I Didn’t Even Want to Live, But God Forced Me to Reincarnate!

Perhaps the anger that boiled in my heart caused blood to rush to my head, causing me to feel hot immediately. Perhaps this was where the term ‘hot-headed’ came from.
But suddenly, I felt my hand being tugged and when I turned around, I saw that it was Ein. I felt as if he sensed my turbulent feelings, that was why he tugged my hand.
Thankfully, his tug caused me to snap out of it.
And fortunately for me, Maiara and Carbuncle were right in front of me, blocking the view.
I felt as if my poker face skill as Lyra wasn’t as good as it was when I was Reinst.
Hopefully it was alright… How careless of me.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Clavis, who was also staying behind, walked so that he was next to my side and asked.
“Ah… No, it’s alright,” I said as I shook my head.
Ein let go of his hand that tugged mine at this moment, perhaps sensing that I was back to normal. Heck, if he had really sensed all this, he was actually quite sensitive… Nicole was quite dense, so I wonder where he got this side of him from… Clyde?!
Now that I think of it, Clyde seemed to be clever at navigating around others’ feelings and being tactful. Did Nicole explain before that they shared the tasks of a family head and Clyde was the one that was good at talking to people who were tricky, while Nicole was good at being straightforward?
“Hmm…,” Clavis turned to look at the room’s inside and saw who were there. He seemed as if he instantly knew what was going on.
“Don’t think too much,” Clavis said as he lightly tapped on my shoulder before coming into the room.
“Right. Come in. If we take too long here, they might be wondering what’s going on,” Ein whispered to me.
I nodded as I followed him and entered the room.
As I walked closer and got a better view of the room and the people that were inside, I felt that my blood was about to boil again.
At that time, Fenrir’s voice rang in my mind.
‘
…
I thought back to my life when I was Reinst, where 99% of the people would make assumptions about me.
By the time my mini conversation with Fenrir finished, I was already gathered with Maiara, Manasye, Clavis, Ein, and Carbuncle.
I made sure to glance around my surroundings to see that there was no hint of other delegates, no Gale no Medea, that’s to be expected. But even Alt-nii, Luca, and Kiri weren’t there. Only Celeste.
I slightly raised my eyebrow in wonder.
In front of me, stood Maiara, Manasye, and Celeste.
“Maiara, you’re back! I miss you! And… Escha, Kuu, Ralph, and Reynald too!” Manasye greeted us all again.
I stopped my track and even my smile turned stiff.
My heart thumped so loud as I was feeling nervous. I hadn’t thought about how we’d meet with Celeste in disguised identity like this.
As for Celeste, she was not too disguised, and besides, I had already known how she looked before she departed as Fumitsuna Michiyo.
“Big Sis Michiyo, let me introduce you to my friends! You’ve already known Maiara, right? Then, they are Escha, Kuu, Ralph, and Reynald!” Manasye pointed at each of us and introduced us.
“Hello, my name is Fumitsuna Michiyo, a delegate sent from Riviera country. Pleased to meet you. Prince Manasye, I didn’t know you had
cute friends around your age!” Celeste first greeted us before turning to comment at Prince Manasye.
“W-well, I’ve known them only recently, so maybe that’s why! But they are my great friends!” Manasye was so innocent when he proudly said those words that made me feel a bit choked.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Reynald.”
“I’m Ralph!”
“Just call me Kuu.”
“...I am Escha.”
As per courtesy, we introduced ourselves in turn.
Right after my introduction, Celeste’s expression shifted when she looked at me, and I had my legs slightly tremble, but I kept my straight and oblivious look on.
“Hmm? What’s the matter, Miss Michiyo? Or should I call you Fumitsuna? I am sorry, I am not familiar with the Oni’s culture, so…,” I quickly put on my usual social smile that I had finally learned back after practice, as I said without any single trembling tone.
“Oh… Just Michiyo’s fine. Sorry, I just recalled someone whose name contains ‘Escha’ and I was just…”
“Oh? Are they by any chance the same as me? Did their parents crave escargot? I got my name because my mother craved escargot!” I quickly came up with a very convincing lie as I also put on a troubled face and said, “Actually, I don’t really like the name because I feel like I am named after a food made of snail… Escargot? But well, a name is our parents’ gift. I appreciate it more when they’re no longer here.”
“Ah, I am sorry to hear that,” Celeste’s expression quickly turned sour after hearing my last sentence.
We talked a bit more, and I could see or sense Celeste sometimes looking at me, as if wanting to make sure of something.
Luckily for me, my wish was quickly granted, for it was announced that Celeste was being called, and Manasye also said his farewells as he wanted to do something else with us.
As we could have guessed, Manasye led us to Eneida’s place.
It felt to me that Eneida’s place had become our not-so-hidden base now. At least, nobody dared to venture there…
When it was just us alone…
“Maiara! I missed you!” Manasye dropped off his cool side as the prince and threw himself to Maiara’s arms.
“There, there,” Maiara just shook her head as if saying that it couldn’t be helped and proceeded to coddle Manasye.
“Welcome back, everyone!” Eneida also greeted us from within her prison-like room, not daring to go closer to us.
As for Manasye, perhaps he felt that we were looking at his interaction with Maiara that he asked, “W-what’s wrong? Do you think it’s odd for me to act spoiled to Maiara?”
I quickly shook my head, “No… You’re still a child, it’s alright. I am just wondering if the q–your mother isn’t opposed to you being like this with Maiara?”
I wondered as I thought that mothers would surely be jealous if their children were to be closer to their nanny more, right? Some would even be mean to the nanny, so…
“It’s alright. My mother and father are so busy and they need to be strict with me due to my… position and timidity. I don’t know if my mother caught me acting spoiled towards Maiara or not, but there was once when I was sure she saw, but unexpectedly she turned blind eye to that! I think it’s because she can’t really pamper me, she lets Maiara pamper me in her stead!” Manasye was 100% sure, so I was wondering if that was the case…
But I couldn’t ask Maiara if she had ever been admonished for it, right?
So, I just dropped the topic as I had seen lots of cases of noble children being closer to their caretakers and their parents didn’t seem to bother with them…
I suddenly became sad when I thought of a possibility… That the children didn’t matter and as long as they could behave well as per their status and respect their parents, it wouldn't matter if they didn’t feel closest to their parents.
I had tasted it first-hand in my previous life, so my mood soured thinking of such a possibility. And my dislike towards King Deus just skyrocketed.
“Anyway, time to share the results of our missions?” Ein asked, seemingly impatient.
We started with Manasye’s report first.
He had really done his best using the excuse of Maiara not being here and him feeling lonely that he had started to approach the ambassadors from Riviera whose ages were close to him.
“For that reason, I am not really approaching the people called Gale and Medea, and other older-looking people from the Riviera country delegation. Besides, they are mostly gone to do business, like going to the Department of Magic and so on…”
“As for Prince Luca, wow! He’s like Sis Phoebe, but the male and introverted version of Sis? I mean, I want to be a prince that’s like him!!”
“As for Kiri… Must be nice having someone like him as the prince's aide…”
“As for Altaire… Is it just me or does he seem to care a lot about Big Sis Michiyo? But Big Sis Michiyo would try to avoid him or just respond shortly… There must be something going on between them, right?” Manasye tilted his head.
“Huh? Alt–The delegation called Altaire seems to care a lot about Miss Michiyo?” I asked as I blinked several times.
“Yeah! He’s so gentle and kind towards her! I don’t understand why Big Sis Michiyo would try to avert her eyes when they interacted…”
“Eh, but since they’re noble children that are delegates from Riviera, wouldn’t that mean they’d be spending a lot of time together? It will be too troublesome for Miss Michiyo to do that, right?” I asked, trying to probe for more information.
“Hmm… Not necessarily. It seems like they’ve been assigned to different places, with Big Sis Michiyo often being in the castle.”
“Why is it?” Ein raised his eyebrow.
“Maybe because she’s a girl, while the others are boys? And she might remind my father of Sis Phoebe?” Manasye tilted his head again.
Then, suddenly, as if he just recalled something…
“But I am afraid of another scenario that is less… friendly. I might be overthinking it, but… Nevermind, I don’t think it’s possible, but…”
“C’mon, don’t beat around the bush and just tell us!!” Carbuncle did the unthinkable and… smacked Prince Manasyeee?!!
My expression turned into the one from the legendary screaming painting, and…