However, before she could, Finney began speaking first for some reason. “Back when Yui was being bullied, Charlotte, brandishing her sense of righteousness, told the teacher, which only made the bullying even worse. With no other options, Yui had to fight back against the bullies. Then, when the bullying disappeared because of that, Charlotte didn’t know the real reason and had assumed that it was thanks to her. She told Yui something like, ‘I’m here for you, so it’ll be okay.’ Apparently, after that, Charlotte tried to push her misguided good intentions on Yui, and she caused a lot of trouble for her.”
After listening to Finney’s condensed and abridged version of events, her friends all looked at her with pity in their eyes.
“I didn’t know,” Lyle said.
“That sucks,” Ivo said.
“So that’s why you were so annoyed, Yui,” Clois said.
Yui thought back on the details of that time in her life.
Back when Yui was at the elementary school for nobles, the students there had all looked down on her for being a Liefe. Those born in the noble houses that served the kingdom invariably had strong magic. It was unknown whether they had attained their positions because of this strength or as the result of generations of political marriages between magically powerful individuals, but it was said that the higher one’s rank in court, the stronger one’s magic power. To the noble children in whom this belief was instilled, Yui, who had been born to a count but was a Liefe, must have been an oddity.
By the time Yui had become aware of this, bullying like shunning and gossiping was already an everyday occurrence for her. She was only a girl in elementary school. A normal child might have cried to their parents, stopped going to school, and spent their days wallowing in sadness, but not her. This wasn’t a front or a bluff; she really didn’t think anything of it—of course, it was only shunning and gossip. Yui always spent her breaks reading, so if anything, she gladly accepted the isolation. Rather than having to waste time with subtle noble social maneuvering, she could leisurely read books instead. And when she was focused, the voices of those around her faded into the background, so their insults lost all meaning. She knew that she was being bullied, but her days at school were pleasant and stress-free.
However, when an outsider—Charlotte—had seen this, she protested to the other students, telling them to stop their bullying. She was the daughter of a marquess, so they went along with her at first, but only on the surface. When Charlotte found out that the bullying continued when she wasn’t there, she came to Yui and suggested that they go get help from the teacher. That would’ve normally been a just and righteous action, but Yui was honestly happy with how things were, which made Charlotte’s proposal an enormous pain in the neck. So, she refused. She told Charlotte how much she preferred her current situation and how comfortable she was, then asked the girl to stop, because if they told the teacher, the bullying might get worse. Yui was desperate—her relaxed life was in danger of being destroyed, after all. But in the end, Charlotte didn’t try to understand her. She ignored her plea and complained to the teacher anyway. And, just as Yui had feared, the bullies thought that she’d tattled on them, and the torment got worse.
While it had originally just been innocuous insults, the bullies escalated to doing real harm. Yui’s things started going missing, and the bullies began to physically attack her. After that, Yui lost her leisurely reading time, and when someone took one of her precious books and hid it, she had no other choice but to painstakingly deal with every single one of the bullies. After all, if she had wanted to make them stop, she could have done so whenever she pleased. It just would’ve been tedious. She had let them be because she would have much rather used the time to read. Despite that, Charlotte had intervened, which meant that Yui had to waste all that potential reading time. Yui could’ve even tolerated it if things had ended at that. She knew that Charlotte had honestly been trying to help, so she tried to take it positively...even if Charlotte’s actions had ended up making the bullying worse.
The real problem came after that. Charlotte didn’t realize at all what she had done, and she mistakenly assumed that the bullying had gone away because of her own proactive efforts. She went up to Yui with a satisfied look on her face that was just begging for Yui to praise her and said, “If anything happens again, let me know.”
That was the first time Yui had been so taken aback by something that she momentarily lost her ability to speak. And what was more, Stella then harshly yelled at her for not thanking Charlotte for what she had done. If anything, Yui wanted an apology from Charlotte for making the bullying worse, but Stella was blind to her mistress’s faults, and she continued to attack Yui for being in the wrong.
All of that repeated several times after that, in one form or another. Yui imagined that Charlotte thought she had done something good, but Charlotte’s good actions were always self-righteous and egotistical, done against Yui’s wishes, and only ever made Yui worse off. If it had been only once or twice, that would’ve been one thing, but as it continued, even Yui, who hardly ever got angry, had a limit. Especially when Stella made false and irrelevant accusations of rudeness and ungratefulness every time.
Charlotte was kind and respectful, which made her well-liked, but there were some who absolutely detested her. They, like Yui, had been subjected to Charlotte’s misguided attempts at justice. But there was nothing that could be done so long as Charlotte didn’t realize this herself. She could only think about things insofar as they conformed to her own sense of the world, and she didn’t understand—no, she didn’t try to understand—that everyone had their own beliefs and ways of doing things. For better or for worse, she was a sheltered noble lady—that was Yui’s opinion of her. It also didn’t help that Stella was always by her side, showering her with constant, effusive praise for her righteousness.
Up until that point, Yui could content herself with where things were. But only up until that point. Charlotte was in class A, which meant that, barring any irregular circumstances like the present one, they would never see each other. But there was one big problem remaining. Actually, Yui had just discovered it.
Yui snapped out of her memories and turned to Finney. “Hey... Don’t you think it’s about time we had a nice, long talk?” Yui asked.
“Ha ha, what, after all this time? Could it be a confession of your love for me? Sorry, but can’t we just stay good friends?”
“Yeah, I’d like to stay friends with you too...”
“Then it’s mutual, aha ha ha... Um, why do you look so angry? Your cute face is going to go to waste—”
Before Finney could finish speaking, Yui grabbed him by his collar and, with cold, angry eyes, got up close to him. “Hey, Finney,” she said in a quiet, subdued voice, “why do you know about what happened when I was in elementary school? I haven’t even told my brothers about her. Just where did you get that information from?! Spit it out! Spit it out now!”
Yui had questioned his uncanny knowledge many times. For example, he had known when some older girls had called her out to pick a fight, and what she had done afterward. She was sure that back then, Finney hadn’t been there either. Up until now, she had avoided pressing him on it, but she couldn’t just ignore it—especially when he knew something with such detail that it was almost like he’d witnessed it himself. Yui had only met Finney in middle school, and it should have been impossible for him to know about Charlotte.
Today is the day I’ll finally make him talk. He’ll tell me how the heck he gets his information! she thought, putting all her power into her arms and shaking Finney.
“I won’t tell you my sources that easily,” Finney said. He had a big grin on his face, and he didn’t say anything more.