Page 272 of The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

Time flies quickly.

The ticking of the clock raced forward, just as quickly as the moments Shuen spent agonizing between friendship and love, refusing to wait for her decision.

But, of course, Shuen...

“No way!”

“Huh...?”

“I can’t hate him!”

“What...?”

“If my love was swayed by the words of a mere commoner, it would’ve happened ages ago!”

“Wow...”

“Why are you laughing? I’m being serious!”

“I just didn’t expect you to say it like that. It caught me off guard.”

“Well, I don’t have any friends anyway! So, it’s fine!”

Shuen kicked aside the method I had suggested. She declared that love suggested by a commoner wasn’t love at all, and that love is something you must conquer yourself, stubbornly clinging to her own determination.

Although she did agree on a few things.

“But, as the commoner said, I won’t confess in public. I wouldn’t want to trouble Senior Michail...! So, yes, you were right about that. Ohoho!”

She was a bold woman. Much bolder than I thought.

After that day, Shuen started visiting the convenience store even when there were people around. She used to avoid coming when others were present, not wanting to be caught up in strange rumors, but it seemed like she had broken free of that restraint. After all, since she had no friends, she stopped caring about others’ opinions.

“Commoner!”

“Are you not even going to use my name anymore?”

“I never used it in the first place!”

“That’s true.”

Rumors about me grew more and more widespread, and passersby called me a thief every time they walked past the store. But Shuen, who was used to dealing with such attention, ignored most of it.

Though it did seem to bother her a little.

“Ugh... Is my popularity soaring to the skies again today, commoner?”

“Pardon?”

“No one’s coming into the convenience store. It must be my noble aura...!”

“Haha! Shuen, do you know what they call that?”

“Conqueror’s Haki?!”

“No. It’s called overconfidence.”

“Ugh!!!”

Sitting across from me at the convenience store, eating one of the unsold lunch boxes, Shuen glanced around at the students walking by with sharp eyes.

Even someone like Shuen, who was used to being under scrutiny, would find this level of attention hard to endure.

“Ohoho... This young lady’s popularity has reached its peak. I’m on the verge of becoming the academy’s next big star!”

“Shuen, your hand is shaking.”

“That’s just your imagination.”

I couldn’t help but admire Shuen’s positive outlook, no matter how many times I witnessed it.

“But what exactly do you mean by ‘academy star’?”

“Ohoho~ It’s been my dream since high academy. Would you like to see it?”

Shuen rummaged through her bag and proudly handed me a worn leather notebook. The weathered leather showed years of attachment, and I smiled as I opened the notebook she presented with such confidence.

“?The Plan to Become the Empire’s Big Star, Shuen?”

“...”

-Flip.

I quickly shut the notebook, feeling secondhand embarrassment from its middle-schooler-like contents, and handed it back to her.

“Ohoho... Surprised, commoner?”

“It’s... not easy.”

“This is the plan I’ve had since I was 15! One day, I’ll sing at the academy’s talent show and make tons of friends...!”

“Please, stop...!”

I covered Shuen’s mouth with my hand, on the verge of bursting into laughter. If she said any more, I was afraid I might actually lose it.

“I understand, so please stop. Any more, and it’ll feel like I’m reliving some forgotten dark history...”

“Hah! So, the commoner dreamed of becoming a star like me too!”

She was certainly a girl with big dreams.

The academy thief didn’t seem to have any intention of being caught anytime soon. I knew who the ° N ?? v ?? l i g h t ° culprit was, but I had no desire to get involved, and it wasn’t exactly a huge deal.

What interested me more was the current state of things between Michail and Shuen.

Just as in the novel, Shuen had chosen the same project as Michail, and they’d been patrolling the academy together every evening.

So, with curious eyes, I asked Shuen about her recent activities. After all, the “great star Shuen” could wait. The more pressing matter was her love story.

“More importantly, Shuen, how’s the ‘Operation Seduce Michail’ going?”

“Ah... Senior Michail?!”

Shuen, clearly reluctant to switch topics, stuffed the notebook back into her bag and replied gruffly.

“It’s going well! But my grand dreams are more important than—”

“We can talk about that later...”

I shook my head, trying to steer her stubborn focus away from her strange ambitions.

“You’ve been working on a project with Michail lately, haven’t you?”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t you feel your heart pounding...?”

“Commoner, that’s arrhythmia!”

“...What?”

Shuen looked at me with a dead-serious expression.

“If your heart feels like it’s going to explode, that’s arrhythmia! It means you could collapse at any moment.”

“You don’t feel that way?”

“Huh?”

“Like, don’t you feel your heart race when you look at Michail?”

“Hmm...”

Shuen stared at me, her face marked with a large, metaphorical question mark.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“What?”

“I mean, I think he’s handsome from every angle. I’m too nervous to say anything, though.”

“Isn’t that your heart pounding?”

“My heart isn’t pounding. It’s beating normally.”

She was impossible to understand.

I put another unsold lunch box on the table and shut my mouth, wondering if Shuen wasn’t actually in love with Michail but just drawn to him because of his looks.

“Ohoho! I think I might have arrhythmia, commoner!”

“...Sure.”

“My heart skips a beat whenever I see these unsold lunch boxes! Thump-thump!”

“Oh, please...”

“Is this love?!”

“No, just eat.”

I glanced at Shuen and murmured to myself.

“Well, as long as she’s happy.”

It was easier to think of her as someone living in a field of cosmos flowers inside her head.

Another night had fallen over the academy.

Shuen, having shed her academy uniform for a dress, marched toward the designated meeting spot with determination.

“Today’s the day.”

The dress trailed behind her as she walked.

From afar, I could see the silhouettes of students gathered for the assignment. They had gathered to catch the thief who had been stealing supplies from the academy.

I spotted some members of the Magic Society. Students from the same magic department. And then—

“Oh, Shuen! Long time no see.”

There was an upperclassman Shuen didn’t particularly enjoy dealing with.

The freckled girl waved at Shuen and gave her a once-over from her legs to her neck before smirking.

“You’re all dressed up today.”

“Thanks.”

“Did you dress up because Michail’s coming?”

“...”

Shuen didn’t respond to the girl’s comment. She could tell from the tone that it wasn’t said with good intentions.

‘I’m not stupid.’

Vienna.

A senior in her third year, Vienna had publicly humiliated Shuen during a ranking battle in her first semester.

Vienna had deliberately taken a hit from a dodgeable spell, only to yawn and say, “This year’s freshmen are hopeless.”

‘She looks like a half-eaten sausage... so rude.’

Shuen didn’t like her.

Of course, Vienna had met her match with Histania Hanna, but Shuen believed that noble revenge was something she should handle herself, and she had been holding a grudge ever since.

Vienna gritted her teeth as she was ignored by Shuen in front of everyone. With her sensitive nature, she was about to reassert her authority when she suddenly went silent.

“Hey, when a senior speaks—”

The arrival of someone else shut her up like a mute.

“Sorry! Am I late?”

His brilliant silver hair. A sweet, melodic voice.

Michail greeted them all with an awkward smile.

“The professor asked me to help out with something, so I’m late. Sorry about that.”

As soon as the students gathered in the fifth-floor hallway saw Michail, they held their breath. After all, the reason they were all here was because of him.

Vienna, who had created the cold atmosphere, immediately brightened and greeted Michail cheerfully.

“It’s fine! We just got here ourselves.”

“Really? That’s a relief. I ran here because I thought you’d been waiting a long time.”

“Haha! Why would you run? We’re all your juniors, and you’re only 10 minutes late.”

“Well, a promise is—”

Listening to their exchange, Shuen muttered to herself, “A commoner making a noble wait for 10 minutes... If it weren’t Senior Michail, I would’ve demanded punishment.” She unconsciously covered her mouth with her hand, realizing that Ricardo’s advice about watching her words had saved her from saying something dangerous.

She silently nodded.

-Nod.

“Alright, let’s start our patrol.”

Michail stretched and began dividing up the patrol areas. He assigned the floors for everyone, deciding who would cover the first and fifth floors.

Everyone was on edge, playing rock-paper-scissors to see who would end up paired with whom.

And then—

“Rock!”

“Rock.”

Shuen and Michail were paired together.

“Ohoho... I’m paired with Senior Michail!”

“Looks like we’re partners again, Shuen. Just like last time. Let’s work well together today too.”

“Ohoho... yes.”

Shuen was elated. She was partnered with Michail.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and she felt like today was her lucky day.

But—

“Ugh, so annoying.”

“Again? Why is it always me who doesn’t get paired with him?”

Despite her joy, the glares from the dissatisfied students made it hard for Shuen to show her excitement.

‘A competition is a competition.’

The grumbling students hesitated, hoping someone would offer to switch partners.

And the worst of them was Vienna.

She outright ignored Shuen and addressed Michail directly.

“Michail, why don’t you partner with me today?”

“Huh...?”

“There was something I wanted to ask you about from last week’s swordsmanship class.”

“Oh... really?”

“Yeah. Why don’t you partner with me?”

“Well...”

Vienna slowly tried to coax Michail, laying out her thoughts.

“Come on, you know who the culprit is.”

“What are you talking about? Was there a witness?”

“Don’t play dumb. Michail, your problem is that you’re too nice.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“You can’t catch them because there’s no solid evidence, but you know who the thief is, right?”

“...”

Vienna looked down toward the lower floors, then opened her mouth with a casual tone.

“It’s the person who’s in the academy late at night.”

“...”

“And someone who doesn’t belong to the academy.”

“...”

“Someone desperate enough for money that they’d steal to make ends meet. Look, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The culprit is basically screaming, ‘Here I am!’ Don’t you agree?”

Vienna smirked.

“We just need to find some evidence and pin the blame on Ricardo.”

Michail’s expression hardened.

And then—

“You bitch!”

Shuen moved faster than anyone else.