Do You Know How to Manipulate Coordinates?
"Do you know how to manipulate coordinates?" “Have a happy youth~.” With Dean Eustace Jerold’s benevolent smile and gentle wave, that single unconventional line of advice was more than enough to earn applause from the academy students.
'This is what a true adult looks like.' Of course, I too was moved by his excellent speech and gave him a thumbs-up.
“With that, we conclude the 97th Academy Opening Ceremony.”
At the emcee’s final words, the crowd moved in perfect unison. The time was eleven o’clock. I had wondered whether I might run into Sien here, but with our departments being different, it was nearly impossible unless I went out of my way to visit the knight division.
'Ha, I still can’t make up my mind.' Scratching my head, I headed for the classroom where the first lecture would take place. Right about now my classmates were probably throwing themselves into exciting academy life or mapping out their bright futures… but as a former villain, I was busy calculating exactly how to save the hero.
It was the kind of thought that would make a passing dog stop, stare, and bark out a laugh. Still, what choice did I have?
'The board is even worse than I expected.' Tsk. I clicked my tongue again at the ridiculous situation.
“So you’re saying Sien’s older sisters made them do this?”
“Yeah. Every kid from a family connected to House Alencia is acting the same way.”
“We only moved first because we heard about it from the others.”
The day before—Sunday. I couldn’t understand why students would resort to violence before the semester had even begun, so I recruited the two girls who had been staring at my face with open interest and asked for the full story.
Listening to them, even a former villain like me got goosebumps.
'Kids these days are seriously terrifying.'
Not only were they casually texting about ganging up on one person, they were also promising unlimited support to whoever ruined Sien the most. And the orders had come directly from her sisters, Kase Alencia and Sisili Alencia.
Kase Alencia and Sisili Alencia. Unfortunately, I had no recollection of the twin sisters. The truth is, the only names I remembered from my troublemaking days were those who had annoyed me or those I had sworn to kill. Not remembering them meant I had never crossed paths with them. Or perhaps they had been swept up in my misdeeds and died before I could even memorize their names.
'…Thinking about it that way suddenly makes me feel sorry.'
Reformation isn’t called turning over a new leaf for nothing. Since the moment I decided to topple House Seton, I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise not to kill. So this time I resolved to minimize the bloodshed as much as possible and made my way to the class I belonged to.
The 97th entering class had an enrollment of 330. Exactly half—165—were in the magic department. Since that many people couldn’t attend lectures together, they had been split into five classes for convenience. I was in Class 4, and the divisions weren’t strictly based on grades.
“Yes, Lady Howard. It’s been a while.”
If they had been, there was no chance that someone like me—who had luckily slipped in through the commoner preferential admission—would share a class with this girl.
Receiving everyone’s attention as naturally as breathing, the golden-haired girl laughed and exchanged greetings with those she met. One smile from her was enough to make every person in the room, regardless of gender, grin like an idiot.
“Haa~, how can Lady Roselia possibly be so lovely?”
“I know, right? We must live in completely different worlds~.”
“Maybe she’s secretly a fairy. Or she inherited the blood of a goddess.”
“Aww~. Even if you say things like that, nothing special comes out of me.”
The blonde girl who received their praise—Roselia Eliard—covered her mouth and smiled with modest grace.
In truth, their compliments were so exaggerated it wouldn’t be wrong to call them over-the-top… but 'She really is beautiful.'
Looking at her face, it all made sense. She was like the personification of a precious, perfectly raised cat. Her face was delicately oval, her features brilliant; when she wore no expression she looked refined and haughty. Yet the moment she smiled or played around she became impossibly cute. That gap was so charming that people close to Roselia loved bragging about her. She seemed to enjoy the attention herself.
'She’s also an incredible person who played a big part in stopping me in my previous life.'
The fact that she had stopped me meant she was fundamentally good. Beauty, personality, and even magical talent—she lacked nothing. An all-round beauty. Just being friends with someone like her might bring some good fortune my way. Such expectations rose naturally, yet—
'So this is what it feels like to have your energy drained just by looking at someone?'
Having lived an introverted life until now, I had no idea how to laugh and flirt like that. If a god grabbed me by the collar and asked whether I would rather live a life where no one ever approached me, I would simply chuckle and say, 'I have karma. Hehe.' and choose solitude. Therefore, unless something drastic happened, the odds of me becoming close with this cat-like friend were———
“Hi?”
Oh dear god. True to her mage nature, the girl had greeted me brightly before I even noticed her presence.
“Aww, no way~.”
Wondering if this was truly happening, I let out a bewildered chuckle and turned my head.
“You’re Rain, right?”
“...Do you know how to manipulate coordinates?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, never mind. I thought I must be dreaming because such a beauty suddenly appeared in front of me. Hehehe.”
Golden hair and unmistakable cat-like features. Our Lady Roselia herself had come to greet me. Hooray~.
'…Why?'
What on earth was going on? Why had the girl who was standing over there suddenly come to the back row to talk to me? Just why? Did I need to accelerate time itself to understand? No, even if I did, would I actually comprehend it?
While two conflicting thoughts collided inside my head and I debated whether to use magic, the cat-like young lady covered her mouth and gave me a smiling eye-curve.
“Can I sit next to you?”
“...Ah———.”
Saying no seemed impossible; the glares pouring from behind her at that moment were genuinely terrifying.
“Wow~ Can someone like me really claim this kind of luck? Won’t this cause a huge problem because of me?”
And if I answered “Yeah, it’s fine,” I knew the stares would turn even fiercer with silent demands of Who do you think you are? So I scratched my head and made space instead.
“Aww~. On the contrary, it’s an honor to sit next to a handsome man like you, Rain. As the one who asked, I’m the one worried whether it’s okay.”
But the other party was the young lady of House Eliard, the foremost family of the thriving Pyro school in the Magic Tower. If I gritted my teeth and refused, she would simply interpret it as humility and gracefully withdraw—a true master of social navigation.
'…You’re the one who said it. So why are you all glaring at me?'
The sharp looks seemed to ask what right I had to make our Roselia worry. They knew perfectly well she had spoken out of modesty, yet they only bared their teeth at me and overreacted. This is exactly why people obsessed with something are the scariest.
…These guys were genuinely crazy. In more ways than one.
In that sense.
“Hehe, then what should I do?”
I deliberately tilted my head in an exaggerated manner and asked.
“I’d like it if Rain granted my request~.”
Roselia tilted her head the exact same way and beamed.
“...Then shall we both enjoy the honor?”
I had no choice but to grit my teeth and nod.
“Oof—” With a rather cute mutter, Roselia neatly arranged her skirt hems and gently sat down. Behind her, a crowd was either grinding their teeth or radiating murderous intent as if declaring war, but what was done was done.
Villain trait: doesn’t read the room. Even after reformation, my unchanged personality meant the glares from the Roselia fan club barely registered.
Since it had come to this, I decided to just roll with it. I smiled at her and exchanged another greeting with my eyes.
“Ah. Now that I think about it, I called you by name too casually. Is it all right if I keep doing that from now on?”
“I don’t mind at all.”
“Then you call me by name too. Oh, my name is Roselia Eliard.”
“Can’t I call you Miss Eliard?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Feeling the conversation had veered off track, we both tilted our heads and stared at each other at the same time.
“Why are you calling me Miss Eliard instead of just Eliard?”
“...Because you’re the young lady of the Eliard ducal house that rules the West?”
“But I’m calling you Rain?”
“Isn’t that a problem?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Another misaligned point. At the unbridgeable gap, Roselia’s brows furrowed slightly. But the one who actually wanted to frown and ask what the hell she was doing was none other than me.
'What does this girl want from me…?'
No. What was wrong with a commoner showing proper respect to a noble? They called this a public area of equality, but if it were truly equal I wouldn’t have received dismissive looks on my way here.
'Besides, how many eyes are watching right now?'
No matter how much of a villain who ignored others’ opinions I used to be, now that I had decided to live quietly I had no intention of stirring up unnecessary trouble. Therefore treating her with proper etiquette was the perfectly reasonable thing to do…
“Roselia! Call me Roselia from now on.”
This cat girl. Why was she puffing her cheeks like that if she was so dissatisfied?
“Hehe, do I truly have the honor to call you———”
“It’s not about honor, so you absolutely must call me that!”
“......”
“We’re friends, aren’t we?”
There it was—the unbeatable word. On top of that, an angelic smile capable of forgiving any sin. The moment I saw her smiling while invoking the word “friends,” there was only one possible reply.
“...Hehe, then I’ll call you Roselia?”
“Yes, yes! You must call me that!”
When I awkwardly smiled and used her name, Roselia’s large eyes sparkled as she beamed.
“Lia is fine too, if you want!”
“Do you happen to know how to manipulate personal distance or something? That’s something even I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“Ah, never mind. I just meant you’re pretty.”
I roughly brushed off the cat girl’s attempt to close the distance even further and gave an awkward chuckle.
I’ve decided. I never intended to, and I never agreed to it, but I can’t be friends with this girl.
'I’ll increase the distance before it gets exhausting.'
To create even a little physical and mental space, I slid my chair—and myself—slightly to the side.
Scraaape—.
“I heard! You’re the only commoner in this entire class, right? That’s seriously amazing!”
Yet Roselia closed the gap even more than I had tried to open.
...Why? Was this some new form of harassment?
“Ah, no. It was just luck.”
“That’s not something you can dismiss as luck, Rain! More than two thousand applicants applied for a single spot! There’s no way you can call that good fortune.”
“Ah, it was two thousand?”
“You didn’t know?”
“...Hehehe.”
What is this? The current me? I’m insanely competent.