The Reincarnated Villainess Waits Patiently For The Afterstory

7 - Games of the Heart and Mind

My heart sinks, and my eyes tear up, revealing things I don't want to realize. I look up at Beatrix, and see only calmness in her eyes, though I'm pouring everything out on her like this...

"She doesn't trust you. She turns people against you, that she gets to rescue her, from you. Humiliates you in public. You may call me calculative, but I don't turn your friends against you with teary eyes, or use those teary eyes to get whatever I want when I'm unhappy."

"Shut up... Delia doesn't... she doesn't..."

"Then why are you here? Coming to my home late at night again, instead of being with her at the palace?"

The unsaid truths in her words string bitterly.

"Because... I had to know why you did it... so I could scold you."

"Scold me for taking better care of you than Delia?"

Yes. No... So I could avoid to realize that everything keeps breaking apart faster than I can fix it.

The clarity of her words hurt.

"What did I do wrong, Beatrix?"

I loosen my grip, and instead plop my head down on her shoulder. Selfishly seeing solace.

"You got blinded by love... that's all. Something everyone tries at one point. You just wanted an escape from being the prince. Or rather, you just wanted a warm love to return home too."

She caresses my back, letting me be selfish once again.

"Have you ever fallen blindly in love too?"

I'd once convinced myself she was blindly in love with me, but now I'm doubting she even had any affection for me... even a smidgen.

"No. Not even once."

See.

"After all, until I am no longer your betrothed, all of my devotion belongs to you. Whether you want it or not."

...I give a small huff of a laugh at those words.

"But you don't love me."

I feel like I can hear a smile in her response.

"I'm not foolish enough to love someone that hates me, and wants to hurt me. Even from when we were kids, and you promised me that you'd never throw me away, you only always swore that it was because our family would bring you back to power."

...did I say that?

I probably did.

"You weren't cute at all." 

She huffs back at me.

"Cuteness is relative and subjective."

I smile vaguely.

"Like when you looked more hurt by that slap than I was."

...

"It did certainly not," she protests after a short pause. Sounding stubborn, but insincere.