Chapter 21
"Good day, My Lady."
A greeting thrown with a sly tone.
I hide Regia, trembling with fear, behind my back. In front of me, the blue-haired villain young lady comes into view.
I draw a relaxed eye-smile.
"It's an honor to meet you again like this."
"Ha."
Her mouth corners twist.
Emilia lets out an obvious sneer.
"To be hanging around with such a subpar coward... I guess birds of a feather flock together?"
"What delightful words."
"Which part?"
"If I'm someone who suits Miss Regia, it's a once-in-a-lifetime honor."
"Don't you mean a once-in-a-lifetime shame?"
"I suppose it differs for each person."
"Hmm."
Emilia taps her lips as if looking down on me.
Her characteristically rude smile stands out.
A strangely continuing confrontation.
The girl's blue eyes are full of vicious malice.
"To think I'm in the same class as a man like this. I feel like my level is dropping too."
"I'm also glad to have you as a classmate, Lady."
"How detestable."
The girl briefly clicks her tongue. It was a reaction tinged with contempt.
"Top student... I hope you don't misunderstand that it's really your place."
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"I must admit your shameless attitude at least."
"Hmm?"
"If Her Highness the Imperial Princess hadn't suddenly forfeited... you could never be in this position."
Is she unable to accept the results of the class assignment test?
It was a reaction I had somewhat expected.
While the faculty were watching the inside of the barrier through magic tools, the students weren't.
To their eyes, it must have looked like Charlotte went easy on me.
This was why I was still called a bubble top student.
Because I hadn't shown a convincing process.
In an academy gathered with proud geniuses, perhaps it was a natural reaction.
"It's not a place someone like you should be in."
"To think you'd say such disappointing words... I thought of you as a friendly rival."
"My, how unpleasant."
Emilia was the same.
She didn't acknowledge me. Or rather, I should say she couldn't acknowledge me.
"If you want to consider yourself my rival... shouldn't you at least have the skills to match?"
A poisonous glint settles in her blue eyes.
At a glance, it looks like she's angry at an undeserved result, but I knew the true nature of the emotion the girl was feeling.
What the girl was feeling was none other than...
'Inferiority.'
It was inferiority stemming from a need for recognition.
The type that excessively obsesses over others' gazes.
Such people often lose themselves blinded by jealousy, which then manifests in negative behaviors.
Emilia fell into exactly that case.
"Because of an obstacle like you... I can't believe I was pushed down to third place."
A vain person.
Vanity is the desire craving for recognition, and when others' attention is absent, it remains as a great pain.
In short, it was a disease carried in the heart.
"Lady."
There's a suitable method for dealing with such people.
"You are in a sufficiently excellent position, Lady."
It's to offer sincere encouragement.
Looking at her rude way of speaking, I wanted to hit her with an illusion magic right away, but considering it, she was a person with a hurt heart.
I didn't want to treat her too harshly.
"Huhu."
I smile sweetly.
Satisfying her need for recognition.
In the original work, she became twisted unable to control her thirst, but could it be different this time?
If I fill her deficiency.
"Isn't this a truly ridiculous situation?"
=I don't understand.
"Pardon?"
"After all... you're in 'third place', Lady. I don't think you're in a position to say anything to me, the top student."
=You're in third place too, Lady. You don't need to be jealous of the top student, it's a high rank.
"What did you say...?!"
Emilia's reaction comes back intensely.
It seems she was embarrassed by the praise. But I had no intention of letting her go.
This was bullying under the pretext of patting.
I'll lift her up so high she'll die of shame.
"It's alright. Isn't third place a decent grade? Although I'm at the top."
=It's okay. Third place is excellent too.
"Third place... Pfft, it's truly a position to be a model for students."
=You're someone who can be a model for students.
"Yet you're calling me a bubble top student? It makes me laugh."
=For you to see through the fact that I'm a bubble top student. I can't help but laugh at how clever you are.
"I expected more since you're the young lady of Duke Beniti... but seeing you, I can gauge the level of the Beniti family."
=Seeing such an excellent young lady, I can once again feel the prestige of the Beniti family.
By now, the girl's face had turned bright red.
Her slender shoulders twitch intermittently.
Did I praise her too embarrassingly?
Perhaps she was ashamed because other students were listening too.
"Hic."
For some reason, Regia standing behind starts hiccuping.
A gaze looking this way with a face turned pale.
Did some problem arise?
"How dare... how dare a lowly snake like you, to me, the young lady of Beniti...!"
"I merely stated facts."
"Don't make me laugh! Did you think you could get away with such an insult?!"
"Insult? This was the highest praise I could give you, Lady."
"Don't make me laugh!!"
The villainous young lady who had been trembling glared at me with wide eyes.
It seems she had crumbled under my splendid shower of praise.
How pleased must she be for even the corners of her mouth to be twitching?
She must be laughing uncontrollably.
As I stare at the girl with a pleased expression, soon an extremely excited voice comes back.
"We'll see how long that arrogant attitude lasts!"
"My~ I'm embarrassed that you'll watch me so actively, approaching like this."
"Ha."
As I smile awkwardly, the villain's gaze turns cold.
"You'd better be careful. Before I really crush you."
"How scary."
"You'll die at this rate."
Well, death, is it?
I have my own expertise in killing too...
"I look forward to it."
"I truly hope you will. So everyone can see your unsightly appearance."
Emilia turns her back, spitting out coldly.
The girl leaves the place, leading her followers.
'Did I shame her too much? The reaction is quite sharp.'
I think, watching the receding roll-shaped hair.
As I tilt my head like that, I feel numerous gazes following.
"Hmm?"
"......"
Students all with rabbit eyes.
Everyone was in a state of shock, holding their breath. Even Regia was showing a similar reaction.
"Why is everyone like this...?"
Did I perhaps do something wrong?
***
"Why is everyone like this...?"
As if the previously savage atmosphere was all a lie, the boy raises a question mark nonchalantly.
It was a point where his characteristic shamelessness was fully evident.
"......"
Regia blankly stares at such a boy.
Looking at the slit eyes smiling slyly, her heart frozen with tension gradually loosens.
The breath she had been trying hard to hold escapes.
Cold sweat that had formed on her forehead drops to the floor.
-What a fitting pair.
-One is a bubble top student... and the other is an outsider who doesn't know her place.
When Lady Beniti suddenly spoke to them, Regia felt her body freeze for a moment.
A feeling like her mind was bleached white.
Only a terrible trembling existed at her fingertips.
It was a kind of imprinted fear.
-You need to be aware of your place.
-This is a place for those who are qualified... not somewhere a mere commoner should aspire to.
It was just a few days ago.
The class assignment test where she was helplessly defeated. Just recalling that memory makes her shoulders shrink involuntarily.
-Leave, outsider.
Cold blue eyes.
The voice whispering articulately tramples on her heart. All those scenes were terribly vivid.
Perhaps that's why.
Regia couldn't help but be frightened.
As she receives the gaze full of contempt, her breath gradually becomes blocked. Her heart pounds as if it might burst.
Just as she was about to suffocate under the pressure like that, what saved the girl was...
-Shh.
Once again, it was the slit-eyed boy.
He hid Regia, frozen in panic, behind his back, then faced Lady Beniti alone.
-It's a good day, Lady.
Snakers, a prestigious family with a long history and tradition.
There's no doubt about their position among the top in the empire, but even that becomes a speck of dust before a duke's family.
It's the limit set by birth.
Normally, it would be natural to not even make eye contact.
But Yuda willingly stepped forward.
He received the villainous young lady's malice-filled provocation, even engaging in a tense battle of nerves.
-You'd better be careful. Before I really crush you.
-How scary.
-You'll die at this rate.
-I look forward to it.
It was not at all a beneficial action.
The opponent was none other than the eldest daughter of the family considered the highest in the empire. It was clear that nothing good would come from getting on her bad side.
Nevertheless, the boy continued to protect Regia.
'Why on earth.'
A self-mutter that naturally repeats.
Actually, this wasn't the first time.
It was a question that kept arising every moment spent with the boy.
'Why does he go this far for me?'
It had been like that since their first meeting.
An attitude so favorable it was hard to understand.
The boy took care of Regia every time.
Especially a few days ago, on a rainy day, he even came to find her with an umbrella.
The words she heard then were still clear.
-What do you think, Miss Regia?
-Will you allow me to come close?
He was a person she absolutely couldn't understand.
She wanted to ask.
What on earth he was doing this for.
Why was he being so kind to her weak and unsightly self?
"Miss Regia?"
"...Ah, yes. Young Master."
As she's lost in complex thoughts, the boy taps her shoulder.
He smiles brightly and says.
"It seems we've been delayed a bit... Shall we go back now?"
"Yes, yes...!"
Regia belatedly comes to her senses and nods.
They turn their steps back towards the carriage stop.
As she takes a step like that, something gently pats her head.
"Uh... Y-Young Master?"
It was none other than Yuda.
He had his usual playful smiling expression.
"You don't need to be afraid."
"Pardon...?"
"I mean Lady Beniti. You seemed to be worrying since earlier."
"Ah."
Was it that obvious?
Regia hurriedly gathered her stiffened expression. She felt heat rising to her face.
Then his voice is heard.
"If anything happens, I'll protect you. So don't worry too much."
"......"
"Because we're friends."
Pat pat-.
A warmth especially tinged with affection.
Her head moves following the patting hand. An unknown ticklish feeling lingers in her chest.
Was it because of the unfamiliar word 'friend'?
"...Thank you."
Regia ended up averting her gaze slightly.
'He's really an incomprehensible person.'
A low murmur in her heart.
The girl organized her tangled thoughts and moved her steps towards the stop.
***
Meanwhile, in an alley near the dormitory building.
There was a girl venting her anger on an innocent wall.
Kwak-!
A fist strongly strikes the hard wall surface.
A numb pain remains behind the rough impact sound.
Yet perhaps still not vented enough, the blue-haired girl extended her fist several more times.
Puk, tuk-!
"How dare...! A mere bubble top student!"
Her eyes are full of a poisonous light.
Though her knuckles were now torn and bleeding, the girl roughly grit her teeth.
"A lowly snake! To dare... to the noble blood of Beniti...!"
The detestable slit eyes flicker.
She chews on the mockeries remaining in her ears. Her pupils were glistening with hatred.
-Third place... Pfft, it's truly a position to be a model for students.
-I expected more since you're the young lady of Duke Beniti... but seeing you, I can gauge the level of the Beniti family.
Crunch-.
Her teeth grind.
Yuda Snakers. The one she calls a bubble top student.
The insulting words she heard from an opponent she had looked down on stabbed more sharply than any dagger.
The girl recalls.
-I look forward to it.
The boy smiled ominously.
She wanted to tear apart that pale face right away.
"You may be so high and mighty now... but let's see how long it lasts."
There's killing intent in her muttering voice.
The girl had no intention of letting this situation slide. She was determined to set things right.
She would definitely pull him down to the ground.
"A duel... I wonder if a mere husk like him will be able to accept it."
Muttering a vicious sneer, the girl moved her steps.