My Next Life as a Heroine – Chapter 6

I studied my blurry reflection in the polished tin plate, running fingers through my wavy blonde locks to smooth it down, and then turning my head each way to see if there was any dirt on me. After confirming my cleanliness, as best I could without a proper mirror, I took a step back so that I could get a more comprehensive look at myself. The soft green dress I had on was probably my favorite outfit, gifted to me by my three besties – Rachel, Greg, and Bethany. It wasn’t something I’d normally wear out on deliveries – way too many opportunities for it to get dirty, or ripped, if I were to trip – but it felt just right for the current occasion.

“Are you done yet?” Greg asked, lowering the plate enough for me to see his frown. “Pa’s gonna get mad if we don’t get to work, you know.” 

“I don’t think Maria has to worry about that,” Bethany posited, climbing down from the cart with a box of cucumbers. “Pa’s pretty used to her, by now. You’ll probably get a scolding for going along with her, though.”

“Him being used to it is why she needs to hurry! If Pa starts thinking Maria’s more trouble than she’s worth, he might not let her help out at the farm anymore!”

“You worry too much,” Bethany said, rolling her eyes. “Pa’s more likely to disown you than he is her.”

“That’s…” Greg hesitated, glancing at me, before looking back at his twin. “Yeah, alright. I should know better than to underestimate Maria’s hold on people, by this point. You’d have an easier time cutting out your own heart than getting rid of her, once she’s got her hooks in you.”

“Uh. Is it just my imagination, or are you saying some really mean things about me right now?” I questioned, crossing my arms. The reflection I saw in the plate looked closer to an adorable pout than an angry glare, but that was probably just my imagination. It was pretty blurry, after all. “You’re making me sound like some sort of weird, clingy thing!”

The twins gave me a flat stare, before turning to share a look with one another.

“You ever find yourself wondering what goes through her head, Sis?” Greg asked, putting the makeshift mirror down with a sigh, and climbing into the cart to grab his own box of vegetables.

“Some mysteries are best left unsolved,” Bethany opined, with a shrug. “Reading her mind would probably drive us mad, anyway.”

“Am I some sort of eldritch abomination, now!?”

They both laughed, patting me on either shoulder before going on ahead with their crates. I kept up my pou… glare for a few seconds longer, before climbing into the cart to grab one of the veggie-laden bags that had been specially prepared for me. They weren’t any lighter than the boxes, but they were unlikely to spill if I stumbled, and filled with things that could take a hit if I happened to trip and fall. I’d told them it wasn’t necessary, but… Well, maybe the Furrower family knew me a little too well, at this point.

It was a little over two years ago that I first showed up on their farm, following Beth and Greg home with a skip in my step, a smile on my face, and the occasional squeal of excitement slipping from my lips. I don’t think any of them knew what to make of me, at first. Some random girl showing up, and begging to be taught all about crops. And then, after I begged and pleaded for them to let me prove my worth and help for a day, I ended up tripping over my own feet and soaking Mr. Furrower with the contents of my watering can. Thrice . Honestly, I’m pretty sure he would have banned me from the farm then and there, if his work horse didn’t have a broken leg for me to heal. (Which, for the record, was a pretty big achievement for me – I wasn’t even sure I could heal animals, up until that point!)

But that was then, and this was now. These days, we had all sorts of safeguards in place for my mistakes, allowing me to help in all sorts of ways. I was even trusted to go on deliveries! Though this was my first time going on one to a noble’s estate. I practically had to beg, too, even with them being so short handed.

“You think she got lost back there?” Greg asked, in a voice loud enough to be heard across the courtyard.

“Neah, she’s not that hopeless,” Bethany replied. “She probably just tried to carry too much at once and fell over. We’ll dig her out from under the potatoes once we’ve dropped off this load.”

“Hey! That only happened…” Five times. Saying that probably wasn’t going to help my case, though. “I mean, it hasn’t happened in…” Three weeks. “I-I’m carrying them just fine, you know!” I lifted the singular bag in my arms to better make my point. Which, of course, cut off my vision of the road, causing me to stumble and almost drop said bag. But almost only counts if someone important is there to witness it!

“She’s thinking something stupid again, isn’t she?” Bethany muttered under her breath. Or at least I assumed she meant to mumble it, because that definitely wasn’t the sort of thing you were supposed to say out loud!

Which is why, being the polite girl that I am, I decided not to acknowledge it. Or anything else the twins said as we moved back and forth from the cart to the manor. It would have been rude to interrupt the private conversation they were for some reason getting super animated about. Something about a girl who definitely wasn’t me, and the many mistakes I definitely didn’t make. Honestly, I was feeling pretty embarrassed for whoever they were talking about by the end! And maybe a little mad, too. On the mystery girl’s behalf, I mean.

“Think we might have gone a little too far?” Greg asked, as I put my last bag of vegetables down. 

“Maybe. I kept thinking she’d break into the conversation, but…”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I announced. If my cheeks were red, it was only from embarrassment at having to alert them to my plans. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with me being mad at, or embarrassed by, the words of my friends. I was mentally sixteen (plus nine) after all! Though, by the same token, my body was only nine, which meant my brain was only nine, so it’s not like it would be out of the ordinary for me to get worked up like this… Not that I was, of course. Though I could understand why the twins might think otherwise.

“You need help finding the restroom?” Beth asked. 

“You two still have vegetables to carry in, right?” Only a tiny fraction of the ingredients were considered safe in my hands. Which was admittedly a little depressing. “I’ll be fine on my own!”

The long, meaningful look the twins shared wasn’t exactly hard to read. They totally thought I was going to get lost. Which was probably a good call, on their part. In fact, my plan from the beginning had been to get “lost” and wander off on my own, but I’d originally been hoping to pump them for whatever limited information they had about the layout of this place, first. The way they were talking made it pretty clear that they had no intention of letting me out of their sight, though. Which meant that my goal could only be accomplished by dashing out now, while they were still tied to their tasks. It was a carefully thought out maneuver – it wasn’t like I was just storming off in a huff, okay? I was just securing myself some alone time, in order to accomplish my objective. The one that had driven me to beg my way into this trip, to begin with.

See, we weren’t delivering vegetables to just any noble house. We were delivering them to the home of Marquess Hunt – the father of Mary Hunt, one of Katerina’s love interests. Considering the size of their order, I figured they were probably prepping for some tea party or another. Maybe even the one Katarina would be attending, since she was nine at the time, same as me. Not that I was harboring any hopes of meeting her there, mind you! I wasn’t stupid enough to crash a noble event. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t stupid… I mean, smart enough to find time for a little sightseeing!

My goal in coming here was to see the flower garden where Katarina would first connect with Mary. Though the event itself wasn’t really why I wanted to see it. True, I’d absolutely adored the scene when I’d read it in the light novel, but that had been when it was just a fiction. Now it was the site where a new love rival would be inducted into Katerina’s harem – not exactly a cause for celebration. But, rival or no, Mary Hunt was still one of my favorite characters.

The sweet, shy girl who’d conquered her fears and blossomed into a fierce and determined young lady for the sake of her love! And the ruthless schemer, who would use every tool at her disposal to win the heart of that same love! She was an amazing blend of cute and cunning, and I just loved her to bits. But considering our conflict of interest, I wasn’t exactly expecting a close relationship. Frenemies at best. 

Which meant this was probably my only chance of getting to see the beautiful flowers she’d put so much care into growing. And definitely my only chance of seeing them in a relaxed setting, without a battle of wits being subtly waged behind a clueless Katarina’s back. Or under her nose. Or right in front of her eyes… I mean, if the light novels were to be believed, the girl was unbelievably dense.

All that said, there was of course one tiny problem: I had no idea where the garden was located. Katarina had stumbled onto it by accident after getting lost on her way back from the bathroom, so my original plan had been to get the twins to lead me to said bathroom while subtly probing them for information on the way there, then send them back to their duties and get “lost” on my way back from the restroom. With the way things worked out, I’d just have to find someone to ask and hope for the best. Like, say, a confused looking girl with auburn hair. One who looked like she was about to question my presence. Probably best to cut that off in a hurry. She looked to be about my age (physically), so it likely wouldn’t be that hard – I just had to keep my mouth running, and not give her any time to think.

“Hi! Could you tell me where Mary Hunt’s garden is?”

“H-huh?”

“You know, the super gorgeous flower garden that may or may not be in the vague direction of some bathroom or another?”

“The bathroom…?” the girl asked. She sounded more confused than nervous, now – proof that my fast-talking no-thinking plan tactics were working! Hopefully!

“Yeah. Someone said it was in that area, so I thought I’d be able to see it on my way back? I don’t know if they gave me bad directions, or if I’m just super lost, but I haven’t had any luck so far.”

“W-why do you want to see it?” Was it just me, or did the girl look wary all of a sudden? Had I somehow given her the impression that I had some sort of nefarious scheme in mind? If so, I clearly needed to assure her that this was nothing more than a perfectly innocent plot.

“Don’t worry,” I said, giving her my brightest smile. “I don’t want to do anything bad. It’s just that there’s nothing really like it back home. Most of the villagers just grow crops… Which is good, because people need to eat! And the vegetables my friends grow are seriously delicious. But it’s not really the same, you know? I mean, I can appreciate some well grown crops, but being surrounded by gorgeous flowers must feel entirely different.”

“Y-yeah…” A tiny little smile flickered across the girl’s features, followed by a blush as she turned away from me. Some of her nerves had obviously crept back, but at least the suspicion had receded. “I-I’ll take you to it.”

“Thanks!” I grinned at her, but she didn’t turn back to see it. Nor did she respond, for that matter. I considered calling out to her, to make sure she wouldn’t start overthinking things and figure me out, but considering how suspicious she’d been just a second ago I thought it best to quit while I was ahead. It was probably the right call, too, since she didn’t stop – or look back – even once, until we reached our destination.

“W-we’re here. What… What do you think?”

I held my breath, oddly nervous now that I was on the verge of seeing the fabled garden. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, beyond the obvious. The book hadn’t really gone into depth with its descriptions – Katarina, for all her wonderful qualities, wasn’t exactly the most observant girl around, and I’m pretty sure she just saw a bunch of healthy plants and immediately latched onto the idea of having the gardener help with her crops. But while her descriptions might have been a bit lacking, the compliments she’d paid it were definitely on point. It really was a sea of beautiful flowers. Red, and pink, and yellow. Roses, and…. Yellow-ish orange things? And I’m pretty sure there were some snapdragons! Probably…

I might have been a bit too quick to judge Katarina’s aptitude for descriptions. Naming flowers was hard! I’d never taken an interest in botany during my last life, and I hadn’t been lying about the lack of decorative plants in my new one. But it really was breathtaking! Even someone with zero experience could tell that the garden was lovingly tended to. The colors were vibrant, without a single blemish anywhere in sight.

Wait, no – there was a single blemish somewhere in sight! It was in a corner of the garden, so far to the left that I couldn’t see it until I’d not only walked in, but already turned back to look at my guide. Like you were meant to see it only when you thought you were done with the place. There was a patch of bare earth there, and some of the surrounding flowers had been crushed. Even the ones that stood upright didn’t look like they were doing too well – flowers missing petals, stems that had been broken roughly, with some of the local roots half out of the ground. 

“What happened here?” I walked closer to the spot. My guide hadn’t moved, but I could hear her gasp of shock in the background. “It looks like someone just ripped a bunch of flowers out…”

I glanced back at the girl, whose hands were pressed against her mouth.

“You must love flowers too, huh? But don’t worry. I can fix it…”

I didn’t know a lot about gardening. I’m sure Mary would have all sorts of ways to patch up the damage, if she saw it – even if it was just artfully cutting the stems, or shifting where some of the flowers were planted, or whatever. I didn’t know how to do any of that. But I had been doing quite a bit of experimenting with my magic power.

Most of it… hadn’t gone well. I hadn’t learned how to do anything offensive, for example. And my attempts at buffing myself with super strength or speed were complete busts! But what I had accomplished was still pretty big, in my mind – and that was learning to heal not only animals but plants.

I walked towards the injured flower, putting my hands on the broken stem, and concentrating hard on my magic power, feeding it to the plant – not directly to the stem, though. No, I liked to feed my light to the leaves, focusing on the idea of it being absorbed through photosynthesis. It worked better than anything else I’d tried, by far, and… Well, I guess flowers are a lot easier to fix than bruised produce, because the broken stems resealed themselves under my watch, new buds forming at their tips. They didn’t blossom, though. Not that I couldn’t have forced them to, but it tended to do fucky things to the soil when I did that (something about the nutrients, maybe?), and it wasn’t like I could just go up to Mary and warn her about it, so it was better for me to just do the bare minimum here.

“There,” I murmured after a few seconds, parting from the field to admire my work. The flowers were…. Well, the end result was a bit uneven, and not exactly what I’d call gorgeous. It would probably confuse the hell out of Mary when she saw it, too. But at least it wasn’t on the level of a blemish anymore? “I’m sure Mary will be able to fix things up from here… I mean, anyone who can make something as beautiful as this garden has gotta have more talent in her thumb than I’ve got in my whole body, don’t you think?”

I smiled up at the auburn hair girl as I said the last bit, but her only response was a wide eyed stare, followed by a little squeak. I guess she was the shy sort? I guess that meant it was up to me to fill the silence!

“Thanks for showing me this place, by the way. I’ll never forget it – or you, for that matter! But uh… Do you think you should show me the way to the kitchen? I’m a little lost…”

For some reason, the girl’s cheeks looked a little bit flushed as she nodded her agreement. 

~~~

Author’s Notes

I’m a little nervous about this chapter, to be honest, even though I know I probably shouldn’t be. It’s a chapter I wanted to write no matter what, though – I loved Mary (and her scheming) too much to not rope her into this mess, but she’s too loyal a love interest to swap targets if they don’t meet early.

I’m also a bit unsure about Maria’s healing of plants and animals. I’m a bit behind on the books, so unsure if they ever touch the subject of whether she can – but it felt like something this version of her would definitely experiment with, and I figure a little modern knowledge might just help her make it work.

All that aside? We’re probably going to have only one more chapter before the big time skip – namely dealing with the aftermath of this chapter, and how it will or won’t affect Maria’s life going forward.