Chapter Five: Humans Are the most Arrogant of Beasts, Which Is Why They Are Strong
“……”
Aisha’s entourage stood in front of me. They seemed to be enjoying a good chat.
Initially, her entourage was only boys, but in the blink of an eye, noble girls were mixed in, if only the lower-ranking ones.
It seemed they had plans to use Aisha to move closer to the noble boys she’d bewitched. There were sons of counts among Aisha’s bewitched boys, which meant Aisha wasn’t an enemy for these girls hoping to marry up in rank; she was someone worth currying up to so they could use her.
Aisha was aware of their intentions. That meant she was letting herself be used by others to achieve her own goals.
She’s a cunning woman.
But unlike her, all the girls around her were cloistered ladies who’d never tasted filthy water. They were no match for me.
“They don’t know their place,” I said.
“What do you mean, Lady Selena?” asked Scarlanette, who was, for some reason, walking at my side. I ignored her and kept going.
It was obvious from how the ladies in Aisha’s entourage kept glancing at me that they were planning something.
If you’re going to set a trap for me, do it in a way I won’t see coming. Living in a world so cut off from danger must have made them honestly believe they could dig a pit in front of their prey, and it would wander right in without noticing. Nobles are so dumb. That would never happen.
Even a rabbit kit would bite a lion if it meant surviving. And I’m not a rabbit kit.
In this case, the stupid rabbit kits were approaching the lion with the intention of eating it. So dumb.
As I walked and contemplated that, one of the low-ranking noble girls stuck her leg out in front of me. It was probably meant to trip and, therefore, embarrass me.
Without hesitation, I stomped on her foot.
“Ack!”
“Lady Mina! Are you all right?”
It must have hurt since I put all my weight onto the heel of my high-heeled shoe. It might even have broken the smaller bones of her foot.
The girl crumpled to the ground in pain, and Aisha put on a concerned expression and went over to her. I ignored the rest of her shocked entourage and quickly kept moving.
“That’s satisfying,” said Scarlanette, giving Aisha and her entourage a disdainful look. “I can’t believe they tried something so juvenile.”
“Lady Selena,” said Aisha, locking her eyes on me while she went to the girl. “Even if it wasn’t on purpose, you should apologize when you step on someone’s foot. I don’t care how high-ranking you are; I cannot let this slide. I demand you apologize.”
“How dare— Urg!” Scarlanette was about to lay into Aisha, but I clamped a hand over her mouth. Her mouth kept moving as she tried to get me to tell Aisha off, but it wasn’t clear exactly what she said. You know, since I was covering her mouth.
If this were a scene in a tale, I would be the evil noble lady brandishing her status, perfectly happy to injure lower-ranking nobles, and Aisha would be the courageous heroine who stands up for her friends.
Though, this heroine’s heart wasn’t as beautiful as the heroines’ in the stories.
Not surprising, of course. The real world isn’t like the one in the stories, either. It’s full of filth.
“What an amusing thing to say, Miss Alaban,” I said. “You make it sound like I harmed that crouching fool over there.”
“You did.”
“There’s nothing worse than playing dumb.”
“It doesn’t matter if your father is a duke; you can’t get away with violence. How can you not understand that?”
This buzzing fly is so annoying.
And what I did doesn’t even constitute violence. You don’t know anything about violence, do you?
“All I did was walk by your group,” I said.
“You stepped on her foot. As you can see, she’s in pain,” said Aisha. Unlike the girls in her entourage, she was working to keep her emotions under control. Good job for not shouting. For as calm as she was, her yammering entourage just looked all the uglier.
She wasn’t just trying to paint me the cruel noble girl; she was looking down on these girls who approached her for their own benefit while using them as a backdrop to make her look better.
It’s such a shame she and I have ended up enemies just because she’s a student from Rienbul. If she joined the dark guild, I’m sure she’d make a very useful tool.
“Well, if I think of how she was moving and the direction I was moving in, I can’t see how I could’ve stepped on her foot if she hadn’t stuck her leg out in that unnatural fashion,” I said.
“Eep!” The noble girl Aisha called Mina paled just because I turned my eyes towards her.
It’s not like I’m going to do anything to someone as insignificant as you, I thought. What a rude girl.
“What were you thinking, getting in the way of a high-ranking noble?” I asked.
“……”
“If I were royalty, you could be punished for that.”
“……”
Mina trembled, unable to say anything. I realized the other flies had gone quiet, too.
“But Miss Alaban says I stepped on your foot,” I continued.
“…I…”
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you. Could you say that again?”
“I-I’m sorry. I was mistaken. Y-You didn’t step on my foot.”
“Oh. Of course not. Right, Miss Alaban?”
“I’m sorry, Lady Selena,” said Aisha. “It seems I was mistaken. I assumed you did something because she screamed as you were passing by. And I’d only just been told certain rumors about you.” She looked at the girls in her entourage.
“That’s no good. It would’ve been better if you’d taken those unverified rumors with a grain of salt rather than suspect me,” I said.
The ladies in her entourage told her those malicious rumors, and this whole incident was caused by low-ranking nobles trying to humiliate me. Aisha successfully let everyone around her know this, as well as the fact that she had just been caught up in it.
And there was one more person there to speak:
“Huh, guess it’s really not her fault.”
Oh, Scarlanette. I never thought of you as smart, but it seems you are actually a moron. I can’t blame the onlookers who stopped to watch partway as the event unfolded, but you’ve been here watching up close. How could you come to that conclusion? It makes me want to cut your head open and see what’s inside.