Surviving as a Villain at the Academy

7 – The Demon Realm Rift Uproar (3)

Arias Winstlet was in a very bad mood. No, it was more than just a bad mood.

Over the past month, her heart had been able to do nothing but deteriorate day by day.

And it was for no other reason. It was because Frau had betrayed her.

Simply due to that one fact, it felt like there was a hole gouged out in her chest.

Other than Frau’s betrayal, her academy life was the same as always. Of course there were more sympathetic gazes than before, but Arias Winstlet wasn’t the sort of person who cared much for how others saw her in the first place.

Ruslan, Johan, and Diana had comforted her over the past month, but their comfort didn’t heal the wounds in her heart.

If you thought about it, her relationship with them, who she had first met at the academy, had only just entered its second year. Of course, that didn’t mean she thought lightly of her relationship with them. They had given her many happy memories over the past year.

It was a period that couldn’t even be called memories given how short it was, but she had no choice but to think of it as memories.

Because the memories that had built up over the ten years she had cherished up till now had all turned into horrible memories.

Frau had betrayed her. Frau had tried to r*pe her.

Arias still couldn’t believe that fact.

From the beginning, she hadn’t even considered the possibility that someone would violate her. She had prided herself on being the proud daughter of the Winstlets, displaying excellence in magic and academics. She didn’t think she had done anything to make someone hate her but…

The problem was that her most precious friend had developed feelings for her.

And those were feelings bordering on twisted obsession.

Arias was quite sensitive to human emotion. She realized at some point that Frau liked her. She couldn’t not notice.

At some point, the gaze Frau turned to her had become quite clingy.

It was like a first trial for Arias. She didn’t want her relationship with Frau to go bad.

If Arias had feelings for Frau, it could have become a strand of a very happy story, but sadly, Arias had met him when she was too young and naturally couldn’t see him as a man.

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So she pretended not to notice his feelings. That was the only way to maintain the relationship.

And that choice led her to a terrible situation. The polite, kind Frau trying to r*pe her.

It was a huge trauma that assaulted Arias’s psyche. This past month, she simply couldn’t be in her right mind.

She couldn’t even sleep properly. Just trying to sleep brought the situation from back then to her as a nightmare.

She had no choice but to rely on sleep magic to forcibly make her sleep.

Arias’s condition right now was clearly the worst to anyone who saw her. A completely exhausted complexion, as if she could collapse at any moment. Compared to just a month ago, she seemed like a completely different person.

‘Why. Why did he do that.’

That was the only question she could ask.

When it first happened, Arias wanted to erase all memories related to Frau. She wanted to say that he was no longer her friend, not even someone she knew.

She didn’t even want to hear other people insulting him. She wanted to make everything that happened between them like it never existed.

But she just couldn’t do that.

How could she erase those 10 happy years she had lived, that she had felt… it was far too harsh on her.

Her heart pounded. Because today, she would finally confront him.

The traitor who betrayed her.

The classroom was noisy as usual. She greeted Ruslan, Diana, and Johan with a forced smile.

“Hi everyone.”

But they knew as well. That right now, Arias wasn’t smiling genuinely.

Arias knew their caring attitude as they looked sadly at her, but she lightly shook her head. It was a wordless sign that she was really alright now.

Moreover, today she couldn’t show such a weak side even more. Because today was the day Frau finally returned to the academy.

Arias had hoped Frau would just quit the academy for good, but of course that didn’t happen. Then she had no choice but to confront him.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I think I’m fine.”

“That guy’s coming today too. If he tries anything weird again, tell me.”

“No way he’d do that. He got punished by the family too.”

“You never know with that guy.”

“I don’t know. Rather, it might be better if he did.”

At her words, Ruslan’s expression became puzzled.

“Huh? Why?”

“Then I can completely cut off ties.”

“….Arias.”

“I’m fine.”

“You clearly don’t look fine at all.”

“I might seem that way. But I’ll be fine. Really, Ruslan, Johan, Diana. So don’t worry too much.”

While exchanging such carefree chat, the classroom’s back door opened and silence descended.

He’s here. Frau.

Arias murmured that to herself.

She was actually a bit curious. Just how he would react to seeing her.

A flogging must have been tremendously painful, and according to her father’s explanation his back had been reduced to a bloody mess, so might he not harbor hatred towards her?

It wasn’t even funny, but considering the Frau she had seen that day, she thought he might actually feel that way. The obsession he held for her wouldn’t have thinned in just the span of a month.

She stealthily turned her head to look at Frau. Flaxen hair the same color as his amber eyes.

The color she had once praised as being as warm as sunshine, both his eyes and hair, was still before her without having faded.

Of course, now she felt no excitement at all upon seeing that color she had praised so highly. It was an unfamiliar feeling. To be able to look so dispassionately at someone she had once gazed at with such warm eyes.

Unexpectedly, she didn’t feel emotions like hatred or vengeance. She just felt completely indifferent about his existence itself.

Perhaps Frau noticed her gaze? Frau suddenly turned his eyes and looked at her.

And… the same dispassionate, glass bead-like gaze Arias had looked at him with headed her way. Rather, that gaze was a shock to Arias.

‘Why?’

‘Why are you looking at me like that? Why are you looking with such indifferent eyes?’

The gaze he sent her after a month was shocking in a different meaning.

‘After trying to do that to me, what’s with that look like you don’t care at all now?’

And it couldn’t help but be more intense than any of the interest Frau had shown her so far. Because they were such dispassionate eyes, as if he had excluded her existence entirely.

Could those eyes really be so cold? She knew the unfamiliarity she felt from that gaze wasn’t her simply misunderstanding.

He truly looked like he didn’t have the slightest interest in her anymore. His eyes held none of the guilt, twisted affection, or desire…

It was just the eyes of someone glancing at a passerby on the street. Arias felt her hands trembling slightly.

‘Why are my hands shaking? Frau is the one in the wrong, and if he doesn’t pay me any more attention from now on, isn’t that a good thing?’

It didn’t make sense. Why the victim’s hands were shaking due to the indifference of the perpetrator.

She didn’t know the reason why.

Next to her, Ruslan, Diana, and Johan were staring at him with fierce gazes, but he averted his eyes indifferently. It was an attitude of no longer caring about them.

Ruslan suddenly got angry and tried to stand up, but he couldn’t. It was almost time for the lecture to start, and more than that, he thought it was better for Arias that Frau was no longer interested in her.

“I’m fine, Ruslan.”

Seeing Arias grab and squeeze his arm with trembling hands, Ruslan nodded firmly with an expressionless face.

“I’ll be fine soon.”

Seeing her chanting it like an incantation, Ruslan vowed that one day he would condemn Frau Rancel.

“….Yeah.”

“Let’s not pay him any mind. He’s a complete stranger now. And don’t start meaningless fights. Since Rancel is behind him… you’ll get hurt.”

“I know. But if an opportunity comes one day, I’ll make sure to get a hit in.”

“….Yeah.”

Hearing Ruslan’s reply, Arias thought about why her hands were shaking, why she had been so shocked, but she couldn’t find the reason for the entire duration of the lecture after the professor entered and began teaching.