Margaret Phyler.
The shield of the Empire, the eldest daughter of the Duke Phyler family.
She was a girl who wielded considerable influence in the noble society as the flower of high society.
She was known for her impartial nature, always treating everyone with respect, regardless of their status, and her unwavering dedication to everything she did.
Her beautiful appearance and eloquent speech only added to her charm.
Her impeccable conduct as a noble served as a role model for her peers.
However, even this seemingly perfect girl had a thorn in her side...
And that was the boy named Raiden Lishite.
"......"
Margaret stared blankly at the blackboard.
Her eyes were directed at the professor who was passionately delivering his lecture, but her mind was focused elsewhere.
Raiden Lishite.
Margaret glanced at the boy sitting far away from her.
As she looked into his empty, black eyes, his various nicknames came to mind.
The Empire's worst delinquent.
The disgrace of the Lishite family.
The Academy's most notorious troublemaker.
And...
'......The ex-fiancé of Lady Phyler.'
Margaret unconsciously bit her lip.
A sharp pain stabbed at her heart, and she had to suppress the boiling rage within her.
-Ha, what an ugly face.
-It's none of your business who I play around with.
-Get lost. How dare a mere shield stand in the way of a sword.
Even now, her body trembled as she recalled the words he had spoken to her.
Margaret took a deep breath to calm her twitching eyebrows.
He wasn't like this when they first met.
Margaret remembered it clearly.
The boy who had always treated her preciously, even though their engagement was a political arrangement made at a young age.
The boy who had silently approached her and patted her back when she was exhausted and crying from the stifling atmosphere of her family.
His shy smile.
-I'll be by your side, Margaret.
But the boy had changed.
His face, now frozen in a cold mask, no longer smiled at her.
For some reason, he had become a delinquent.
He earned the scorn of many.
When Lady Lishite, who had been suffering from illness due to worry for her son, finally passed away, his reputation plummeted even further.
Of course, Lady Lishite's cause of death was not illness but assassination.
And Raiden's delinquency began after her death.
But the outside world had no way of knowing this truth.
The same went for Margaret.
That tragedy had been thoroughly concealed as a top-secret matter of the Empire.
In such a situation, there was nothing Margaret could do.
She could only be hurt, tormented, and distressed by the boy's harsh words.
Eventually, due to a major incident, Margaret let go of Raiden.
And she came to despise him.
'......I will curse you forever.'
Margaret clenched her fists as she muttered those words inwardly.
In fact, she had approached Raiden earlier with the intention of picking a fight with him.
But...
As she saw the boy's exhausted and depressed appearance before her,
words of concern involuntarily escaped her lips.
As he responded coldly, she came to her senses and tried to berate him belatedly, but
-I said yes.
-Lady...?
Her words caught in her throat as she was confronted with the boy's unexpected demeanor.
His upturned lips.
His eyes, gently curved into crescents.
If she wasn't seeing things, it was definitely a smile.
A smile that was strikingly similar to the one the Raiden of the past had often shown her.
At that trace of the past, Margaret's heart, which had grown cold, skipped a beat.
In the end, Margaret could only leave after giving him a warning not to do anything foolish.
"Sigh..."
Margaret sighed.
She wasn't someone whose emotions were easily swayed by a single smile.
Raiden Lishite was still an object of hatred and resentment for her.
...However.
That smile.
It reminded her of the past... of the kind Raiden she used to know.
For some reason, she felt a pang of longing.
But...
'That's impossible.'
Margaret shook her head.
He had already changed.
He was selfish, hurtful, and a womanizer.
He had become the type of person she hated the most.
And in her experience, such people rarely changed.
'Therefore...'
...Therefore.
It was foolish of her to try to find traces of the boy she used to love in a single smile.
Margaret turned her gaze back to the blackboard, letting out a meaningless groan.
Right, he's nothing to me anymore.
I don't love you anymore.
Margaret muttered those words inwardly, clearing her mind of distracting thoughts.
***
Meanwhile,
I had to endure the piercing gazes directed at me throughout the entire class.
Whenever I turned my head slightly out of discomfort,
I would see Margaret glaring at me with a fierce expression.
'S-scary...!!'
Lady, I'm sorry.
Are you angry that I answered rudely? I won't do it again.
So please stop staring at me. I feel like I'm suffocating.
Seriously. I think I'm going to have a panic attack.
-Ding!
[Karma.]
So...
Why do I have to suffer for something that's not even my karma!!
-Ding!
[It's the path you chose, isn't it?]
[And it's your karma.]
How is this my karma?
It's clearly because of what Raiden did in the past...!
I might have been a little... rude to someone who was worried about me, but!
It's not something to glare at me like that?!
-Ding!
[Karma.]
'You're doing this on purpose, aren't you...?'
I timidly slumped down in my seat.
I had to endure Margaret's intense gaze until the end of class, while bickering with the status window.
Damn it.
The first day is already tough.
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Thanks for the chapter
ReplyDeleteCould it be that the MC and the dead boy is actually the same person? Oh the possible twist! Karma indeed.
ReplyDeleteOk, yeah, it is damn confirmed, Raiden became Kim Naru and now Kim Naru has become Raiden again. I am glad the system isn't coddling him about the consequences of his actions though.
ReplyDeleteI think he dreamed his whole kendo life when he cracked his head. System is what kept him alive all this time.
Deleteyep, same guy indeed. dude loged out to try challenge mode and now he is back to finish the OG save file. haha
ReplyDeleteTf? The more I think about it, how did Raiden fall into depression and change that much completely?
ReplyDeleteDepression occurs when a sane man has no one to lean on during dark times....
But he had so many people by his side.
He had his sister, his maid, his fiance, his grampa butler. Ain't no way no one comforted a clearly depressed raiden.
Because the author is lazy, and just wants a depressing story without much thought behind it
DeleteIt was said that his father was entirely absent, and outsiders, par for a few, did not know about what had happened. I don't think it's that unrealistic for a traumatic event to fester over time.
DeleteAfter all, mental illnesses do not appear the same for everyone, and the impact on their conduct may be severe.
As of now, there is nowhere enough detail given about the circumstances, so a detailed analysis is impossible to form and is just guesswork instead.
He was trying to make everyone hate him and he succeeded, his father was always away + his sister eventually said those things...
DeleteDepression is an interesting subject, which varies from person to person. If I had to guess, then Raiden suffered from PTSD, which is a serious thing. I have had buddies that suffered from deployments to the Middle East. They had a supportive network, but they still took their own life or acted out, and this is the same thing. Raiden was young and suffered from PTSD, he both loved and resented his father for destroying the memory of his beloved mother.
DeleteIs this supposed to be a joke? "Karma"? Are you mentally challenged?
ReplyDelete