NOTHING more was said as Sayaka and Asuka were solemnly led away to the student guidance office. Later, standing before the bulletin board outside the staff room, I caught sight of a notice declaring their sentence: three days of community service for inappropriate behavior. A light punishment in writing, but the true consequences—their ignominious defeat against a Sakurazaka—resounded far louder through the school’s corridors. The whispers about my lineage gradually evaporated, not because the truth had been settled either way, but because the corporate students shuddered at the thought of sharing Sayaka and Asuka’s fate.
All that to say: Every piece had fallen precisely into place, orchestrated by Shizuki’s ingenious plan. It was honestly quite clever. Had the truth of my lineage been disclosed from the outset, it would have served as fertile ground for contempt over my “commoner” origins. However, by weaving a more tantalizing scandal—the alleged falsification of my identity—the focus was masterfully shifted, drawing eyes away from my humble beginnings to the sensational prospect of me being an imposter among the Sakurazakas.
Now, with this incident, the reality of my common upbringing was exposed, yet I was confident it would no longer serve as ammunition against me. My biggest and most apparent vulnerability had been a cleverly laid trap, and with the fresh memory of Sayaka and Asuka’s downfall, none would dare test if this was another, not when nobody knew what lay swirling under the surface.
Then, almost anticlimactically, I became a member of Setsugekka. With this induction, my character as the villainess was fully realized, the Academy now set as the grand stage for a performance steeped in malevolence. Yet, amidst all this, one nagging thought lingered: just how much of a coincidence had it been really that’d led Shizuki to select me as her proxy?
What was the probability that I, the girl who had once saved her bag from a would-be pickpocket, just happened to have been the progeny of a disowned member of the Sakurazaka family? In this world, where someone like Nonoka can find themselves as the heroine from an otome game, stranger things have certainly happened. With everything Shizuki had hidden from me, who was to say there wasn’t more? Like, a lot more?
But regardless of what she concealed, Shizuki was someone who’d shown genuine concern for my well-being. We’d shared trials and tribulations. My pain had been her pain, and because of that, she’d earned my unwavering trust. I harbored no doubt in my mind that she would honor her vow to save Shizuku when the time came.
And so, my saga was just beginning. My aim remained unaltered: to reach that bittersweet denouement, the final scene where the villainess, in an act of self-sacrifice, ensures the joy and salvation of all—the happy ending scripted in the original otome game, a path I was now set to tread.