My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 13 (Light Novel)

But although their choice of words seemed to indicate attitudes that were polar opposites, they were both just worried about me. I couldn't thank them enough. A little while later, around the time our lunch break ended, my stomach had settled down a bit.

"Miss Campbell, please don't give her any more sweets today. I expect it will upset her stomach again," Sora said to Maria after seeing that I was all right. After forbidding me any more sweets that day, Sora took his leave.

No, my sweets!

I felt a little bit sad.

Since our break was over, Maria and I immediately got to work deciphering our respective covenants. Unless they were activated by magic, no text would appear on either covenant, and when that text did appear, only the covenantee could read it. In the past, before I could use any Dark Magic, I had needed to summon Pochi-my Dark Familiar-in order to activate the covenant, but since Raphael had started teaching me Dark Magic, I could do it myself. Even though my darkness was only the size of a tangerine, that was apparently enough.

First of all, I took out my wand, topped with a skull, and used it to produce a small ball of darkness. Once I did that, letters began to appear on the page. That being said, I couldn't read them at all, so it was more like a mysterious design had emerged.

Maria had already managed to learn a few things about Light Magic from her covenant, but I was still stuck at the first hurdle-reading the warnings and most basic concepts for those who intended to use Dark Magic.

True, the warnings were long, but I was fully aware of the fact that I was deciphering the text at a rather slow pace. As for why, it was because I had to look up every character one by one in the dictionary. Even the meaning of a character I had previously looked up and thought I understood could change if another character followed or preceded it. The ancient text really was a tough nut to crack. I was finding it very, very challenging.

My much more capable friends had told me that, as I continued deciphering the text, I would eventually come to appreciate the nuances of the language... But I'm sorry to say that nothing of the sort had happened yet. In school, I had only ever studied the ancient language enough to remember it temporarily, just before I had a test. Apart from that, I had mostly relied on intuition, so there were still many parts I didn't fully understand.

Anyway, I was especially bad at memorizing things like letters, so foreign languages and ancient scripts were truly difficult subjects for me. Deciphering this covenant was like a final exam in my worst subject. Back at the academy, when I'd finished my actual final exam in the ancient script-which had caused me so much suffering-I celebrated, thinking I was finally free. I never thought I'd have to face it again, much less for something serious like this.

I've thought this before, but I guess Katarina in the game must have succeeded in deciphering the Dark Covenant and using its contents. Maybe she had a really good tutor? Though, I guess I've always had wonderful friends and mentors willing to look at my homework.

In any event, since the spell on the covenant prevented me from simply copying its contents to show to someone else, it wouldn't have been possible for Katarina to have someone else read it for her. But perhaps there was still some way of cheating it?

If there is, I wish someone would tell me. Ah! Looks like I've wasted a lot of time thinking. Ummm... This character means- Wait, when combined with this character here above it, what did it mean exactly? I'll have to look it up...again...

And so another afternoon went by as I deciphered the Dark Covenant-making progress at a snail's pace, as always. The end of the workday finally arrived, and I greeted it by stretching ostentatiously. After tidying up the room where we worked on our covenants, Maria and I each returned to our respective departments.

As usual, my senior colleagues at the Magical Tool Laboratory stayed behind even after office hours, and they looked very busy. Because those of us in the Magical Tool Laboratory were asked to perform odd jobs by various other departments, we always had plenty to do. Like I did every workday, I asked my colleagues if there was anything I could help with and, if so, to please allow me to assist them. But though many of them were peculiar, my senior colleagues were also all extremely kind.

"Don't worry, this is our job," they all said, while encouraging me to go home. "Rookies should go home early and rest up."

Sora, who had joined at the same time as me, received the same treatment, so we usually ended up leaving work together.

Incidentally, though Sora lived in the Ministry's own dormitories, he always walked me to the gates where my horse-drawn carriage would be waiting to take me home. Today was yet another day where we walked side by side to the gates.

"How was your stomach this afternoon? Were you okay?" Sora asked bluntly.

"Yep. After waiting for a while, it got better. Sorry for making you worry."

"I'm begging you, learn from your mistakes already and don't do that again."

"Okay."

While I tended to think of my adopted brother, Keith, as acting like a mother, Sora felt more like a big brother.

Hmmm, I wonder why. Just as I was mulling this over, I suddenly recalled my dream from that morning. That's it! The way he expresses his concern in such a blunt tone of voice somehow reminds me of my older brother from my past life. That's why he seems like a big brother. Although, my brother in that life looked pretty ordinary, just like I did. He wasn't anywhere near as pretty as this guy.

This last thought occurred to me as I gazed at Sora's elegant features in profile. Then he looked back at me.

"What?"

Looking at him head-on, I thought he still looked beautiful in every respect, and sexy as well.

"Nothing... I was just thinking that you really are beautiful, Sora," I answered.

After hearing this, Sora furrowed his beautiful eyebrows.

"Huh? What brought this on, all of a sudden?"

"I was just suddenly reminded of how beautiful your face is," I said, leaving out the part where I had compared him to my brother from my past life. "You're beautiful, kind, and dependable. It's only natural that all the female employees here would be spellbound by you."

Sora, who was not only good-looking, but attentive to the needs of others, was incredibly popular with the female staff at the Magical Ministry. When walking around the office with him, I often noticed sparkling eyes trained on him, and overheard voices gossiping about him. Sora himself seemed to be used to that kind of thing, so I expected him to brush off my words like they were nothing. Instead he stared right at me, and for some reason his expression turned serious as he spoke.

"So you think so too, do you?"

Eh? What does he mean? At first I thought of letting his surprising reaction pass by, and nearly blurted out, "I certainly do." However, I suddenly wondered if something might have happened to make Sora lose his confidence. If that's the case...

"Of course I do. I think you're absolutely lovely, Sora," I declared firmly, making sure to look him right in the eye.

Then, in one fluid motion, Sora took hold of my chin.

"If I'm so lovely, you won't mind me doing this, will you?" His face was now very close to mine, and getting steadily closer as my body went stiff from shock.

"Pfff-"

"Huh-wha?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha! The look on your face! Incredible." Sora started laughing and clutching his stomach.

It was then that I finally realized what was happening.

"You were just teasing me again, weren't you?!" I cried, giving him a stern look.

"You're just too easy to mess with. Now I can see why the prince is always worrying about you." He was still smiling faintly.

"What? It's not like I'll just let anyone mess with me," I retorted. But Sora wasn't listening.

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he tousled my hair. For some reason, being treated like a little kid was really frustrating to me.

I didn't think our ages were all that different, but I guess he had more life experience.

However...

"That was way too sexy for a joke," I muttered, pouting reflexively. I wasn't used to that kind of thing.

Sora, overhearing what I said, muttered something as well.

"Well, it wasn't really..." was all I heard. I couldn't catch the rest of it.

"Eh? What did you say?" I asked.

"Nothing," answered Sora, tousling my hair again.

Really, I wish Sora would get rid of this habit he has of tousling people's hair already.

Before I knew it, we'd arrived at the Ministry gates.

"Thanks for seeing me off. See you tomorrow," I said, waving to Sora as we parted ways, before climbing into my carriage.

Sora casually raised his hand as he watched me leave. His face was illuminated by the evening sun, glowing red.

My carriage started back toward Claes Manor. As always, I...