The Villainess Enjoys Her Seventh Life as a Free-Spirited Bride (hostage) in a Former Enemy Country

“Are you okay?”

While hurriedly instructing the maids to fetch towels, Rishe rushed over to Arnold. The drops of water dripping from his black hair showed the heaviness of the rain.

Oliver, the squire, appeared behind him.

“Good grief. This is all because you were unreasonable.”

Oliver, who was also drenched, looked at Arnold with a dumbfounded expression.

“I told you to take shelter from the rain, but you insisted on running back through. I thought you had a fastidious side, but you’re so messy in these areas.”

“Shut up. You didn’t have to come with me.”

“That’s not how it works, you know? Tsk, I can guess the reason you wanted to get back to the castle so quickly…”

“That’s why I said shut up.”

Arnold snapped in annoyance and combed his rain-soaked bangs with his right hand.

The rude gesture exposed his forehead, which was normally hidden.

Seeing Arnold with his bangs raised, Rishe gasped.

“…”

Because of the unfamiliar hairstyle, he looked more mature than usual.

“What’s wrong?”

The sight of him dripping with water gave off a dangerous feeling somehow, making her unable to look at him directly.

“…I think Your Highness is artistically beautiful, even down to the shape of your forehead.”

“Ha?”

“Oh, the towels are here just in time!”

After thanking the maids, Rishe took one towel. After softly unfolding it, she turned to Arnold and stood on tiptoes.

She then draped the towel over Arnold’s head and began wiping his dark hair.

“…………”

The people around them, including Oliver, gaped at Rishe.

(…?)

It wasn’t just the maids. The knight guards, who were about to receive their towels, all appeared flabbergasted.

She wondered what happened, but her hands didn’t stop working hard.

A few moments later, Arnold, whose face she couldn’t see due to his prone position, gently called her name.

“…Rishe.”

“Yeah?”

“I can wipe myself.”

“…………”

After a couple of blinks, Rishe caught onto the situation.

“――――Geez!”

Rishe swiftly removed her hand from the towel and struck a banzai pose.

She took a couple of jerky steps backwards, still in her “I’m not hostile” pose.

While the knights and maids were frozen, only Oliver seemed to be holding back his laughter, but he couldn’t look in their direction.

“M-My apologies. I was out of line!!”

“…It’s nothing.”

“Pfft, haha, thank you Rishe-sama. I beg your pardon, but may I leave His Highness in your care?”

Arnold was having none of it and glared at Oliver, but Oliver was undaunted.

“We’re both in the same predicament, so I’m sure you’re up to the task.”

“I-I-I understand. Your Highness, this way please…”

Anyway, for now, Rishe wanted to escape from the public eye as soon as possible. With that in mind, she pulled Arnold’s arm and headed for the fourth floor.

After pushing Arnold into the room, she hurriedly wiped off the water drops in the hallway.

Poof, act normal, act normal…

In the meantime, she checked the noise traps once more and regained some composure. When she thought it was time to go back, she received the tea prepared by the maidservants and knocked on the room door.

“Uhm, Your Highness, are you done changing?”

“Yes.”

When she opened the door, she felt a little nervous for some reason.

When she pushed the door, Arnold had changed out of his drenched clothes and was sitting on the couch in a white shirt. His hair was still wet, but not so wet that it was dripping.

Calm down…Mm, I’m good.

Rishe quietly walked in, carrying the tray with a tea set on it.

“Your Highness, here is your tea. Your body must be cold, so let it get cold.”

“Hmm.”

Arnold replied curtly while reading a document. Still, his right hand patted the position beside him on the sofa.

She thought he wanted her to sit there. Speaking of which, this was how he beckoned her last night, and they sat next to each other.

She didn’t have any reservations at the time, but she felt like they could have sat across from each other. However, she didn’t bother to turn this down and sat on the sofa.

Rishe took her seat next to him and looked up at Arnold.

“Are you finished with your inspection of the currency exchange offices?”

“Today’s schedule was rounded up. We’ll go to a few more tomorrow and that will be all… No problems there.”

“Harriet seemed a bit troubled, and I’m a little concerned.”

“Is that so?”

He sounded completely uninterested.

As a member of the royal family of a country with which he had deals with, she thought he should make some adjustments, but Arnold showed no sign of it.

Come to think of it, even though his Highness saw Harriet fall yesterday, he didn’t move an inch at all…

Conversely, when he saw Harriet crying, he really didn’t seem to care. There were no ups and downs of gentleness whatsoever.

While chewing over this, she looked up at Arnold, who was flipping through some papers.

“Your Highness.”

“What?”

“Do your scars hurt?”

Arnold looked at Rishe with a fleeting look of surprise on his face.

But after several seconds, he exhaled and looked down.

“…Occasionally, when it rains.”

Rishe bowed at those words.

Arnold was moving as normal, but if you looked closely, you could see that he was slightly protecting his left side. It was a look of discomfort that was barely noticeable if you didn’t know he had scars on his neck.

Still, Rishe discerned it for sure.

“But how did you know?”

“…I’ve come to be able to sense when Your Highness is in even the slightest bit of pain.”

It wasn’t that Rishe was worried about Arnold’s health, either. She just heard from patients in her previous pharmacist life that old wounds hurt on rainy days.

However, there was no clear medicine for the symptoms of old wound pains brought about by the rainy weather.

Rishe looked down in concern.

“I’ll get you some hot water. If you soak a towel in it to warm up your scars, it might soothe it a little.”

“Don’t mind it.”

“…But.”

Arnold interrupted softly.

“It has ebbed now, so I don’t need something more.”

“…?”