The Villainess' Fate Defying Story - Chapter 21

There is a stall nearby that sells drinks.

It’s in a nice position where she can see where she was sitting from, so she can buy while keeping an eye on the situation over there.

She’s also afraid to take her eyes off the two of them in their current state.

She shook Rina’s shoulder, who had a flock of birds circling around her head.

How long does she intend to stop thinking?

“Come on, get a hold of yourself!”

She scolded her in a strong tone, and she seemed to come to her senses.

“Ah, I’m sorry.

I was surprised… what was that?”

“That was Jake-sama’s fault, so Rina doesn’t have to worry about it.”

She said bluntly, and Rize lined up behind the buyer’s queue.

As she approached the stall, she smelled the freshly squeezed citrus fruits.

There were a lot of people because it was a holiday, and when she glanced at Jake and Rita, she noticed that the benches that had been empty until a while ago were full.

The bench she had been using until a while ago was also taken away, but she decided to go back to the dormitory as soon as she handed over this juice.

No matter how unintentional it was, that way of saying it was not good.

She knew that Jake and Ralph were friends, but he revealed his friend’s feelings as if to spite Rita.

And he made Rina panic too.

“It’s not like Ralph-sama himself said anything to you, so why don’t you just forget it?

If you take everything other people say seriously and worry about it, you’ll go bald.”

“Bald… Geez, Rize!”

She couldn’t help but burst out laughing when she saw her sister reflexively cover her head with her palm.

If her cute fluffy chestnut hair ever disappeared due to stress, she would have to go and burn them down for revenge.

But she wanted to believe that there was no such serious damage from liking or disliking someone.

Rina was not one to say bad things about people, but Rize was quite surprised when she realized that she didn’t seem to think well of Ralph.

While she was mending the uniform that Rita had torn, Rize saw with her own eyes that she had completely shut her mind even though Rita had poured out her feelings for him at her side.

She might have seen for the first time how the voice that entered her right ear went straight through and out of her left ear.

She thought that not a single piece of information about Ralph had entered her ears as she continued to work silently.

What did that nobleman do to Rina…?

“Yeah, I’ll try not to worry too much.”

“It might be just a joke or a prank by Jake-sama.

If you ask me, out of the three of them, he just likes quiet girls.”

That’s the most likely possibility.

Their personalities and types are different, so if she had to say what kind of woman Ralph himself likes, it’s just ‘Rina’.

It’s better to think that way for everyone’s happiness.

“Customer, please choose your product.”

She realized that it was her turn when the seller urged her.

She hadn’t decided what to drink, but she thought it didn’t matter.

She saw an orange fruit and decided on it.

“Four orange juices, please.”

“Which glass would you like?”

She was surprised by the strange response.

And she was stunned by the price. It was too expensive!

One glass of juice for one silver coin, what kind of bourgeois setting is this!?

When Rize moved her eyes to the side in astonishment, she saw several beautiful glasses lined up.

“They’re beautiful, but… do you drink in them?”

Apparently, this juice shop is not like the ones that often use hollow wooden containers for drinks.

They sell drinks in stylish glasses with handles.

A bullish price setting that includes the price of the container.

Rather, this is not juice, but glass sales are the main thing.

She didn’t notice…

It seems that after drinking, she has to wash them at a nearby water place and take them home.

She never thought there would be a stall that would do such a business…

She can’t help it, it was something that caught her eye, but it’s terrible.

She sighed and thought that the people of the royal capital don’t care about such prices, they’re all rich.

“Then, this and this and this and this!

Please put orange in all of them.”

Now that it’s come to this, she can’t say that she’s quitting, it’s too embarrassing.

She pointed at four random glasses in despair. Having brought Rina here so forcibly, She felt sad that she can’t ask her to pay too.

“Thank you very much?”

Is it reasonable as a souvenir?

She felt like she had been cheated, but the glasses were indeed beautiful, with transparent colors shining in places and intricate patterns.

The glass with orange juice looked more delicious than the clumsy wooden containers.

Indeed, it might be a good way to sell them like this at the tourist spots in the royal capital.

“Here, Rina, you hold this.”

She realized as she handed two glasses to Rina.

Oh, this is the same color as Jake’s eyes.

The color of the sunset.

The color of the sky that shines slightly after the sun has tilted.

She has to take it home after she finishes drinking, so she has to be careful not to drop it and break it.

…But Jake might just throw away such a container made by an amateur and go home.

“The money, four silver coins.”

Because of what happened, four silver coins for a juice…

It’s too shocking to be broke all of a sudden from the middle of the month.

She paid the money and held two glasses each with Rina.

Her palms were cold and chilly, and she started walking back to Rita and Jake, but…

It’s always at times like this that something gets in the way.

She felt a bad feeling and checked her side.

She finally noticed that Rina, who was supposed to be walking next to her, was not by her side.

“……Rina?”

When she turned around, she saw her standing still in the middle of the tree-lined road a few steps behind.

No, that’s not it.

“Hey, missy.

Why don’t you come and play with us over there?”

“Come on, I’ll take that for you!”

Oh no, Rina is being harassed by a man she doesn’t know!

When she was in the countryside, everyone she passed by was a neighbor, someone she knew.

Of course, this was the first time she had been in such a situation. So, if a girl is wandering around, she might be targeted by weird guys…!

Everyone in the academy was more or less a gentleman, so she had completely lost that perspective.

This is bad.

Rina, who had a gentle personality to begin with, seemed to have more gaps than herself, and easily allowed the men to approach her.

The difference in atmosphere must be more intense than the difference in appearance.

They completely ignored Rize, who had the same face as her sister, and two men were talking to her sister in a friendly manner.

This is not the time to say that this is cruel even though Rize with the same face was next to her.

“Hey, stop it already!”

She raised her eyebrows and shouted, still holding a glass in each hand.

Then they finally seemed to notice her presence.

And they looked at Rina and Rize alternately, muttering “same face” “same face” as if they were caught off guard.

While the two men stopped their movements, Rina, who had been stopped, kicked the ground and tried to run towards her.

But the man noticed and grabbed Rina’s arm hard.

Wait a minute, he said, grabbing Rina’s arm, and the glass of juice fell from her hand.

There was a loud crash and the glass shattered, spilling the juice all over the ground.

…No…

Two silver coins are gone!

“Ah, the juice…!”

Rina reached for the shattered glass and tried to pick it up, but she couldn’t because her arm was grabbed and she bit her lip.

At that moment.

“What are you doing to Rina!!”

The man who grabbed her sister’s arm flew sideways with a loud crack.

Like an arrow from a crossbow, he was stabbed in the side with a flying kick at an astonishing speed and was blown away to the tree-lined road, rolling and rolling to the distance.

He hit a tree root that came out of the ground with a thud and twitched.

“Are you okay!?

Oh no, you scraped your leg!”

Ouch, said Rina, sitting on the floor and rubbing her shin, and Rita screamed and held her head.

It’s hard to say in this situation, but she would later give Rita a stern warning.

It was definitely because of the impact of Rita blowing the man away that Rina ended up falling down on the ground.

She almost felt sorry for the man who received Rita’s artistic flying kick.

Did he break his ribs…? Can she pay for the treatment with what she has now…!?

Rize, who was sweating for a different reason, was speechless with juice in both hands at the disaster in front of her.

“What are you guys doing to us! Hey!!”

It’s inevitable that the remaining man would get angry and grab her, but she wished he would stop targeting her instead of Rita, who was too scary to attack.

She calmly assessed the situation, but she couldn’t move because she had both hands full…

She was slower in reflexes than Rina.

She had nothing to be proud of, but she had no way to deal with such an emergency.

She would definitely miss if she threw the glass in her hand, and she couldn’t afford to waste any more money.

She tightened her stomach and braced herself for the impact, hoping that she would not fall even if she did take a bit of a hit.

“……?”

But without doing anything, the man was grabbed by the back of his neck from behind and lifted up. He desperately flailed his short arms and legs in the air.

The one who treated the man like a pitiful stray cat was Jake, whose existence I had completely forgotten.

He had a perfectly annoyed face.

“So that’s the power of a woman’s kick……”

He muttered, taking in the fate of the man who had completely lost consciousness.

Rize agreed with him.

“I noticed that you guys were being harassed.

But by the time I noticed, you were kicking him… that’s unbelievable.”

The guy who was only good at bluffing.

He screamed and trembled and became quiet the moment he saw Jake glaring at him from behind.

He moved his target from Rita to Rize, and he was the kind of person who could be strong against the weak, but very weak against the powerful.

He released the man who hung his head dejectedly, and he sneaked away with his partner who was completely stretched out on his shoulder.

She thought he would at least say a parting shot, but he didn’t have the courage to do that in front of Jake, who was expressionless and angry.

She understood very well how he felt like screaming and running away like a rabbit when he was stared at.

Actually, right now, he shouldn’t be angry at her.

He was silent and angry, and he was so scary that she couldn’t look at his face properly.

But it’s convenient, isn’t it? Just by glaring with an angry face, the troublemaker runs away…!

She looked at her arm.

She held a pen instead of a sickle to help with the farm work.

That’s why her arms are still thin and unreliable.

Can she really take swordsmanship and martial arts lessons from next week?

She was a little scared when she imagined it.

Then something unexpected happened.

Rita, who had been checking on her sister who had fallen, raised her hand and declared loudly.

“Jake-sama, I’m sorry!

Rina got hurt, so I’m going back to take care of her.”

“Ah, yeah. Be careful on your way back.”

They didn’t have a promise to act together.

She pushed aside Rina’s opinion that she was fine and got up, and held her hand and headed home.

She didn’t have to hurry back so much, she thought, and then she realized after looking at the ground.

“Huh? Wait a minute, clean up here!”

That the pieces of glass that Rina had dropped and broken were still scattered.

And that she was still holding two glasses of juice with melted ice floating in them…!

“Sorry, I’ll leave the rest to you!”

Wait, don’t run away. Don’t drag Rina!

“Rita!”

She was completely watched from afar by the outsiders.

She could only hope that there were no academy students among them, but what should she do?

“……Really, that girl…

Jake-sama. Would you like a glass?”

Like a gust of wind, Rita left quickly.

She held out the glass in her right hand in front of Jake’s eyes, who was staring blankly at her back.

“I’ll take it since it’s a good opportunity.

But you should let the shop guy clean up here.”

She handed him the orange juice and he looked at the shopkeeper who had just witnessed the scene.

The clerk jumped his shoulders when Jake prompted him with his eyes.

She didn’t think it was necessary to make a mere seller responsible, but one of the juice sellers came running with a box to put the dust in, as fast as Rita.

She was careful not to step on the broken glass pieces and moved to the edge of the road.

The two-seater bench was already full, and she had no more business here anyway.

“Sorry about that.”

Jake said to Rize, who was moistening her dry throat with the sour juice, with a sigh.

She didn’t expect him to talk to her any more, so she almost spat out the juice she was drinking.

That was close.

She choked on the little bit that got into her windpipe.

“No, I’m sorry for causing trouble.”

If Rize had gone back and forth by herself and bought it, there would have been no problem. But there was no way she could leave Rina alone and leave her seat in that situation…!

“I asked you guys to come, too.

She was the one who noticed that you were being harassed by a weirdo first.”

Jake drank the glass in no time and tried to hand it over to the clerk who had finished cleaning up the pieces.

But the clerk shook his head and hands from side to side with a troubled look, saying he couldn’t take it.

“This is what the customer bought.”

She paid for the container, but that probably didn’t matter to Jake.

If they sold such beautiful glasses at a reasonable price with the intention of returning them, they would have a lot of thefts and wouldn’t make a profit.

One silver coin for one of these….

“Then, wash it and bring it back.”

Even if the man named Jake was not a noble or a knight, anyone who was glared at by him would lower their waist and move like a servant.

He was used to using people.

She felt that it was the behavior of a noble who was usually served, and shuddered at the glimpse of a world that had nothing to do with her.

“Jake-sama, I’m really sorry for the trouble.

I’ll tell Rina to be more careful next time.”

It’s not because she has a cute face that she gets talked to.

That’s one of the factors.

But in this case, it’s probably not because of her face.

Rina wasn’t good either, because she was distracted and full of gaps, thinking about unnecessary things.

She has to be careful herself, or she’ll attract the same trouble again. It’s for her own sake to give her opinion.

Jake smiled and said, “You’re harsh.”

“Well, shall we go back when you’re done drinking?”

“……huh…?”

The moment she thought she had come to her senses, Rize’s mind went blank again.

She had thought that he would just leave as it was, and she didn’t understand why he was leaning his back against a nearby tree.

Could it be that he is waiting for her!?

“……?

Jake-sama, don’t you have something to do…?”

She continued, saying that he didn’t have to worry about her, and he tilted his head with a puzzled look.

“No, not really. I mean, I’m done with my business.

They’ve gone home already, so we should go back too, right?”

What is he talking about?

She stood still, holding the glass in both palms.

“Eh? Eh?”

“I’ll take you to the dormitory. We’re going to the same place.”

If she goes back to the academy dormitory with such a conspicuous person, she’ll definitely be seen by someone.

It’s very scary to think about tomorrow…!

Of course, it would be very nice if she could go back with him.

She thought that Rita probably meant that when she ran away first. As a result of being too considerate, she got into a big trouble.

“What if you get harassed by a weirdo again? It would be a hassle, right?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m different from her.”

She was a girl who basically didn’t have any elements of cuteness. She was aware of that.

Even earlier, only Rina was talked to because of that. There wouldn’t be any odd people who would bother to talk to her.

“Ha ha, what are you saying with the same face?”

She didn’t remember saying anything strange, but he laughed as if it was funny.

He had the same expression as the boys in the town, but he was so scary when he got angry.

“Here’s your glass.”

“Hmm.

…Then, take this home.”

He held out a glass with a blue flower pattern in front of Rize.

She reflexively took it with one hand.

“Haaa……”

This was indeed what she bought.

The contents were given to Jake, but he gave her back the container.

She casually looked at the glass that had been wiped clean, but when she realized that it was the glass he had been using until a while ago, her face suddenly became hot.

“Wait a minute, Jake-sama.”

No.

If she took these two glasses in her hands and went back to the academy dormitory with Jake

She would definitely be found by someone and be hung up for it…!

She couldn’t let her academy life be in danger.

She had a vivid image of being hung up by the older girls in her head, and she shivered in a different way.

No, no, no. She couldn’t go back to the dormitory with these glasses that looked like a pair.

Even now, if someone was peeking, she would be in danger tomorrow.

But…

She wanted to take them back!

Rize drank the rest of her juice and stared at the empty glass.

It might get dirty, but she couldn’t care about that now.

She spread out the jacket she had wrapped around her waist and placed the two glasses so they wouldn’t break.

If she carried them home like this, no one would notice, hopefully.

“What are you doing?”

“To prevent them from breaking.”

The truth was that she wanted to sneak them into the dormitory.

She felt the pain of his gaze that said she was a weirdo, but she couldn’t help it. It would only be troublesome if she told him what she was doing.

/////////////

She went back with him, holding the glasses and her heart that was about to explode with inner tension.

She looked at him, who talked to her normally without being tense.

It’s not about calculation or logic.

Oh, this is fun after all.