After taking a break from that little brat for a day, this mighty Lyra is ready to haul him!!

Since Dad's out in town instead of the castle, this time around, I'll be coming together with Mom.

Fufu, I can't imagine the look of fear in that brat's face when he's facing this mighty Lyra, mwahahahaa!!

W-wait, I sound totally like a villainess here!!

Am I that gifted to be a villainess...?

If this is an otome game, I will be the typical villainess who would hinder the heroine, yes?

Furthermore, my affinity matches, so...

Ah.

Nope, this is not the time to remember that thing with my affinity, yes!! I need to gather my mind to assault—I mean, to give a payback to the prince!

To be honest, I have imagined lots of ways to do so, but do I have the courage to act as I imagined, I wonder?

Please don't be frightened by my wild imagination of revenge.

I have read too many angst series in my past life, it seems.

Today, instead of wearing a dress and twin-tailing my hair, I am wearing a simple shirt combined with a short overall, and I only wear a hair pin. This is so I can move freely, anticipating the other day's antics. Besides, today... I will be going all out, for my payback!

Unlike yesterday where I had an audience with the royal family, today I will directly go to the brat---prince's side.

...Or so I thought.

But the prince is still missing in action after he ditched his private lesson this morning. So, I think I will try to look for him myself, as the maids are frantically looking for him.

I can think of a place. That's where we had our "strategy meeting". A secret, small space in the library that's enough for some kids to hide, but not for adult.

And there I found him, intensely reading some book.

"Why are you here, instead of having your private lesson?"

The little boy lifted his gaze from his book, showing that he is upset.

"Oh wait, you can read?!" I intentionally asked that before he can even respond.

"What are you, dumb? Of course, duh!"

"Heee—I didn't expect the boy who did those kinds of pranks and ditched the lessons to be civilized, my bad."

"...you...," he stood up and approached me.

Here it comes, Lyra!

Time to argue!

But then, he proceeded to pinch my cheek!

"Who are you? Are you an imposter? I don't remember having an underling with that kind of personality," he asked as he observed my face.

"Your hair is not twin-tailed and you wear something completely the opposite of what you wore the other day."

Whoa, this kid is sharp for his age! And here I thought he didn't pay me any attention! As expected of the prince!! Even when he seemed to be not paying attention, he actually remembered the details!

"Sooo, what is your objective? Show me your real identity!" He let go of my cheeks.

"How rude! I am Alrescha Lyra Hartmann, the real deal!!" I snapped and raised my voice.

"But your behavior is so different!"

I want to start lecturing him right away, but I need to scare him---uh, I mean, I need him to learn about the danger that can happen due to his pranks. Yes, baseless payback won't be good. I need to give him an educational payback, just in case the adults or the royal family asked me about it. So, I need to hold back a little and give him my payback in full afterwards.

"...I apologize, I didn't know what has gotten over me. Perhaps a stray ghost possessed me just now. So, what are we gonna do today?"

"Hmm, you need some exorcism? We can arrange that later. Anyway, today, the gardener has dug some holes to plant new trees, so I guess we can use that! It's gonna be exciting!"

...and dangerous.

Alright, perfect time to launch my educational payback!

"Andddd, done!! They really left this place alone, and focused on working the other area! They should have left someone to guard it, hehe!" The little prince grinned.

"So, we are done?"

"Yes~ Anyway, follow me!"

After preparing the trap with covering the holes with the leaves, the prince ordered me to follow him to get us a target.

Just right at that time...

I purposely placed my feet on the trap, causing the leaves to crumble along with my body. I lightly applied some of my mana to support my back so that the impact from falling won't hurt me that much.

Then, I also did some transformation and illusion~!

After making sure it's perfect, I yelled, "Ouch!"

...did that come out good? Did I properly let out a good yell, and not some weird high-pitched voice?

Oh well...

I can imagine him ridiculing me and saying something like, "What? Falling to our own prepared trap? What a stupid underling you are! Serves you right!"

Serves me right? Haha, yeah!

But, he must change his mind after seeing what I have in store for him!

I can hear the prince yelling in his irritation.

"Ugh, what is it this time, you little—wait, are you inside our trap?!"

He approached me...

"So, what kind of an idiot are yo—"

--and stopped talking.

Yup, I put up my illusion magic and made it as if my hand was bleeding. I took off my hair pin and used it to create the illusion of a nail.

The scenario is that, by chance, a nail was mixed into the soil and my hand got struck by it.

A very possible scenario to happen, right?

There is still a logic in my payback!

Oh yeah, right!

Time to act, again!

"It hurts..." I put up my agonizing face. I thought of the impact from the comet that killed me and that recollection made me able to put up a good act.

As a result, he's frozen up there.

Here, you're supposed to freak out and run away from the location. Any kid would react that way, right?

Afterwards, I'd say that I told the maids who patched me up that I got the wound from playing without paying any attention to my surroundings, so it will look as if he owes me one for covering him up~ and that should also teach him on how he should be more careful and consider the worst out of his action—a prank, on top of it.

That will teach him plenty of lesson.

Then, after that, I will give plenty of scolding to him.

Since he felt guilty, he wouldn't be able to argue back that much, haha!

I have secured my absolute chance to lecture him!

"Stay right there!"

Yes, scream and run away--

...Huh?!

Did I hear that right?

...What the hell is going to happen? I think this has deviated from the scenario that I've come up with in my mind...