I Reincarnated As A Minor Villainess and I Survived Past My Death Scene

Arc I, Chapter 4

I started taking up more duties befitting the Duchess, so it became much easier to ask Hilde and Howard the things that needed answering.

Case in point: "Hey, why am I so weak?"

Howard, dutifully reviewing the latest expense reports, looked up at me with furrowed brows. "What do you mean, Your Grace? Are you feeling unwell...?"

Hilde grabbed the teacup I'd had sitting nearby to stare into the nearly-empty contents suspiciously. "Poison?!" she muttered to herself in outrage.

"No, not that," I quickly reassured her. The maids were fond of me now, especially after I started increasing the vacation days allotted to them; I didn't think they'd risk poisoning me and losing their job benefits. "I mean, I don't seem very physically strong. Didn't I exercise? I'm so...scrawny."

Hilde made an aborted chuckle, then pulled on an expression like she hadn't just laughed at my expense.

"You don't need to be physically fit enough for fighting or hard labor, Your Grace," Howard answered instead, because Howard wasn't mean to poor, scrawny me. "Your health has always been excellent and your body is well-suited to the lifestyle of a duchess."

Translation: you're supposed to be frail and dainty, you pillow princess.

I wasn't buff but I was strong and quick on my feet, so being the maiden in a romance novel just felt really strange. I used to have abs, okay? Half my teenage years were spent in fistfights!

"Can I get...training...?" I asked unsurely. Maybe the culture was virulently against dandy men building up muscle. Where were my dandy rights?!

Howard looked as if I'd asked for the moon. Maybe physical training wasn't in the budget for now. "Nevermind, it's fine," I laughed off awkwardly. I'll just exercise by myself for now – who was going to tattle on me? Hilde? She'd probably spend the entire time hoping I'd make a mistake and somehow fatally injure myself.

"Oh, I want to go on a trip into town," I said, changing topic so Howard didn't catch wind of my secret plans to fill out. "Can I go alone?"

"No, Your Grace," Hilde and Howard answered in unison. Ooh, creepy.

"For protection, guards will need to escort you," Hilde added.

Eyes scanning the latest tax yields from one of the eastern cities of the duchy, I hummed in thought. "Is my face recognizable to the townspeople?" I asked after a moment.

It looked like Howard was catching on to what I was leading to, but luckily Hilde hadn't yet so she was the one that answered. "You were seen during your wedding parade when you first came to the Yuy estate, but you mostly entertained guests privately on estate grounds and merchants came here directly to sell their wares."

"So no one will recognize me," I nodded in satisfaction, starting to smile.

Hilde caught on. "That's not entirely true—"

"I want to go to the town market," I decided, steamrolling right over her. It was best for them to accept their fate now. "I'll go incognito. One guard should be fine."

"We can have the seamstress and the jeweler come here—"

I blanched. "I'm not getting more clothing!" I'd just gotten my clothes down to a reasonable number, why the hell would I get more?! "I want to see the food market!"

"Are the meals not satisfactory?!" Howard exclaimed.

I shuddered to think what the head cook would think of that comment. The poor man works so hard down in the kitchen, I can only imagine what horrors he'd been put through with other-me as his primary customer. Nevertheless, the problem was I had a 21st-century palate – which was ill-suited to medieval fare. If they kept salting and pickling everything, I was gonna die.