Tea Party With the Reincarnated Villainess 1

A day off. In other words, it is the day when Reynaldo, Alberto, and I get together.

Alberto told me that if too many people saw the two of us together, rumors would start, so he said he would take his horse around the Knight Commander’s training grounds, and I hid out and waited for Alberto to come.

As I played with pebbles with my toes to occupy time, I heard the sound of hooves in the distance.

I looked up to see if he had arrived, but all of a sudden, I was confused.

I had expected only Alberto to arrive while riding his horse.

But a carriage came up to me.

“Miss Marie!”

Alberto, who had ridden up to me on his horse at exactly the same time, dismounted in front of me.

“What is that carriage?”

“It’s Lord Reynaldo. Apparently, he couldn’t wait until the meeting time.”

Alberto sounded very frustrated.

The carriage stops and the driver gets out. He took one look at me, bowed deeply, and held out his hand.

Not knowing what to do, I look up at Alberto standing beside me.

He nodded, roughly scratching his dark brown hair.

“It’s the coachman that Lord Reynaldo uses when he goes undercover, so there is no problem.”

I was relieved to hear Alberto’s words and was about to offer my hand to the coachman, but Alberto grabbed my hand and put it on his elbow. He said he would escort me.

The door of the carriage, closed by a curtain, was suddenly opened. And then, a hand was held out in front of me.

“Good morning, Marie. I have been looking forward to meeting you.”

Duke Reynaldo’s smile, more dazzling than the sun, greeted me.

I quickly got into the carriage while scolding my tired mind.

Inside, Reynaldo was sitting across from me while I sat as far away as possible, trying to shrink my body.

Alberto rides in front of the carriage on the horse he brought with him.

The carriage has no markings or anything, all the windows are closed and curtains are hanging. It certainly looks like a carriage that is meant to be used in secret.

“Is Marie comfortable with the life of a lady-in-waiting?”

“Yes, it suits me very well.”

“I see. I’m relieved.”

At first, Reynaldo, like Alberto, treated me as if I were his sister and used honorific language. Of course, I rejected his actions and made him swear to call me Marie and not to use honorifics.

Reynaldo soon began to call me Marie, the name I now go by, but when it came to honorifics, he begged me to speak to him as before, except in front of others.

Reluctantly I agreed, as we did not usually meet in public.

The carriage rattles along the poorly paved road.

The man sitting in front of me is a grown man, completely different from the beautiful younger brother Rosemary remembers.

The sobriquet “Duke of Ice” did not refer only to his prowess, but also to the slitted eyes that accompanied him. Reynaldo’s expressionless face was as sharp and beautiful as ice.

In Rosemary’s time, it wouldn’t have been unnatural for me to stand next to him, but now I would be out of place.

Born to a baby-faced father and a beautiful mother, my older brother and I were born with an unremarkable appearance. We are not beautiful, and we are not particularly cute either. However, both of us are slender. The only similarity between us is our body shape.

I look at the unopened window, unsure of what to do as Reynaldo looks at me calmly, his long legs crossed and his posture leaning forward slightly.

“What was Marie’s life like when you were a little girl?”

Reynaldo often asks about me in this way.

“The territory wasn’t big enough to afford luxury, so I was doing things like taking care of the livestock, working in the fields, and knitting.”

“That must have been tough.”

“Not at all. I enjoyed it very much.”

It would be an unthinkable life for Rosemary.

However, Marie sincerely had a fulfilling life.

The joy of harvesting crops grown with one’s own hands. Living together with animals. The act of being thankful every day for a safe tomorrow and using the life we have nurtured as sustenance for life.

Life was full of realities that could never be understood through books and literature.

“It was very fulfilling. Every day was fun.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Reynaldo smiled happily at me, but I couldn’t truly be happy to see his smile.

Because while I was basking in the joy of my birth as Marie, Reynaldo and Alberto were experiencing Rosemary’s death.

“Reynaldo….”

I spoke to him as his former sister.

The smile fades from his jade-green eyes. He must have picked up on my thoughts.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you. I don’t want any revenge against King Gray or Queen Tia.”

I spilled my thoughts into each word.

“So please, if you’re thinking of revenge, I want you to stop.”

I don’t want to see my precious little brother dyed in blood and stained with evil any longer.

If it was brought about by the late Rosemary, then it is also my role as the reborn person to stop it.

Perhaps sensing my seriousness, he moves a little closer and squeezes both my hands.

“I fully understand how you feel, Sister. You’re a kind sister who feels pain in your heart for me.”

He moves my clasped hands on his cheeks and snuggles into them.

“I would never do anything to make you sad.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

I stared at Reynaldo’s eyes for a while.

There was no wavering in Reynaldo’s eyes as he stared back at me.

“… Thank you.”

I finally put an end to my concerns.

The three of us enter a private room in the cafe we visited the other day and sit at a round table.

Milk tea for me, coffee for Reynaldo, and citrus tea for Alberto.

The woman who served us looked at us and left the room looking a little dubious.

It’s not unreasonable. There were two beautiful men over the age of 30 and a country girl alone.

But they didn’t care at all and just looked at me and smiled.

“When was the last time the three of us had tea together like this?”

“Because it was before my sister lived in the royal palace, isn’t it about 24 years ago?”

Twenty-four years.

Just hearing that makes me feel very old.

“That’s right… If I were still alive, I would be 36 years old, just like Alberto…”

Oh my.

I’m old enough to have at least three children.

Speaking of children.

“Are you two ever going to get married?”

The hands holding the two tea cups stopped.

Alberto was the first to put his teacup on the saucer.

“I don’t think so. I’ve been so busy with my knight duties that I haven’t even thought about it.”

“Me too. Because the Rose territory is not yet stable.”

“I see.”

It’s a shame. I had heard rumors about them in the rural town of Edigma even before I started working as a lady-in-waiting.

It is said that daughters from the provinces flock to the banquets they attend, vying for the position of the wives of these two good-looking and most sought-after bachelors and that when there is a social party they attend, invitations are fought over.

Of course, having grown up as a baron’s daughter and a country girl, I never went to any of the parties they attended.

“I would also like to ask about Marie’s marriage.”

“Yes, that’s right. If you are included in the Crown Prince’s list of potential fiancées, may I assume that you do not yet have a fiancé?”

I nodded in response to their curious questions.

“I don’t have anything of the sort at all.”

“Is there anyone in your thoughts?”

He asks me a moderately probing question.

“No. But I would like to marry someone someday.”

I have left the matter of my father’s succession to my older brother, who is also still single.

In the worst-case scenario, my brother may end his life in the capital without succeeding to the title, and I will have to give birth to the heir of the Edigma territory.

It’s still a long way off, but I know I’ll have to settle down by the time I reach the right age.

“….?”

I put the milk tea I was drinking on the saucer and looked at them because they were suddenly both silent.

Reynaldo looked at me with an ice-cold smile, and Alberto looked grim.

“Oh right, about the prince’s courtship.”

Reynaldo switched the subject and changed the strange atmosphere.

Although it hadn’t been resolved yet, I remembered Alberto saying that I could leave the matter to them, and I looked at Reynaldo with some impatience.

“I said that I’d like you to leave this to me and Alberto for the time being, but even so, it’s not a perfect plan. As long as you’re in the royal palace, you can still meet the prince.”

“That’s true.”

I’m really happy that he likes me, but my position doesn’t allow it.

I waited for Reynaldo to continue.

“Therefore, I would like Marie to become a maid of the Duke of Rose.”

“What?”

Judging from Alberto’s loud response, he apparently didn’t know either.

From a villainess to a baron’s daughter, from a royal palace maid to a duke’s maid.

When will I settle down?