This was the glorious scene where the villainess received a confession of love. It was certainly unpleasant to have someone stand in the way of that.
Nina only wished Clarissa wouldn’t look at her like that. It wasn’t like she had any clue what was going on.
Edmund, on the other hand, the cause of all this confusion, was composed as he continued, “The final clause of the fifth item in the contract stated, ‘then there’s the love confession scene.’ And here it is.”
“Huh…?” The sound from Clarissa could only be described as daft.
“With that, all items of the contract have been fulfilled. The contract is complete. Thank you, everyone, for your hard work,” he announced flatly as Clarissa teetered over to him.
“You have got to be kidding me! It’s not supposed to end like this! I mean, no one’s confessed their love to me!”
“There’s nothing about that written in the contract.”
It was true; the contract didn’t specify who was confessing their love to whom. The clause didn’t even say it had to be a good love confession or romantic in any way.
All it stated was that there had to be a scene where someone told someone else they loved them.
Clarissa seemed to realize that too. She shook her head, clinging to Edmund. “That’s just arguing semantics! This ring will not accept that!”
She thrust her right hand up in his face, but the moment she did, the red gem shattered, and the band crumbled away to sand.
Nina was shocked by the sudden event, then felt something strange on her own finger. The blue stone on her ring shattered like the stone on Clarissa’s, the ring crumbling to dust that swept away.
Edmund and Dino looked at their hands too, and Nina guessed their contract rings had also disappeared.
“It appears…the contract’s completion has been officially acknowledged,” concluded Edmund while the rest stood dumbfounded.
That was why he said that to me.
That’s why he’d told her to trust him. He wanted to keep her from being concerned because he was saying such weird things to her—it was just for his plan.
While Nina was impressed that he’d thought through everything so carefully, Clarissa was bewildered, her cheeks pale. “But, that can’t be, it’s all wrong. I’m supposed to gloat, and be loved, and marry someone rich and powerful, and live as a princess. Why…why doesn’t anyone love me?”
“Because you don’t love anyone else, Clarissa,” Dino stated without hesitation as Clarissa grappled with her shock.
“You love this setting, the titles, yourself. You ask us to want to be with someone like that?” countered Edmund, then Clarissa snapped out of her daze to glare at the former servant of a god.
“I, I don’t accept this! What sort of Lucky Reincarnation Raffle is this?! You liar!”
“Everything you asked for has come true. From here on out, perhaps try using your own hard work to get somewhere,” he reported without an unchanging expression. He placed a hand on Nina’s back and drew her with him as he walked away from Clarissa.
“Wait! What am I supposed to do now?!” Clarissa collapsed to her knees, on the verge of tears.
Nina did understand to an extent what she meant, but the contract was properly carried out. The first item stated that the villainess was smart, beautiful, and engaged to a prince, meaning she got all that because of the contract. From Nina’s perspective, Clarissa had already received plenty.
It didn’t look like she really loved Dino, and her goal probably was what she planned: to gloat, to be loved, to marry into wealth and status, and to live like a princess.
But when Clarissa asked what she should do now, Nina couldn’t help feeling there was some similarity with how she felt now that Aida was gone. Before she could stop herself, she’d brushed Edmund’s hand aside and moved back beside Clarissa.
She knelt down and looked into her eyes, and the beautiful girl looked back with tear-filled eyes. “What? I have no business with you,” said Clarissa.
“Lady Clarissa. You are beautiful.”
“What?”
“You come from a noble family and have money.”
“Wh-What is this about?”
“Most importantly, you’re alive.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s going to be all right. You can do anything. You can be anything. Not like me. And, honestly…I think you’re a shoo-in for a flawed heroine role.” She took Clarissa’s hand and squeezed it tight. “Lady Clarissa, you’re going to be all right.”
“Heroine? Wait, are you also…?” Clarissa asked. That term had no reason to exist in this world. The self-proclaimed villainess looked with confusion at Nina as she smiled.
Then, the former main love interest stepped forward. “Clarissa, what will we do about our engagement?” asked Dino gently.
Clarissa wiped her tears, turning her face away. “Why bother asking? You hate me, don’t you? You do the bare minimum attending events with me, you’re in that field every day, and you leave me alone while you have fun with Nina.”
Dino smiled like he was looking at a child having a tantrum. “I don’t necessarily like you, Clarissa, but I don’t hate you either.”
Nina couldn’t help but frown at his words, which were far too direct and cruel. Even if it was true, he could have tried to soften the blow a bit more. He was always so kind, but he seemed harsher when it came to Clarissa.
“That means you couldn’t care less about me?”
“If you want to see it that way, that’s fine,” he said with a smile.
Clarissa stared at him. “…Is that not what it means?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t wrap my head around you wanting to complicate things even though we would’ve been married if you had done nothing. And it didn’t feel nice to be forced to play out your little game. How about…from now on, you try to do things on your own, without the help of the contract?”
“Y-Your Highness… You knew about it as well?”
“I did. You wanted to be the villainess, so I was forced to enter a contract as the main love interest prince.”
Even Clarissa lost some of her bluster after hearing Dino voice his complaints about the contract.
Nina was actually surprised by his admission. She’d got the impression he and Clarissa were only engaged and there was nothing more to it than that, but it actually sounded like he might be willing to give it another try.
Maybe when he said he didn’t like her but didn’t hate her, that was actually him being too shy to be more direct with his feelings. Perhaps he felt they were bound together by fate. Either way, there was almost a glimmer of hope there for them.
People talked about couples where the two were exactly like each other. In this case, they were both exactly the same in the way they weren’t open with their feelings.
Nina gave Clarissa’s hand another squeeze and looked into her jade-green eyes. “Lady Clarissa, you’re going to be all right.”
Clarissa still looked beautiful when confused and crying. She honestly was much better suited as a heroine.
Nina wanted her to simply love and be loved without bringing up petty things about how she once hated her during this.
Clarissa snapped out of her stupor, staring at Nina, and shook Nina’s hand off hers. Then, she stood and announced, “A c-commoner like you has no right to address me!”
Here she was with the classic lines again.
Nina smiled and stood, then bowed. “You’re right. You are the Unequaled Lady Clarissa, after all.”
“Wait.”
Nina went to leave, but Clarissa jumped and called for her to stop. Which was fine, but Nina turned back to see her mouth working furiously, trying to get something out.
“You too,” she finally uttered.
“…What?”
“For the love of! I mean…you’re also going to be all right. You are the heroine who stood toe to toe with me, the unequaled villainess, right?” she muttered.
Nina grinned as she watched Clarissa’s face turn bright red.
She was terrible at following through, impatient, flawed despite seeming perfect, and apparently also a bit of a tsundere.
Nina believed this whole setting was far too complicated, but it seemed to fit Clarissa, so maybe that was only to be expected.
“Thank you, Lady Clarissa,” Nina replied.
Dino smiled and sighed as Clarissa looked away with a huff. He might not like or hate her right now, but there definitely seemed to be some feelings there.
Seeing that made Nina happy for some reason.