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At once, everyone’s eyes fly towards the entrance of the classroom.
…..There, standing in the doorway is Finn-Sama with a serious look on his face, and Curtis-Sama is right behind him.
Wow, they certainly know how to time an entrance.
“Where were you guys?” Henry-Oniisama asks brightly, seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere.
Finn-Sama doesn’t even seem to hear him. He just glares at the girls surrounding Liz-san without missing a beat.
Seeing Finn-Sama ignoring him, I can’t help but wish that Henry-Oniisama would take a page from his book and learn to speak only after reading the mood first.
“Finn and I were playing catch, but we accidentally broke a window,” Curtis-Sama replies nonchalantly, a wide grin on his face.
Ah. Here’s another dense guy who doesn’t know how to read a room.
Finn-Sama ignores Curtis-Sama as well and walks straight over to where we’re standing.
…..No matter how many years go by, he really doesn’t seem to change at all. It’s a bit scary considering his appearance is basically the same as when I first met him. But I have to say…. for an 18-year-old to have those looks, I definitely can see why all the nation’s shotacons were so infatuated with him. For them, it must be wonderful seeing that the years have no affect on him.
“Finn-Sama? What could you possibly mean by that?” asks the light orange-haired girl standing beside Liz-san, her face seeming to cramp up slightly.
While I was absentmindedly thinking about Finn-Sama’s appearance, the atmosphere of the room has turned quite turbulent.
“From my perspective, I’ve been wondering the same thing about what you all have been saying.”
Finn-Sama really does have such a pleasant voice. Gilles’s is also nice of course, but Finn-Sama’s voice has a particularly lovely, sweet sounding ring to it.
Despite looking similar in age, maybe living longer and having more life experience really does have a considerable impact. After all, Gilles’s voice actually sounds rather young in comparison….
“Somehow, his personality kind of reminds me of you,” I whisper to Gilles so that only he can hear.
“Hah? I’m not that pretty. And my hair isn’t anywhere near as blinding as his. Plus, that guy’s at least seven years older than I am,” Gilles grumbles back immediately, a huge frown weighing on his face.
So defensive… and calling him, ‘that guy.’ Does Gilles dislike being compared to Finn-Sama that much? And he seems to have missed the point entirely. I wasn’t even comparing their appearances in the first place….
“Wait, Finn, I don’t understand. Can you explain what you mean?” Liz-san says, her face showing that she’s clearly baffled by what he just said.
“Hmm, let’s see~” he says, gathering his thoughts. “Well, to put it concisely, those girls were the ones who walked up to Alicia and started insulting you first. Alicia just ignored them…. But that’s as far as my knowledge goes,” Finn-Sama says, shrugging.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t guess what must have happened afterward. This may just be speculation, but I would assume that Alicia stepped on their toes a bit. You know, said some poignant line that really gouged deep on their insecurities? And those girls couldn’t take it, so they came running to you in a huff, angrily trying pin the blame on her as petty revenge,” Finn-Sama explains calmly. And then, without any change in expression, he turns to look straight at Liz-san. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I think the insults those girls were saying earlier were probably their true feelings. I think the only reason they approached you, Liz, is in order to set up Alicia to take the fall for them,”
The look on Liz-san’s face after hearing this is priceless. Even a villainess like me is starting to feel bad for her.
Finn-Sama is so brutal! He kind of reminds of Mel in that regard actually. Despite having a youthful, adorable appearance, he clearly has zero qualms with ripping out a person’s heart with hard-to-hear truths.
Just as I’m thinking that, a shrill, exuberant laugh pierces my ears.
“What spoiled, rotten morons~” Mel cries gleefully. She looks absolutely delighted as she stabs a finger in the direction of the girls currently huddled around Liz-san.
“Don’t point,” I chastise her under my breath. Considering that Mel is older than me, it’s quite the odd feeling warning her about such behavior.
“Okaaay,” Mel replies sadly, withdrawing her finger. Her movements really are like those of a child sometimes.
If only she didn’t open her mouth, anyone would mistake her for an adorably sweet little girl….. Could this be what you’d call gap moe?
“Isn’t this like tripping and stabbing yourself with your own knife? So not only are you not anywhere near as pretty as Ali-Ali, but your brains are also chock-full of holes. You’d think that would be enough for you to focus on forging a decent personality, but no. Turns out you’re all so shoddy that even that can’t save you,” Mel says and then she aims a sweet, full-faced grin at the group of girls.
Again, I’m awed by how truly adorable Mel’s smile is. But I wonder if I’m the only one carefree enough to be thinking something like that right now?
I know those girls certainly aren’t seeing her smile in that way. With that one look, all the color drained conspicuously from each of their faces and they visibly began trembling. Moreover, huge, bead-sized teardrops were now running down their cheeks….
The looks they are giving Mel aren’t those you’d give to a regular human being. It’s more along the lines of the sheer terror that you’d find on someone’s face when they are rooted to the spot, three seconds away from being mauled by a bear. It’s that moment when you can already feel its putrid breath beating against your face. That instant as its great, salivating maw opens wide….
As I’m thinking this, Mel opens her own mouth to continue, but Duke-Sama lightly knocks her on the back of her head.
“Just leave it at that,” he tells her, sounding a bit exasperated.
…..They really don’t seem anything like master and servant.
“He’s basically her guardian older brother,” Gilles whispers to me after observing Mel and Duke-Sama interacting together.
I give a small nod, agreeing mutely.
At the same time, I look over at Liz-san. Her eyes seem glazed over, like she can’t keep up with what’s going on anymore. So many things happened in such quick succession and it appears that her brain hasn’t managed to digest them all yet. I’d feel so bad if she ended up growing distrustful of humans after something like this….
Speaking of which, such a thing would be bad for me too! What if her personality warps into something dark and gloomy? Then she’d be of zero use to me as a villainess.
As the heroine, she’s supposed to be my foil, the one who helps emphasize my evil ways and makes me stand out! I can’t lose such an effective tool so early on.
Though, that being said, I have no desire to slather her in kind words or some other such out of character nonsense even if that would likely help slow her descent into the cruelness of reality.
“Hey. You…. Imbecilic women,” I say walking straight up to the trembling group and looking down my nose at them.
“Oh! Did you hear that? Ali-Ali thinks they’re stupid too!”
“That’s enough out of you,” Duke-Sama says, cutting Mel off instantly. He says it so immediately, so naturally, like he’s perfectly used to dealing with her already….
“Oh, you poor things. Why are you shaking like that? Just because you’re crying are you expecting some hero to come and save you? Well too bad, those tears of yours are completely worthless. Who would bother to rescue you from a disaster of your own making? Attacking others with vulgar, contemptible schemes yet you don’t have the conviction to be hurt in the process? You’re worse than literal trash.”
I hurl more sarcasm at the girls than a typical noble would be able to muster in a lifetime.
And while holding their gazes with my own gaze of sheer contempt, I am an honored with a front-row seat to their misery. I can see it clearly as the emotions drain visibly from their faces. I watch as the light of life seems to flicker out from behind their eyes leaving behind only a hollow, gaping emptiness left in their depths.
Whether it’s because my words were that shocking, or if they merely tired themselves out after their drawn out, melodramatic display I’m not sure…. Though I really hope it’s the former.
Either way, from now on, I think I’ll throw my efforts into nasty, sarcastic remarks. It seems to have much more of an impact that way.
“Trash…..” Liz-san says, finally opening her mouth. I glance towards her and notice that she’s staring hard in my direction.
Her expression tells me that’s she’s quite angry with me. Those emerald green eyes of her are alight with fury. It seems that the saintess Liz-Sama has finally made a full comeback.
Now this is the sort of Liz-san that I really wanted to see! Not that empty shell that had no clue what was happening and that couldn’t decide what to think. I wanted to see those eyes glaring at me self-righteously and energetically.
Since Liz-san’s heart is so pure, I figured that she’d want to protect even this abhorrent group. Even if they hate her, I knew she wouldn’t be able to help herself. I feel like I know exactly what makes her tick. Perhaps, I may even know Liz-san better than she knows herself.
…Nah, that might be going a bit too far after all.
Though I definitely knew that calling another person “trash” would be crossing the line for her… Not to mention, I went another step further and said they were worse than trash.
But let’s not use that again. Let’s make today the first and last time I say that. I’ll have to come up with some new material for next time.
Though I don’t regret using this line here. I figured it would be the fastest method to turning Liz-san back into her normal lively, courageous self….. And the plan worked perfectly as I predicted. Although, I had been planning to say that the girls were unrecyclable trash…. But right at the last minute I thought better of. It felt a bit too over-the-top.
Plus, the concept of recycling doesn’t exist in this world, so it would have gone over everyone’s heads anyway.
…..Honestly, thank goodness I didn’t end up saying that. It would have ruined my perfectly villainous performance.
I’m on the top of my game right now, so I can’t let up. I’m going to flaunt my villainy skills until the very end and show them exactly what 15 long years of careful cultivation can do.
“What? Do you have a problem with something I said?” I ask while tilting my head slightly to the side and beaming brilliantly at Liz-san.
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T/N: Lol, for a girl with unparalleled concentration, Alicia doesn’t seem very good at staying on topic XD
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