The Villainess was Loved

Chapter Twelve: Audacities

“Or?” The Dean continued as he moved suspiciously closer to me, “We are a month away from the school’s closing date, and I would prefer we have our affairs in order, instead of you ‘accidentally spilling’ that which you are-,”

“So, what is it you suggest?” I interrupted as I leaned forward to remove a speck from my shoe, “That I do not see my family?”

“Heavens no, not in such a rebellious way.” He said, “I mean, you could have joined the geography club to visit Patum?”

“The noble city?”

“Yes.”

The Dean and I are one and the same.

The reason he consented to my unconducive conditions is simple: he is currently embezzling school funds.

An incident outbreak of my situation, well, not my actual situation, but if I genuinely was to become the crown princess, and news of the break-in of my chambers to leak, the school’s investors would turn their attention to the school.

His in-game quest triggers in the second year when one of the male leads gets into a fight with nobles for defending a commoner. As per the rules, he is expelled, but Regina and her love squad decide to uncover the school's corruption.

This removes Pricilla’s system, and things get better. Discrimination wise, but only in school, the outside world is not that simplistic.

Regina asked me to participate in the misadventures of uncovering the school’s corruption in my previous life. The Dean was the most prominent player. I was asked to watch the gate that he may not escape, so I did.

Well, technically, I watched him leave the gate, but you know, potato, potahto.

The black and white morality of the leads is asphyxiating. They were born entitled, rich and with purpose, while he was just a wise man getting by.

Who was I to ruin his day?

Of course, it didn’t help that I, at that time, witnessed my fiancé kissing my sister by the fountain.

“We could say that, however, my maid, when she was in good health, bless her heart.” The Dean rolled his eyes at my words, “She was in communication with my father.”

“When was the last time they spoke?”

“Yesterday, mid-afternoon maybe? he did not pick her evening calls.”

“Good news, there were students, late in reporting to the station, so the school had to arrange for transport as late as eight p.m.”

“What of the tea party? It was hosted at ten; the timelines do not add up?”

“Surely, the lord mustn’t know everything that occurs in the lady’s dormitory?”

“Surely, he must not.” I repeated, “So what, for the rest of the week, you wish me to keep to my rooms?”

“Precisely.”

“Precisely?” I mocked, “My vandalised room?”

“Just until the chaos dies down. Do not worry. We will provide in house medical care for your maid, as well as provide you with three meals a day as well as teatime snacks.”

*

*

*

I could see them from the balcony, the lord, furiously yelling to the crystal before him for reasons only the gods could clarify and Regina, hair so golden it reflected the sun.

She was sporting my dress, the dress the Marquis gifted because I came in first the entire year.

Her long hair flowed easily with the wind, while her expression remained solemnly beautiful.

They must have been informed of my ‘situation’ by the Dean. The Marquis is no doubt trying to contact the school’s Patum transport division before ‘I’ reached too far.

The detour should keep him occupied for two to three days. In the meantime, the Dean will go ‘missing’.

A billion gold?

He will definitely leave before the sun comes up tomorrow if he does not wish to get tied up by the respective authorities.

Why was I deceived when all of these people are so pleasantly simple?

My hand grazed the window, and as if I could feel their texture, I traced the small outlines of their frames. They didn’t stop, only continued their walk towards the visitor carriage station.

“I should fear you, both of you, fear the misery you will inflict on me if I grant you the chance, but my blood boils too violently at your happily ever afters to give myself the audacity,” I said to their distant images.

Happily-ever-afters, only triggered by my corpse.

Astonishingly, at my gloomy statement, Regina turned.

She gazed right at me, or she would have if the windows were not tinted, yet still, the beautiful aquatic blue of her gaze held, even in the distance.

Hah… I should have been the lead.

A sound buzzed in my pocket.

The school uniform I had on was in trouser form. We could choose between dresses, skirts and trousers.

Ladies studying anything physical like swordsmanship were required to wear trousers full-time, while those taking any form of etiquette were needed to dress in well…dresses, full time. Full time meaning for the semester they undertake in their chosen subjects. Skirts were a middle ground and greatly preferred by commoner ladies.

I wasn’t taking a physical class… my clothes were vandalised.

I removed the buzzing culprit then placed the card in my hand.

It was my bank card.

The money must have already been deposited because its dull black colour was fizzling dramatically to platinum, a colour for the wealthy, only they perhaps had more cards in that colour than I do. Still, it is a start.

*

*

*

Prince Killian Norvig Yarez

“Ria, darling, do you remember the book you loved?” The prince asked the beautiful woman beside him, hurriedly dressing as though desperate to leave his rooms.

He was naked, his dignity only maintained by the rumpled white sheet settled across his waist, but even then, his muscular legs peered through.

Maria had red curly hair and bright green mischievous eyes that twinked each time she smiled.

She was the most beautiful upperclassman in the school. And the most beautiful woman he ever laid his eyes on…until…until insistent forest green eyes began assaulting his daydreams.

“The book I loved?… your highness, do you think I have only loved one book in my entire life?”

She was right to laugh at his assumption, of course, because he knew better.

Maria was an avid historian. Archaeology had always been her family’s trade, such a shame she was more interested in adventuring than anything else in the world.

However, since she would never be permitted to do so, she planned to live vicariously through artefacts.

“Oh, come now, Ria.” He turned his body to her, and she flushed, “you know it, the one about the maid, the rich guy and the…poor guy?”

“Wow, way to phrase it.” Maria said, “Hmm, there are a few books I have read on maids, ‘Ducktails and Larange’, ‘Happy over Afters’…I think there was a book titled ‘The lines of the stars’ or something along those lines-,”

“Yes, that one!”

“The stars one?”

“Yes!”

“‘The Stars Are Us’,”

“Oh? What about it?”

“What did you think about the book?”

“What do you mean.” She fitted her brown boots then stood from the bed to grab her coat and bag, “I liked it.”

“What specifically did you like about the book.”

“My favourite character was the maid. I mean, her k********g was a little out there, but she got to live a whole other life because it happened, and she took things quite positively, you know?”

“What of the boy who loved her?”

“People change. The boy fell in love with the version of her that settled in life.” Maria fiddled with the brown strap of her bag, “ I don’t know about you, but I would hate to be the same person I am twenty years from now.”

“But the pauper died trying to save her.”

“No, he died because he sneaked inside the count’s estate and was caught, don’t blame her.”

“Okay.” He stood upright from the bed, and Maria’s gaze dropped, “But the first time he visited her, she was crying that she needed a way to leave?”

“And the second time he visited, she told him that she was fine, that she was falling for the count.”

“But was she falling, or was it a disease? I trust you know of Stockholm syndrome?”

“Why are you so eager to victimise the boy?” she scoffed, “If our lives were placed in that setting, would I not be your maid, and you, my count?”

“Oh wait, the count loved the maid, while you love anything that can ride you long enough that you forget how much of a coward you truly are. Yet you, you and all your nerves would have the audacity to ask the maid to leave the stable boy.”

“Whoa, Ria-,”

“No! F*ck this.” she turned away from him and descended the steps that gave his bed a platform rise.

“Wait, Ria!!” he called as he sped out of bed.

The white sheets fell from his hips, so as swiftly as he could, he grabbed his black gown.

“What is her name this time?”

“What is who’s name?”

“The woman provoking your thoughts, the one that made you want to defend the character you once called ‘stupidly unnecessary?’, you think by now I don’t know how you think? How you act?” she let out a laugh, “Is it Charlotte? Oh wait, she will not give you the time of day because she is head over heels towards your half-brother. So perhaps Mindy-!”

“Ria!”

She opened the door to his room harshly.

“How long? How long do I have to keep waiting for you, Killian?”

“Ria… I?”

“See, this is the s**t I am talking about?” she raked her red curly hair, “You would leave your bed and chase me to the door yet say nothing but my name.”

“Why did you get up? Why couldn’t you stay in bed? Why must you keep me waiting for nothing?” Maria sighed, licked her lips then let out another short laugh.