demanded much concentration, but by the second half I couldn't even remember what movements I was supposed to be doing.
Because Myuze gradually started kissing my ear and the side of my neck!
When a strange little "Ah!" escaped me, he looked delighted and murmured, "That's a lovely sound," then kissed me even more.
Of course my memory disappeared.
"Ferry, would you rather have a boy or a girl?"
"Either would make me happy. I'd be especially happy if the baby resembled you."
"A child who looks like me?! Absolutely not. I want an adorable child who looks like Ferry."
Apparently Myuze disliked his own appearance.
He had told me that when he was young, his excessive beauty had caused all kinds of problems, including an attempted kidnapping.
None of that had appeared in his game profile, so learning it had shocked me.
I'd always assumed his personality came from the excessively strict education he received as the future duke; even the game's official setting suggested as much.
But apparently that wasn't the whole truth.
If things like that happened to him when he was a child, of course he learned to erase his expressions.
Thinking of the little Myuze from before we met made my chest ache.
"A child who looks like you would definitely be adorable. You were cute when you were little too."
"Cute? Even though I was a child who never smiled?"
"Well, at first I thought you were awful because you glared at me and ignored me. But once I realized you were really just awkward, I started thinking you were cute."
"…Ferry was different from the women who saw nothing but my appearance. Right from the beginning."
Myuze gently stroked my hair.
His touch was so tender that it was making me sleepy.
The worst problem my own looks had ever caused was an extremely bad first impression, so I could only imagine what it had been like for Myuze to suffer because he was too beautiful.
I reached up and stroked his head.
He narrowed his eyes contentedly.
"I want a child with Ferry's ruby-colored hair and kind eyes."
Outside my family, Myuze was the only person who ever called my eyes kind.
They were large and tilted sharply upward. If you were charitable, you could call them catlike. If you weren't, they looked as if I were glaring at everyone.
I had no idea what part of them looked kind to him, but hearing it made me happy.
"A child with ice-blue hair and blue eyes would be adorable too."
"As long as the face resembles Ferry's, I wouldn't mind if the child inherited my hair and eye color."
"Do you really dislike the idea of a child resembling you that much?"
"…It's not that I dislike it. But if the child had experiences like mine…I'd feel sorry for them."
People misunderstood him easily.
He was called the Ice Nobleman, rarely showed expression, and often spoke coldly, but at heart Myuze was kind.
Far kinder and more generous than I was.
"You're already such a worried father."
I placed a hand on my stomach as I said it.
Myuze looked faintly startled, then smiled with shy delight.
"A father… I like that."
"Do you think I'll be a good father?"
"Of course. You're kind, Myuze."
"Ferry is the only person who calls me kind."
I giggled. "Really? Then everyone else is missing out, because they don't know this wonderfully kind Myuze."
"You're the only one who needs to know this version of me."
A gentle, sweet stretch of time passed between us.
"I'm sorry, Ferry. I won't be able to go to the academy today."
I'd finished breakfast and returned to our room alone after Chris stopped Myuze to speak with him. Myuze came back later and told me the news.
"There was concentrated heavy rain in the neighboring territory yesterday. The flood-control works were only recently completed, so Father asked me to inspect the river."
The large-scale flood-control project that had led to our engagement in the first place had been necessary because of a river flood.
That flood, too, had been caused by rain falling in the neighboring territory.
In terms from my previous life, that region frequently experienced localized torrential downpours, and every so often the rainfall reached genuinely absurd levels.
The same river ran through both territories.
Because Lambest territory lay downstream, it was especially vulnerable to the damage.
Even while the flood-control project that Father had helped with was underway, smaller floods had occurred several times, forcing work to stop each time.
A project originally expected to take five years had needed almost eight to complete.
This was the first major downpour since its completion.
Chris was scheduled to appear at the royal castle, so Myuze had apparently been chosen to inspect the river in his place.
"We haven't had rain like this for quite some time…"
"Please be careful."
"I don't want to go… I'm worried about leaving Ferry alone."
"I'm not a child. I'll be fine on my own."
"What if that transfer student tries something again while I'm gone?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"No. Absolutely not! I'll arrange guards!"
"Guards?! I don't need guards!"
"I don't like entrusting Ferry to anyone else…but necessity leaves me no choice!"
"Then choose differently! I don't need them!"
"If I send a messenger on a fast horse now, they can arrive before you leave for the academy! Don't worry! Leave it to me!"
"I said I don't need them!"
Myuze completely ignored my shouting and immediately set his plan in motion.
Overprotective?!
Wasn't this excessively overprotective?!
When I arrived at the academy, the people waiting for me were Killian and Marion.
As I prepared to step down from the carriage, both men offered me a hand.
I took both hands and climbed down.
What was this composition?!
A villainess being escorted by two romance targets?! Wasn't that wrong?!
"Today, I will protect you with everything I have in Lord Myuze's place!"
Killian announced it brightly, every inch the puppy-type character.
"Since I accepted the request, I will protect you with all my strength," Marion declared, standing with the upright dignity of a knight.
"N-no, really, I'm fine…I'm completely fine."
Refusal seemed like the only sane response.
Unfortunately, neither of them had any intention of listening.
Seriously, what was this situation?!
When we reached the stairs, Marion naturally moved to pick me up in a princess carry.
"I can walk up myself!"
"If anything happened to you, I would never be able to face Myuze!"
He refused to listen here either.
Eventually he overpowered my protests and carried me up the stairs.
At the top stood Lilin, watching us with a face like an enraged demon.
Killian noticed her and muttered, "She really is like a completely different person."
When we entered the classroom, Killian sat to my right and Marion to my left.
Flowers on both hands, as the saying went.
Our classroom had free seating, so students could sit wherever they liked. Normally I simply sat wherever Myuze chose.
Today I'd planned to sit somewhere toward the back by myself and relax.
Instead, I was positioned squarely in the middle of the room.
Everyone was staring.
It hurt!
Their gazes hurt too much!
"Good morning, Lady Ferry. Is Lord Lambest not here today?"
"He had an unexpected inspection, so he couldn't come."
"And…what are those two doing?"
Aliza had come over to greet me, only to stare curiously at Killian and Marion stuck to either side of me.
"We've been asked to serve as Lady Ferry's guards," Killian explained with the adorable smile of a puppy.
Marion nodded silently.
"Guards?"
"I told them I didn't need any and asked them to stop…"
"Love! That's Lord Lambest's love!"
Aliza's eyes sparkled.
Was it really love?!
Wasn't he just an anxious overprotective husband?!
Normally during breaks Myuze and I talked together, but today he wasn't here. I was wondering what I ought to do when Killian spoke.
"I've decided to forget Lilin completely!"
"What?!"
"I can only see her as a stranger now, someone I don't know. So I've decided that's enough. More importantly, I want to do something about my family's financial crisis."
Ah.
Right.
His family was in serious trouble.
"House Hedrick is in difficulty because of the previous earl's failures, correct?" Marion asked.
"Embarrassing as it is, yes."
"I see… That must be difficult."
House Hedrick possessed a moderately sized territory.
If they'd simply managed it conservatively, they would never have ended up in their current crisis.
But the previous earl had decided to make the territory prosper through some innovative reform that had succeeded in another country. I didn't know the details.
He had ignored everyone who opposed the plan, forced it through, failed, and left behind nothing but enormous debt.
That was the game's official setting.
I knew that if Killian ended up with the heroine, he would throw himself into rebuilding the territory and miraculously restore it.
What I didn't know was how he accomplished that. The game never explained it anywhere.
"Hedrick territory is known for cotton, isn't it?" Marion asked.
"Yes. Cotton cultivation is widespread there. If we were simply managing the territory normally, it would turn a profit. I honestly don't know what the previous earl was thinking…"
"Cotton…so you have cotton wool?"
"Cotton wool? What's that?"
Only after saying it did I realize something.
Cotton wool didn't exist in this world.
Cushions were stuffed with finely cut pieces of cloth, while bedding used feathers or sheep's wool.
For some inexplicable reason, cotton wool alone wasn't used.
If cotton plants existed, surely it should have been obvious to use the fiber as stuffing!
How had I never noticed this before?!
I'd always found the rough, unpleasant texture of cushions strange, yet somehow I'd completely forgotten cotton existed!
"I would love to see the cotton plants!"
My motives were impure—I was already imagining getting my hands on cotton wool—but Killian immediately agreed.
And so we decided that I would visit Hedrick territory at a later date.
I asked Myuze for approval after the plan had already been made.
Naturally, when the day came, he accompanied me.
For some reason, Marion came along too.
And here we were: Hedrick territory!
Compared with a ducal domain it was small and wonderfully peaceful.
Fields stretched as far as the eye could see.
Every resident we passed seemed to be a farmer wearing a straw hat and working the land.
It was almost absurdly pastoral.
When we reached the Hedrick estate, Killian came running toward us with movements that practically evoked a puppy.
"Welcome!"
He was still cute because he hadn't fallen into darkness yet.
Of course, his official character setting did say he had a calculating side.
"Were you surprised by how little there is here?"
"Were all those fields we passed cotton?"
"Yes! Cotton as far as the eye can see!"
Several generations ago, one of Killian's ancestors had apparently decided, We need something no other territory produces!, and promoted cotton cultivation.
It had been a tremendous success.
Afterward, the domain shifted almost all agricultural production over to cotton. Other than small private vegetable plots for residents' own consumption, practically everything grown here was cotton.
Back when cotton was still rare, the territory had made considerable profits.
But other territories eventually began cultivating it too. Once prices stabilized, cotton remained profitable enough to avoid losses, but it no longer generated large surpluses.
Killian's father had apparently declared, "The future is silk!" and planned to tear up the cotton fields and plant mulberry trees to feed silkworms.
Fortunately, mulberry trees and silkworms weren't native to this country. Once he discovered how difficult and expensive merely acquiring them would be, he abandoned the idea.
Did Killian's family simply produce an unusually high number of people who charged forward without looking around them?
The previous earl had run headlong into a radical reform.
An earlier ancestor had unilaterally turned practically every field in the territory into cotton.
Killian's father nearly decided to destroy the cotton industry and plant mulberry trees everywhere until the finances stopped him.
Wasn't everyone in this bloodline too extreme?!
Maybe Killian inherited the same trait.
Was that why, once he fell into darkness, he charged all the way to becoming the ruler of the criminal underworld and then took the outrageous path of marrying the heroine's look-alike daughter despite their age gap?!
He definitely seemed like the type to lose sight of everything else once he fixated on something.
"You wanted to see the cotton, right?"
Killian guided us to a warehouse where the harvested cotton was stored.
There were rows upon rows of warehouses, and inside the one he showed us was an almost unbelievable quantity of cotton.
"The spinning mill we had contracted with was lured away by another territory… Apparently they were offered terms far better than ours."
You cultivated this much cotton and didn't have your own processing facility?!
Wouldn't any normal territory build one?!
Shouldn't you establish a production line that could turn your own cotton into thread and then cloth?!
"I told Father we should have one too…but as you know, we don't exactly have money."
Apparently House Hedrick's situation was even worse than I'd imagined.
Without a mill under contract, the raw cotton had nowhere to go.
Their surplus inventory had piled into mountains.
If they couldn't sell it, their income for the year would definitely end in the red.
Killian's father!
You're terrible at management!
You're unbelievably bad at this!
From my point of view, though, it meant I could have all the cotton wool I wanted.
I'd pay for it, obviously.
When I first mentioned cotton wool, Myuze had made an odd face and asked if I meant some kind of entrails.
I had laughed.
Seriously, why didn't people in this world use cotton as stuffing?
Wool and feathers were both more troublesome to manage.
In one corner of the warehouse, I spotted cotton that had already been formed into sheets.
"This! This is what I want!"
Apparently cotton was pressed into sheets before being transported to a mill.
But after they lost their contract, the workers had stopped even bothering to process most of it that far.
"What are you going to use something like that for?" Myuze asked with interest.
I pulled out the cushion cover I'd prepared beforehand.
Naturally, I had sewn it myself.
In this world, needlework—especially embroidery—was considered a basic accomplishment for noble ladies, something girls were taught from childhood as a matter of course.
I preferred sewing to embroidery, so although my teachers had occasionally made sour faces about it, I had polished my sewing skills too.
By now I could make simple clothing myself.
I'd spent my previous life constantly hand-making merchandise for my favorite character, after all.
I folded the cotton sheet, stuffed it into the cushion cover, pulled out the small portable sewing kit I'd brought with me—also homemade—and quickly stitched closed the section I'd deliberately left open.
"Ta-da! A cushion!"
The three men had been staring at me blankly.
My triumphant announcement snapped them back to attention.
"Touch it! You're going to be amazed!"
This fluffy, soft cushion was completely different from the standard products in this world.
There was no way it wouldn't feel wonderful.
"It's light…and what is this texture?!" Myuze exclaimed.
"Let me try! …Whoa! It really is light! And so soft!" Killian said.
"I want to feel it too… Oh! This is impressive!" Marion added.
I was probably wearing the most unbearably smug expression imaginable.
"Lady Ferry! Would you allow us to use this idea?! This will sell! It barely needs processing, so we won't even need to contract with a mill. With this, I think we can finally move all this excess cotton!"
"I don't mind."
"Thank you! We'll pay you a percentage of the profits!"
"Y-you don't have to!"
"No! This is an excellent idea, and you're allowing us to use it. We can't possibly take it for free!"
"You should accept it," Myuze said.
"But…"
"You called it cotton wool, didn't you? It's easy to imitate, so House Hedrick should file for a patent. At minimum, that should prevent other houses from copying it for ten years."
"Yes!"
And so cotton wool became both a specialty product and a patented product of Hedrick territory.
The cushions made busily by the local women became an instant hit.
Anyone who wanted to use cotton wool had to purchase it from House Hedrick.
Even after they priced it higher than ordinary raw cotton, there was no shortage of buyers.
Apparently the family was now overwhelmed by the happiest possible problem: excessive demand.
Hedrick territory was relatively warm throughout most of the year, so Killian told me with sparkling eyes that they intended to improve their cultivation system and stagger planting times until they could harvest cotton year-round.
"That man is far too familiar with Ferry!"
Myuze's jealousy was unbearably cute.
When we arrived at the academy and entered the classroom together, for some reason everyone's attention turned toward us.
Myuze noticed the strange atmosphere and frowned.
"What is it?"
I was busy getting a little flutter in my chest from his profile when I heard Lilin shout from the front of the classroom.
"It absolutely had to be Lady Ferry!"
I had nothing but a bad feeling.
Once she realized we'd arrived, Lilin marched toward us holding a battered textbook.
Myuze immediately moved me behind his back.
"What do you want, transfer student?"
She flinched at his freezing voice and stare, but then suddenly adopted a meek tone and held out the book.
"Lady Ferry…did this…"
"You're saying Ferry did this to your book?"
"…I can't think of anyone else."
"Hah. Ridiculous. Ferry would never waste her time on someone like you, much less do something this childish."
"I understand that you want to believe Lady Ferry…but!"
"Ferry doesn't even have time to do something like this. She's with me practically every hour of the day. When exactly would she have done it?"
"After school, maybe…"
"That's even more impossible! Ferry is pregnant. The moment her required classes end, she goes home. She never stays until after school."
"But! Lady Ferry is the only person who would—"
"What do you know about Ferry? Ferry is as kind as a goddess, unlike you. That textbook was probably ruined by someone who resents you for chasing after His Highness and the others."
"That's…horrible…"
"You were literally called 'arrogant' in the bathroom, weren't you? I also heard you lash out at Ferry after she helped you. I heard all of it quite clearly."
"That was…I didn't mean…"
"I don't know why you're trying to pin this on Ferry, but I will not tolerate any more of it! Do you want to learn what it means to make an enemy of me and House Lambest?!"
"I-I'm sorry! I think I made a mistake!"
"I already told you there wouldn't be a next time. If you make any more noise over this, I will show you no mercy."
"I'm sorry…"
As Lilin passed beside me on her way out, she muttered under her breath, "Tch. You're just the villainess."
If I could hear it, then Myuze—with hearing sharp enough to qualify as supernatural—certainly could too.
"Hey! Stop!"
His voice was so cold that it seemed capable of freezing the entire classroom.
"You truly seem determined to make me angry!"
"N-no! I didn't do anything—"
"I heard you perfectly! You called Ferry a villainess!"
"What?! But—that's…"
"What part of Ferry is villainous?! I don't know another woman whose heart, body, face—whose entire existence—is as perfect and beautiful as Ferry's! If you're going to call Ferry a villainess, then you're the vicious, hideous, rotten-natured lady here!"
Lilin stared at him in stunned silence.
Even I had been speechless for a moment, and I wasn't even the one being insulted.
Although, in my case, I was stunned for an entirely different reason.
What exactly was my evaluation inside Myuze's head?!
"…Why… Why should I, the heroine, have to hear something like that…? Myuze is mine… He's supposed to be mine…"
Myuze, whose absurdly sharp ears caught every bit of her muttering, furrowed his brow and looked genuinely disgusted.
"When did I ever become yours? That's revolting! Ever since our engagement, I've belonged to Ferry alone!"
He declared it without a shred of embarrassment.
For some reason, the classroom burst into applause.
Myuze then stepped quietly toward Lilin and, in a voice only she and I could hear, said coldly, "You should see a psychiatrist. You're seriously deranged."
Lilin looked at him as if she were about to cry, then glared at me and ran away.
She never returned that day.
Well, we left after third period, so she might have come back later.
"Today was exhausting."
"…You protected me, Myuze."
"Of course I did. You're my beloved wife."
On the carriage ride home, he had me seated on his lap as usual, his face buried against the side of my neck as he spoke.
His breath tickled my skin, leaving me oddly restless.
"Ferry smells sweet."
What?!
Was he sniffing me?!
Wait! What did I smell like?!
I instinctively sniffed my own arm.
"Heh heh…"
Myuze laughed, clearly amused by me.
"Please don't smell me… It's embarrassing. What if I smell bad?"
"Ferry always smells good. We use the same soap, yet on you it becomes a sweet, gentle scent unlike mine. I like Ferry's scent."
"…You smell fresh."
As if returning the favor, I leaned closer and breathed in his scent. Beneath the soap was something cool and clean that was difficult to describe.
"Do you dislike my scent?"
"No. I like it."
What was this atmosphere?
Why did it feel vaguely embarrassing?
Even in the game, I'd never experienced anything this syrupy.
What was this absurdly sweet atmosphere that existed between Myuze and me?!
Was it because it was me?
Was I allowed to be that conceited?
Would it really be so wrong to believe he loved me more than the heroine in the game?
I stared at him.
Myuze abruptly looked away.
"That face is…unfair… My self-control is going to fail… You're far too cute."
"What?"
What kind of face had I been making?!
His cheeks and ears reddened before my eyes.
"You're nearly in the stable period… Once Miya gives permission…gently, very gently…"
He was muttering, but considering I was sitting on his lap, I could hear every word.
He meant that, didn't he?
Heat flooded into my face at once.
We spent the rest of the ride home in awkward silence.
At last, I had entered the stable period.
Because we knew exactly which day I had conceived, there was no uncertainty about how far along I was.
Miya still warned me, "Entering the stable period doesn't mean you can overdo things," but she also laughed and added, "It's unusual to know the timing this precisely."
Even after entering the stable period, my stomach was still flat, without any noticeable swelling.
"Some women barely show until late in pregnancy, while others become enormous. There's no way to know until it happens," Miya had explained.
As the belly grew, the stretching skin could develop lines like scars—stretch marks, in the language of my previous life.
Miya said applying cream while massaging the skin could help reduce them.
Myuze had interrogated her about the massage technique with almost frightening persistence.
"I can do it myself, you know?"
"No. I'll do it! That's my job!"
It absolutely is not!
My stomach wasn't even showing yet, but Myuze seemed ready to start massaging me that very day.
When I told him, "You don't need to do that yet," his shoulders visibly slumped.
Naturally, he knew I'd entered the stable period.
He'd been restless since morning.
Judging from what he'd muttered in the carriage, I could easily imagine what he was thinking, and that made me restless too.
On top of that, his sense of personal space had completely malfunctioned today.
He was always attached to me, but today he was glued to my side everywhere I went.
It was embarrassing.
To be perfectly honest, it was even getting a little annoying.
Sorry.
"Myuze…you're clinging too much."
"…I don't want to let go… Is that bad?"
What was with this spoiled-child version of Myuze?!
Too cute!
Far too cute!!
My breathing nearly turned embarrassingly heavy from how adorable he was.
"We don't have to go to the academy today or tomorrow…so…"
I understood what he was trying to say.
The embarrassment was almost unbearable.
I couldn't possibly say, Yes, please!
But I definitely didn't want to say no either.
"…I'll leave it to you, Myuze…"
That was the best I could manage.
I felt hot enough to combust from embarrassment. My whole body was burning.
"I won't overdo it… I'll be gentle…"
His breath was warmer than usual against my cheek, and my heart pounded.
Why was my husband so unbearably handsome and sensual?!
His sex appeal was so intense it made the other romance targets look like children!
Not that I'd ever been this physically close to any of them.
Obviously.
But even in my imagination, I couldn't picture His Highness or the others possessing this kind of sensuality!
Ah…
I was this man's wife.
Only now was I beginning to grasp just how incredible that was.
From the perspective of my previous life it was already unimaginable, but even setting that aside, this felt like some absurd miracle.
"I might be scared because I'm too happy…"
The words slipped out before I realized it.
Myuze caught them perfectly.
He smiled more softly than I had ever seen and kissed my cheek.
"Then I'll make you even happier."
Night had arrived!
For some reason, tonight we even bathed together.
Myuze personally polished me from head to toe, leaving my skin smooth and gleaming with white-rose oil.
Meanwhile, even when I offered, "I can wash you too," he stubbornly insisted, "No, I'll do it myself," and cleaned himself.
And now we were sitting on the bed, strangely awkward with each other.
Could I run away?
I was embarrassed!
Genuinely, unbearably embarrassed!
We had spent one night together before, yes, but nothing had happened since.
Back then, I had been so intoxicated by Myuze's words that the entire night felt unreal, almost like something that had happened inside a dream.
Even afterward, before I discovered my pregnancy, I'd occasionally wondered whether it really had been a dream.
Now that the moment had actually come again, I had no idea what to do.
What was the correct way to behave?
I was simply embarrassed, tense, and painfully conscious of my pounding heart.
"May I touch you?"
"…Yes."
His hand reached toward me hesitantly and slid across my cheek.
That alone sent a shiver over my skin.
Then our lips met.
The kiss gradually deepened…
Myuze treated me gently and carefully, though at moments his passion still burned through, and I lost myself in his arms.
"Beautiful…"
"Ferry…I love you."
Hearing those words whispered beside my ear made the experience feel even more dreamlike than that first night.
If this was a dream, I never wanted to wake.
I reached for him, and Myuze caught my hand firmly in his.
"This isn't a dream…"
He rained kiss after kiss over me as he said it.
I clung to him and eventually fell asleep in a warm haze of happiness and exhaustion.
When I woke, Myuze's bare chest was directly in front of my face.
"Urgh!"
Needless to say, I nearly sprayed blood from both my nose and mouth.
Why did this man look so divinely radiant in the morning sun?!
Even his skin caught the pale light, making him seem to glow.
And yet somehow that only made him look even more sensual.
At this rate I was going to die from blood loss!
Inside my head, the bed was already drowning in a sea of blood.
Mine, obviously.
Ah…
I couldn't take it!
What was with this shameless morning sex appeal?!
He was literally just sleeping naked, and yet somehow it was indecently seductive.
Unfair!
Completely unacceptable!
…Ahhh.
Was I a pervert?!
"Good morning… Are you making a hundred different faces first thing in the morning?"
Apparently Myuze had woken at some point and had been watching me.
"…Good morning… Your sex appeal is just too intense in the morning…"
I wanted to erase myself from existence for blurting out the truth like an idiot.
"Hah… I could say the same. The view in front of me this morning is excellent. If anyone deserves to be called seductive, Ferry, it's you."
Only then did I realize it.
I was naked too!
I hurriedly tried to pull the blanket over myself, but Myuze caught my hand and tangled his fingers through mine.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about… We're husband and wife."
Being married did not magically erase embarrassment.
If anything, it was worse when the person in front of you was someone you loved far too much.
"Ferry is beautiful in the morning light too… Irresistible."
His lips covered mine.
I was wrapped in so much happiness that I genuinely thought I might lose consciousness.
LILIN'S SIDE
I barely remember my parents.
My parents worked as traveling merchants.
Whenever they left for work, they would leave me at the elderly woman's house next door, and I would wait there until they returned.
That day was supposed to be the same.
But they never came back.
I stayed with the old woman for several more days.
Then one day she came to me with a face drained of color.
"Lilin, listen carefully. Your father and mother were killed by bandits. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"Papa and Mama aren't coming home anymore?"
"No. They'll never come home… Lilin, I'm an old woman with no family of my own. I don't know how long I'll be able to protect you, but would you like to live with me?"
"…Yes."
And so the kind old woman next door, who had no blood relation to me at all, became my foster mother.
When I was six, she died too, and I was truly alone.
But apparently she had realized her own death was approaching and made arrangements with an orphanage.
Before long, a staff member came for me, and I began living there.
The orphanage held many children with backgrounds like mine and others whose lives had been even worse.
Some had grown bitter.
Some had shut themselves away and refused to speak to anyone.
As for me, I wasn't particularly pessimistic.
I simply lived my life normally.
I don't know why, but ever since I was small, I'd had this strange certainty that I would be happy one day.
I had no idea where that conviction came from, but no matter what happened, I always believed I'd be fine.
Three years after entering the orphanage, I met a boy named Killian.
He was small and had a puppy-like air.
We became friends.
Eventually, after spending so much time together, people started calling us childhood friends.
The turning point in my life came when I was fifteen and attending vocational school.
Apparently a viscount and his wife happened to see me when I went into town on an errand.
Before I knew it, the adoption arrangements were complete, and I had become a viscount's daughter.
Viscount and Viscountess Negan, my new adoptive parents, were gentle and kind.
They taught me all kinds of things.
Now that I was a noble daughter, I had to leave vocational school, but they allowed me to continue attending until my next school was decided.
While a tutor hired by House Negan taught me noble etiquette, posture, manners, and the academic material I needed to attend school as a noble, my adoptive parents continued to care for me warmly, even when I came close to giving up again and again.
Eventually I began earning passing marks in my academic studies.
Then the viscount and his wife suggested that I attend the academy.
And while they were explaining that academy to me…
I remembered.
My previous life.
I know this world!
That's right!
This is the world of Tru-Love, and I'm the heroine!
And Killian is one of the romance targets!
The moment all my memories returned, I became certain that the happiness I'd always sensed in my future truly was waiting for me.
This world was the setting of the romance game I'd been obsessed with in my previous life.
And I was the heroine—the one who got to choose.
I was a winner!
My favorite in my previous life had been Myuze!
In this reincarnated world, I could finally make him mine and mine alone!
Once I realized that, studying for the transfer exam stopped feeling difficult.
The academy's transfer examination was extremely hard.
It covered material far beyond anything I'd studied before.
But if passing meant I could have Myuze, it was nothing.
I passed.
Full of confidence, I headed to the academy.
But although all the other romance targets were there, the one person who mattered most—Myuze—was nowhere to be seen.
A whole week passed.
There was no reverse-harem route in this world, but I figured it couldn't hurt to keep the others in reserve, so I approached His Highness and the others.
I was the heroine.
If I smiled at them, men like the prince would fall instantly.
And when I linked arms with them and pressed my body against theirs, none of them outright told me to stop.
Then, finally, Myuze appeared.
But for some reason, beside Myuze stood Ferry, the villainess and his supposed fiancée.
"Why?! Why is the villainess here?! And she's his wife?! …That's it! She must be reincarnated too! She used reincarnation cheats to capture Myuze before I arrived! That's the only explanation! Myuze would never willingly stay with the villainess! I'll make them break up. I absolutely will!"
I was furious.
I wanted to confront her and demand answers.
But Myuze guarded the villainess so tightly I couldn't get near her.
Finally, though, my chance came.
I questioned Ferry.
She just kept pretending she genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.
It pissed me off!
Seriously, what was wrong with that woman?!
Stealing the heroine's position was completely unacceptable!
And Ferry?
What kind of stupid name was Ferry?
Was she a boat or something?
Lame as hell!
She was so annoying and so in my way that I raised my hand without thinking.
The person who stopped me was Marion Gruger, another romance target.
"L-let go of me! You've misunderstood!"
"I heard you arguing and came to see what was happening, but I never imagined you'd try to strike Lady Ferry when she's pregnant!"
For a moment, I couldn't believe my ears.
"P-pregnant?! Pregnant—what?! She's pregnant?!"
The villainess was pregnant?!
No way!
Panic began rising inside me.
Then I heard Marion say, "I'll be reporting this to Myuze!"
Report me to Myuze?!
No!
Don't!
But pregnant?!
Why was she pregnant?!
What the hell was going on?!
"W-wait! Wait a second! What?! She's pregnant?! What? You're reporting me to Myuze?! No! Why?! Why?!"
I was genuinely panicking.
Ferry looked apologetic as she said, "I'm sorry, Lady Lilin…but given the circumstances…I must refuse what you asked of me earlier."
"Pregnant… No way… Myuze wasn't supposed to have his first time until three years after graduation, after the wedding…"
That's right.
The bonus disc had contained an extra story about Myuze.
After the villainess was condemned and we graduated, Myuze and I steadily nurtured our love.
Three years later, we held our wedding.
Then came our wedding night.
I gave Myuze my first time, and Myuze gave me his.
So why was the villainess pregnant?!
If she was pregnant, that meant she'd slept with Myuze, right?!
The villainess had been Myuze's first partner?!
No, no, no!
Impossible!
Way too impossible!
If the villainess was pregnant, then my route with Myuze had disappeared!
…Ah.
This was a dream.
Right.
A dream.
A nightmare.
I'd reincarnated into this world so I could end up with Myuze.
There was no way this nightmare where the villainess and Myuze were together could be real.
That was the only thought keeping me together.
Once I'd calmed down enough to return to the classroom, I heard a voice as cold as ice.
"Transfer student!"
My whole body stiffened at the sheer coldness in it.
"Myuze…leave it."
Ferry stood beside him, speaking in that meek little voice.
This was all her fault!
"Leave it? You're defending someone who might try to hurt you again?!"
I'm the one who is supposed to be standing there!
"She probably won't."
Why was she putting on that saintly act?!
I almost shouted it.
But Myuze looked at me with a gaze so murderous that the words died in my throat.
Scary…
Had he always been that frightening?
"If you ever do anything to Ferry again, I will crush you with everything I have!"
The words he threw at me made my knees weak.
Why?
How?
I wanted to ask, but my voice wouldn't come.
Cold crept upward from my feet until my entire body seemed frozen.
I was scared.
I couldn't stop myself from thinking it.
Let me tell you a little about myself.
My memories from my previous life end during the summer of my first year of high school.
I'd become completely obsessed with Tru-Love.
My obsession was so intense that all my friends disappeared almost overnight, but I didn't care.
As long as I had Myuze, that was enough.
There were some people who still approached me—other hardcore Tru-Love players—but I was the kind of fan who couldn't stand sharing my favorite with anyone, and I was seriously in love with him.
So when one of them said, "Myuze is kind of messed up, isn't he?" I literally got into a physical fight with them.
His affection was difficult to raise.
You couldn't even see him smile until the second half of the route.
But Myuze was the embodiment of beauty.
He was my favorite.
Mine alone.
Even if he was only a fictional character, I absolutely refused to share him.
Anyone who spoke badly about him was lower than an insect.
I hated fans who welcomed sharing favorites too.
What the hell was "Myuze belongs to all of us" supposed to mean?!
If you could say lukewarm garbage like "all of us," then you didn't really love him!
If you genuinely loved someone, sharing them with other people would be unbearable!
Keep your filthy fingerprints off my Myuze!
That was how I felt.
I hated those people.
I didn't want to accept them.
Well, I did play every route besides Myuze's at least once.
But the other romance targets never had much appeal for me.
They were basically extras attached to Myuze.
One day, I was walking home from school while staring at pictures of Myuze I'd saved on my phone.
Suddenly an impact tore through my entire body and the world began spinning violently.
Apparently I'd been so absorbed in my phone that I'd walked into a crosswalk while the light was red.
"Ah. This is where I die."
Strangely, it didn't hurt.
I only watched the nauseating scenery tumbling past me.
"I'm going to die…"
And when that thought came, my greatest regret was that I hadn't unlocked every single Myuze event illustration yet.
I bitterly regretted wasting time on other routes as side trips.
So when my memories returned in this life, I had been so happy I could die.
Then why was nothing working?!
Why was the villainess already his wife?!
Why was she even pregnant?!
It pissed me off!
It pissed me off!!
This world was supposed to exist for me!
…But I couldn't cause trouble for the viscount and his wife.
They were kind people who had adopted me.
If I did anything to Ferry right now, Myuze would almost certainly destroy me.
No matter how much I hated it, for the moment I needed to behave.
This was the world of Tru-Love.
If I waited, the villainess would eventually start bullying me, and her true nature would be exposed.
Then Myuze would finally abandon Ferry and return to me.
That had to be what would happen.
Everything would be fine.
I only had to endure for now.
I imagined myself standing beside Myuze and pictured a pathetic Ferry sobbing and clinging to him as he rejected her.
The thought made my chest feel lighter.
When I reached the academy, I found my textbook torn to pieces and thrown in front of the teacher's desk.
We were technically required to take our books home with us.
So yes, I'd been lazy and left mine behind.
But whoever did this was still the one in the wrong.
There was only one person in this class who would do something like this.
That villainess.
"Lady Ferry did this…"
I told the classmates who gathered around.
Every one of them looked at me like that was impossible.
What the hell were you background characters getting fooled by?!
I caught sight of Myuze and Ferry entering the classroom.
I wasn't going to let her get everything her way!
"It absolutely had to be Lady Ferry!"
I grabbed the ruined textbook and marched toward them.
Myuze immediately stepped in front of Ferry protectively.
"What do you want, transfer student?"
His icy voice and gaze made me flinch.
But this was an event.
The first step toward the condemnation ending.
My comeback started here!
"Lady Ferry…did this…"
When I showed him the ruined book, Myuze frowned.
"You're saying Ferry did this to your book?"
His stare was freezing.
I almost lost my nerve.
But there was no doubt Ferry had done it!
"…I can't think of anyone else."
I thought I'd said it with confidence.
Myuze only snorted as if I were stupid.
"Hah. Ridiculous. Ferry would never waste her time on someone like you, much less do something this childish."
She's the villainess!
Of course it was her!
Why are you so completely fooled by her, Myuze?!
"…I understand that you want to believe Lady Ferry…but!"
I was trying as hard as I could to look meek.
But Myuze was looking at me with pure disgust, like I was something dirty.
"Ferry doesn't even have time to do something like this. She's with me practically every hour of the day. When exactly would she have done it?"
"After school, maybe…"
"That's even more impossible! Ferry is pregnant. The moment her required classes end, she goes home. She never stays until after school."
"But! Lady Ferry is the only person who would—"
No matter what I said, Myuze dismantled every argument.
I just wanted him to see the truth, but nothing worked.
"What do you know about Ferry? Ferry is as kind as a goddess, unlike you. That textbook was probably ruined by someone who resents you for chasing after His Highness and the others."
"That's…horrible…"
"You were literally called 'arrogant' in the bathroom, weren't you? I also heard you lash out at Ferry after she helped you. I heard all of it quite clearly."
I had seen Myuze outside the bathroom that day.
But he heard all that?!
What kind of ears did he have?!
Was that ever part of his character settings?!
"That was…I didn't mean…"
"I don't know why you're trying to pin this on Ferry, but I will not tolerate any more of it! Do you want to learn what it means to make an enemy of me and House Lambest?!"
This was bad!
I panicked and said, "I-I'm sorry! I think I made a mistake!"
But Myuze just glared at me with the face of an ice demon.
"I already told you there wouldn't be a next time. If you make any more noise over this, I will show you no mercy."
"I'm sorry…"
Why was this happening to me?!
Ferry was obviously the one in the wrong!
Destroying a textbook was classic villainess behavior!
So I deliberately took the long way around just so I could pass beside Ferry and mutter, "Tch. You're just the villainess."
Somehow Myuze heard even that.
"Hey! Stop!"
His voice was so cold it made my spine freeze.
Seriously, what was going on?!
"You truly seem determined to make me angry!"
As if I'd want to make him angry!
I didn't want him to hate me!
Myuze was my ultimate favorite!
And Ferry's current position was supposed to be mine in the first place!
"N-no! I didn't do anything—"
"I heard you perfectly! You called Ferry a villainess!"
"But that's because—"
She really is the villainess!
"What part of Ferry is villainous?! I don't know another woman whose heart, body, face—whose entire existence—is as perfect and beautiful as Ferry's! If you're going to call Ferry a villainess, then you're the vicious, hideous, rotten-natured lady here!"
I went blank.
What?
Did Myuze have bad eyesight?!
What part of her was he looking at to say something like that?!
She obviously looked like a villainess!
That pointlessly dramatic face and those nasty-looking eyes practically screamed, I'm evil!
And how was I vicious, hideous, and rotten-natured?!
I'm the heroine!
The heroine of this world!
The girl everyone is supposed to love!
So he had superhuman hearing but terrible eyesight?!
Why did I have to be insulted this badly?!
I was screaming all of that in my head, but no words came out.
When I finally managed to speak, the words broke apart pathetically.
"…Why… Why should I, the heroine, have to hear something like that…? Myuze is mine… He's supposed to be mine…"
It sounded unbelievably pathetic.
"When did I ever become yours? I've belonged to Ferry alone ever since our engagement!"
Myuze said it with obvious disgust, then turned toward Ferry.
His expression changed instantly into a gentle, peaceful smile.
And then the whole classroom started applauding.
Unbelievable!
What was wrong with everyone?!
Myuze suddenly walked toward me.
For a moment, hope rose on my face.
Then he bent slightly and leaned close to my ear.
"You should see a psychiatrist. You're seriously deranged."
His voice was ice-cold.
All I felt was despair.
After school, a teacher summoned me because she'd heard about the commotion.
"It appears you're being harassed. Are you all right?"
Our homeroom teacher, Ms. Cherly, asked the question while repeatedly pushing her thick glasses up her nose.
Of course I'm not all right!
"The academy cannot tolerate harassment. However, we also recognize that your own behavior has contributed to the hostility you're facing."
"What?! I'm the victim here!"
"You are indeed a victim. But in another sense, you have also been an aggressor."
"What part of me is the aggressor?!"
"…It seems I must speak plainly before you understand. Your physical closeness to Prince Heldrias and the others is not appropriate behavior for either a noblewoman or a lady. His Highness asked the academy to be patient with you because you were formerly a commoner and are still unfamiliar with noble society, so we have watched without intervening. Nevertheless, we have received complaints from many students. His Highness and the others have officially recognized fiancées. If you ignore that fact, press your body against them, and behave with excessive familiarity, naturally there will be people who resent you. You yourself have been acting in ways that provoke hostility from those around you. That does not mean I believe others are free to mistreat you. But you must take responsibility for your own actions as well and exercise restraint."
"Why? Isn't that weird?! I'm the victim! Why am I the one getting scolded?"
"Your manner of speaking is also unacceptable. …Your behavior has become that conspicuous. The academy will watch carefully to prevent further harassment, but you must also behave appropriately as both a noble and a lady."
"…I can't believe this."
"Honestly… It appears we need to have a proper discussion with the viscount and his wife, your guardians."
"What?! House Negan has nothing to do with this!"
"They have everything to do with it! Every action you take is considered an action of that house. If you commit a serious offense, your parents, the viscount and viscountess, may be required to share responsibility for it. Your reputation becomes the reputation of House Negan. Both praise and disgrace attach themselves to that family."
"No…"
"You are able to attend this academy and live as a nobleman's daughter because the viscount and his wife adopted you. Do not repay their kindness with harm. Be careful with your words and actions."
All I could do was stare at Ms. Cherly in shock.