On a wooden floor there can be heard the sounds of a sack being dragged. The sack isn’t something an average person would consider to be a big sack, but it is certainly too big for the one dragging it.

Even so, the person doesn’t intend to give up.

With determination the small petite hands grasp onto the sack and drag on.

Creak.

The sound of a door opening.

Fwop! The sack falls over as the small figure suddenly lets go of it with a jolt, thus revealing its contents - fertiliser.

“So this is where you were, Miss!”

Slowly the small Miss turns around and faces the maid in the doorway.

“Um, hi, Nina.”

“Don’t ‘hi me’, Miss! You know you shouldn’t be here! The Mistress is NOT going to be happy to hear of this!”

The maid puts her hands on her waist in a huff. The little Miss, not knowing how to answer, just awkwardly laughs.

***

“Again!”

In front the little girl stands a woman whose light brown hair and light green eyes seem to resemble hers. The woman’s demeanour, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. The woman angrily grips her fan with both hands as the little girl, already aware of the incoming lecture, shrinks back into the big armchair she’s seated in, making her look even smaller.

“When will you start acting like a proper lady?!” The woman’s right hand unconsciously shakes the closed fan out of irritation.

With a pouty face, the little girl asks her, “But why can’t a lady do some gardening?”

“You...” The woman sighs exasperatedly, “Growing a flower garden is gardening. Growing potatoes, pumpkins and other crops is farming and farming DEFINITELY isn’t something a noble lady does. Why can’t you be satisfied with growing a beautiful flower garden if you want to grow plants so much?”

“But crops also flower!”

“This again! How many times do we have to argue about this, Lata?! Crops that flower are NOT flowers! And- never mind.” The woman stops mid-sentence, opens her fan and starts fanning herself in an attempt to calm herself, “Two months of additional etiquette lessons for you. Starting tomorrow. Go to your room.”

“Yes, mother...”

The girl, Lata, sighs in resignation as she slips off the armchair, clearly used to this punishment.

***

Lata, after closing the door to her room, walks straight to her bed and falls head first into it.

She lets out a deep sigh.

“Being a noble is a real pain. I really miss my previous life...” she mumbles to herself.

Lata rolls onto her back and gazes at the canopy above her head.

“Why did I have to be reborn as Lady Lata? Being a farm girl was so much enjoyable! I could do actual hard labour and raise crops and animals, go out whenever I want to, no endless tea parties and etiquette lessons... Even if I raise flowers like my mother wants me to, it isn’t the same...”

“Aaaaah,” Lata closes her eyes, “if I could at least grow SOME crops I might be able to somewhat tolerate this life... Being able to eat the produce you grew yourself is the best thing, so if I could at least do that... Oh, who am I kidding, I still wouldn’t really be able to stand this life...”

She sighs again as she closes her eyes.

‘I honestly don’t know how I ended up being reborn as Lata, a villainess' sidekick from the last book I read before death.’

’In the book, Lata was from a lesser noble house but very ambitious. She wasn’t fine with settling for a comfy life at her current status, she wanted to have a lot more wealth and power. Especially power. But knowing her status, she knew it would be hard to attain her desires unless she attached herself to someone higher up. Enter Janthe.’

’Janthe was the Duke’s daughter and very popular among the nobles, making her the most likely candidate to marry the Crown Prince. Naturally, Lata decided to stick like glue to Janthe - being close to the future Queen definitely would have its perks and open a lot of doors to her.’

’It all went swimmingly for Lata’s life until Madelief, the heroine of the story appeared. Lata couldn’t stand seeing the heroine - who is an even lesser noble than herself - get close to the Crown Prince.’

‘And once she saw that Janthe was getting clearly jealous as well, she decided to use Janthe’s jealousy as an excuse to bully Madelief. She even egged Janthe to do the same - which wasn’t hard for her to do at all, since Janthe had only ever shown complete and utter distaste towards the heroine whenever they interacted.’

‘Lata had hoped that the bullying would make the naive and cowardly Madelief step back from social life and the Crown Prince. But to her utter astonishment, Madelief started to get less and less afraid as time went on and even started to fight back against the bullying! Her relationship with the Crown Prince got stronger as well, finally resulting in…’

‘Lata and Janthe being put on trial for bullying and harassing the fiancee of the Crown Prince!’

‘Lata knew that, due to not having much status, she would suffer grave consequences if she admitted to doing anything out of her own free will, so she decided to lay all the blame on Janthe. She told the court that Janthe threatened her to do all those horrible things to Madelief. Janthe, naturally, was furious and protested, but the court was more inclined to believe Lata as her and Janthe’s statuses were truly very different and they had heard how Janthe’s demeanour had changed since Madelief entered the scene.’

‘Thus they decided not to give Lata capital punishment, but she still didn’t get away scot-free due to still being an accessory in the bullying of a future royal family member, so she was stripped of her noble title and was banished to the countryside.’

‘This completely devastated Lata, but alas, she couldn’t do anything against that and she soon lost any of her importance to the plot as well.’

‘Meanwhile Janthe didn’t receive such a harsh punishment, despite being labelled as the sole mastermind behind the bullying. Her status as the Duke’s daughter protected her and since Madelief still wasn’t officially part of the royal family, the court reasoned that they could simply punish Janthe with a house arrest.’

‘That frustrated readers a lot... or at least it frustrated me when I was still in my original body.’

”...”

“Original body, huh.”

‘When I first realised that I was reborn as Lata, I had decided to just keep clear of Janthe and simply live out my life as a lesser noble in peace while completely ignoring the book’s plot.’

”...But the problem is that this life doesn’t fit me at all!”

“I can’t stand NOT being able to take care of crops and animals! I just want to get my hands dirty and plant a bunch of potatoes! Raise a bunch of chickens and an annoying rooster that constantly goes ‘kikkerikii’ at the most unholy hours of the night! I just want to go to the sauna after a hard day’s work!”

“Yet my current life situation is the complete opposite of my wishes...” Lata sighs a deep sigh before suddenly sitting up.

“Wait. In the book, Lata was stripped of her noble status and exiled to the countryside. To. THE. COUNTRYSIDE!”

A big smile forms on Lata's face. "If I follow the plot of the book, I'll be able to escape this life and farm to my heart's content! I just need to stick super close to Janthe and be a big bully and I'll get my happy end!"

Lata flops down and giddily rolls around on her bed.

"Once I attend my debut ball and meet Janthe I'll be able to escape this! I can't wait!"