"Your Grace, would you care to dance one song with me?"
Gasps could be heard from all around. Warren raised his eyes, which had been fixed on the floor, and looked straight at Cia.
His gaze was as sharp as shattered glass. Up close, his eyelashes surrounding his black eyes seemed as long as her own.
"I'm sorry, but I must politely decline."
'That did happen.'
Cia recalled the past—or rather, from the current timeline, the recent past—and struggled to cool her burning face.
'It was just one dance, no big deal... Why was I so worked up over a single dance?'
It was probably due to her arrogance—'Even the Duke Tenneris, whom everyone fears, will obey this princess.' She'd also wanted the attention that had been focused on her brother to return to her.
But the Duke was just as stubborn as Cia. Despite the kingdom's unspoken etiquette and Cia's strong insistence, he repeatedly refused with various excuses—his foot hurt and so on.
'But you walked in here just fine a moment ago.'
'It's fine when walking, but the pain worsens with quick movement.'
'I'll ask the orchestra for a slow piece, so you won't need to move quickly.'
'Hmm, the standard for slow and fast varies from person to person, doesn't it?'
Only after the prince himself stepped in and asked him to grant his sister's request for his sake did Warren reluctantly make his way to the floor.
After rolling her eyes for a while, Cia tried to break the awkward silence by bringing up information she'd heard that day.
"Has your foot fully recovered, Duke?"
"Yes, thanks to Your Highness."
It was only after seeing Warren smile a similar smile again that Cia realized her words must have sounded like mockery.
'How many times did I step on the Duke's foot that day?'
Since she'd practiced dance extra hard for the ball, it was by no means a mistake.
She'd done it deliberately because she was annoyed that he kept refusing her requests but complied as soon as Prince Philost said something.
'And throughout the dance, he acted as if I were some filthy object.'
There were a few nobles who barely managed to hold back their laughter. When Cia and Warren sent them cold looks, they pretended innocence and turned their heads away.
Both of them—he who danced with his hands practically in the air to avoid touching her as much as possible, and she who obstinately danced with him until the very last bar—must have been quite a sight.
'Anyway, he has severe mysophobia.'
It seemed that hadn't changed at all.
He kept giving her dress collar an intense stare, and when she looked down, there was a tiny cookie crumb stuck there. As soon as she quickly brushed it off, the persistent gaze moved away.
"I'm glad to hear you've recovered."
Though she had stepped on his foot a few times... she remembered he had agilely dodged almost all of her attempts.
'I almost wished him a nimble evening instead of a good one.'
She consoled herself that if he could dodge that well, he probably hadn't been in too much pain because of her.
Warren, who had erased his mocking smile and returned to a blank expression, was the first to get to the point.
"What brings such a noble person to this humble place—pardon me, that came out wrong."
That slip of the tongue was clearly intentional! Cia stared at the Duke, who was shaking his head, and screamed internally.
"What brings a noble person like yourself to this humble place?"
"...Ah, well."
Cia first calmed her anger and opened her mouth. She already knew from the butler's apologetic expression that she didn't have much time to face the Duke.
"Since time is short, I'd appreciate it if you could speak directly without pleasantries."
"Oh, yes."
He's really so rigid. Who does he think has all the time in the world?
...Cia, who had an extremely low chance of succeeding to the throne, actually did have plenty of time.
But today was a day to appease him. She took a small breath and opened her mouth in the gentlest tone she could manage.
"Have you ever thought about wanting to cure your mysophobia?"
One of his thick eyebrows rose high.
<SYSTEM: The real-time destruction probability of the First World is 98.0%.>
Cia inwardly cheered at seeing the indicator in the status window go down.
'Just as I thought!'
What she'd learned on Earth was that mysophobics suffered from chronic stress.
If the Duke's mysophobia could be even slightly alleviated so he could live his daily life with a more comfortable mind, she guessed the probability of world destruction might also decrease.
'There's no psychiatry or antidepressants in this world either.'
But Cia had psychiatric knowledge gained from the Second World. Coincidentally, her guardian at the time was a professor in both psychiatry and cognitive neuroscience.
He was a world-renowned scholar who had even secured public recognition through popular books like "Neuroscience for Comfort" and "For Burnout, a Period, Not a Comma."
"I have some good information that only I know—"
Just as she was about to explain more enthusiastically, the Duke abruptly turned around.
"I have no interest in such talk."
"Pardon?"
"If there's nothing more to say, I'll take my leave."
"Wait, you haven't even heard me out, so why—"
The Duke silently pointed to one wall.
「No Peddlers or Charlatans Allowed」
There hung a frame that, due to its cursive script, she'd thought was just a beautiful calligraphy piece and hadn't properly read. Even after silently mouthing the words several times, she couldn't believe this situation and looked back at the Duke.
"Surely you don't see me as a con artist?"
But Duke Warren Tenneris had already left the reception room long ago.
Knowing he couldn't hear her, Cia still couldn't contain her anger and stomped her foot.
"Hey, Duke! We still have 12 minutes left in our appointment!"
As if mocking her, the status window's number rose back to the value it had before she arrived.
<SYSTEM: The real-time destruction probability of the First World is 99.0%.>
Unlike the slow descent, the increase was steep.
"See, I told you we should have just gone back, Your Highness. They say there's a ghost dog in that mansion too."
Whether Janet muttered timidly throughout the ride back or not, Cia stared out the window, deep in thought.
'How can I get that Duke to accept treatment?'
She'd thought that since he was a severe mysophobe who'd never met a decent doctor, he'd welcome her with open arms when she said she knew a treatment method. It was a miscalculation.
'Since I just need to prevent the world's destruction, wouldn't it be better to quietly eliminate him without anyone knowing?'
She'd entertained this thought because she was annoyed at the Duke Tenneris who'd disappeared without even giving her five minutes, but assassinating him seemed difficult for her, who had neither magic nor combat skills.
Nothing for it—she'd have to stick to the original plan.
"Janet, how can I seduce the Duke?"
"S-seduce? Duke Tenneris?"
"No, not in that sense. I meant, how can I get him to let me treat his mysophobia?"
"Oh, I see... Wait, why? Just let him live as cleanly as he wants!"
Cia turned her gaze back out the window. She too wanted to just leave Warren alone to live cleanly and confidently.
"...I wish I could."
With the phrase "99% destruction probability" floating before her eyes, it was rather difficult.
"Sometimes, for the sake of the world, you have to do things you don't want to do."
"Pardon?"
"...Never mind. You wouldn't understand even if I explained."
Janet tilted her head, then interpreted Cia's words in her own way and made a sympathetic expression.
"Your Highness, the world is wide and there are many men."
"Huh?"
"Rather than trying to change a problematic person through the power of love among the many marriage candidates—"
"That's not what I meant!"
Cia swiftly snatched the cookie from Janet's hand. It was no use for Janet to make a tearful face, saying the Duke's butler had prepared it for her. It was punishment for speaking carelessly.
"Then why are you so fixated on Duke Tenneris—"
"F-fixated? Me, on the Duke?"
What on earth was lacking that she'd be interested in such a rude man!
Her temper flared for a moment, but seeing Janet's wide-eyed expression, she took several deep breaths.
'I suppose to outsiders who don't know the circumstances, I might look like a persistent woman who kept asking for a dance at the ball and then shortly after stormed into his mansion.'
And after requesting an audience out of nowhere, she'd suddenly started talking about curing mysophobia...
"...I didn't intend to be fixated or pushy, but do you think the Duke misunderstood my intentions?"
"Y-yes, that's very likely..."
"Those weren't my intentions at all."
To improve his mysophobia, she'd need to meet him quite a few times, and she felt troubled that things had gone wrong before they'd even begun.
"So you genuinely wanted to help the Duke with his mysophobia?"
"Yes. As I said before, I have information that only I know."
In Cia's second life, her guardian 'Professor Shin' had been quite a renowned expert in his research field.
'Cia, do you know how short-term memory converts to long-term memory? The human brain has a region called the hippocampus.'
'Our Cia, you must be very angry? In times like that, when the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex's activity decreases, it becomes difficult to make ideal judgments.'
It had often been annoying how he connected everything to his specialty, but thanks to that, she'd been able to learn the basics of psychiatry and neuroscience.
'If Professor Shin were here, he'd be diagnosing Duke Tenneris with sparkling eyes.'
He would have pestered him with questions about his childhood and asked to do brainwave tests.
Remembering her guardian from the Second World, Cia's dampened spirits lifted slightly. Enough to calmly answer Janet's suspicious question.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes, I am. Janet, even if the Duke won't believe me, won't you? I'm hurt."
"You would have needed to give me reason to trust you first—"
"Well, the past can't be helped. We should focus on what to do going forward."
Having deflected Janet's sharp remark, Cia began pondering what to do next.
'It seems Duke Tenneris already has a negative impression of me, doesn't it?'
'Trust between counselor and client is the most important thing of all.' Professor Shin had said. So she'd failed from the very first step.
'Even if I somehow earned his trust, as a non-professional, all I can do is use counseling techniques or give tips on mental health.'
Would she really be able to treat the Duke's mysophobia properly? The thought kept making her sigh.
'So why did they have to send me here and give me such a difficult mission?'
Of all the people, why me? If they wanted to stop Duke Tenneris, shouldn't they have chosen someone closer to him, or someone more capable than her?
As she groaned and glared outside the carriage, something caught Cia's eye. It was a modest building with colorful stained glass contrasting against a dazzlingly white wall.
"I'll stop by the chapel for a bit. Go on ahead."
She had the carriage stop abruptly and, before Janet could stop her, hopped out.
"The chapel? Why would you go there—"
"I need to meet God."
Had the Princess ever been so pious that she'd say such a thing?
Leaving Janet's bewildered face behind, Cia gazed at the brilliantly shining stained glass. It depicted the god who was said to have bestowed magic upon humans, 'Pyrphoros.'
When lost and confused in a tangled situation with no solution in sight, it was fastest to go meet the person in charge.
'Surely someone with self-awareness and transcendent power brought me here and gave me this mission.'
Perhaps she might be able to make contact with that 'someone' here. Probably the god who ruled this world, or some similar absolute being.
With a gambler's spirit, Cia threw open the chapel doors.
