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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Sunshine Tactics
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“N-Nanny!”
“Yes, should I send another letter?”
After exchanging letters all day today, the words “send another one” slipped out of Nanny’s mouth automatically.
But that wasn’t what I meant this time!
“We need to drink a toast!”
“Pardon?”
“Nanny, quick, a big glass of orange juice!”
“Pardon?”
My persistence had triumphed over Crown Prince Luciano’s stubbornness!
I’d beaten the male lead!
I had no idea why he’d suddenly changed his mind after agonizing over it for half a day, but I decided to bask in the happiness first.
Nanny, momentarily bewildered by my antics, hurried out and brought back a glass of orange juice.
I downed it in one gulp and boasted about my joy.
“I finally got permission! I can go tomorrow!”
“Oh my, really? Congratulations!”
“A victory for my tenacity!”
“Indeed. Our young lady is quite stubborn.”
“...Nanny, that’s a compliment, right?”
“Of course. It’s a compliment.”
Just looking at Nanny’s kindly smiling face made it feel like she truly meant it.
‘But why does it feel off?’
Before my thoughts could deepen, Nanny asked a question.
“He refused so firmly, but you got permission in the end. How did you convince him?”
“No clue.”
I really had no idea. Did he just get fed up with my stubbornness?
‘...Isn’t that kind of bad?’
“Young lady, does the reason matter? What matters is that you got permission.”
“Right! Getting permission is what counts!”
Once again, my nagging doubts vanished at Nanny’s words.
‘Well, maybe I got a protagonist buff or something.’
As Nanny said, the fact that I’d gotten permission was the most important thing.
I decided to savor finally having a connection with the male lead.
* * *
“Hello, Crown Prince Luciano.”
I flashed the brightest smile I could muster again.
Crown Prince Luciano’s face was cold, not exactly welcoming.
But since I had permission this time, I brimmed with confident assurance that he wouldn’t chase me away, and a smile came naturally.
As he stared at me, Crown Prince Luciano finally spoke.
“You...”
“Please call me Espin casually, Your Highness.”
He seemed awkward about the form of address, so I quickly told him.
He looked at me again with that subtle, puzzled gaze and asked,
“Have you ever been told you’re a bit... lacking somewhere?”
“...”
My ‘no-sense operation’ must have made me seem like some dimwit to Crown Prince Luciano.
As expected of the male lead—cold and utterly lacking in tact.
I couldn’t help feeling a surge of irritation.
But I held it back.
In novels, the heroine who was aloof and composed, or the sunny type, was the one who won love.
Since I couldn’t pull off aloof and composed, I had to push forward with brazen sunniness.
“No? I’ve heard I’m quite clever plenty of times.”
There, fall for my cheerfulness!
“Then why can’t you understand when people talk? Didn’t you make me repeat myself over and over?”
“...”
The male lead’s walls were sky-high. He didn’t melt easily.
How much more rejection was this going to take!
I swallowed my rising frustration again.
Fine, to befriend the male lead, I’d need even more sunshine.
That’s what it took to melt an icy male lead—the heroine’s warmth.
I steeled myself and threw my trump card.
“I understood. I understood, but I pretended not to because I wanted to see you, Your Highness.”
It was a straightforward, embarrassing ‘I wanted to see you!’ attack.
‘A line this direct has to stir something in you.’
I felt triumphant with that thought.
But Crown Prince Luciano’s reaction wasn’t what I’d expected.
No blushing face.
No averted gaze with ears turning red despite a blank expression.
Not even fidgeting fingers or any cute gestures.
Just.
“Why?”
He asked indifferently, staring straight at me.
His eyes, shining like polished glass beads, seemed filled only with questions about the situation.
I was shocked.
Normally, when the heroine said something like that, the male lead would be secretly thrilled inside, flustered and not knowing what to do, right?
If he just looked at me like I was some ordinary person, what did that make me!
“W-We’re supposed to get along!”
“So why should we get along?”
Ironclad. Completely ironclad!
Because you might be my man! I couldn’t say that without sounding insane, so I recycled what I’d told Imperial Consort Isabel before.
“I told you last time. I’m going to get along with everyone.”
As I poured out my passionate speech, Crown Prince Luciano’s expression turned even icier in an instant.
He hadn’t exactly welcomed me before, but now he looked like he wanted to throw me out.
“You can’t get along with everyone. Go befriend those who’ll accept you.”
With that, Crown Prince Luciano stood abruptly and left the drawing room.
‘What? Is that it?’
I sat there dazed for a moment before realizing he’d never intended to have a meal with me from the start.
I’d come hungry expecting to eat together, only to exchange a few words and get chased off.
The male lead’s walls were impossibly high.
* * *
But giving up wouldn’t make me the protagonist. Persistence was a virtue of the sunshine heroine too.
I didn’t abandon my sunshine tactics.
I brazenly sent another letter to Crown Prince Luciano.
This time, I threatened that I’d come anyway if he didn’t give permission, but there was no reply.
So I just went.
“Nice to see you again, Crown Prince Luciano.”
“What is it?”
Surprisingly, he didn’t turn me away at the door.
“Do people always need a reason to meet?”
“Only the idle say things like that.”
But he didn’t welcome me either.
He spat that out curtly and left the room again.
I was bewildered about where he was suddenly going.
Thinking he might have urgent business, I sat quietly and waited.
Only after a long wait did I realize he’d counted our brief exchange as our ‘meeting’.
I stomped home fuming once more.
And the next day, I wrote and sent a letter saying I’d visit again.
No reply again, and I barged into Crown Prince Luciano’s palace unannounced.
“Hello! Your Highness.”
“You never tire, do you.”
“How could I tire?”
“I’m tired.”
“...”
At my silence, Crown Prince Luciano stared at me briefly before leaving the room.
I waited a bit, but he didn’t return.
Realizing late that our meeting was over, I went home.
Crown Prince Luciano’s coldness sometimes brought waves of despair.
But I, the budding sunshine heroine, didn’t give up.
Like the protagonist of a new story, I bolstered my resolve with grit.
I kept visiting Crown Prince Luciano shamelessly without tiring.
Was my sunshine tactics finally starting to work?
He’d exchange a few words without sending me away immediately and stopped outright refusing my visits.
“Now that we’re familiar, can’t you at least offer me some tea?”
“Do you think this is a teahouse?”
Even if our conversations went like that.
I believed it was progress, one step closer.
“You’re here again?”
“We won’t get close if we don’t meet often, right?”
“Meeting often might make me dislike you.”
...We were getting along, right?
I wanted to believe my sunshine tactics were working. Time passed steadily like that.
* * *
“Nanny, this isn’t working.”
“Why? You stayed a bit longer today, didn’t you?”
“No. We barely exchanged four sentences total.”
“Oh dear, that’s serious.”
I was grave, but Nanny responded like it was no big deal.
I’d thought frequent visits would make Crown Prince Luciano warm up to me. But we still hadn’t had a proper conversation.
It was always just briefly seeing each other’s faces, tossing a couple of words, and parting—would this ever be okay? I worried.
“At this rate, when will we ever get close?”
“You’ll get close eventually.”
Nanny was wrong.
It had already been nearly a year since I started frequenting Crown Prince Luciano’s palace.
It had all been my one-sided visits, and his heart hadn’t budged an inch.
Our connection was so shallow that if he told me not to come anymore, I’d have a hard time visiting.
After all that effort, I hadn’t even gotten a single cup of tea— was that acceptable!
At this rate, the original heroine would appear before we even became friends!
My sunshine tactics weren’t working at all!
I was tired of lying to my parents that I was getting along great with Crown Prince Luciano so they wouldn’t worry.
“This won’t do. Isn’t there any way to get close to a friend?”
“You’re asking me, who’s old and hasn’t made a new friend in years, how to befriend someone?”
True, at Nanny’s age, making new friends was rare.
But.
“What can I do? I don’t have any friends myself.”
I’d been so focused on wooing Crown Prince Luciano that I had no time to make other friends.
Before I possessed this body, Espin had some friends she got along decently with.
But once word spread that I was constantly visiting Crown Prince Luciano’s palace, contact with them cut off completely.
And since I was busy going to him every day, I hadn’t maintained other friendships either, so somehow I’d become a loner.
I wasn’t the type to cling to friends, but it’d feel so unfair if I didn’t befriend Crown Prince Luciano now.
Seeing my sullen face, Nanny sighed and suggested,
“How about preparing a gift to bring?”
“A gift?”
“You’ve visited the prince’s palace so often, but you’ve always gone empty-handed.”
Come to think of it, I’d never brought a gift once.
Gifts aren’t mandatory when visiting someone, but after going that many times, I should’ve brought something at least once.
I gladly accepted Nanny’s advice.
“What gift would be good?”
“Well, something the prince likes... But you wouldn’t know that, would you, young lady?”
Nanny, aware of our situation, spoke plainly.
I was about to grumble that I’d have known if we’d talked properly, when an idea struck me.
“Nanny, I know exactly what to prepare.”
“Really?”
Nanny looked worried at my confident tone.
But I wasn’t anxious at all.
“Yes, I’m sure Crown Prince Luciano will love my gift!”
This was the transmigrator’s privilege!
I didn’t know what Crown Prince Luciano liked now, but I knew what he’d come to like in the future.
