How To Live As An Academy Extra Villain

3 – Awareness (3)

“What do you want to talk about? Please make it quick, I need to go pack my dorm stuff.”

I made an effort to keep a nonchalant expression as I looked at Iris staring this way.

Somehow it felt terribly awkward to be facing off one-on-one with a character I’d only seen from the protagonist’s perspective in the novel.

It seems I still need more time to deal with them calmly.

“Edwin…I received word from Father yesterday. He said he’s breaking off your engagement with our family.”

After a brief silence, Iris spoke carefully.

And hearing her words felt like my heart sank heavily in my chest.

“I asked you so many times…to just pay a little more attention to your conduct…And now he wants to use what you’ve done at the academy as justification. Breaking obligation to uphold dignity…”

Iris lightly sighed.

“It might not be too late yet. Let’s go to my family together and persuade my father, okay…? Still, Edwin, surely you feel something now too…? Seeing how meekly you were at the disciplinary hearing…”

Iris kept staring at me with a glimmer of faint expectation in her eyes.

However, the answer I have for Iris is already decided.

“I do feel something. I’d say my luck was horrible.”

“Luck…you say…?”

My seemingly mocking tone rapidly hardened Iris’s expression.

Originally a girl with a frigid impression, now she was virtually glaring at me, and I somehow got the illusion that the surrounding temperature instantly dropped.

The expectation I’d briefly glimpsed swirling in her pupils had disappeared without a trace long ago.

“Right. Luck. What were the odds campus security would be passing through that spot right then? It was definitely a blind spot Scott had picked well. Or maybe some damned punk snitched…”

Remembering that incident from my memories, against my will, the emotions come flooding vividly back, anger rising inside me.

Why am I feeling these emotions anyway?

“Edwin.”

Suddenly, Iris cut into my words.

Interrupting someone mid-speech is usually regarded as rude behavior in noble society.

There’s no way a young lady of a prestigious family like Iris wouldn’t know that. Looks like she was quite incensed by my words.

“Edwin. The headmaster spoke during the welcoming ceremony, remember? It’s reiterated during etiquette classes too…That time has passed…! We can no longer oppress and persecute them just because their status is lower!”

Iris poured it all out in one breath, then after a short pause to compose herself, continued speaking.

“Besides, the students at the academy aren’t typical commoners. They’re individuals like us who have awakened mana, each with excellent aptitude. They will be the cornerstone of this country in the future. Those with achievements will naturally receive titles, and be no different from us…Yet still, do you want to torment them so? Just to fill your petty so-called noble pride?”

“So what will you do about it?”

Seeing my attitude acting as if I had every right, an expression of disbelief briefly passes over Iris’s face.

“No matter what, a commoner is a commoner. They’re a different breed from birth. Just because they attend the same academy and receive the same education, they can’t forget their place. I only gave some minor instruction to fools who’ve forgotten that fact.”

I kept pressing her with words.

As Iris kept taking the commoners’ side, somehow it bothered me and kept making me blurt out these thoughts.

Why do I keep having these ideas?

“What…”

Iris seemed unable to properly continue, choked up.

“Iris, you sure are unexpectedly talkative today. Or could it be…?”

“It…couldn’t…?”

“2nd year senior Petricia seems quite interested in that guy. What was his name, Eugene? Don’t tell me you’re harboring some feelings for that commoner punk too? Or…have you already taken a liking and are standing up for him now?”

My words were something that should never be said to a promising young lady with a bright future ahead.

Mocking a betrothed noble girl by asking if she had feelings for a particular commoner.

That would be his fiancée saying those words.

Had a person uttered them in public, they may have been challenged to countless duels.

“Edwin. No matter who you are, even if you’re an utter fool, that went too far. Take it back. Right now.”

Iris whispered sharply at me.

She was glaring at me with all her might, her face flushed deep red from long ago.

Her patience was reaching its limit, but I paid no heed and added one more remark.

“Even if you have quite the stunning face for a commoner, to have seduced two virtuous ladies already since you entered the Academy. This will go down in history, won’t it? My, you must have amazing stamina…”

“Edwin!!!”

Having reached her limit, Iris shouted at me before hanging her head low.

“How…how can you…say that to me…”

Her sobs grew louder as glittering teardrops rolled down her cheeks.

Seeing Iris like that, I was somewhat coming to my senses.

Why was I saying such things…

…But thinking about the future, perhaps the current situation could be for the better for both of us.

Iris seems to still have hope, but her family appears to have already made their decision.

It will probably be difficult to undo it. Since it was a political engagement to begin with, and considering my conduct so far, it’s surprising our engagement wasn’t called off sooner.

And people have their own destinies.

Rather than mince words, it would be best to conclude this as swiftly as possible.

“Oh well. Who you fool around with is none of my concern. But Iris, while we’re at it, there’s something I wanted to discuss.”

I spoke to Iris again.

She still had her head hung low, continuing to make sobbing sounds as if trying to hold back her tears.

“I know you never cared for this engagement from the start. You were just married off for your family, weren’t you? So you set your eyes on that commoner even though you had a fiancé. I’ve endured it so far, but I’m exhausted now too.”

They were truly absurd and contradictory words.

Iris’s sobs grew louder, turning into whimpers.

“I heard your family wants to break off the engagement at the registry. Honestly, it takes a load off me too. If I remember right, the penalty for dissolving our engagement was 100,000 gold. It means your family fortunes have recovered enough to easily pay that amount now, right? Good for you. Congratulations, Iris. It’s the best outcome for both of us. Our family gets a hefty sum with interest, and you can freely fool around with that commoner now.”

When I finished speaking, Iris shuddered briefly before raising her head to meet my eyes.

Her makeup was a mess from the tears, and the blood vessels in her eyes had burst leaving the whites stained red.

“Edwin. Are you…really saying this sincerely…? Do you really want to end it like this…?”

“I’m sincere.”

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“…Just one thing I want to ask.”

Iris spoke to me in an exhausted voice devoid of any strength.

“What exactly…was our relationship…?”

“…I wonder.”

Unable to find a suitable answer for Iris’s question, I simply murmured.

I felt a dull ache in my chest for some reason.

“Go ahead and send the dissolution papers and penalty fee to my family when you’re ready. I’ll be off then.”

Leaving the sobbing Iris alone, I promptly turned and left the spot.

***

Iris was the young lady of the prestigious Robinet family.

And gifted in many talents, she was sorted into Class A and elected an officer of the first-year student council when she entered the Academy.

With her looks and abilities, it didn’t take long after enrollment for her fame to spread through the school.

But if the seemingly perfect Iris had an Achilles’ heel, it was the existence of her fiancé, Edwin Reed.

While both held the title of Count, the standings of Robinet and Reed in aristocratic society were worlds apart.

The Robinets were descended from a tribal clan granted autonomy by the Empire during the ancient conquest wars, a long-established house once considered worthy of marrying into the imperial family.

Meanwhile, the Reeds originated from a provincial official’s family, only receiving their county title a generation ago under Edwin’s grandfather after successive promotions. Their history was short and influence insignificant.

It was unthinkable to treat the two as equal.

But the Robinets had faced a crisis of decimation several years ago after consecutive business failures. And surprisingly, it was the Reeds who came to their aid.

With maritime enterprises and productive farmlands, the Reeds had become one of the major Southern houses.

And the compensation they demanded from the Robinets was the engagement of the Reed heir and Robinet’s second daughter.

With the eager Reeds wanting a link to an elite house and the Robinets desperate to put out an urgent fire, Edwin and Iris’s engagement came to be.

***

In the original story, Edwin rejects the disciplinary committee’s expulsion decision and causes a disturbance at the scene.

He wildly casts magic and throws punches, injuring several students.

Having stirred more trouble while already under major penalties, Edwin receives a verdict of no possible redress from the Academy’s highest authorities and is ultimately expelled.

He then returns home and is never mentioned again in the original work.

That would have been the fate of me, the extra villain Edwin Reed of “Academy’s Punching Bag Knight.”

I am Iris’s fiancé.