Transmigrated as the Villainess Fake Young Lady, Please Spare Me, Female Lead Sister - Volume 1 Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Being Manipulated by Claire?

***

Answer, answer…

Claire was wracking her brains.

The system’s prompter was thoughtfully displayed before her eyes.

『Hmph, that’s natural. Perin and I are meant for each other, and there’s no room for an outsider like you to interfere!』

…This line won’t work, let’s try another.

『Hmph, why would Perin be close to you instead of me? You’re just a small fry, a small fry!』

『You don’t actually think a commoner like you from elsewhere could be worthy of the Aldrich family’s eldest son, do you? That’s hilarious!』

…

Claire remained silent for a moment, then carefully made a suggestion:

“Um, System.”

“For the next update, could you remove the tsundere character dialogue from the prompter?”

『These lines have very high approval ratings, host. They’re particularly widespread in villainess character scripts.』

“Who on earth is giving high ratings to tsundere characters?!”

Well, can’t count on the system, if you want to survive in this tight spot, you’ll have to figure it out yourself.

Since Perin is the game’s male protagonist, it should be fine to praise him a bit in front of the female protagonist, right?

Just Do It!

Claire cleared her throat and gave her response.

“Perin, well, he is quite excellent, and the Aldrich family is also a very impressive family that has produced many remarkable knights.”

Lavendia’s expression remained blank, and her favorability rating above her head twitched slightly, dropping by 2 points.

Did, did I say something wrong?

Then no more praise, trying to distance myself should work, right?

Round 2.

“Perin… um, he’s a good kid. (referring to how easy his route was to complete in the game)”

“But I haven’t seen him in a long time, so feelings have faded… (meaning I haven’t met him since transmigrating, this person only exists in the background)”

“I don’t know what he’s like recently, I’ll have to introduce him to Sister when we meet.”

Lavendia’s expression darkened, her entire aura growing several degrees colder, looking even more displeased.

The favorability rating above her head fluctuated again, ultimately dropping another 2 points.

Damn it, did I choose wrong again…!

Claire felt so helpless.

It was like being stuck in a galgame and wanting to check a walkthrough, but searching everywhere and finding nothing, only to realize you came too early and the walkthrough hasn’t been translated yet.

Come to think of it, this isn’t even playing a galgame, there’s no save and load function here, choosing wrong means getting burned at the stake and turned into kebab.

Since everything I say is wrong, I might as well keep quiet.

Next time when I don’t know how to answer, I should just use avoidance to solve it…

Claire closed her eyes and hastily ended the conversation with a final: “Anyway, Sister will meet him, you’ll see when you do!”

She took Lavendia’s hand again and quickened her pace toward the side door.

Lavendia didn’t say anything more.

She just quietly lowered her head, looking at Claire’s delicate little hand, and obediently followed her.

The Grendel family mansion was very large, with carved beams and painted rafters everywhere, exuding luxury and grandeur. The corridors were the same, serving both as connections between the great halls and as exhibition spaces.

Various oil paintings, vases, and artworks were displayed along these long corridors.

When Lavendia first came to the mansion, she didn’t particularly like these long corridors. They felt like a waste of time to walk through, all show and no substance.

But at this moment, being led by Claire’s hand like this, it seemed different.

Just by lowering her head slightly, she could see Claire’s cute crown, her slightly reddened profile, and her bouncing golden hair tips.

Somehow the corridor felt very short, so short that it seemed to end in the blink of an eye.

…How strange, her heart was beating so fast.

Was it because of holding hands?

Or was she being unconsciously manipulated by Claire again…

Focus, Lavendia. You need to find clues about that badge at the noble evening party.

That brass badge stolen from the orphanage had a design of thorny bushes surrounding a wolf’s head.

The Aldrich family was a house of knights.

Lavendia had once seen the knights’ triumphant return on the streets, with the Aldrich family’s emblem on their banner: silver sword and shield, symbolizing justice and light.

Obviously, the Aldrich family was not Lavendia’s target.

So, tonight she needed to pay more attention to other families, even if Claire might like this Perin, she couldn’t overly—

Suddenly, without any warning, Lavendia’s heartbeat sharply sank, cutting off her train of thought.

A familiar sense of instinctive crisis appeared out of nowhere, buzzing like an alarm bell in Lavendia’s mind.

She quickly raised her head to look toward the front left, where a flash of blue light disappeared behind the decorative vase in the corridor.

— It’s coming for me.

Lavendia abruptly stopped, and in a flash, she quickly grabbed Claire’s arm and pulled her back forcefully.

“Eh—!?”

Claire had been lost in thought and was caught off guard by the sudden pull, nearly falling into Lavendia’s arms. She raised her head in confusion, just in time to see a water-blue crystal ball whizzing past her eyes, instantly making her hair stand on end.

“W-w-what is this—!”

A trap? A bomb?

Why would there be such a thing in the Duke’s mansion!?

Everything happened within seconds, and the system’s response hadn’t loaded yet. Fortunately, Lavendia’s reactions were quick enough that neither of them was directly hit.

However, the water-blue crystal, like a super-fast bouncy ball, hit the opposite wall with a “pop” and then bounced off the ceiling.

Then, it cracked in mid-air, emanating a pale blue light.

This is bad—!

There was no time for Lavendia to think deeper about what this thing actually was.

In that instant, she widened her eyes staring at this crystal ball, once again catching that subtle momentary feeling.

In that moment when time stopped, only Lavendia could clearly see it cracking open in slow motion, like a flower bud peeling away its semi-transparent petals layer by layer.

The water elements in the air suddenly became abundant, as if a large mass of rain clouds had materialized out of nowhere indoors

Everything around truly slowed down.

Including Claire’s unstable stance, her panicked expression, the image of the crystal ball cracking—

However, the water elements in the air were completely unaffected by the time stop.

Once the water began to gather, it showed no signs of stopping, accumulating in droplets in the air at an exponentially increasing speed, the droplets merging together to form a handful of semi-transparent water, about to pour down from above!

The entire process finished in about 2 seconds, giving Lavendia no time to counter.

She only had time to realize that this crystal ball was something similar to a water ball spell scroll.

And the fact that Claire, who was being held by her hand and pulled to her side, would end up soaked like a drowned rat along with her.

She could only push her away, there was no time for any other action.

Too bad… about this formal dress.

Lavendia made this judgment immediately, and — did exactly that.

The next instant, ice-cold water descended from above, completely drenching Lavendia from head to toe.

Claire was pushed away by a force and stumbled to the ground, the ice water only wetting her skirt hem and stockings, but still making her shiver from the cold.

What was going on…?