"Francesca! I heard about your wickedness from Ange-chan!"
"To bully such a good girl…"
"Don"t think that it"s okay for you to do what you want just because you"re from a Duke"s family! We won"t stand for this!"
Angelina"s entourage was a total of twelve people. They were aristocratic sons and their faces were well put together. However, they were lacking a certain spark which made them feel somewhat plain, and they had the atmosphere of having no experience with women. This was why Angelina was so successful in convincing them.
"Our Ange-chan is an angelic young woman, to inconvenience her… you demon!"
"Hiding such evil behind a kind face, what a black-hearted woman."
"Such an ill-natured woman can definitely not be the Second Prince"s fiancée."
The attack of the boys", before anyone noticed, had devolved into slander. But while they were unaware of that, they continued to attack her personally, convinced that they were "knights of justice protecting poor Ange-chan".
"Wait, wait a moment. It"s not me."
Naturally, Francesca would not stay silent. Her delicate voice made an objection… but, the vilification of the boys" was stronger than that, her voice was drowned out by them.
"Hm…"
It was a single-minded one-sided torture, soon Francesca"s voice was blocked.
Hey, why? Why won"t all of you listen to what I"m saying? I didn"t do anything wrong. Ripping up Angelina-san"s textbooks, dirtying her uniform… I never did these terrible things. Yet, why did you decide that I did?
… Perhaps.
This could also have been a fated event. In the original, there was a similar scene. Just before the ending, Angelina would condemn Francesca who had been bullying her. The event was called 『Condemnation』. Because this was an event that was determined by fate, now, it"s no wonder that no one would listen to my story.
In Francesca"s heart, resignation was gradually spreading. If it"s determined by fate, whatever you do will be useless… She looked down to conceal her eyes. Closing her heart off like a sh.e.l.lfish, in order to make it hurt as little as possible, she would try to pa.s.s this situation by.
She tried to, but.
"…Hn."
The back of her closed eyelids were hot. Tears were close to spilling out.
Hm…? That"s strange. Why, I seem to be crying.
This unreasonable world, though I should have gotten used to it long ago, why was it so sad. It can"t be helped if fate[1] made me out as a bad person here. I was convinced of that, so why was it so frustrating.
I wanted to tell them again. It"s not me. I didn"t do it.
But doing this sort of thing would be useless. When fighting against fate, the result doesn"t change. When my mother died, I realized that.
…Truly?
…Is that really so?
Because, wasn"t Leon not like the original? He did not fall in love with Angelina at first sight. Instead, he was extremely wary and thought she was a spy from another country. Even his personality was different. In the game, he was a free-spirited individual who didn"t care for things like the power of student council president or king, in this world, he felt very reliable.
Yes, in the student council election from before, he was appointed with a great difference against His Highness, the First Prince, Christopher, and then Leon became the student council president. In the original, His Highness Christopher was the student council president, it"s strange.
There were a lot of other deviations from the game. The girls" dorm president, rather than me, it was Tricia. Angelina"s transfer also came a month earlier. Even though all of the capture targets should have been in the 『Condemnation』 event, currently, none of the capture targets could be seen.
…Perhaps, possibly.
…This world was not as strong as I thought?
…You can change fate, let"s believe that one more time.
No. I can"t believe.
I want to believe. I have to believe. I will believe.
Because, it is regrettable if I continue to leave things as they are.
"Could you quiet down a little?"
Francesca stood up from the chair with an elegant motion. Her originally downcast red eyes were now opened wide, the surrounding boys" looked away.
"Why is your decision so one-sided? When you haven"t listened to my story?"
"Why should I have to listen—"
"This is a problem involving two people, you can"t just consider one person"s point of view to make a decision. That should be obvious. Even children should know this, let alone you."
Francesca"s voice calmly admonished them. It was by no means loud, but it was clearly heard. Everybody was compelled to listen, it was like a command.
The male students unconsciously fell silent, the hung their heads down in shame.
"Wah, don"t change the story! You"re just trying to cheat your way out of conviction!"
Angelina raised a panicked voice. As to encourage the boys around her, she cried out like a tragic heroine.
"Francesca is nothing but malicious to me! Everyone don"t be deceived!"
"When and where have I ever treated you unkindly?"
Even if Francesca was going against the original work that made her out as the villain by Angelina, Francesca never lost her composure. Yes. Francesca calmly thought about her surroundings. She had finished studying medicine and pharmaceutics at an early age. The genius little girl magic expert as she was known because of her intellect, would lead Angelina into a conversation that would cause her to self-destruct.
"Isn"t it Angelina-san who is deceiving everyone? Doing so much because you aren"t pleased with me. Because it"s unpleasant to see me close with Leon."
"It"s not normal! I"m the heroine of this world, Leon-sama should be mine! I was reborn so I could surround myself with handsome men! The rival character shouldn"t act like a rabid dog and intrude!"
She tried to get back at her. Angelina"s anger towards Francesca was clearly exposed.
Angelina and Francesca. In the original game, there was no one-on-one confrontation. The outcome was obviously leaning towards Francesca.
After all, Angelina had already suffered from great damage. Until now, in front of the male students, she acted as the "graceful and sweet innocent Ange-chan." But, as she flared up at Francesca, the image they had built of her was shattered. Indeed, half of her followers looked confused by the gap between their "angelic Ange-chan", the other half was already past confusion, and were dejected and disillusioned.
To declare that she was aiming for a reverse harem, Angelina"s future looked grim.
The aristocratic school wasn"t just a school. The reputation they forged here, would directly lead to their position in society in the future. Unfortunately, from now on, "Earl Calimel"s Angelina" will be known as such a woman[2]. Therefore, it would be hard to gain matchmaking proposals later.
As of now, Angelina never took a step towards a brighter future, it was already too late for her to turn back.
Everything went within Francesca"s calculations, for her, this was her true strength.
Read as "Original work"Read as "….."