How to Redeem a Trashy Side Villain

Chapter 87: An Impossible Second

Waiting patiently in my seat, I was having a conversation with a few acquaintances about the fight against the baron and how it went; obviously, I had to omit some details.

"How did you get the church to help you?"

"Come on bro, he's an Agnus. He got... what's the word?"

"Connections?"

"Yerr. He got dem connections."

"Word."

"Word."

Just as the bell was about to ring, Arthurr rushed through the door. He was playing it cool but I could tell that he was favoring his back.

Getting flogged by your teacher is wild but hey, the academy does what the academy does.

Despite me introducing myself to him, he saw me and still chose to sit in the same seat that he sat in the novel.

That proves my theory then. As long as I don't personally intervene with scenes from the novel, they should play out the way they should. What happens if I drastically change a scene and prevent a future one from occurring?

I began thinking about these things when the teacher, Mr. Rooga came in.

He was an old dude who walked with a limp but the reasoning for it was rather badass.

After losing his wife to a monster who had made its way into the land of the humans, Mr. Rooga disappeared from the academy for a year.

Nobody knew where he went, no one had contact with him, and the only clue they had was that the mounted spear in his office had been removed.

When he returned, in the area that he was hunting in, he had wiped out the entire population of the monster species that had been responsible for the death of his wife.

"Alright class, settle down. I have a surprise for you all," he said.

Everyone knew that Mr. Rooga was a badass and not one to be fucked with so they settled down as they were told to do.

"First of all, welcome back to the academy. Hope everyone had a good break. Before we get started, I'd like everyone to welcome a new student to the academy. It is their first time at the academy so do treat them with respect and help them out if they need it," he told the classroom.

Hmm?

I looked over at Arthurr, wondering if Mr. Rooga was talking about him.

I don't remember this in the novel.

"She's somewhat of a celebrity so do keep it down when she enters," he warned the class.

She? Wait... what?

Arthurr was supposed to be the first and last mid-school year transfer student to ever exist.

Who was this second transfer student that the teacher was talking about?

I had no clue.

Using my mana, I tried to detect the person standing outside but whoever they were was concealing their presence so I wouldn't have even been able to tell that she was there if it wasn't for Mr. Rooga informing us.

The students began whispering amongst themselves, listening out names of "celebrities" our ages.

"Could it be blah blah blah?"

"Ou. I heard rumors that she left her old wizarding school. Is it possible that blah blah blah transferred?"

"What about blah blah blah?"

"I hope so. I have a big crush on her."

Mr. Rooga gestured for them to quiet down. Once it was as silent, he turned his head to the door and said, "You can come in now. They're ready for you."

The door slowly opened and immediately, I saw a glimpse of their hair.

Oh no.

It seemed like the red flag that I had put up months ago was coming back to haunt me just like Quentin's red flag did to him.

It was perfectly straight silky hair, glistening as it swayed forward, but the most important part was the color.

It was red.

Then came the hand that popped through the door. It was perfectly smooth, porcelain, and looked like it belonged to a beauty.

Why has she come here?

It was Ichiko. My fiancée whom I hadn't seen in months after the assassination attempt on our lives.

Despite what I said about Mr. Rooga earlier and how all the students respected him so they listened to him, they did the exact opposite of "keep it down".

Like a sports game and the home team had just won the championship, the classroom burst into roars and cheers.

"No way it's her!"

"What the fuck!"

"Whoa! I did not expect that. What the..."

"Am I dreaming? I must be. The real Asano Ichiko is in front of me. Oh my god, I'm about to faint."

"She's even more beautiful in person."

"No way. Look how pretty she is. Do you think she'll share her makeup routine with us if we ask?

"Silly girl. Look at her. Other than maybe her lips, do you really think she's using making? That's natural beauty right there. I'm so jealous."

Did Cyro not mention a while ago that she was considered to be the prized diamond?

Did I not mention as well that the jealousy of the entire population of Bell's generation of boys was justified because of her beauty?

Did I not mention that I had to play up my perfect nature because I didn't want all the boys in the world to come after me and ruin my plans?

Yeah.

Nothing that was mentioned about her was an understatement.

She was one of, if not the most popular girl under the age of twenty years old in the world.

The only people above her in notoriety were the top celebrities, famous figures like my father, a few world leaders, and the demon king.

She walked to the front of the class where Mr. Rooga was standing.

Dressed in the academy uniform, she made it look a hundred times more expensive than it actually was. It looked like she was in the middle of a photoshoot.

Turning around, everyone had more than just a side view or an angled view of her face and let's just say that it sounded like elephants were stomping around in the classroom.

Mr. Rooga was trying to quiet everyone down but his voice was being drowned in all the noise.

Ichiko stood there with a smile, her eyes moving around slowly, observing people as I assumed she would. In her head, she was already making judgments about everyone based on their etiquette.

Starting from the right, she made her way to the left side of the classroom where I was.

When our eyes met, she stopped moving her eyes and instead, turned her head to face me and smiled even brighter.

Oh no.

All the boys and girls in the classroom went silent, wondering who it was that she was looking at.

They followed her line of sight and saw that it was me.

"Of fucking course. Look at Bell. It's not enough that he has all the riches in the world. Now he's hogging all her attention."

"Seriously, how does he manage to be so lucky?"

"I can't believe Ichiko is only looking at him. Look at her eyes. Fuck. Should I go solve some crimes and become a hero on the news too?"

"I knew there were rumors that they were dating but this isn't fair. It isn't fair!"

"It's like he's the star of his own movie and we're all just background characters. Goddamn it. It should've been me!"

"No! I was interested in him... there's no chance with her in the picture now."

"That's right. Give it up girl. It's a losing battle you're going to be fighting. Throw in the towel. Ding ding ding. She forfeits ref."

"It's like we're invisible here."

The classroom was filled with groans, screams, and sighs of jealousy as her intense focus on me became more apparent.

No no no. What have you done Ichiko? I'm never going to pee in peace again. Every boy is going to stare and compare. Shoot!

Liona chimed in, 'Don't worry master, there's no need to worry. You got a pretty huge—'

'Liona!' Kimi interuptted her. 'Not appropriate.'

'Oops. You have a huge heart master. You'll be fine. That's what I was trying to say.'

...Thank you?

The classroom started to settle down as the loudness was replaced by these evil glares that looked like they belonged to demons.

Mr. Rooga, already tired from the commotion, intervened, "Alright, class. Let's refocus here. Stop staring at him. Jealousy won't get you anywhere."

He had good intentions but his words only made the guys and some of the girls even more angry and jealous of me.

"Hi," Ichiko silently mouthed to me.

"Hey," I mouthed back to her.

"I'm sure everyone here knows her but as a fellow student, it's only right she gets to introduce herself. Come on Ichiko. Tell us a bit about yourself," said Mr. Rooga, taking a seat at his desk.

"Hi class," she greeted.

"Hey."

"Hi.

"Oh my gosh. She said hi to me. Hi!"

Everyone responded at the same time.

"I'm Asano Ichiko from the Asano clan but everyone can just call me Ichiko," she said, granting them permission to refer to her casually. It was her way of trying to fit into the culture of the place she was in.

It's not like it mattered much because everyone had already been calling Ichiko as if they were close friends.

"I moved here from Napaj and I'm looking forward to attending the academy with everyone," she said, bowing her torso slightly.

That's right. Napaj. Japan but spelled backwards. Real original.

What's worse is that she wasn't Napajese or Napajian. Nope. She was still Japanese and spoke Japanese.

Mr. Rooga asked her to take a seat wherever she'd like and obviously, she came towards where I was sitting.

She asked the girl sitting next to me if she could have that seat and like a worshipper, the girl acted like she had been blessed with a favor because, in the span of a second, she picked her backpack off the floor and had moved to the row behind.

Ichiko gracefully placed her rectangular leather backpack on the floor, pulled her seat back, and like someone demonstrating textbook form and posture, sat down elegantly.

Mr. Rooga began going over the syllabus but nobody was paying attention because everyone's attention was on Ichiko.

This also included me because she kept looking at me with the side of her eye and smiling before looking away.

I would turn to meet her eyes but find myself staring at the side of her face. I would however see Arthurr on the other side, looking at Ichiko.

Did I already derail everything?

I don't know who it was or how the information got out but the news about Ichiko transferring into the academy had spread everywhere.

No one knew beforehand because she apparently wasn't present during the first class.

Because it spread everywhere, it meant that everyone knew about it.

Which included a certain freezing-cold vampire.

I began feeling this pain in my heart and I could sense deep jealousy from the floor above me.

...What do I do now?