Chapter 6

The timing couldn’t be any worse. I desperately tried to push Julius, who still had his arms wrapped around my shoulders, but he didn’t budge.

Rather, it felt like he was closer than before.

“What are you both doing…?”

“Nothing much?”

Julius answered nonchalantly, but it only made Jenny glare at me harder. Why was this my fault?

The unreasonable development started to give me a headache. I decided to be harsher with my brother, who in the first place was the cause of this all.

“I’m busy. Get away from me already.”

“Ah, right. Have you eaten lunch?”

“I don’t want to stand out too much, so don’t approach me in the school.”

“You have no friends anyway, right? Let’s eat together.”

“Are you listening to me?”

But I couldn’t get through to him at all. He definitely did this on purpose. What kind of resentment did he have towards Rene?

“…Brother, why are you suddenly close with Big Sister?”

“I’ve always wanted to get along with Rene. It’s just that Rene used to be so cold to me.”

“It’s definitely a lie, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you caught me.”

“……”

Jenny had quite a bad personality, but she had a cute face and excellent grades. And then there’s this guy.

I was pretty sure that this brother had one of the most twisted, bad personalities that I knew of. Despite my thoughts, he continued with a smile.

“But right now, I really want to get along with Rene.”

Right? Julius tilted his head to my side, causing our heads to bump into each other. The female students around us shrieked again, and Jenny’s face turned red.

Tired of this endless farce, I elbowed Julius’ side as hard as I could, causing him to flinch. Then I slipped out and ran away.

When I looked at the clock, half of the lunch break had passed. My schedule already went awry from day one. This was all my brother’s fault. I should live my school life while avoiding him from now on.

I bought bread and drinks at the canteen, ate them quickly in an empty classroom by myself, and went to the library. I headed to the corner with books from other countries, picking up a few random books.

“…I really can read it.”

I opened random pages and found myself surprisingly able to read all of them like it was natural. I could also catch and understand the words the teacher was saying during class. Perhaps I could even speak other languages.

This ability was definitely my greatest weapon.

Also, in addition to the compulsory Mamithonian, I remember seeing another language among the elective courses. In other words, I could aim for perfect scores in two subjects. This would be quite an advantage.

Once I was done confirming, I borrowed a lot of basic books on subjects I didn’t understand even after taking classes, such as magic. Then I left the library.

“My, what’s with that? What’s gotten into you now?”

“You should’ve read those books when you were in elementary school!”

On my way back to class, high-rank students, such as B and C, laughed at me when they saw the books I was holding. But I ignored them and continued walking. Those who laugh at the basics will cry at the foundations.

However, my feet slipped from the passing student’s, and I fell straight to the ground. I endured the pain in my knees and picked up the scattered books, giving a sidelong glare at the unpleasant giggles.

…Of course I was frustrated and angry. Too unreasonable. Why should I be put through this? But I couldn’t complain since I was blessed with the chance to start over my life full of regrets.

As long as I was in this academy, I had to show them good results.

Then, all of a sudden, the laughter around me stopped at once. I raised my head to see what was going on, and someone offered a book right in front of me.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you…”

It was Arnold, who seemed to be my brother’s friend. I only focused on his face earlier, but now I noticed that his brooch was shining gold.

“Rene, you’re doing great. Good luck.”

He only said so before leaving with a smile. That coolness and kindness almost pushed me to start stanning him.

I headed for the classroom again, thinking that I wanted to have a serious talk with the developers who made him a mob.

◇◇◇

After I managed to finish all of my classes without any problems, I hopped back home in the horse carriage alone. I ran into my room and fell into bed.

“Ahhh… I’m beat…”

“You’ve worked hard, My Lady.”

“Thank you…”

An unfamiliar environment was exhausting no matter what. On top of that, I was in hard mode. Just thinking that I still had a long way to go made my body heavier than ever.

Rosa woke me up, telling me that my uniform would wrinkle. I followed her words and changed my clothes into a dress that was easy to move in. Thank God I was a noble lady! I slapped both my cheeks to encourage myself.

“Let’s do this!”

With a pen in hand, I recapped what I should do for the next month’s exam.

“For magic power, I should greet the prince… and let’s talk to the blue-haired glasses guy too since he might be one of the love interests.

Most otome games had five men to pick as the player’s love interest. The least would be two, and the most would be ten. And I didn’t remember this game being different in that aspect.

What kind of characters the other love interests would be? My only clue was that none of them had the same hair color.

From my experience of playing too many otome games, not all love interests were designed to tick all the boxes(1). It wouldn’t be strange to have characters who rise together from the same position as the heroine. Identifying them was still too hard for now.

“For knowledge, I need to study.”

I didn’t have to study foreign languages, and other than subjects related to magic, most were similar to what I learned in my original world.

I should focus on studying magic.

“What’s left is… skill, huh…”

Yes, that was the problem. I remembered up to the point of practicing with someone, but who should I do it with?

I felt like it would be better to learn from someone who wasn’t the love interest. Or else I wouldn’t be able to practice at all if I went with the prince’s route. Just practicing in class definitely wouldn’t prepare me in time for next month’s exam. Definitely.

With that in mind, I immediately decided to ask my father for a private tutor during dinner.

“It’s hard to find tutors for magic lessons.”

“Oh no…”

Turns out only a limited number of people could use magic in this world, around twenty percent of the population.

That was why the valuable magicians had their fair share of work. Right. If that was the case, only a few people would like to be private tutors.

I asked the teacher at the academy to teach me individually after school, but now it seemed unlikely that they would make time for me, an F-rank student. It was when I was racking my brain for the next plan.

“I’ll teach you.”

“Eh!”

“I don’t think there’s anyone better suited than me, do you?”

My father smiled at Julius’s words. “That sounds good.” And I could hear Jenny’s murmur. “Why…”

An excellent older brother was definitely the perfect choice for a private tutor. We went to the same school, so he would know the trend of the exams and how to countermeasure it.

He clearly had ulterior motives, and I didn’t want to be indebted to this older brother. But I was in no position to be picky right now. The first priority was to get out of F-rank.

Let’s change this situation into taking advantage of this mean brother.

“Then, please take care of me.”

“Sure. But still, your elbow was quite painful, you know.”

“…I’m sorry”

Then, starting the next day, I decided to start practicing magic with Julius.

──I still didn’t know at this time that everything would change due to this choice.