Chapter 22
Kitty Garfield was currently in a total huff.
As the honorable future empress, she wanted to make it clear to the commoner girl who was fluttering around the crown prince that reality was harsh.
She had it all planned out to firmly remind her that no matter how much you might be the prince’s benefactor, you’re still just a commoner in the end.
However, her plan ended in a total disaster.
Ahhh! So frustrating!
She managed to put the pressure on, but then interruptions came, and in the end, she got caught by the professor.
Fortunately, since the professor was a fallen noble, she was able to narrowly escape punishment.
If it had been Professor Pernelson, expulsion would have been a sure thing…?
Anyway, because her brother Carter was usually the one pushing around that professor, she had some leverage to lean on.
Accompanied by her brother, Kitty decided to be the first to report and went on the offensive.
She tried hard to play the victim, but Daniel responded calmly without showing any signs of panic.
With a heartfelt report of events and a statement of his position, he completely turned the situation around.
As a result, Chancellor Lunia gave Daniel a light punishment while imposing a severe penalty on Kitty and her crew.
If I, the future empress, were to be demoted from S-class to B-class…!
A catastrophe was anticipated.
First, other nobles would swoop in, saying the prospective empress’s qualifications were lacking.
If it was demotion due to low marks instead of penalties, things would only get worse.
Forget about maintaining the engagement; Garfield would definitely become the laughingstock of the noble society.
The family head would be unable to lift their head at important events like banquets, and Kitty would be no different.
Terms like lowly, shameless, and a disgrace to nobles would definitely follow, tormenting the Garfield family for a lifetime.
No matter how much my father loves me, he won’t forgive this situation!
Duke Garfield was risking everything to make his beloved daughter the crown princess.
But what if he found out that his daughter had messed up his plans?
He’d surely grab his neck and collapse.
Thus, Kitty and Carter desperately lodged an appeal against the chancellor’s decision.
Chancellor Lunia looked like she had no intention of changing her mind, but fortunately for the siblings, luck was on their side.
How lucky that that commoner is so dumb!
As Nina raised an objection to Daniel’s punishment, Kitty and Carter’s appeal was also accepted.
That said, the situation wasn’t completely resolved yet.
There was a condition attached: the opinion of the victor in the duel scheduled for two weeks later would be taken into consideration.
If they lost, there would be no second chances.
That won’t happen, dead or alive.
The Garfields were confident they wouldn’t lose.
Their opponent was a student from the lowest class, F-class, and a professor who was known to be incompetent.
Meanwhile, they were students from the honorable S-class, fighting against their responsible professor; it was clear they couldn’t lose.
The siblings expected it to be such a one-sided fight that it would hardly even be called a duel.
Ugh…! Everything’s fine, but just the thought of having to stress over this situation frustrates me!
Kitty could not forgive those who made her feel this way.
If they were in front of her, she’d want to tear them to shreds right then and there.
However, after the duel was set, Kitty was already feeling scared by the chancellor’s words.
[It won’t happen, but if there’s even a hint of someone meddling before the duel, be prepared. I’ll show you what punishments worse than penalties look like.]
If she wanted to avoid a beating, she needed to leave Nina and Daniel alone.
The chancellor didn’t specifically call out anyone, but it was clear she was warning the Garfield siblings.
She essentially preemptively blocked any plans for a victory by underhanded means.
Though Kitty was confident they would win without resorting to such tricks, the problem was she couldn’t vent her boiling rage.
No matter how much she stomped on her maid and ripped her clothes, it did nothing to relieve her anger.
If she couldn’t unleash her rage on Nina and Daniel, she needed another scapegoat.
It felt like she had to ruin one of her classmates to feel satisfied, but there was no appropriate target.
Crack-!
Kitty started chewing her nails, deep in thought.
After repeatedly pondering for a long time, a figure suddenly crossed her mind.
That’s right! That girl was around, wasn’t she?
She recalled the one who had interrupted her moment of joy and mocked her shamelessly.
That student who had looked down on her and provoked her.
Yuer Isipin Arungard…!
Unless one was suicidal, it wasn’t usual to think about venting frustration on a princess.
But Kitty knew. Yuer wasn’t your average princess.
It should be fine. That girl is a cast-off, an illegitimate child.
That was the moment when her next victim was decided.
*
Was the duel tomorrow? Time flies.
It was now just one day until the duel.
Chancellor Lunia had given them time off to prepare, but she had declined the offer.
She feared it would raise questions about fairness, so she continued her duties as professor without change.
On the other hand, Nina was dedicatedly training, saying she wouldn’t be a burden to me.
Known for her lively and likable personality, Nina was putting in her efforts with the help of those around her.
There were indeed cases in the original work where people trained hard, but that was supposed to come later, right?
By this point, it felt pointless to try to predict anything.
This was the World of Asagok, a realm I knew nothing about.
Moving based on knowledge of the future seemed to only invite unwanted troubles.
Well, as for Nina, her potential is limitless, so she’ll manage on her own.
There was no way a genius who was also hard-working would lose to someone who merely considered themselves a genius.
Maybe that’s why I wasn’t worried about the duel happening tomorrow.
The Garfield siblings were probably thinking the same way.
If they let their guard down, we would be grateful for it.
What I really need to worry about is something else.
Over the past two weeks, I had discovered an oddity while diligently fulfilling my duties.
Whether I liked it or not, as the supervising professor, there was no avoiding confrontations with the special class during attendance and end-of-day check-ins.
To put it bluntly, it was a time to see what new trouble our little misfits had caused that day.
Checking if nothing had happened was a time when happiness reigned; when something wild did happen, it was a stress-inducing occasion.
However, since two weeks ago, there was one student who hadn’t been causing trouble but had been a victim instead.
In a rare twist, Yuer, who had helped Nina before, started appearing in different states during attendance and check-ins.
One day, she showed up with a ton of chalk dust in her hair, another day with egg yolk on her face.
There were also times she had scratches all over her cheeks and was covered in mud from head to toe.
The troubling thing was that she showed up with a different appearance every single day.
Eventually, I couldn’t hold back and asked what had happened…
“Please mind your own business.”
Yuer’s brusque statement left me with no room to pry further.
But I roughly pieced together what was happening.
All those instances Yuer had shown were things Nina went through in the original work.
Thanks to the rapid arrangement of the duel, Nina had managed to escape the bullying.
It seemed Kitty’s original torment of Nina had been shifted onto Yuer instead.
The reason for the bullying was likely because Yuer had interfered with her.
Doesn’t she know that Nina is training hard for the duel? Isn’t she worried at all?
Splash-!
Feeling perplexed, I also heard water splashing even though there was no rain.
Looking out the window, I saw a torrential waterfall pouring down.
Underneath that waterfall stood the blonde princess, completely drenching herself.
Then, a bucket fell and hit her head.
In a moment of spontaneous reaction, before I knew it, I was jumping out the window to approach Princess Yuer.
When I raised my head, I saw a group of girls laughing on the rooftop, and they hurriedly fled when they spotted me.
Some familiar faces were definitely part of Kitty’s gang.
“Are you alright?”
I was more concerned about Yuer than I was about my own anger, so I checked her condition.
Even drenched, she maintained an unyielding grace, and her blonde hair remained sparkling without losing its luster.
She truly looked stunning, but her piercing gaze was sharp as a blade.
“Don’t meddle in my business and just get lost!”
She spat out insults despite my genuine concern for her, turning her back on me.
While her attitude felt more than a little prickly, it didn’t rub me the wrong way.
I wasn’t a masochist, of course.
It was just that knowing her past made me feel sympathy, even when faced with her harsh words.
“Tch…”
An illegitimate child of the Arungarde Emperor, treated as a commoner by the empire.
Her biological mother had been murdered, and Princess Yuer had survived more than three hundred assassination attempts.
Many nobles viewed her as the emperor’s sole blemish and sought to erase her existence.
Even the guards assigned by the emperor never properly protected Yuer; she had no allies at all.
This had earned her the nickname ‘Princess of Human Distrust.’
Even though she hid the animal ears and tail characteristic of her hybrid heritage, no one dared approach her.
…I wonder if she’ll be okay?
The wind brushing against my skin felt unusually chilly today.
It was the kind of weather perfect for catching a cold if you wandered around soaking wet.
Being alone when you’re sick could be pretty lonely…