Chapter 10

Strolling through the vast gardens of the ducal household of Celion, I looked at the woman timidly following close behind me like a frightened baby bird. She was a girl who grew more adorable the more you looked at her. Perhaps because she was still only fifteen, an age where cuteness was emphasized far more than maturity or beauty, it felt like any man would find it impossible to take his eyes off her, even if she wasn’t necessarily his exact type.

Furthermore, how adorably anxious she looked—my heart wanted to spill everything and apologize for everything, but doing so would mean an instant game over, so I held back hard.

No, wait a minute.

Apologizing in this situation wasn’t actually a bad choice. The only difference from my initial thought was apologizing without letting on that I knew about regression. What I needed to act out here was ‘Armienne, who had repented for her sins.’

So, how should I act so word would spread about what a good job I did?

Thinking that, I came to a halt in the path and turned around. Seeing Harmiel startle sharply, as if she had been deep in thought, when I stopped so abruptly, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Harmiel.”

“Yes.”

Just hearing me call out her name made her clutch her hem and stiffen her body rigidly, and seeing that evoked a sense of pity deep inside me.

She was truly a fragile woman. Among the other housemaids, there were a few girls with unusually weak temperaments; even if you placed Harmiel among them, it felt like she would simply turn into a tiny hamster surrounded by massive rats.

Initially, I had planned to just keep up an act, but seeing her like that made me genuinely start to feel sorry. Of course, I wasn’t the original Armienne, but regardless, Harmiel would undoubtedly find just the sight of this face terrifying and the sound of this voice repulsive.

“This might sound a bit sudden, but I had a really mystical dream about a month ago.”

“A mystical dream…?”

At my words, Harmiel flinched and cringed into herself as much as possible.

I maintained a gentle smile as I continued my story.

“Yeah, at first I didn’t even realize it was a dream. It felt way too vivid to just be one. Do you know, I spent a whole ten years inside that dream? Oh, don’t laugh. I’m being completely serious.”

“……….”

Harmiel wasn’t laughing at all, but to keep the mood light, I played every part by myself, beating the drum and clashing the cymbals solo. Before long, Harmiel swallowed hard, unable to pull her gaze away from my face. Seeing her like that, I wiped the smile clean off my face, lowered my head deeply, and spoke.

“In that dream, I was a truly terrible b*tch. Especially to you, Harmiel—I tormented you to an incredible degree. In ways incomparable to how it is now, I mean. No matter what you tried to do, I interfered, and even though you happened to meet Prince Fren by chance, I went wild with jealousy and envied you. I spent so much time consumed by jealousy and envy until eventually….”

“Eventually?”

Gulp.

Covering my face with both hands, I made my confession.

“I ended up killing you, Harmiel.”

At my words, Harmiel trembled violently in a way that couldn’t even be compared to earlier.

“…H-how?”

I could feel just how immensely agitated she was without even needing to look. The content I had spoken of matched what happened right before Harmiel died prior to her regression. In other words, while I didn’t actually know about her regression, I was spinning a fabricated tale that I’d had the exact same dream, throwing Harmiel into total confusion.

And I needed to dramatize the story just a little bit.

“Yet, the Harmiel in that dream didn’t hate me until the very end.”

“T-that can’t be. I’m not such a kind person that I’d…”

No. In reality, before her regression, Harmiel had wept bitterly, vowing that if she ever came back to life, she would never forgive Armienne and would refuse to keep taking it lying down.

“On top of that, she even understood me.”

This, too, was false. The Harmiel described in the original novel had never once understood Armienne—not even in death, not even after regressing, right up until the very moment Armienne drew her final breath.

However, stories are meant to be crafted. In the first place, the one who takes the initiative and steers the narrative is always the person who speaks first and unfolds the tale. And the one currently confusing and leading Harmiel by the nose was none other than me—Armienne.

Inwardly smiling, outwardly shedding tears, I slowly pulled Harmiel into a warm embrace.

Feeling her tremble almost to the point of a convulsion the moment my body touched hers, words welled up naturally from the bottom of my heart.

“And at that exact moment, I realized. Ah, I really was the peerless, wickedest bitch in the entire world. It might have just been a dream I had all by myself, but I’m truly sorry. I mean that from the bottom of my heart, Harmiel. I’m just so endlessly thankful that it really was only a dream.”

At my words, Harmiel’s pupils wavered as if they had lost their place to anchor. She seemed completely at a loss for what she was supposed to do next.

“No, wait, that was a dream… No, it wasn’t a dream I had, no, what I experienced was, ugh, u-ugh….”

“Harmiel?”

“Ah, no. That wasn’t a dream. I really did… But, the dream Armienne had is an experience similar to mine, yet with a different outcome… No, it’s strange. This is something strange.”

“…………….”

Was it perhaps too much of a shock for Harmiel, who possessed a fragility that surpassed ordinary people? Fearing that she might actually catch a mental illness at this rate, I quickly wrapped her in a tight hug while gently stroking her soft hair.

Though it felt a bit like I had become the most wicked bastard in the entire world, to survive, I needed to change Harmiel’s perception of me right here and now. On top of that, I had to make sure what she had experienced remained nothing more than a dream.

“It’s okay. Calm down, Harmiel. I’m the one who’s entirely in the wrong. You don’t have to forgive me. No, you shouldn’t forgive me. But please remember this. From now on, no one else, but I will protect you.”

When I finished speaking, Harmiel, who had been trembling slightly, raised her head. The sight of her looking like a cute hamster trying to exercise restraint in front of a sunflower seed made my heart skip a beat before I could stop it.

“It’s strange, Armienne.”

A pang of unease struck me, but I didn’t show it as I asked.

“What is?”

Perhaps fully calmed down now, Harmiel no longer stuttered her words.

“Armienne, you hate me, don’t you?”

At her question, I shook my head. This wasn’t acting; it was completely sincere. Could there possibly be any man who could hate this woman? Ah, right, I’m a woman right now.

“No. I used to hate you. But now, I actually like you.”

At my words, Harmiel stared straight into my eyes. Doubt flickered in her pupils, only to vanish almost instantly.

“I suppose you really mean it.”

“My, did you doubt me?”

I was currently playing my role as the ducal house’s young lady so faithfully that I wondered if I could win an acting award in some cross-dressing men’s pageant, should I suddenly be sent back to my original world.

“It somehow feels a little unfair, Armienne.”

Whining as she touched my hair, she looked cuter to me than anyone else in the entire world.

“What is?”

I was even startled by how soft my own voice had naturally become. Everything was due to the power of Harmiel standing right in front of me.

“I actually had a dream where Armienne tormented me, too.”

“Oh my.”

I never imagined I would utter such an exclamation in my entire life, but it was surprisingly easy.

“You have no idea how hard it was. Even now, I still can’t bring myself to think of it as just a dream.”

“I, too, have no intention of brushing off the dream I had as merely a dream.”

At my words, Harmiel puffed out her cheeks significantly and tapped my shoulder.

“That’s why I’m saying it’s unfair, Armienne.”

“Haha, what is?”

“Aww, seriously… Based on how I felt at first, I wanted to beat you to a pulp—no, thrash you soundly, you know. But now that I’m being hugged by Armienne like this, something inside me, even if just a little, melted away softly.”

Huh? I felt a brief flash of murderous intent just now, but it must have been my imagination. Glancing at her slender wrists, I thought, Just how much would it hurt to get hit by those? and spoke.

“Hit me, Harmiel. If that’s what it takes to clear your heart. I’m willing to take as many blows as you like.”

“Heh, my fists pack quite a punch, you know.”

So she had been planning to hit me with her fists.

A faint sense of unease crept over me, but I had no intention of taking back words I had already uttered.

“H-hit me.”

Seeing her clench her fists tight at my words made me wonder if I shouldn’t have blurted that out, but before I could take it back, I saw a fist flying straight toward my chest and squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for the impending pain.

Yet, no matter how long I waited, the sensation of impact never reached my chest. Opening my eyes slightly out of sheer curiosity, I saw Harmiel standing at a short distance, sticking her tongue out and laughing.

“Heh-et, I’ll pass. I never imagined Armienne would show such a weak side. All of this is thanks to the ‘dream’ Armienne had, I suppose?”

“Of course.”

A twinge of conscience pricked at me, but I ignored it. Back when I started living as Armienne, my conscience shrivelled up and died a long time ago.

As we resumed slowly strolling through the garden, Harmiel suddenly let out a shout.

“Whoa!”

Everyone nearby was startled by her sudden, unexpected outburst, and I was certainly among them. Had she perhaps gone crazy because of my lies?

Stomping over right in front of me, Harmiel spoke. As she drew close, an alluring fragrance pierced my nostrils.

Female protagonist buffs are truly a cheat.

“To be completely honest, I don’t think I can forgive Armienne, even in a lie. Of course, it’s not because of the things you did until now. It’s my own personal feeling. If anything, I feel sorry. Armienne is trying to think of me now, but I can’t give my heart away for Armienne’s sake.”

Hearing Harmiel’s words, I froze completely.

‘What is this. Does she intend to kill me after all?’

Argh, what happened to my heartfelt, all-out acting? By now, I had completely panicked, and there wasn’t much a panicked person could say.

“How unfortunate….”

Before I could even finish my sentence, Harmiel grabbed my hand and shouted.

“So let’s make up. No, let’s be friends, Armienne. Make it so that I can like you, so that I can forgive you. I’ll do my best, too.”

At her words, a sudden surge choked up inside me, and it took everything I had to keep myself from shedding genuine, non-acting tears. Harmiel was truly a kind woman, and I… well, I wasn’t Armienne, but I couldn’t deny that I was a bad guy.

Feeling her warm body heat transmitted through my hand, I squeezed back against the hand holding mine.

“Thank you so much, Miel. I’ll do my best, too.”

“Miel?”

Seeing Harmiel giggle brightly at my words, I smiled back.

“It’s a nickname. Do you not like it?”

“No, I love it. Thank you, Armien. Tsk, this is unfair, too. Armienne is a name that’s too hard to even shorten into a nickname.”

“Hah, still, you’re probably the only person in this world who can shorten my name by a single syllable, Miel.”

“Next time we meet, let’s talk even more, Armien.”

“Yeah, Miel.”

Thus, the turbulent first meeting with Harmiel came to an end, while I secretly hatched a scheming plan in my mind.

‘Normally, friends turn into lovers, and lovers turn into spouses, after all.’