Chapter 65

It's been a while since a truly terrible person has appeared.

As usual, it's a short one because it's a chest-irritating pseudo-heroine.

A sound of something breaking can be heard. It’s hard to tell if it’s porcelain or glass, but it’s the sound of something hard breaking.

Cain, who had been crouching in the corner of the dimly lit room, slowly raised his head.

He understood that her tantrum had started again, as it always does. There are only a few people in this dim, dilapidated mansion.

The one who gets angry, the one who gets hit, and the one who tries to stop them.

With heavy steps, he stood up and opened the door. The people at the center of the storm were in the room not far away.

"Why can't I see Lady Grail!?"

"L-Leonaria... calm down, it’s impossible to see Grail no matter what you do to Graham."

Graham, who had been hit with a teacup still containing its contents, was crouching and pressing his forehead.

Cain tried to calm down the hysterical Leonaria, but she coldly pushed him away, saying, "Don’t touch me!"

"Why!?! That Albertina, where did she hide the drugs?! Why wasn’t there a dungeon?! If I had found that, I would have definitely won!"

Leonaria, enraged by the situation, was spreading her anger.

Her expression, which should have been lovely, was now as ugly as a demon's, with intense frustration and indignation seeping through.

Leonaria, who had lost the glory of the academy and was now being pursued, had become quick to anger.

"Truly, the villainous lady has a wicked mind... I will definitely, definitely catch her tail."

"L-Leonaria... I’m sorry. It’s my fault..."

"Really. I even gave you the best information! Lady Grail isn’t there! Albertina can’t be killed! And to top it all off, I got caught... It’s nothing but failures."

Leonaria glared at Graham, who was apologizing, in a high-handed manner.

The cottage only had herbs and medicinal plants, including the ingredients for Albertina’s favorite herbal tea, so it was natural that they couldn’t be found.

Albertina, who was practically isolated from the secular world, didn’t deal in illegal drugs, didn’t use them, and had no connection to them.

"Lucas and Leoard don’t cooperate at all and are useless! Findor just went back to the academy and pretended he didn’t know... After all the care I gave him, he’s ungrateful."

Findor had only been flattering Leonaria because he was ordered to monitor her at the academy. The idea that he had been manipulating her was a misunderstanding on Leonaria’s part.

Kistaria and Michaelis were quite distant from Leonaria.

As a result, the only ones left at Leonaria’s disposal were Graham and Cain. Joshua had been expelled from the academy along with Lucas and sent to the frontier as a common soldier.

She had failed to secure her main and secondary targets.

Moreover, the fact that she was wanted made her life even more miserable, as she had to act in secret.

"Could this be a bad ending? ...No, I’ve never heard of a pattern like this. Which route am I on now? I have to get back on the right path... Lady Grail’s route is quite complex and hard to understand, so maybe this is it."

Leonaria began to mutter to herself, thinking.

A hand tugged at her skirt.

"...What, Graham?"

"G-Give me a snack. Give me a snack. I’m at my limit. I’m going crazy. I’m going to go crazy. Snack, snack, snack."

"You’re so annoying. Stop it, you’re dirty."

Graham, who looked like he was about to foam at the mouth, had bloodshot eyes and was trembling. With blood streaming from his temple, he was looking at Leonaria with a fanatical expression.

Cain shuddered for a moment at the terrifying sight. Leonaria only frowned, as if to say she found it annoying.

She took a package out of her pocket without hiding her exasperation and threw it at Graham’s face.

"Eat that and get moving."

Graham, who was gnawing on the package that had fallen to the floor, looked like a dog.

Leonaria, who didn’t even try to hide her disgust, looked down at him.

Graham, who was devouring the snack with a hunger that didn’t seem to fit a prime minister’s son.

Cain, who was trembling at the bizarre scene.

When Leonaria first met her at the academy, she was kind.

She wasn’t the kind of person who was high-handed and quick to anger.

She was kind to Cain, who was born with a vast amount of magic and a curse. For Cain, who was a special student in magic but whose growth had stopped, and who felt disgust and annoyance, Leonaria was a bright, kind, and smiling presence like a ray of light.

She was drawn to her carefree and cheerful personality.

Even if Lucas, her favorite, was the best, she was content just to be near him.

The turning point came when Leonaria, who was a favorite, tried to make advances on two male students who didn’t fall for her.

Although they had always kept their distance from Leonaria, both were popular noble students from prestigious families. They were handsome, from prestigious families, and had vast wealth and territories. They also had no fiancées, so Leonaria wanted to add them to her entourage.

At the time, Lucas and the others, who had feelings for Leonaria, didn’t like it, but they were in a rather troublesome situation where they were angry when Leonaria was ignored.

Cain began to realize that Leonaria wasn’t interested in him.

Leonaria liked tall men like Lucas and Graham, not children like him.

The Duke’s son, Kistaria, and the Earl’s son, Michaelis, fit that description. Leonaria also seemed to be interested in the man who was Kistaria’s servant.

Cain understood that Leonaria, who was a cute and lovely girl, couldn’t help but be liked by many men.

Even if they were cold to her now, they would eventually fall in love with her.

But that turned out to be a false hope.

Rumors spread that the two, who didn’t have specific partners, were treating a certain woman with great care. Even Jibril, who usually stood in the way of anyone approaching them, not only tolerated it but seemed to welcome it.

By that time, Leonaria was being refused even invitations to tea parties and told not to speak to them.

Lucas and the others, who had made Leonaria cry, couldn’t stand the woman they were treating so well.

It sounded good to say they were driven by a sense of justice, but objectively, Leonaria was the one who had multiple men serving her and was wielding the authority of the royal family. She herself was a baron’s daughter, barely above a commoner.

Cain, who liked Leonaria, turned a blind eye to the oddity.

At Leonaria’s request, they dragged the lady out of her carriage and tried to make an example of her.

That was the beginning of the end of Leonaria’s harem.

The lady, whom they thought was the daughter of a rural noble, turned out to be the daughter of one of the most prestigious noble families in the Sandis Kingdom, the only direct descendant of the Latizche Duke, and a deep-seated lady of noble blood.

The lady, who had been affected by the royal family’s past mistakes, was so shy that she didn’t go out in society. She was also weak and doted on by her father, the Duke.

She had come to the academy with her father, her stepbrother, and her childhood friend, leaving her territory for the first time in years. On her first trip out, she was subjected to unjust slander and violence, and from none other than the royal family. The royal family was still compensating her for their past mistakes.

On the way there, she was accompanied by her father, the kingdom’s top mage, and on the way back, by high-ranking knights.

The strict security, which was more than necessary to protect the frail lady, spoke of her father’s doting. They had forced their way in with power. Naturally, the Latizche Duke was furious.

He immediately returned to the academy, visited his unconscious daughter, and tried to punish not only Prince Lucas and Leoard but also Graham and Cain.

It was only through the pleading of his beloved daughter, who had just regained consciousness, that they were spared.

Lucas and the others were put under house arrest, and Leonaria was imprisoned, including for her past crimes.

From then on, it was all downhill.

She was blamed for her past tyranny, lectured, and ridiculed.

Leonaria, who had been the academy’s Madonna, was now treated as a wicked woman who didn’t know her place.

Cain looked at Leonaria with a distant awareness.

The kind girl who had reached out to him was now a foul-mouthed, filthy creature.

What Cain clung to was the remnants of his childhood infatuation.

A faded, pale hope and a dim, dark despair.

"...If only that woman, if only Albertina weren’t there...!"

"Leonaria..."

The voice that called out to her, rare as it was, seemed to reach her.

Leonaria, who turned around, didn’t narrow her eyes kindly. She squinted in annoyance.

But then, as if she had an idea, she smiled in a fawning way.

"Hey, Cain. You like me, right? I have a favor to ask."

The pressure was overwhelming.

Her cute, pleading tone sounded like a warning of despair.

Thank you for reading.