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Chapter 2
I still have no idea what made him agree to meet me at that late hour, but I paid it no mind and stated my business.
“I like you, Belgrave.”
“What?”
“I’ve liked you for a long time. I know that compared to you, my status and abilities are…… no, scratch abilities, anyway, I know I’m lacking in many ways, but I wanted to at least confess my feelings before graduation.”
His slightly furrowed brow and pressed lips. The subtle difference from his usual composed expression struck me as odd.
If it were the Knox Belgrave I knew, he should have rejected me on the spot and walked away……
‘Why…… does he look like he’s agonizing over it?’
Surely he wasn’t going to accept? That wasn’t part of the plan?
But maybe that would be even better. If he accepted and then I dumped him immediately, the blow would be even harsher.
On the other hand, I also had this thought.
How did I, who came to the academy to enjoy the one and only youth I’d ever get, end up becoming such a wicked person who toys with people’s feelings……
“I think that’s a misunderstanding.”
“Huh?”
“Your thinking you like me—it’s a misunderstanding.”
Excuse me, why are you the one deciding that?
I was momentarily dazed by the completely unexpected response.
But I didn’t want to throw a tantrum asking why he couldn’t understand my feelings, so I said I’d think about it more and excused myself.
I’d known for a while he was a strange one, but the more I learned, the stranger he got.
‘The confession attack strategy is a failure.’
Whatever, forget it. I felt uneasy doing it anyway.
Since it had come to this, I hoped to at least achieve joint valedictorian. There was nowhere higher to go, and that would be a good enough finish, wouldn’t it?
“Be honest with me, Maze.”
But once again, I found myself facing an unexpected situation.
“You cheated, didn’t you?”
Knox Belgrave hadn’t actually gotten a perfect score!
‘Wait, did that actually work?’
Apparently he’d made a small mistake on the theory exam.
Meanwhile, I’d gotten a perfect score and taken first place, which made me a suspect for cheating.
What followed was a grueling verification process. Questions from the professor in charge that bordered on interrogation, several retests.
Even after passing all of that, there were suspicious glances suggesting I must have pulled some other trick, and harassment for daring to not know my place.
“Ha…….”
Was this the weight of being valedictorian? The price of cowardly taking first place through a confession attack?
“Maze.”
My head snapped up as I trudged helplessly back to my room.
Knox Belgrave was leaning against the wall. Just as if he’d been waiting for someone.
He was smiling. Leaning down slightly to meet my eye level, he asked.
“Are you satisfied now?”
Satisfied?
The moment I heard that question, a hypothesis struck my mind like lightning.
This bastard—he got it wrong on purpose.
He must have seen through my scheme from the very beginning. What an infuriatingly irritating bastard.
“What are you talking about? Get lost.”
I returned to my room with my fists clenched tight.
My blood was boiling, but if this would end everything, I could endure the blow to my pride as much as needed.
And then on the long-awaited graduation day, I finally ascended to the podium.
I, who had always only looked up at Knox Belgrave from below, for the first time.
“Hello. I am Maze from the Alchemy Department, giving the student representative’s address.”
Was looking down at him.
I recited the speech clearly and distinctly.
Most people looked at me with displeasure, but I didn’t care. I just, simply……
I just wanted to go home now.
“Thank you.”
As I bowed at the waist, I was certain. This time was truly perfect!
Tempo, pronunciation, content—nothing to fault.
This should be enough, this should be……
In that instant, a chill ran through me and I quickly raised my head.
“XX.”
It was the dormitory room.
I don’t remember clearly how I spent the beginning of the fourth cycle. I think I got angry and maybe cried all day.
After living like a madman through the fall semester, I went home for the first time.
My parents, whom I hadn’t seen in a long while, were still deeply in love and still loved me.
It felt like the whole world was on my side. Coming home really was the right choice.
Thanks to that, by the time winter break was ending, sitting on the train back, I found myself wanting to live a little better.
So I made a new plan. The so-called “Making Friends” operation!
Academy, youth, romance…… have you ever seen those words without “friends” in them? I certainly haven’t.
Though there was the minor problem that I’d spent over four years including the regressions without a single friend……
Still, before enrolling, I’d been quite popular back in my hometown.
‘Right! I’m someone who’s even ranked first with perfect scores in every subject—surely I can make at least one friend?’
……I was needlessly overconfident, and I regressed without a single friend just like that.
Damn it.
The moment I faced the fifth cycle, I analyzed my memories from the past cycles like writing an error log.
What the people around me liked and disliked, why the kids avoided getting close to me.
After that, it became crystal clear what I needed to do going forward.
Swallow my pride, hold back my temper, don’t throw the first punch.
Thanks to that, I succeeded in making new friends. Four of them, no less!
Three of them were more like I’d targeted the ones obsessed with grades.
I gave them some predicted exam questions and shared alchemy recipes only I knew, and they handed me the title of best friend.
‘This time I’ll definitely be able to graduate!’
My confidence lasted only a moment.
Suddenly, before exams, the three of them started fighting over who would monopolize me, then decided to be fair and have nobody have me, and left.
The one remaining friend was indignant enough to ask how they could do such a thing.
Then, a week before graduation, a rumor spread that I was a witch.
Before I could do anything about it, the rumor spread in an instant, and its source was…… the mouth of my one remaining best friend.
‘Wow, insane.’
I regressed without even being able to clear up the misunderstanding.
The sixth cycle began with me cursing the four traitors.
As expected, there’s no one in this world you can trust, and the only person who can save me is myself.
Apparently, acting like I knew everything and arousing the suspicions of those around me was the biggest cause of the discord.
Taking that into account and being more careful……
“Let’s just try one more time.”
After that, I was the picture of caution.
Clearing debts and acting like nothing happened, subtly ingratiating myself without it showing, not letting my pride get the better of me, yielding whenever possible, and so on……
Doing things I’d never done before for over two years made me feel like stress would give me stomach cramps, but I endured it.
The moderate social relationships I achieved that way, the moderate grades that wouldn’t invite envy, the impeccable reputation.
Nothing could be more perfect than this. Definitely.
“Why do you go that far?”
Though thanks to that excessive effort, I’d caught someone’s unnecessary attention.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not that kind of person.”
“?”
Suddenly, a legitimate question occurred to me.
Could it be that Knox, this bastard, also regresses?
‘No, no…….’
I’d had this question before and checked, but the result was “no.”
Unless I changed something, his patterns were always identical down to the smallest details.
If he remembered anything, a person couldn’t act like that—I knew that better than anyone.
So I brushed it off. I just said I was doing some reputation laundering before graduation.
“……Well, as long as nothing’s wrong.”
He didn’t look like he believed me much, but there was something refreshing about his reply.
I briefly wondered why, but I never did learn his true intentions. Because I regressed the next day.
And now, the seventh cycle. The moment I came to, I scrawled out a withdrawal letter and left the room.
The thought that all my efforts had turned to bubbles left me half out of my mind.
As I practically ran down the dormitory stairs, I bumped shoulders with someone. Sure enough, it was Knox Belgrave.
I didn’t have the presence of mind to exchange words, so I tried to just pass by, but he grabbed my wrist.
“What.”
“Where are you going?”
