Chapter 28: Academy Life
AND so, Iris’s new life at Chrysanthème Academy finally began. Like in HanaKoro, Reseda and Camille were assigned to the same homeroom class, as were Nigel and Mégane, while Iris was the odd one out.
As it turned out, Mégane was actually the daughter of the baron who’d adopted Camille. Now that they shared the same surname, the two of them had become good friends, but whenever Camille was with someone else, Mégane kept her distance, possibly out of shyness. Part of Iris wished she would stick around to protect Camille from the other noble girls, but perhaps this was asking too much. Mégane wasn’t strong-willed and catty like they were, after all.
These days, Iris’s only concern was keeping Camille locked out of the “Thousand-Year Slumber” route. And since Cytisus still had a girlfriend this time around, she couldn’t see him hooking up with Camille anytime soon. Other than that, she had no interest in derailing Camille’s love life, nor was she engaged to Reseda.
Frankly, if the future Holy Maiden paired up with the prince of the kingdom, they would make the perfect couple… Alternatively, now that Nigel had lost interest in chains, he was an option, too. Iris didn’t see an issue either way.
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IRIS stood in front of the campus bulletin board, staring up at the entrance exam results posted there.
Noooooooo!!!
First was the practical sword-fighting exam—Iris was confident she would do well in that one, and sure enough, she ranked first. Any less and she’d be in trouble. In the worst-case scenario, she needed to be able to overpower a prince, a mage, and a knight, then run away to safety! So, Iris entered the school tournament and mowed down the boys left and right until it was just her and Nigel. Then, when she defeated him, she was gloriously crowned the tournament winner. She raised her practice sword high in the air, and naturally, all the girls squealed.
Next, there was the magic exam…and Iris came in dead last. Of course. She knew she was going to. It made sense. She couldn’t cast a single thing. Even Nigel managed to summon a faint breeze, but not Iris. The fairies got so worried, they flew out of her hair and offered to help, but of course, she told them not to. That would be cheating, after all. While she was at it, Iris asked them not to enter school grounds, but they got mad and started tugging on her hair in protest. So, they settled on a compromise: no helping her with magic at school. After all, it was nice to have them around to talk to, since they were so very cute.
Lastly, there was a written exam. Here was her real problem: she had ranked first on this one as well. Iris should’ve let Camille beat her at this one, since she aced the magic exam. Iris remembered all the hours she’d spent playing HanaKoro, painstakingly grinding her stats so she could reach the top of the board… This was a critical moment for the game’s narrative. If Camille scored high, she would attract the attention of her chosen love interest. But while she ranked first on the magic exam, she was only second on the written exam.
Ugh, I haven’t broken her romance flags, have I?
On second thought, it was probably fine. While Iris wasn’t out to ruin her every opportunity to go on a date, it would certainly make the happy-bad endings easier to avoid if none of the main three were interested in her. Besides, she was pretty enough to attract plenty of other boys, right? So, Iris shrugged it off as a necessary evil.
Most of the exam questions were about things Reseda had previously taught her, and Iris recognized almost all of them from the game, so really, she just got lucky. But while she knew that there was no crime in having memorized random game facts, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d cheated. At the same time, however, it would have been wrong of her to mess up the answers on purpose…
Iris could feel other people’s eyes stabbing into her. She was the infamous first-year who had broken the Aptitude Stone, after all. No matter how hard she tried to explain that she’d merely slammed it too hard, no one believed a delicate high-born girl was capable of such a thing. Instead, they decided she was being modest!
Well, at least now these exam results made one thing clear: Iris had zero aptitude for magic, and she was unfit to be a Holy Maiden. Her future career was as a soldier and nothing more. Now everyone would accept that Iris had shattered the stone with brute strength alone!
“Very impressive, Iris,” Reseda called out to her. He had ranked second in magic, third on the written exam, and third in sword fighting, right below Nigel.
“I couldn’t have done it without your tutoring, Your Highness,” she replied, still feeling guilty.
“Reseda.”
“…Prince Reseda.”
“This isn’t why I tutored you, though,” he muttered quietly. But Iris didn’t understand what he meant by that, so she just stared at him blankly.
Nigel suddenly took her by the arm and pulled her away from Reseda. “You know, I wasn’t enthusiastic about you beating me in the tournament, but now, I see you ranked first on the written test, too. You’ve earned it, Iris. I’ll just have to catch up to you.”
“No, no, I just got lucky. You very nearly won that tournament,” Iris denied hastily. She did not want Nigel trying any harder than he already was. It was a very close competition, and truth be told, she almost lost. “Come to think of it, Nigel, you seemed unfocused while we were dueling. Without that distraction, you would have beaten me.”
He smiled stiffly. The “distraction” she spoke of was actually just him noticing how beautifully Iris fought when she was desperate, but he would sooner die than tell her that.
“No, it was precisely that lack of focus that makes me the lesser fighter. You deserved to beat me.”
He meant it, too. But if Iris was his biggest weakness, then he would never stand a chance against her one-on-one. He would simply have to work on building up his mental fortitude; after all, he couldn’t bear to let his sister beat him over and over.
Just then, Iris heard a commotion and looked over her shoulder. Camille and Mégane were standing at the bulletin board. Camille spotted Iris and her eyes lit up. Oh, good heavens, look at that perfect smile! Reflexively, Iris took a step back.
“Congratulations, Lady Iris! I expected nothing less from you!” She dashed over to Iris while Mégane watched her go.
“Likewise, you performed superbly as well, Miss Camille.”
“I worked really hard!”
Behind her, Iris could hear people whispering loudly:
“She’s so full of herself.”
“She has no manners.”
At this, Camille flinched. “I…I apologize for my rudeness, Lady Iris.”
Must be hard to be a protagonist, Iris thought with a heavy sigh. Then she announced in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear: “You truly seem to lack etiquette, don’t you, Miss Camille?”
“Urk…I…I’m sorry…” She shrank down into herself.
“I’ll simply have to teach you myself. I do hope you’re prepared, my dear.”
With a sneer, Iris cast her gaze around at everyone else. They all instinctively stepped back, including Mégane. Uh-oh. Am I overdoing the villainess thing?
The dense, pushy heroine suddenly grabbed Iris’s hand in delight. “Thank you so much, Lady Iris!”
Wait, what? But I’m supposed to be the villain here…
Though Iris was confused by her reaction, at the very least, she found she was relieved—and oddly excited—to have an excuse to give this girl some proper training.
First things first, we’ll start with the basics—like fixing that awful bedhead. I’ll make a lady out of you yet!