Chapter 82 - 21 - Nothing Can Be Easy (part 4)
"Ah! What a cute cat! It's too adorable to be eaten!"
"Thank you, my lady – I am surprised myself how nice it turned out."
A few minutes later, Miriette was eating her breakfast and Zoemi was brushing her hair as if nothing happened.
---
Later on, after Zoemi returned the empty plates to the kitchen and went back to his master's room, he and Miriette went to the class together as always – after all, a lady of her status should not be walking without an escort, no matter what.
As they entered their classroom - they were faced with an unexpected group of people.
Well... not exactly faced with, to be specific.
It was just that their classmates were gathered around the desks in the very front and were whispering to each other.
The atmosphere was grave.
"What's going on? Did something happen?"
Surprised Zoemi raised a question and addressed it to everyone.
"..."
Every student looked at him but no one answered, instead they moved around and made a way for him and Miriette so they could go and check for themselves.
"...?"
"..."
Zoemi looked back at his master and she responded with a confused look in her eyes.
Still, there was no better way than to check for themselves.
When they moved past the other students, they were faced with the horrified heroine staring at her desk in utter disbelief.
Or rather – she was staring at what was left of her desk, that is.
The piece of furniture looked like someone had punched right through it, ripping through everything that was stored in it - the notebooks, spare quills, and ink bottles all got smashed into pieces resulting in a big almost gruesome mess.
But, that wasn't the most worrisome part...
On top of the destroyed desk, right above the hole, a sentence was written:
\\\\DON'T GET TOO COCKY, COMMONER - OR YOUR HEAD WILL BE NEXT!/
The letters were drawn in threatening strokes as if the person writing them was absolutely furious and filled with malicious intent.
"...!"
Zoemi froze when he saw that.
|What the hell is this!? It's nothing like in the game! This is so much worse! That's an actual death threat!|
This wasn't a polite note expressing the discontent written by a prideful sheltered girl, or some gossip about the heroine being poor or questioning her magic's importance!
|Something has changed again...!|
Zoemi was sure of it.
It was like with the acceleration of the second prince's route.
The black-haired attendant with the ugly scar deforming his right cheek connected the facts.
He realized that it must have been the game script correcting itself, and in place of Miriette who didn't have a reason to do so, someone else has started bullying the heroine.
And that someone pulled no punches from the start!
"...u...umm..."
The heroine gulped her saliva and move her eyes from the desk to the Zoemi and Miriette, she opened her mouth, but she closed it without saying anything.
Only after a few moments of awkward silence, she put her hand to her chest and tears appeared in her eyes.
As if she did that after a lot of thinking.
"...miss Burushi...?"
The scarred boy asked, not even wanting to finish uttering the stupid name.
"S-sir Zoemi...!"
But it looked like the heroine had taken that as a sign of compassion as she ran up to the black-haired boy and threw herself into his arms.
"!!!!"
Surprised Zoemi didn't dodge her and even patted her back when she was soaking his shoulder with her tears.
|What the hell is going on...? Who did it? Can it be connected to Miriette by any chance? How to prevent Miriette from getting involved?|
The first thought that appeared in Zomei's head was about figuring out a way to prevent any suspicion from falling on his master.
If Miriette was safe, then Zoemi wished the heroine all best, she could go on to seducing whichever capture target she ever wished for and then some – but as long as the dark-haired girl was in danger - the heroine could even drop off from the Aspakeony Academy for all he cared...
Still... if the heroine being in trouble might have a negative impact on the girl he wished to protect, it was obvious that he should do something to solve it.
"Somebody get the teacher."
Since the threat to his master's happiness did not go away but instead returned many times stronger than in the original game, the scarred boy's voice became menacing as he called to the rest of the students, who seemed too shocked and confused to figure out what to do by themselves.
"Please."
"...alright..."
The black-haired boy added and the surrounding students shook off the initial scare – surprisingly enough – or maybe not – the red-haired Grazio was the one who left the classroom.
It looked like his affection towards the heroine was high enough to make him tolerate listening to the black-haired boy's commands.
"...whew..."
Hearing Zoemi's voice Burushitto sighed out in relief.
|It's a lot more intense than other routes, but it really looks like it's the event for him! Those blasted creators sure did crank up the excitement level with this DLC... what have I ever done to deserve a death threat?!|
She was giving her best to act shaken up - which actually wasn't too difficult since she WAS shaken up, and tried extra hard to behave in a way that would make this new capture target want to protect her... because she really wanted someone to protect her at the moment.
|...was it her...?|
Burushiitto stealthily glanced at the dark-haired villainess, but could not say for sure...
"..."
Miriette was glaring at her, but it seemed almost as if she was allowing her attendant to hug the heroine out of... compassion...?
Pity...?
The dark-haired girl glanced at the destroyed desk and seemed actually disturbed by the damages and the message.
|What idiot would do something so obvious? Destroying the Academy's property is bound to get the attention of the faculty, amateur...|
Miriette thought to herself and looked back at the black-haired boy and the blond girl - she really wanted to tell the commoner girl to back off from her attendant, but she knew that everyone would start thinking that she was the one who destroyed that clingy wench's desk!
|Making a scene would put Zoemi, as my attendant, in a bad light too...|
Miriette thought to herself and put her all into hiding her true feelings.
"Everyone! Did anyone see who did that? Maybe someone saw anything suspicious?"
She took a deep breath and asked the class in the most genuinely worried voice she could muster.
|E-eh...? Slutiette is trying to help me...? Like, actually?!|
"...?"
Miriette's behavior shook up the heroine enough to make her flinch, and that made Zoemi raise his brow too....