Chapter 32.1

SIDE STORY – Gloria Lupinus (5)

“Ria, Ria. Come play with me.”

A girl with fluffy pink hair clung to my arm.

“What the heck, Flora? You’ve creased my skirt.”

“Oh! Silly me.”

As I scolded her with mock severity, the girl organised the skirt of my dress.

“So unladylike.”

We spoke at the same time and promptly burst into laughter. It was our inside joke, having studied from the same etiquette books.

She was Flora, the original novel’s female lead. But right now, she was just my friend.

“And so what? Skirts always ended up like that anyway. Shall we go have some cake at the cafeteria?”

“Mhmm.”

Flora smiled radiantly and hugged my arm tightly.

This was something that you would never have seen a year ago. At age 11, I succeeded in turning Flora, who was the perfect noble lady, into a slightly unruly noble lady, removing corsets, running around barefooted and secretly jumping over walls to go play. Just like in the original novel, she was kind and friendly. Being an only child, she took me as her older sister, and I took care of her like she was my younger sister.

“You come over here and hang out with us too, Noah!”

Flora gestured to Noah, who was sitting in a corner and flipping through a book. I leaned against my wooden sword that was planted on the ground and looked on quietly.

Noah, I and Flora. You could call us friends. Although I am not sure what Noah would think about that. If asked how this came to be, I would say that it’s because our two families still had an alliance even after the marriage agreement was broken. So I ended up having to see Noah’s face. Then, my family also began exchanges with Count Ivy, Flora’s father, and I soon became friends with Flora, who was kind and affable. That was how we three became a group.

When Flora had led me by hand, saying that she would introduce me to her new friend, I still remember how Noah and I’s faces hardened the moment we saw each other. It was inevitable, given how bad our first meeting went.

“Hurry.”

As Flora led Noah forward, I stuck my tongue out at him without her knowing.

“Tsk.”

This punk. Does he know that that condescending look of his really pisses people off? Or does he know and still acts like that? I remember we also stared each other down that day. Flora had such a hard time trying to mediate between the two of us.

Things didn’t have to happen as it was written in the novel. But her dating a guy like that…… It’s quite dumbfounding.

It’s been eight years since then, so we could be called childhood friends. But we don’t get along. I regarded him as an insolent magic geek, and he thought of me as a crazy lout whose dignity as a noble might as well have been eaten by dogs.

Anyway, as we fought with each other, hung out and studied together in that fashion, at 16, the three of us got admitted to, and enrolled at, the Imperial Academy. And I found it a bit disappointing. No one was showing off their oodles of cash or anything; it was like I had gone back to my time in high school, having to take midterms and finals all the time.[1]

In other novels, the characters would attend parties to dance and meet their friends. But the reality here was a bit different. Even the Empire’s Founders Day fell during the exam period, and the Imperial Palace did not host that many parties.

In my past life, I watched a few American dramas.[2] In youth dramas or school life dramas, there are supposed to be prom parties and such, but there was none of that here! And it’s even a romance novel!

If I had said these narrow-minded things to our principal, I am sure he would say that I should go use my time to study. The author is really showing how Korean they are. I mean, it’s a fantasy world where we are flying on dragons, using magic and swinging swords. Is it such a difficult thing to throw a party or two into the mix?

Where was my high-teen life? Give me my rugby captain school hunk now!

I felt a bit aggrieved at transmigrating and then having to redo my school days, but after adapting over a year, things went well. At least, it was much better than listening to my Marquis father yelling his lungs away all day.

Soon I advanced to the second year and gotten more comfortable. One day, I was passing through the corridors when, all of a sudden, a thought flashed through my mind.

Ah, it is about time for my girl to appear.

I had bought a pastry from the canteen and was eating it as I walked. Just as I began coughing because I’d choked, someone peeked at me. It was a female student, and she looked like a freshman. She was hugging a few books in front of her. Her flaxen hair fluttered gently in the spring breeze coming in through the window, and her green eyes looked around the Academy’s corridor, as if she was still unfamiliar with the layout of the rooms.

Just as I was thinking to myself that she was such a cute kid, my eyes darted to the name engraved on her gold name tag.

Katelin Blair.

“!”

I forcefully swallowed the pastry that had blocked my throat, before rubbing my mouth roughly.

It’s Kate!

My heart pounded violently.

What to do. She was so lovely I wanted to gobble her up. How could there be such a fluffy, adorable creature?

Because she was an extra in the original novel, there was no illustration of her and so I had no idea what she looked like. So she has such pretty eyes. The novel only used the word ‘cute’ to describe her.

Meeting my fave for the first time, I stood there in the corridor looking like an AI that had just learnt what love was after 17 years.

Spring was in the air.

* * * * * *

Left to me, I would have immediately gotten close to Kate and become friends with her. But unfortunately, I was competing with Flora for the spot to become an exchange student at the Seminary, and I had to pass the midterms with flying colours in order to win the spot.

Eventually, after much sweat and tears, I tied with Noah for first place in the midterms, which was quite a feat. I had to leave my doll behind and go study abroad.

The Lowell Kingdom Seminary was much more sombre than the Academy. No one made noise in the corridors, nor did people drop their honorifics when speaking.[3] The worst thing was…… there was no canteen. I wanted to weep.

There, I had no choice but to truly play the role of a Marquis elegant daughter. However, since it was an institution renowned for turning out high priests and holy knights, the level of the swordsmanship classes were certainly excellent. At the Seminary, I mastered how to deal with aura, and by the end of that year, I knew how to use it like the palm of my hand.

* * * * * *

Notes:

[1] ‘My time in high school’: ; Korean students take the KSAT () to get into university. If you’ve seen dramas like SKY Castle etc, you understand the stress they go through.

[2] American dramas: ; this word is a portmanteau of .

[3] Honorifics: ; here’s a to learn about Korean honorifics. It is rare for people to call others by their first names; Kate actually calls Noah ‘sunbae’ [], meaning ‘senior’, which I will use going forward. is sometimes used in the same way ‘oppa’ is used.

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