Chapter 12
I stopped speaking and pushed the uncle, and he dove onto the bed.
With a thud, he collapsed onto the mattress and let out another completely forced cough.
Fortunately, the Crown Prince didn’t seem to notice, and continued speaking as if nothing had happened.
“My younger sister is planning a tea party, and she said she would like to invite you. If you recover by then, of course. Naturally, I’ll be attending the party as well.”
I quickly sent the uncle a signal with my eyes:
“Say yes! Now!”
The uncle seemed to understand, weakly nodding as he coughed again.
“Cough. Cough.”
The more I listened, the more his performance was tragically bad.
“Then I shall hope for your swift recovery.”
This time, the Crown Prince finally left the bedroom.
I waited until I saw the royal carriage leave the mansion before giving the uncle a sign that he could get off the bed.
“How long do I have to keep doing this?”
The uncle kicked off the blanket and stood in frustration, but I barely heard him.
My mind was completely consumed with the First Princess’s tea party.
The very tea party that was one of the pivotal events in the original story!
The First Princess was the villainess of the original story, a woman who hated Beatrice with a burning passion.
In the original, Beatrice attends this tea party, suffers great humiliation, and then the Crown Prince shows up to help her, strengthening their relationship.
Since the Crown Prince’s affection was already at 100%, it would have been perfect if things went according to the original.
But the problem was…
I glanced at the uncle.
He was lying down, feeling stiff, and was using my delicate wrist to do push-ups.
“One million twenty-one, one million twenty-two…”
I couldn’t imagine him handling the Crown Prince’s assistance gracefully.
Even more concerning, I had no clue how the uncle would react if the First Princess provoked him.
The First Princess, being a villainess, torments Beatrice endlessly in the story.
The reason being, her brother’s friend—the Duke of Withers, whom she has secretly loved since childhood—loves Beatrice instead.
Inviting the uncle to the tea party was her way of warning him not to get close to the Duke.
Since I knew what would happen at the tea party, I couldn’t just send the uncle alone.
Even though he was formally invited, I needed a way to make his attendance manageable.
I briefly considered asking the Count for help, but quickly dismissed the idea.
He wouldn’t listen, and I didn’t particularly want to see him.
Then how could I attend the First Princess’s tea party?
Should I just prevent the uncle from going?
If he pretended not to have recovered until then, he wouldn’t need to attend…
No, that would waste a good opportunity to build affection with the Crown Prince.
Moreover, this was a major event in the original story; if the uncle didn’t attend, the world destruction gauge would surely rise.
Still, if he went and caused a scene, it might be worse than not attending.
“Ah, what should I do…”
“What is it?”
“The tea party.”
“Can’t you just go and have some tea? I drink tea well.”
“The tea party is an important event in the original story. I’d like to go too, just in case, but I wasn’t formally invited…”
“Then ask to be invited.”
“I have no connection to the First Princess, and there’s no one nearby I can ask…”
I wished I could just become invisible.
After thinking for a while, I suddenly slapped my hands together.
Why didn’t I think of this before?
“Magical artifact!”
“Huh? Ma…what?”
Among magical artifacts, there were some that could make the user invisible to others.
And conveniently, there was a mage nearby who could craft one.
When Shamal came to find me, I could ask him to make one.
I just hoped he wouldn’t come too late.
I smiled at the uncle, happy that a solution had appeared.
Hehe.
By the time I returned to the Marquis’s residence, it was already evening.
I lay on the bed, reading a romance novel recommended by the maids while munching on well-baked cookies.
The balcony door was wide open, just in case Shamal arrived.
Hmm, the cookies at the Marquis’s house really were better. I’d have to grab some to take home tomorrow.
While enjoying my reading and dessert, a maid suddenly knocked and quietly announced:
“Viscount Louis has come to see you.”
Huh? At this hour?
A bad feeling crept up, and I quickly tidied the book and cookies.
After smoothing out my rumpled pajamas, I nodded to the maid, and the usual Louis appeared.
“May I see Viscount Louis—”
I was lifting my nightgown to bow, but suddenly my vision went white.
Shhhk!
At the same time, my head twisted to the side.
I looked down at the floor, tasting the bitter iron of blood in my mouth, realizing that I had just been slapped.
I raised my head to look at Louis.
As always, he looked down at me with his indifferent gaze.
After slapping his sister, he wore that expression.
This guy was really something.
“Lately, you’ve been wandering outside too often.”
“I was bonding with a friend.”
“Your mother died giving birth to you, and here you are, fussing over trivial friends.”
Why was he suddenly angry?
“No more going out for the time being.”
Wait, what did I do wrong?
I was furious, but I kept a calm expression and looked up at Louis.
“What exactly did I do wrong?”
“Instead of asking that, reflect on yourself.”
But how can I reflect if I don’t know what I did wrong?
Louis tidied the disheveled clothing he had messed up by hitting me and left the room.
I stared blankly at his departing figure, then raised two middle fingers toward the closed door.
I wiped the blood from my lips with my sleeve.
I had to prevent the world from ending and escape.
Holding my sore cheek, I flopped back onto the bed.
Judging by the soreness, it was going to swell a lot.
But what should I tell the uncle?
I’d have to write a letter. Should I explain honestly that I can’t hold class because of the going-out ban?
Then if he asks why I was banned, I wouldn’t know what to say.
“Excuse me? He suddenly slapped me and banned me from going out…”
“Yeah, no one would believe it…”
Louis was an excellent viscount publicly.
He handled his duties well, had social skills, and maintained a good relationship with his fiancée.
No one would believe that this excellent viscount was secretly a psycho who randomly hit his sister.
Unless they tried to make me seem paranoid.
Sigh.
I sighed.
I’d just tell the uncle I wasn’t feeling well.
There was plenty of time until the tea party anyway. Until then, he’d let me rest.
I thought of it as a brief vacation and opened the book I had set aside.
Maybe because of my sore cheek, I couldn’t focus on the story at all.
I must have dozed off.
When I lifted my heavy eyelids, I checked the clock.
It was past one o’clock.
Shamal didn’t seem to be coming today either.
I was about to close the balcony door when…
“Ah, hello.”
A familiar figure was standing there.
