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Her conviction stemmed from a simple reason.
Among knights, the unspoken rule was that the difference in power equaled authority.
However, even if Felix’s reputation had changed, it wasn’t time to completely relax yet.
‘Because Rosia will start to move in earnest now.’
In the original story, Rosia quickly captivated other nobles using her status and abilities.
‘And she tormented me terribly.’
Lost in thought, Ayla arrived at the infirmary before she knew it.
‘Felix hasn’t arrived yet.’
Felix had shown sufficiently encouraging results today.
But she still couldn’t rest easy.
According to the original story, she had only just overcome the first hurdle.
Ayla sat on an empty infirmary bed and pondered.
In the original story, Rosia had played with Ayla until the very end.
After taking everything away, she made Ayla dependent on her, manipulating her at will.
‘Thinking about it now, it was foolish to rely on Rosia. But considering my situation at the time, it’s somewhat understandable.’
Back then, Ayla had truly no one left by her side.
Having lived under the shadow of her Noble house, she had to navigate academy life on her own.
In that situation, only Rosia treated her with kindness.
“Your brothers don’t genuinely hate you. They’re just being cold because of me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I’ll tell them it’s all a misunderstanding. Ayla, you don’t have to explain. Adding fuel to the fire in this situation might only cause more discord.”
“Okay, Rosia.”
“Trust me, Ayla.”
But the more Ayla trusted Rosia, the more the situation worsened instead of improving.
Her family’s suspicion of Ayla deepened day by day, and she became increasingly isolated.
“Ayla, I heard you tormented Rosia again?”
“When did I?”
“Pretending you don’t know anything, how disgusting. Do you think I don’t know what you’ve been doing to Rosia behind her back? I’ve heard everything that happened in the Faculty of Magic.”
“What exactly did those kids say?”
“They said you’re oppressing and tormenting the innocent Rosia.”
Ayla felt wronged. By that time, Rosia had already won over most of the students in the academy.
Ayla was the one being bullied, but no one stood up for her.
Not even Rosia, who had been the only one to show her kindness.
When her family drove Ayla away, Rosia, contrary to her promise, offered no defense.
She simply covered her mouth and shed tears.
“It’s all my fault. So please don’t blame Ayla.”
“What, what did I do? Why are you talking like that!”
Ayla questioned Rosia out of frustration. But the more she did, the more she incurred her family’s hatred.
Around that point, she couldn’t figure out what to do anymore.
She had reached a point where she was misunderstood no matter what she did.
Perhaps all of this was because she initially refused to accept reality and acted rebelliously?
No, in fact, anyone in her situation would have acted the same way.
Even as Ayla agonized, the situation continued to spiral.
‘Soon, I’ll be falsely accused of something too.’
According to the original story, rumors would slowly start spreading in the Faculty of Magic.
Rumors that Ayla was tormenting the pitiful Rosia.
But in reality, Ayla was the one being tormented.
The Faculty of Magic students continued their subtle bullying, such as putting bugs in her food or deliberately tripping her.
Ayla’s eyes hardened coldly as she recalled the original story.
‘I can’t ask Felix to help with all of that.’
He was a member of the Swordsmanship Department.
She couldn’t ask him to protect her all day long.
‘So I need someone else to be my backer.’
She needed a shield to prevent direct harassment until she could gain strength.
Someone in the Faculty of Magic who wasn’t close to Freya and had enough power to keep her in check.
As it happened, there was someone who fit the bill.
‘The Empire’s First Princess.’
She was frail and didn’t attend the academy often. Because of that, she had hardly any close friends in the Faculty of Magic.
Nevertheless, she was someone no one could treat carelessly.
The First Princess was second in line to the Imperial throne and was dearly loved by the Emperor.
‘But because she was frail, no one expected her to inherit the throne. Because she was suffering from an unknown illness.’
Ayla’s eyes calmly sank.
She knew the real reason why the princess was sick.
‘The princess isn’t sick because of an illness.’
She had been continuously ingesting poison since she was a child.
‘She doesn’t even know it herself.’
It was truly a miracle that she had started remembering the contents of the novel.
Thanks to that, she knew exactly what kind of poison the princess had ingested and what kind of Antidote she needed.
Ayla planned to save the princess’s life based on the knowledge she had.
‘It’s the perfect time.’
Quite some time had passed since the new semester started, so she would soon return to the academy.
In the original story, the princess appeared at the academy around the time Ayla began to be seriously harassed.
“Why do you look so down?”
Ayla snapped out of her thoughts at the voice calling her.
It seemed Felix had arrived.
“Ah, Felix. You’re here.”
“Yes, am I a little late?”
“No, you’re not late. I just came early.”
“There were people constantly stopping me. It took some time to shake them off.”
Ayla chuckled at those words.
“That’s right. There must have been many people trying to talk to you.”
Felix’s face looked calm despite having accomplished something huge.
‘He’s so calm even after pulling off something so big. As expected, the sub-male lead and future Sword Master is different.’
All the students in the academy were talking about Felix.
On top of that, Duke Argenta had also become interested in Felix.
He definitely had reason to be elated, but Felix didn’t seem to care.
‘Where did the kid who said he wasn’t confident go?’
Felix frowned as if something was bothering him and asked again.
“More importantly, tell me why you looked so down.”
“I’m out of herbs.”
“Pardon?”
“The ingredients for the Temporary Cure I took last time, they’re all gone. I brought as much as I could from the Noble house, but it wasn’t enough.”
Felix’s face also turned serious.
“Then what do we do?”
“What else can we do? We have to procure them again. Fortunately, the herbs aren’t that far from here. I can easily get them in the forest near the academy.”
Felix, hearing Ayla’s words, asked back as if he didn’t understand.
“But isn’t that place dangerous and off-limits to lowerclassmen? You’d need the headmaster’s permission to enter.”
Felix was right.
The forest near the academy was home to a large number of bizarre plants and animals due to the professors’ research.
‘It’s even a place where dangerous Monsters sometimes appear.’
Slimes and wolf-type Monsters, etc., it was definitely a dangerous place for academy lowerclassmen to go.
The problem was that the headmaster was an aristocrat to the bone and wasn’t the type to listen to the requests of commoners.
Ayla smiled at Felix, who was wearing a puzzled expression.
“So we have to go secretly at night.”
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