The place that Clarissa brought me to for safety was the dorm granny"s room.
The light from the room leaked out into the pitch dark hallway, making the dorm granny look like a G.o.ddess.
“Oh my, did something happen? First of all, please come inside.”
Alarmed at our unexpected visit in the middle of the night, the dorm granny gladly ushered us in.
Guessing what I wanted to do, Clarissa told her that she wanted to call Bernhardt Brunsmeier, and the granny then went to wake up her coworker next door and asked to go to the men"s dormitory to call for Bern.
Even she knew of the uproar that"s been happening recently here at school, and she may have casually been on guard because of it.
“Well then, what happened?”
Because I ran, I was out of breath. I wonder if it"s because of my lack of exercise.
I leaned on the wall with Clarissa as I tried to explain the situation with my haggard breathing.
“The room… a guy came into our room… and tried to attack me… but Clarissa saved me… I"m not sure… if that guy"s still in… there.”
Although my incoherent explanation was obviously lacking, the dorm granny still properly understood it. Her face quickly went pale and, with a loud voice, woke up the people that worked for the dorm.
It"s unbelievable that I"m still half asleep, but as I looked at the figure of the dorm granny promptly giving out orders to catch the guy, I felt a sense of relief, so my strength left me and the both of us helplessly sat on the floor.
For some reason, even though my feet were still trembling, it"s a wonder that I didn"t feel fear. Instead, it felt like I was watching a dream.
Even though we"ve been like this for a while, it hasn"t been that long, but we leaned on the wall quietly.
Just then, the oxygen gradually came back to our heads, and felt refreshed. I finally understood that I was in a really dangerous situation just now.
“Th-Thanks, Clarissa.”
If Clarissa hadn"t saved me, I wonder what that guy would have done to me… I-I kinda don"t want to think about it for now.
For having done that, a well of gratefulness rose from within me towards Clarissa, and even though it was a tiny bit, I apologized for doubting her.
But she made a sad face at my thanks, and her gaze looked about, wavering.
I wonder why she"s making such a guilty expression.
As we idly waited, she apologized, as if squeezing it out.
“Why are you apologizing?”
Clarissa"s small shoulders trembled slightly.
Clenching her lips, she confessed in a small voice.
“I"m sorry, Lizia. I… wasn"t sick. Alois-sama ordered me to.”
What Clarissa said was pretty gut-wrenching.
After finishing her story, it seems that she was an accomplice to the attacker.
That"s why she knew I was going to be attacked and was able to save me.
It seems that she was Alois" fiancee in the beginning.
Their relationship was good and mutually agreeing to the other having relationships, Alois also consented to the engagement with Clarissa.
But one day, Alois" family suddenly announced that the engagement was off.
It happened exactly around the time that Alois entered the academy.
Without being able to complain about it since Clarissa"s house was lower-ranked, in the end, their engagement was abruptly broken off.
“He didn"t even tell me why.”
“Oh no…”
The engagement was a promise between their families. And they broke it off without telling the reason. Furthermore, the engagement between Alois and Clarissa wasn"t made official. You could even say that the Donitz house was very high-handed.
“But, it"s probably that fortune teller"s fault.”
“Fortune teller?”
“Yes. That"s because it seems she could see the future… Alois-sama is completely dependent on that fortune teller.”
Depending on fortunes, is he a girl? Are you a girl, Alois?
For this reason, he unreasonably broke up his engagement with Clarissa, but rather, I wonder if I should thank that woman for this.
Well then, it looks like it"s not just what the rumors say about his womanizing ways being flashy, but it also seems like that he can"t think for himself without listening to that fortune teller.
Not being concerned about the engagement ending, she took advantage of this chance and has been looking for a new fiancé.
Clarissa didn"t think it was that serious.
But the situation wasn"t that simple.
Alois got in contact with Clarissa when she entered the academy.
He wanted her help in return for the backing that the Donitz family gave them as requirement for the engagement. And then said that if she didn"t cooperate and pay him back, they"ll have to return the money they were given.
Although in that kind of situation, it would have been okay to have talked back and insulted him since he was threatening her out of nowhere, instead, she hurriedly confirmed it with her parents, and they replied back, ‘That"s right." She was the only one who didn"t know.
In the end, Clarissa had no other choice but to accept Alois" demand.
She was ordered in the beginning to try to get the same room as me and befriend me.
I absentmindedly thought that the reason she asked for the same room was because it was her long-awaited dorm life, but it seems that this kind of thing was happening behind the scenes…
But doesn"t that mean that Alois has been aiming for Bern even before Lila entered the academy?
What"s going on?
Alois shouldn"t have any particular grudge against Bern in the game"s story.
During breaks, I never heard anything from Bern about how they stopped being friends. In the first place, Bern did nothing more than interact with His Highness, unlike in the game. In other words, Alois, who also got along well with His Highness, shouldn"t have interacted with him so much that he antagonized him.
But from what Clarissa said, Alois had long been vigilant of Bern even before Lila and His Highness fell in love, and before Katerina got in the way.
What the h.e.l.l does this mean?
As if he knew that Bern was going to stand in the way as a villain in Edwin"s route.
Don"t tell me, it has something to do with that fortune teller…?
I"ll put that to the side for now.
I wondered what kind of things he did, he may have even bribed the teachers. With Clarissa following Alois" orders, she was safely a.s.signed to the same room as me, and befriended me.
Well, it"s easy deceiving someone like me. I mean, I have a history of being tricked by Darius.
And then it seems like Clarissa was ordered to spy on the Hidden Student Council"s movements next.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for me, I don"t have much information about the Hidden Student Council despite frequenting it.
Even if I had something on me, it seems like Clarissa didn"t plan on spilling everything to Alois.
Despite being quiet, because she"s a proud lady, she"s annoyed at Alois for threatening her and her family.
And then for a short while, it seemed like Clarissa"s school life was going to be peaceful.
She still hadn"t gotten any information out of me because I didn"t know a lot, so she couldn"t say anything to Alois either.
And then she was contacted by the Hidden Student Council.
It was a genuine invitation from the Hidden Student Council. It seems that Bern wanted to have the upper hand and keep an eye on Clarissa himself, since she was my roommate.
Clarissa wavered.
If she double-crossed Alois, her parents would be troubled. But if she entered the Hidden Student Council and explained things to Brunsmeier, he may help her out.
Of course, Alois knew that she received an invitation from the Hidden Student Council, adding the fact that he wanted her to take advantage of this chance to spy on them, she secretly worried about it as she didn"t know what to do.
“I thought many times over that if it wasn"t for Alois-sama"s orders, I could spend my time befriending you without a guilty conscience. But my family has no money to spare to repay the backing we got from the Donitz family, and I had no definite confirmation that the Brunsmeier family would help mine…”
“Clarissa…”
I listened to her talk as my nails dug into my own arm, and as I looked at her, she looked extremely pained. I patted her back.
“It"s no use. The truth is that I"m not qualified for you to worry about me. It"s fine if you don"t want to forgive me, Lizia. Since I… tricked you…”
Moving away from my gentle patting, Clarissa took a big breath, and restarted the conversation.
As she was in distress as how to escape from Alois, at last, the fated night came.
Last night, Alois called her out, and gave her an order.
To avoid returning to her dorm room at all costs.
“Even when I asked why, he never told me. Nevertheless, to even put up a lookout at the infirmary, I had an extremely terrible hunch… I"m sorry. I hesitated… I abandoned you. I thought it"d be okay since he definitely wouldn"t kill you. But, but…! If I had let you met a terrible fate, I would be ashamed my whole life. And when I thought that you would never call me your friend again…!
He…! I knew that if I was in your situation, you wouldn"t abandon me, and without telling me anything, he imprisoned me in the infirmary! If that"s the case, my intuition told me to look the other way, hide in the infirmary, and quietly wait until morning came! …I"m the worst. Him, and me too.”
Unable to bear it, she knelt on the floor, and began to cry. Her long hair scattered about the floor.
As I put all her hair behind her, I thought of just how much she suffered as she quietly smiled like a sheltered lady.
“Thanks, Clarissa.”
As if to say that I didn"t need to thank her, she fervently shook her head.
“Didn"t you warn me that one time to be really careful about Alois? If you hadn"t saved me tonight, I don"t know what would have happened to me. So stop blaming yourself. You don"t need to speak ill of your pride.”
As she gushed forth with multiple apologies, it somehow warmed my heart seeing Clarissa so child-like.
But I noticed that for some reason, all my friends have ulterior motives. Though it"s just two of them.
What"s up with that?
After that, Bern came with Ionius, and recklessly hugged me tightly. That hurts.
Ionius accompanied Clarissa.
As Bern hugged me, his hands on my back were repeatedly shaking, just like that time during Thanksgiving five years ago. I remembered grasping tightly onto his blood-covered hands.
“I"m glad you"re safe.”
He let out a hot breath at the same time as he grumbled those words, and his stiff body began to relax.
As I took in one deep breath, even I was surprised at how vivid the fear was. He asked me, ‘Are you really fine now?" I rea.s.sured him, but all of a sudden, tears overflowed from my eyes. Not knowing what to do, I cried like a kid.
To be honest, even though it was something that happened to me personally, it felt unreal, and made me feel lost, as if I was inside a movie. But as I hugged Bern, he was awfully worried about me, and that brought me back to reality.
As I hugged Bern, although my heart was still racing from earlier, but now I felt relief from the bottom of my heart at the thought that as long as I was in his arms, nothing"s gonna happen to me.
I"m pretty sure since he was sleeping, he came here in his sleepwear. His bed hair poked my cheek and tickled me a little bit.
Being embarra.s.singly happy about that, I unconsciously laughed, ‘Hehehe," as I cried, and caused Bern to make a weird face.
Yeah, I think I"m pretty weird as well.
Not minding whether or not people were around us, I hugged Bern"s big body as if clinging to him, and he tightly hugged me back.
With the multiple restless thud footsteps outside the door, I could hear them discussing what to do with the arrested man.
Even as I carelessly thought that I"ll look like a Dogu* when my face swells in a few minutes, I stayed like that for a little bit more.
*Dogu
I WANT ALOIS DEAD IDGAF. I hate him so much for threatening Clarissa, this poor girl. And also, that last part was f.u.c.king cute. Now all we need is for them to kiss lol. And also, all hail Dorm Granny G.o.ddess.
E/N: Wow… I really didn"t like Alois all too much before, but this takes it to a whole new level. Threatening Clarissa and planning something against Lizia. Yeah… should I call him yandere sc.u.m?
Also, what do you guys think is up with the fortune teller? That person seems suspicious, and I don"t think they appeared in the game either, since I think Alois was more normal in it. Personally, I"m thinking that the fortune teller may have reincarnated memories, but I"m probably wrong.
Author: adorkablerika Name"s Erika. For some dumb reason, I decided to major in Physics. I"m stuck in this major now. I used to translate manga and light novels a few years back, left, then came back cause I found some good novels to read. I"m the only TLer on my site, so rip. I"m apparently also good at drawing, and I also like kpop (BTS, I mean, I have Hobi as my pic). I don"t bite, so feel free to chat me up on here or on NU @adorkablehiko.