The Reincarnated Villainess Whose Romantic Trauma From Her Past Life Is Too Strong Is Sweetly and Painfully Doted On by the Prince of the Neighboring Country - Chapter 24

“…So, you’re going again anyway, aren’t you, Cherie?”

That day, after school.

As Cherie was preparing to head home after finishing her classes, Salute who still maintained his “Salute” appearance at the academy spoke to her out of the blue.

“…How did you know?”

“How could I not?”

When Cherie replied, feeling half-lost, Salute answered back as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

When Salute said, “You’re going again anyway,” he meant, “You’re going to go clean up Lily’s mess, aren’t you?”

He knew because he had also heard the news that Lily was heading to the Western Forest today for her duty as the Maiden of the Flower Succession to purify the miasma that had broken out there.

Aside from fixing the Flower Offering Pedestal the other day, Cherie had been quietly providing various kinds of backup for Lily’s duties for some time now.

In the beginning, she had limited herself to offering casual advice so that Lily could fulfill her responsibilities properly. However…

“That’s horrible! Lady Cherie, you’re only saying that because you’re jealous that I took your fiancé, Lord Reiss, aren’t you!?”

After Lily had flown into a rage like that one day, Cherie found it impossible to offer advice openly anymore.

Since then, Lily had made no effort to learn flower magic theory and continued to handle her duties as the Maiden with utter recklessness. Eventually, Cherie gave up on warning her and shifted to the strategy of subtly following behind to fix things.

She knew that if she were ever caught, Lily might scream something like, “Is this harassment!? Are you looking down on me by secretly following me? How cowardly!” But even so, she couldn’t just leave the situation alone.

And so, without telling anyone, Cherie spent her days running around cleaning up after Lily.

“—I’m going too.”

When Salute made his declaration, Cherie’s expression clouded over as her intuition was proven right.

(I had a feeling he’d say that the moment he asked if I was going.)

She had suspected that if Salute found out she was going to handle the aftermath of Lily’s purification, he would say “I’m going too” nine times out of ten.

That was exactly why she had intended to use some errand as an excuse to go home alone today.

“Lord Salute. I appreciate the sentiment, but unlike the flower offerings, miasma purification isn’t exactly without danger…”

She couldn’t risk exposing a prince of a foreign nation to danger. But her words were cut off effortlessly.

“Then even more so, there’s no way I can let a girl go alone.”

He checked her with a casual air.

“Cherie, did you think I was the kind of incompetent man who would hear that a girl is going somewhere dangerous alone and just say, ‘Oh, I see, carry on’?”

“It’s not that, but…”

There was no way Cherie could call Salute “incompetent.”

How could she say such a thing to the man who had rescued her when her engagement was annulled and had even given her a new goal and a job? As Cherie stood there troubled, Salute pressed his advantage.

“Besides, most of the dangerous monsters have already been defeated by the Knights of the Flower Basket, haven’t they? So, it shouldn’t be that dangerous. Think of me as a boss following along to observe the skills of his employee. Okay?”

As Salute pressed for her agreement, Cherie ultimately found herself unable to refuse.

—A few hours later.

Accompanied by Salute, Cherie visited the Western Forest, where Lily was supposed to have finished her purification. Arriving at the forest entrance, Cherie carefully checked to make sure no one else was around, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small vial.

“Lord Salute, please take this.”

She gestured for Salute to drink the liquid inside. Then, realizing it might be rude to ask a prince to drink a suspicious substance without a taster. She took a sip of about half the contents herself first.

“This is a potion blended from Peony and Violet extracts. If you drink this, it makes it difficult for other living beings to perceive your presence for a short while.”

The flower language of the Peony is “Bashfulness.”

The flower language of the Violet is “Humility.”

By blending these two meanings into a potion, she created an extract with a stealth effect.

After explaining this to Salute, she handed him the vial, adding, “It’s not harmful to the body.”

Salute took the small vial and paused for a moment.

He stared intently at the rim, the place where her lips had just touched then stole a glance at Cherie.

However, seeing that Cherie was preoccupied with her next preparations and wasn’t paying any mind to the detail he was stuck on, he took on a somewhat bashful but faintly happy expression and downed the rest in one go.

—Just then, they heard voices approaching from deeper within the forest.

One female voice and two male voices. It was Lily and her companions, returning from the purification.

“Lord Salute, this way.”

Before Lily and the others could notice them, Cherie pulled Salute’s arm and hid in a nearby thicket.

Tucking herself into a position where they couldn’t be seen, Cherie held onto Salute’s arm, pulling him close, and held her breath while waiting for them to leave.