Leonhardt disappeared.

Many students began to watch their words while feeling strange that he had completely vanished from the academy.

Seeing even the professors not daring to speak carelessly, they also realized that the influence of some high-ranking person had blown into the academy.

Well, since I roughly knew the whole story, I didn’t care too much.

As one of the male leads of the original novel exited the stage, knowledge of its content became useless.

From the beginning, I didn’t blindly believe in the content of the original novel. Still, it meant the story would flow in a way I didn’t know.

But that means…

“…Nice to meet you. I can call you Felix, right?”

“…”

I didn’t expect it to flow this way.

Looking at the girl smiling at me in front of my eyes, I held back a deep sigh. No matter what, sighing in front of someone you’re meeting for the first time wasn’t a good choice.

“Hello.”

When I greeted her, the girl smiled brightly and stared at me intently.

Only then could I also look at her properly. Her glossy brown hair was cutely tied in twin tails, and her sparkling purple eyes looked at me clearly.

She was about one head shorter than me, around the early 160cm range. The smile on her cute face with white skin looked as if saying, “I’m harmless.”

It was a cute impression that would make any man fall for her just by looking.

Unfortunately, I already knew her true identity.

“I’m Pamela Jean Degrosis. Nice to meet you, Felix!”

Friendliness that allows her to approach strangers without hesitation.
A pure smile constantly on her face.

Furthermore, this cute and beautiful appearance supported all of those.

I knew they were all an “act.”

“So you were the daughter of Earl Degrosis. Nice to meet you for the first time. I’m Felix von Astria, the second son of Earl Astria.”

Why did she approach me? Because Leonhardt deviated from the original? Or is it because Cain hasn’t returned to the academy yet?

…No.

No matter how twisted the original was, there was only one reason for her to approach me.

‘Because I’m by Sylvia’s side.’

Pamela Jean Degrosis.

With her harmless and puppy-like impression.

“Hehe…!”

In a romance fantasy, it is a very common character trope.

In the original novel, after bullying Sylvia from behind and getting caught by the male leads, she ends up being expelled from the academy.

The villainess.

@

In the original novel, Sylvia is isolated by those around her.

Just because a commoner had the “second son of a duke family,” the “third prince,” and even the “next hero” by her side. Three untouchable people hovering around a nobody.

Sylvia was isolated by the surrounding people but didn’t back down. Instead, she proved her abilities and supported the male leads, eventually achieving love with them.

Pamela tries to use her harmless and cute impression to drive a wedge between the male leads and Sylvia, even trying to drive her out of the academy.

Of course, in the end, she can also be called a pitiful role, which only strengthens the bond between the male leads and Sylvia before exiting.

“Where are you heading?”

She seemed to be trying to drive a wedge between Sylvia and me.

I don’t know why Pamela approached me earlier than in the original.

Since neither Cain nor the next hero is at the academy, she seems to have approached me.

I stared at her and quietly opened my mouth to answer her words.

“I was on my way to the training ground.”

“Aha, you train very hard, Felix.”

“…I guess so.”

A training maniac who isn’t swayed even by the bright smile of a beautiful woman. At the same time, he pays perfect courtesy to a stranger he’s meeting for the first time.

Pamela, whose inside and outside are completely different, probably thought this about me.

“What a boring person…”

At my murmur, Pamela trembled for a very brief moment. An ordinary person wouldn’t have noticed this change, but since I was watching her reaction carefully, I saw.

“W-Was I that boring…? I’m sorry…”

Even her instantly depressed expression after noticing my gaze was perfect. I drew a small smile at Pamela’s appearance and took a step closer to her.

Actually, since I didn’t even think she would approach me, I hadn’t prepared for her.

But I was a reader outside the novel who knew her very well.

“You didn’t think that way just now, did you?”

When I whispered softly in her ear, Pamela trembled and looked at me with watery eyes.

“…Wh-What are you talking about?”

“Your acting skills are very poor. Miss Pamela.”
There was a way to pretend not to know and use Pamela, and there was a way to detach her from Sylvia’s side completely. If not, there was also a way to turn her plan upside down and drive her out of the academy.

At my words, with a hint of laughter, Pamela’s expression didn’t change, but I could see her purple eyes slightly wavering.

I smiled at that sight and slightly tilted my head.

“Emotions are revealed in the eyes.”

But I threw away all those easy paths and acted like this for one reason.

Even villainesses have a story.

“Follow me.”

I broke her poker face at my tone that sounded certain and my appearance that moved without lingering on her.

Somehow, feeling happy about that, I couldn’t hide my smile. I walked with Pamela to the secluded place in the academy where I had pressured Veren.

Pamela, who had kept her mouth shut until we arrived, realized no one was around and opened her mouth bluntly.

“What are you thinking of doing by bringing me all the way here?”

“Have you decided to drop the act?”

I smiled, noticing her speaking roughly as if she had discarded the gentle tone from before.

When I turned around, Pamela looked at me with her arms and legs crossed, her puppy-like gesture nowhere to be seen.

“What a nuisance.”

“It seems you’ve also dropped the formalities.”

“…If you’re annoyed, you do it too.”

It might be startling for those who don’t know, but this was Pamela’s true self.

She always wore a mask that she thought was perfect. I shrugged and looked at her.

“Sure, why not.”

“Ha…!”

When I casually followed Pamela’s speech, she let out a hollow laugh while looking at me.

She seemed displeased about something and shook her head.

“This is why rumors aren’t reliable.”

“What are the rumors about me like?”

What rumors could there be about me?

I wasn’t very famous at the academy because I’m an extra whose name isn’t even mentioned in the original novel.

When I asked Pamela with a tilt of my head, she answered my question kindly, though she did look at me disgustedly.

“I heard you were a gentlemanly person.”

In a clearly sarcastic tone, even using honorifics to mock me, but since Pamela had a cute face, it didn’t really get on my nerves.

If it were Leonhardt, I would have been annoyed long ago.

“Now that you see me in person, is it different from the rumors?”

Seemingly displeased that I answered her sarcasm calmly, she wrinkled her puppy-like impression and twitched her nose.

“Completely different.”

“Really? I’m a very gentlemanly person. Maybe you just don’t know me well.”

“I have no desire to know you well.”

Pretending to be calm and conversing with me, Pamela’s mind must be in complete chaos.

Not only was her acting, which she thought was perfect, exposed, but I was also nonchalantly cracking jokes.

In fact, no one, at least within this academy, had noticed Pamela’s acting.

It wasn’t that she was bad at acting. I just knew her personality.

Who would’ve guessed her angelic face kept a dagger hidden behind?

I pretended not to know anything and shrugged, asking her.

“So, what did you want to say to me?”

I looked at her purple eyes, wondering about her purpose in approaching me. She answered my question with a twitch of her eyebrow and a voice full of annoyance.

“You think I’ll tell you that?”

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at Pamela’s rough way of speaking.

She glared at me with an even more wrinkled face. Even so, it wasn’t scary at all.

“It’s because of Sylvia, right?”

At my question, Pamela’s face turns pale white.

Actually, I did not intend to approach the original novel’s characters first.

However, the Pamela in front of my eyes was an exception. If she tried to bully Sylvia, I intended to stop it.

Not for Sylvia’s sake but for hers.

For the sake of the villainess with a pitiful end.