The Villainess Is Being Doted on by the Crown Prince of the Neighboring Country 172
- Tea time
The heavy sound of rain roused Tiararose up.
Tiararose turned only her head to look outside while lying down, and compared to the clear sky earlier, it’s raining heavily now. The dark rain clouds made it hard to determine the time.
“Tiara?”
After being called, someone hugged her from behind; the tension in her body was released from that warmth.
She skilfully turned around while being hugged and there lies Aquasteed whose face looked slightly tired.
“…Did you stay awake all the time? Aqua”
“No, I slept for a bit.”
“I ended up sleeping too soundly.”
Tiararose placed her hand on Aquasteed’s cheek and said thank you with a smile.
Luca, Leo and the others have been treating them very well, but there are many uncertainties in the current situation; so it’s understandable why he wasn’t able to sleep well.
“Aqua, you should rest too. This time round, I’ll be the one staying awake.”
Tiararose lifted her chest and told him to leave it to her with a smile.
“Thank you, Tiara. In that case… I’ll take up your words and have a short nap.”
Aquasteed said that and gently hugged Tiararose before closing his eyes; it’s as though she’s his bolster.
Of course, Tiararose’s happy to be treated like that… but she decided that it’s not a good thing for now, and she tried to leave from Aquasteed’s embrace.
-If this goes on, I’ll end up sleeping too!
She has to stay awake, but she has a feeling that she’d end up sleeping.
Tiararose desperately tried to wriggle out, but his grasp was unexpectedly firm and she could not escape from it.
“Aqua, Aqua!”
“Mm…”
She desperately called Aquasteed’s name, but he has already fallen asleep.
“Eh, you’ve already fallen asleep…”
Tiararose was a little surprised as she’s usually the one who falls asleep first, but this kind of scenario felt kind of refreshing to her.
-He must have pushed himself all these while.
Tiararose whispered thanks and kissed Aquasteed’s forehead.
***
Behind the royal castle lies a tower. Luca used it as a research centre for magic as though it’s his own personal space.
There were many important documents and dangerous tools, so there’s magic placed at the entrance such that only people who received Luca’s permission can enter.
Leo looked up at the tower and sighed while commenting that he’s deeply immersed into research again.
Many times, Luca would not even realize the knockings on the door, but fortunately for today, he immediately showed up.
He’d be so deeply immersed in magic research that he wouldn’t even realize the knockings; during those times, it’d take while a quite before he’d come out.
“Leo? What’s wrong?”
“Elaine called for you. She has prepared snacks for Lady Tiararose, so let’s have tea.”
“I got it. In that case, I’ll bring some fun games along; it’ll probably relieve some of the anxiety.”
Luca returned to the tower and brought out a simple game.
“Well then, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
There was tea set prepared on the wagon in the room where Elaine was waiting.
There were pastel-coloured macarons and a macaron tower with sugar-glazed ribbon decorations; there were edible flowers scattered around the croquembouche. The puddings in cup were filled with whipped creams and topped with huge berries. Lemon was used for the tart cake and it has a refreshing aftertaste.
At the sight of that, Luca and Leo were so impressed that they let out a sound subconsciously.
“This is amazing…”
“But, isn’t this too much…?”
It’s too extravagant.
However, Elaine shook her head and strongly refuted Leo’s claim.
“Lady Tiararose’s probably worried now, so I wanted her to eat lots of sweets stuff and become energetic!”
“Well, it’s true that she likes desserts but…”
“Isn’t it good? She gets to eat her favourite desserts and with the game, she’ll probably calm down for a bit.”
“That’s true.”
Leo nodded and stretched his hands out to the wagon that’s prepared by Elaine.
“Sir Leo, that’s my-”
“Elaine, did you tell them that we’re here?”
“-Ah.”
Elaine wanted to tell Leo that it’s her job to do that, but before she could finish her sentence, Luca asked her if she completed the instructions- her face turned green as she has not.
“In that case, would you tell them if they’d join us for tea? However, try not to force them to.”
“I got it. I’ll hurry and confirm now!”
The sight of Elaine running in her dress made Luca and Leo looked at each other with wry smiles.
***
Tiararose thought that she’s end up falling asleep, but since she slept well earlier, she was able to stay awake.
Well, adding on to that, she gets to observe Aquasteed’s sleeping face which serves as another reason.
She thought that she’s going to observe for a while longer, when the sound of knock reverberated in the room. It seems like someone has visited them.
Aquasteed jerked awake from that sound.
“Hm, visitor…?”
“Seems like it. I’ll go check it out for a while.”
“No, I’ll go. Tiara, wait here”
Aquasteed immediately stood up and covered himself with a jacket before heading out of the bedroom. Right then, they heard a voice “it’s Elaine”.
After opening a door, there was Elaine, who’s slightly out of breath.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“No. Sir Luca and Sir Leo’s plans were done, so if you are free, how about having tea with them…?”
Elaine smiled saying she has prepared a lot of desserts too.
“Thank you. Tiara would probably be happy about that, so we’d love to join.”
“Yes! I’ll immediately prepare. Before that, I’d like to help out with the outfits change for you two.”
“I’m fine; would you help Tiara for that?”
“Leave it to me!”
Elaine immediately told a maid nearby to inform Luca and Leo about the tea time and entered the room.
Right then, Tiararose appeared from the bedroom; it seems like she has heard the conversation between Aquasteed and Elaine.
“Lady Tiararose, did you rest well?”
“Yes, very well. Thank you, Elaine.”
“That’s great. I’ll prepare for the tea time so let me help out with the changing of your outfit.”
Elaine led Tiararose to the washroom and skilfully did the preparations.
She washed her face, put on some light make up and did up her hair. Her hair was tied up with a loose braid and placed in front with small flower accessories around.
The pastel-coloured light pink dress was paired with a white bolero jacket.
“It suits you very well, Lady Tiararose.”
“Thank you, Elaine.”
After the preparation was done, they heard someone talking from the room.
“Ah, it seems like Sir Luca and Sir Leo has come.”
“Both of them are probably busy, but they took the time for us-”
Tiararose and Elaine headed to the room and were greeted with smiles from Luca and Leo. On top of the table were desserts.
-Wow, amazing!
She widened her eyes.
“As you’ve already known, it’s raining heavily outside, so I thought that we should have some desserts and play some game.”
“It might be a little too late for the tea as it’s evening now, but let’s spend the time leisurely.”
“Wow… thank you, Luca and Leo.”
There were many things to think and worry about, but sweet stuffs would definitely refresh her up and Tiararose was honestly grateful for that.
As expected, desserts have the energizing power.
Aquasteed immediately headed towards Tiararose and took her hand before escorting her to the sofa.
“Please.”
“Thank you, Aqua.”
Both of them sat on the sofa and the tea time started promptly.
While sipping on the prepared flower tea, Tiararose stared at the cards in her hands.
The official name of the card is “The fairy game card”, and is normally called “The fairy card”. However, it’s just trump cards.
Furthermore, Tiararose knows the games very well. Memory game, tycoon, old maid, domino…
They initially played memory game at first, but everyone’s memory skills were so good that it was not really a competition. Therefore, they decided to play domino now… but everyone were tricksters that Tiararose was struggling in it.
-Everyone’s too strong…
Luca, Leo and Elaine might have been used to the game, but Aquasteed, who’s playing the game for the first time, was quite strong too.
Tiararose played a bit of it in her previous life, but she wasn’t good enough to defeat the others.
“Ah, I can’t… I lost.”
There’s no place for the card, and Tiararose gave up and raised both her hands to signify her defeat; once she returns safely, she’s going to practice trump.
Aquasteed won the game.
“I didn’t expect myself to lose… aren’t you too strong?”
Luca’s good at this game, so he was quite depressed.
“No, it was just good luck; it depends heavily on the cards distributed at first, right?”
“Isn’t there a saying that luck is also ability?”
Aquasteed shook his head saying that it’s by chance, but Leo praised him saying that that’s not the case. By the way, Leo is second from the last place.
Tiararose ate the cream puff in one bit and sighed. Since they’re playing games, time passed by quickly.
-There are many things she wanted to ask them.
However, the time spent with Luca and Leo was fun.
Lots of sweets that Tiararose like were prepared for her too; she knows very well how well she’s been treated.
However, it’s not good for her to be indulgent in it.
For now, there are two issues – the current situation of Tiararose and Aquasteed and the weird change of the sky.
Tiararose knew very well that this place is not the Marineforest that she knows of.
However, she’s not very sure where she’s at right now.
Perhaps, this could be the past, or the future. Or there’s a possibility that it’s an alternate parallel world.
Tiararose quietly took a deep breath and looked at Luca and Leo before calling out to them.