Chapter 60
The three traffic-light sisters froze when they came face-to-face with my lovely smile. Then they began whispering among themselves.
From what I could vaguely hear, they were arguing about who should step forward.
Figures. They’d had the nerve to rush up and talk to me, but it seemed my reputation was still terrifyingly formidable.
“Honestly, you’re all so frustrating!”
At that moment, the young lady in the blue dress planted her hands on her waist, let out a small shout, and sharply turned toward me.
Oh. So she was the green light.
“I saw that you attended the Banquet of Rest, my lady, so I came out to greet you.”
A greeting? Is this how greetings work here—so aggressively?
I tilted my head with an indifferent expression.
“Oh, really? But I came once before, you know.”
The blue light hesitated for a moment.
“T-that time, you disappeared so suddenly before I could even greet you……”
Ah. So that’s why she came rushing over the moment I entered the hall this time.
Nodding as if I understood, I bent slightly at the waist.
“I see. Then shall we exchange greetings now? Hello, Miss Signal—no, I mean, the three young ladies. Nice to meet you.”
“Ah, yes. Nice to—”
“Wait!”
The two signal sisters who had reflexively returned the greeting froze at the red light’s stop signal. Then they flinched and glared at me.
“You think we’ll fall for that cheap trick again?”
“That’s right. You shook us off like this last time too.”
When had I ever pulled such a trick?
I tried to dig through my memories, wondering if it had happened before I possessed Silia, but no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t recall anything about them at all.
‘Was it not even worth remembering?’
Considering Silia’s personality, that seemed highly likely.
As I fell silent in thought, the yellow light whispered,
“Everyone, be careful. Let’s make sure we don’t fall for it this time.”
Fall for what, exactly?
Judging by how angry they were, it seemed this body had done something wrong at some point.
Feeling stifled, I scratched my cheek with my index finger, then asked bluntly,
“Did I do something wrong?”
And as if that were the fuse, all three pairs of eyes narrowed into sharp triangles.
The blue light grit her teeth and shouted viciously,
“How shameless! You truly don’t know the meaning of shame, do you?”
No, to say something like that—
“……”
She wasn’t wrong, so I had nothing to say.
Feeling awkward, I gave an embarrassed laugh.
Haha.
“Sorry for being shameless……?”
Tremble.
The blue light began shaking, froth practically forming at her mouth as if she were about to collapse.
“Mia, calm down. Calm down. Okay?”
The yellow and red lights hurried over to her side, patting her shoulders.
I’d only apologized, but the way she trembled so delicately made it look like I’d done something terrible.
Extremely self-conscious now, I took a step back.
“Well, since the greetings are done, I’ll be going.”
“Going where do you think you’re going?!”
Just as I thought I should hurry over to Axion and tried to retreat, a delicate hand grabbed me.
“Because of you, our Mia had her engagement broken off!”
“That’s right!”
“Sniff…….”
Huh? A broken engagement?
The bombshell word made me halt mid-step.
“Pardon? A broken engagement?”
“Yes! Potato pest! Don’t you remember?”
“……?”
A potato pest?
What on earth is that? What a dreadful phrase.
I was about to tell them it was hardly fitting for a refined young lady when—
A scene miraculously flashed through my mind.
‘Oh?’
There I was, standing barefoot at an angle, holding a pair of shiny new shoes in both hands, looking down at a man sprawled flat on the floor, saying,
‘Ah. I thought you were a pest stuck to a potato.’
The man lying crumpled on the ground had cheeks swollen bright red.
As if he’d just been struck.
The marks looked suspiciously similar to the soles of the shoes I was holding in that memory.
“……Hmm.”
I put on a very, very serious expression.
Right. Come to think of it, Silia had once lightly beaten a man at a banquet.
It was the scene that had crossed my mind when Cedric suggested attending another banquet, and once the dam broke, the memories flowed freely.
‘So……’
The young lord I’d struck back then was the fiancé of that blue light—this Mia woman?
And because of me, their engagement was broken off……?
‘And what does that have to do with me?’
My question was answered almost immediately.
The red light, who had been soothing the sobbing blue light, suddenly shouted,
“Because of that incident, Young Lord Linva was deeply traumatized and abandoned everything to leave! It’s all your fault!”
From the rest of their explanation, I gathered that the man I’d struck was the heir to Count Linva.
He’d been Mia’s fiancé, but after whatever happened between us, he’d been overwhelmed by shame and cut ties with the world.
‘And naturally, the engagement was broken off?’
After organizing it that far, I frowned and thought,
‘Why is that my fault?’
Whether it was the initial cause or what he did afterward, I didn’t see how I’d done anything wrong.
“That sounds like a good thing. A guy like that is better off living alone. Take this chance to meet a better man.”
“W-what?”
At my words, the blue light’s eyes flared with fury.
“You wicked bitch!”
She clenched both fists and charged at me.
“Kyaa, Mia!”
As the remaining two sisters gasped and covered their eyes, the blue light’s fist came flying toward me in slow motion.
It was aimed squarely at my cheek.
How surprising.
I thought ladies usually fought by pulling hair and seeing whose scalp held out longer.
Thinking that the blue light was surprisingly straightforward, I casually reached out a hand.
“Kyaaa—!”
The next moment, the blue light clutched the hand she’d swung and collapsed to the floor. Her delicate wrist quickly began to swell red.
After proudly stroking my iron-like arm that I’d raised in defense, I stood there blankly.
I felt sorry for her, but I had no intention of letting myself get hit.
‘Looks like she wants to blame her misfortune on someone else.’
And I had no intention of becoming that scapegoat.
Hands used only for embroidery at home were fragile at best; the pain was inevitable the moment they met an arm hardened by farm work.
“H-how could you be so cruel……!”
The yellow light cried out, covering her mouth.
I was dumbfounded.
“What did I do? I was standing still. She’s the one who rushed at me.”
At my confident reply, the yellow light bit her lip.
Seeing the nobles who had been watching our sudden scuffle from a distance nod subtly at my words, it seemed the rest of the crowd wasn’t blind like these three.
“Didn’t Miss Mia attack first just now? Hmm. I don’t know why she suddenly collapsed, but it seems she bears more fault.”
“I think so too. Where is Count Holman? His child is making such a scene. He should come and stop this.”
See? Everyone agrees.
I shrugged and waved my hand.
“It was nice meeting you, young ladies. What a warm welcome.”
“Ugh…….”
The blue light began to cry in earnest, tears streaming down her face.
Watching such a delicate young lady shake with sobs, tears and snot flowing freely—
“Hwaaa…… hwaaa…….”
It wasn’t exactly a pretty sight.
Still, she did look just a little pitiful, judging by how my feet wouldn’t move right away.
I let out a small sigh and approached her.
“Hic?”
As I came closer, the blue light reflexively shrank back, then glared at me.
“Y-you awful…… hngh…….”
Ignoring her insults, I whispered softly enough that only she could hear.
“Everything I said to you was sincere, Miss Mia.”
“Hic. What is, hic…….”
I hadn’t planned to say it, thinking it might hurt her more, but I continued in a very quiet voice.
“Your former fiancé…… that Young Lord Linva. Do you know what he said to me that day?”
At my words, the blue light gradually stopped crying.
She looked at me with a questioning expression.
Everyone at that banquet probably thought I’d suddenly beaten the man senseless for no reason.
But no matter how obsessed this body was with farming, it wasn’t the type to hit people without cause.
“He was out of his mind, but his face was decent enough. He told me to become his concubine, saying he’d soon become a count.”
“……!”
If my memory was correct, that Linva—or Ranva, or whatever his name was—came from a rather unremarkable family.
He had a decent face and was fairly popular, but—
The blue light before me—no, Mia—was the only daughter of Count Holman.
She had no interest in inheriting the title, so by marrying her, a man could effectively become count in her stead.
That cunning Linva fellow must have courted her for exactly that reason.
“When the two of you got engaged, didn’t Count Holman strongly oppose it?
