What's He Doing Here?
The territory ruled by House Ventus, like the Edwin domain, sat on the fringes of the kingdom—but there the resemblance ended.
The barren north. A climate far too harsh for farming. Savage monsters that had adapted to that brutal weather. It was a land barely fit for human habitation.
And yet House Ventus had held that land all the same, driving back the ferocious beasts and enduring the merciless climate—and in doing so, they had amassed considerable wealth.
The reason was simple: the rich mineral deposits buried throughout Ventus County. Everything from metals used in weapon-crafting to precious ores, even the costly mana stones required for magical tools. By the surveyors' estimate, decades' worth of reserves still lay underground.
And it wasn't only the minerals. Soldiers honed by constant battle against the monsters of the north had grown formidable in their own right, and the materials harvested from those hunts fetched handsome prices as well.
Having succeeded in carving both wealth and military power from the northern wilderness, House Ventus had risen from a non-hereditary barony to a hereditary countship in the span of a single generation—so much so that whispers now circulated of them one day contending for a dukedom.
And it was to this Ventus County that Liliana Edwin arrived.
Upon reaching the Ventus estate, Liliana requested an audience with the Count, but he was away from the residence. The one who received her in his place was a woman with silver hair tinged a faint green. She looked to be in her early to mid-thirties, and she sat across from Liliana, watching her.
"It's been a while, Liliana."
"I-It's been a long time, Lady Silvia."
Countess Silvia Ventos. Wife of Kilian Wentos, the current Count of Ventus, and mother of Kyou Ventus.
"Have you been well?"
"Y-Yes, I've been well, thank you!"
"Is that so? I haven't been, thanks to you."
Liliana's heart plummeted at the Countess's pointed words.
"I-I'm sorry."
"What is there to apologize for? Matters of the heart can't be helped, can they?"
So she said—but the eyes that looked at Liliana were cold. The Lady Silvia who had always taught her with such kindness was already gone.
"But couldn't you have at least come to Kyou first? Or even to me?"
"......"
"Did you find my son and me so unworthy of your trust?"
"No! That's absolutely not it!!"
Liliana shook her head, desperately denying it. Every word from the Countess struck her like a blow to the chest.
"Well. It's too late to talk about it now."
"......"
"That's enough pleasantries. State your business. You wouldn't have come all this way without a reason, I assume?"
"Yes..."
In that uncomfortable atmosphere, Liliana explained why she had come. That she wanted to continue attending the academy. That she had come to apologize first, before doing so. Of course, she left out the part about wanting to stay because of Alan. Even Liliana wasn't so oblivious as to say that.
Countess Silvia listened in silence, then spoke.
"As far as the house is concerned, it makes no difference. The tuition has already been paid, after all."
"......"
"He hasn't demanded a refund either, so I imagine he feels the same. However—"
The Countess looked Liliana straight in the eye.
"The one you ought to be apologizing to isn't my husband and me. It's Kyou, isn't it?"
"...Yes."
"If you continue attending the academy, you're bound to run into him."
Run into him? They already sat right next to each other. An awkward air already hung between Liliana and Kyou as it was.
Silvia spoke firmly.
"If Kyou accepts your apology, then as a house, we will not interfere. Make sure you apologize to him properly."
There are a few secret spaces within Gransen Academy.
In the original novel, Alan and his companions would find these hidden rooms and use them as training grounds, or as hideouts whenever conflict broke out within the academy. I seem to recall the author mentioning that besides the secret spaces referenced in the original, still more hidden rooms existed... though they never actually appeared before the original novel ended, so they remained a MacGuffin.
And I was sitting in one of those secret rooms that never appeared in the original. Together with the crimson-haired girl before me—Riel Ignis.
"This is amazing! I can't believe a place like this existed!"
Riel looked around the room with eyes full of curiosity. A desk and chair set caught the eye first—they looked quite old, yet were remarkably clean. Anti-corrosion magic, probably. One wall held shelves and even a simple tea set. I'd checked inside the shelves, but they were empty. They'd likely been used to store tea leaves and the like.
And another wall was a bookshelf packed with books. Every volume I pulled out was a rare text, the kind you'd struggle to find anywhere. The existence of a wall made of bookshelves wasn't particularly strange. After all, this secret room was inside the Grand Library.
"Maybe someone used this as a study room during exam season?"
"Hehe. Finding a place like this... I think today's my lucky day!"
Riel looked thoroughly excited. For someone as sensitive to others' gazes as Riel, a secret place like this might well be precious.
Finding this room had been pure coincidence. Riel had been hurrying to hide from Alan, who'd gone so far as to come looking for her in the Grand Library, when she bumped into one of the bookshelves—and that had been the entrance. Thanks to that, she'd managed to hide from Alan and found a secret room she liked besides. Two birds with one stone.
"He'll never find this place!"
Riel smiled, genuinely delighted. Honestly, given how unnervingly persistent Alan was about hunting Riel down, I figured he'd find it eventually. But I wasn't so tactless as to rain on her parade when she looked that happy.
"I heard Gransen Academy has a lot of hidden rooms like this."
"Really?"
Riel immediately perked up, asking question after question. As someone who'd read the original novel, I kept discovering new sides of her I'd never gotten to see before. And every time, it made me genuinely, deeply happy—happy enough to dull the pain of being abandoned by Liliana.
After checking from the entrance that Alan was no longer in the Grand Library, Riel and I slipped out of the secret room. Just to be sure, I asked a librarian. Apparently Alan had been ransacking the library looking for Riel, gotten caught by the head librarian, and been thrown out.
What is the protagonist even doing?
"I hope we can find another secret room!"
After hearing about the academy's hidden rooms, Riel showed enormous interest. In practice, secret rooms didn't just serve as hideouts—sometimes they held useful artifacts or weapons as well. The armaments Alan mainly used in the original had been found in one such room, and the same was true of the magic texts in the Grand Library's hidden space.
"Yeah. I hope we find another one too."
The sun was beginning to set. At this hour, I figured Alan, having been kicked out of the library, would have gone back to his dorm. Riel and I walked toward Aurum Hall together. Both the Grand Library and Aurum Hall were on academy grounds, so the distance wasn't far.
"Kyou."
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
Caught off guard by Riel's sudden thanks, I stared at her blankly.
"Ever since I became friends with you, every single day's been so much fun."
Riel looked at me with a bright, beaming smile. Her smile was truly dazzling.
"No. If anything, I should be the one thanking you."
"Huh?"
Yeah. I was the one who should be grateful. I think I've said it before, but ever since I came to this world, I'd lived with my eyes on Liliana alone. A happy ending different from the original—one where the girl I loved and I, the early-story villain, could be together. I'd run toward that single goal. And then Liliana left my side.
In that moment, I lost everything. I gave up on everything. I wanted to leave it all behind and disappear somewhere. The one who caught me then was none other than the girl standing in front of me.
"Riel, you're the one who saved me."
"Huh?"
"Ahaha... Just take it that way. That I'm incredibly grateful to you."
Riel looked like she didn't quite understand, but when I smiled, she smiled too.
I had lost everything and been saved by Riel. And Riel had, little by little, begun to share her circumstances with me. So what I could do was protect Riel with everything I had from the original protagonist she so disliked.
...For now, that was enough.
Just as Aurum Hall came into view.
"Kyou!!"
Someone called my name. No—there was no "someone" about it. I had spent over a decade with her. I knew her voice. The girl who had abandoned me for the protagonist—Liliana Edwin—was waiting in front of the dormitory.
I almost let her name slip out, but I forced it back down my throat.
"You've returned to the academy, Lady Edwin."
"......"
"Coming all the way out to this distant dormitory—what business do you have?"
She was no longer my fiancée. The relationship between our houses had become that of the party receiving compensation and the party paying it. I didn't want to speak with her more familiarly than necessary. No—to be honest, I was the one who wanted to avoid speaking with her familiarly. If I didn't shake her off quickly, I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to.
Thud.
I heard something collapse. I shook the thoughts from my head and looked. Liliana was on her knees.
"...I'm sorry."
A single word of apology, delivered on her knees.
"I know I have no right to say this, after hurting you the way I did."
Tears welled in Liliana's eyes. She even pressed her forehead to the ground.
"But please... would you show me mercy, and accept my apology...?"
I had known she would come to apologize. That morning, when Phyllis brought a letter from Mother, everything had been written in it. That Liliana would come to apologize to me, and that her purpose was wanting to continue attending the academy—all of it.
Honestly, I didn't particularly care. It was still awkward, and looking at her still hurt, but lately, spending time with Riel, I'd been slowly getting over it. So if she wanted to keep attending the academy, I had intended to forgive her and let her go.
Which is why, seeing her kneel and press her head to the ground like this, I couldn't say a word. Riel beside me looked equally bewildered, as if she couldn't make sense of the situation.
I couldn't just leave her like that, so I was about to help her up when—
"What the hell is going on here?"
An agitated male voice rang out.
"Kyou Ventus, what the hell did you do to Lily?!"
Alan Ludwig was walking toward us, his face twisted with rage.
Why is this bastard suddenly showing up here?