It appeared Suzy’s reservations about her ‘different’ behavior stemmed from her not asking Magnus to stay for dinner. She deduced that Blythe must have done it every day in order to warrant concern for not doing it.

  Playing the part of a clingy fiancée solely to avert suspicion was out of the question.

  Mira wanted to gag at the thought of it.

  She leaned into her 'I'm trying to be mature now' act.

  "I've been doing some thinking," she said. "I'm sure Magnus would like to have dinner in his own home once in a while, so I've decided I should cut down on the frequency of dinner invitations I extend to him."

  Suzy's eyes widened comically. She gaped without saying anything for a moment, then went into a low bow.

  "My deepest apologies, my lady. I ask your forgiveness for my overstepping with my question."

  Glad that Suzy was backing off, Mira waved dismissively at her. "As long as you understand."

  A flash of purple light, followed by green.

  It took her by surprise that Suzy had been neutral about Blythe. From how Suzy behaved and reacted toward her, Blythe must have been a difficult mistress to serve.

  Suzy hesitated some more where she was, lingering by the door.

  “Are you truly not in the mood for anything, my lady? Even cheese and crackers?”

  Mira, who’d been focusing her attention on pinching the floating rose petals and absently wondering when Suzy would finally leave, jerked her head up.

  “Cheese and crackers?” Suzy's baffled stare made her realize her misstep. "I mean, that sounds fine. I'd like some cheese and crackers."

  That sounded incredible, eating cheese and crackers while soaking in a rose-scented bath.

  Wait, was that what Suzy meant by asking if there was anything I wanted her to bring to me?

  She resisted the impulse to smack her forehead in frustration, instead submerging her body a little further down into the water. Who in their right mind would assume the villainess they’d isekai-ed into regularly ate snacks during her bath time?

  "At once, my lady."

  After one last bow, Suzy left the bathroom. Mira listened to her retreating footsteps, exhaling in relief that she was truly alone now. Even though she could’ve ordered Suzy to get out earlier, it wouldn’t have been in line with the image of a nicer person she was trying to portray as Blythe now.

  She ran through the day’s events in her mind. What little progress she'd made with Magnus had been completely destroyed by acting out that bullying scene in the school's dining hall. She just wanted to keep a good, healthy distance from him--out of sight, out of mind, right?

  The less he saw of her, the fewer favorability points she would risk losing.

  She needed to stay away from Daisy as much as possible, too.

  Cold, subtle horror crept through her bones, leaving a hollow feeling behind in its wake. She didn't want to make long-term plans like it was a given that this was her new life.

  She wondered what her parents were doing right this instant. Did they freak out over her empty room when she didn’t come out for breakfast on Sunday? How worried would Riley be over her once she found out?

  As she was conjuring scenarios of her parents weeping over her sudden disappearance up in her head, the door to the bathroom opened.

  Suzy stepped in, carefully carrying a black, metal side table on which a silver platter of cheese and crackers rested. She balanced it well, eventually setting it on the floor beside the bathtub and placing a folded white hand towel next to the platter.

  “Thanks, Suzy.”

  Another startled expression crossed Suzy’s face before she quickly bowed.

  “Should you need anything else, my lady, I will be right outside.”

  Once she’d left, Mira reached out for the dry hand towel and wiped her hands. The assortment of different cheeses and crackers was mouth-watering.

  She couldn’t believe Blythe was living such a good life and still couldn’t be satisfied with what she had. She constantly went after Daisy just because she was afraid Magnus would become infatuated with her like many of the other boys in the academy were. Ironically, that was what had driven Magnus away.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Most of Magnus’ route was friendly in nature, with the romantic scenes and atmosphere saved for the after-ending bonus chapter, because he’d only realized he’d fallen for Daisy after Blythe’s attempt on Daisy’s life at the end of the route. He hadn’t even allowed himself to think about Daisy in a romantic light until that moment, when he thought she was about to lose her life.

  Blythe had done herself no favors by antagonizing someone who was just a classmate to Magnus. If she hadn’t repelled him with her actions, he would probably have gotten married to Blythe anyway because romantic love wasn’t a priority for him.

  If Mira were in her shoes, she’d have simply enjoyed these luxuries in peace.

  … Well, she was literally Blythe right now. And she hadn’t been given a choice to peacefully let that moment in the dining hall pass.

  A grim smile quirked her lips up as she chewed on the cracker she’d paired with a chunk of cheese. It was hard to enjoy the savory, crunchy goodness. All she could think about was the deep trouble she was in.

  When Mira finally finished her bath, she put on the bathrobe hanging by the wall. Pushing open the door and stepping out into her room, she continued towel-drying her hair.

  “My lady!” Suzy exclaimed, turning to her. “You didn’t call for me?”

  Suzy had been standing with her back to the wall next to the bathroom door.

  “Oh.”

  Now that she thought about it, it did make sense that it would be part of Suzy’s duty to help Blythe dry off after her bath. After all, she’d played a big part in getting Blythe ready for the day earlier this morning.

  She gave Suzy a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. I just felt like doing this myself.”

  Since everything she did was out of place coming from Blythe, Mira decided to just behave like herself. She could pretend that this was the ‘new character’ Blythe wanted to grow into.

  “I … I understand,” Suzy replied, but her misgivings were written all over her face.

  After she finished towel-drying her hair, she put on one of the three outfits Suzy had laid out for her on the bed. It was a comfortable dark blue dress that went down to her knees. Suzy gathered up the other two and brought them back to the walk-in closet.

  Mira sat at Blythe’s study desk and began opening the drawers, checking for anything that could come in handy. Suzy moved to stand by the wall near her bedroom door.

  There were all kinds of stationery, including different rolls of washi tape and other materials commonly found in scrapbooks.

  Her fingers itched as she browsed through them.

  She could easily make a colorful journal or scrapbook with these. Blythe had it way too good.

  As Mira was about to give into the temptation to grab a bunch of them, a pink glittery notebook gleamed up at her from the third desk drawer. All the other notebooks had a plain jacket.

  She took it out, raising her eyebrows at the weight of it. It was at least five times heavier than any of Blythe’s other school notebooks.

  Her eyes widened when she opened it to the first page.

  It was Blythe’s journal.

  This one apparently began at the start of summer, the break before the fourth academic year had started. The first page was mostly filled with whining about how she’d wanted to visit Magnus at the royal palace that day, but he had important summer lessons to attend and couldn’t entertain her.

  Eager to find out what had happened yesterday, Mira flipped to the last page that had been filled in.

  This embroidery project is taking so much time and effort, but it will be worth it in the end when I finally present it to Magnus! I’ve been asking him to anticipate it at the Hunting Race, but I think he might not understand how meaningful the design is. However, I have no doubt he will be moved to tears when he receives it! After all, it is the spitting image of his childhood pet bird. I simply cannot wait to be finished with it!

  I brought the chocolates to Novalbus to taste-test it with Jessica and Sophie today, but Magnus nearly saw them. I had to put them in the locker. We had so many classes together today. I’ll have to conduct the taste-testing tomorrow instead. Chocolate is fattening, so I haven’t tried it myself, but our chef thought it was fine when he tried it. It must be all right.

  Willoughby smiled at Magnus five times today. It’s so sickening how all the boys in school have fallen for her sweet, kind act. She already has so many boys panting after her, but it’s still not enough. She’s trying to work her charms on Magnus too.

  The rest of the entry was just ranting about how Daisy had become the bane of Blythe’s existence ever since they all enrolled in the academy. Mira closed the journal, trying to digest what she’d just read.

  So there was something called the Hunting Race at which Blythe had been looking forward to giving Magnus her embroidered handkerchief. Mira resisted the urge to smack her forehead for forgetting that Valentine’s Day was a thing in Waiting for Fireflies. She’d been too busy worrying about poison to consider the other aspects of the game.

  Discovering this journal had saved her a lot of guesswork.

  Mira reopened it to check out the earlier entries, but a knock on her door sounded.

  “Good evening, Lady Blythe. His Grace has sent me to ask if you are ready to leave for dinner?”

  She stared at the closed door, her mind working quickly to come to the conclusion that the servant outside was referring to Blythe’s father.

  Shoving the journal back into the drawer, she got to her feet. “I’m ready.”

  Suzy opened the door, revealing another female servant standing in the doorway.

  She bowed to Mira. “I will inform the coachmen right away, my lady.”

  Then she turned and left.

  Judging from what she’d said, dinner wouldn’t be served at the dining hall Mira had eaten breakfast in this morning. At least she remembered how she’d gotten here from the front doors.

  She breathed in sharply and walked, Suzy following after her.

  Just in case, though …

  She turned to Suzy. “I don’t like when you walk behind me. Could you walk beside me?”

  This time, her personal servant looked much less surprised by the request than she’d been earlier. “Of course, my lady.”

  That way, she could use Suzy’s reactions as a guide as well. They went down the same stairs they’d taken to come up to Blythe’s room, through the near winding corridors and past the numerous doors down the hallways.

  The large front doors had just come into sight when a loud but deep voice from behind made her jump out of her skin.

  “Blythe! Are you going to the main estate? I’ll ride in the carriage with you.”

  Heart pounding, she turned around.

  With dark, spiky hair and eyes as piercingly green as Blythe’s, the guy was undoubtedly Blythe’s brother that she’d seen in Blythe’s overall table of connections. She remembered Blythe had a decent amount of favorability with him.

  He stood a head taller than her, making her crane her neck to look up at him when he stepped closer.

  To be doubly sure, she pulled up his information window.

  Suzy bowed, greeting him with a simple, “Good evening, Lord Reuben.”

  He nodded at her.

  “Sure,” Mira said, turning around to continue walking.

  She didn’t have many other options anyway.

  He fell into stride beside her, bending down to peer at her. “Not going to whine about sitting in the same carriage as me? What’s wrong with you, had a good day?”

  Reuben seemed a lot more familiar with Blythe than any of other characters, except for maybe Magnus, so far.

  She tried to respond with the same energy, “It’s no use complaining. You’d still get in the carriage with me, wouldn’t you?”

  He let out a delighted laugh, the sound resounding through the large hallway. “Would you look at that. You’re finally growing some brain cells!”