WHCP 39

Chapter 39.

But spilled water cannot be gathered back up. All of Mio’s attention was already focused on cleaning up this situation.

First, I’ll figure out where Caleb is, then shove Lethe into the lounge.

If, in the meantime, she dealt with the villainess pattern and slipped out of the banquet hall, there wouldn’t be a repeat of last time—Aletheia’s condition worsening abruptly.

The problem was that no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t spot Caleb—she couldn’t even see the back of Wyden’s head.

Hmm. Should I go up to the second floor and look?

It might be easier to find them from higher up. As Mio craned her neck and scanned the area, her gaze caught on a woman in a gorgeous dress with brown hair.

That’s definitely Caleb!

However, just as Mio was about to dart out on reflex, something stopped her. It was another hand gripping hers. Realizing it was Aletheia, Mio spoke hurriedly without even turning around.

“Lethe, could you go wait in the lounge? I’ll just stop by the powder room and then come.”

“Wait.”

“Why? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Now was really not a good time. Biting her lip, she turned around—and saw that Aletheia’s gaze was fixed on a strange place. He was looking at her, yes, but…

“Your dress… the laces in the back came undone.”

Ah, so that was it. That was why he had been staring at her back. Startled, Mio reached behind her waist and felt around—sure enough, she could feel that one of the middle knots had come loose.

Damn it. If I’d run out without noticing, I would’ve ended up putting on a stripping show in the middle of the ball.

As Mio fumbled and strained to hold the back together, Aletheia raised a hand to shield her back.

“Do I just need to tie it? Come here. I’ll do it.”

“You will?”

Then the appropriate place would be…

After glancing around, Mio decided to head out to the nearest terrace. Perhaps because it was the ominous combination of a grand duke who carried unsettling rumors and a notorious villainess, no one stopped them along the way, fortunately.

When the terrace door clicked shut behind them, Mio let out a sigh of relief at having escaped safely without staging an impromptu undressing show. She quickly turned around and said,

“Hurry and tie it. I think you just need to knot it.”

She heard him mutter quietly.

“…I picked it because I thought it would suit you, but it turned out to be a dangerous outfit.”

“You picked it, Lethe?”

“Yes. Don’t ever wear it outside again.”

She had thought he had merely nodded absentmindedly when Count Duon recommended the outfit, saying he’d “buy it.”

Without realizing it, Mio lowered her gaze and looked over the dress once. She had assumed he had no eye at all for women’s clothing, but maybe—unexpectedly—he did have some taste.

No. He probably just recognized it as something high-class. He is royalty, after all.

He must have grown up surrounded by expensive and precious things; if he didn’t even have this much discernment, that would be the real problem. While Mio was looking down at the dress she actually liked quite a bit, Aletheia’s hand hovered around her waist.

“But does it really only need to be tied? Everything else is fastened with ribbon knots.”

“You can just tie it with a ribbon.”

“…I’m not confident about that.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know how to tie a ribbon?”

“Yeah.”

When Mio turned around, Aletheia—who had been fiddling with the strings—froze in that very posture. After staring up at him in disbelief for a moment, Mio took his hand and led him toward a chair set off to the side.

Come to think of it, with his memory loss, it seemed he had even forgotten how to tie a ribbon. It wasn’t like she could scold him for that. It was something she could simply teach him.

“Alright, I’ll show you how to tie it. You just have to copy me.”

Mio took a handkerchief out of her bag, rolled it up into a string-like shape, and made a knot around Aletheia’s fingers.

“Like this, you make a loop, then pull—ta-da! Easy, right?”

Watching quietly, Aletheia tugged on one end of the ribbon. With a soft shrrk, the ribbon unraveled in an instant.

“It comes undone very easily, even with just a slight pull.”

“…Huh.”

Don’t tell me every knot on my back is like this? Have I been walking all this way, step by step, relying on these incredibly fragile ribbons that come undone at the slightest touch?

Gripped by the fear that her clothes might fall off at any moment, Mio clutched her chest tightly. Aletheia asked quietly,

“Should we… just tie the loose knot roughly and go back?”

“N-no?”

After coming all this way, going back without even triggering the villainess pattern made no sense. More importantly, last time his nullification ability had completely messed up the villainess pattern—so at least today’s share needed to be carried out properly, or reaching the final chapter would be difficult.

After sorting out her thoughts, Mio held out her hands and the handkerchief to Aletheia.

“After you make the ribbon, tie it one more time. That should do it. It probably won’t come undone.”

“……”

“Come on, practice.”

Taking the handkerchief, Aletheia brought it to Mio’s wrist.

“Not on your fingers…?”

“It’s too small to see.”

“Ah, okay.”

Whether it was the wrist or the fingers didn’t really matter, as long as the knot was tied properly. Mio quietly watched as Aletheia practiced. After forming the knot shape, he pulled firmly on both ends of the handkerchief.

“Ow! Are you trying to cut off someone’s hand?”

“…It can’t come undone. I’m not sure how tight it needs to be.”

Saying that, Aletheia tied the knot again—this time very gently.

“It needs to be tight enough that it won’t slip down. That’s no different from it coming undone. Tightening it comes after that. First, make the ribbon, then… there you go.”

Just as they were fully focused on tying ribbons, a group of people stepped out onto the adjacent terrace. The fact that a partition was set up so they couldn’t look over from that side was a blessing.

“Honestly, can you believe it? That Mio Northam gave up the young duke.”

Ugh—of all things, my story.

At the same time, Aletheia’s hands, which had been busily forming ribbon knots, came to a stop. Mio placed a hand near his mouth and silently mouthed shh. She had no intention of butting in and causing a scene.

“I suppose Mio Northam couldn’t help it. After being publicly proposed to, what could she do?”

“Even so. Can feelings that lasted that many years really change as easily as flipping a hand? Just think about her infamous reputation over the years.”

“It really was an obsessively long unrequited love. Honestly, I thought she’d raise hell and say she’d rather die than accept the grand duke’s public proposal.”

Hmm. The very common misunderstanding that I was in love with Wyden and bullied Caleb because of it. Since it was a rumor that started along with the appearance of Villainess Mio, it wasn’t particularly noteworthy to Mio.

“She flaunts the Duke of Moro at every banquet, but if you ask me, it’s all just for show. A bluff to prove she’s completely over the young duke. You’ll see—she’ll never make it to an official marriage.”

“Come to think of it, last time I ran into Lady Caleb—didn’t Mio Northam suddenly start looking for the young duke?”

“Oh my goodness! You’re right! Then maybe it’s true—maybe she really can’t forget the young duke!”

The group, who had been animatedly gossiping about Mio’s unrequited love, soon disappeared back into the banquet hall. This was nothing more than light gossip derived from the villainess pattern. As a leading character of the original work, it was simply a weight she was expected to bear.

But I can’t waste any more time here.

The weight of the crown was one thing; time was another. Worried that someone else might come in, Mio quickly stood up.

“You’re done practicing, right? Hurry and fix my dress.”

Aletheia slowly stood and moved behind Mio. Fiddling with the strings at her waist, he said,

“…Is it true?”

“What is?”

As Mio gathered her hair forward, she fell silent and turned around. Aletheia was looking down at her with a very serious expression.

Well. It wasn’t as if this man would joke about something like that. Still, being asked such a question made a sense of injustice well up inside her.

“You saw it yourself last time. How Wyden thinks of me.”

“I said I couldn’t hear your thoughts.”