PERSONAL

Chapter 10: Offing the Offreys Part 3

Howls by the third-years of Leon being a cheat filled the chatter. It was said in a jest, but it was hard to deny the accusations. The Arroganz alone was a match for our contingent of third-years. Greg's performance was a distant second, but with both of those boys on the same team, the third-years didn't stand a chance of winning.

It simply wasn't fair. The machine's performance simply made it so a single swipe was enough to down a pirate, and its armor allowed Leon to dive with reckless abandon. Everyone else either had to have a protracted battle or utilize formations. The speed difference was too much.

As it stood, the competition was over. There had been nine pirate ships. Even though the third-years were working on the last ship, the first-years had already taken five. One of those had also included the pirates' leadership.

Looking over at Deirdre, I saw she was still coordinating the third-years. My instructions for the first-years had been minimal in comparison to Deirdre's. My main goal had been reduced to making sure the lesser known fighters survived or stayed out of the way. I only felt slightly inadequate since I suspected lessons on topics such as these were either part of her family's personal tutelage or were reserved for later years.

Still, she managed to bridge most of the gap with her tactics. It was an impressive feat.

"And with that, the pirates have been routed. We can proceed to search the cabins without issue," Deirdre said as she marveled at the table we had used to watch the fight.

"It is a marvelous Lost Item. It made commanding much simpler."

Like the rest of the Partner, the table itself was a marvel. It was able to accurately project the battle in real time. Its presence made commanding our forces much easier as we were up to date on the battlefield as it was occurring instead of having to rely on verbal communication from our allies, who were being fired upon.

"Quite, it inherently changes the nature of war. Having an omniscient view of the field invalidates the advantages of any military doctrine used to date. It makes you wonder how any civilization that had this type of equipment could ever become Lost."

"You assume that they developed this before they had need of it. War is the mother of innovation."

"It's too bad this is a Lost Item. It would be terribly useful to have."

I didn't think it was worth it. If we could replicate the technology, then our enemies could do the same. I'd rather have it in trusted hands only.

Though something about Deirdre's words bothered me. If Leon had this under his command, how did he not become well known in the previous loop? I may have been left out of the loop for quite a bit after I was imprisoned, but I'm certain the guards would have been gossiping about any new war hero.

It made me wonder if something befell him that would have prevented the Partner from being used in the war.

My musings were interrupted when Deirdre spoke again. It appeared that the documents we needed were found in the lead ship.

"Since I've relayed the information your knight found to my sister, I think I'l go check on the scholarship student and our informant. The poor girls must be terrified."

"I see."

My tone caused Deirdre to hesitate momentarily. She did not find my attitude pleasing. Most people didn't whenever Olivia became involved. I suppose her natural demeanor was too innocent looking that no one cared that she broke five engagements... three currently. Brad's wouldn't count as her fault since Stephanie's family were about to be implicated of treason. If only she settled for Brad alone.

"Don't be unreasonable, Angelica. You did use the girl as bait for Stephanie. The least you could do is to make a show of caring. You wouldn't want to give off the impression of a cruel tyrant to your knight."

"I'm afraid I can't muster up the will to tolerate that woman's intentions."

"Her intentions? Ah yes, she is rather close to Leon."

I scowled at that. I did not know what to do. Last time I tried to warn her off, it brought out Julius's ire. My attempts to separate her from Julius and his friends more or less lead to my execution.

Ignoring it didn't seem to be working either. Instead it made the situation worse since she was branching out beyond the five.

"I can understand your concern since Clarice has taken an interest in Leon. Olivia's friendship with the home-wrecker certainly doesn't help, but I've heard rumors that you were uncharacteristically cold with her even before befriending the Lafan girl."

"What?"

What did she mean by her friendship with the home-wrecker? It could be that birds of a feather flocked together, but Deirdre made it sound as though Olivia wasn't the one to seduce Jilk. She implied it was this Lafan girl that did, but that couldn't be right. There was no Lafan girl on this ship, so why were Brad and Greg surrounding Olivia today?

"I'm saying this as a concerned senior. You should show the girl a little more leniency. It's the only blemish on your otherwise perfectly crafted benevolence towards the lower classes."

"Leniency?"

"Come now, Angelica. It's quite obvious to the noblewomen that she did not do her introduction to you. It's quite unbecoming of you to hold it against her though. She's just a commoner."

"... Right, but it's not because she didn't do the introduction that I find her displeasing," I said half truthfully. I didn't want to give her my reasons when part of me was starting to doubt the truth. I had paid no attention to the girl or the heirs since I had had no reason to believe that she wouldn't have pursued the heirs again.

I'm certain someone would have corrected me by now. In the first few months, I was actively looking for friends/followers. Surely someone trying to earn my favor would have tried to tell me about the Lafan girl's existence. Instead, most of the nobles trying to earn my favor even talked down on the commoner.

You'd think someone would have thought my fiancée courting another woman would be something I would be interested in... Wait, wasn't one of the main complaints of the royal court was that I was completely disinterested in the crown prince?

Now that I think of it, if my displeasure for the commoner was known, wouldn't that incentivize people to confirm my thoughts? It's not as if nobles cared about commoners. Most looked down on them. It wasn't much of a sacrifice for them to lie to me about it or just nod their heads along. Most probably would have to spite the girl.

Well my followers... were actually nonexistent. Aside from Leon, I had no one who reported to me. Even then, Leon was more than content with only talking about school, his hobby, or whatever I felt like talking about. None of those topics involved the heirs.

The only potentially odd thing was his attempts to broach the topic regarding Olivia, which he usually dropped when he noticed how uncomfortable I got. He mentioned nothing about this Lafan girl.

Although... wouldn't it have been odd for him to care for Olivia after all that happened to Clarice? I had initially waved it off as being part of Olivia's charisma, but wouldn't her being completely uninvolved also be a reasonable explanation?

No, I had to be right. Clarice didn't mention anything of Lafan... but then again, she was either crying or silent during the whole Jilk affair. Even after it was resolved, she opted to refer to the girl as a harlot rather than by name. I don't think I ever heard Clarice mention the girl by name.

...

Would the prince and his friends have spoken up? It's not like they ever brought up the matter in my previous life. I had to actively shake them down for them to say anything.

Surely Olivia would have spoken up...

A pit grew in my stomach. This all surely had to be a coincidence.

Wait! Carla would have mentioned something to me. She wanted this plan to succeed to escape Stephanie. Why would Stephanie have cared about Olivia at all?

But then I remembered the confused look Carla gave me. Had she been too cowardly to voice her concerns?

Stephanie was also known to be of choleric temperament, and she also seemed to always find a reason to hate anyone.

...

Looking out the window, I saw the Arroganz landing in the deck. An old fear crept into my spine. It wasn't something I thought of since the first few days I reincarnated.

Was I fated to die by Olivia's influence?

....

Side Plot :

We had returned to the capital after the raid was concluded. The higher nobles of the group departed immediately to control the situation in the royal court. It was a little beyond my understanding, but I at least knew that subjugating a county would not be a simple affair.

The other students departed with good cheer. The first-years and second-years were excitedly talking about the potential of receiving knighthood. There were even talks of the kingdom offering payment. The third-years laughed at the optimism.

Brad and Greg left to meet Marie at school. Out of the first-years, they were the only ones with surly looks. They didn't mention why, but I knew them well enough to guess. Brad hadn't appreciated being left behind while Greg had to contend with the fact that Leon had outperformed him greatly. It hit them in their pride.

Before I could calm them down, they begged off to meet Marie. It made sense that they would want the woman they love to soothe them.

As I was about to leave the ship, the boy I wanted to talk to most appeared before me.

"Livia? You're still on the ship?"

"Leon, I wanted to know what you would be doing for the rest of the break."

"Me? I was thinking of staying in the capital. Aside from being ready for any potential meeting with the court, I was thinking of taking up Clarice's invitation to try my hand at airbike racing."

I felt my stomach churn. It was something the group found contentious. Jilk and, to a lesser extent, Julius wanted Clarice's romance to succeed. Clarice shouldn't have to suffer after what Jilk put her through. Part of me felt it was a good match, but I knew it would spell the end of my love. Clarice would not tolerate a mistress and not with one who associated with the one who ruined her first engagement.

"That sounds fun," I said with a smile. I didn't want to be a nuisance to him.

"What about you? Do you have any plans?"

"I was planning on diving into the dungeons to find some treasure for Angelica. Someone figured out that I had failed to do my introduction. Hopefully this will be enough to sway her opinion of me."

"Introduction?"

"It's something of an unspoken rule amongst the girls."

"... Sorry about not being much help," Leon muttered.

"You tried, and I think that is all that matters."

"... So dungeon diving. You good on that front?"

"Brad and Greg said they would help me, but the others are busy this break."

"So only two others..." Leon said while trailing off.

"Leon?"

"I got something that might help you. Nicked it off the pirates today too," he said before presenting me with an ornate necklace. It looked obscenely valuable based on how the jewels glittered.

"You shouldn't waste something so valuable on me," I stammered.

"It's not much use to me. I can't pawn this off, and I don't have an affinity for light magic."

"Light magic... Is this?"

"The Saintess's necklace? Yes it is. It even has the church's engraving right here."

My heart rate skyrocketed.

"I can't possibly take this! It's far too valuable! We should bring it to the temple at once!"

"Nope."

"What do you mean nope?"

"Because I'd like you to wear it while you go into the dungeon. It'll put my mind at ease."

I felt my heart beat heavily in my chest. Leon would so readily hand over one of the most valuable artifacts in the world, and he did it because he wanted to make sure I was safe. If there was any lingering hesitation in my decision to pursue him, they were washed away completely.

I felt bad for Clarice, but I could bring myself to think of a future without him.

Keeping Marie's advice in mind, I needed to draw him in close so that he could feel intimate with me.

"Could you... could you help me put it on? I've never had such done jewelry before," I said as I showed him the back of my neck.

....

AN:

1) I saw a lot of people saying how it was unrealistic for Angelica to have taken so long to notice. This chapter was something already planned, but it happened to align with general complaints.

2) If we were to generate a timetable, we have roughly five school months and a few days into the break. Marie should roughly befriend the five in about a month, which Angelica spent avoiding them in lieu of finding her own friends. Since she was going through the list of people, I would estimate roughly another month(maybe two) is spent searching through the second and third-years. Clarice's situation is about another month. Since she is busy looking after her and because she doesn't want to accidentally trigger a bad end, she doesn't bother observing Olivia. Once the situation gets resolved, she notices Olivia is surprisingly close to Leon. This is followed shortly by the dungeon crawl where the prince and friends inspect Leon while Olivia is suspiciously with Brad. For the rest of the semester, Olivia is notably in the company of Marie and the five. Basically bad timing. And then for the pirate raid, Brad and Greg volunteered while Marie is carefully avoiding Angelica. It's perfectly reasonable for Angelica not to have noticed anything during the semester from a casual observation.

3) Leon doesn't really correct her because he's inherently cowardly whenever emotions come up unless he goes full gremlin mode. An additional reason he doesn't broach the topic is due to meta knowledge. He doesn't know if pushing the issue would push Angelica to trigger her own bad end. He does think she might be hard coded to hate the protagonist.

4) In general, most people who are not in a position of power don't correct people considered superior. Many will even affirm misunderstandings if they believe it could benefit them. The only people up to this point in the story who could reasonably treat Angelica as an equal are Clarice and Deirdre. Clarice has reason to dislike Olivia at this point due to Olivia's interest and friend group. Deirdre has very little reason not to challenge Angelica.

5) The prince and friends don't push the issue because of various reasons. Jilk wants Clarice and Leon to hook up. Greg is notably a hothead who would cause more problems. Chris just doesn't care enough. Brad is slightly less enthusiastic about hooking Leon up since he was the one who got tricked. Julius benefits more in life by not pissing off Angelica.

6) Carla will literally do anything asked without question because of the abuse Stephanie laid on her. Her meeting with Angelica was more like a change in ownership since someone that far up the ladder swooped in and pressed her to get rid of another noble.