I was reborn as a maid to the cruel tyrant prince!!

Chapter 6.1: Not a cliché

Dearest mother and father in another world.

It had been a few days now since the debut ball had taken place- the following week showing the closing in signs of autumn... and just like how the gardens I had worked so dutifully to clean a few days ago were back to being sprawled with yellowing leaves, life in the manor had pretty much returned back to normal, as though none of the events from that night had taken place at all. You could almost say that the night of the debut ball could almost be seen as a dream.

A dream that gradually turned into a night terror. ..

"Uh... Annie, you are pulling that strangely stoic expression again..." came Sana's voice from beside me, taking me out of a rather intense interlude of thoughts I was having as I tying up the bow to my uniform. The result was of such fierce thinking had been winding up with my face becoming almost cartoonishly stoney and stern in the recent few days.
"Ah- sorry, again?" I snapped out of it, quickly changing my expression as I lacklusterdly held my cheek in concern.
"You have been pulling a face like that a lot since the ball... are you okay?" Sana double checked, tilting her head at me as I shook my head to deny it.
"Ah no- I'm okay! It's just..." I began before trailing off as Sana pushed on at my silence.
"It's just?" She repeated...

It's just...

Urgh, allow me to explain- what exactly happened after "that" on the debut ball...

*****
There was a intense silence between everyone on the balcony at the time- as though everyone was trying to process what had just happened. Lady Irian seemed seconds away from frothing at the mouth. Harriet seemed to be looking for mice, not having connected the dots of what happened after her fall. Dante was left with almost the same reaction that I had- the two of us stood frozen on the spot away from one another, not saying a word in disbelief.

Haha...

Hahaha....

WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED?!

Just what sort of cryptic alignment of fates had to have happened for such a well timed amount of events to pour out just now. I don't think such a thing could have been so perfectly choreographed even if someone tried.

I had just been arguing with the prince a few seconds ago- he was just about to tell me something that was probably super important- but my mind had all but blanked our previous discussion out! This was a serious thing! I had just kissed the prince... or rather he kissed me... or rather he had smacked his mouth off of mine! This was such a whiplash of tone despite already being shocking enough as it was, it was truly taking me a few moments to really understand the scale of it really.

Really now, I was joking about being in a shoujo a little earlier but an event just like right now was textbook- was it because he was a love interest in the game- was he just programmed to be cursed with accidental shoujo cliché's. I mean just earlier, he accidentally shared an indirect kiss with me without realising- however this- as I processed the two situations in that moment to myself, my face began to flare up immensely. Ah no... wait- I had to be rational here!!

I was an NPC, NPC remember Annie- even if I was reborn into an otome story setting, I wasn't made for this otome lifestyle at all! Think about it clearly, Dante didn't react at all to the indirect kiss earlier. What happened just now was completely an accident, something nobody here would have predicted would have happened. Even if this was a shoujo like situation- I wasn't about to just accept it and react just like a over exaggerated shoujo heroine would. No, if I got embarrassed or over reacted here, it'll be mortifying for everyone! Indeed, such a traumatic experience , if not played off well , could lead Dante down the path of destruction. You just have to play it cool Annie, like earlier! Be the mature one here!