“No, I was just saying they matched because they actually did.”
Caroline said to me urgently, her eyes begging me not to misunderstand.
“Do you honestly think the Young Lady would choose those colors for a dress code? I knew she wouldn’t, so……”
“Instead, she’d think I was ignorant for taking your advice and suggesting it to her.”
“……!”
“Haa, Caroline. Why on earth did you come here?”
I rubbed my throbbing temples and asked, prompting Caroline to bite down hard on her lower lip.
Just then, Becky arrived with tea and cookies, cutting our conversation short.
Caroline kept her lips tightly pressed together, lost in thought until Becky left. Once silence returned, she looked at me, as if she had finally sorted out her thoughts.
“The Young Lady stole His Highness away from me.”
What in the world was this?
My eyes widened at the word “stole” coming from Caroline’s mouth.
“His Highness surely must have intended for me to be his partner for the hunting festival, but……”
“Did His Highness actually say that?”
I deliberately interrupted her, as she seemed ready to spiral like a runaway train, saying whatever came to mind regardless of whether it was appropriate.
I didn’t know how this had happened, but if things continued this way, Caroline wouldn’t become the heroine; she would turn into a villain like Pere.
*Pere stole Lloyd?* I couldn’t understand how she could think that way about the Crown Prince, who wasn’t even hers to begin with.
“That’s not the case, but… I know. His Highness the Crown Prince definitely considered me his hunting festival partner.”
“Oh, Caroline. What are you saying right now?”
I was so dumbfounded it was almost baffling. I covered my face with both hands and let out a deep sigh.
“It’s true. You don’t believe me?”
“This isn’t a matter of belief, Caroline. Unless His Highness the Crown Prince explicitly told you he would take you as his partner for the hunting festival, everything you’re saying right now is just your own delusion.”
“It’s not a delusion! His Highness… he…!”
“Then why did he choose Pere instead of you? And he did it personally, too.”
Of course, I was behind that decision, but there was no way Caroline could know that.
“That’s because the Young Lady used her influence behind the scenes!”
Caroline shouted in excitement.
It seemed she was absolutely convinced that Lloyd would choose her as his hunting festival partner. When Lloyd chose Pere instead, it appeared she had become incapable of logical thought.
I told Caroline to calm down before asking her seriously.
“What kind of trick do you think Pere used to become the Crown Prince’s partner?”
“I don’t know. But I’m sure of it. If the Young Lady hadn’t interfered between His Highness and me, why on earth would the Crown Prince be partners with her instead of me…?”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
I interrupted her irrational rambling and asked.
Caroline stared straight at me.
“Better yet, ask His Highness directly. Why he chose Pere instead of you. He’ll give you an answer, won’t he?”
Of course, Lloyd wouldn’t be able to talk about the reality of the situation with me, so he would just make an excuse about a handkerchief, or simply say he did it because he wanted to.
Considering the man from the original work and the one I’d seen here, he was definitely not the type to explain his personal affairs to anyone.
“How could I ask him? If I ask, he’ll treat me like an ignorant noble who doesn’t know her place.”
“Oh, you’re saying that yourself? You have a better grasp of your place than I thought, at least. That’s a relief.”
“……What?”
“Just like you said, right now, you look like an ignorant noble who doesn’t know her place to me as well.”
At my words, Caroline flared up.
“Ellie!”
“I don’t know what makes you think Pere stole something of yours, but Pere has never taken anything from you. The Crown Prince was never yours to begin with.”
“……!”
“I don’t know what basis you have for thinking the Crown Prince marked you as his hunting festival partner, but……”
“Everyone said so! Everyone! You’re the only one saying it isn’t so! Everyone told me I would be his partner for the hunting festival!”
She was agitated, definitely agitated. The agitated heroine of the original was just as vicious as the villainess.
But why do I find this look cute? Am I just weak to the sharp-tongued and wicked type…?
I stared at Caroline, who was bristling like a cat with its fur raised, then let out a short sigh and said to her:
“Just because everyone says it, doesn’t mean it’s true, Caroline.”
Cute was one thing, but wallowing in delusions and losing her way was a big problem, so I hoped she would come to her senses now.
Once we became adults and the villains appeared, this girl in front of me would join forces with the main and sub-male leads to save the empire; that was a great achievement I should be grateful for.
After all, this is the world I have to live in until I grow old and die. So, I hoped my intervention wouldn’t ruin the good reputation she had built just because things were different from the original story.
“But I have intuition and a gut feeling. It’s not just about what others are saying…”
“Is that gut feeling telling you that my sister stole your man? If so, throw that crappy feeling away.”
“……!”
“A marriage arrangement between the Emperor and the Duke of Mekkenedeji has been in discussion since before Pere was even born. If you really want to get into it, you’re the one who inserted yourself into a situation that could have been a betrothal from birth.”
“That’s only because the Young Lady was born as a Young Lady…!”
Caroline shouted, sounding aggrieved. As expected, Caroline was sensitive about her status as a minor Baroness. Reading the original, I often felt her humble background was a sensitive spot, and this confirmed it.
“Exactly. God chose for Pere to be born as a Young Lady.”
Caroline’s face stiffened at my words. I hadn’t touched upon her status as a mere Baron’s daughter, but mentioning that Pere had been chosen by God to be born into a Duke’s family seemed to leave her speechless.
“That, too, is God’s choice.”
I wondered if it was necessary to bring God into this, but nothing else seemed to work on the currently agitated Caroline. Since she believed her light-attribute powers were the closest thing to the power God bestowed upon humans, I was certain she would react to the idea of a “divine choice.”
Regardless, Caroline herself believed she was born with light-attribute powers because she had been chosen by God.
“So, I don’t think you have any reason to feel aggrieved that Pere was born with the status of a Young Lady.”
“……I.”
Caroline started to say something but clamped her lips shut. It seemed she wanted to say she wasn’t feeling aggrieved, but since she clearly was, she couldn’t bring herself to tell such an obvious lie.
“Anyway, Caroline. Unless His Highness the Crown Prince personally asked you to be his partner for the hunting festival, I wish you wouldn’t think that Pere stole him from you.”
Caroline stared at me blankly. I couldn’t tell if she had understood me or if she was just too stunned, but at least after doing this much, I hoped she wouldn’t go around spreading the nonsense that Pere had taken what was hers.
However.
“Ellie, you… you really feel like a different person.”
Caroline said this out of the blue, looking at me.
“Hmm?”
“You feel completely different from the version of you I used to know.”
“We haven’t known each other that long, yet you talk as if you know everything about me.”
“At least I know what you were like when you, a commoner, bought your Viscount title.”
“…….”
“Even though I am from a Baronet family of lower status than a Viscount, back then, before you started hanging around the Young Lady, you were… to me…”
“I treated you like a noble of high standing.”
Ha, look at this…?
“But now, you are treating me like someone of a lower rank than you, and you’re even lecturing me.”
So, that’s what this was. It meant that she, a commoner who had bought a Viscount title with money, thought I dared to lecture someone who had been a noble since birth.
“Ellie, I say this out of concern, but surely you don’t think that just because you’re spending time with the Young Lady, you’ve become her equal in status, do you? I’m truly just worried about you.”
Caroline said this, clutching both of my hands with an expression of such harmless goodness.
Hoh, would you look at this?