The villainess is the daughter of a marquess and is both smart and beautiful. She’s engaged to a prince. The heroine is a commoner.
The heroine goes to school and gets friendly with the prince.
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.
The villainess protects the prince. True love blossoms.
The heroine goes to the graduation party with the prince. Everyone learns of the heroine’s deeds, and then there’s the love confession scene.
The terms were notated on a sheet of rainbow-colored paper the white cat presented. Depending on what angle you looked at it, the paper changed color and sparkled with faint light. It clearly wasn’t made with any technology of this world and must’ve also been made by the god’s power.
As Nina carefully studied the contract, the white cat’s paw appeared before her face and traced along the words. “This is the contract with the raffle winner,” it said.
It looked like the winner had written it herself. The letters were cutesy, but Nina was curious why the handwriting looked a bit messier nearer the end.
“The details are up to your discretion,” continued the cat. “In the end, the contract is fulfilled as long as these five conditions are met.”
With that, Nina took another look over the contract. It was pretty bare bones. She’d have to make a lot of decisions about the details at this rate. “Why didn’t she bother putting in more details?” She seemed picky after all, considering she chose a villainess for the romance aspect.
“She said to just go by feel. Also, raffle winners are only allowed three minutes for negotiation as part of their special treatment. I think she did rather well, considering.”
Nina was about to sigh at how half-measure it was of this person to tell them to just go by feel, but something the cat said caught her interest. “Why three minutes?”
“Apparently, the time limit was put into place after a previous raffle winner spent ages negotiating.”
“But why three minutes?”
“I was told that aligned with the wait time.”
The white cat was probably referring to what the “god” said, but what were they waiting for? Maybe they were waiting for their cup ramen to cook? It wouldn’t be that weird, considering Nina reincarnated into another world and had a cat visiting her on orders from a god.
“But I don’t wanna deal with complaints if what I do isn’t what she wants because I had to make my own decisions,” countered Nina.
She didn’t care what happened with the villainess’s romance. Nina just wanted to avoid nullifying the contract because she failed to fulfill it, which would result in Aida’s pain coming back.
That meant she had to make sure she really understood what the raffle winner wanted.
“I’m sure the raffle winner has a clear picture in her mind of this otome game in a medieval Europe-esque setting, but we don’t know the details,” assured the cat. “The god’s powers do extend to anything that falls under these five conditions.”
“The god’s powers?”
“This contract won’t be nullified if the contracting party cannot fulfill the conditions. If you formally enter the contract, you’ll receive a ring. The god’s power held within will make corrections if anything goes too far off course from the contract. Essentially, you can’t make mistakes. There’s no need to worry.”
Anyone claiming god’s power would help you was usually met with suspicion, but Nina already knew this power was real. She didn’t have to worry about any snags or contract violations caused by her mistakes.
While she was grateful to hear that, it only created a new question. “Does that mean it doesn’t matter if I try hard to be the heroine because it won’t make any difference in the end? It’s all well and good to say ‘Go to school,’ but there’s all the time I’d have to spend going through the admission process and getting things ready. And the money, I don’t have that.”
Assuming this school wasn’t going to be built from scratch just for the raffle winner, they would use a pre-existing academy that the noble children attended. All the students would be real nobles and royals. A commoner like Nina could never get into a school like that, no matter how hard she tried, and she couldn’t get the money together for it either.
“We’ll provide the necessary funds, don’t worry,” the cat continued. “And we will also go through the steps to enroll you. I will be coming to visit you every once in a while, so please do try. Do you have any other questions?”
If getting in and paying for school weren’t issues, then there was no doubt she would be able to get in.
But there was one issue remaining.
“About this ‘captivated by the heroine’s charms’ part. I’m not exactly bewitching. I can’t do that. Or will I suddenly turn into a jaw-dropping beauty when I sign the contract?”
Nina’s ivory hair and coral eyes were beautiful in their own way in terms of color combination, but the most important part was her actual features. There, she wasn’t lacking, but not exactly blessed—she was utterly average. Nina has had people say she was cute while out and about, but they were just being nice. If she stepped amongst the throngs of refined noble ladies who had committed themselves to their appearance, Nina would be no more interesting than the backdrop.
The contract specifically said “captivated by the heroine’s charms,” and that would be the most challenging part. But if they changed Nina’s appearance, then what about everyone who’d known Nina up until now? Aida’s heart might stop from shock if her daughter randomly changed into a beautiful lady she didn’t recognize.
“…I think you’ll be okay in that regard,” the white cat asserted.
“Come on, saying that isn’t a good enough guarantee. The villainess is both smart and beautiful, right? There’s no way I can rival her.”
“Why not?”
Nina sighed. This cat might be capable of easily talking in detail about difficult issues, but it was pretty slow to pick up on other matters. “I mean, she’s a noble girl and beautiful. The story can’t exactly go ahead if the heroine is utterly bland, can it?”
“But you’re cute enough,” the cat said without hesitation.
A gulf of silence gaped between the white cat and Nina. “Yeah, so,” uttered Nina, “I guess that’s my mistake for asking a cat to make judgment calls on human beauty.” She shook her head and rubbed her temple. Nina wasn’t sure what cat standards were for determining beauty, but it was likely different from human measures.
“I’m not unknowledgeable about these things,” replied the white cat, its tail lashing back and forth in annoyance. It was adorable when it did that.
Aaaah, I really want to pet him. Pet him all over, squish him, and cuddle as much as I want! she thought. “All right, well, thanks. Good to know cats don’t think I’m ugly. That gives me confidence for when I talk to the cats outside. I’ll become a wandering cat chaser.”
“Before you do that, would you be the heroine?”
“Wait.”
“…There’s something else?” Despite being a cat, its expression was clearly exasperated. This messenger of a god really did have human-like mannerisms.
“What’s your name?” asked Nina.
“What?”
“Not, like, ‘Messenger of the Gods,’ or whatever. Your personal…uh…felin-al name. If you’re going to be helping me out, I’d at least like to know your name. I’m Nina. Nina Scaglione.”
Introductions were a cornerstone of interpersonal…inter-person-felin-al relationships. Sharing names was basically a requirement.
It would be hard to talk with the cat if she constantly had to call it by saying “Messenger of God” or just plain old “Hey, you.” Besides, she wasn’t about to lose this opportunity to be on a first-name basis with a cat as beautiful as this. Both for their work and because she loved cats, she really wanted to be able to use its name—and to have it use hers.
The cat’s eyes went round. After a moment of thinking, it quietly murmured, “Ed.”
“Ed? That’s a nice name.” She grasped Ed’s paw for a handshake, secretly getting a feel of his toe beans while at it. She couldn’t get over how soft and squishy they were. “I’m not sure I can be a charming heroine, but I’ll work hard and make sure the winner can gloat as much as she wants. I look forward to working with you, Ed.”
Nina put her all into a huge grin, and Ed waved his tail in satisfaction. “Okay. The contract is complete then,” he said with a nod, and a faint light gathered around Nina’s right ring finger. “This is a contract ring. You won’t be able to remove it until the contract is fulfilled.”
The light faded, leaving a ring in its place. It was very pretty, simple, and silver with a tiny blue stone.
“And I look forward to working with you too, Nina,” continued Ed, his beautiful blue and gold eyes slowly narrowing.