Margaret Phyler.
The shield of the Empire, the eldest daughter of the Duke Phyler family.
She was a girl who wielded considerable influence in the noble society as the flower of high society.
She was known for her impartial nature, always treating everyone with respect, regardless of their status, and her unwavering dedication to everything she did.
Her beautiful appearance and eloquent speech only added to her charm.
Her impeccable conduct as a noble served as a role model for her peers.
However, even this seemingly perfect girl had a thorn in her side...
And that was the boy nad Raiden Lishite.
"......"
Margaret stared blankly at the blackboard.
Her eyes were directed at the professor who was passionately delivering his lecture, but her mind was focused elsewhere.
Raiden Lishite.
Margaret glanced at the boy sitting far away from her.
As she looked into his empty, black eyes, his various nicknas ca to mind.
The Empire's worst delinquent.
The disgrace of the Lishite family.
The Academy's most notorious troublemaker.
And...
'......The ex-fiancé of Lady Phyler.'
Margaret unconsciously bit her lip.
A sharp pain stabbed at her heart, and she had to suppress the boiling rage within her.
-Ha, what an ugly face.
-It's none of your business who I play around with.
-Get lost. How dare a re shield stand in the way of a sword.
Even now, her body trembled as she recalled the words he had spoken to her.
Margaret took a deep breath to calm her twitching eyebrows.
He wasn't like this when they first t.
Margaret rembered it clearly.
The boy who had always treated her preciously, even though their engagent was a political arrangent made at a young age.
The boy who had silently approached her and patted her back when she was exhausted and crying from the stifling atmosphere of her family.
His shy smile.
-I'll be by your side, Margaret.
But the boy had changed.
His face, now frozen in a cold mask, no longer smiled at her.
For so reason, he had beco a delinquent.
He earned the scorn of many.
When Lady Lishite, who had been suffering from illness due to worry for her son, finally passed away, his reputation plumted even further.
Of course, Lady Lishite's cause of death was not illness but assassination.
And Raiden's delinquency began after her death.
But the outside world had no way of knowing this truth.
The sa went for Margaret.
That tragedy had been thoroughly concealed as a top-secret matter of the Empire.
In such a situation, there was nothing Margaret could do.
She could only be hurt, tornted, and distressed by the boy's harsh words.
Eventually, due to a major incident, Margaret let go of Raiden.
And she ca to despise him.
'......I will curse you forever.'
Margaret clenched her fists as she muttered those words inwardly.
In fact, she had approached Raiden earlier with the intention of picking a fight with him.
But...
As she saw the boy's exhausted and depressed appearance before her,
words of concern involuntarily escaped her lips.
As he responded coldly, she ca to her senses and tried to berate him belatedly, but
-I said yes.
-Lady...?
Her words caught in her throat as she was confronted with the boy's unexpected deanor.
His upturned lips.
His eyes, gently curved into crescents.
If she wasn't seeing things, it was definitely a smile.
A smile that was strikingly similar to the one the Raiden of the past had often shown her.
At that trace of the past, Margaret's heart, which had grown cold, skipped a beat.
In the end, Margaret could only leave after giving him a warning not to do anything foolish.
"Sigh..."
Margaret sighed.
She wasn't soone whose emotions were easily swayed by a single smile.
Raiden Lishite was still an object of hatred and resentnt for her.
...However.
That smile.
It reminded her of the past... of the kind Raiden she used to know.
For so reason, she felt a pang of longing.
But...
'That's impossible.'
Margaret shook her head.
He had already changed.
He was selfish, hurtful, and a womanizer.
He had beco the type of person she hated the most.
And in her experience, such people rarely changed.
'Therefore...'
...Therefore.
It was foolish of her to try to find traces of the boy she used to love in a single smile.
Margaret turned her gaze back to the blackboard, letting out a aningless groan.
Right, he's nothing to anymore.
I don't love you anymore.
Margaret muttered those words inwardly, clearing her mind of distracting thoughts.
***
anwhile,
I had to endure the piercing gazes directed at throughout the entire class.
Whenever I turned my head slightly out of discomfort,
I would see Margaret glaring at with a fierce expression.
'S-scary...!!'
Lady, I'm sorry.
Are you angry that I answered rudely? I won't do it again.
So please stop staring at . I feel like I'm suffocating.
Seriously. I think I'm going to have a panic attack.
-Ding!
[Karma.]
So...
Why do I have to suffer for sothing that's not even my karma!!
-Ding!
[It's the path you chose, isn't it?]
[And it's your karma.]
How is this my karma?
It's clearly because of what Raiden did in the past...!
I might have been a little... rude to soone who was worried about , but!
It's not sothing to glare at like that?!
-Ding!
[Karma.]
'You're doing this on purpose, aren't you...?'
I timidly slumped down in my seat.
I had to endure Margaret's intense gaze until the end of class, while bickering with the status window.
Damn it.
The first day is already tough.
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