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“IT’S surprisingly peaceful,” Nina murmured to herself as she walked through the beautifully manicured courtyard garden.
She was a few days into her academy enrollment, having started in the boldest way possible: as a commoner entering an academy only for nobles partway through the year. People were curious about her, but no one had caused issues so far. She was surprised at how calm things had been.
But she did literally live in a different social world from them, so they didn’t have much in common to talk about. Apparently, when a noble girl saw a cat, she didn’t shove her face in its fluffy belly or sniff its cute toe beans.
Did they have the willpower of gods? Or were they just not interested in cats? Either way, she clearly had different tastes and thought processes from them.
A bit stressed, she decided to stroll through the courtyard and found herself standing in front of what looked like a vegetable plot. She thought at first it was a flower bed, but the beautifully neat furrows didn’t seem to be for flowers.
“What beautiful soil. I wonder what’s growing here,” she observed. Vaguely interested, Nina crouched down and started pulling weeds out. If you only pulled the leaves, you’d leave the roots, and the weeds would keep growing. It’s essential also to get the roots.
“If only I could weed out Mom’s illness like this…”
She sighed. Saying something like that wasn’t going to accomplish anything.
If weeding could cure Aida, Nina would spend days doing nothing but pulling out the unwanted plants. Obviously, no such convenient solution existed. Her only option right now was to play her contracted role. If you thought about it, even that was a rare opportunity, and she was grateful for the chance.
She sighed again, shaking off all the dirt clinging to the roots of the weed she just pulled out. It would be a shame to waste such beautifully cultivated soil.
“…What are you doing?” came a voice, interrupting Nina as she had gotten lost in her weeding. It was only then that she realized someone was standing next to her.
She looked up to see a handsome boy with ultramarine blue hair and ochre-colored eyes. He was probably vying for first place for the most attractive boy Nina had ever seen since reincarnating into this world. He wore dirt-covered gloves and carried a bucket, but that didn’t sully his elegance.
“You don’t often see an academy student weeding, and you seem to know what you’re doing,” he observed.
“I am pretty experienced,” she replied. Nina weeded around their house and even had a part-time job that involved weeding the gardens at a noble’s mansion. She wasn’t particularly fast or skilled at it, but your average academy student had probably never touched a weed, being nobles and all.
Nina dropped the weed she was holding, stood, and brushed off her skirt since it would be odd to continue this conversation while crouching the whole time.
“My name is Dino Mento, and yours?” the boy asked.
“I’m Nina Scaglione.”
She only realized after she responded that Mento was also the country’s name. Having that last name meant he was royalty. He might be the prince mentioned in the contract. She felt somewhat emotional thinking about growing close to this attractive boy only to be thrown aside by him later. It was a little like looking at the fish in a restaurant’s tank, knowing they’d someday be eaten.
Though actually, the positions were reversed. Nina was the one destined for the oven this time.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” suddenly came a loud voice.
Surprised, Nina spun around and saw a beautiful girl with plum-colored hair and jade-green eyes standing with her hands on her hips. Nina felt the glare boring into her, but she was actually grateful to be given the chance to bask in the gaze of such a pretty girl.
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“Clarissa, what’s wrong?” asked Dino.
“Your Highness, you should hardly be stooping to working in the dirt, should you? And you,” demanded the girl called Clarissa, a wrinkle between her brows. “You are speaking to Prince Dino. Don’t you think it’s discourteous to address him while looking as you do?”
Nina looked down at herself and realized her uniform and shoes were covered in dirt. Contrastingly, Dino had even more dirt on him, but Clarissa wasn’t going to point that out.
“This is why you’re a commoner,” Clarissa huffed.
“You know who I am? And, may I ask who you are?” said Nina clumsily.
Clarissa’s eyes gleamed like she was waiting for Nina to ask. “I am Clarissa Tessarini, Prince Dino’s fiancée.”
All right. This meant she was the villainess and the Lucky Reincarnation Raffle winner. Nina was told she’d be both smart and beautiful, and she definitely was beautiful. Nina found herself nodding at Clarissa’s perfect job of highlighting her relationship with Dino while belittling a commoner at the same time.
The ring on Clarissa’s finger had a sparkling red stone and looked fairly similar to Nina’s. Did the raffle winner get a red stone? Or were everyone’s rings different?
This was apparently the event that introduced both the heroine and the villainess. However, Nina questioned if having it happen at a vegetable plot was really best.
The question then was how should Nina, the protagonist, respond?
“I apologize for my lack of decorum; I didn’t realize I was speaking with the prince,” she began. “Though, it is fun to work in the dirt, isn’t it?”
She tried for something safe: apologizing while showing she accepted what Dino was doing.
“What are you talking about? I have nothing to say to that,” said Clarissa.
Welp. She completely shot that one down. Did that mean she’d prefer a response that made her want to bite back?
Nina had the vague feeling that Clarissa was looking at her expectantly. She was going to be one demanding customer. Nina needed to respond to her demands and set up the perfect gloat for her.
“Fine, then maybe you shouldn’t ever eat vegetables again,” tossed Nina. “You’ll learn to regret not knowing the value of vegetables—grown in dirt—when your skin becomes rough and you can’t get a normal bowel movement anymore.”
Oops. She had been aiming to show that she embraced Dino and this vegetable patch but accidentally ended up saying something more suited to the evil role.
“Do not underestimate the steely strength of my skin.” Clarissa put her hands on her hips, looked down her nose at Nina, and sauntered away.
Nina didn’t really get it, but at least Clarissa managed to end the scene with something resembling an evil attitude, which Nina was grateful for. Despite being a villainess and all, she was probably a perfectly nice person.
As Clarissa left, Nina sort of waved her off as Dino laughed. “Nina, was it?” he asked. “You’re funny. It was nice meeting you.”
As she might’ve expected from the love interest of this story, she had no complaints about his pleasant smile.
She felt a smile grow across her face too and felt relieved that the first encounter event was completed successfully.
✦ ✦ ✦
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“WELCOME home, Nina. Dinner’s ready,” welcomed Aida with a smile, greeting Nina with satisfaction.
“You seem like you’re feeling good,” noted Nina. She took off her blazer and went to help with dinner, but the cooking was already finished. The only thing left was to set the table.
Apparently, Aida even baked bread. The house was filled with its pleasant aroma.
Aida brought over a pot of one of Nina’s favorites: stew with loads of vegetables poking out from the broth. Her mom hadn’t cooked it in a long time, not since her condition had worsened, because it took quite a lot of time and effort to prepare.
“It’s incredible how much better I feel,” relayed Aida. “It’s all thanks to that medicine you got for me. Just don’t push yourself too hard for me, okay?”