Prologue
“LET me inform you of your place as a commoner in the Academy.”
Sophia Victorino smiled coldly down at me as the members of her entourage pinned me down.
She was a perfect beauty, the sort that turned heads, with glossy hair the color of milky tea and turquoise eyes. Sophia was the rival of the main character of the otome game Love & Magic Academy, commonly called Love Academy. She was what people called the villainess.
“Sophia, what are you doing?” came a voice.
“P-Prince Eric, why are you here?” she asked.
Sweeping into the scene was a gorgeous blond-haired young man. He was First Prince Eric Stallion of the Kingdom of Ronaudia, one of the love interests of Love Academy, and Sophia’s fiancé.
When Eric saves me from Sophia and her lackey’s bullying, that quickly draws Eric and me closer while distancing them from each other. As a result, she then comes to hate me and believes it is all my fault, making this an important scene for determining her fate as the villainess.
But that past never happened to me.
“Oh, Sophia, you are seriously so cute and hardworking. I love you.”
“Milia, what is this about all of a sudden?”
The two of us girls were in the cafeteria at the Academy during lunch break. I threw my arms around Sophia, and she smiled bashfully.
I was reincarnated into the world of Love Academy as its protagonist, Milia Rondo, and Sophia was my best friend in this game world turned real.
When I got reincarnated here, I had lost my memories of my previous life. But I loved Love Academy and didn’t want to ruin its world, so I tried to act as Milia did in the game. However, in the process of playing that role, I didn’t realize I was treating the people of this world like they were just game characters.
That said, it was a real world. Everyone had emotions and was living their lives like normal people. When I realized that, I decided to live not as Milia in the game, but as myself. I decided to pay attention to what everyone was feeling and thinking, and then engage with them accordingly. Thanks to that, Sophia became my friend, and I’m getting along well with the other students, too.
And as much as I hate to admit it, it was all thanks to Arius.
“Don’t convince yourself you know what sort of people they are. If you don’t think about why someone might do something, you’ll never be able to understand them.”
With ice-blue eyes that could look straight through you and a confident smile on his lips, Arius had opened my perspective on the world. He was the son of the kingdom’s chief minister and one of Love Academy’s love interests, the bookish type with glasses. Or should have been. The Arius of this world was totally different from the Arius in the game.
He was reincarnated just like me. Arius had a know-it-all attitude and could do literally anything. It’s seriously annoying. He helped me when Sophia’s entourage surrounded me and even protected us when we were attacked during class in the dungeon.
Right now, Arius was eating his lunch at a table a short distance away from Sophia and me. Most of the students around him, particularly the girls, had their attention on him since there was a rumor that he’d done a lot during the attack in the dungeon. Arius was the kind of person to forge his own path, though, so he didn’t seem to care about what was going on around him at all. That was really like him.
He finished eating, then came over to us and said, “You two really do seem like good friends, but anyway, I’m heading out.”
“Wait, Arius, are you planning to skip class again?” I asked.
He was adventuring while attending classes at the Academy. His life centered more around dungeons than school, and he went straight there once lessons were over, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Lately, he’d been skipping school too.
I didn’t even get to see him all that much. Arius and I weren’t in the same class, so I only saw him during lunch or when our lessons combined. Now that he’s been going to the dungeons, I’ve seen him even less.
Not that I’m, like, sad or anything that I can’t see him.
“You’re so free, Arius,” commented Sophia with a gentle smile. “You have enough strength to live without being bound by anyone. I need to learn from you and work more on myself.”
“I just do what I want, Sophia. I’m nothing special,” he replied.
“Hee hee. We’ll say that’s the case.”
Just like the game, Sophia was engaged to Prince Eric in this world, but she and Arius were really, really close. Seriously, I’m almost jealous—I mean, no, what am I even thinking?!
Arius and I are just friends. And he said he’s not interested in romance at all anyway, right? Besides, I think it’s a good thing my best friend, Sophia, is close to my friend, Arius. Just…
I can’t help wondering what her feelings are for him…