Course Correction

(Why am I helping the protagonist!?)

After learning that shocking truth, I sat through the afternoon classes clutching my head.

I had even practiced tackling so I could knock her over in passing and look down on her with a villainess-like, “Oh, were you there?”

And yet I had saved her while she was being bullied, and even fed her a delicious meal.

At this rate, there was not a shred of villainess aura left.

I had turned into something like a kind, powerful upperclassman-type classmate who acknowledged the protagonist.

After learning the truth, I tried to correct course somehow by acting curt and saying, “It’s not like I care about you or anything,” but

“Um… is this what they call tsundere?”

she just tilted her head.

Apparently the points I had earned by saving her and feeding her were too overwhelming, so it only came across as embarrassment.

When we parted, she even said something completely unacceptable for a villainess, like, “I’ll do my best to become someone as wonderful and kind as you, Mythia Onee-sama!”

“What do you mean, Onee-sama…? There’s no archenemy feeling at all. I’m completely on the protagonist’s side now…”

“Why not just give up? Being a villainess doesn’t suit you, Mythia.”

“Gwah!”

So shocked that I coughed up blood in my heart, I tumbled down the stairs in front of the rooftop.

“Hey, Mythia, are you okay!?”

“Villainess villainess villainess graceful graceful graceful”

“You sound like a letter addressed to an employee of a magic-tool shop owner whose large-scale fraud got exposed!”

Apparently I had worked myself into such a corner over needing to become a bad person that I ended up having some kind of strange fit.

To calm myself down, I hugged my knees by the wall and recited all the evil deeds I had committed so far.

“Sometimes I skip the hanging exercise that’s supposed to make me taller, I cheated a little in rock-paper-scissors for splitting up housework, and even though nobody notices, I always wear shoes with ten-centimeter lifts.”

“And even with ten-centimeter lifts, that’s how tall you are.”

“Kate has wounded me, so I will now roll around on the floor to express my strong regret.”

“Wait, that’s dirty! And I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean anymore!”

I flung myself onto the floor and rolled around with tremendous force.

Kate stopped me, and I ended up like one of those wind-up toys that gets caught on the floor.

“Look, you’ve got dust in your hair.”

“Rolling around on the floor makes me such a bad girl, right? Call me a bad girl.”

“Sure, you’re a bad girl. Mythia is a bad girl.”

“Hehehe. I’m a bad girl. I love Mama.”

“Mythia has regressed into a toddler…”

I clung to reliable Kate a whole lot and replenished my energy.

“You’ve been through a lot, Kate. The strongest villainess has returned.”

“…Yeah, sure. A villainess.”

“Now then, the problem is what to do next. I need to correct course somehow and return to the villainess position.”

“How are you going to correct course?”

“I’ll start with His Highness the Prince. I’ll try saying lots of villainess-like snide remarks and sarcasm so that he’ll dump me.”

“Are you sure? You’re such a good girl, Mythia, I can already see the future where you fail again.”

“I am not a good girl! That’s why I’m even going to practice snide remarks and sarcasm!”

“The way you approach it is so earnest…”

I filled a notebook with cool, villainess-like snide remarks and sarcasm, and prepared carefully.

“Go out with me. Be my shield.”

Those were the words whispered into my ear so no one around us could hear.

It was lunchtime in the courtyard after I had eaten lunch with Kate.

As we sat side by side on a bench and I whispered sarcastic insults into his ear, Prince Felix raised the corner of his mouth and said,

“×××××××”

How vulgar and utterly depraved the words he whispered back were.

(This guy’s personality is truly rotten…)

But I could not afford to lose if I wanted to become a villainess.

So I whispered insults in a low voice while punching the prince from angles no one could see, and kicking his legs.

The prince narrowed his eyes as if he were listening to his lover whisper sweet things, then punched me and kicked my legs from angles no one else could see.

The relationship between us was somewhere beyond hating each other, but short of being mortal enemies,

and yet people said things like, “You and His Highness looked really close at lunch.”

Even though they said things like that, people really had no eye for the truth.

“You were whispering into each other’s ears.”

“And you were even hitting each other as if you were shy.”

I tried explaining that what we were whispering were insults and abuse, and that the hitting was simply to attack the other person, but they just told me, “You don’t have to be embarrassed.” and refused to believe me at all.

Just like the books said, perhaps people were creatures who saw not the truth, but what they wanted to see.

“Are you going on a date this weekend?”

“Have you held hands yet?”

“Could it be you’ve even kissed?”

After brushing away those questions that made me feel sick just imagining them, I fled to the usual spot in front of the rooftop.

“Oh? How did the plan go?”

Kate was reading a romance novel she had brought with her, resting her knees against a spare desk and rocking her chair like a rocking chair.

On top of the spare desk stood a bookshelf lined with romance novels, and cushions and a blanket had improved the comfort and satisfaction of the space.

(It’s become like a secret base!)

Thinking that I would bring various things tomorrow too, I told Kate how things had progressed.

“That guy acts refined all the time, but his mouth is unbelievably foul. And on top of that, he hit me back without caring that I’m a girl.”

“That perfect prince who never shows any openings? I can’t believe it.”

“Everyone’s being fooled. Just watch. I, the strongest villainess, will teach him what real evil is.”

“Mm. Do your best.”

Since it looked like beating the black-hearted prince would take a little more time, I decided to normalize my relationship with the protagonist, Claris, first.

Claris, who was walking along carrying a thick book, spotted me and came trotting over with, “Ah! Mythia Onee-sama!”

Her voice was lively. Adorable.

And on top of that, the book she was carrying was a popular fantasy novel that I loved too.

(This girl has great taste… this is bad, I want to talk about it…)

But I was here to sever my relationship with this girl, the protagonist.

You could not gain great results without some sacrifice.

Hardening my heart, I said to Claris,

“I hate you!”

“Why would you say something like that…”

Tears welled up in Claris’s eyes.

“That was a lie. I like you normally, so don’t cry.”

I did everything I could to comfort and cheer up Claris.

Claris said, “Onee-sama is so kind.”

I looked at Claris feeling like the worst kind of man who apologizes with all his might the day after using violence and then gets told, “You’re really a kind person.”

“Are you reading that book?”

“Yes. It’s my favorite series. I thought novels would be too difficult for me to read, but after reading this one, my world opened up.”

“I know. The setting is great, with the unfortunate human boy actually being the savior and attending a magic school.”

“Onee-sama reads it too!?”

We ended up talking all about the popular fantasy novel.

We got really excited talking about, “Isn’t the death spell way too overpowered and ruining the game balance?” and “Isn’t the protagonist weird for countering that death spell by firing beams with a weapon-disarming spell?”

As I headed back to the clock tower with a smile on my face, thinking how much fun that had been, I realized something.

(I’ve become even closer to her…!)

The situation was far from easy, and the thing I sought only seemed to grow more distant the more I chased it.

But that did not mean my admiration was shallow enough for me to give up.

(Next time… next time I’ll do it right)

With that resolve in my heart, I began thinking of my next plan.