Chapter 61: The Beginning of Deviation (1)
by AfuhfuihgsThe Beginning of Deviation (1)
I’m confused. Everything is confusing. It’s so confusing that if someone who loves chaos came, they would eagerly jump in.
With a hazy mind, I returned to my room after washing up and leaned back hard in my chair.
“How did it come to this?”
Something’s off. Something’s way too off. Elizabeth’s appearance was too shocking for me. When I first saw her, she seemed like the perfect example of a villainess, but now she looks nothing short of a loyal female knight.
“Something’s gone wrong.”
Moreover, her attitude towards me is problematic. She’s not just treating me as a duke’s daughter, but as the future empress. Oh my goodness, gracious me. There are things people should and shouldn’t say! What on earth did I just hear?
Empress, she calls me empress. She says I’m the one who will sit beside the future emperor. And she wants to pledge her loyalty by my side.
I’m not stupid, so I can roughly understand what this means. I guess she wants to become a guard knight or something like that. I don’t know when Elizabeth seriously started dreaming of becoming a knight, but dreams are precious, so I want to support her. Mm-hmm, this is sincere.
If only the target wasn’t me!
‘It would have been nice if it was Mari.’
If the object of that loyalty had been Mari, I would have gladly supported it. I’m not particularly good at swordsmanship or anything, so I can’t do anything special, but couldn’t I at least cheer her on from the sidelines?
Even in the original story, Mari wasn’t a character who was particularly good at physical activities. Of course, she’s not clumsy, but she seems to fall a bit short compared to the deliberately created martial artists. That’s why it would be reassuring to have someone protect her.
Originally, Reinhardt continuously took on that role, but if Elizabeth joined as a guard knight, it would be much more stable.
But that’s unlikely, damn it! For some reason, Elizabeth is showing genuine loyalty towards me, Reinhardt shows no signs of breaking off the engagement, and Mari’s favorability is surprisingly high.
This shouldn’t be happening. If things continue to flow like this… No, that’s not it, anyway, things could go very wrong.
Because of this messed-up development, Mari isn’t training properly and has probably become weaker than in the original story. In the original, she would have easily crushed Ariel, I mean me. No, is this because I rose to the top of the class?
“Huh?”
Wait a minute. Let’s think about this. Unlike the original, I rose to the top of the class. It’s something I wanted to some extent. There was also the issue of family reputation, so I did my best on the exams. I didn’t expect to be joint top with Mari, but I thought it was fine. Whether my grades were good or not, I just needed to play the role of Mari’s stepping stone well.
The problem is that either I’m not playing the stepping stone role properly, or Mari isn’t showing signs of growth. She keeps failing to surpass me, and Mari herself doesn’t seem to be showing much motivation.
“It wasn’t like this in the original…”
In the original, despite everything, Mari burned with undisguised fighting spirit towards Ariel. Partly because this is an academy, and partly because Mari herself had the courage to stand up against injustice, she gradually increased her resistance to Ariel’s bullying, and after a certain point, she even started fighting back openly.
Mari, who was so bold, shows no signs of that towards me. Perhaps because of that suspiciously high favorability, the current Mari might feel awkward when dealing with me, but I don’t feel any fighting spirit at all.
‘Is it okay to say fighting spirit for a girl?’
A sudden question popped up, but I don’t have the luxury to worry about such things now, so I let it pass. Phew, it might be better to think about this issue as a whole later. What I need now is just the image of a villainess. If I become the villainous Ariel, Mari’s personality won’t allow her to stay as she is now.
Villainess. What is a villainess? A bad and evil woman. In other words, I’ve decided to do bad things starting tomorrow. The pad jokes and mint chocolate were evil acts directly aimed at Mari. But what I’m going to do now is not targeting Mari. Strictly speaking, the target of this operation is my reputation.
Currently, my external evaluation is surprisingly good. I have eyes and ears. Both professors and students have surprisingly high evaluations of me.
At first, I thought it was just because my grades were high, but when I listened carefully, it’s quite a spectacle. There are full of strange rumors that would make listeners want to shoot them down with a shotgun, saying things like “Unlike the rumors, she doesn’t cause any trouble,” “She takes good care of others,” “It’s nice to see her taking care of each member of her faction,” and so on.
It’s all nonsense! Even if I haven’t caused trouble, what do they mean by taking good care of others? All I’ve done is answer questions and catch someone who was about to fall! Taking care of faction members is also an absurd statement.
Last time, after the shockingly unexpected meeting with Amy, I moved busily to create a faction. As a result, although not close friends, people I could talk to at the academy started to increase one by one.
Among them are Amy and Elizabeth, and Philadel who naturally joined in. And for some reason, there’s Vera Chermant who came in trembling, and various other people started gathering around me.
I heard that a faction isn’t like a guild where you apply and qualify, but rather it’s naturally recognized as a faction when people gather. That was close. I kept forgetting to ask Reinhardt about it! If I had really asked about this, I might have been laughed at as an ignorant woman!
‘No, come to think of it, wouldn’t that lower his favorability?’
Currently, Reinhardt’s favorability is estimated to be higher than 0 but lower than 50. You might think it’s surprisingly low for a fiancé, but that’s not the case at all. In the original story, Reinhardt’s favorability towards Ariel was in single digits from the start. It kept falling until it even went into the negative, they say. Although there’s no game system in this world, I remember it being written in the author’s afterword.
With such high favorability, shouldn’t I naturally try to lower it? Perhaps the perception of being a bone-headed woman might be the optimal choice for that.
Reinhardt values capable people. And naturally, he despises incapable ones. If I create an image of being an incompetent woman who acts cocky and shows off, Reinhardt will immediately start to despise me.
This weekend’s outing is the great first step to plummet my image. The thought that this is already the umpteenth “first step” briefly crosses my mind, but this time it will really be the last!
“Why do I have to worry about these things…”
Thinking about it, a sense of injustice welled up. Am I aiming for world domination or trying to take the protagonist’s place instead of Mari? Not at all! I just wanted to come to the academy, perform the role of a villainess, and live a decent life! So why is this happening? The world is being unfair to me!
Should I call this unfair treatment or excessive favoritism? Either way, from the receiving end, it’s frustratingly maddening. Why are you doing this to me? Are you crazy? I’m asking if you’re crazy!
With a sigh, I turned off the lights and collapsed onto the bed. I don’t know. Tomorrow’s me will figure out tomorrow’s problems.
And as soon as the next day came, I sincerely thought,
‘I’m going to kill yesterday’s me…’
As soon as morning came, the tasks I needed to solve came to mind, putting me in a foul mood. I need to lower Reinhardt’s favorability, lower Mari’s favorability, subtly guide any capable people among those gathered towards Mari, spread the image of a villainess in the academy…
There’s a mountain of work to do. Thinking about when I’ll finish all this makes my heart swell grandly. But don’t worry. Hands are faster than eyes… No, that’s not it!
With a sigh, as I waited at the promised place in front of the school gate, I suddenly felt miserable about my situation. I wanted to enjoy the weekend normally too… I wanted to enjoy tea parties with the attractive characters from the original story, laughing together, going out to play, and sometimes joining forces for adventures.
But reality is a cesspool. I’m not allowed such a role as the villainous Ariel. Sigh, what can I do? Anyway, I plan to return to my family and live peacefully after the original story ends. I’ll have to endure thinking about that time.
‘Well then… let’s think about today’s schedule once again.’
From now on, I need to move strictly according to calculations to create a villainous image. Mistakes are not allowed in this process.
“It should be here…”
As I rummaged through my pocket, today’s essential item, the map, greeted me. It’s an item that records the geography of this city in detail, and among the students at the academy, it’s considered a must-have item unless you never plan to go outside even once.
“Alright. Then the route…”
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
I quickly raised my head at the voice I heard just as I was about to review the plan once again. Finally arrived… Huh?
“Hello, Lady Walpurgis.”
I was sure I was supposed to meet only Elizabeth today. But…
“Lady Philadel?”
“Hehe.”
Seeing Arpi standing there with a smile, my mind went blank for a moment. Why are you here?
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