After a huge storm passed, the academy returned to its usual atmosphere as if nothing had happened.

For a while, the academy was in an uproar due to various incidents, starting with Leonhardt, Ashillya’s ascension to the position of Crown Princess, and now even Siegfried, the next Hero.

Although not everyone knew the details of the circumstances, everyone knew who was at the center of it all.

No matter how much the teachers tried to keep it quiet, it wasn’t a small matter that could proceed without anyone knowing.

The name that spread from a few mouths spread to others, and now, no one in the academy didn’t know that name.

Felix von Astria.

I was the most talked-about person in the academy in name and reality.

…I was already getting a lot of attention because of Sylvia and Helena. Still, now the attention was increasing even more. Realizing that fact belatedly, I could only hide in a place with few people, covering my face as much as possible.

‘It’s not like I committed a crime.’

I felt a bit wronged, but what can I do? I’m not the type of person with a thick skin who would confidently receive such attention.

Helena’s body had recovered, but she was transferred to a hospital to monitor her condition for the time being, and Sylvia seemed to be avoiding me for some reason.

Thanks to that, I was alone again after a long time, but now it wasn’t pleasant at all.

If Sylvia and Helena were here, the attention would be divided, but being alone, the attention is too focused on me. Pouting my lips, I blankly looked at the sky.

While spacing out, listening to the quiet voices of students echoing under the blue sky, I turned my gaze to the sound of someone walking.

Although I’m hiding to avoid people, I’m not diligent enough to avoid even those who come all the way to where I am. Unless there are a lot of people flocking.

“…Oh.”

Realizing the approaching person’s identity, I let out a small gasp and looked at her with a surprised expression.

Pamela, who approached me with her brown twin-tailed hair swaying and fidgeting, unlike her usual self, blurted out.

“What are you doing here?”

“… I’m hiding to avoid people.”

It seemed like she was teasing me by asking, even though she clearly knew my situation. However, I was so drained from being bothered by many people today that I didn’t have the energy to retort.

“This is my spot. Go somewhere else.”

“Even if you’re a lady of a marquis family, you haven’t bought the academy, so I don’t think you have the right to say that to me, Lady Pamela.”

“… You’re really annoying.”

But the moment I heard Pamela’s unnecessary tantrum, I couldn’t take it anymore.

As I answered with a smile and a polite bow, Pamela muttered with her lips puckered. Feeling my mood improving somehow at that sight, I turned my gaze with a brighter expression.

“…”

Pamela was different from when I last met her.

Since I figured out her ulterior motive, she avoided running into me and never initiated a conversation.

Moreover, it was strange for her, who hated losing to me to the extreme, to approach me first and remain silent like this.

So, I asked while looking at the sky.

“Has Viscount Degrosis finally taken an interest in me?”

“…How did–”

“I know you followed my words, but I also know you reached out to Her Highness the Crown Princess, so I thought you’d come to me sooner.”

If Pamela hadn’t come to me of her own accord, the only one left was her father, Marquis Degrosis.

At my words spoken as if flowing, Pamela frowned and looked at me. Her eyes, slightly biting her lower lip, were wavering strongly.

“How…”

“You really don’t  like me.”

Pamela doesn’t like me. Not in a romantic sense, but she doesn’t particularly like me as a person.

Not because I tease her, but probably because I see through her plans. At my composed words, Pamela’s body trembled.

At a loss for words at my answer, Pamela looked at the sky just like me.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Pamela muttered grumpily, even though she understood my words. I smiled slightly at that and shrugged my shoulders.

I don’t know what the head of the Degrosis family thinks, but it was I who left a message to Ashillya to create a point of contact between the Degrosis.

Personally, I didn’t really like the personality of the head of the Degrosis family. Still, his family couldn’t be allowed to collapse.

At the same time, the Senate, which had the most influence on the Degrosis, also couldn’t be allowed to remain.

So this time, I just gave them a little power.

“But why are you alone? Where are the girls you’re always with?”

“…Always with, you say.”

Pamela, seemingly frustrated that she had only been losing, started poking at my sore spot. As I answered her words with an awkward smile, she continued with a mischievous grin.

“Sylvia, who is known for her beauty in the academy, Helena, who doesn’t fall behind in beauty. And even Her Highness Ashillya, who ascended to the position of Crown Princess this time.”

“…”

“You’re always with three of them, right?”

I had nothing to say.

To be precise, I wasn’t always with them, but it was an undeniable fact that the people I was with were all beautiful women.

I let out a small sigh and refuted her words.

“They’re just good friends.”

“…Do they think the same way?”

“Her Highness the Crown Princess just enjoys teasing me, and Sylvia doesn’t think of me romantically.”

At my calm words, Pamela’s expression distorted severely.

As if asking what kind of nonsense this was again, I slowly blinked and answered her.

“It’s true. You can ask Her Highness the Crown Princess. And don’t say such things about Sylvia carelessly. She has someone she’s in a good relationship with.”

“…That can’t be.”

“It really is. I saw them at Her Highness the Crown Princess’s banquet.”

I couldn’t tell her about Cain and Sylvia in detail, so I retorted briefly and shrugged as if saying don’t believe me if you don’t want to.

Pamela stared at me like that for a long time and let out a small sigh.

“These days, even in books, dense male protagonists aren’t popular.”

“… It’s not like that, I tell you.”

It was just an ordinary day without any special events.

***

[Hand over the doll to Felix von Astria.]

Crumpling the note that came to the head of the Degrosis family, Pamela exhaled heavily.

The doll mentioned here didn’t refer to an actual doll. The doll the head of the family referred to was ‘Pamela’ herself.

“Hand over…?”

Using such euphemisms was a characteristic of the head of the family. Pamela could only let out a hollow laugh at her father’s order.

She was resentful at the note from the head of the Degrosis family, who calmly told her to sell herself to Felix.

But there was nothing Pamela could actually do.

The reality was that she had no choice but to helplessly follow those words without even detailed instructions. To avoid that, she had been constantly putting in effort.

But nothing changed. Although Degrosis might be in a precarious position in the future, it is currently firmly maintaining its position.

Pamela suddenly thought of Felix.

The words about handing over the doll, herself, to that black-hearted and sinister man didn’t mean becoming his wife in a political marriage.

It simply meant selling her body to somehow create a connection with him.

[Prove your worth.]

[You are destined to be sold someday to be of help to Degrosis.]

The words ‘sell’ that the head of the Degrosis family, her father, had always told Pamela meant that.

Become one of the many concubines of a nobleman with dozens of wives.

Or sell your body to create a connection with someone who has strong power.

The person who believed all of that would be helpful to Degrosis was her father, and it also meant that he couldn’t find any value in Pamela beyond that.

One point of contact.

When she was born into the Degrosis family and lived with her mother at a young age, she considered him a father.

Although he was blunt, he cherished her mother and herself on the inside. At the same time, Pamela thought that he loved them.

But that was all just Pamela’s delusion.

There was no affection.

Even when she was harassed by the first wife, even during the period when young Pamela could have died from being so sick because of that, the head of the family didn’t bat an eye.

Nor did he give any warning to her mother. He simply said.

[Be careful not to break the doll.]

That was all.

Pamela realized.

She and her mother were nothing more than impurities in this family, and Pamela was just a tool to be used someday.

Therefore, Pamela thought.

That someday, she would overthrow this family.

But the day she would gain enough power to do so might never come.

Fear became learning, terror became imprinted, and a doll moves only according to its master’s will because it is only that.

A doll.