My older sister is a villainous rich girl

“Calm down, Chris!” she muttered to herself. “Sometimes what you see isn’t necessarily the truth, and we’re all still young. You never know what the future holds.”

Perhaps one day Prince Richard will no longer like Gothic? Perhaps one day Wayne will no longer like Gothic?

Even if we take a step back, don't we still have ourselves as time travelers? We must fully trust the initiative of this butterfly within us!

Inhale, exhale.

Chris tried her best to calm her turbulent emotions.

"Young Miss." A maid knocked softly on the door. "Miss Gothley from the Edgeworth family has sent a gift, supposedly from Young Master Wayne. Would you like to take a look?"

This...this...

Let's organize our thoughts now:

Wayne wanted to give Golly a gift → Wayne went out with Golly → Golly sent someone to return Wayne's gift to the Duke of Wincher's mansion.

Chris covered her eyes, unable to bear reading any longer, as if she were seeing a soul howling in anguish upon learning the truth.

“Hide the gift,” she said firmly.

"……what?"

The maid outside the door looked bewildered.

"Do it right now! And absolutely do not tell Wayne, just pretend it never happened!"

Chapter 25 Chris's Proposal

With some cheap trinkets he'd bought from a street vendor, Wayne returned home.

As soon as I stepped into the house, I saw Chris sitting cross-legged in a strange posture by the door, wearing a black robe with a hood, looking like a heretic from the FFF group.

"What's this?" Wayne asked.

“I’m conducting a very important divination,” Chris said seriously. “Now, please take off your shoes and throw them outside.”

???

Is my chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) acting up?

“I won’t take them off unless you give me a new pair.” Wayne also squatted down, protecting the little leather boots he was wearing like a mother hen protecting her chicks.

“Buy it.” Chris waved her robe, revealing half of her hand wrapped in white cloth.

"Poor child, how could she become so stupid at such a young age?" Wayne looked at her with pity.

After thinking about it, since she's already like this, I might as well go along with her for now.

So, as she instructed, Wayne threw one of his shoes behind him outside the door.

"Lord of Love, who exists in the unseen realm! Heed my call and reveal the fate of the person before me in matters of the heart!"

A gust of wind blew, causing Chris's robes to flutter and reveal half of her eye, which was covered by a white cloth. She shouted, "Evil King's True Eye - Seal Released!" and then lifted the white cloth from her eyes.

The wind stopped, and time and space seemed to stand still.

Her silver-blue pupils were beautiful and deep, and she stared at Wayne without blinking, as if trying to see through his body to his soul.

“Very good, there are no signs of interference from external gods. Now, go and check which direction the toe of that shoe is pointing.”

"Yes!" A maid carrying a huge fan suddenly appeared behind Chris.

She ran out quickly, then ran back quickly.

"Young Miss! The toes of your shoes are pointing north."

"...Which direction is north?"

"Young Miss, it's facing inwards."

"Great!" Chris clapped her hands and stood up, covering her right eye with the white cloth again.

According to the divination results, Wayne Wincher's love life will not have a good outcome this year, and he needs to re-examine his relationship with his partner.

“Wien! This is the will of the Lord!” she said solemnly.

What kind of bizarre and nonsensical divination is this? The Lord doesn't care at all!

Wayne reluctantly got up and changed into his indoor shoes. "You'd better not let Mother see you dressed like this, or you'll be in for another beating."

"My divination was true!"

Yes, the divination you did was real, the couple you shipped was real, and everything you wanted was real.

Wayne gave a perfunctory reply: "Okay, okay, it's true."

Then he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Her interruption made me seem to have forgotten something.

"By the way, Chris, didn't you receive anything?" he asked tentatively.

That shouldn't be happening!

Ge Lidu said to have the servants return the things she bought. She wouldn't lie to herself about such a small thing, would she? She'll expose her when they get back.

Chris froze, her heart skipping a beat.

What did he mean by asking that?

Is it the boy's sixth sense? Does he have a premonition that his gift will be returned? Is he insecure about his feelings? Oh...poor child!

“Really? Maybe yes, maybe no, I didn’t notice…” She magically pulled two tickets out of her pocket. “Wayne! Let’s go see this debut play together! I heard it’s a troupe that has been touring for many years and has built up quite a reputation.”

A love story between a prince and a noblewoman.

Wayne took one look and exclaimed, "Good heavens, isn't this the one that Ge Li was interested in before? Just how much do you guys like this kind of old-fashioned formula?"

He glanced at Chris with a complicated expression, hesitant to speak, yet still wanting to.

Chris seemed oblivious and continued to promote the troupe: "Many of my girlfriends have recommended this troupe to me. Putting everything else aside, their talent is absolutely outstanding. This script was also written by the troupe leader himself. His previous play, 'The Coward,' was a sensation in the entire capital."

“It’s a pity I didn’t get to see it yet,” Chris said with a hint of regret, but quickly cheered up again: “So, Wayne, do you want to go see it with me?”

She paused, and as if to make her point more convincing, she added, "Just think of it as keeping me company."

'She seemed to really want me to go with her.'

Wayne scrutinized her expression with suspicion.

—An unprecedented sincerity.

Could it be that he/she has gotten into some kind of trouble?

Thinking back to how she seemed to be deliberately avoiding the topic of gifts ever since I got back, constantly changing the subject...

Are you unhappy with the gift? Or did you accidentally break it?

The doll was indeed of poor quality.

Never mind, I'll just give her an even better one next time.

“Let’s go then.” Wayne smiled broadly. “I’ve never seen an opera before!”

"Whoa!" Chris cried out. "Let's go now!"

"Wait a minute, at least change out of that weird outfit first!"

……

In the end, Chris went out dressed normally.

It was a simple adventure outfit; the hood on the back could cover her usually overly conspicuous, gorgeous blonde hair with small curls at the ends.

The two walked down the street like two ordinary children, except that their clothes were extremely neat and clean, as if they were brand new.

Wayne thought Chris would at least ask what he and Ge Li had talked about, even if it was just out of curiosity.

But to my surprise, Chris showed no interest in that regard at all along the way, and didn't mention a single word about it to Ge Li. Instead, she kept talking about other interesting things happening around her.

It's as if they're intentionally trying to make themselves happy.

Sitting in a relatively close-up spot in the theater, Wayne silently prepared himself to doze off.

Drama was a very important form of entertainment in the Kingdom of Saint Loens, and was loved by everyone from the king himself to the common people.

But how could Wayne, who has been bombarded by various new media in the 21st century, possibly be interested in medieval Western drama?

But as soon as the performance began, he realized he had misunderstood.

I initially thought it was just a typical love story between a prince and a noblewoman, and that's what the posters advertised. However, it's actually a satirical work that criticizes the aristocratic system and uses sharp language to attack society.

The audience here consists mostly of ordinary people from humble backgrounds. They have long harbored resentment towards the aristocrats and deeply empathize with the words that no one dares to say in ordinary times. They gasp in surprise and burst into laughter at the same time.

The main plot is as follows: A noblewoman is to be married off to a prince from another country who is twenty years old, but she doesn't even know his height or weight beforehand. During the engagement process, the greed and ignorance of the various nobles are vividly displayed, while the church leaders of the country believe that this marriage is not in their best interests, so they try to sabotage it in the name of God.

In the end, the noblewoman threw aside the ideas that people kept trying to instill in her, ran away from home to personally investigate the prince, and the two fell in love at first sight after meeting, got married and lived a happy life.

The performance, featuring several plot twists and turns, was superb and reflected dissatisfaction with the aristocratic class and outdated ideas, as well as progressive ideals.

Wayne willingly offered enthusiastic applause, believing that in time, this work would surely become a classic of the world.

But Wayne still felt that the story was too conservative in its level of stimulation; while the satire was sharp, it didn't delve into the essence of the matter.

If we compare it with the explosive plots of modern novels, television shows, and games, there is still an insurmountable gap between them.

That's a devastating blow from industrial civilization.

Chapter 26 The Strange Little White Dog

As I came out of the theater, I was surprised to find that it was drizzling outside.

“Wayne, isn’t this play very interesting?” Chris said with a hint of pride.

His face was full of pleading for praise.

“Yes, it’s very interesting,” Wayne nodded. “It’s just that in the end, that noble lady and the prince shouldn’t have ended up together.”

"Huh? Why?" Chris felt that the plot development was quite natural, both unexpected and reasonable.

"Because, if there were no twists and turns caused by power struggles within their own country, the prince of the neighboring country would agree to the engagement even without meeting each other."

He said, "The prince only needed that identity; it had nothing to do with the lady herself."

Chris suddenly stopped, her expression obscured by her hood.

“Wayne…”

Oops, did I make my attempt at using eye-catching tactics too obvious?

As Wayne was trying to come up with a childish excuse, Chris spoke up.

"Wayne, I never knew you had such a talent for literature. You have such insightful views!"

She looked up at him with admiration, her eyes sparkling.

'Phew, I thought I was about to be exposed.'

Wayne breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Yes, I like reading."

He reflected on his attitude towards Richard.

I don't know if it's because the ending of the anime left such a deep shadow on me, but I always subconsciously feel a bit of dislike for him.

"Reading is great!" Chris exclaimed excitedly. "It's wonderful that I love reading!"

Seeing her walking beside him with a smile, Wayne had a bad feeling.

"Woof woof—"

Chris looked puzzled. "What was that sound?"

"Awoo...woof, woof..."

The two exchanged a glance and approached an inconspicuous alleyway next to the street.

Because the moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, only a cardboard box could be vaguely seen lying upside down in the corner, and the sound was coming from under the box.

Wayne stepped forward and stood in front of Chris.

He spread his palm out in front of him, and a clay figure about two meters tall suddenly appeared.

The clay figure took heavy steps toward the cardboard box, embraced it with its thick clay arms, and slowly lifted it up.