The Duke's Daughter Is A Villainess (15)

The king, queen and first prince all went to see the Baudelaires off as they left, and during that time Dahlia made the effort to sneakily place one of the 'Love/Hate' stickers on Noah.

Apparently, according to the percentage that she could now see on top of his head, he didn't love or hate her, with the percentage sitting at 0%.

0% huh... she could probably work with that. At least it wasn't in the negatives, like she had first expected.

~So, when exactly is the 'Rumour Rumour' talisman going start taking effect for Alice?

[Probably first thing in the morning! Don't be impatient, Host...]

~I can't help it, Buddy... I'm bored....

[You should focus on romancing Lucas and Noah!]

~...Boring....

[Boring????? Romance could never be boring!!!!!!!]

~....Buddy... don't tell me you're only here to watch potential romance scenes between me and the male characters...?

[.....]

~....

While Dahlia was suspecting her system's motives, the duke was explaining to Stella that she would have to start going to the palace every weekend to spend time with the king. Though Stella seemed to hate the very idea of it, she also seemed to know that they didn't have much of a choice. The duke, sensing that Stella wasn't too happy, made sure to emphasise that at least Dahlia would be going with her every weekend, even though she likely wouldn't actually be able to stay with Stella while she met with the king.

"Dahlia..." Stella cried as she tugged on Dahlia's dress.

Dahlia snapped out of her thoughts and looked down at Stella. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want the king to be my father..." Stella pouted.

Dahlia laughed, finding Stella utterly adorable. "I think the king would be very hurt if he heard that, Stella... but I understand. You can just pretend he's a... fun uncle for now. Lots of girls would love to visit the palace as often as you're going to, so let's just treat it as a fun weekend trip, okay?"

Stella nodded, though she still looked down. "But they won't even let me play with you when we're there... and they forced you to get engaged to the prince even though you don't want to..."

Dahlia choked on air when she heard the last part. She mostly agreed with Stella's sentiments, but Buddy had actually managed to convince her that it was probably a better starting place being his fake fiancée rather than being nobody to him.

Stella would probably be surprised if she ever found out how much the old Dahlia used to follow Noah around.

"It's alright. You'll still be seeing me everyday, we have plenty of time to play during the weekday. The king only gets two days a week, so take some pity on him, Stella. It's just that everybody loves you too much, everyone wants to spend time with you."

Despite the sour expression Stella was wearing, Dahlia could tell that she was actually somewhat pleased with all the attention she was receiving. At this rate she was probably going to become as spoiled as Dahlia used to be. But... well... it wasn't her problem at this point.

"Okay..."

~Buddy, you and I are going to have to work hard now that we'll be going in and out of the palace so often.

[Yes, Host! I'm ready!]