I, Who Only Had Effort as a Virtue, Reincarnated as a Talented Yet Lazy Villain

The entrance exams had come to an end without a hitch, and I was heading back to the mansion in the capital.

It appeared that the announcement of the results was scheduled for three days later.

Since it was practically predetermined who would be admitted once they applied, the swift announcement made sense.

Nobles really did seem to enjoy certain privileges.

Considering I was the heir of the Duke’s family, there was no way I would fail.

However… I wondered about that girl who had been my opponent. After all, she had said something quite odd at the end.

“If… If we were to be together, would you tease me even more…?”

Blushing, she had uttered those words.

It was unnerving, truly.

And what did she mean by “if we were to be together”?

We had only met a mere ten minutes ago, right?

But given that she seemed to hail from the same Duke’s family, perhaps there could be some kind of connection?

Even before I was inhabited, I had heard similar stories. Were the children of the Duke’s family cursed, destined to become anything but normal…?

Contemplating these thoughts, I boarded Balan’s waiting carriage by the school building.

“Lord Benno, how did the exam go?”

“It went quite well, I think…”

I couldn’t say for certain how strong Rosalinde-san, my opponent, was in general. However, my victory had been decisive, making failure unlikely.

People had cheered when I had deflected her sword.

Balan, upon hearing my words, nodded in understanding and continued.

“Well, I can’t imagine you failing, Lord Benno. By the way, who was your opponent?”

“Um, she introduced herself as Rosalinde Barschmiede.”

Balan turned his head from the driver’s seat towards the carriage.

“Is that indeed true?”

“I’m pretty confident about it.”

With a nod of assurance, he audibly sighed and added,

“…I expect Lady Barbaria will have a lot to explain once we reach the mansion.”

Well, it seemed that I had stirred up some trouble.

Though I briefly felt disheartened, there was little I could do at this point. I resigned myself to gazing idly at the capital’s passing scenery.

***

Upon returning to the mansion and recounting the same tale to my father, he, too, held his head much like Balan.

“Um… Did I truly make a mistake?”

“Well… It’s not something you could have helped, but it’s undoubtedly not a good situation.”

Having said that, my father continued with his explanation.

As it turned out, in this Borigon country, three Duke’s families existed.

Our Aushstadt Duke’s family, the combative Barschmiede Duke’s family, and finally, the Bonboriano Duke’s family.

Both the Aushstadt and Barschmiede Duke’s families aligned with the royalists, while the Bonboriano Duke’s family was divided amongst revolutionaries, leading to factional disputes.

This was why the Aushstadt and Barschmiede families needed to strengthen their bond and collaborate.

Although this was still in the proposal stage, there seemed to be discussions of an engagement between me, the Aushstadt Duke’s family’s eldest son, and Rosalinde, the Barschmiede Duke’s family’s eldest daughter.

Well, up until this point, it made sense and followed a logical sequence.

However, this engagement would indeed disadvantage certain individuals.

Those would be the revolutionaries.

This was where speculation crept in, as my father cautioned, but it appeared that the Bonboriano Duke’s family, notably, had orchestrated a duel between Rosalinde and me to dissolve the engagement.

Given Rosalinde’s determined and confident disposition, my father explained, there was a significant chance that she would lose and consequently break the engagement.

That’s when I finally recalled.

Come to think of it, in the game I used to play, there was a character named Rosalinde who took on an antagonist role.

It seemed the royalists, as depicted here, appeared as antagonists in the game.

Although I didn’t view her as a villain… or more accurately, I perceived her as someone who was perhaps a bit eccentric, desiring to be teased. However, it appeared that the general public saw her differently.

Undoubtedly, my father’s words made logical sense and were generally reasonable.

However, where he erred was… first and foremost, I had a cherished younger sister. As such, I had no intention of becoming engaged. Additionally, the idea of being engaged to a girl who suddenly wished to be teased seemed implausible to me.

Of course, if I played the role of the villain and Rosalinde did as well, it wasn’t a problem.

As long as I could cultivate and showcase my abilities, perhaps being the villain could even prove advantageous.

Yet… becoming engaged to a girl who abruptly expressed a desire for more teasing was a tad unsettling… Truthfully, that was my sincere feeling.