I thought that being able to manage a field so well was a wonderful thing, but apparently Cyrus didn’t agree. He looked very sad.
“Mister Lanchester,” replied Maria, “I have nothing but admiration for your beautiful field, and I see no reason to laugh at you.”
As expected of my (one-sidedly appointed) close friend. She took the words out of my mouth. That makes me a bit — no, it makes me very happy.
“...Maria Campbell... I’m the one who admires you now,” he replied, smiling and blushing.
It was probably for a different reason, but Cyrus seemed to be happy as well.
“E-Excuse me,” said Maria, looking deadly serious, “but I thought that you... hated me?”
She had talked to me about it earlier that day. She was mistaking Cyrus’s cold treatment for hate, which is why she was so surprised at being told he admired her.
“H-Hate? Why, I would never...” he said, becoming nervous once again.
Cyrus had thought that the way that he was hiding his feelings was so perfect that nobody would notice anything weird. I had to intervene again.
“You see, Maria, Mister Cyrus has always lived in the country, with nobody but old men and women around him, so he isn’t used to talking with young girls. He says that he gets nervous around them, especially cute ones like you, and mfghfgh...”
I felt Cyrus covering my mouth with his hand once again.
“Katarina Claes, could you be any less subtle?!” he asked, staring at me while his face had become completely red.
Was there anything wrong with my explanation? It’s a complex subject after all, I was worrying to myself, but Maria’s face seemed more relaxed.
“S-So, does that mean that you do not hate me, Mister Lanchester?” she asked.
“Th-That’s right. I don’t,” he said, nodding and still blushing, his face red. “As Miss Katarina remarked, I’ve almost never talked to a young girl before coming here, and so I become nervous about it... Pitiful, I know. I believe that this time you may really want to laugh at me. Go ahead,” he said sadly.
“I am so glad...” Maria said with a smile.
“...Huh?”
Cyrus stared at Maria in surprise.
“I always thought that you hated me, but I am so glad to realize that that was not the case,” she said, sounding relieved.
Cyrus’s face turned an even brighter shade of red.
“And I am also happy to be able to speak with you like this, Mister Lanchester, since I do not get the chance to do so at work.”
She must have been really happy, because she was sporting a beautiful, innocent smile. I thought that Cyrus couldn’t get any redder, but he did. He now looked more like a boiled octopus than a human.
“B-But... Aren’t you disappointed seeing how different I am when I’m here compared to when I’m at work?” he said.
When he was his honest, farmer self, he could be very pessimistic.
“Not at all. Seeing you like this has a charm of its own. You are as wonderful here as a farmer as you are as a superior at work, Mister Lanchester,” she replied with the cutest of smiles.
The wind started blowing, and the petals from the flowers near us flew into the air and between Cyrus and Maria as the two stared at each other.
Th-This is it! It’s that picture from my dream! It looks exactly the same! It’s so pretty!
I was overcome with emotion. In my excitement, I was breathing so heavily that my nostrils had visibly flared.
“When we’re here,” Cyrus, who had probably completely forgotten about me, said in his sweetest, gentlest voice, “don’t call me Lanchester. Call me Cyrus.”
“Yes, Mister Cyrus,” Maria cutely replied.
Now this really looks like an otome game! It’s so beautiful.
I’d managed to get Cyrus, who was one of the romanceable options, to fall in love with the protagonist, and we all decided to go home for the day. After all, Cyrus had just fallen in love (probably for the first time in his life) and was spacing out so much that there was no hope of him getting any work done on the field.
From the next day on, Maria would be coming to the field together with me.
“I want to talk with Mister Cyrus more, and if I go to that field, I will be able to see Lady Katarina every day!” she had explained.
It seemed that Maria was interested in Cyrus as well. Very good. You’re on the right path.
Not being able to work the field today, I went back home earlier than usual.
“Haah, I’ve done my share of good deeds for the day,” I said to myself while lying down on my bed. I had helped Cyrus overcome his nervousness with girls and cleared up Maria’s misunderstanding. I felt like a generous Cupid.
Hehe, me? Cupid? Nice... I was grinning to myself and staring at the ceiling when I remembered the cute young boy who had eaten lunch with me today.
Now that I think about it, Dewey’s been in MARIA-LOVE mode since the examination.
We weren’t on the best terms at first, but now that we were friends, I also felt that I wanted him to succeed in his romantic aspirations... But there was only one Maria. What could I do?
To be honest, I had almost no experience with romance, so I was at a loss.
It was time to summon them.
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
“Very well. We are now going to think of the fairest option in regards to the romance between Maria and two of the romanceable options for Fortune Lover II, namely Dewey and Cyrus.”
“I am afraid that we Katarinas have little to no experience with love, but we shall nonetheless put forth our best efforts in dealing with this issue for the sake of Maria and our two friends.”
“Does anyone have any good ideas?”
“Ideas? Well, we haven’t really done much romancing, neither here nor in our past life. I’m clueless.”
“But our performance today was outstanding!”
“It was, yes, but we weren’t really going for that, were we? It just kind of happened.”
“Whatever the case, Maria said that she’ll be coming to the field too from now on. Maybe we should stop going so that she can spend some time alone with Cyrus and get closer to him.”
“That sounds good! But wait, wouldn’t that leave Dewey out?”
“What about inviting Dewey to the field as well?”
“Hm... Would Dewey be interested in farming work? Also, Cyrus wouldn’t take well to that many people knowing about his secret...”
“I am sorry to interrupt, but may I speak?”
“Katarina Claes? What is the matter?”
“The two of you seem to be focusing on how to make Maria and the two love interests come together...”
“Yes, we are! We are Cupids, angels of love! Hehehe!”
“...I see. But, are you not forgetting something very important?”
“Important? We definitely didn’t forget dinner, nor did we forget dessert, and we certainly remembered to secure some late-night snacks for today.”
“...It will just be faster to tell you. Katarina Claes is a villainess — the antagonist in FL2, and the romance between Maria and the other characters will put us on a route that leads to doom!”
“Gasp!”
“Gasp!”
“Judging by those reactions, you had both forgotten about it, had you not?”
“Y-Yes... I had been paying attention at first, but there was a lot to learn at work, and working on the field was so fun that I just forgot about the whole villainess thing...”
“For some reason I’d also forgotten that detail...”
“That’s the problem with us, Katarina. The second something new catches our attention, we forget the important stuff. We have to be careful.”
“You are right. Maybe we should write important things on sticky notes, or better yet directly on our hand.”
“That’s
smart! We’ll put the notes up in our room!”
“Yes. What should we write on them?”
“...Pardon me, but maybe that can wait. For the time being, can we discuss how to avoid doom?”
“Y-You’re right. Chairwoman Claes, please change today’s agenda from ‘making Maria grow closer to Dewey and Cyrus’ to ‘avoiding doom.’”
“Yes. Good. Let’s start our meeting on avoiding doom in FL2, then.”
“So, does anyone have any good ideas?”
“Yes. We must stop helping Maria and the others fall in love and give up on being angels of love.”
“...That makes sense, but they are already on friendly terms, and both seem to be in MARIA-LOVE mode... I am afraid that we are headed for doom.”
“What can we do? Should we shut ourselves in our room?”
“That does not seem reasonable...”
“If that is the case, we should study how to dodge attacks, how to run away from jails, and how to get our sentence reduced to exile abroad.”
“I agree. That is the best thing to do.”
“It is decided then. We will investigate Dewey and Cyrus to see if they have any weaknesses, like Jeord.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We successfully went through the plot of Fortune Lover while (somehow) avoiding doom. In the process, we became smarter (even graduating from the academy, somehow) and stronger (at tilling the soil). We shall survive! We shall spend a peaceful retirement with a cat on our lap!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
And thus, another Katarina meeting came to an end, even though the agenda changed halfway through. I sat up on my bed and raised a clenched fist.
Yes! I’m going to do my best!
★★★★★★★★
My name is Cyrus Lanchester. After graduating from the Academy of Magic, I started working at the Ministry. I was appreciated for my skills, and, perhaps due to how diligently and passionately I worked, I became a department director before others who had been there longer than me.
Many envied me for this... but sometimes I wished I could go back to the country, where I was raised — that peaceful village where there were more cattle than people.
Colleagues at work considered me a high-ranking noble, but I was brought up as a farmer, and surrounded by other farmers for all my childhood.
However, I’d been hiding my heritage since the time I enrolled into the academy so that people wouldn’t laugh at me. It was too late to stop pretending, so, day after day, I did my best to play the part of the noble. The only place where I could relax was the field that I’d secretly built in a little-visited part of the Ministry.
Everything changed one spring day, a short time after newcomers had been welcomed into the Magical Ministry.
I finished work and, as I always did, made for my field. I entered the small hut next to the field and changed into my farming clothes, grabbed my hoe, and went out. Nothing unusual so far.
But the second I left the hut, my life took a strange turn.
“Excuse me,” I heard a voice call out to me. Nobody was supposed to know about this place, so I was surprised to find someone there, but what was even more surprising was who this someone was.
Katarina Claes, daughter of Duke Claes and fiancée of Prince Jeord. She was a real-life high-ranking noble who had nothing to do with a country boy like me, who was only noble on paper.
What was she doing in this empty place at the edge of the Ministry?
Unable to grasp the situation, I froze in place, staring at her.
“Director Cyrus Lanchester...” she muttered, making me snap out of my trance.
“That’s not me,” is all I managed to reply. This surprised her, and made her stare at me even harder. I repeated my lie while hiding my face, fully aware of how unconvincing I was. We had met just a few days ago, and now I could feel her gaze piercing through my profile.
However, I could not admit that Cyrus Lanchester, director of the Magic and Magical Powers Research Department, was in farming attire with a hoe in hand, ready to plow a field. The image of me that I’d worked so hard to maintain would be utterly destroyed.
Katarina remained silent for a while. I couldn’t look at her face, but I hoped that she would just give up and leave. And then...
“Wow, you can tell that they’ll be delicious just by looking at them,” she said all of a sudden.
I turned to face her, and she was looking excitedly at the asparagus I was so proud of.
Those feelings that I had repressed for so many years started flowing back inside me.
When I was living in the country, we would show each other our vegetables and comment on how good each other’s harvest was. However, here in the city, no one did any such thing. All I could do was anonymously bring my vegetables to the dining hall, so I couldn’t even ask what people thought of them directly. I was proud of them, but I was longing — nay, starving for external recognition!
“What?! Duke’s daughter Katarina Claes understands the beauty of this asparagus?!” I asked her in my excitement.
When she said that she did, I felt happier than I had in many years. I started extolling the virtues of my asparagus, before realizing that, in my enthusiasm, I had gone back to the accent that I had been struggling so hard to hide all these years. Understanding that I couldn’t salvage the situation anymore, I sighed, and asked Katarina Claes to listen to my story.
She nodded with a serious face, and I went on to explain my background for the first time.
Once I was done, I asked Katarina not to tell anyone about my secret, and, surprisingly, she immediately agreed.
I was extremely relieved, but then I noticed her eyes squint ever so slightly as she said, “...But on one condition.”
I frowned, but I wasn’t surprised. Knowing the secret of my field and my story was a major weakness. Anyone who knew this secret could use it against me and blackmail me with it. I had already realized this when I’d started talking to Katarina, and I was ready to pay to keep her quiet. I just made sure to tell her, while staring at her blue eyes, that I could only meet requests that were legal and within my power.
“Let me help you with this field. And, while we are at it, I’d love it if you could teach me what you know about growing tasty vegetables,” she said, betraying all of my expectations.
I predicted she would ask for special treatment at the Ministry or something to that effect, but... helping with the field?
First of all, why would a noble young lady understand the value of my asparagus? Most nobles have never even seen vegetables before they are prepared for them to eat, so why?
I was so confused that I stood still, unable to answer her, as more and more questions popped up inside my head.
“Is that not okay...?” she asked me timidly.
Utterly perplexed, I told her that I wouldn’t mind, and she seemed overjoyed at my answer.
Still unable to process what had happened, I saw Katarina off from the field. She was smiling as she said that she looked forward to starting work on the field the next day.
I was too confused to keep working, so I went back to the dormitory.
Even when I thought about it more calmly while lying on my bed, the situation was just as perplexing. Was it some novel kind of prank? Was it a dream?
However, the next day, I got confirmation that our exchange had not been a dream.
“Good evening,” a smiling Katarina greeted me, in full farming attire and even donning a kerchief on her head as only the oldest women used to do, even back in the country.
It turned out that she hadn’t been joking, and actually planned to work on the field. I decided that thinking about it wasn’t worth the effort and started farming with her.
I quickly realized that she had some amount of experience with growing vegetables. She still had a lot to learn, but she wasn’t a complete amateur either, and she picked up new information fas
t.
“Have you ever worked on a field before?” I asked her.
“Yes! In my garden at home and then at the Academy of Magic,” she replied briskly.
The garden of a duke’s manor and the Academy of Magic... I was working a field inside the Ministry myself, but I was still taken aback. And the biggest question still remained.
“But why would a noble like you do something like that?”
“Well, I just wanted to learn some practical skills in case I needed to find a job in the future.”
“...You are the daughter of Duke Claes, and you’re engaged to a prince... I don’t think you’ll ever need to find a job...”
“You never know what life has in store for you, right? You’ve got to be prepared.”
After that reply, I found myself at a loss for words.
And, anyway, why farming of all things? She could use magic and had received the training and education of a noble — she could choose any practical skill that she wanted. I had tons of doubts, but she looked at me with twinkling eyes, saying, “So, please teach me more about farming!” and I decided that I didn’t really need to inquire any further.
I stopped asking her questions, and we started working together as I taught her all I knew about vegetable growing.
A few days passed with Katarina coming to the field every evening, and, before I noticed, I had grown closer to her. Because of the environment that I grew up in, I wasn’t comfortable around girls, but she had none of the girly aura that made me nervous.
For example, when making tea for the two of us, I ended up serving pickles with it out of habit. I thought that that would make any young person squeamish, but she happily munched on them while praising their taste. She reminded me of the old women back home who worked on the fields with me.
Therefore, I eventually stopped feeling any hint of nervousness around her, and I occasionally even spoke with my old accent, despite all the efforts I’d made to hide it so far. After all this time farming alone, it was fun to have someone do it with me.
One day we were taking a short rest, sitting on a blanket on the ground with tea and pickles between us.
My Next Life as a Villainess Page 8