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AFTER our rendezvous, I strolled down the school hallway in a wonderful mood, clutching Siraiya’s notebook to my chest. But soon, a girl with pink hair blocked my path.
Oh, I think I vaguely remember her. The girl’s existence had nearly faded from my memory completely.
“Oh my. It’s Elly, of Eddie/Elly.”
“Excuse me? Why are you calling me that?!” she protested.
I guess that would make me Cynthia of Siraiya/Cynthia.
It was sort of a mouthful, but it had a good ring to it.
“I want to know what you did to Eddie!” she demanded. “Why isn’t he coming to school anymore?!”
“Oh, now that you mention it, he’s been absent, hasn’t he? It’s been a lot more peaceful around campus lately.”
“Don’t pretend not to know what I’m talking about! I know you did something to him! And why did you break off your engagement, anyway?! That’s supposed to happen at his graduation party! The story’s moving too quickly!”
“It was an annulment of our contract and was done quite peacefully. Oh, I see. Since we didn’t call things off at the engagement party, Eddie has no one to pay his school expenses. Perhaps he’ll have to drop out,” I mused.
“Drop out?! You can’t be serious! I can’t let that… Wait, if you understand what I’m talking about, does that mean you reincarnated here too?!”
That was the question I was about to ask.
The heroine appeared to have been someone reincarnated as a game character as well. What exactly did fate have in mind for us?
The two of us must have existed in the same world at the same time if we both knew this game. However, considering what I’d seen of her morals so far, I didn’t care to sit around reminiscing about past lives with a person like her.
“Well, you probably shouldn’t go around just telling people stuff like that. They’ll send you to an abbey if they think you’ve gone mad.”
“I knew it! You are like me!”
I wasted no time in my admission, since no one was around. But I stopped short of saying anything definitive. If she ever admitted to being reincarnated while witnesses were around, it would genuinely be easy enough to have her sent to an abbey. That was why I decided to imply I had reincarnated just like her.
The best outcome would be for the two of us to stay far apart as we separately pursued our own happiness. But I doubted I could convince her to leave me alone.
“Hey… Wait a minute! Is that Siraiya’s study guide?! Why do you have that?!” she shouted.
“Siraiya gave it to me. I address him by his first name with his permission, but you need to refer to him as Lord Brooke. That’s proper etiquette amongst nobles.”
Half of my warning came from anger, while the other half was a genuine desire to set her on the right course. But the heroine sneered rudely at me. It was strange to see an expression like that on a face that was designed to always come across as innocent and sweet.
“Don’t tell me. Are you aiming for the crown prince’s route? Maybe you’ve forgotten that you’re the villainess, not the heroine. You ought to know your place!”
“I wouldn’t speak so disrespectfully. His Royal Highness already has a proper fiancée in his life. Siraiya and I are simply enjoying our time together for unrelated reasons.”
“Huh…? Wait, do you actually like yandere characters? Ugh, you can’t be serious! You know what Siraiya does to the heroine, don’t you? He commits murder-suicide with her! It’s totally disgusting. I’m not even going near the crown prince’s route because I don’t want to run into Siraiya. You’ve got seriously bad taste, you know that?”
But is Siraiya really going to turn yandere?
It wouldn’t be unthinkable if I cut him out of my life now. But that wasn’t going to happen. My only desire was to help heal his heart after so many years of torment.
“I’m going to warn you about your manners one more time,” I said, ignoring her rude comments about my tastes. “Addressing Siraiya by his first name and remarking on the crown prince’s private life are both acts of disrespect. I recommend you keep your strange remarks about reincarnation to yourself as well. You don’t want to end up in an abbey, do you?”
“Are you threatening me? There’s no ending where the heroine gets sent to an abbey,” she huffed. “But maybe it’s in the cards for a villainess like you.”
“I’m being perfectly polite. If you have nothing else to say to me, then I’ll be on my way. I’m sure you understand that my family is no longer able to cover Lord Dorris’ school fees. Farewell, then.”
I tried to pass by her, but she grabbed my shoulder. She had an impressive grip.
“Wait! If that’s the case, then give me that notebook!” she demanded. “I’m aiming for the prime minister’s son’s route, so I need to raise my academic skill! That notebook should do the trick!”
Give me a break, will you? I would never hand over the notebook Siraiya made just for me—especially not to another girl. And never the heroine.
“Are you stupid?” I scoffed. “Just having this notebook won’t be enough to raise your intelligence level. This is real life now, so the only way to boost your grades is to study. Or maybe…you want to boost Siraiya’s affection toward you? Heh! Then, you’d better learn how to swim.”
“…Urk!”
A sinister smirk from the face of a villainess appeared to make quite an impact.
Imagining her fate, the heroine retracted her hand in fear.
“Now farewell for real this time. I hope you’ll find your happiness somewhere far away from me,” I said as I walked away for good this time.
She scrunched up her face in defeat but made no attempt to follow me.
I could only pray that this spelled the end of our interactions.