I Became the Villain’s Childhood Friend Chapter 38

 

But it seemed that my true feelings weren’t conveyed well to Julia.

 

She frowned at once.

 

“There are a lot of people out here snooping around wondering what others are doing without eating or doing anything. You don’t think you’re not getting noticed, do you?”

 

“…”

 

There was nothing to refute. As I listened to her in silence, Julia crossed her arms and continued.

 

“One is an illegitimate child, and the other is the Emperor’s nephew. You don’t think you’re in the same situation as Reynold, do you?”

 

In the past, Rian reminded me of my situation, yet now the person who has a crush on him is reminding me of this fact.

 

Geez, I was so thankful that I was on the verge of tears.

 

Julia didn’t think to close her mouth as if she thought it was the time.

 

“The label that you’re the child of the Duke’s affair will follow you for the rest of your life until you die.”

 

“…I know, please shut your mouth.”

 

“If the two who are in such different situations and look like they would kill someone just by making eye contact hang around together, will there be rumors like that or not?”

 

“I got it. I understand, so stop talking now.”

 

My ears were bleeding.

 

I glanced at Julia, who was fussing to herself, and asked cautiously.

 

“…Then will this rumor now cause great harm to Reynold?”

 

“Are you calling that a question?”

 

Julia said with a bewildered laugh on her face.

 

“It’s not just the level of damage, it’s a disaster for him, a disaster.”

 

“…”

 

“How did you become friends with Reynold in the first place, I wonder… Hey, I thought the Lerdonia family and the Collin family were starting a rebellion together. Actually, even His Imperial Majesty, no.”

 

Julia sighed.

 

I listened to her sigh and slowly put on clothes.

 

“…What? Where are you going at this late hour?”

 

“A walk.”

 

“Are you going to see him again?”

 

Julia asked without hiding her suspicious gaze.

 

“I told you no!”

 

When I unknowingly raised my voice. Julia was startled and immediately touched her chest.

 

“You surprised me! If not, then let it be. Anyway, with that temper…”

 

I left Julia sulking and left the dormitory.

 

Breathing in the cool air seemed to make me feel a little better.

 

This was partly because I saw the moon, which had been obscured by the recent cloudy weather.

 

I went to a bench where I could see the moon clearly and sat down. Then I leaned my head back against the backrest and closed my eyes.

 

It has been difficult ever since I entered the Academy.

 

Even with the club and classes being very difficult. I even have no anything to say about the group assignment.

 

They said that if you leave home, you’ll have a hard time, and that was exactly right.

 

Having a serious conversation while eating delicious food with a close friend. That would at least relieve my stress…

 

Yet here, other than Reynold, there is no one I am close to.

 

“…What are you doing here?”

 

Then someone spoke to me. It was a voice that I was now used to.

 

When I opened my closed eyes, I made eye contact with Reynold, who was looking down at me.

 

It was Reynold, fully bathed in moonlight.

 

“Hey, I’m going first, yeah?”

 

“Yeah, go first.”

 

Reynold waved his hand roughly for his friend to go first and sat down next to me.

 

It was a different friend than the one I saw last time. How friendly does he have to be to make friends so quickly?

 

“Would you like one?”

 

Reynold held out an ice cream he was holding to me. As I just stared at him without answering, he just put the ice cream in my hand without any reaction.

 

When I opened the white wrapper, I noticed that the ice cream smelled like grapes.

 

“Ah… the grape flavor doesn’t taste that good.”

 

Reynold heard me grumbling and stretched out his hand to take the ice cream from me.

 

“Don’t eat it.”

 

“Don’t wanna.”

 

I put the ice cream in my mouth to prevent him from taking it. Reynold shook his head as if he had no choice and took a bite of his ice cream.

 

The grape flavor wasn’t bad either.

 

I asked Reynold as the wind blew.

 

“Are you going to the dormitory now?”

 

“Yeah, I just finished training.”

 

Come to think of it, Reynold was wearing training clothes.

 

He smiled brightly as I looked him up and down.

 

“Am I cool?”

 

“…You must have had a hard time training. You say all sorts of bullshit.”

 

I narrowed my eyes at his nonsense.

 

“If you do so, you’ll get wrinkles, you know?”

 

As Reynold said that, he gently pressed the area between my eyebrows with his thumb.

 

“…”

 

I felt strangely flustered by his touch and took a bite of the ice cream in silence.

 

At least I felt like I could breathe because I was next to Reynold.

 

I turned my gaze to the sky. Reynold’s gaze, which had been directed at me, also turned to the sky. The moon was still shining on us.

 

Actually… I wanted to tell Reynold that things have been difficult these days. There was also the story about Charis and Gloria.

 

But it seemed like I was the only one whining like a child. I felt embarrassed that I was the only one complaining while Reynold stayed still.

 

Reynold was doing well in his school life.

 

Reynold made friends well and even entered school at the top of his class. He trains hard and…

 

Compared to Reynold’s sight, I felt so shabby.

 

Moreover, in order to talk about difficult things, it’s essential to bring up Gloria, but doing so to Reynold was a bit difficult.

 

Anyway, if I bring up the group project, I will definitely end up saying bad things about those two.

 

And I thought there was no need to bring up such a story on a day like this.

 

So, instead of a depressing story, I told a different story.

 

“Do you not like anyone?”

 

When are you going to tell me you like Gloria?

 

When I looked at him with expectant eyes, he had a disgusted expression on his face.

 

“…What is that.”

 

After muttering that, Reynold asked me.

 

“And what about you?”

 

“…Why is that?”

 

“It’s because I feel sorry for the other person.”

 

Gosh, you should know it’s an honor. I smiled without even realizing it.

 

Reynold responded indifferently and put the ice cream stick back in its wrapper. Then he stood up.

 

“Stop saying anything and get up quickly. I’ll take you to the dormitory.”

 

“Enough, alright? I’m not even a child, what are you…”

 

There were strange rumors going on at school, and I had no intention of adding fuel to the fire.

 

“Just go quickly.”

 

When I waved my hand at Reynold and told him to go back quickly, he made an expression that he didn’t like something, yet then he took a heavy step.

 

***

 

Applications for withdrawal from Tellen Academy were possible starting from the second semester of the first year. What that means is that I had to persevere through the first semester of my freshman year, crying and eating mustard.

 

The reason I wanted to drop out of the Academy was, of course, to avoid Danae’s ending in the original story.

 

Of course, looking at the data accumulated so far, it was highly likely that dropping out would be difficult. Because I think everything will end only if I die at the hands of Reynold.

 

However, since I had to have another reason to leave the academy other than not wanting to die in Reynold’s hands, he had to find a way to drop out.

 

[Try a little harder.]

[Isn’t it a lack of effort?]

[Make some effort.]

[If you don’t have talent, you have to work hard.]

 

Damn effort, effort, effort!

 

I have been told to work hard more times since joining the Academy than I have been told in my entire life.

 

Now, just hearing the mention of effort made me feel feverish to the point of death.

 

I swept my rough hands and frowned.

 

Even if I had talent, it would take half a year, then I couldn’t figure out how to make it bloom right away. Those two were geniuses, so it seemed like it only took a few days for them to bloom.

 

In the end, I drew up a blueprint before even developing basic water magic. Of course, it won’t appeal to those two people.

 

If I went to the classroom in advance, I had to watch them until class started.

 

But I didn’t want to do that. So I headed to the classroom as slowly as possible.

 

I waited a bit in front of the classroom door. Only when the time was right on time did I open the classroom door.

 

Gloria was sitting alone, perhaps because Charis hadn’t arrived yet.

 

I trudged over and took a seat across from Gloria. Then Gloria was so startled that she must have been thinking about something else.

 

I also flinched in surprise.

 

“I’m sorry if I surprised you.”

 

Now, just talking to Gloria was exhausting, so I gave a brief apology. This was because I was afraid she might find fault with me. Then I took out the blueprints and got to the point.

 

“…I’m going to keep practicing blooming, but I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough time, so I drew a blueprint first.”

 

I was the first to open my mouth, wondering if I should add more words.

 

I opened the paper, asking her to look at the blueprint while gently pushing it towards her, who raised her head.

 

My eyes met Gloria’s when she had been looking at me.

 

But as soon as my eyes met hers, she just jerked her head away.

 

…What, why is she like that?

 

Feeling bewildered, I followed her and turned my head away.

 

“…In theory, it shouldn’t cause any damage to the tool even if it contains Fluvia magic, but could you focus on the seams first?”

 

The part where the tool and magic meet is called the seam.

 

After hearing what I said, Gloria lowered her head and nodded. She then reached out her hand and pushed the blueprint towards me.

 

Something seems strange today. Is something going on?

 

Come to think of it, it was just a little strange that Charis wasn’t with her during this class, when he had only reason to stick with Gloria.

 

As they were originally always attached to each other.

 

“…You decided to use glass as the tool material because it contains Fluvia magic, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Is there a reason why the magic circle at the seam is 4th Circle?”

 

“I thought it had to be thicker than the magic circle you and Senior made to be able to withstand it.”

 

Gloria nodded slightly at my words.

 

“I think it would be a good idea to try using the Yell formula for strengthening magic, though?”

 

Saying that, Gloria slightly raised her head. Thanks to this, our eyes met again, yet this time she didn’t avoid my gaze.

 

Her eyes shining and looking at me really looked like it has a plan.

 

… Is this a new way to give people the middle finger, I wonder.