Why Does This Keep Happening?! (3)

Life at the academy wasn’t really that different from school life in my previous life. I suppose schools and academies are both educational institutions, so there shouldn’t be much difference, but I didn’t expect it to be this similar.

If there’s one fortunate point, it’s that what I’m learning here isn’t compulsory education, but something I ‘chose’ to come for, so I’m somewhat motivated? And being able to immediately apply what I’ve learned and see my progress in real-time definitely keeps my enthusiasm from fading.

This is why I like magic as a discipline. I can immediately verify what I’ve learned. And when I focus, time just flies by, and it happens to match my talent, so what better study could there be?

If it weren’t for this, I would have gotten bored with academy life and played hooky or slept during class like in my previous life. Though I suppose doing that after coming all the way to the academy would be a bit much.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I listen to classes with a perfect attitude. My essence is still that of a villainess. During class time, I try my best to pretend I’m not paying attention while actually listening. There’s joy in increasing my knowledge, but that’s that and this is this.

By the way, I don’t even listen to the content during common subject hours. At first, I thought I’d give it a try, but when I actually listened, it was all content I already knew, so I lost interest. What I want is to learn things I don’t know, not mindlessly review content I already know.

Of course, occasionally there’s content I might have forgotten, making me think “Ah, that’s right!”, but I don’t want to waste my time for those few things. After all, I can recall them just by listening casually anyway.

“That’s all for today’s class. Good work, everyone.”

The common subject class ended. This unbearably boring time finally came to an end. I almost dozed off, but I managed to endure by using a mind-clearing magic I recently developed.

You might wonder why I need to endure when I’m not even listening to the class… But of course, I do. It’s okay to be distracted. It’s fine not to listen to the class at all. But a duke’s daughter can’t be seen sleeping with drool running down her face undignifiedly. That would bring shame to the family and be fatal to the villainess image I’m trying to create. It’s not like I’m trying to create a stupid image.

Anyway, the unbearably boring common class is over. So what’s left? That’s right. It’s lunchtime. The joyful lunchtime. It’s always a fun, anticipated, and happy time.

In the past, I would have gone alone or hesitantly sought out Reinhardt to go to the dining hall together. But that’s just the past. I’ve grown even more since then!

“Lady Walpurgis, if you don’t mind, would you like to have lunch with us today?”

Recently, more noble young ladies have been asking to eat together or have tea parties like this. I’m not stupid, so I know that these approaches are all part of political maneuvering. But for me, who’s trying to create a faction, this is a very good phenomenon.

The noble young ladies who approach are often from families I’ve heard of at least once. It seems that lesser-known families feel pressured and don’t dare to approach carelessly. This is a good thing for me. I said I’d create a faction, but if a duke’s daughter like me gathers insignificant members, it might disappear without a trace without having any particular influence.

The one who invites me the most is none other than Arphi Philadel. It seems she likes me in many ways, as she’s been trying to spend time together occasionally since our meeting that day. Since the Philadel Count family has a lot of influence in various ways, it doesn’t feel too strange for her to be with me, a duke’s daughter, and she’s actively approaching, so she’s currently the noble young lady I’m closest to.

However, the people approaching today were a bit different from usual.

I’ve learned to roughly gauge how noble someone is just by glancing at them… Analyzing roughly, they seem to be from viscount or count families. They seem a bit detached from usual. Seeing that there are only two of them, it’s clear they’re not usually proactive.

One girl has a plain image, as if she only maintains the minimum self-care as a noble, not particularly adorning herself, while the other girl is the complete opposite, adorning herself lavishly. It can only be described as a combination of extremes.

It wouldn’t matter if I ignored them. There were many noble young ladies right behind them waiting for a chance to approach. But…

“Alright. Then let’s go together.”

I accepted with an intentional smile. Normally, this group would be the right one to avoid. They don’t seem to have much of a voice, nor do they seem to be hidden power players. According to my experience in social life, these are the kind of group that would be buried without a trace if left alone.

But I deliberately mingled with them. Why? Nothing special. It’s just that I don’t particularly intend to grow my faction large.

At first glance, a faction that accepts anyone might seem easy to grow as people gather well, but that’s not actually the case. If you accept just anyone, it can lead to poor management, and strange people might get tangled up unnecessarily.

In other words, what I’m doing now is no different from intentionally ruining the faction. This isn’t just my opinion. In fact, at first, Arphi and a few others left advice-like comments saying that when making friends, you need to be selective.

But I decided to ignore all those words. After all, I’m a villainess. And I’m intentionally trying to ruin the faction. For that, I need to create an image of accepting anyone indiscriminately. That way, all sorts of riffraff will gather, muddying the waters. Was the word ‘riffraff’ too harsh? Let’s rephrase it. People who aren’t good for the water. Yeah, that sounds about right.

When we arrived at the dining hall, got our food, and sat down, gazes poured in from all directions. I’m used to such gazes now. Since I’m always the center of attention regardless of who I’m with, I was a bit surprised at first, but now, well, I just do what I need to do nonchalantly.

“By the way, you are…”

“Ah, excuse our rudeness.”

When I pointed out that they hadn’t even introduced themselves yet, they suddenly startled. Hmm, this is definitely a landmine. Not knowing such basic manners is certainly a big minus in noble society. But I don’t care. I’ll accept them all. I’m generous… No, that’s going too far.

The girl sitting directly across from me spoke first.

“I’m Amy. Amy Jernia.”

“…Pardon?”

Huh? Something’s strange. Wait a minute. Did I hear that wrong?

“Jernia… Could you be from the Jernia Marquis family…?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Why are you here?

Amy Jernia. The girl who was supposed to be Mari’s roommate originally. The nickname readers give her is ‘encyclopedia’. She literally knows everything. She has a setting of having accumulated knowledge by reading books since childhood, but I’m not sure if she’s a character the author created out of convenience or an intentional min-max character, but she really knows everything.

I’m not sure if she really knows everything, but at least in the story, she never says she doesn’t know or that she’ll look something up when asked a question. At most, she might think for a bit?

But the range of her knowledge is a bit excessive, from light topics like school studies to all sorts of magical knowledge, ancient literature, and even theoretically knowing about forbidden spells later on. It seems like she knows things she shouldn’t know, no matter how you look at it.

No, wait a minute. That’s not the important thing right now. Why is Amy appearing here of all places? Shouldn’t she be bonding with Mari, becoming best friends, and helping her out? Why is she coming to me?

“I’ve heard a lot about you from my father. They say the Jernia family is a repository of knowledge, and that’s not an exaggeration.”

“You flatter me. I just know what I know. Rather, isn’t it the Walpurgis family that has been maintaining the name of a magic noble family? That unchanging name that has been passed down through generations is already a part of history, and that’s not an exaggeration.”

[Not much is known about light attribute magic. But if you look at ancient literature, quite a few things come up. Among them, Mari, I think this is probably the most suitable for you. A spell formula that could heal people and give them strength with magic power alone.]

Although her tone was quite stiff, unlike how she spoke to Mari in the original story, seeing how her explanations gradually got longer, she was undoubtedly Amy Jernia.

“Why would Lady Jernia come to me…?”

This is honestly puzzling. Because it’s no exaggeration to say that the Jernia family is in charge of the empire’s brain. They don’t take sides with anyone and always maintain neutrality.

Knowledge is power, and in that aspect, the Jernia family has more power than anyone else in this empire. That’s why they always maintain neutrality and only actively use their brains for the imperial family. Even Amy herself mentioned in the original story that helping Mari was the first time she had done such a thing.

So why is she suddenly approaching me? I don’t understand.

When I pointed this out, Amy rather asked back as if she didn’t understand:

“What do you mean… Isn’t it natural since you’re going to be the future Crown Princess?”

Oh sh… What?