Treat the Second Male Lead Like a Stone

……Huh, why is he here?

Didn't you take Idette back?

I tilted my head while watching Ricardo with a dazed look.

“Where is Miss Idette?”

“And where is Your Highness?”

We were only throwing questions at each other that couldn’t be answered.

Ricardo’s hair was disheveled, as if he had run all the way here. The neat appearance he had just moments ago was nowhere to be found.

Ricardo swept back his sweat-soaked hair and plopped down in the seat across from me.

His refusal to give a proper answer frustrated me, and I raised my voice without realizing it.

“Can’t you hear me? Miss Idette―.”

“She went back. After visiting the shop you recommended.”

As if asking if I was finally satisfied, Ricardo ground his teeth.

Well, okay. If they had a nice date, that’s fine.

……Then why does he seem so angry?

“I answered your question, so let me ask again. What exactly are you thinking?”

“Nice weather?”

“…….”

“……I’m joking, so relax.”

I let out a small sigh.

“I told you. About your love……”

“That I don’t care.”

“…….”

“Is your current behavior your answer to that?”

Does he think I’m getting in the way of his love?

If not that, then does he think I’m toying with him?

Well, thinking that way, I guess it makes sense why he’s this angry.

“I mean, I did say I don’t care about you and Miss Idette.”

“You remember that.”

“I just wanted to help, that’s all.”

“…….”

“That’s really it. There’s no shady motive behind it.”

At my words, Ricardo let out a sharp laugh.

“Bianca, are you saying that?”

“Yes. I am.”

I gave a slight shrug of my shoulders.

“You expect me to believe that? Coming from you, of all people?”

Right, it’s strange when someone suddenly changes.

But you know. I’m a bit confused too.

Because you’re not acting like the person I knew either.

The Ricardo I saw in the original hated Bianca to an extreme. He couldn’t understand her obsession with him, and he would often lash out at her for interfering with his relationship with Idette.

So Bianca suddenly trying to push the two together must have been too sudden for him.

But if I stayed still like this, the misunderstanding that I liked him would only grow.

“Then from now on, believe it. That I’m sincere.”

“…….”

“First love is precious, isn’t it? So, go for it.”

That much, I truly meant.

From the moment I possessed Bianca, the original story had already changed.

A man who was only the second male lead could now become the true male lead, and even the grandfather who originally died could have a different ending.

But Ricardo, after hearing my words, looked dumbfounded.

“First love? If that were truly so precious, then you wouldn’t be able to let me go so easily either.”

“Oh dear, what a shame. You’re not my first love.”

Maybe Bianca’s first love was Ricardo, but I wasn’t.

So technically, it wasn’t a lie.

“That’s why I understand how you feel. The first time matters to everyone.”

First love is like a fantasy, right? Isn’t that why you couldn’t forget Idette and lived alone in the original?

“So go and make it work with Miss Idette. Our engagement will be broken off soon anyway, and what you’ll have left is time.”

A silence fell. A suffocating stillness.

In Ricardo’s eyes, as he stared at me, only an unknowable fury rippled.

……Why?

I thought I’d given Ricardo the answer he wanted.

But Ricardo’s reaction now.

Right, he looked even angrier than when I’d said something completely outrageous.

After a long silence, Ricardo finally opened his mouth.

“……Something about you has changed.”

Well…… my soul changed.

Isn’t that a valid reason?

“Did something happen during the time we didn’t see each other?”

The two first met when they were seven, through the introduction of the former duke and marquis.

They had known each other for fifteen years. But for eleven of those years, they had no contact at all—a complete gap.

Ricardo had despised even encountering Bianca.

In the original, Bianca, after coming of age, begged her grandfather and held an engagement ceremony with Ricardo. That day was their reunion after ten years.

〈You haven’t changed at all.〉

He said that with a disgusted expression.

And now, that same man was telling me I’d changed.

Isn’t this a good sign?

“Maybe I’ve finally matured.”

“Oh, so you’ve been doing some soul-searching while chasing after your first love?”

“Can’t I do that? You’re not much different from me right now.”

Ricardo’s gaze started to grow vicious. Intimidated, I quickly spoke up.

“I-I wasn’t mocking you. I was just stating the truth.”

I kept clenching and unclenching my innocent hands, then finally pulled out the words I’d been holding back.

“But why are you so angry?”

You're seriously strange.

“Ever since the engagement ceremony, you’ve only had eyes for Miss Idette.”

“So what?”

Is that really what you have to say right now?

“I’m not even following you around like I used to, so it’s confusing when you get angry.”

Is he venting all the anger he’s been holding in until now? It was a pretty convincing theory, not just some nonsense.

Otherwise, this situation made no sense.

If Bianca’s sudden change in attitude was weird, he should at least act bewildered. Or show some surprise.

But storming in with an angry face, huffing and puffing—what kind of behavior is that?

If I were Ricardo, I’d have thought, ‘Ah, my crazy fiancée has finally come to her senses!’ and gone off with the female lead.

“…….”

I expected him to immediately cut me off, telling me not to speak nonsense, but unexpectedly, Ricardo remained silent.

As if he had never considered what I just said.

“……Because it’s the polite thing to do.”

Even after Ricardo finally spoke, there was still no clear reason in his answer.

* * *

Ah, I’m so tired.

Meeting with Ricardo drained a ridiculous amount of energy from me.

I didn’t know it would be this exhausting to be misunderstood by someone I didn’t even like.

“My lady, a reply has come from Lord Age, whom we contacted earlier.”

Emily, my maid, cautiously approached and spoke to me.

“That was faster than I expected.”

“It really was.”

I checked the letter placed on the table.

[Unfortunately, the supply of Molia fruit is currently limited. You will likely have to wait at least three months to obtain it.]

……Three months.

The illness my grandfather was currently suffering from was rare, even within the empire.

The Drimokan disease.

It was a disease in which the magic within the body slowly hardened. As the magic hardened, the blood that circulated with it would also harden, eventually leading to death—a dreadful illness.

There was no cure for Drimokan. The Molia fruit I was trying to obtain wasn’t a cure either. It could only delay the hardening of the magic slightly.

I sighed.

Three months. That was longer than I’d hoped. Could Grandpa hold on until then?

“Oh, and the young marquis dropped by this morning.”

Cedric?

“There’s a hunting competition soon. He asked you to prepare for it.”

As if I wouldn’t already be taking care of that. Always meddling.

It was a topic we had discussed countless times at the dining table.

Since most nobles in high society would be attending, I was told to be on my best behavior, to support my fiancé Ricardo well and all that...

Grandfather had brushed it off with a joke, saying I wasn’t a child anymore, but in Cedric’s eyes, I still seemed like the same troublesome kid I used to be.

Oh, now that I think about it.

“Emily, the homecoming ceremony is soon, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The knights dispatched to Delphia will be returning next week.”

I finally felt like I could breathe again.

Seeing me like that, Emily gave me a faint smile.

“Sir Leonhart will be back soon too.”

“……Right.”