Chapter 72

Chapter : 72

Why had Bishot done that? Why had her dissatisfaction with me suddenly exploded?

I had no way of knowing. What was certain was that her personality had changed greatly from the original.

If it had been Bishot at the point of the original story, she would not have stepped forward and attacked me directly like this.

Why had she attacked me? For self-defense? Had she made some move before I could harm her?

It was difficult to see it that way.

I had been slowly cutting off points of contact with Bishot, and in fact, over the past several months, the number of times I had met her could be counted on one hand.

I had never caused her harm either.

There was only one thing left.

Simply because she hated me.

Only after sorting all of that out did I realize it.

The thing I had worried about right after possessing this body had burst open.

Bishot bore a grudge against me.

If, at this point, she had formed a bond with Kartea, Agares, Ian, or the others, they would have come to kill me.

The effort I had poured into preventing her from ending up with the male leads had borne fruit. That was why I had survived.

“Ah....”

I survived.

Today had been a crisis of life and death. It had been a moment where I might have died if not for the effort I had made until now.

That was what it meant for Bishot, the protagonist of the original story, to bear a grudge against me.

A chill ran through me.

The fine hairs on my body stood on end.

Why now?

There was nothing that could be called a trigger. Nothing had happened between her and me.

Perhaps, while arranging her thoughts alone, she had chewed over the past, and her hatred of me had grown even stronger.

Did that mean that no matter what efforts I made, I could not twist the great flow of the original?

There was meaning in it.

If Bishot’s relationships with the male leads had been the same as the original, this would not have passed so simply.

One of them would have come looking for me, saying he would kill me.

Yes, I had more or less sorted out the situation. I understood the position I was in.

I see.

Bishot bore a grudge against me and was trying to harm me.

What should I do?

Now that I had come this far, the method I had avoided looking at as a matter of human decency began slowly creeping upward.

Deal with Bishot.

I had never killed a person before.

But for a long, long time, I had resolved that if such a day came, I would not hesitate.

Was this the first chance to put that mindset into practice? It might be.

It had been this way from the beginning.

If Bishot died, everything would be solved simply. The reason I had not used that move was partly because of society’s eyes, but more than anything, the greatest reason was that I did not want to.

Kill someone? And an innocent person at that?

I had avoided the method for an extremely modern-person reason.

The problems that would arise if Bishot died?

Of course, there were many things to think about. How to kill her.

When to kill her. I would have to be careful about all sorts of things so I would not be discovered and wait for an opportunity.

But was this impossible?

Thinking back to the original, no.

Bishot had been shoved down the stairs and fallen, drunk poisoned alcohol, and even been kidnapped by a bad man.

Each time, she survived because the male leads of the original saved her. What about now? Those male leads were absent.

Right now, killing her was possible. Perhaps it would even be absurdly easy.

I could trigger the dangers that had appeared in the original exactly as they had been, and if that did not work, I could even watch for an opportunity and assassinate her myself.

Then should I kill her?

“Aaagh! Damn it!”

Anger surged at the fact that I had to worry about something like this. Blood rushed to my head, and stress shot upward.

Killing a person.

If I thought about it, Bishot had not even committed any crime. It was true that Raphael had tormented her. Killing her would be purely for my own sake.

‘Still, I have to decide clearly.’

If I killed Bishot, I carefully weighed the method of killing her and the possibility of being discovered as the culprit. The result was that it was entirely worth trying.

I did not want to.

But if this was the only way for me to live. If I had already crossed a river I could not turn back from.

Then I had no choice but to do it.

---

What Bishot experienced in the ballroom was nothing more than her two lips refusing to part. But she had been tense, and she had stood at the center of a crowd.

Not being able to fully control her own body in a place of severe pressure was a horrifying experience. Her breathing grew rapid, and her heart pounded. Her surroundings turned yellow, and she collapsed where she stood.

Only after receiving Jefrin’s support could she stand properly.

Open, close. Open, close.

Even now, her lips were stuck tightly together, regardless of her will. Bishot felt as though every gaze around her was mocking her. Her breathing became even more ragged.

“Are you all right? Let us leave first.”

Jefrin lifted Bishot and helped her walk.

Only after leaving the ballroom did Bishot inhale oxygen through her mouth. She gasped for breath and said,

“I am fine now. Thank you for helping me.”

“Shall I take you back to the dormitory?”

“I can go alone. I am fine.”

“Understood....”

Jefrin knew that once Bishot had made up her mind, it was difficult to bend it. Reluctantly, he released the arm he had been supporting her with and let Bishot leave.

Bishot headed toward her dormitory and gathered her emotions.

Her hands and feet trembled. What was this? At the thought that she would finally expose Raphael’s sins, she had gone before the crowd with her heart beating more violently than ever.

It had been the moment she had waited for.

But the moment she opened her mouth, some magical power closed it. What was it? She did not know. Raphael had probably made some move.

Her heart, which had already been beating at its limit, pounded even harder, and her breathing grew rapid. The edges of her vision blurred, and she collapsed as she was.

As she walked to the dormitory, she thought.

‘I did it.’

After entering the Academy, Raphael had been quiet like a volcano that had entered dormancy. If she did not touch him again, perhaps he would not erupt until she graduated from the Academy, or even afterward. The odds were high.

He seemed satisfied with his current life.

But in order to punish him, she had thrown the dice. She had touched him, and failed.

Now he would move again.

“Ahh....”

Regret suddenly flooded in. She should have been more thorough. She had focused only on causing the incident at the place and time where he would be most troubled, so her vision had narrowed. It was something she should have done more perfectly.

That was when Bishot was blaming herself.

Knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the door.

“Do you have a moment?”

It was Raphael’s voice.

It seemed he had come immediately after receiving the title at the ball.

---

From the very beginning, killing Bishot had been a survival method that was not under consideration.

Killing a person was rather... it was like that, was it not? At the time, it had been.

When I had just fallen into this world, killing a person had been unthinkable.

Then what about now? It was still like that now. Killing a person.

But if that was the only way for me to survive, it was worth considering. To make that clear and prepare my mind, I needed information.

Why had Bishot suddenly grown angry with me?

It was literally sudden. Abrupt. Until before vacation, the relationship between her and me had been as smooth as could be. We were not close, but we were partners who kept each other’s boundaries.

That had been perfect, so why had she suddenly changed?

At first, I thought perhaps things had become awkward because I had withdrawn from alchemy, but that was not it.

It made no sense for her to expose what Raphael had done for a reason as minor as that. It would not only harm me, but scandal would follow Bishot herself, yet she had attacked me while accepting that.

It was to inflict greater harm on me, even if she suffered damage herself.

That was something ordinary anger would never make one do. Bishot looked at me as though I were her mortal enemy.

Why had Bishot become furious enough to lose her mind? No matter how much I thought about it, I could not know.

Then setting that aside, next. What should I do?

I would continue doing what I had been doing. I had to stop the male leads of the original from ending up with Bishot.

This time, even though Bishot tried to expose my crimes, nothing major had happened.

The relationships I had built after coming to the Academy would have been destroyed, and the things Raphael had done would follow me like a tag until the day I died, but that would be the end.

My life would be safe.

But if Bishot ended up with a male lead, the story would change. I might die. So I would continue preventing the male leads from ending up with Bishot.

Then what should I do about Bishot? What about my relationship with her?

From the moment Bishot decided to expose me, we had no choice but to go to the end.

In that sense, I went to find Bishot. Thanks to Ian using his power, this matter had passed vaguely.

If Bishot could forgive Raphael’s wrongdoings, everything could end.

I went to Bishot’s dormitory and knocked on the door.

“Do you have a moment?”

I called Bishot outside. Perhaps because she had something that pricked her conscience, she lowered her gaze and avoided meeting my eyes.

I was much the same.

I did not want to acknowledge the things Raphael had done in the past as my wrongdoing.

Why is that my fault? But to carry the conversation forward, it was an unavoidable process.

“I am sorry for the things I did back then.”

“What do you mean?”

Bishot’s attitude said that she had not expected me to apologize. Well, since I had come to find her as soon as the ball ended, she must naturally have expected retaliation.

“I mean the things I did before entering the Academy, when I tormented you. I was wrong back then. I am sorry. I want to apologize for that and ask for your forgiveness.”

I watched Bishot’s reaction. She blinked, then let out a small “ah.” She tilted her head.

“Forgiveness?”

“Yes.”

“So that is why you are apologizing? Because you need forgiveness? How fortunate for me. You are asking for forgiveness instead of threatening or intimidating me. But if that is why you are apologizing, there is no need. I will never forgive you.”

“I will compensate you.”

“The only way you can compensate me is by confessing your crimes.”

“Is that the only way?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Then one more thing. We have been getting along rather well all this time. Why are you suddenly doing this?”

I was not the only one tense right now. Bishot was also uneasy about how I would act, and sweat formed on her forehead. She wiped the sweat away with the back of her hand and spoke.

“In the past, I was too exhausted. So I thought that as long as I could escape the anxiety I felt right then, the rest did not matter. But that was not it. That is all.”

No matter what I had done, it would have ended up like this.

“I will leave for today. Let us talk again next time.”

“No, this is enough. It is uncomfortable, after all.”

I lifted myself from the chair. I turned and headed back to my dormitory. As I walked, I organized the conversation. In the end, it had turned out this way.

The things Raphael had done in the past were unforgivable, and Bishot said she would not forgive him.

I had to do something.