I Couldn’t Stop my Childhood Friend from Turning Into a Villain

Soon after the Duchess of Marsen returned home, so did Dioletta. But Liel didn’t go back, he stayed at our manor.

I had one question here.

“Why did you come back?”

I asked as I sat down in my chair to finish the rest of my studies. He was organizing the books and papers I had left behind.

“Huh?”

He asked, stopping to put a book back on the shelf.

What do you mean by ‘Huh?’?

I wondered why he’d gone to the academy for a day and then come right back, when it would be hard enough to keep up with the rest of his classes.

“I’m really fine now, so go and finish the rest of your classes, I don’t want you to fall behind.”

I put down my book and turned serious. I didn’t want Liel to waste any more of his time with me.

In response, Liel’s eyes rolled to the other side.

“I……. I can’t complete my credits this semester because I don’t have enough class days.”

“What?”

“So I’ll have to start next semester.”

I was speechless for a moment.

He was saying it casually, like it was no big deal, but to me, it was a big deal.

“I’m sorry…….”

The guilt I’d been trying so hard to keep at bay reared its ugly head.

I washed my face dry in frustration with myself. When I realized the truth, I couldn’t bring myself to lift my face.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me…….”

As if to comfort me, Liel leaned closer and murmured. I lowered my hand that covered my face and realized that Liel was kneeling right under me.

Why are you sitting on the floor again?

I remembered how many nights Liel had spent on the floor because of me.

My throat tightened.

“I told you before, don’t be sorry. I did it because I wanted to.”

“It’s not what I want.”

Liel reached for my hand, which was resting on my lap. Naturally, my eyes fell on Liel’s wrist, which hadn’t yet gained weight.

Perhaps I would never be able to relieve my debt to him, even after that wrist regained its original shape.

I suddenly had a sense of foreboding.

“If…… Lucy, if you were in my shoes, I’m sure you would have made a choice not unlike mine.”

Liel, who had been quietly holding my hand for a while, said the obvious. Of course I would.

But there was one thing Liel had overlooked.

In all the years I’ve known him, he’s never broken down. I was the one who broke down.

And as a result, I grabbed his ankle, the one thing that keeps him going. No one else, but me.

Instead of telling Liel what I was thinking, I bit my lip.

I didn’t want to make him feel any more uncomfortable.

Finished, I stopped pursing my lips and smiled brightly.

“Yeah, of course I would have done the same thing, what are you talking about!”

I shook Liel’s hand, which was still holding mine, and he looked up at me with anxious eyes, and I could tell he was visibly relieved.

Okay, that was it.

I realized that if our relationship was going to work, I couldn’t just rely on Liel for support.

⁂

While I was receiving lessons from the Duchess, Liel wandered off to do his own thing.

Mostly, I think he’s out training, but he’s been moving around a lot, so I’m not sure exactly where he’s going.

According to Liel, sometimes he goes to the palace, and sometimes he goes to the training grounds of other knights.

When he mentioned going to the palace, I suddenly thought he was pretty awesome.

Along the way, he often helps knights he met on extermination missions to deal with demons hiding in the empire, but is that something he’s allowed to do?

When I asked him if it was okay since he was still a student, he laughed and tried to play it off as if it didn’t matter now.

In the first place, the demons that infiltrated the empire were not much different from normal animals and plants. If they didn’t change much in appearance, that meant they were weak.

Even the academy seemed to take this into consideration, occasionally assigning students to scout the empire.

Liel tried to reassure me by pointing this out.

Then what else can I say…….

“I see you’re distracted, so I guess you’re done?”

“Yes? Yes!”

I replied confidently, having done what the Duchess had asked and lost myself in my thoughts.

“…….”

My mouth went dry as she flipped through the pages of my lined paper.

The thought of those icy eyes boring into me if I made a mistake made me nervous. Luckily, I’ve never been reprimanded.

I hoped to keep this peace for the duration of her lesson.

“You’re still making little mistakes, but you’ve done a good job.”

Phew, I kept the peace again today.

“At this rate, we should be able to finish this month.”

I wonder if I can really do that.

Surprisingly, the Duchess seemed to believe in my chances more than I did. I didn’t expect her to be so generous.

I looked at the Duchess suspiciously, and one corner of her mouth tilted upward, as if she was looking at something amusing.

Her smile is as frightening and beautiful as ever.

⁂

Lucy, exhausted, slumped over the table.

‘Good concentration, but short attention span.’

Staring at her purple hair, Delphina left Lucy alone, gathered her things, and left the office.

“You finished early today, huh?”

Dioletta, standing with her back to the wall, greeted Delphina as she opened the door. She looked like she’d been waiting for class to end.

“Didn’t you go to Count Brossen’s birthday party?”

Count Brossen threw a big party every year on his birthday. He was a terrible organizer, and the party usually lasted late into the night.

“The Count wasn’t feeling well today, so it ended earlier than I expected. I thought about going back to the ducal residence, but I thought you might still be in class, so I came here.”

She wanted to go back with her mother.

As much as Delphina was terribly protective of Dioletta, she was equally protective of her mother.

Delphina was especially vulnerable to this kind of personalized attention from Dioletta.

“Is that so?”

The muscles in Delfina’s face relaxed at Dioletta’s attentiveness, and she took the initiative.

Quickly, Dioletta followed at her side.

“It looks like our classes will be over this month.”

Delphina said, taking her parasol from the butler.

“That soon?”

Dioletta, who had been watching Delphina from afar as she unfolded the parasol, asked in surprise. Delphina nodded nonchalantly.

“As you said, she has a pretty good head on her shoulders.”

“……Mother, Lucy is also…….”

In fact, Delphina hadn’t believed Dioletta when she said that Lucy’s extraordinary until they started class.

Dioletta herself spoke as if she wasn’t sure, and in Delphina’s memory, Lucy was a tomboy who loved to play.

But after teaching Lucy for over two months, she realized something. Lucy Seywint was, to put it mildly, in Anise and Diego’s league.

“I would define her as a genius.”

She could memorize things after seeing them once or twice that a normal person would have to see ten times, and she could retain memories for long periods of time if she wanted to.

But there was a definite downside. Her short attention span and a lack of flexibility when it comes to problem solving.

Using the Academy’s exams as an example, this meant that she was unlikely to be able to solve questions that changed depending on the intent of the examiner.

To be honest, Delphina hadn’t thought she would pass the Academy entrance exam when Lucy had taken it in the past.

So when Liel asked her to follow him to the academy, she secretly laughed at him.

But Lucy defied Delphina’s expectations and was accepted into the academy.

Other nobles had been studying for more than seven years, occasionally failing exams, and getting middle to high grades.

She thought it was just a fluke…….

“But Lucy didn’t seem to realize it.”

“I suppose so, since the Marquis has only ever been around kids like you and…… Liel.”

With Dioletta, who had always received high-quality lessons, and Liel, who was highly motivated to improve, around, Lucy would naturally think that she belonged to the mediocre axis compared to them.

“Shouldn’t she know …… by now?”

Not that it would make any difference.

“Dioletta, you haven’t forgotten that the Marquis Anise died of overwork, have you?”

“What? Yes, of course…….”

“Well, if I were to tell you that to a girl who thinks she didn’t get to inherit the house because she was unqualified in so many ways, well…… I’d feel incredibly guilty if I were her.”

Delphina’s expression was chilling as she said this, and Dioletta let out a sigh as she realized what she had said.

“Ah…….”

Dioletta’s judgment was often blurred when it came to Lucy and Liel.

It always bothered Delphina, as if she were seeing a reflection of her own ignorance.

She felt sorry for her younger brother, who was ostracized by the family for being an illegitimate child, so she took care of him and eventually lost her place as the head of the family.

Delphina did the next best thing and married the Duke of Marsen and gave birth to Dioletta.

Dioletta, making her debut in society, must have heard about Delphina’s past from others.

Nevertheless, the good-natured Dioletta never lost her temper in front of Delphina.

She wished she hadn’t been so kind-hearted.

Delphina remembered that Marquis Anise had often said that she hoped Lucy would not be like her.

What she meant by that, she was reminded every time she looked at Dioletta.

[T/N: Ooooh the Duchess has this kind of back story]