If I break up with Eddie tomorrow, the heroine can romance him without any worries.
I didn’t know if she would choose Eddie, but at the very least, I could remove all obstacles from one possible route.
I’d been shaken up to the point of despair that morning when I first realized I’d reincarnated into the world of a game. But perhaps a bit of foresight into this world’s future wasn’t so bad. After all, now I could take measures to improve my life and the lives of those around me.
Still, I wanted the heroine to live her own life, so there was no need for me to guide her in any specific direction. All I was going to do was end my engagement for the sake of my own happiness. Opening up a path for the heroine would simply be an unintended benefit.
It didn’t matter to me if she chose Eddie, a different love interest, or decided to never take a husband at all.
Farewell, heroine. I’m going to secure my happiness.
I addressed the heroine in my mind with those words. But only one day later, we ended up butting heads.
“Lady Cynthia, it’s wrong to ignore Lord Eddie’s own will. You’re terribly cruel to treat him like your slave, even if you are supporting his family!” She approached me out of nowhere in the school hallway. Her large eyes were wet with tears, and she pressed her hands together as if she were praying.
Why on earth is she coming to me…?
With my pride as the future head of the Rhuddlan family on the line, I made sure my displeasure didn’t show on my face, smiling back at her like an elegant young lady.
“I don’t understand what you speak of. How have I treated him like a slave?”
“So you truly don’t see it? Lord Eddie can’t defy anything you say, or he’ll risk bringing harm to his family. There are things in life that he wishes to learn and experience, yet he’s too busy devoting his time to your demands, Lady Cynthia. He can’t even make nice memories with his school friends since he’s always running around for your sake. Doesn’t your heart break for him?”
“I don’t believe I have ever made him commit that much time to me. I’ll make sure to ask him directly. All right, until next—”
“Again, you threaten poor Lord Eddie!”
I’d tried to casually excuse myself from the confrontation, but the heroine circled around and blocked my path. This heroine wasn’t someone I could underestimate. Now I understood why the Cynthia in the game loathed her so much.
The crowd watching us only grew as she raised her voice even louder. The young ladies with feelings for Eddie watched the spectacle with glee in their eyes. Some of the young men—ones I’d rejected as marriage candidates previously—were smirking too.
I would have to make sure I excluded them once it was time to pick a new fiancé. What useful information to have in advance.
“You seem very eager to speak with me about this. I have important business to attend to, so would you please address a letter to my home with the rest of this conversation?” I kept my voice as calm as I could. I smiled, but perhaps Cynthia’s face was incapable of making friendly expressions.
I had fiery red hair and burning red eyes, but my beautiful face had naturally stern features. Frankly, playing the role of an honest and upright person was out of my reach. After all, I was a villainess character, and my looks were designed as such. My intimidation factor made it easy to defend my role as one of the few female heirs to their family title in the world. That part was convenient, however…
“You want your family to silence me?!” she shrieked. “I’m not going to back down! Good deeds will always be rewarded! That’s why I’m going to save Lord Eddie!”
Things would have been so much simpler if I had told her I was on my way to end things with Eddie that very moment. However, as the next viscount in my family, I couldn’t go around making unilateral decisions about contracts I was part of. Things needed to be handled officially first.
I could have easily gotten rid of this heroine if only my engagement had already been called off.
What terrible timing. I wish she had shown up just one day later.
“I can tell that you care deeply for Lord Eddie Dorris. Now, I apologize, but I really do have urgent business to attend to…”
I brought up my fiancé coldly, drawing murmurs from the more perceptive members of the crowd. They probably believed I was just putting on a brave face. After all, I hadn’t made my love for Eddie a secret in the past.
All I wanted was to end my engagement as soon as possible and forget how foolish I’d been all this time. How thoughtless could this little woman be?
“Wait a minute, Cynthia. Listen to what Elly is saying.”
And here comes the next nitwit.
Pushing his way through the crowd of spectators was the young man with lustrous, long orange hair—my pitiful fiancé, Eddie.
I was the one who’d carefully groomed that beautiful hair so that it kept its shine, but I would never care for him again like that once our engagement was over. I wondered if he would be able to maintain it without me.
Oh, so this heroine is named Elly? I realized a beat later. When I played the game, I was able to give her whatever name I wanted. I didn’t think she had a canon name.
Elly and Eddie certainly sounded like a perfect pair. Please, go be together already. I’m happy to be a stranger to both of you.
Like the hero of a great tragedy, Eddie contorted his beautiful features in feigned agony. “Elly’s the one who made me see that I’ve been putting on a brave face all this time. She’s right, you know. I do have things I’ve wanted to do and learn. There were days I wanted to spend time with my friends. But instead, I put my desires aside so that I could live how you wanted me to live. Now I see how wrong that was.”
You didn’t know what you wanted until the heroine put the words in your mouth?
As I told the heroine, I was quite certain that I never imposed such harsh restrictions on Eddie. Spending that much time with Eddie would have gotten in the way of the things I wanted to do in the first place. I wondered how he’d been spending his time while I was away learning how to run my family’s territory, observing our local institutions, and socializing to keep up appearances.
Knowing Eddie, he probably just sat around in an airy daze.
I’d once loved that peaceful side of him.
Only now did I see that “peaceful” was the wrong word to describe him. He was a person without any opinions of his own, totally unsure of what it was he wanted out of life. Perhaps I would have found that side of him “sweet,” but unfortunately, this man was indecisive to a fault.
It seemed to only be getting worse as time went by.
“I see, Lord Dorris,” I said, keeping my tone level. “I am prepared to discuss this with you now. Shall we relocate? I believe your father will have already informed you of today’s discussion between our families, so we can continue our conversation th—”
“Enough! I’ve had it! I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Is your family going to hold its wealth over mine again?! Well, I won’t be there! Today’s the day I finally stand up to you! That’s my right as a human being!”