Chapter 3
Cassis spoke irritably the moment our eyes met.
“Now, get away from me.”
“Eek!”
“Ugh.”
Startled by his voice, I suddenly pushed him away.
Cassis let out a short groan and fell backward.
Since he had been crouching, he lost his balance and fell over.
I didn’t have time to worry about him. I frantically fanned my burning face with my hands.
That expression and that voice… They were too dangerous!
This time, my heart started pounding.
Thump, thump.
Ah! I had actually been flustered by Cassis!
This was humiliating!
I remembered all the preparations I had made for Cassis’s arrival and felt completely defeated.
I had deliberately searched for portraits of handsome men and trained myself not to pay attention to them, all to protect my eyes and build up my resistance.
I had been afraid that I might fall for the male lead just like the Yveline in the original novel.
And yet…
I had only seen his flushed face and already gotten butterflies.
That’s cheating!
No.
I was only excited because hide-and-seek had been so thrilling.
That’s all.
Right?
That’s what happened, right?
I scolded my heart even though it obviously couldn’t answer.
Then—
“Ah…”
Cassis slowly groaned.
Only then did I remember that Cassis was sick, so I quickly apologized.
“Ah, s-sorry, Cassis. I didn’t mean to knock you over…”
Because I was flustered, my pronunciation became childish and unclear.
Feeling embarrassed that I had started acting like a child again, I tightly pressed my lips together.
After a moment, Cassis muttered in a very cold voice.
“Ha. You’re really troublesome.”
His face crumpled with irritation as he stood up and brushed off his clothes.
Apparently still annoyed, he looked down at me and growled quietly.
“This is why I don’t like children.”
“What?”
You’re a child too, you know!
I was thinking about how ridiculous it was for one child to say that he disliked children when he was a child himself.
Then he snapped at me.
“The library is a place for reading books, not playing hide-and-seek, Lady Yveline.”
“……”
I stared blankly up at Cassis.
I blinked, wondering what on earth I had just heard.
Then I couldn’t believe that he was lecturing me like an adult, so I opened my mouth.
“You…”
“Ah! Found you!”
Just as I was about to argue back, Paul entered the library and shouted.
Cassis immediately changed his attitude.
As if nothing had happened, he dropped to one knee and carefully brushed the dust off my clothes.
Then he spoke rather maturely.
“Your clothes are dirty. You should be more careful.”
“Oh dear. You must have wrinkled your clothes while hiding so hard.”
Paul smiled warmly as he agreed with Cassis.
Wow. What is happening right now?
I stared at Cassis in disbelief as he suddenly acted like my older brother.
Then he smiled brightly and rubbed my cheek.
No, he secretly pinched my cheek.
“There was some dust here too.”
Liar! There wasn’t any dust!
“Young Master is very thoughtful, isn’t he?”
“……”
“Then I’ll be going, Yveline.”
He tucked the book he had been about to read under his arm, lightly patted my head, and casually left the library.
Paul watched his young master leave with an approving expression.
I felt like my disbelief had not only left the house but had run straight out of the territory.
I couldn’t control my expression and gave an awkward smile.
Paul kindly asked,
“Young Lady, what would you like to play next?”
“I don’t want to.”
I answered with a serious face.
Paul blinked in surprise.
“Young Lady? Was the game not fun?”
“No. It was fun, Paul. I’m just tired because I’ve played enough.”
I answered mechanically and trudged out of the library.
Paul followed behind me and continued talking, but I barely remembered what I said to him.
What shocked me more was that Cassis had completely gotten the better of me.
In all my life, I never imagined the day would come when a child would scold me.
This was the first time I had ever experienced such humiliation!
No matter how much I thought about it, Cassis seemed to dislike me.
Why?
What had I even done?
Could it be that, because I was the villainess from the original story, he instinctively disliked me?
I pushed Elissa’s swing as hard as I could while thinking about Cassis.
From that strange mocking look I had noticed at the train platform to what happened in the library…
It seemed like Cassis secretly looked down on me.
Especially when he had acted so friendly in front of Paul and secretly pinched my cheek.
It really made me wonder if I had done something wrong.
“Yveline! Too high!”
“Ah! Sorry, Elissa.”
Elissa suddenly cried out in alarm because the swing was going too high.
I quickly slowed it down.
Once the swing came to a complete stop, Elissa looked up at me.
“Whew. I thought I was going to fly all the way into the sky.”
“Sorry, sorry. I was just lost in thought.”
“Lost in thought?”
Elissa asked curiously.
I shook my head slightly.
“No, it’s nothing…”
“What is it? What is it?”
Elissa turned her whole body toward me along with the swing and urged me to tell her.
I scratched my cheek before carefully starting.
“Elissa, have you ever been disliked for no reason? No, that’s not quite it. It feels a little different from being disliked…”
“Yveline, is someone bullying you?”
Elissa asked seriously, her expression hardening.
Only then did I suddenly realize that I was asking the heroine for advice about the male protagonist.
I quickly denied it.
“No, no! Forget I said anything. Maybe I was just being too sensitive. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it, Elissa. Really.”
“……”
“Hehe. I’ll push you again. I’ll do it properly this time, so get ready.”
I immediately fixed Elissa’s posture and pushed the swing again.
That was close.
That was exactly what the Yveline from the original novel would have done.
I had almost tried to drive a wedge between the heroine and the male lead.
The thought sent a chill through me.
Phew. I need to be careful.
I calmed my startled heart with several deep breaths and made up my mind.
No matter what Cassis thought of me, my investigation of him continued.
The places where Cassis appeared most often were the garden and the library.
His hobbies were surprisingly refined.
He seemed to enjoy reading and taking walks.
Even then, he only did those things inside the castle.
Ever since Cassis came to Montes, he had never once gone outside.
I was still a little upset with him because of what had happened before, so everything he did seemed irritating to me.
Especially the way he lived like some old man who had already experienced everything in life.
Why was he acting like that when he was just a child?
I kept sighing because his daily routine looked more like that of an elderly person.
If he’d come here to recover, shouldn’t he explore the surroundings, go outside the castle, get some fresh air, and talk to people?
At this rate, I felt like he might develop illnesses he didn’t even have.
But that didn’t mean I had any reason to take care of him myself.
The best thing I could do was keep as much distance from him as possible.
Honestly, by now I barely remembered the contents of the novel.
When I remembered the mistake I had almost made with Elissa, I shuddered.
No. Not my peaceful life.
I had recovered my memories from my previous life when I was far too young.
There was no way I could write down the contents of the book with my tiny baby hands.
So I had desperately memorized everything in my head.
But as I grew older, more and more details faded from my memory.
Later, whenever I tried too hard to remember, I would get headaches and couldn’t think deeply about it.
If only I had some kind of clue, maybe everything would suddenly come back to me…
Trying to recall the increasingly blurry contents of the novel, I headed toward the garden.
Mother was already there.
When I saw a chocolate cake sitting in front of her, I ran over as if hypnotized and plopped myself down in the chair.
Mother handed me a fork, and I immediately dug into the cake.
While I was completely focused on eating, Mother called me.
“Yveline.”
“???”
My cheeks were stuffed full of cake, so I couldn’t answer.
I simply looked up at her with wide eyes.
Mother gently wiped the corner of my mouth with a handkerchief.
“Have you gotten a little closer to Cassis?”
By then, I had chewed and swallowed the cake, so I readily answered.
“Um. He hardly ever comes out, so I’m not really sure.”
“Hm. I see.”
After saying that, Mother’s expression darkened.
She was probably worried about Cassis.
Well, if I had a sick guest behaving like that, I would probably worry too.
“Yveline, Cassis is suffering from an illness of the heart right now.”
“Huh? His body isn’t the only thing that’s sick?”
“Because his body is sick, his heart has become sick too.”
“Oh…”
I had heard that Cassis’s illness was incurable.
Mana Insensitivity.
It was a disease in which the patient couldn’t sense the mana in the air being absorbed into their body uncontrollably, causing tremendous strain on the body.
There was still no treatment for it, so all he could do was endure it.
Mana Insensitivity was like a double-edged sword.
If someone managed to endure it, they could eventually control an unlimited amount of mana.
But if they couldn’t, they would suffer terrible pain and eventually die.
Of course, Cassis was the male protagonist, so there was no chance he would die.
But being the male protagonist didn’t mean he didn’t feel pain.
Come to think of it, could the sudden fall in the library have made his pain worse?
Maybe he had only been irritable because he was in pain.
I suddenly felt a little sorry for Cassis.
Then Mother carefully brought up another topic.
“If a cute little sister like you approached Cassis first, I’m sure he would be happy…”
I slowly avoided her gaze.
No, Mom. I have my reasons.
I’m doing all of this for our family!
For once, I didn’t answer and simply looked away.
A few minutes later, perhaps realizing that she wouldn’t get an answer from me, Mother smiled warmly and asked,
“Yveline, would you like some more cake?”
“Yes!”
“Then go eat it with Cassis in his room. Cassis would probably enjoy eating with his little sister more than eating alone.”
“Yes! …Huh? Cassis?”
I froze at the mention of his name.
When I looked up at Mother, she was smiling gently.
“Of course. The remaining cake is for Cassis. If you want to eat more, you’ll have to share it with Cassis, won’t you?”
Oh, no.
I had fallen for Mother’s cheap trick.
Lately, I had been spending so much energy thinking about Cassis that I became tired easily and reacted like a child.
“Uhh…”
“Then have a good time.”
Mother waved at me.
Before I knew it, I was being led toward Cassis’s room by a maid.
