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 25

“Ah—done and done! Let’s get outta here already!”

The familiar voice drifting from behind the thicket belonged to Geek. It seemed they had just stumbled upon the group right as they finished their work.

“…Lily, are you sure you don’t need us to walk you all the way back to your room?”

“Yes, Lord Wraith! I have business at the Grand Sanctuary of Flower-Sowing today, so I’ll stop by there before heading back.”

Lily, walking alongside the solicitous Wraith, was the very picture of innocence. A few steps behind the pair, who looked for all the world like a devoted couple followed Geek, his arms folded lazily behind his head.

Cherie and Salute watched them from their hiding spot in the brush. Thanks in part to the Peony and Violet potion Cherie had prepared, they managed to go unnoticed. They waited until the group, chatting idly, had completely disappeared from sight.

“…It looks like the coast is clear. Shall we go?”

As Cherie spoke, she realized for the first time that she was still clutching Salute’s arm. Her face momentarily flashed with surprise, but judging that making a big deal out of it would only dig a deeper hole for herself, she gave a slightly awkward, bashful smile. With a small, apologetic bow, she hurried out from the bushes toward her destination.

Feeling a sudden loneliness where her warmth had left his left arm, Salute stared at the spot for a moment, touching it with his right hand as if to savor the lingering sensation. He then shook himself out of it, looked up, and stood to follow her.

“…Found it. Right here.”

A short distance into the woods from where they had hidden, Cherie found what she was looking for and looked down at it.

Standing alone in a small clearing was a black lily. The flower gave off a desolate, somewhat vengeful impression.

“…This is?”

“This is the Purification Flower that Lady Lily bloomed,” Cherie answered simply as Salute caught up to her side.

(…But this Purification Flower is incomplete.)

At a glance, it appeared to have bloomed properly, but the faint miasma drifting around it hadn’t been fully neutralized. Seeing this, the doubt that had been simmering in Cherie’s mind finally took a clear shape.

(…Is Lily a reincarnator? Or is she the original heroine?)

If she were the original heroine, she was far too incompetent at her job.

If she were a reincarnator, she lacked any sense of danger.

(But… what if she simply doesn’t know the game?)

In the original otome game, The Maiden of Flower-Sowing, the heroine actually faced a higher risk of a tragic Bad End than the villainess. At worst, the villainess would have her crimes exposed, be disowned, and sent to a convent. The heroine’s Bad Ends, however, were not so mild. In her case, they were life-threatening or worse, she’d reach an end where death would have been a mercy.

(If she knew the original game, would she really be this lazy?)

She’s risking a Bad End by cutting corners like this. But then again perhaps she’s banking on the high affection levels she has with the capture targets?

It wasn’t impossible. In this game, even if your proficiency as a Maiden is low, you can barely scrape past a Bad End if your affection barometer with the targets is high enough. It was possible she found the flower magic system too tedious to learn, skipped her studies entirely, and was trying to clear the game based purely on her relationships.

(If that’s the case, it’s such a reckless tightrope walk that it makes me nervous just watching her!)

Before her memories of her past life returned, Cherie had helped Lily because she couldn’t bear to see everyone suffer due to an incompetent Maiden, and because the Church had asked her to.

But now that she remembered the game’s story, she felt it would be far too cruel to simply leave the heroine to face a Bad End.

—Granted, Cherie felt she had been treated rather poorly by Lily up until now. Still, it pained her heart to stand by and watch someone fall into utter catastrophe.

As Cherie stood staring intently at Lily’s Purification Flower, lost in thought, Salute spoke up in a worried tone.

“Cherie? Are you alright?”

“…I’m fine. But… as I thought, it hasn’t been properly purified.”

Saying this, Cherie reached into her pochette and pulled out a lovely blue Nemophila and a small white Anemone flaccida. She then activated her flower magic.

(…I’m glad I remember the original scenario.)

As Cherie cast her magic on the flowers, a shimmering light reached out toward the black lily. Slowly, the ominous aura surrounding the lily began to lift.

“…What are you doing?”

Watching from beside her, Salute noticed the black lily changing and realized the most difficult part of Cherie’s work was over.

“I am purifying the miasma that the Maiden of Flower-Sowing failed to fully cleanse.”

In the original game, the Maiden takes the source of the miasma into herself, purifies it within her body, and then sublimates it by blooming a Purification Flower. This black lily was the result of Lily taking in the miasma and “purifying” it. However, if a Maiden’s power is insufficient, they sometimes fail to neutralize the miasma completely within their body. In times like those, one must compensate with flower magic like this.

“The emotion held by this miasma is ‘Attachment and Jealousy.’ I am healing it using the Nemophila’s flower language, ‘I forgive you,’ and the Anemone’s, ‘Never leaving your side.’”

As Cherie spoke, the black lily, which had looked somber, began to emit a glossy, beautiful radiance. The sinister aura vanished completely, leaving only a dignified, strong black lily standing tall.

(Good. It worked.)

Miasma in the late stages of the story was much more difficult to handle than before, so Cherie had been nervous. She let out a sigh of relief upon confirming the purification was successful but then it happened.

The air above the black lily began to crackle with the sound of space itself bursting. From the rift, a massive black panther, wreathed in a terrifying miasma, tore through the void and appeared before them.