The Beloved Daughter of the Crime Family, Even After Reincarnation Became the Young Lady of a Gangst

Lover’s Strategy

As Francesca blinked confusedly, the ladies simply shrugged their shoulders.

“Arara, we got found out.”

(It really was a lie……..!?!!)

Francesca took a huge hit from the shock reveal as the ladies all smiled and said [Sorry!].

“After all, your father doesn’t even let us come close to him. If we can become friends with his daughter, maybe he’d show us a little more favour, or so we thought.”

“But but, it’s true when we said that you’re really cute Francesca. That wasn’t a lie okay? I even wished I had a younger sister like you even.”

Guess things really are never that easy, she thought. As if to protect Francesca who’s head was hung down, Leonardo caressed her head gently as he spoke.

“Seriously, my dear fiancée is a bit too pure. Since she was raised away from the usual tactics of the underworld, she’s unaware of such things.”

(Didn’t Leonardo say that I was a [member of the underworld to my very core] just a few months ago though!?)

Perhaps this too was part of the plan. After all, Francesca had come to this forest as nothing more than a [Selfish spoilt young lady here to play] after all, and she needed to act like one.

That’s why, as long as they don’t know where or who the killer is, she needed to continue to trick everyone that wasn’t already her ally.

“Which is why, my dear ladies, won’t you kindly let go of my fiancée already?”

“Ehhh? But….”

One of the ladies feigned sadness, and tightly hugged Francesca even further. In that moment, Leonardo’s eyes narrowed and his tone turned lower as he continued.

“Even if it is a beautiful lady, I’d prefer to not see anyone other human other than myself touch her like that.”

“……….My, how sca~ry……..”

The ladies quickly scuttled away from Francesca but before leaving the room they waved their hands to say goodbye still.

“See ya, Francesca-chan.”

“Put in a good word for us with your dad okay?”

“Wha, Ah yes! Bye!”

Even if she wasn’t able to make them her friends, Francesca still replied back to them excitedly. Including her past life, she had lived surrounded by mostly men so even having people of the same gender interact with her kindly was a novel experience for her.

Sofia who sat opposite her simply giggled seeing that before speaking up again.

“I apologise on behalf of my proud little sisters of the house for their impoliteness. Aldini, why don’t you take a seat as well?”

“Of course, I’ll take you up on that offer. Well, then..”

Leonardo sat down on the left of the sofa, right beside Francesca. And while looking at her, he smiled as if gazing at something truly adorable.

“……..finally, I can be beside you again.”

(Ah! That’s right!)

Hearing the obviously flirtatious words, Francesca recalled their chat from before.

[In front of Ranieri, I think I’ll act like a love struck fiancé who’s smitten with you.]

[Eh?]

Along the way to this villa, as the noise of the cicadas echoed within the forest, Leonardo began to whisper that in Francesca’s ear.

[After all, I’m here “not as the Aldini head, but instead just as one of your friend from school” right?”

It was Leonardo said. The killer was hiding somewhere within this forest disguised as a guest. To catch him off guard and find his true identity, he needed to remain just a [guy going along with the whims of spoilt young lady].

[If I act as your lover rather than friend, it’d be more convincing as to why I was moving around on my own, and that my family wasn’t involved.]

[Would simply [To play along with a friend] not be convincing enough?]

[Hahaha, that would depend on the person’s own values I think. But normally speaking, lovers would make a lot more sense generally speaking.]

Since he gave such a detailed explanation, she ended up nodding and agreeing to his idea.

She barely understood what [Friends] were like, the word [Lovers] was even more foreign to her so she had no choice but to accept whatever Leonardo was saying as the truth.

“Leonardo.”

“Even when we were having fun beside the river, I couldn’t completely monopolize you after all. Of course, I do love how adorable you look when having fun with everyone but, part of me also wants to just forcefully keep you within my arms always as well.”

Leonardo’s finger gently stroked through Francesca’s hair, and then grabbed it with his thumb before leaning down and kissing it.

Looking up towards her into her eyes directly, he then showed a bright smile.

“………you always look cute from afar, but you’re even more cuter when I see you so close.”

“!”

This one wasn’t his usual calculative smile.

He was smiling, without any hint of malice, or any other secretive plot that he is usually hatching. Even though this was supposedly part of their plan as well, both his gaze and tone of voice were extremely sweet and gentle.

“Ahahaha! Now you’re just showing off!”

Sofia laughed as if amused greatly as she dropped her cigarette’s ashes into the ashtray.

“To think that our very own head of the Aldini family would actually find a girl he would get serious for. I always thought you were the overprotective type but, I guess the rumours of you simply being head over heels for her were actually true.”

“But of course. Francesca needn’t even ask. As long as I can stay by her side, I’ll go wherever she wishes to go.”

(Thank god. It seems Leonardo’s plan to look as just a simple companion going along with my wishes is working as intended.)

As long as his acting doesn’t drop, nobody will guess that Francesca and the others were actually here to [investigate and stop the assassination attempt].

“Right? Francesca?”

“EH!? Ah, yeah, Ummm……..”

Leonardo’s gaze was clearly telling her to [go along with his act]. She felt like he might be teasing her a bit as well but, Francesca had already resolved herself.