I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 22: Finding Clues (3)

With all of our errands completed on Mount Tamila, it was time to head back to the dormitory.

As I exited the labyrinthine cave the other way around, the evening sun was already tilting over the mountain.

It was too late to make dinner in time.

I can’t let it affect my sleeping hours, so I’ll have to go to bed a little hungry tonight.

I tread cautiously along the darkened mountain path.

The descent took less than half as long as the ascent, as we simply followed the trail that Kael had already blazed on the way up.

But in the ten minutes it took to get down the mountain, I was comforted by Elise and Kael.

“Ariana, you shouldn’t feel so discouraged about what you went through today. Just because the experience ended in failure doesn’t make it any less valuable.”

“Well, yeah. It’s kind of nice to go through all that trouble and find the reward box empty! Honestly, you’ve been so lucky all this time, isn’t it about time you faced an empty box once in a while?”

“Mr. Kael, you are saying something that is not at all comforting.”

“…….”

The fact that I was walking along without saying anything because I was thinking of something else must have bothered the two people walking with me.

“No, it’s okay, I don’t really feel like I’m disappointed or anything.”

“That’s typically what someone who feels disappointed says….”

“Uh, Kael.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll just be quiet.”

I don’t really feel like I’m disappointed, in fact, I feel like I’m really relieved.

Elise kept glancing over at me, saying something about how I don’t have to be perfect all the time.

The reward box I found after hours of searching was empty, which, to paraphrase, means that someone had obviously gotten to it before me.

If it wasn’t me, the identity of the person who got it was a given without having to investigate.

The mere fact that I had figured that out made me smile in silent relief.

* * *

That same afternoon, in a corner of the academy’s garden, three noble ladies and a commoner, seated around a round table, were enjoying some refreshments.

“… So I immediately fired that stupid woman who couldn’t tell the difference between Darjeeling and Nilgiri.”

“Well, well, well, you know, these so-called commoners need to be taught a lesson.”

A commoner girl who joined a gathering of lower-class noble ladies alone endured the uncomfortable position throughout the tea party.

“Oh, Miss Sierra, I see you’re a little uncomfortable.”

“What, what?!”

“You don’t happen to be offended that we pointed out our commoner servant, do you?”

“Well, of course not, haha….”

“What are you talking about, we’re criticizing a commoner who doesn’t know the subject matter and tries to match the nobility. Miss Sierra, you’re good enough to enter the academy, so even if you don’t make it in the future, why don’t you become a baronet?”

“That’s true~.”

Baronet? That sounds ridiculous.

To hell with that kind of insignificant noble status, Sierra mocked them for the umpteenth time.

If she had her way, she would be queen in a few years, reaching the highest position a commoner could attain.

“Speaking of which, during the last winter vacation, a boy with a fair face for a commoner came in as a trainee butler.”

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, so?”

“Well, of course, I snuck him up to my room in the middle of the night, and spent the entire winter break with him to my heart’s content….”

Despite the fact that they were minimally civilized and prone to accusations and gossip, Sierra could not easily sever ties with these young ladies.

For, at the moment, the only people who remained steadfastly by her side were of this caliber, at best.

As soon as the semester began, Sierra was acutely aware of the rapidly waning power of her faction.

Most of her old allies had fallen away with Alex, and the new students hadn’t even bothered to look toward her clique.

Even those who had been purely connected to her, one by one, were slipping out of her sphere.

Even Natalia, the one person she relied on the most, was openly disrespecting her, and she was not the only one who felt her power waning.

Besides, it wasn’t just Natalia.

Among the ladies who were by his side, the one who seemed to be the kind of person who could be of help was the one who had tea with Ariana once or twice and moved from camp to camp like a bat.

She’d also been kicked out of the student council by Alex not too long ago, so this was the only kind of human she could relate to.

Arrogant, with a status not much different from that of a commoner, and a head full of preconceived notions.

They are half-bred, half-disposed of by their families, lacking in culture, knowledge, and sense of propriety.

It was humiliating enough for her to spend time with these women, but if she were to lose her place here, she would be completely isolated in the Academy.

She was already in the weakest position of power by status, and if she didn’t keep women like these around, she would be subject to outright harassment.

One more step forward, and everything was within reach but then that damn prince started acting all weird at the end-of-the-year ball and ruined everything overnight.

Despite the fact that without power, his life is merely temporary, he managed to kick away the opportunity that chose him so perfectly.

‘It’s only because I have a generous heart that I’m giving him another chance. If it were someone else, they would have certainly given up on him.’

She’s only giving up because it’s too late to move on to other targets now, but that’s how Sierra rationalizes herself as the good guy.

That said, getting back into Prince Alexandros’ good graces will be harder than getting a dragon through a wagon wheel.

Never before had she felt so frustrated with the way things were going.

What if Arianna hadn’t done anything wrong, but had deliberately allowed her behavior to happen?

It didn’t make sense to her, because she would never have been in her position and let the original protagonist off the hook.

Rather, if it could be thoroughly excluded, it would have been excluded. From the perspective of the villainess, the original protagonist would have only been an obstacle to achieving her desires.

She has power, money, connections, and everything else, so why would she never wield it?

She’s not sure why she’s finally starting to move, having kept quiet until now, but the pressure she’s starting to feel is starting to get to her, and it’s starting to strangle her.

Yeah, go ahead and keep doing that.

Because the more you bully me, the more the means to save the life of your beloved fiancé will be gone forever.

If she was never going to get it anyway, it made no difference to her whether the damn prince died of an incurable disease or not.

A piece of data gaining or losing his life was no more important than her downfall.

Everything else must be sacrificed for the sake of the only living person in this world.

To shed tears over such things is the idea of a psychopath.

In Sierra’s mind, that was always the underlying idea.

More than that, it was the future that mattered.

She would have to find some way to create a moment alone with the prince, but with his guard up even more, it would be difficult.

In order to proceed smoothly, the first thing she secured as soon as she entered the academy was a pile of dreamweeds, which she had grown to her heart’s content using gardening tools.

In her previous life, this kind of buggy play had made her life easier, so she’d always played this way with all of her playable characters.

The only limitation was that she couldn’t use it when other people were watching, but since she was the main character in the game, she could always find a place to be alone with her target.

If I can’t be the prince, then at least Ariana or that woman.

If that’s not possible, the prince or someone around him or her is fine, and she can continue the brainwashing step by step.

And just in case, she also got rid of all of the reverie herb garden she’s been secretly growing in one of the academy’s rooms for the last year.

She’ll plant them all in her hometown and when she returns to the Academy, she’ll turn them into powder or juice, so she won’t be detected.

It will work, somehow, some way.

If she didn’t repeat that vague mantra to herself, Sierra couldn’t help but feel uneasy.