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“WELL…at least now I know Lady Clarissa is hard-working,” Nina sighed, polishing the banister like usual.
Clarissa would come over regularly to wherever Nina was, and Nina would plan her response appropriately as a heroine.
She was grateful that it was easy to tell what was landing well or not based on Clarissa’s expressions, but she surely wished she’d do something since she was coming by quite often. Or, if she didn’t need Nina for anything, just don’t come.
Wasn’t the villainess supposed to bully the heroine, and then people were supposed to find out about it? Lately, Clarissa had started a one-woman performance of bullying, which Dino and Nina tried to match with, but was that good enough?
The ring’s powers weren’t stepping in; the raffle winner herself was doing it, so maybe it was okay.
Even so, try as Clarissa might, there was no way she could convince people it was Nina who made her fall randomly in front of a load of people when Nina was somewhere else weeding. Clarissa claimed Nina used some sort of telepathy to do it from a distance, but that was clearly impossible, leaving Dino looking on with confusion.
It was tiring for Nina to get dragged into this all the time, but also difficult on Dino since Clarissa asked his opinion every time something happened. Concerning the telepathy allegations, he gave the perfect response, “If she could do something like that, she’d use it to weed from far away.” He wasn’t buying it.
The incredible thing was that everyone around them seemed to realize something was going on and wouldn’t step in with objections. The same students who buzzed around Nina in the classroom or the cafeteria would step to the sidelines and become observers when Clarissa walked in.
This let the three of them put on their comedic play.
It was probably the god’s power at work again to allow events between the villainess and heroine to unfold without interruption. If that wasn’t the case, then all the students liked watching the drama. That was a bit too painful of a possibility to accept.
Nina might have been worrying over whether she was fulfilling the contract or not, but she didn’t stop polishing the banister in the process. Wiping away the grime helped brighten her spirits.
She was clearly worn out if she was looking for cleaning work to make her feel better.
“But Mom’s doing good. It’s thanks to this,” she recited.
And Aida truly was doing well. Her illness still progressed, supposedly, but she was tending to the flower beds and housework with a smile. Seeing that made Nina smile too.
For Aida’s sake, Nina wanted to play the perfect heroine for Clarissa to gloat over in the end. Her portrayal might be a bit different from the image she had in her mind, but it was fine so long as she played the role that Clarissa wanted.
After getting herself pumped up again, she tackled the banister once more, and that’s when she heard a familiar voice coming closer from behind.
It seemed Clarissa was coming by for another visit.
“Now that I think about it, the contract says the villainess ends up alone after people find out she was bullying the heroine. Which means I don’t have to do any bullying. I would need to get everyone on my side after being bullied by her.”
And if that were the case, she should do it sooner rather than later. Nina didn’t know what Clarissa was going to do this time, but she hoped it was the sort of thing she could easily use to draw on others’ sympathy.
“Oh, is that Nina, or whatever your name was?” taunted Clarissa. “You look like you belong there, crawling on the floor.”
“Thank you, Lady Clarissa,” replied Nina, first giving a basic response as she surveyed the area. A few students were nearby watching the two of them, but there was no sight of the main love interest.
That meant this wasn’t Nina’s moment for convincing them she was being bullied.
“Doesn’t your uniform get dirty if you polish the stairs?” Clarissa continued.
“Not if you do it right. I could give you some tips, if you like.”
“That’s not knowledge I need. Who do you think I am, anyway?”
Who? Well, she was the winner of the Lucky Reincarnation Raffle, the bright and beautiful villainess that Nina had to bend over backward for.
“You’re the Unrivaled Lady Clarissa Tessarini,” Nina answered instead.
“Unrivaled…? Don’t call me by such an odd name,” demanded Clarissa, a shadow falling over her beautiful face.
Behind her, Nina could see Dino approaching. Finally, this was her chance to show she was being bullied.
“No, Lady Clarissa! That’s not what I meant to do!” yelled Nina in an intentionally loud voice to draw the attention of both Dino and those around them.
Clarissa winced back briefly, but then a look of anticipation spread across her face as she watched Nina. “What do you mean? Would you say that one more time, Nina?” she egged.
Dino was right beside her when Clarissa started to happily snap back at Nina. He looked tired but was still exquisitely beautiful, which was a testament to how incredible a creature this main love interest was.
“You’re the Unequaled Lady Clarissa, right? I’m sorry I misspoke and said unrivaled.”
“What?” Clarissa exclaimed. Her and all the other students’ eyes widened while Dino struggled to stifle a laugh.
“…Clarissa,” he spoke gently. “Everyone knows no one can equal you. Do you think you could forgive Nina for a little mistake like that?”
“What? But, Prince Dino, that’s not… I wasn’t…?” It looked like Clarissa was trying to respond to her “bullying” being found out, but she was so flustered that she couldn’t give a good response.
She had to help the adversary out here. If a valuable customer like Clarissa was unhappy, that could also affect Aida’s health.
“It’s okay, Prince Dino,” Nina interjected. “I understand why she’d be angry. Lady Clarissa is so incredible that nothing in the world can equal her, so she has to be the Unequaled Lady Clarissa.”
“Nina,” came Dino, “you don’t have to worry over it so much. Unrivaled, unequaled, they’re basically the same thing anyway.” Somehow managing to hold back his laughter, Dino matched pace with Nina when he realized what she was going for.
She had been feeling uncertain before, but now she needed to focus. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, that’s not enough. I made a mistake. Lady Clarissa is unequaled.”
“Are you sure? Well, I’ll believe you then. From this day on, you’ll be known as the Unequaled Lady Clarissa.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Nina intoned, not entirely sure at this point herself what she was going for, but she bowed to Dino.
“Now…Unequaled Lady Clarissa, do you think you could forgive Nina?” Dino turned expectantly to her.
“What? But, that wasn’t what I…” Having lost the right response to this situation, Clarissa tried to fill in her words with gestures.
Nina wanted to tell her it was okay, that she too was lost and confused, but she couldn’t step in because it was Clarissa’s turn.
“Do you genuinely hate being called unrivaled that much? I think you need to be more understanding,” stated Dino. And, with Nina’s hand in one of his hands and the bucket in the other, he left.
With Clarissa’s flustered state, it looked like he was protecting Nina from further harassment, but Nina knew that he only wanted to end this ridiculous exchange as soon as possible.
The two of them sighed, exhausted from the effects of their buffs and this baffling scene they just played through.
“What was that about… ‘Unrivaled’?” he said with a chuckle once they’d moved away from the stairs, found an empty classroom, and shut the door.
“I was only thinking I needed her to bully me sooner rather than later so I could out her for it. She could’ve even thrown a bucket of water on me, but that would’ve been a bit too obvious.”
“But why unequaled?”
“I just happened to call her the Unrivaled Lady Clarissa, and then I thought that was the only way to go with it. Do you…think it went well?” She was a little concerned because even she didn’t really know what was happening at the end.
“Well, she ended up bickering with you over nothing and so kind of ended up isolating herself, right?”
“That’s good then.”
That meant they’d successfully accomplished the third condition of the contract: Both the villainess’s fiancé and everyone around are captivated by the heroine’s charms. People find out the villainess bullied the heroine, and everyone stops being friends with her.
Nina smiled with satisfaction that she’d made another step toward her own downfall.