Why Did I Reincarnate as the Heroine When I Wanted to Be a Villainess?

Chapter 93: Chapter 93 — obviously

The room went absolutely silent.

Not gradually.

Instantly.

Like someone had removed all the sound from the hall simultaneously.

Seraphina pulled back.

Kael had not moved.

Not even slightly.

His expression had stopped working entirely.

The tips of his ears went red first.

Then his neck.

Then his entire face.

Completely.

Instantly.

The kind of red that had nowhere left to go and kept trying anyway.

Seraphina stood six inches away watching this happen.

With great interest.

"Kael."

Nothing.

"Kael."

Still nothing.

She waved a hand in front of his face.

His eyes tracked it.

Proof of life.

"You’re still in there."

He swallowed.

Once.

Hard.

"Aina."

His voice came out wrong.

Too quiet.

Too careful.

Like someone handling something extremely fragile and trying very hard not to drop it.

"Yes."

"You."

A pause containing several emotions simultaneously.

"Just."

Another pause.

"Did that."

She tilted her head.

"Obviously."

Kael looked at her.

Really looked at her.

The way he looked at problems he needed to understand completely before responding.

His expression was doing something she had genuinely never seen it do before.

Not neutral.

Not composed.

Not the battlefield focus.

Not the careful calm he wore like armor.

Just.

Open.

For approximately two seconds.

Then he looked forward to the room.

And closed it.

Composed himself.

In real time.

Visibly.

Seraphina watched him do this.

Something moved through her chest.

Small.

Warm.

She didn’t examine it.

Turned to face the room instead.

The hall was extraordinary.

Three nobles were talking at high volume simultaneously.

One diplomatic representative had dropped his papers completely.

The duke’s heir looked like a man reconsidering his entire life’s direction.

The merchant family’s son stared at his gifts which were now irrelevant objects in a suddenly different room.

Daren had both hands over his mouth.

His eyes were enormous.

He looked at Rowan.

Rowan had turned toward the wall.

His shoulders were doing something.

Something that was absolutely not laughter.

Except it was.

Completely.

Seraphina looked at her mother.

Elena Valois looked back.

Her expression was the particular expression she wore when Seraphina had done something she completely expected and simultaneously had no idea how to respond to.

She held her daughter’s gaze.

Then very slowly looked at the ceiling.

Then back at Seraphina.

Then at the ceiling again.

It was the most emotional Elena Valois had displayed publicly in fifteen years.

Lord Valois beside her had the expression of a man who had raised this child for fifteen years and was therefore unsurprised by anything she did.

He looked at Seraphina.

Then at Kael.

Then at his wife examining the ceiling.

He picked up his drink.

Took one sip.

Put it down.

Said absolutely nothing.

Which said everything.

Kael’s mother had pressed both hands over her mouth.

Not hiding a laugh.

Hiding something larger than that.

Her eyes were very bright.

She looked at her son.

He was not looking at her.

He was looking forward to it.

Still red.

Still composed.

Still holding Seraphina’s arm.

Which he had grabbed reflexively and had not yet noticed he was still holding.

His mother looked at that.

The hand.

The grip.

The complete unawareness of it.

She pressed her hands tighter.

Marcus Arden stood beside her.

He looked at Kael for a long moment.

Then placed one hand on his son’s shoulder.

One firm grip.

Kael looked at him.

His father said nothing.

Just nodded once.

Small.

Certain.

The kind of nod that contained I know and it’s fine and you don’t have to say anything all at once.

Kael looked away first.

But something in his expression shifted.

Settled.

Like something had been confirmed rather than revealed.

Cassian stood near the far wall.

He had watched all of it.

Every moment.

He looked at Seraphina now.

Her chin raised.

Her eyes were bright.

Her expression carried the satisfied energy of someone who had walked into a complicated situation and walked out with exactly what she wanted.

He smiled.

Small.

The real one.

Not the prince’s smile.

The one that appeared when something genuinely surprised him.

Then he looked away.

At nothing specific.

Seraphina caught it.

Held his gaze for one moment.

Something passing between them that needed no words.

Then she turned forward.

Raised her chin.

Looked at the assembled hall.

At the suitors.

At the nobles.

At the chaos she had created with one action.

At her parents.

At Kael’s parents.

Daren is still covering his mouth.

Rowan is still facing the wall.

At Tax on the chandelier who had gone very quiet.

Then she spoke.

Clearly.

Without performance.

Just the truth.

"This idiot and I have been in love for so long."

The room held completely still.

"I can’t marry anyone else."

Three full seconds of silence.

Then Daren’s laugh found its volume.

"HAHAHAHA—"

Loud.

Completely undignified.

The kind of laugh that had been building since the kiss and needed somewhere to go immediately.

Rowan turned from the wall.

His expression was the most human it had ever been in a public setting.

He looked at Seraphina.

Then at Kael.

Then pressed his fist against his mouth.

Looked away again.

His shoulders are still moving.

Kael’s mother made a sound.

Small.

Broken open.

Happy in a way that had been waiting a long time.

The hall found its voice again all at once.

Nobles talking over each other.

Someone near the back gasped.

Someone else laughed.

A diplomatic representative was writing furiously.

About what exactly nobody wanted to investigate.

Seraphina stood at the front of it all.

Chin raised.

Eyes bright.

Completely herself.

Back.

Really back.

Then she turned to Kael.

He was looking at her sideways.

His face is still red.

His hand was still on her arm.

"Aina."

His voice had recovered slightly.

Still careful.

"Yes."

"You announced that."

"Obviously."

"In front of everyone."

"Obviously."

He looked at the room.

His parents.

Daren laughing.

At Rowan’s shaking shoulders.

At the nobles reacting.

At the crown prince who had smiled and looked away with dignity.

At all of it.

Then back at her.

"You’re embarrassing."

She grinned.

The full one.

The completely real one.

"Obviously."

He looked forward again.

His expression doing the controlled neutral thing.

The thing that was not actually neutral at all.

But it was his version of flustered.

And she knew it.

She had always known it.

Then Daren appeared.

He had crossed the entire hall.

Somehow.

While still laughing.

He stopped in front of them.

Looked at Seraphina.

Then at Kael.

Then at Seraphina again.

"I."

He pointed between them.

"You."

Another point.

"This whole time."

"Obviously."

Seraphina said.

Daren looked at Kael.

Kael looked at Daren.

Daren immediately pointed at his own still-wet eyes.

"Allergies."

"You don’t—"

"ALLERGIES."

Kael stared at him.

"This mansion has very aggressive pollen."

Daren continued.

"Extremely aggressive."

"It’s indoors."

"Indoor pollen."

"That’s not—"

"Very serious condition."

Seraphina immediately looked proud.

"He learned from me."

Kael looked at her.

Then at Daren.

Then at the ceiling.

The ceiling of the Valois mansion grand hall.

Which was very high.

And very decorated.

And had absolutely nothing useful to offer him.

Rowan arrived shortly after.

He had fully recovered his composure.

Mostly.

He looked at Seraphina.

Then at the room around them.

Then at the gold chandelier.

Then back at Seraphina.

"You."

He said.

"Yes."

"This whole journey."

"Yes."

"You counted every coin."

"Yes."

"You almost stole a wagon."

"Almost."

"You ate bread from the floor once."

"It fell on a clean surface."

"You have a gold chandelier."

Seraphina pointed at it.

"Obviously."

Rowan looked at it for a long moment.

The merchant in him doing something complicated.

Then he looked back at her.

"I feel professionally humiliated."

"You shouldn’t."

"I do."

"Rowan."

"I assessed your financial situation incorrectly for two months."

"You assessed my traveling financial situation."

"That’s the same."

"It really isn’t."

He looked at her.

She looked back.

Something genuine in both their expressions beneath the argument.

The kind that came from people who had survived things together and were still figuring out what that meant in a normal world.

Then Rowan said:

"Congratulations."

Simply.

Quietly.

The way he said things when they actually mattered.

Seraphina met his eyes.

"Obviously."

She said,

But softer.

He almost smiled.

Almost.

Then Tax landed on her shoulder.

She turned her head.

The crow settled.

Looked at the room.

At the chaos still happening.

At Kael standing beside her.

At all of it.

He said nothing immediately.

Which was its own kind of statement from Tax.

Seraphina looked at him.

He looked at the room.

"Tax."

"Hm."

"You’re quiet."

"I’m observing."

"You’re never just observing."

A pause.

"Today I am."

She studied him for a moment.

He didn’t look back.

Then she looked forward.

Filed it.

For later.

"ehehe."

The sound came small.

Quiet.

Almost private.

Not the big laugh.

Not the satisfied sound.

Just.

Present.

Just him.

Kael glanced at the crow.

Tax didn’t look at him.

Just watched the room.

Kael filed that too.

The hall was slowly settling.

Not calming.

Settling.

The way rooms settled after something significant happened and people were still deciding how to feel about it.

Seraphina’s mother appeared beside her.

Elena Valois.

Looking immaculate.

Looking like a woman who had accepted her daughter’s chaos as a permanent weather condition and dressed accordingly.

"Ahina."

"Yes."

Her mother looked at her.

Then at Kael.

Then back at her.

"We will discuss this later."

"Obviously."

"Properly."

"Obviously."

"With tea."

"Obviously."

Her mother’s expression did the complicated thing.

The thing that appeared when she was feeling something significant and expressing it through logistics.

Her hand moved to Seraphina’s back briefly.

One moment.

Gone.

Then she walked forward to manage the room.

Because someone had to.

And Elena Valois had always been the person who managed things quietly while everyone else created chaos.

Lord Valois appeared beside Kael.

He looked at him for a long moment.

The particular look of a father evaluating something important.