Volume 1 - CH 11

Winter will soon arrive, and the first year of school is coming to an end.

My school life is as solitary as ever.

There’s also no sign of leveling from Alicia. The quickest way to leveling up is dungeon diving.

Since the school enrollment, Alicia and the capture targets didn’t really bother me, maybe the principal or his Majesty already said something to them. I can see the hostility in their eyes, but it’s been peaceful for me, so I don’t mind.

「Recently Alicia’s belongings have gone missing, do you have any idea? 」

Prince Edwin addressed me. Goodbye, my peaceful days.

「I don’t know. 」

Alicia lost her belongings? I was supposed to be the one who did that in the game. Is someone else picking on Alicia in my place?

「I know you were always doing something yourself. 」

You are about half right that I do things alone.

It appears that the Prince was suspicious of me and convinced that I’m the one who hides Alicia’s belongings.

「It’s pretty cute that the Demon King likes to hide people’s belongings. 」

I still don’t understand how they see my personality. I have suspected for my involvement in a landslide happened in a distant territory several months ago and for ruining the school’s flower bed.

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Foremost of all, did you simply blame everything that went amiss with me? Of course, I don’t respond flatly, and I’m just stunned at the people around me.

But combined with my strength, the suspicion on me being the Demon King hasn’t been cleared up yet.

「I’ll get the evidence that you did it. And when that happens, you will be expelled from the academy. 」

Prince Edwin left with a small sharp parting remark.

He’s been working hard every day to expel me from school. It will be useless anyway, since the King and the principal won’t support it.

Maybe the prince is done withdrawing. Admitting that I was either the Demon King or villainess means I’m admitting my mistake. And he wouldn’t be capable to manage that without fail.

The other capture targets, William and Oswald, would have continued their hostility for the same reason. And like the usual, Alicia, it’s just full of assumptions.

I tried to think about the person who hid Alicia’s belongings.

Many students in the school dislike Alicia.

Some of them dislike her because she’s a commoner and some because she was friends with the prince. Many people treat her with great caution because if they hurt her feelings, it will affect the prince’s mood.

Alicia’s only allies in the school are the three capture targets. Poor her… and I thought I was bad. It’s good because I had Patrick here, and he said I could call him.

It’s no use thinking about it, so I decided to act. I observed the classroom after school ended.

She hasn’t learned how to hide her presence in the shadow she just used the usual means.

After an hour on the lookout, Alicia and the capture targets come to see if anything was gone. And then they left the classroom wanting to eat the new sweets. Are you guys really wanting to get the evidence?

I was slowly losing interest and was thinking about going home soon when a girl came into the classroom.

The girl was often seen in the company of the Duke’s daughter, Eleanora. Maybe her parents joined the radical faction since she was seen following Eleanora.

She began looking around and rummaging Alicia’s desk.

When I found the culprit, I landed silently on the floor and called her out.

「What are you doing? 」

Until now, I was stuck on the corner of the ceiling. That’s what ninja usually does.

「Ah, ano, nothing! When I heard Alicia-san’s belongings went missing, I was worried… ah, Yumiela… -sama. 」

She started explaining in a hurry when she realized that I’m the one who spoke; it looks as if it was the end of the world.

「P—please don’t kill me! Eleanora-sama just told me… 」

I always wonder what I’m supposed to do. I never killed anyone before.

She hid Alicia’s belongings and then told me the things I haven’t heard one by one.

Her house has the lowest social standing inside Eleanora’s clique that left her often running around for errands. Just like this time.

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Nevertheless, how to deal with this? I can’t just push her to his Highness and blame her. Eleanora can easily cast her away if I did that.

「Did Yumiela-san say that I ordered her to hide Alicia’s belongings? 」

I decided to talk directly to Eleanora. The culprit guided me to the salon where Eleanora was.

「It’s not like that. I just wanted to tell you that Eleanora-sama’s faction is doing the wrong thing. She says she did it on her own accord. 」

「That’s right. She did something unforgivable. 」

「I know. If Prince Edwin hears about this, he will be angry. She’s Eleanora-sama’s friend so he might hate Eleanora-sama too. 」

When she heard that the prince might hate her, Eleanora, who feigned ignorance changed her expression.

「Even when she did it on her own ideas? Why am I… 」

「Because his Highness might recognize her as a part of Eleanora-sama’s clique.

Don’t worry, and I won’t tell anyone. It might be better to stop punishing her, or people will get suspicious.

That way, there is no doubt that Eleanora-sama and his Highness will be married. 」

「Eh, what happens to that thief? 」

「Are you talking about Alicia-san? Commoner can’t marry into the royal family, right? 」

That’s a lie. His Majesty will marry the Prince to the Saintess. To prove the legitimacy of the royal family and it’s popular among the commoner, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.

「T-that’s true. Commoner can’t marry the royal family. 」

「Yeah, and we can’t let Eleanora-sama’s name attached to something insignificant like petty bullying. I advise you to tell your clique not to do anything to Alicia-san. 」

Let’s make sure Alicia’s bullying didn’t happen again.

「Of course. But why would you tell me that? 」

「I don’t really care about Alicia, either. But if she keeps getting bullied, his Highness will keep protecting her, and their relationship will deepen. Ah, his Highness didn’t think of me nicely, so if you could, please keep our meeting today a secret. 」

I stopped Alicia’s bullying, protected the culprit, prevented Eleanora from being involved with me. I could accomplish all of my goals easily because of Eleanora.

I left the salon in a good mood.

「That’s unusual for Yumiela. 」

That was Patrick’s reaction when he heard the whole story. He continues, explaining why he thought it was unusual for her.

「I felt if it were the usual Yumiela, she would hand over her to his Highness. You can stop the bullying, but in the first place, Eleanora wouldn’t be involved with you since his Highness dislike you, right? 」

That’s true. Why did I do such a roundabout way?

「Because, the culprit might have been me. 」

Originally, it was my role to hide Alicia’s belongings.

「What do you mean? 」

「If I had been hiding my dark magic ability and hadn’t raised my level. 」

The in-game Yumiela, she probably…

「If I was told by my parents that I’ve never met to make friends with other nobles, I’d be desperate to join Eleanora’s clique. 」

And my position would be the lowest. Nobody would want that.

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「The bullying culprit might be me, and if that gets exposed, I’ll get cast off by Eleanora. 」

Did the in-game Yumiela have an ally?

「No one is on her side, hated by her parents and Eleanora too, and most of all hated by Alicia, who loves to use light magic and is loved by his Highness. 」

She, with her light magic and me with my dark magic. She was loved, and I was not.

The in-game Yumiela is not a small villain who became a hidden boss in the postscript, isn’t she the victim of this world?

「And then, I started to raise my level for revenge. But dark is weak against the light so that Alicia can kill me. 」

The difference between the present me and the in-game is whether I raised my level or not. The only difference is whether I have the power to rely on or not.

「I wanted to help that culprit because of that 『What if』 factor.

What’s wrong, Patrick? Is it an assumption? 」

I laughed at the grim expression on Patrick, who thinks this is my imagination.

「Isn’t that the same? 」

He wrings out the bitter taste.

「The hypothetical situation and the present, isn’t it the same? The only difference is how high or low your level is. 」

「The difference is big. 」

That’s not true. The biggest one is that I have a memory of my previous life. That’s it, and my mental age is high.

「Right now Yumiela has someone on her side, right? Do you hate Alicia? Do you hate this world? If so, I… 」

I don’t hate or dislike it. If I dislike it, I can just escape to a distant land and live in hiding.

But now I have some things that I like.

「And not only that. If you have an acquaintance, you talk occasionally, that’s enough. 」

Even if I don’t like what will happen next, I think I could stay in a country where Patrick is.

I said that while staring at Patrick, and he fell silent.

I’m afraid I might have said something bad.

「I see… 」

He said that in such a warm voice.

「…Do you know? 」

And I just sighed.

As expected, if you frequently talk, you can get closer.

If making an acquaintance is this hard, how much harder will it be to make a friend? I don’t even want to think about a lover.