Gill falls silent in thought. Has my answer displeased him? Well, my personal feelings are immaterial. The nobility do not act on their own personal feelings.
“It’s written in the Holy Book…that the Devil killed ten people.” Gill’s voice is low and quiet, and grimmer than ever before. “But God? He killed two hundred, thirty-eight thousand, three hundred, and forty-four people.”
Gill gazes into the distance as he whispers this. A brief silence hangs between us.
God killed far more people than the Devil ever did. That is what Gill is trying to say. But my brain can’t quite make sense of it all.
“So listen to me, Alicia… I don’t care if everyone calls Liz Cather a saint. In my eyes, the only saint in this world is Alicia Williams.”
His gaze is so solemn that I am at a loss for words. What wise eyes he has. If Duke were king and Gill were his prime minister, this world would probably become a much better place than it is now.
As I ponder over what to say to Gill, we arrive at Duke’s classroom.
“Nobody’s in here.” I look around the empty room.
“You’re right. I wondered why there weren’t any sounds coming from the room.”
Are they having an outdoor class? Well, this was a waste of time.
“Hey…do you hear somebody crying?” Gill frowns and looks at me.
……I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do hear the faint but distinct sound of somebody crying.
“There.”
“Huh?”
Gill points straight to the back of the classroom. Chestnut hair. It looks familiar… Who is it? She is looking down, so I can’t tell.
“Who’s there?” She looks up, sensing our presence. Ah, now I know. That’s Emma, one of Liz’s devotees. The girl who tried to bait me into a trap. If she’s in this classroom, that means she must be older than me. “What…are you…doing here…?”
She looks at me with a bewildered gaze. She isn’t hiding her freckles today. With a look of panic on her face, Emma roughly wipes her tears with her sleeve and hurries toward the door.
“Wait—you were here first. We’ll leave,” I say.
Emma freezes, a suspicious look on her face. “It’s all your fault… I know you’re just going to tell everyone I was crying in here, aren’t you?”
Emma’s voice gets rougher with each passing second. Either she is genuinely angry with me, or she is just taking it out on me.
“You ridiculed my appearance that day… You humiliated me in front of Miss Liz!”
She seems angry with me…but Liz would never cast aside someone for something so petty. She has the literal heart of a saint.
……Did somebody do something to her? Not like it’s any of my business.
“Sorry we disturbed you. We’re leaving now.”
“What—is that pity? You feel sorry for me, so you’ll give me some space to cry alone? Well, your little act of kindness doesn’t make me feel even slightly better.”
Wow, she really must detest me. Not like I didn’t know this before, but for her to resent me so deeply, I truly am a villainess, aren’t I? I slowly approach her. Emma looks a bit frightened, but she shows no sign of backing down. She just stares at me with contempt, not moving a muscle.
“Wh-what?”
Her eyes are red and swollen. She must have been crying an awful long time…
“I saw nothing. So I’ll say nothing.”
“Huh?”
“If you want to cry, it’s best to let it out.”
Emma looks at me with wide eyes.
“I’ll erect a barrier around this classroom for you. Nobody outside will be able to hear you, and nobody will come inside. Don’t worry—when you’re ready to leave this classroom, the barrier will dissolve on its own.”
And without a word more, I turn to leave the classroom.
“It’s a lie, and we both know it—you’re tricking me the way I tricked you!” Emma yells, her eyes a flowing river of tears.
“But I have nothing to gain by exacting revenge on you,” I argue.
“Oh, stop playing! You hate me, and we both know it!”
“Did somebody say something to you?”
Emma freezes, clearly feeling a wave of emotional turbulence.
“That’s none of your business!”
That means yes.
“You’re right; it is none of my business… But strong-willed people like you, who think that to cry means defeat, as a rule, they hold back their tears. That’s why I’m telling you, it’s a good idea to open the floodgates and have a big cry now and then. So why don’t you stay here until you feel better?”
Before she can say anything, I leave the classroom. I don’t know what sort of look is on Emma’s face as she watches me go. With a snap of my fingers, I erect a barrier around the classroom. And just before the walls go up, I hear a wailing cry from inside the classroom.
……I’m not particularly interested in Emma, but she seems to be going through a lot.
“You know…sometimes I think…,” Gill starts to say.
“What?”
“…that you’re actually a people pleaser, Alicia.”
“Don’t be silly.” I laugh in reply. “I’m not a people pleaser—that’s what you’d call Liz.”
Gill rolls his eyes at me.
“What?” I demand.
“Nothing. It’s just, if you keep going down that path, the saint’s position will…”
Gill’s voice got weaker and weaker, so I can’t tell what he said. I want to know, but he wouldn’t tell me even if I asked him to repeat it.
“We’re going to look for Prince Duke now,” I say.
We quickly march down the hall. We wander around the building, but we can’t find him anywhere.
“Are special classes really this difficult to find?” I sigh. “Maybe it’s because I cast that spell earlier, but I’m hungry.”
“Want to go to the dining hall? I doubt anyone will be there this time of day.”
“Yes, let’s go,” I agree.
The hallway is silent, save for our footsteps. Because of that, the voices coming from the dining hall are all the louder as we arrive.
“Emma got what she deserved.”
“I know she wants Liz to love her, but she got way too big for her britches.”
“She’s been so annoying. This is the only way we can deal with her.”
Sigh… When will I ever enjoy a quiet, relaxing meal in the dining hall? I quietly peer into the dining hall so the gossiping girls won’t notice me. Oh my, that’s a familiar face… She was the girl Emma used, I believe? The one who used earth magic to record my voice… Marika, I think. The other two girls are new faces to me.
Marika is like the quintessential NPC. She doesn’t look all that important…but in that moment, she has the face of a villainess. So she’s capable of some beautiful expressions after all.
“She was always so bossy—I just got sick of her self-centered attitude.”
“She made us do all the work, and she took all the credit—she’s really the worst.”
“She’s not even human. She hit me once.”
“A girl like Emma could never support someone like Liz.”
“That’s for sure. Wouldn’t Emma be better suited to support that Williams bitch?”
“Hey, she’s technically in the Great Five! We’d better call her Lady Aliciaaaa.”
“Eww, I don’t wanna call her by name.”
Emma truly is suffering the consequences of her own actions.
……But still, the way they’re trash-talking me is penetrating me like a drug. This is exhilarating! I have to up my efforts, so that they spread those nasty rumors about me even further. Their trash-talking doesn’t relent—it starts to heat up.
“Remember how terrified Emma looked when we pulled knives on her?! That was epic.”
“For sure! The look on her face was sheer poetry!”
“Little Miss Smug and Confident cowering in fear…”
“Oh, she shook when we hid the dead rat in her bag, too.”
“Oooh, I loved when we all threw our knives at the wall behind her!”
“I know! She fell to her knees and almost cried!”
Shrill cackles fill the air.
My ears are bleeding. Their actions were just too cruel… They are the worst, not Emma.
“Gill, hand me your knife,” I whisper crisply.
Gill smoothly hands me his knife. “Here you go.” Then he sighs and says, “Every time we come to the dining hall, we always get caught up in some drama.”