In an otome game I'm a villainess!? I can't accept this!

Chapter 34 - Day of Departure

Starting today, I will accompany Nina on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

I prepared for the journey and came to the square in front of the castle where the carriage was waiting for me.

By the way, this time I was not dressed as a man, because I didn't have any special announcement to make, I was wearing a normal light dress for travel, not a man's dress.

"Sorry for the wait!"

I said that and greeted the people who had already gathered, but...something was wrong.

Nina, who was in the plaza earlier, was looking at something in a confused manner, so I followed her gaze and found that Kaiser, Prince Alfeld and Ghislan were gathered there, and they were having a dispute about something.

...What on earth are those people doing?

I walked up to Nina's bottom anyway, thinking so suspiciously.

"Hey Nina, what is it that they're all struggling with?"

"Oh, Lady Cecilia! It's..."

"It's a dispute over who gets to ride in the carriage with the princesses."

Then Viktor approached us, and the look on his face was dismayed.

"Are you torn between riding in the carriage with us or not? What is going on here?"

"...Normally, Nina-sama and her partner, Princess, were supposed to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land alone, so one carriage would have been sufficient. But this time, three more people were added to the group, so there are two carriages, and because of the number of people on guard duty, it was decided that one of the three would ride in the carriage that the princess and Nina-sama would ride in together."

"...Huh."

I looked at Kaiser and the others who were still struggling with the same dumbfounded expression as Viktor.

"...The truth is, I'm holding out for a ride in the same carriage as the princess..."

"What? Viktor?"

"...I'm sorry, it's just a joke, so don't worry about it."

"Uh-huh. I don't know, but I understand."

"More importantly, we'll have to do something about those people soon. It's already time for us to leave...but we can't leave for any length of time in this situation."

"Oh, yeah, well...haha...I'll go talk to them for a minute then."

"No, Princess, you don't have to do that..."

"Hmm~ But it seems that I'm probably the easiest person to talk to in terms of status...and I think that if we can't talk it out, we can decide another way."

"Another way?"

"Well, I'm going to go anyway, so Nina and Viktor should get ready to go."

So I left them there and headed down to Kaiser and the others, who were still struggling with a grim expression on their faces.

"This is where I, Cecilia's fiancée, should ride!"

"No, you have to hand that spot over to me, a prince of another country!"

"I'd rather have the royals riding in a carriage together, it would be easier for me to guard them, and I think it would be most efficient if I rode with Cecilia and the others, wouldn't it?"

I let out a loud sigh as I held my forehead as no one seemed to back down from arguing with me about such things.

"Um...can I have a minute?"