The Duke's Daughter Is A Villainess (19)

Though Lucas insisted he was fine, it was clear to Dahlia that he was in no shape to continue training, so she asked some of the knights to help him over to the tree she was sitting under before, and she asked for a maid to bring an ice pack before placing it over his injured ankle.

They spent the rest of the afternoon next to each other, silently sitting under the shade. Eventually, Dahlia began to drift off, and soon she fell asleep, her head falling onto his shoulder.

Having a beautiful girl in such close proximity would affect anyone, even someone like Lucas, who wasn't easily swayed by girls who were all looks but no personality. Maybe it was because he knew that Dahlia was kind, and saw how she acted with her sister, that he felt she was a little better than most of the other noble women he'd come across. She did not seem as snobbish or conceited as them, and he appreciated her genuine concern over his injury.

He still had Alice in his heart, of course, but secretly he felt Dahlia was quite good too.

Dahlia didn't wake up from her nap until she felt a strange weight on her legs, then she slowly blinked her eyes open and found herself staring into Stella's eyes.

"Stella?" Dahlia mumbled, still half asleep.

Stella giggled and then shifted so that her head was resting on Dahlia's lap. "I want to nap with you too!"

Too?

Dahlia then remembered that she wasn't alone, remembering that she'd borrowed Lucas' shoulder as a pillow. She slowly lifted her head off his shoulder and turned to apologise, but then realised that he had also fallen asleep at some point.

Dahlia considered for a moment before shrugging and getting comfortable against Lucas' shoulder once again.

The three of them napped for about half an hour before someone came to find them and told them that Dahlia and Stella had to return home.

Stella yawned as Dahlia faked being embarrassed and apologised to Lucas for 'accidentally' falling asleep on him. Lucas only smiled patiently, saying that he'd actually been tired for a while and that she gave him an excuse to finally catch a break. Dahlia reminded him not to work too hard before she departed in a carriage with Stella.

Unknown to them, the knights and the maids who'd seen them napping together had begun whispering to each other about how good they all looked together. The knights mostly just expressed their jealousy on how close Lucas was to Dahlia, while the maids all whined about how lucky Dahlia was to experience such a romantic scene with Lucas.

By the end of the night, Alice had already heard of the 'romantic afternoon' that Lucas spent with Dahlia. Though Alice initially thought Dahlia was a nice person and liked her quite a bit, when she heard this she couldn't help but resent her just a little.

[Host, you're a natural at this! At this rate you'll be able to get Lucas to +100% in no time!]

~Mmmm.

[Aren't you happy?]

~I guess I am?

[You guess???]

~It's just... the love interests are so boring....

[...]

~Are all the challenges going to be like this?

[.....No? I don't know! What's interesting to you, Host?]

~More girls... pretty girls... more danger maybe? Though it's probably a good thing that my life hasn't been threatened so far... it would be good if I could at least go back to the modern world or something, at least then I can play some video games in my spare time.

[...Host you're going to make me cry.]

~You don't even have eyes.

[With you I think anything is possible!!!!]