I Became the Villain’s Childhood Friend – Chapter 31

Author: lipzoldyck

When he made eye contact with me, Reynold smiled prettily at me.

‘I’m right, am I not?’

It was as if Reynold was whispering that to me. It reminded me of Reynold, who had said sarcastically that I would be admitted to the school.

I tried to smile along with Reynold, hiding my agitated feelings. This was the beginning of the original story.

***

“How was I today?”

I glanced at Reynold, who was holding an armful of flowers, and lightly shrugged my shoulders.

“The school uniform looks good on you.”

“…We went to get our school uniforms together, and you said something else.”

“I mean, it suits you better today.”

“Is there anything else besides that?”

Reynold’s eyes sparkled and he urged me to answer. I looked back at Reynold again. It was clear what answer he wanted.

But I didn’t answer that question and just turned around.

“The girl standing next to you was very pretty.”

“What’s that. You didn’t see me, but you only saw the kid next to me?”

“Of course you saw her too.”

Reynold looked dumbfounded at my words. But even for a moment, he asked me as if he was puzzled.

“But that pink hair.”

“…”

“Have we seen each other before?”

At least I haven’t. I asked him as if nothing had happened.

“Do you know each other?”

Reynold let out a small sigh.

“That’s not true, I just feel like I’ve seen her somewhere. You’ve never seen her before, right?”

“…Nope.”

“Then it must be someone I don’t know.”

Reynold answered indifferently, but I instinctively realized that Reynold and Gloria had met before.

Ah, the original story has been going on for a long time that I don’t know about.

Reynold smiled slightly and muttered.

“It’s gonna be fun.”

“…What is?”

“Now I can hang out with you like before.”

Faced with Reynold’s smile, I raised the corners of my mouth. My mind was complicated.

I thought for a moment. Did Reynold really know that I was locked in my room until the entrance ceremony?

Of course, even if Reynold had known about it, nothing would have changed. This was our family’s business.

So even if Reynold knew about this, I’m not disappointed at all.

Really.

But for some reason, I didn’t want to ask Reynold about it. If he answers that he knew, then how on earth should I reply to that?

In the end, my choice was to run away again. It was a choice that was no different from before.

“Come on in.”

Reynold’s steps stopped in front of the girls’ dormitory. I waved lightly at him.

“Ah, and you were pretty good today.”

“What did you say?”

I hated the look on Reynold’s face as he deliberately pretended not to hear me. I gave him a small glance.

“You were pretty good. It wasn’t bad.”

“…”

Reynold’s face looked like he heard something he couldn’t hear. I waved at him again and hurried into the dormitory.

***

I tried my best to think positively. The day of my death wasn’t right around the corner, yet there was still a lot of time left to breathe if I was already living in tears.

I never know. Because someone who took pity on me might change my fate.

I slapped my cheeks with my hands and raised the corners of my lips.

‘There will definitely be a chance to go to the academy.’

By the way, who will I be sharing your dorm room with? It would be very fun if we became close friends, had a slumber party together at night, and shared delicious food.

When I opened the door, I was imagining happiness.

“Welcome!”

Magic pollen fell lightly on my head. However, the moment I saw the face of the person who gave me magic, I couldn’t help but frown.

And the face of the woman who gave me magic also turned into a shit-chewing expression.

“…What, you? You’re really my roommate?”

Julia frowned and hurriedly checked behind me. She made sure there was no one behind me and ran her hands over her face.

I was devastated and muttered without realizing it.

“Crazy…”

“How did you get into the Academy at your level?”

Julia asked me in a fierce voice. I answered without giving up.

“Did you think I wouldn’t be accepted to the same school you were accepted to?”

“This, really!”

Julia, who was about to raise her hand towards me, sighed and lowered her hand.

…So, Julia was the youngest princess of the Orpedia Empire.

A princess with whom I don’t have a very good relationship. That’s because I bumped into Julia at last year’s debutante. At that time, I thought about avoiding this princess from now on.

“Get out of my way!”

Julia shouted fiercely, hit me on the shoulder and left the room.

…Really, what should I do with my school life?

***

There were three school rules that were considered important at Tellen Academy.

The first is to divide seniors and juniors solely based on grade, regardless of age.

Second, while attending the Academy, keep in mind that everyone is equal regardless of class.

The second rule actually meant that students shouldn’t rely on their family’s power and bully others in school.

And it was also the most important rule at the Academy.

Third, we will live in a dormitory.

Other minor rules were extremely common sense and things that people should follow.

The majority of students attending Tellen Academy were commoners.

This is understandable, since the number of noble families in the Empire was only about a hundred in the first place.

The number of children of nobles entering school in one year would be much smaller.

However, like a pyramid, attempts by a small number of people at the top to dominate the rest were frequent on campus, and the Academy put in a lot of effort to prevent such things.

It was thanks to these rules of the Academy that I was able to treat Julia, the princess, with ease, and that a baron’s daughter didn’t have to speak politely to me.

However, despite this, commoners and nobles didn’t mix well like water and oil. It felt like there was a strange line. It was the same at the Magic Engineering Department where I was enrolled.

Magic engineer is a professional profession, and entering the Magic Tower is virtually the same as raising one’s status, so it was a department that attracted a lot of applications from commoners.

So I thought it was fortunate that the number of nobles was relatively small. Because I was tired of the strange fighting between nobles.

But now I see that there were few nobles, so there were problems. This is because the students, who were commoners, found me very difficult.

Anyway, until I leave the Academy, I have to stay at the Academy whether I like it or not, but going to the Academy in this uncomfortable state wasn’t as easy as I thought.

Of course, there were nobles in the Magic Engineering Department. However, the problem was the ‘tea ceremony club’.

The school created a ‘tea ceremony club’ and an ‘equestrian club’ for the nobles.

They were concerned that dissatisfaction would arise from the children of the nobles who suddenly found themselves living in a dormitory with other people and were no longer able to receive care, so they attempted to reduce their dissatisfaction by allowing them to maintain their usual lives in some areas. It was a plan designed to resolve the problem.

As the Academy aims for equal friendship, the original purpose of establishing the tea ceremony club was to experience the culture of the aristocracy, such as tea parties. Therefore, commoners who had difficulty experiencing the culture of the nobles were also able to participate in the tea ceremony.

However, the purpose gradually changed, and the tea ceremony club has now become a perfect gathering for noble ladies.

Although the equestrian club also consisted mostly of noblemen, it wasn’t as exclusive as the tea ceremony club.

And it wasn’t long before ‘that’ tea ceremony club came to visit me.

“Hi.”

Also, this year, ‘Julia’, the head of the tea ceremony club, came to visit me.

Last year, when the head of the tea ceremony department graduated, her position as head of the tea ceremony was handed over to Julia, the Princess of the Empire.

I looked at the faces of the tea club gang surrounding me and then looked at Julia. In the dormitory, she looked like she was going to eat me, but outside, she seemed like a pretty personable person.

Julia looked me up and down and then asked patronizingly.

“Do you want to come with us?”

“…What?”

Julia’s words only sounded perplexing to me.

“You don’t have any friends. Besides, there’s a kid in the same class as you at the tea ceremony club.”

Julia grabbed a girl by the wrist and made her stand in front of me. It was a girl with carrot-colored hair and shy freckles.

And I knew that girl.

I saw that girl on Cesta Street once. I didn’t remember it when I first saw her, but when I heard the name, it came to mind.

She’s the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Rigna, Adele Rigna

Well, in order to join the tea ceremony club, you have to be a member of a prestigious family. It wasn’t completely incomprehensible that Julia came to see me.

“It’s okay to refuse.”

When there was no answer from me, Paige, who had been silent, opened her mouth.

Paige was Julia’s right-hand woman. She’s the second daughter of Count Agnes, and I heard that she has known Julia since she was young.

“Yeah, if you have any sense, you won’t come in.”

It seemed as if Julia’s suggestion to me hadn’t been agreed upon by the tea ceremony club members, and voices came out here and there.

Not surprisingly, everyone knew that Julia and I didn’t get along very well.

“It’s fine. If you want to come in, come in. Gloria came in anyway.”

I paused for a moment as Julia continued.

“…Gloria?”

“Oh my, you know her too.”

It’s absurd to see Julia responding so naturally. The one whom she mutters and curses to herself in her room every day was Gloria.

“Why did she join the tea ceremony club?”