Chapter 13

Chapter : 13

Her tone was even.

Usually, when someone poured out a great many words at once, they spat them out like a machine gun. But Bishot spoke calmly, at the same pace as always.

Only her voice had changed.

Every time she forced out another word, her voice thickened.

Bishot was crying.

Was it ruby? Or sapphire? No, judging by the color, it must have been ruby.

Tears streamed steadily from those eyes that looked as though great gemstones had been set into them.

As if humiliated by that fact, Bishot bit down hard on her lip and wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

“Ha ha. This makes me realize once more how fortunate the Academy’s environment is. If we were not here, how could I ever pour out my grievances to you like this? I will say it again. I do not want to receive anything from you.”

I could not say a word.

I pressed my lips tightly together and cursed my own foolish judgment.

I should have foreseen that Bishot might explode at any moment, yet like an idiot, I had acted on nothing but faith in the original.

Bishot glared at me, waiting for my answer.

What was I supposed to say?

Even a fool like me knew that blurting out an apology here would only make things worse.

“If you have nothing more to say, then I shall take my leave. Rest well.”

Ah, this was driving me mad.

I wanted to cry too.

---

Most people entered the Academy in order to learn.

Their goal was to compete with other students, study new or more advanced disciplines, and grow stronger.

To that end, the Academy pressured its students and drove them forward.

A place of learning open to all.

That was the Academy’s founding ideal.

“Do you have a moment?”

The woman smiling brightly at me looked like a walking mockery of all such ideals. Her appearance and clothing were extravagantly flamboyant.

Her hair alone was enough to draw the eye, a bright golden blonde that seemed capable of reflecting the sun itself, and all over her ears, neck, and fingers hung one ornament after another.

It was the sort of appearance that practically screamed, “I have no interest in studying.”

That was Navier Loveone.

She was one of the villainesses of <Cinderella Rhapsody>, the third standard type of villainess in my sister’s personal canon.

My sister divided villainesses broadly into two categories.

One category consisted of protagonist-type villains.

In such cases, the character either remained a villain to the end, delivering satisfying retribution to those around them, or else reformed and provided vicarious satisfaction through the changed protagonist’s new reputation.

On the other hand, there was the flatter, more functional type of villain, the sort that existed as a device within the plot. Those were usually supporting characters or extras.

In other words, the kind of character whose whole job early on was to proclaim, “I am a bully,” torment the heroine, and create opportunities for the male leads to help her.

They were devices designed to make the male leads seem more likable to the readers.

And among those, there was also the scheming mastermind type, the kind who manipulated people like puppets in order to torment the heroine.

My sister, who always prided herself on setting trends rather than following them, had tried to introduce a new paradigm for villainesses in romance fantasy.

And astonishingly enough, she had fused the two types together.

She took the framework of a woman driven by the desire to rise above the station she was born into, someone who did her utmost to realize that ambition, and fused it with the role of tormenting the heroine, Bishot, as a plot device.

Navier Loveone used every means at her disposal to become Crown Princess.

One of those means was tormenting Bishot in order to drive her out of the Academy.

She insulted Bishot openly to her face, harassed her, and at the same time slyly damaged her reputation behind her back and manipulated events so that she would be isolated from her peers.

A villainess among villainesses.

“I asked whether you have a moment.”

Navier gave me a smile with all the force she could muster.

Three seconds decided a first impression.

A mere three seconds.

In that fleeting instant, one’s impression of another person was formed, and that impression would often continue to shape one’s judgment of them for a long time after.

Those were the most important three seconds in any human relationship.

Navier had trained herself ruthlessly in smiling with her eyes so that she could bewitch people within those three seconds. She had once claimed that performing that smile had been more painful than the starvation diet that gave her an eating disorder at fifteen.

To Navier Loveone, that eye-smile was nothing less than a finishing move.

So I ignored it.

In fact, seeing the hidden intention beneath it so clearly only sent a chill through me. My stomach turned, and the fine hairs on my skin stood up.

The root of all evil was pretending to be friendly with me.

It felt like being invited to a double suicide.

“Do not smile like that. It makes you look ugly.”

I wanted, at all costs, to avoid getting deeply entangled with her.

Just like me, she too met an ending worthy of a villainess. If the two of us were together, it would only be a negative added to a negative.

“What?”

Navier had been meticulously polished by her birth mother’s cold and exacting education until she was more carefully groomed than any other young lady, and she was obsessed with her appearance.

Her speech, her expression, her mannerisms were the basics, and she never chose even a single accessory carelessly. At every moment, from every angle, she had prepared herself to appear beautiful.

It was almost like the attitude with which the god of basketball, Mai-x Jordan, approached a game.

To her, being called ugly was the greatest possible insult.

So great, in fact, that for a brief instant she actually stammered.

“Ugly? Me?”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell me specifically what displeased you?”

Hm. It seemed she had actually believed me.

There was an earthquake in her pupils, and the breathing that had sounded like a corpse’s now became human again.

Or perhaps even that was an act. For all I knew, she had been taught that showing a few carefully chosen flaws made one more charming.

Meeting Navier’s eyes, I said,

“Your eyes are too big, so you look like a frog. The way the corners of your mouth go up looks fake, and they are so red it is unsettling. And your nostrils are too narrow…”

“What?”

It was complete nonsense.

I was simply saying whatever came to mind because I wanted to irritate her.

But perhaps because my criticism had turned out far more detailed than she expected, Navier flushed red and began breathing harshly.

Her beauty was the only thing she possessed.

She had been born the eldest daughter in a family that heavily favored sons, and had received indifference from her father and hatred from her mother.

Her mother in particular, Ronia, had hated Navier from the moment she was born.

Ronia had dreaded pregnancy.

During pregnancy, it was obvious her movements would become difficult, and therefore obvious she would gain weight. Her skin would certainly stretch. Among women of her age, there had even been noblewomen who lost their hair after pregnancy.

She imagined herself growing fat, her skin losing its elasticity, her hair thinning in patches.

It was horrifying.

If she changed like that, then the flame of her husband’s love would diminish, and her place within the household would shrink as well.

The terrors of childbirth played their part too. To Ronia, pregnancy was practically a calamity.

And yet, in spite of that, she still had to become pregnant.

She understood perfectly well that her value lay in bearing an heir to continue the family line.

A pregnancy she had to endure anyway.

If hardship could not be avoided, then at the very least it had to be overcome well. So Ronia prayed to God that she might produce a son in a single shot.

Unfortunately, that attempt ended in failure, and instead of the son she longed for, she gave birth to Navier. That meant she had to become pregnant all over again.

Navier was a child born into those circumstances.

There was no one to love her but herself.

That was why her self-love ran deep, and its source was her appearance.

It left a bad taste in my mouth to say cruel things to a girl who had her own sad circumstances, but I steeled my heart.

Was I doing this only so that I alone might live well? No. This was for everyone’s sake.

This too was for her own good.

There was only one reason Navier had approached me.

She wanted my help in ruining Bishot.

That was how it had gone in the original.

It would increase her chances of ending up with the Crown Prince.

The fact that she was already moving to eliminate Bishot meant that, in Navier’s eyes as well, Bishot’s beauty was extraordinary.

Raphael had been an idiot.

It was obvious who would be the one to pressure and torment Bishot, yet he had cooperated with Navier without the slightest hesitation, convinced that as long as he worked behind the scenes through her, no one would discover him.

Raphael alone had already been a negative. Add Navier, who was just the same, and it became a negative added to a negative.

That was how Raphael and Navier worked hand in glove until the Crown Prince eventually found them out and beat them senseless.

“People all have different tastes, so I understand.”

Pfft.

I barely managed not to spit.

Navier was quick to adapt to feedback. Whether because of the insults I had thrown at her or not, she changed the way she smiled. She narrowed her eyes as much as possible and flared her nostrils.

“Were you laughing at me? I did exactly as you advised. That was cruel.”

“Sorry. I did not mean to.”

Navier tapped my shoulder lightly with her wrist. At the same time, as though to show it did not matter, she closed her eyes and drew up her lips in a faint smile.

“It is all right. Pretty and ugly are subjective, and people all have different tastes.”

I found myself inwardly admiring her social skill.

Before coming to see me, she must have imagined several possible scenarios.

She must have anticipated my answers to her questions and assembled responses in advance. She must have planned how best to win my favor and gain the upper hand in our relationship.

And yet all of that had gone completely off course, and she still managed to present herself as a more or less decent person.

“So, do you have a little time? Ten minutes will do.”

“If it is something you can say here, then yes.”

“You like coffee, do you not? I have seen you drink it sometimes. There is a café five minutes from here. Let us talk there for just five minutes.”

It was hard to refuse when she spoke while flaring her nostrils in an effort to make them seem wider. So we stopped by a nearby café.

“What would you like? I will buy.”

“Something cold. Anything.”

I was making it abundantly clear that I had not the slightest desire to curry favor with her. I might as well have been openly announcing that I wanted the relationship to fail.

This was a world that prized chivalry and knightly conduct.

Ninety-nine people out of a hundred, when told that Navier would pay, would have insisted on paying themselves. Coffee was not some wildly expensive luxury, and it looked better that way.

I ignored all of that.

And then I went even further and said, “Anything.”

Among answers that would irritate someone offering to pay, it would have taken second place with confidence, right behind, “You do not have any money anyway.”

“Two Americanos, please. Did you know? These days, people call an iced Americano an ‘aa.’ Is that not funny? Right?”

“It is funny.”

“Then I will be right back.”

The moment she handed me the cold coffee cup, I spoke.

“It feels as though the ten minutes are up, so I should be going now. Thanks for the coffee.”

Amazing.

I found myself admiring her without meaning to.

Navier reacted like a machine set to run on a program.

She ought to have let her expression sour, but instead she lowered her eyes as though apologetic and softened the tone of her voice at once.

“I am sorry. I must have taken up too much of your time. I was simply enjoying our conversation so much.”

I had driven Navier into retreat with surprising ease. Looking back on everything from the instant we first met until now, I could hardly have made a worse impression if I had tried.

Surely that meant I would not have to see her for a while.

And yet, overturning my expectation at once, Navier smiled and said,

“I look forward to your kindness again next time.”

This one was a dangerous opponent.