The Villainess turns the Hourglass

“It’s OK. I can change clothes. If you keep at it, you’ll get wet too.”

“I’m fine!”

“And it won’t do any good to clean things up like this.”

Only then, did Aria realized her poor state, and as she looked at his horrid state, her face turned pale.

‘Oh, my God! Oh, no!’

She had thought that day to be a good day, but she had ruined it all with just one go at watering the garden. If she had just gone back to her room, everything would have been fine. However, everything had been ruined by her need to cool off from the heat.

“Well, I’m so sorry…”

‘Will this little mistake make him angry and make him reject me as he did in the past? Will he save Mielle? Wouldn’t it be useless to go through that horrible experience to have my head cut off again? Am I the one who’s going to roll back into the mud again? I thought that if everything else failed but I still got my hands on Oscar, I’d see Mielle in despair, but how could I have made such a ridiculous and stupid mistake?!’

The unexpected accident paralyzed her mind and heart. She couldn’t hide her trembling hands, simply uttering an apology.

‘Why would you come in now?’

She was so frustrated that the heat gathered on her eyes.

‘Why did you come in when I was spraying water in the garden that no one ever enters?’

Of course, the garden had been designed to allow guests to come and go freely, but basically, it was polite to be escorted by a servant when someone moved through another’s mansion.

“It’s all right. It’s my fault for running around without notice.”

Oscar also readily accepted Aria’s apology by realizing his mistake. Only then, did Aria exhale a relieved breath that had been stifling her heart. She had been so nervous that she hadn’t blinked at all, so when relief washed over her, she touched her eyes.

Then, he asked her with surprise, “Are you crying?”

“… Yes?”

‘Am I crying? Me? Have I ever cried before?’

No, she hadn’t. When her mother had died, she had resented her since she had been left alone in the world, and she had spit out blood just before her tongue was cut and her head was chopped off, but she hadn’t shed any tears throughout. Rather, she had hated and cursed the world in the face of evil.

Aria’s eyes were red as she lowered her hands while asking herself why. The reason for her tears was because her eyes were burning from the heat.

Oscar, who looked at her wide-eyed even though his hair was dripping with water, seemed worried.

‘Oh, this is Oscar’s true personality.’

He always maintained a stiff expression, but now, he looked worried. She hadn’t known that because she hadn’t talked to him properly.

Come to think of it, whenever Aria had been mean to Mielle, he had thrust a sharp stare her way. He hadn’t seemed to have any affection for Mielle, but he had been very cold to Aria before. That day, he had been the opposite…

‘That was why he offered me a seat himself even when I showed up late at lunch.’

Aria’s heart beat fast with excitement, feeling as if she had caught hold of his weakness somehow.

Aria, whose mouth was about to rise into a smile, managed to suppress her emotions and shook her head in denial.

“No, no, no! I know that I made a mistake… Take my handkerchief.”

‘How lucky I am!’ She was able to hand her handkerchief over to Oscar just because she had decided to carry it around.

Once he took that handkerchief, he wouldn’t be able to give it back, much in the same way he had been tricked by Mielle’s shallow trick in the past.

Oscar looked at Aria’s handkerchief with embarrassment. It was, of all things, a handkerchief. Though he hesitated, there was no other way, so he received Aria’s handkerchief and wiped his hair and shirt, which was wet enough to attach itself to his skin, with it.

He squeezed the water out of the wet handkerchief a few times and unfolded it. The embroidery, which was small, had been placed in a corner of the handkerchief, but the golden rose stood out to his eyes because there were no other patterns.

“It’s…”

… The seal of the Frederik family! It was clearly the seal of the duke’s family, different from an ordinary rose.

‘How did this come to be in her possession?’

Aria blushed, hesitated, and answered the silent question. “I made it because it’s a beautiful seal. You are the first guest I’ve received in the mansion, so I made it just to keep it to myself… Does that displease you?”

“I don’t think so…”

It was very meaningful to receive an embroidered handkerchief with a family seal from a woman. A small one was given to the gentleman escorting a lady to a banquet, and a large one to a lover or husband.

In addition, because the seal of each noble family was a flower, men began courtship by giving flowers that matched the seal of the woman’s family, and received a handkerchief embroidered with the seal of the man’s family from the women in return.

Handing over a handkerchief without any pattern was also an act of interest in the other person, and an ordinary aristocratic woman was careful to do so with caution.

‘How will he react?’

Even if it had a deep meaning, there would nothing more shameful than him handing the handkerchief back after receiving it. It was more polite and common sense not to return the handkerchief, even if it was to be confined deep in a drawer.

And he had to return a favor for a handkerchief.

‘How will Mielle react if she sees it?’

Her heart beat fast. The thumping against her chest and her shaking body overcame her as she waited for Oscar’s decision.

He looked down at Aria’s embroidery for a long time, a handkerchief embroidered with the seal of his family, which had been given by a lady he had met for the first time, and the lady was right before his eyes.

Aria did not make any foolish expressions to entice him or pay attention to him. She merely expressed being shy about the man of the very family of the embroidered rose having seen the handkerchief. That way, he would be less burdened by his choice.

He clasped the wet handkerchief in his hand without a word. Whether he didn’t want to escape common sense and courtesy, he asked, “May I take it with me?”

More and more of Mielle’s past became hers, and her own past was becoming Mielle’s.

Aria smiled brightly and replied, “Of course!”

* * *

Oscar walked right out of the indoor garden with the wet handkerchief. He had wiped the water off his face and body roughly, but he needed to take a proper bath and change clothes. Aria accompanied him and ordered a servant that she had run into to help him.

“Wouldn’t you rather go back to the duke’s mansion?”

She hoped so. Unfortunately, Oscar didn’t want to.

“No, my father doesn’t know I’m in the capital, so I’ll be scolded if I go back there.”

Because it was the academy’s ideology to devote oneself to learning far from the world, unless something special happened, it was normal for most students not to return home during the semester.

Sometimes there were students who sneaked back due to homesickness, but most were scolded severely and returned to the academy. If they could not bear that much, they were asked how they would carry on their families’ legacies.

A smile crept on Oscar’s mouth when Aria smiled softly at the words that he would be scolded.

“I’m afraid your clothes will be uncomfortable.”

He had come to the mansion empty-handed, without a single private servant. The clothes he was wearing were wet, so he had to wear clothes prepared for the guests of the mansion. It had to be uncomfortable for him to have turned down Mielle’s request of going shopping with him.

“I sent a servant out earlier because I didn’t bring any extra clothes.”

“Oh, that’s why you came to the garden alone.”

It had been strange that there had been no one in the house to follow him.