First & First
The hairstyle with the tips of the hair spiraled tightly into curls, so similar in form to a roll cake that it had earned the name “roll-cake hair,” was a common look in anime and webtoons.
It was a trait that tended to stand out more on important supporting characters than on the heroine herself. When only the ends curled, it emphasized elegance and mature beauty; when the curls reached mid-length, it gave an opulent, elegant fullness; and when the hair was tied into twin tails, it radiated a tomboyish, girlish energy. That was roll-cake hair.
Depending on the presentation it could convey all sorts of atmospheres, yet it sat firmly in the realm of personal taste, making it a style better suited to supporting roles than leads.
Fortunately(?), the blonde woman who had introduced herself as sitting diagonally behind Elden wore the version with only the tips gently curled.
My type… no.
At any rate, it was an uncommon physical feature. And given that she claimed the diagonal seat behind him, she had to have been a classmate at the Academy… yet even after combing through his memories, nothing surfaced easily. He must have paid her next to no attention.
Well, of course. Elden would never have taken interest in a character who looked like a diligent model student.
Someone like Elden would have preferred sharp, fox-like or cat-like faces over innocent puppy-dog looks.
And the fact that he couldn’t remember her, combined with the way she had grinned and greeted him first, suggested she was probably an ordinary student who had never gotten tangled up with the villain named Elden.
A brief silence stretched between them.
Fortunately, the blonde young lady with the roll-cake hair who had always buried her nose in novels in the seat diagonally behind him slowly came into focus.
A student with no interest in studies or socializing.
A student who packed more novels than textbooks into her bag.
“Ariel… was it?”
“Yep! You finally remembered?”
Ariel answered with a bright smile.
A classmate from the Royal Academy.
Because of Elden’s spectacularly terrible track record as the Academy’s worst piece of trash, she was somehow a person he felt reluctant to face. Yet the title of the book she was holding against her chest was enough to pique his interest.
The Demon God’s Return
It was unmistakably the title of a fantasy novel.
He had assumed the books she read would naturally be female-oriented romances, but contrary to appearances she seemed to have a taste for male-oriented fiction.
“I just didn’t expect to run into you here, so I was a little surprised.”
“Tch. That goes double for me, you know?”
Ariel shot a half-hearted complaint at the man who had failed to recognize a classmate he had shared a classroom with for three years, then grinned again and offered her hand.
“Anyway, it’s good to see you again.”
A slender, porcelain-white hand extended toward him.
It was the first handshake he had received since transmigrating into this world—since possessing the villainous character named Elden.
No, thinking about it, Ariel was also the first person to greet him first.
Unlike everyone else, whose eyes had held wariness or shock, Ariel’s gaze carried simple, pure goodwill.
She had to know what kind of freak Elden Raphelion was.
And yet she had approached him without hesitation—probably because of her usual indifference to scandals and anything outside of novels, plus the sheer unexpectedness of the meeting.
During her introduction, Ariel had said she lived in the Marquisate of Tabir.
That was a full two weeks’ journey southwest from the northern territories.
Running into an acquaintance by chance in a distant land, an unfamiliar place, an unexpected location was a welcome thing. And because time had diluted memories after graduation from the Academy, she could approach the villain named Elden without reservation.
Anyway.
He set aside the useless sentimentality and took Ariel’s hand.
“It’s good to see you too.”
“Ah, right. I heard you made it to the final candidates in the Engagement War. Congratulations.”
He wondered whether the proper response to the first greeting he had received was bad news, but it wasn’t anything he needed to hide, so he released her hand and answered flatly.
“I withdrew.”
“…Huh?”
“I said I withdrew. From the final candidates.”
“What? No, why?”
Ariel’s blue pupils dilated.
Apparently the story enthusiast had found an interesting topic.
He had no desire to talk about it at length, however, so he cut it short.
“Because it doesn’t make any sense for a man who’s lived his whole life as a vicious scoundrel to become the husband of a grand duchess.”
“…….”
“So I withdrew.”
“Ah…… I-I see.”
With a single soft sigh, Ariel’s dilated pupils contracted again.
Her parted lips closed as well.
The contracted pupils wandered as if lost.
The sealed lips rubbed against each other, unable to find what they needed to say.
…….
It was an implicit agreement.
That a life as a vicious scoundrel could never belong to the great ducal house.
And that withdrawing had been the right call.
But as a fellow human being she couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud, so she fell silent, her gaze drifting through empty air because she didn’t know what emotion to put in her eyes.
To someone who had cast a withdrawal ballot out of self-reproach at the perfect opportunity, neither encouragement nor agreement nor comfort ever came out right.
An awkward atmosphere settled over Ariel, who couldn’t manage a proper reaction.
“Ha, haha. W-well, someone like you would be fine, I think… no. I mean, not that I’m saying rationally you’re fine or anything… just, compared to the other candidates, you know, it’s… like…?”
In the end Ariel offered some half-baked mix of encouragement and consolation.
For some reason it felt like she had just earned a zero-confession first attempt, but it didn’t matter.
Unintentionally, the person hearing about the withdrawal had ended up more flustered than the one who withdrew, so it was only right that the party responsible take care of it.
Heh.
Ariel’s flustered reaction was so funny that, for the first time since the transmigration, a laugh slipped past his lips.
After all, the one who had possessed the villainous character named Elden had far more occasions to keep a straight face than to laugh.
He decided to believe that the way it felt closer to a sneer than a laugh was just his imagination.
“It’s fine. The withdrawal ballot got put on hold anyway, so I’m still officially a final candidate.”
“Huh? On hold…?”
“There’s never been a case in the history of the Engagement War where a final candidate withdrew, so even the grand ducal house seems confused.”
“Ah… I see.”
And just like that the topic of the withdrawal ballot wrapped up quickly, and the seven-story book tower rose in Ariel’s pupils.
To Ariel, things like the Engagement War were probably outside her field of vision anyway.
Whether he withdrew or won, she wouldn’t have cared.
For someone like her, the seven-story book tower was more than enough of a clever way to sweep away the awkward atmosphere.
Ariel pointed at the seven-story book tower and asked,
“But are you planning to read all of these?”
“Just one volume each. They all look interesting, so I can’t decide.”
“Hmm. But you weren’t interested in novels, were you?”
“I figured I might as well pick up a hobby now.”
“Ooh… is that so?”
For an instant, a sharp light flashed in Ariel’s blue eyes.
A sheen of drool glistened on her luminous red lips.
The gaze of a wolf that had just spotted prey.
It didn’t take long to recognize that look as the excited eyes of a veteran who had just locked onto a newbie.
“Would it be okay if I recommended some? Looking at the books you picked, our tastes seem pretty similar.”
Exactly what he had been hoping for.
“I’d like that.”
“Hee—then follow me!”
Ariel headed back toward the pure literature corner with excited steps.
Apparently not a single one of the seven volumes the newbie had chosen met her standards.
To him, who had needed someone to recommend starter works anyway, the help of veteran Ariel would be like a ray of light.
And in a medieval era without active communities, meeting someone who shared your hobby was harder than you’d think.
Which made it all the more delightful.
Offering this body as a small act of charity to the veteran who must be thrilled at the thought of mentoring a newbie was, in the end, mutual benefit.
Thinking that, he willingly began to follow after Ariel.
At the same time.
In Lumiang’s laboratory, the experiment that had been temporarily suspended was underway once more.
Bubble-bubble.
Tap-tap.
The first evaluation match with the final candidates had ended.
It had been closer to reconnaissance than evaluation, and the flow had gone exactly as expected.
Deron, Kyle, Blund.
To those three she had delivered the message exactly as planned.
She had made them taste what it was like to forcibly chew on hatred—how the juice of that hatred grew thicker the more you chewed.
However.
To Elden Raphelion alone the message seemed not to have been delivered, but this was only the beginning.
There was still plenty of time, and plenty of opportunities remaining.
Though she had suffered two defeats, failure was always excellent nourishment for a researcher of pure obsession, so Lumiang had decided to accept it with humility. For the first time in a while she had come to the laboratory and was continuing the interrupted experiment.
This experiment involved storing condensed mana inside a special crystal created through alchemy.
If it succeeded, it would become an extremely useful item for mages.
And so.
Having perfectly finished analyzing the four targets of her revenge after the first gathering, Lumiang, clad in a lab coat, was stirring the solution inside an Erlenmeyer flask.
The experiment was proceeding smoothly and had now reached its final stage.
It should have been finished long ago, but the major variable named Elden Raphelion had thrown the schedule into chaos.
A competent researcher had to strictly maintain plans and order and pursue perfection.
Especially since magic and alchemy were unexplored frontiers still under development, and dealing with incomplete crystals as complex as shattered glass meant that even a single speck of fine dust could change the result.
Moreover, one was constantly stalked by unexpected dangers.
Everything had to be perfect, and every experimental condition and situation had to remain under the experimenter’s control.
Which was why.
The crystal named Elden Raphelion—one that refused all control—could not help but grate on the experimenter’s nerves.
A difficult problem with no answer in sight could not help but be irritating.
Of course, the pleasure of overcoming it and solving the problem was a great driving force, but still.
“Haa…”
Lumiang, who had been blankly stirring the solution in the flask, let out a sigh and shook off her stray thoughts.
This was the final stage of an experiment into which she had poured her heart and soul.
Given that the schedule was already disrupted, she needed to clear her mind of distractions.
“…Is something the matter?”
Marien, who was assisting beside her while leaning on crutches, asked carefully.
Today she looked different.
Whenever an experiment she had poured her soul into reached its final stage, Lumiang was always excited.
She was supposed to be humming a little tune, not sighing.
“Marien.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Do you think a person’s nature can change?”
Faced with a question completely unrelated to the experiment, Marien answered carefully.
“Well…… if there’s a particular catalyst, maybe it could be possible, I think.”
“…….”
After a moment of silence, Lumiang narrowed her eyes and stared at the swirling solution inside the flask.
“I believe it absolutely cannot change. Nature is an immutable law that allows no exceptions.”
Lumiang poured the whirling solution over the special crystal.
She had poured her heart and soul into it, accounted for every possible failure, and striven for perfection.
It was an experiment that had never once gone awry until now.
She had been certain of success.
Crack!
If only the sound of the crystal shattering had not suddenly rung out.
And then.
Pop! Papang! Papapang!
If the mana solution had not exploded in every direction like fireworks going off, like water thrown into boiling oil, Lumiang would have been certain of success.
Pyung! Pssshhh! Pyoong! Piyuuung—!
The entire laboratory began to turn multicolored, as if five-colored paint had been flung everywhere.
The solutions exploding in an annoyingly festive manner.
Even the sound of the explosions was ridiculously cheerful.
And that explosion was a failure that was truly annoying and spiteful—exactly like a certain someone.
Pyung……shhh.
The perfect experiment had run aground at the final stretch.
What had gone wrong?
It had been an experiment where everything was controlled, everything was perfect.
After the explosions died down, Lumiang looked down at the shattered special crystal and laughed as if she had lost her mind. There was nothing else she could do.
“…Ha, haha…, hahaha, haha.”
For a long while, the hollow laughter of a researcher who had fallen at the final experiment echoed through the laboratory now painted in multicolored hues.
And.
In all the time she had served her lady, Marien was hearing such hollow laughter for the first time.
S-scary…