Chapter 10
The hallway was empty.
“Sigh…”
Sue, who had been standing there with a smile plastered on her face, finally dropped the act and covered her face with her hands, her expression pained.
*How many times has this been…!*
She was tired of even counting how many times she had been rejected from social gatherings.
She had a general idea, but Sue’s social standing was far worse than she had imagined.
Loneliness wasn’t the problem, but it seemed Sue couldn’t live exactly like ‘Sue’. So, she had decided to try and make some allies.
She had repeatedly done things that the original ‘Sue’ would never have done, like asking other young ladies to invite her to tea parties and trying to join their conversations. But as she could see, the results were all failures.
She was constantly being rejected from gatherings for all sorts of reasons, and even when she tried to be kind, everyone suspected it was an act. Ironically, this change in Sue’s behavior only made her seem even more suspicious.
A few days ago, she had simply asked her classmate, Krantz, what book she was reading, and Krantz, who was known for her kind nature, had trembled and blurted out, “I’m sorry, Lady Byron!” It was a bizarre sight.
As a result, the rumor that Sue was bullying Krantz spread, and Sue was mocked by Hanjee all day long.
Sue arrived at the music room and sat down at a random empty seat. Since there was no assigned seating in the music room, no one sat near her.
In the Black Eagle Class of just over twenty students, she was completely isolated. But this was no one’s fault but Sue Byron’s own.
She had looked down on and belittled her classmates, boasting about her connections to the Lopetrefer family, and had even used those connections to threaten them. Some of them had probably been to the basement of the glass garden, and there were definitely more to come.
No matter how much they tried to keep the events of the glass garden a secret, no one would want to be friends with Sue, even without that.
That’s why even Sue, who had been naively optimistic, was starting to realize something.
It would be nearly impossible to drastically change the public perception of Sue Byron as a spoiled brat.
After racking her brains for a while, she finally gave up on everything.
*Let’s just focus on studying. What’s the point of having friends anyway? It’s better to use the time I would spend making friends to find a way to break the curse.*
From that day forward, Sue never spoke to Krantz again. She didn’t ask to be invited to tea parties, she didn’t try to join other people’s conversations, and she didn’t force herself to act friendly.
Sue Byron’s strange behavior over the past few days had come to an end, yielding no results.
* * *
It was early in the morning, inside the moving carriage, when she spotted a familiar face on the street.
“Huh?”
On her way to the academy, Sue was looking out the window as usual when a familiar male figure caught her eye.
“Noel… is that you?”
It was only for a brief moment while the carriage was stopped, but Sue had definitely seen him. It was Raines Noel, talking to someone in a back alley.
*‘Did your mother tell you that again? That since Noel isn’t coming to the academy, you should stick to me?’*
It was him, the owner of the name that had suddenly come up during her argument with Hanjee.
Raines Noel Delpheman.
The heir to the Noel count family, he was in the same Black Eagle Class as Sue, but he was also a squire in the Royal Knights.
Because of his status as a squire, he often missed academy classes, even though he was a student, and this had been especially true lately. As a result, Hanjee had been bothering Sue more frequently, and Noel’s name had come up during their argument.
Because he was one of the Skias, like Sue and Hanjee.
*But why is he there at this hour? What about the Knights?*
The assembly time for the Knights’ trainees was an hour earlier than the academy’s start time. In other words, it was strange for Noel, who often missed academy classes because of his Knights training, to be on the streets of the capital at this hour.
She wondered if she had seen wrong, but the distinct blue hair of the Noel count family and the academy uniform he was wearing left no room for doubt.
Noel seemed to be talking to someone in the back alley of a shopping district. She couldn’t see the other person’s face. The carriage started moving again before she could get a better look.
*Well… something must have come up.*
The noise of the bustling street quickly drew Sue’s attention elsewhere.
In the first place, Raines Noel was practically a stranger to ‘Sue’. They had barely spoken a few words to each other.
*Well, who would she even talk to?*
Even so, it seemed ‘Sue’ had harbored some negative feelings towards Raines Noel. Perhaps it was because he was a Skia like her and was friends with her nemesis, Hanjee.
Whatever it was, it was all in the past.
“Did you hear? The rumor that Noel was expelled from the Knights?”
That afternoon, when Sue had completely forgotten about Noel, the scene from that morning resurfaced in her mind.
“What? Why?”
“It’s just a rumor for now, but…”
It was because the voices of the students sitting behind her were quite loud.
“I heard Noel hasn’t been showing up for Knights training for a while now.”
“Really? So it wasn’t because of the training that he wasn’t coming to the academy?”
“The other trainees in the Knights are showing up just fine. And when they ask about him, they just say they don’t know.”
“No way…”
“I can’t believe it either. Raines Noel, the prodigy of the First Knights, expelled from the Knights?”
The student who had first brought up Noel shrugged with a bewildered expression. They gossiped about Noel for a while before changing the subject and continuing their conversation.
*Hmm… So he was on the streets this morning because he was expelled from the Knights?*
Sue kept her eyes fixed on the ‘Fundamentals of Magic’ textbook, but her mind was replaying the scene from that morning.
Come to think of it, not only had he been on the streets instead of at the Knights’ training ground that morning, but he had also been wearing the academy uniform instead of the Knights’ uniform.
He hadn’t even been wearing the squire uniform, which was given to apprentice knights. The squire uniform was a darker color than the academy uniform, and the epaulettes were different, so Sue couldn’t have been mistaken.
*I guess everyone has their own problems.*
A few questions popped into her head, but Sue quickly dismissed them, just like she had that morning.
She had far more important things to worry about than Noel, whom she had barely seen today.
Sue checked the time on her pocket watch. It was almost time for lunch with Enzhe. She closed her textbook and stood up.
“Lady Enzhe, shall we go?”
Sue stopped by the Golden Lion Class to pick up Enzhe and headed to the dining hall.
Upon arriving at the dining hall, Sue first found an empty table in a secluded spot and summoned a servant to clean the area.
“Two of today’s set menu, please.”
Then, after seating Enzhe, Sue went to the counter to order their meals. There was a self-service buffet, but Enzhe always preferred freshly cooked food.
Once the food was served, their meal began.
They didn’t have lunch together every day. Enzhe usually dined in the glass garden, but occasionally she would summon Sue and have a meal in the dining hall. This only happened when they had something important to discuss.
“Sue, how are things going?”
“Nothing much. Everyone seems to be behaving themselves.”
No one in the dining hall knew that this seemingly ordinary conversation, where they inquired about each other’s well-being, was actually something else entirely.
There was only one reason why Enzhe, who hated noisy places, would deliberately have lunch with Sue.
To receive a report.
Sue secretly called these lunches with Enzhe ‘regular report meetings’. It was a very straightforward name.
The regular report meetings were held every few weeks or months, where Sue would report on any individuals in the academy who might be displeasing to Enzhe.
It wasn’t a regular occurrence, but after the Damon Keron incident last year, Sue had been having lunch with Enzhe at least once a week. Lately, the frequency had been decreasing.
“I see. Let me know immediately if anything unusual happens. It’s troublesome if things escalate later.”
Enzhe murmured in a delicate voice, lifting her glass. Sue nodded immediately, replying, “Yes!”
There were two main types of people who displeased Enzhe.
Those who defied Enzhe Lopetrefer, even slightly, or showed any sign of doing so. And those who showed romantic interest in Shina Fritz.
‘Sue’ had been diligently searching for any dissidents who might offend Enzhe at the academy. Most of the people she identified were dealt with by Sue or Melaine, but those who were unlucky enough ended up as ‘sacrifices’ in the glass garden.
Observing this system, Sue couldn’t help but think that villains were surprisingly organized.
Anyway, Sue inwardly sighed in relief after successfully getting through another regular report meeting.
Having to continue acting as a third-rate supporting villain while planning her escape from being a third-rate supporting villain…
It wasn’t a pleasant situation.
Just then, a shadow suddenly fell over Sue as she was leisurely putting a piece of steak into her mouth.
“?”
Sue turned around without thinking and froze.