Her slogan would be: Other than Dino, keep ’em hanging.
She personally didn’t know how she felt about that treatment, but this was for the contract. If the villainess wanted this sort of adoration-showered protagonist, then Nina had no right to say otherwise.
“It’s important to ask questions when you don’t understand. And it is important to keep it general,” Nina thought out loud.
She was very satisfied with herself once she polished the banister. She took her bucket and walked through the academy grounds to put it away.
While walking, she caught sight of Dino’s vegetable patch. He was a prince, but was he really allowed to take over part of the grounds in the academy to grow crops? Or was the vegetable patch the academy’s in the first place, and Dino was just working on it?
“Either way, you don’t see a prince farming too often,” she muttered aloud.
As she came closer, she could see weeds poking up here and there. It would be such a shame to let them overrun the pristine furrows.
At first, Nina lightly started to weed, then found herself engrossed. All she’d done that day was clean and weed. That was less a hired heroine and more a hired cleaner. But boys were trying to chat her up—like they would a heroine—and Nina also managed to confirm with Clarissa how she should handle them, so maybe it was fine.
“Nina, what are you doing?” came a voice. At some point, the boy with ultramarine blue hair stood behind her, looking at her in confusion.
“Hello, Prince Dino,” she greeted. “I’m weeding.”
“You seem to like weeding.” He crouched down beside her.
Nina looked at his hand, and her eyes opened wide. A simple golden ring with a small blue stone was on his right finger. It was exactly the same as the ring on Nina’s finger. “…Is that a contract ring?” she asked.
“Huh? You have one too.” They looked at each other’s rings and chuckled awkwardly. “That means you’re a contractee, too, doesn’t it?”
“Just like you, Prince Dino.”
“Why don’t we sit together for a bit?” Dino suggested, and the two moved to a bench beside the vegetable patch. “So, I bet you were reincarnated and entered a contract. Probably from Japan?” he asked.
“Yes. Are you also from Japan?” The thought of sitting together on a bench with a prince made Nina’s heart race, but knowing he was also from Japan gave her an odd feeling, a sort of longing and familiarity, like meeting a family member after a long time.
“Yep. A cat sent by a god came and threatened me. I had no choice but to take the contract,” he recounted.
“Th-Threatened?” Nina didn’t know if this particular feline messenger of the gods was Ed, but being threatened was no laughing matter.
“Yeah. He said if I didn’t accept the role of the main love interest, he’d make me king.”
“…That’s a threat?” Normally, that would be more of a boon than a threat.
Dino, however, grimaced in complete disgust. “It’s the worst threat ever. All I want to do is have a peaceful life out in the country. I don’t want anything to do with this downfall and gloat or whatever. I just want to keep farming and make rice.”
“Rice?”
“Yeah. I really, really want to eat some Japanese rice.” His eyes sparkled like a child’s.
Nina, as a fellow Japan native, could understand that desire. Bread was nice and all, but nothing beat a bowl of fresh, warm rice. “Oh, so you don’t want to make indica or even javonica rice. You want japonica rice, right?” elaborated Nina with a nod.
Dino lunged forward and took her hand. “Yes! That’s exactly it! Nina, you do know a lot about rice.”
Having such beautiful ochre eyes looking directly at her made Nina’s heart race. It was really something that he could throw her, the heroine, into such a tizzy. Maybe this was the result of some sort of main love interest buff?
“I think I was the daughter of a rice farmer back in Japan. Probably,” she pondered.
“Really? I wish we’d known each other in Japan!”
“I was just a rice farmer from the boonies, though…”
“That’s incredible. You’re like my ideal girl.”
None of that mattered; Nina just wanted him to let go of her hand. Having a gorgeous boy that close to her was like sitting next to a bomb. She might end up burned if she got too close.
“Wouldn’t growing japonica rice be difficult with the climate in this country?” Nina redirected.
This country had four seasons like Japan, but the base rainfall, humidity, and temperature levels were all completely different. It almost felt like all long periods of rain, extreme heat, and extreme cold were eliminated in order to make living here pleasant, which meant it would be near impossible to farm rice in the same way as in Japan.
“Nina, I want to have a long discussion with you about this,” suggested Dino.
His eyes, staring earnestly into Nina’s, made her want to nod in agreement with everything, but she wasn’t at the academy to help start a rice farm—she couldn’t lose sight of her real goal.
“I don’t mind, but right now, I’d like to ask about the contract,” Nina admitted.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Dino finally let go of Nina’s hand and cleared his throat. “I’m Clarissa’s fiancé. My role is to fall for the heroine, then expose her deeds in the end.”
“My role is to captivate everyone around me with my charms, get bullied by Clarissa, then in the end have some downfall for her to gloat over.”
After they explained their roles, they exchanged glances and broke into grins. Nina never imagined she’d find someone she could talk to about this ridiculous situation.
“But I feel better now,” she expressed. “If you’re also working to fulfill the contract, that means the hardest part is already done.”
“What’s the hardest part?”
“Captivating the love interest and everyone else with my charms. It’s absolutely ridiculous asking me to do that. I did confirm there was a bit of a heroine buff active, but I was honestly still a bit uneasy about whether or not I could do it.”
“Really?”
Dino was gorgeous even when he looked confused. He was probably attractive even before any amplifications he got. It was utterly unreasonable to expect her to captivate such a handsome prince.
“Just look at Clarissa,” she continued. “Plum-colored hair, jade-green eyes. She’s beautiful by any standards: the perfect heroine. Uh, actually, villainess. It’s not like my appearance changed just because I have a buff. I was worried things wouldn’t go well.” That said, she also didn’t want the boost to change her appearance suddenly.
“I’ll agree that Clarissa is incredibly beautiful, but this sort of thing comes down to personal preference, doesn’t it?” he questioned. “You’re cute too, Nina.”
Nina was practically blinded by his brilliance when he smiled, a halo of light glowing from behind him.
“Well, I’ve just confirmed your main love interest buff works. And don’t worry, it’s pretty powerful,” acknowledged Nina.
“That’s good to hear,” Dino laughed.
She was feeling a bit relieved. Life at the academy looked like it would be easier than expected since she confirmed her advantage and that she could talk with the love interest.
Indeed, at that point, Nina didn’t understand the genuinely terrifying power of the heroine buff.