The Roommate's Scorn
My roommate Eloise Vinette was an enchanting young lady with her lively short orange hair and the delicate freckles that dusted her cheeks. Though she belonged to a baronial family and occupied a comparatively modest position among the higher nobles, her house was renowned for its superior wine production. Thanks to the favorable climate and fertile soil of the estate managed by the Vinette family, they cultivated grapes of the highest quality. Consequently, the Vinette family had accumulated tremendous wealth by producing wine from these grapes and other fruits, a fortune so vast that it was beyond my imagination as a commoner. Yet the moment this noble daughter first laid eyes on me, she spat out, “Disgusting wretch.” Even someone like me, who had never experienced life among the nobles, witnessed the exact same aristocratic contempt for commoners that could be seen in web novels. I had to admit I didn’t fully understand it. After all, web novels were full of nobles who hated commoners. Still, a flicker of unease stirred inside me. “She wouldn’t be the type, right?” I thought. And now, because we were roommates, I would be forced to see her every single day of the semester. The thought alone made my head spin.
“You weren’t told to disappear from in front of my eyes, were you? Or are you just too dumb to understand what words actually mean?”
“Y-yes. I’m sorry!”
Sensing that something was seriously off, I immediately dropped my gaze and offered a careful apology. The moment Eloise saw my apology, she clicked her tongue and strode away toward her room. “Thanks to Chloe-unnie, you got off easy. You disgusting commoner…” Her words floated after her, and I knew an unpleasant incident had just occurred. When she was gone, I returned to my own room, picked up the document clearly labeled “Disciplinary Report,” and finally understood the reason.
Therefore, in consideration of the victim Chloe Eldrich’s mercy… the disciplinary action imposed on the perpetrator Serina is as follows.
A single sheet of A4 paper was filled to the brim with details that informed me Serina, the one who had been reincarnated into me, had received punishment just one month after enrolling at the academy.
“So, Miss Serina? Would you be able to assist us with cleaning up after the experiment?”
“Ah, no, that’s all right. If I can be of any help, it would be an honor…”
“Hehe, thank you. We’re very busy, though.”
The group swept past me with cheerful expressions, as if truly sorry, yet they accepted the favor I had pretended to offer in disguise.
“Ouch…”
“Oopsie, sorry~”
One of the group casually shoved my shoulder as she passed, and I stumbled onto the lecture hall floor. The sheets I had carefully organized and written notes on fluttered through the empty air.
“…No, I’m fine.”
My words drifted into the empty lecture hall without meaning. The group ignored my “fine” and left without a second glance.
“Hah… Those damn brats.”
I collected the scattered papers as if this was routine and began reorganizing them. Responding to such childish nonsense would only make them enjoy it more. I needed to act stupid and dull, forcing them to leave first because they would grow bored. Having been reincarnated into a game world and spending a year learning to survive bullying, it was genuinely pathetic. But there was nothing I could do. I was the academy’s public laughingstock, the nobles’ plaything, and the commoners’ shame. I had to guess the reasons for this wretched fate by reading the disciplinary report lying on my desk. In short, I had been accused of stealing the panties of the Eldrich family’s precious noble daughter, who had produced countless talented mages and scholars from the kingdom’s three most powerful ducal houses. Even though the accusation turned out to be false, I was still punished. The matter had been handled discreetly within the academy as well. To protect the ducal family’s pride, the truth had been buried, and anyone who knew kept their mouths shut. But secrets don’t stay secret forever. Soon enough, rumors began to spread among the students.
Chloe Eldrich, the originally accused noble daughter, enjoyed an extremely high social status even within the academy. The incident that placed her at the center of such a scandal had caused quite a stir. Chloe was beautiful, charismatic, and beloved by students and professors alike regardless of gender, year, status, or race. No one could understand how she had become embroiled in such a misfortune. After all, who would dare steal a noble duke’s daughter’s panties? For someone who had never experienced noble society, that crime seemed unforgivable. Nobles valued honor above all, so even if she somehow managed to escape punishment, her family would hunt the perpetrator down and tear them apart. The truth behind the panty thief incident was simple. Chloe and I had been in the same outdoor training class. After class one day, in the changing room, Chloe had accidentally placed her own panties in my bag by mistake. She hadn’t noticed, and I had carried the bag back to the dormitory. When Chloe later discovered her missing underwear, the situation had already grown complicated. Eloise Vinette, Chloe’s friend and my roommate, had pointed the finger at me. She found the panties in my dormitory room and reported it immediately. As a result, I was quickly brought before the disciplinary committee. When faced with the committee, I insisted on my innocence, but Eloise’s testimony and Chloe’s influence carried far more weight than the words of a mere commoner like me. Later, however, Chloe submitted a petition to the committee, declaring that everything had been her mistake. She admitted to mixing up her bag with mine and genuinely apologized for the harm she had caused. From that moment onward, every accusation against Serina was retracted.
At first glance, it had been a commoner who almost lost her social standing because of a noble daughter’s mistake, but the matter had been resolved peacefully. Yet why was I still hearing the filthy rumor that I was a panty thief? It was because, over time, a new rumor quietly began to circulate among the academy students. “The disgusting, vulgar commoner Serina harbors truly lewd intentions toward the beautiful and noble daughter of the Eldrich family, and even after committing the crime, Chloe-unnie, with her kind heart, forgave her while enduring the embarrassment of having to admit it was her own mistake—” A disgusting rumor from my perspective, if I may say so.
The reason such rumors spread was that people began pointing out how strange the incident had been. In fact, I had also noticed something odd while reading the committee’s document. Regardless of whether Chloe truly harbored lewd thoughts toward me and stole the panties, the fact that she mixed up her bag with mine was understandable. But why, among all her clothes, would she accidentally put on only her panties? And more importantly, how had Eloise immediately realized they weren’t Serina’s the moment she saw them in my hand? Those were the simple questions that occurred to any third-party observer, and the students who thought the same way began to spread the rumor. In other words, “the commoner Serina actually stole her panties, and the kind-hearted daughter of the ducal family covered it up as her own mistake to forgive the commoner.” That was the rumor.
The moment I began attending the academy, the name “disgusting panty thief” was attached to me, and the bullying started. And it was the bullying I continued to endure today. Yet while being bullied, an idea suddenly surfaced in my mind. Maybe Chloe and her lackeys had staged this whole thing on purpose just to toy with Serina? Honestly, anyone familiar with Chloe’s reputation inside the academy would dismiss it as absurd nonsense and curse me out. But from my own position as someone being bullied, it made perfect sense. Rather than the rumor having any enormous foundation, it was simply that Chloe, who had submitted a petition claiming my innocence after enduring a year of harassment, never once spoke up when her followers continued to torment me.
“Sigh. What nonsense is this, really…”
I replaced the experiment equipment on the shelf and sighed. I was so exhausted now that even absurd fantasies were beginning to creep into my thoughts. But the mental stress had become unbearable. Honestly, at first I had only wanted to endure until graduation, but as the bullying intensified, I was finally at my limit. “I really need to think about this seriously.” The thought that had come to mind was simply to quit the academy. By now, why should I suffer so much just to earn a diploma? Continuing to endure like this and somehow graduating sounded unpleasant too. With a deep sigh, I finished organizing everything, closed the laboratory door, and headed for the library. After all, the only thing I could do was study.