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“ARE you sure you’re okay? You’re not looking great.”
Nina was at the vegetable patch like always with Dino, who looked at her with a crease between his brows.
She didn’t need him to tell her. She looked terrible, worn down, and sleep-deprived.
Boys still kept trying to chat her up though, which made her nearly believe the heroine power-up could eliminate any age or sex restrictions. They’d probably whisper sweet nothings into the ear of a stuffed animal if it had the same effect.
Actually, if Ed in cat form had the hero buff, everyone in the world would turn into a cat lover, and there’d be world peace.
“Nina?” Dino inquired.
“Oh, sorry. I was merely thinking about world peace.”
“…Does the buff mess with your cognition?”
Nina felt Dino misunderstood something, so she returned to her work.
She felt the patch looked healthier after pulling the weeds and laying down fertilizer. Her work there was precious to her now. It calmed her—the one thing she could work on and immediately see results.
“By the way, you were engaged to Lady Clarissa before this, right?” Nina recalled. “Does that mean if she hadn’t won the raffle, you two would’ve just gotten married?”
“Hm, probably. It works family-wise and age-wise, after all.”
Hearing him talk about it like it wasn’t his own life made Nina realize she had no idea how Dino truly felt about Clarissa. However, she definitely didn’t feel comfortable coming straight out and asking.
And what about Clarissa? Maybe she didn’t actually like him, considering she was trying to cause trouble with the person she would’ve married if she’d done nothing. Nevertheless, Clarissa was going to gloat and be with Dino while Nina got nothing. That must mean Clarissa didn’t hate him either, did she? The fact that she considered him the main love interest meant she was fine with him as her romantic partner.
“Maybe…she wants to experience overcoming an obstacle…” Nina reasoned out. Maybe she was the kind of person who thought a pleasant, peaceful romance was boring. Nina didn’t understand that in the least, but different strokes for different folks…
After finishing her work, Nina looked around with satisfaction and noticed Clarissa was busy with something beneath a tree nearby. Looking closer, she noticed Clarissa fiddling with a cord tied to a bucket in the tree.
“Oh, I get it. This time, she’s gonna dump water on me from the tree,” Nina conveyed.
At least Dino was there this time, meaning she wasn’t going to be left soaking wet forever.
She was at a good stopping point with her cleaning and gardening work, so it made sense to get drenched now and head on home.
She put her shovel in her empty bucket and walked toward the tree, her next work site.
“Hello, Lady Clarissa,” she greeted.
“Huh? You’re early! I mean, nothing.”
It seemed Clarissa hadn’t finished preparations yet, leaving her blatantly holding the cord leading to the bucket.
From what Nina could tell, the cord was tangled. There was a massive knot in Clarissa’s hands, and it coiled around on the ground too.
Nina’s first thought was that the cord was way too long. Secondly, it was also way too tangled, even considering how long it was.
There were admittedly several other criticisms that went through her head, but maybe a sheltered noble-born girl never got a chance to work through these situations. Clarissa might have been reincarnated, but it wasn’t like many people had experience setting up a bucket to dump water on someone.
Nina decided it would’ve been best to redo the whole thing if Clarissa wasn’t ready yet. She turned on her heel to go back, but then saw Dino heading their way.
“Nina, you forgot something,” he called out. “This shovel needs to go back too. Oh, Clarissa? What are you doing here?”
Clarissa panicked when Dino showed up and jerked the cord behind her to try and hide it. Such an obvious move was basically like shouting, “Look at me!”
“What’s that cord?” He moved closer, and Clarissa pulled back.
Then something moved above them.
“Your Highness!” both Nina and Clarissa exclaimed.
Dino looked up. Clarissa pushed him out of the way, and the water poured down her head.
She stood there soaked and frozen in place for a moment. Then, she seemed to come up with an idea as she glared at Nina. “How horrible of you! You put that bucket in the tree to spill water on His Highness. Admit it!”
Clarissa pointed the blame at Nina, while very kindly explaining the nature of this particular torment. It was, of course, ridiculous, considering the cord tied to the bucket was in Clarissa’s hand.
Even so, anticipation gleamed in Clarissa’s eyes. She probably wanted a heroine who denied it.
…Clarissa’s still bad at carrying plans out. Nina was utterly worn out, but she was under contract—she couldn’t run away.
With a deep breath, Nina yelled, “I haven’t done anything! It’s all a misunderstanding!”
With that cry of the heroine, Clarissa’s face lit up with joy. The soaking-wet villainess turned and exited stage left. Nina could practically see the word “Satisfied” written on her back. It was probably matched by one on Nina’s that said: “Fatigued.”
“Good work, Nina,” Dino offered as Nina picked up the bucket.
Clarissa was so bad at seeing a plan through that she left before even cleaning up the scene of the crime, putting even more on Nina. If this were a real case of bullying, Nina would want Clarissa to destroy the evidence, at least.
Nina asked Dino to get rid of the cord while she took the buckets back to the shed. She’d checked around the tree to ensure nothing was left and found three more buckets, which she assumed were extras just in case—meaning she was stuck dealing with four buckets.
They were surprisingly heavy for metal buckets, causing Nina to start panting from the moderate exertion of carrying them.
“You know, before worrying about extra buckets, she should’ve worried about getting the length of the cord right,” she muttered.
It was very like Clarissa: hard-working but bad at execution. Nina truly wished she would consider what it was like for the person cleaning up her mess.
Finally reaching the shed, she opened the door and stacked the four buckets behind some wooden crates. With that weight off her, she sank to the ground in exhaustion, leaning against one of the boxes.
She let out a long sigh, and her eyelids slowly closed.
Sometimes, she had no clue what she was doing, but it was all for Aida. It didn’t matter how ridiculous or meaningless it was; she was happy as long as it meant easing Aida’s pain.
“Hm…?”
Before she knew it, darkness had fallen around her. She blinked over and over, her eyes slowly adjusting to the gloom. It wasn’t only until she took in her surroundings that she understood her own mistake.
“No way, I fell asleep?!”
She was still inside the academy’s shed. Nina remembered returning the buckets and must’ve fallen asleep after sitting down.
“Oh no, I have to get home right away.”
Through a small window near the roof of the shed, she could only see the night sky. She had no idea how long she’d been there.