The World Is Out to Get Me
I stared at the bulletin board in stunned silence.
What the hell had I just seen?
I rubbed my eyes repeatedly, convinced I must have misread it, and looked again.
[Second-Year School Trip Group Assignments]
1. Raiden Lisite
2. Margaret Filer
3. Gold Tae-yang
4. Violet
Unfortunately, it was exactly the same.
“Haa…”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a deep sigh. Was this even possible? How the hell did my ex-fiancée end up in the same group as me? Even if it was random, this was ridiculous. If a combination this dangerous came up, shouldn’t the professors step in and change it?
As I stood there, head spinning with those thoughts, Lucy and Ariel—who had been checking the list beside me—also let out sounds of pure dismay.
“Huh…? Why is the grouping like this…?”
“There are almost a thousand second-years. How could a combination like this even happen…?”
Ariel and Lucy both groaned in turn, echoing my own reaction.
“Can’t we change groups?”
“Mm… probably not. I asked if I could be placed with Raiden, but they firmly refused.”
“If even Her Highness was turned down, then it really can’t be changed…”
The two of them exchanged a few more words before their expressions darkened. They reached out and gently patted my back.
“Brother… are you going to be okay…?”
“Um… Raiden? I’ll come visit your group often, so…”
……
They offered their sincere condolences as they looked at my frozen face, but none of it reached my ears.
Does this even make sense?
There were nearly a thousand students. Out of all those people, how did I end up grouped with Margaret of all people? This was so absurd it wouldn’t be strange if someone claimed it was rigged.
With a complicated heart, I rubbed my face dryly and muttered to myself.
“……This grouping is fucking trash.”
“Trash, you say?”
“Yeah, it’s seriously fucking tr—huh?”
The voice that answered wasn’t Lucy’s. I had unconsciously agreed without thinking, but the moment I realized the speaker wasn’t her, I whipped around in surprise.
And there, in the most dramatic way possible…
“Trash, was it?”
Margaret stood there, her red eyes gleaming with cold light.
……
Her uniform was perfectly neat without a single wrinkle. The curves of her figure showed clearly beneath it. Silver hair danced beautifully in the breeze. And those captivating crimson eyes were glaring at me with open hostility.
I stared at the suddenly appearing Margaret with wide eyes, then found myself pinching the bridge of my nose once more.
No, this is definitely the world hating on me…
It really felt like the entire world was out to get me.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Have a safe trip, my lady.”
Margaret gave her personal maid a light farewell and left the dormitory. The blowing wind tousled her silver hair. She gently brushed it back and looked up at the sky.
It was truly a nice day. The weather had taken two steps forward from summer and one step back from winter. The air was pleasantly cool yet carried the warmth of sunlight, touching her heart in a dry, refreshing way.
“Haaa…”
Margaret took a deep breath, savoring the fresh scents around her. The autumn fragrance that tickled her nose seemed to enhance the crispness of the weather. She walked toward the nearby carriage stop with a small smile on her lips.
But that modest smile didn’t last long. In the distance, the figure of a certain boy had caught her eye.
……
Hair that held quiet darkness even in bright daylight. As far as Margaret knew, there was only one person at the academy with such distinctive black hair.
“……Raiden.”
The girl unconsciously murmured his name and slowed her steps. She had remembered the Second-Year School Trip Group Assignments she’d checked yesterday. The list that had placed her with Raiden.
Recalling it, Margaret’s brow furrowed faintly. Nightmare-like voices seemed to echo in her ears.
“Does it matter to you who I fool around with?”
“Pfft… Love? Don’t make me laugh. Get lost.”
Those were the words that always flashed through her mind whenever she thought of Raiden. Even now, two years later, they still stabbed at her heart.
Margaret bit her lip to push away the pain blooming in her chest. She stood frozen for a moment before letting out a sigh, shaking off the distorted expression on her face.
“What am I even doing…? I swore I’d forget all of that…”
With a self-mocking twist of her lips, Margaret started walking again. There weren’t many carriage stops near the dormitory, so there was no way to avoid him.
“Huh…? This grouping……”
“How could a combination like this even……”
The closer she got to the stop, the more clearly she could hear the boy and his companions talking. From the fragments she caught, it seemed they were looking at the same list from yesterday.
Margaret walked over with heavy steps and stopped behind them. Raiden stood in front of the board, pinching his brow and groaning. Ariel and Lucy stood beside him with complicated expressions.
Deciding she should greet Lucy first, Margaret made her presence known. She brought her hands together neatly and gave a slight bow.
At that moment, Raiden’s muttering slipped into her ears.
“Ahem, it is an honor to meet the Star of the Empire……”
“This grouping is fucking trash.”
Margaret felt her mind go blank for an instant. Had she heard wrong just now?
“Trash, you say?”
She asked toward the boy’s back, forgetting to even finish her greeting to the princess. Her tone was icy even to her own ears.
“Yeah, it’s seriously fucking tr—huh?”
Raiden, who had been nodding along, seemed to realize something was off and turned around. In the next instant, their eyes met.
“………”
“………”
Raiden’s face gradually drained of color. The same thing happened to Ariel and Lucy beside him.
“Lady Filer…?”
Raiden’s dumbfounded reaction made Margaret clench her fists tightly.
“Trash, was it?”
“N-no… that’s not what I—”
“Be quiet.”
……
At her sharp rebuke, Raiden closed his mouth. Margaret stared at the boy and bit her lip.
…Rip.
The lip she had been gnawing on for a while finally split under the pressure. A metallic taste of blood spread through her mouth.
With eyes gone cold as ice, Margaret glared at Raiden. Something inside her was overflowing.
“I’m truly disappointed that I seem to disgust you so much, Lord Lisite.”
“That’s not—”
“Just how much do you hate me that you would use such a vulgar word as ‘trash’?”
“No, I didn’t mean—”
“So your true feelings slip out without you even realizing it.”
……
Under Margaret’s relentless barrage, Raiden gave up on arguing and lowered his head. The air around the carriage stop had grown oppressively heavy. In the suffocating silence, the only sound was the bell announcing the carriage’s imminent arrival.
Ding-ding…
When the carriage pulled up to the stop, Margaret spun on her heel and headed toward it. Just before stepping aboard, she muttered without looking back.
“You’re the worst.”
She climbed into the carriage. Raiden and the others could only stand there frozen, watching blankly as the carriage carrying Margaret moved further and further away.
“Haa…”
The first to break the silence at the frozen carriage stop was my own sigh. I clutched my throbbing head and collapsed onto a bench.
“This can’t be real…”
It felt like some cheap, trashy drama plot. Why did Margaret have to show up right there? Thanks to her, I couldn’t even take the carriage, and the whole atmosphere had been shattered.
As I scratched my head and groaned, Lucy nudged me from the side.
“Raiden…”
“Yes…?”
“That was Lady Filer just now… right?”
Her expression was one of disbelief. It seemed Lucy had never seen Margaret act that coldly before. After all, Margaret was the second-year idol—brilliant in her studies, kind, beautiful, and warm to everyone.
“I’ve… never heard Margaret speak like that before…”
“M-me neither… We ran into her a few times with Brother before, and she was definitely…”
I gave a bitter smile as I looked at the panicked Lucy and Ariel.
Damn it. The school trip hadn’t even started yet, and things were already like this. Calling someone “trash”? What the hell was I thinking?
I scolded myself and tapped my forehead. As I sat there absentmindedly knocking on my head like a wooden fish, Ariel glanced at the bulletin board and pointed to the lower part of the list.
“By the way, Brother, do you know who Gold Tae-yang and Violet are?”
I answered in a lukewarm tone.
“There’s a guy named Gold Tae-yang. He’s a friend who got hit in the head when he was young, so he’s a bit… odd.”
“His name is Gold Tae-yang? That’s a strange name.”
“You can say that again…”
Even I hadn’t known until a few weeks ago. That bastard’s real name was literally Gold Tae-yang. Was this… right? Why would a fantasy world have a name like “Gold Tae-yang”? It was basically the same as naming someone “Dazzlingly Brilliant Sunlight” back in my previous life. I supposed it was possible since the original author was Korean, but… I didn’t know. My head was spinning.
Ariel murmured with interest at my answer.
“Oho… Since the name is so unique, I’d like to meet him once—”
“Absolutely not.”
I cut Ariel off firmly. A meeting between Gold Tae-yang and Ariel? Not until the day a knife was put to my throat… No, even after that, it was still forbidden.
“That person is dangerous.”
“Really?”
“Yes, so you mustn’t try to meet him, okay?”
“Mmm… If Brother says so, I understand!”
Ariel pondered for a moment before nodding obediently. I stroked her head at the adorable sight.
“Good girl. You listen so well.”
“Hehe…”
Ariel accepted the touch with a silly laugh. She purred like a cat for a moment before asking another question.
“Brother, then do you know who Violet is too?”
“Ah, Violet is…… Wait, what did you say?”
“Hm…?”
I looked down at Ariel, wondering if I had heard wrong. She blinked at me as if asking what was wrong.
“Why?”
“You just said… Violet?”
“She’s on your group list, right there?”
I followed the direction Ariel was pointing with my eyes. Sure enough, the four letters spelling “Violet” were clearly written there. The impact of Margaret and Gold Tae-yang listed above had been so strong that I had completely missed it.
I stared at the name, momentarily frozen.
“Violet… is in the same group…?”
“Hm? You know this person too?”
……
I did. Probably better than anyone else in this world. Because the girl named Violet was the mid-boss who appeared in volume five of the original novel, The Heroes Who Erase Sorrow.
“Violet, the Purple Monster…”
And at the same time, she was the character I had loved the most in the original story.