Surviving as a Villain at the Academy

10 – Dance With the Fairies (2)

To carry out the plan of feeding Ruslan the fairy fruit, several procedures were necessary.

The very first, most important task was to find the place where the fairies were confined – in other words, the secret garden. Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact location of the secret garden.

A decade had passed, and on top of that the biggest issue was that when I was writing the novel, I had vaguely set the location of the secret garden as somewhere near the magical studies department library.

In other words, before giving Asti the task, I would have to ransack all over the magical studies department.

It gave me a headache, but I couldn’t help it.

It definitely wouldn’t be easy to find, but having gained the magic eyes to see the flow of magic power after receiving some of Asti’s power, the possibility I could find it more smoothly than expected also existed.

But on the flip side, even with the magic eyes, there was also the chance it would still be hard to find. The fairies confined in the secret garden were unimaginably mischievous, so they had concealed it very thoroughly – to the point ordinary magicians wouldn’t dare try finding it.

Wait a moment.

Asti isn’t an ordinary magician, is she?

Maybe I can just get Asti to do it.

I worried needlessly. It feels like I just wasted time. Asti could surely find even concealed traces of fairies.

I just have to give orders. That there’s a place near the magical studies department with fairies hidden in it, and to open a rift there.

Then while Asti opens the rift, I provoke Ruslan’s group and lead them in there.

It was simpler than I thought.

The problem was, as expected… how to provoke them.

First, let’s try thinking about it a bit.

While Asti rolled around on the bed in the room next to mine, sleeping, I spent the entire day pondering on the method, but I couldn’t come up with a suitable one.

But I couldn’t come up with a suitable method. Just how was I supposed to provoke them? I couldn’t provoke them like some punk.

Because my father had sternly ordered me to not cause any more disturbances at the academy. The greatest power I had to spin this story was the power of the Rancels, but if I lost that power of the Rancels, the plans I could make would be restricted just as much.

Provoke them without causing disturbances? Just how?

When I couldn’t come up with an answer no matter how hard I racked my brain, I heaved a sigh. Right. They’ll do something anyway. Ruslan had already been glaring at me, so something was bound to happen in the upcoming fencing class.

I just had to aggravate him more then.

…That’s what I thought. But as always, the situation went beyond my expectations.

All the time I had tied my head in knots thinking became completely useless the next day.

Why? Because they came to pick a fight with me first. I thought Ruslan would give me trouble during fencing class, but what’s this? Surprisingly, the one who blatantly picked a fight wasn’t Ruslan.

It was Arias.

*

Maybe due to the shock from yesterday. Arias’s mind was muddled.

Those indifferent, glass bead-like eyes of Frau’s. His eyes which she had thought would glimmer with deep desire and obsession had instead looked at her with indifference.

The reason Arias’s mind was chaotic wasn’t due to anything else. It was because of Frau’s attitude of looking at her completely as a stranger.

Why. She recited.

If he had thought of her enough to try raping her, unable to suppress that desire, what did that indifference even mean?

It’ll be fine. His words to Ruslan back then suddenly came to mind.

Would it be fine? Ridiculous. Rather, his indifference only tore open the wounds she had wider. So she couldn’t be fine.

A presence as natural as breathing had suddenly emptied from her life completely. Arias simply couldn’t accept that fact. She couldn’t accept that the friend who had always helped her, watched over her side, would now never return.

Why did it become like this?

And why had he suddenly shown her an indifferent attitude?

She couldn’t even properly feel the subtle favor headed toward Ruslan. What filled her head now wasn’t the target of that favor, Ruslan, but Frau, who had committed sin against her.

Frau, Frau, Frau. The boy who had always promised to be by her side.

The boy who had cried and laughed with her ever since they were young children, who had shared all the memories of her childhood.

She couldn’t accept the fact that the boy might be gone for good.

At first she had thought it would be fine. Ruslan was there, Johan was there, Diana was there. She thought it would be enough if she built new memories.

But the moment Frau’s sunshine-like eyes had seemed like glass beads, she realized something had gone terribly wrong.

Moreover, she came to the conclusion that there was nothing that could fill the hole in her chest.

It couldn’t be undone. Since Frau had tried to r*pe her first, their relationship had deteriorated beyond recovery.

No matter how many new memories she built up, the happy memories that had always been in a corner of her heart would definitely appear before her in a twisted form.

She had to bury them. Arias constantly recited. Only then could she move forward.

But spitefully.

She, who had desperately tried to shove away any thoughts related to Frau amidst her agony, could only stare blankly at the unexpected sight she saw the next day at the rowdy academy gates.

Because… Frau, who had tormented her all throughout last night, was getting off the Rancel family carriage, escorting some girl.

And that girl was someone she knew very well. Asti, the timid girl who didn’t get along well with others.

Why was she getting off the Rancel family carriage?

Also, why was Frau escorting her with a smile on his lips?

She felt her hands trembling. Because there was one thing she had suddenly realized.

Perhaps the reason Frau had looked at her with indifferent eyes yesterday was because someone else had already wedged their way into his heart.

Frau had definitely committed sin against her.

But that didn’t mean Arias was without fault either.

She hadn’t clearly cut off her relationship with Frau. Despite knowing his feelings, she had subtly given him latitude, trying to keep him by her side.

Because she needed him. If Arias had truly considered Frau’s feelings, she should have made it so he didn’t harbor lingering attachment for her.

But she had unknowingly bound him. Using the oath Frau had made in their childhood as justification, she had told him countless times he would always remain as her friend.

And foolishly, he had continued watching over Arias’s side. Without even realizing his heart was rotting away. In the end, the inescapable desire had urged him to make the wrong choice, leading to this ruin.

In that situation, it was only natural for Frau to discard every shred of lingering attachment for her.

The indifference stemming from his eyes practically meant he would no longer keep her in his world.

Arias felt like her heart was being torn to shreds. For the smiles that had always been directed solely at her to turn to another, it was far too painful for her to endure.

Arias’s gaze headed toward Asti, huddled up from the gazes around her.

She couldn’t understand her accepting Frau’s favor despite knowing what he had done to Arias, and her shy smile only felt disgusting to her. It was as if everything was Asti’s fault.

It was a ridiculous, contradictory thought, but she felt it slowly crawling up.

That place beside Frau was originally mine. Not as a lover, but he was supposed to always remain as my friend. Our always stable, peaceful daily life would have continued.

The possibility that if Asti didn’t exist, Frau would have reacted to her differently stirred up Arias’s impulses.

Amidst the precarious tug-of-war in her heart, Arias’s gaze met Asti’s red eyes.

The red eyes harbored a strange ridicule.

‘This girl, she was originally yours to begin with.’

As if saying that, Arias could no longer endure it and shifted her feet to step forth before them.

*

Before me, Arias looked at me with a very fierce, raised gaze.

“Great job, Frau Rancel. To set your sights on a new target after doing that to me.”

An icy voice pierces my lungs. A chill settles around us.

It’s good I don’t even need to provoke them… but why? This scene didn’t exist in the original work. Where did it go differently? After the attempted r*pe incident, Arias had completely responded indifferently to Frau, only getting caught up in Asti and Frau’s schemes.

Now that I had intervened in the storyline, now that I had gained the upper hand over Asti in our contract, hoping everything would flow the same as the original work was foolish. So I had been looking for ways to strengthen the protagonists to fit the original storyline as much as possible.

But… this situation was unexpected. Since even I couldn’t have imagined Arias picking a fight with Frau at the academy gates.

Anyway, now that the situation had become like this, I figured it would be best to amplify her hostility toward me even more. The more hostility she held toward me, the faster her growth would accelerate.

“What does it have to do with you?”

Did she expect me to speak in such a voice? Even I was startled by the utterly emotionless voice, making Arias’s body flinch violently.