Chapter 17: I'm the Villainess, but I Will Participate in the Event (悪役令嬢ですがイベントに参戦します)

"My Lady, would you like to have dinner now?"

As soon as Ekaterina returned from the academy, she crawled into her bed. Mina called her to eat with her usual calm voice.

"...Mina, eat it for me..."

"I don't need it. Why is it me who ends up eating it, My Lady?"

"...Because it'll be wasteful if no one eats it."

Wasting food would incur heaven's wrath. Food loss should be reduced as much as possible.

Mina pat Ekaterina's back from the top of the duvet.

"I'm relieved that you're not crying. What are you doing under the duvet, My Lady?"

"I'm thinking..."

"Why do you look so dejected? If I'm bothering you, I won't enter the bedroom until you call me."

"......"

"Please call me when you have calmed down."

After saying that, Mina left. I raised my body, restless.

Uryahhh! Then I removed the duvet from her. Still on my uniform, I folded my arms and crossed my legs, looking like a monk entering a contemplating state.

When I properly use my brain, I'll end up having this posture! But I can't show it to anyone in this world! Because I'm a noble lady!

Ahh~~~ But what should I do now?

I knew this world from a game. But once again, I was fully reminded that this was a different world. Like Flora and Brother, everyone in this country, or even this world, believed that the position of social status is the law.

I don't want to criticize it. It's the logical thinking in this world.

Brother told me, "You will face a constant struggle with your classmates." Probably, the Three Great Duke was like the Tokugawa Gosanke. In history, the families in Tokugawa Gosanke had a secret feud all the time. Brother also fought on that stage full of conspiracy plans. Thinking so, what he said to me was right.

However, it clashed with the sense I built in my previous life. I had no idea what were the disadvantages of having a commoner friend. Also, I knew that Flora would prove her worth from now on from my knowledge of the game. And Ekaterina, surrounded by the Yes-Yes Trio, had a higher social status than Flora. But she ended up in ruin. That's why I believe I shouldn't judge anyone by their status.

However, when I thought about it carefully, the aristocratic system existed in Japan seventy years ago. GHQ only abolished it after World War II.

Besides, the concept of human rights... um, the ergonomics of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that said all human beings are naturally free and have equal rights...? That belief was adopted after the war. It's only recently that the declaration became a familiar concept. No. Actually, that idea existed even earlier in the French Revolution slogan, "freedom, equality, philanthropy." I think some people already have that belief in this world.

But the French Revolution was bloody. When Napoleon became the emperor, there was no equality...

Yeah, it's not like everyone had equality in my previous life. The real thing was there was a common understanding that we should be equal.

Before I died from overwork, the widening disparity was a problem. Let's talk about Japan. We adopted the mentality that all Japanese were in the middle-class economy, but if we looked at it from a bigger scale, it was only a moment in history. Probably, the gap between the rich and poor was temporarily closed because GHQ disbanded the business combines and released the farmland. We only narrowed the gap between the rich and the poor for a moment. Looking back, didn't we have a revolution just a little while ago? It wouldn't be strange if the social status system were revived in my previous world. The wheels would come full circle.

So it's not time for me to be shocked.

...But I guess I was shocked. I even thought about those complicated things to calm myself.

Also, what upsets me was not just the difference with my previous world, but also how strict Alexei talked to the current Ekaterina.

Ekaterina had been imprisoned in a villa for a long time. The only chance she had to meet a child of the same age was when she occasionally saw her brother passing by in front of the villa. Even after moving to Duke's residence in the Yurinovas' territory, she was not just wilful, but basically scared of everything. That's why she didn't listen to her surroundings most of the time.

That's why it's fun to talk to Flora and cook with her. I had memories of my friends from my past life, but this was Ekaterina's first experience since she was born. Flora was the first friend she ever made.

However, Flora personally told her that she shouldn't be with her. Her brother also did the final blow, agreeing with Flora... Ahhh, too cruel.

I knew that she said that after considering our positions carefully, but I kept persistently approaching her. Thinking about how Flora didn't want to get along with me made me sad.

When we were together, the students around us gave us strange looks. She might think that I was actually a bother... I'm getting depressed. I couldn't even raise my face.

I didn't even remember anything from my afternoon class! Waaah!

But then! Remember this!

This was the correct route in the otome game. Raise the affection level of the prince. When other men approached the heroine from here and there, she must temporarily push the prince away.

The reason for her denial was because she cared for him, not wishing to get in his way by staying on his side.

That was the correct answer. Then the prince would chase the heroine who ran away from him. That's how Flora captured him, pushing and pulling from time to time.

Love tactics! Doing this kind of thing for real was absolutely impossible for me!

I played the game with that mindset, but I realized this after coming to the game world.

That indeed traced Flora's real personality. Wait. In the first place, does Flora have the right character to make the game flow smoothly?

Chicken first or egg first?

But I'm sure she took a distance from me because she had such a character. She was considering my status.

Then I should keep chasing her, like what the prince did in the game. Tell her that we should ignore other people. What's the sin if I want to stay with you? If I told her so repeatedly, she would understand.

...Why did I sound like I was seriously trying to capture the heroine... W-well, I would soon stick her with her destined prince, so no need to worry!

Huh? If we changed the viewpoint, the villainess was taking the prince's position, getting captured by the heroine...? Ahaha.

I should be able to fix my relationship with Flora. The problem was my brother...

I unfolded my arms. I rested my elbows and my cheeks on my knees and started contemplating.

What is the problem?

I knew that Brother had the mindset of a noble, be it for good or for bad. As a person born to be a Duke, he had a high pride, aware that he was different from other people.

A seventeen-year-old student who did his best on his work everyday. That's his noblesse oblige. Like how he fulfilled his duty, it's natural for him to think that people in lower ranks should act as their status.

I really like that part of Brother. He was calm and collected. The more strict he was to others, the more strict he acted to himself. He was enough that his surroundings thought that he was thickheaded, inflexible, and unable to understand other people's feelings. Yet, he bore the most tremendous burden even if no one understood his bitterness.

Yeah. I love Brother. There's no doubt of it.

He said something shocking to me, who still had Japanese mentality imprinted with human rights and equality awareness. The way I reacted was intolerant to him because I was upset by Flora's words.

But it's not strange that Brother had such a mindset and made such a statement. It's logical. Yet why did I make a fuss about it?

Thinking about it, this was the first time I'd ever felt a gap with Brother since I remembered my previous life...

How would he take my response? Maybe he would be disappointed since his sister wasn't suitable to be the noble lady of the Duke family...

...He wouldn't. Because he was a hardcore siscon. Rather, I should be worried if Brother was depressed after I cried. I even told him that he was the same as that shitty grandma.

"Ah!" I unconsciously exclaimed.

Ah, this is it!

Brother's siscon was mixed with mothercon. A part of him regretted and felt remorse that he couldn't save Mother. He expressed that by pampering his sister, who resembled his mother.

That also led to an aversion to the shitty grandma who picked on Mother until her death.

I knew that, yet I told Brother that he was the same as the shitty grandma who bullied Mother!

It's like I stabbed straight into his trauma!

So I felt depressed not because I was hurt, but because I had hurt Brother! And now I was scared if he would hate me after I hurt him!

I was still inexperienced in becoming a brocon. I had to work hard so that I would never do this again! My character was already questionable, though!

But I couldn't forgive myself for hurting my favorite character!

Alright. I already investigated the cause of everything, made a plan to solve it, and sorted my feelings. Now, let's start moving quickly.