CH 5.05

Chapter 5: Are people born a tsundere?

Part 5

Lila was sprawled out on the couch, bare-faced and casually dressed.

“When they said I should rest for a while, I assume they meant I don’t have to learn to manage the manor?”

As a result, Vincent didn’t come by in the morning. If she stayed in her room, he’d bring her a meal, but then she’d have to put on makeup and the cotton fluff, which was a hassle.

Lila called Vincent in before lunch and had him bring in a variety of foods at once.

Vincent watched in disbelief as Lila ordered many things at once: bread and jam, fruit, salad, steak, and dessert.

The last thing she ordered was curtains. The window already had curtains, but she wanted them to hang in the center of the room.

If she ever needed to call Vincent, she wanted to be able to talk to him through the curtain.

The curtains were hastily and haphazardly hung in the storeroom, but Lila felt at ease.

“The Duke must have seen me, and that’s why he put the proposal in.”

They must have met before then, before she possessed Lila’s body at age 10.

“I wasn’t Lila in the first place, so how could I remember.”

She pouted like she was grumpy. The Duke’s next words were shocking.

“What kind of child were you, Lila?”

After the Duke left, she pulled out the diary in her pocket and flipped through it, but there were fewer entries about the female lead in the later chapters of 

“I didn’t realize they only wrote about the male leads.”

In fact, even the stories and accounts of the men were not detailed. There was only a rough plot and a lot of sentiment.

Even if it was a diary full of comments like this, it was helpful.

But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find any record of Lucas. Not even a record of the Duke of Montefeltra.

“Lucas Hugh Montefeltra. Michael Hugh Montefeltra.”

While muttering the names of the two, Lila tried to recall all her memories of the original story, but it was already 10 years ago.

“Haa…”

With a long sigh, she rose from the couch. Her dress was loose and untucked.

She grabbed a macaron from the table and popped it into her mouth.

Moving her mouth, Lila put one leg on the couch and the other across the table.

It was the most comfortable position in the world. It was a position she could never show anyone else.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t remember anything.”

Stretching her words like a mumbled song, Lila picked up her glass of iced tea. Even if the ice melted and dripped from the watery glass, she didn’t care.

She roughly wiped her dress and drank the iced tea.

“Mmm, cool!”

Lila put her legs all over the table, thinking that even if she was ten years old, she could not help but notice.

She popped a macaron into her mouth and leaned her upper body back on the couch.

It was a normally soundless visit, but Lila was humming nonchalantly to herself.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind the curtain, and before she knew it, an innocent voice called out.

“What are you doing?”

“Kyaaaaaa!”

Lila jumped up from the couch, not expecting someone to enter the room.

“My ears hurt, why are you screaming, you ugly…”

Michael yelled back, closing and opening his eyes while covering his ears with his hands. But the woman in front of him wasn’t the ugly one he’d come to see.

The first thing he noticed was her skin, which was as clear as freshly fallen snow in the dead of winter. Her pink flushed cheeks were like peaches and her red, full lips were like cherries.

Her eyes, which reached past the bridge of her large, floppy nose, were not as narrow and dim as usual. They were cobalt blue and wide open.

Michael stumbled backward in surprise, and Lila pushed aside her embarrassment to reach out and gently grasp his small, already callused hand.

“Who are you!”

Michael bellowed, startled out of his reverie.

“Young master, please be a little… quiet for a moment.”

It was rare for a maid or servant to come up to the duchess’s room on the third floor. Especially now that Vincent was taking care of Lila at the Duke’s behest.

But if he keeps making noise, someone would hear her, and that would increase the chances of Vincent coming to see her.

Michael, who had come to visit without the maids’ knowledge, would also be in trouble if he did, so he quietly complied with Lila’s request.

“What, are you really ugly, though I think I recognize your voice?”

Michael remembered her voice. It was sweet, clear and warm. He used to think that she had a nice voice that didn’t go with her freckled, grumpy face.

So it was easy to recognize that the beautiful woman in front of him and the ugly woman had the same voice.

“Young master, it’s me, and you’re going to keep calling me ugly, I’m telling you…”

Lila pouted her lips and grumbled, making Michael’s face turn bright red as he realized she was even cuter than he thought.

“Wha, what have you done?”

Could a person’s face change in a day? Even magic couldn’t change a person’s face.

“Are you an alchemist? No, a magician? Or are you…”

Michael, who had been speaking rapidly, covered his mouth with his hands.

His pink eyes rolled up to meet Lila’s. As if sensing what he wanted to say, Lila spoke up.

“You mean like a mage?”

“How did you…”

His pink eyes grew so big they looked about to pop out. Michael shook his head in disbelief.

“How do you know that? My uncle said it’s a secret that nobles don’t know?”

“What?”

“How did you know?”

“What?”

Lila began to panic at the strange reaction. She wasn’t sure what she had said was wrong.

Her eyes rolled in anxiety. That’s when Michael grabbed Lila’s dress and said.

“You can’t tell anyone. No way.”

“You mean, what?”

Lila asked in a confused voice.

“You must never tell anyone that you know about the mage.”

Lila was genuinely surprised. In the original story, the crown prince does magic, so do the magic engineers, everyone knew about it. Besides…

“The Empire has magic engineers and alchemists.”

Yes. If there are magic engineers and alchemists, it must be a world where magic is widespread, right?

“You idiot! Magic engineers and alchemists are different from mages.”

“I don’t see what’s different.”

Michael said, tapping his small hand against his chest in frustration.

“Mages work with mana, and magic engineers and alchemists don’t work with mana. They manipulate it with spirit stones and other herbs and drugs.”

Lyla’s eyes went wide with disbelief. She really didn’t know.

“I, that…”

She felt like her mind was going blank, wondering how to make an excuse.

“Are you a mage too?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then how did you change your face? Can’t you change mine?”

But Michael’s question brought her back to reality.

“Young master…”

Michael said again to Lila, who had a sad look on her face.

“I want to get out of being ugly too, so please tell me.”

Lila’s heart sank at the request from Michael, who was only nine years old. To her, he was the cutest kid ever.

Not just cute because he was a kid, but because of the way his eyes, nose, and mouth were set into his fair skin, and his pink eyes were like no other.

There was no reason for him to be called ugly just because he was covered in freckles.

Lila nodded vigorously, her expression determined.