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Chapter 6
“Dad, what is this?”
Genevieve Darling learned the truth about this world when she was around ten years old.
“My princess, this is the graduation album from the college your father attended.”
Marquis Darling gently stroked his daughter’s soft golden hair.
“Bradley hasn’t changed at all. Though he has lost a little more hair since then. And this person here is…”
With an excited expression, he pointed at the portraits of his old classmates in the album and explained who they were.
“…Ah.”
She felt a little sorry for Marquis Darling, who was explaining everything so enthusiastically, but Genevieve wasn’t listening to a single word.
All of her attention was fixed on the words written on the cover.
W-What is this…?
The moment she saw the album’s cover decorated with golden lettering, a title she had long forgotten suddenly came back to her.
<What Happened at Saint John’s College>
It was a book she had read in her first life.
Although the publisher categorized it as a romance fantasy, What Happened at Saint John’s College was actually difficult to place into a single genre.
It had romance, an imperial setting, and members of the imperial family, just like a typical romance fantasy.
However, it also contained hardcore BL elements and even mass murder.
The story began when the female protagonist entered Saint John’s College as a scholarship student.
The heroine was a noble-born scholarship student, and that very fact isolated her.
Because when a noble became a scholarship student, it only meant one thing:
Their family was too poor to pay the tuition.
Even though a single semester’s tuition cost as much as a noble’s summer villa, it was still an age of prosperity. For a noble family to not have that amount of money was considered shameful.
As a result, the heroine was looked down on by her classmates every day and almost became the victim of a serious crime.
The one who helped her was the Crown Prince.
Only a few lines were written about his past, but according to them, he had been born between the Emperor and a maid from the Empress’s palace. Before he was officially recognized, he too had suffered bullying.
The sympathy born from their similar situations quickly turned into love.
But perhaps because he wasn’t born with the black hair that symbolized the true male lead, the Crown Prince eventually lost to the black-haired protagonist who appeared later.
Around the time the heroine rejected the Crown Prince and began dating the male lead, students at the college started dying one by one.
Drowning.
Falling.
Suffocation.
Excessive blood loss.
The causes of death were endless.
Then a male student who almost became the fifth victim accused the Crown Prince of being the murderer.
The Crown Prince wasn’t arrested because of his status.
Instead, he emotionally tormented the heroine, insisting that she was the only person who could suppress his desire to kill.
The heroine pretended to love him again in an attempt to bring back the kind person he once was.
But the Crown Prince only became even more unstable, saying he couldn’t feel any sincerity from her.
Eventually, he decided to destroy the school.
He put everyone to sleep using a sleeping incense and then set the buildings on fire.
However, the heroine had developed resistance to the incense and remained awake.
For the sake of the Empire’s future, she concluded that the Crown Prince had to die.
So she killed him, woke only the male lead, and escaped the burning school with him.
In short, What Happened at Saint John’s College was a dark adult novel with about one percent romance mixed in.
The author’s determination was impressive.
Since the heroine and the male lead got married in the ending, the author simply insisted it was still a romance.
‘…But was there ever someone named Genevieve Darling?’
It was an important question.
Unfortunately, Genevieve couldn’t remember.
Like many romance fantasy novels, the characters all had long and similar names.
On top of that, the Crown Prince—the true villain behind everything—was usually referred to by his family name rather than his personal name.
Because of this, what Genevieve remembered most clearly wasn’t their names, but their appearances.
The heroine had pink hair and golden eyes.
The male lead had black hair and purple eyes.
Even that information would have been forgotten if she hadn’t seen the cover art.
Fortunately, most side characters had ordinary hair and eye colors.
Genevieve believed she would easily be able to avoid the main characters if she ever met them.
There is always a reason poisonous mushrooms have bright colors.
She felt relieved that she had very ordinary blonde hair and very realistic green eyes.
And if a familiar surname like “Darling” had appeared in the novel, she felt she would have remembered it.
After checking her memories several times, she became convinced that she wasn’t a short-lived side character or a villain destined to die miserably.
More importantly, she wasn’t even born in the Avonria Empire, where the novel took place.
She had been born in the Kingdom of Cardir.
Thank you for reincarnating me into a background extra who never appears in the original story!
For the first time in her life, Genevieve sincerely thanked God.
And I don’t even attend the same school!
Saint John’s College was famous as a prestigious institution, but the Darling family disliked the idea of sending their only daughter abroad.
As a result, Genevieve was scheduled to enroll in Fogatz Academy in southeastern Cardir.
Unless the world turned upside down, the chance of her becoming involved in the original story was practically zero.
And so, Genevieve spent the next six years without a single worry.
She lived comfortably as a noble young lady.
Then, with only about three months left before entering Fogatz Academy—
<Professor Hoelderlin’s Confession
“There isn’t a single student at Fogatz Academy who hasn’t benefited from grade manipulation. Last year’s graduate, Crown Prince Richard…”>
Fogatz Academy was shut down.
The reason was Professor Hoelderlin’s confession.
He had spent over thirty years at the academy and finally revealed the truth.
According to him, the academy had systematically accepted bribes from nobles to manipulate student grades.
Over time, it became increasingly organized.
Eventually, it turned into both a center for academic fraud and a place where nobles hid tax evasion schemes.
In other words, it became a den of corruption.
The impact was enormous.
More than half of the kingdom’s nobles lost their titles.
In the Kingdom of Cardir, people without formal education could not inherit noble families.
The only way for an uneducated person to inherit was by marrying someone who possessed the required qualifications.
To make matters worse, Cardir rarely recognized foreign educational credentials.
Unless someone graduated from a select group of approved schools, they had to pass a national examination.
The exam was infamous.
Fewer than ten people passed each year.
Professor Hoelderlin claimed that many nobles bribed Fogatz Academy simply to obtain educational qualifications and secure their inheritance.
Enraged, the King of Cardir personally led the anti-corruption investigation.
The king had spent decades trying to get his alma mater, Fogatz Academy, accepted into the prestigious continental association known as the Pine Tree Circle.
The academy was on the verge of acceptance when the scandal exploded.
Years of effort vanished overnight.
Genevieve was intelligent for her age.
But as mentioned before, Cardir’s national examination was difficult enough to make even a demon cry.
After solving a few past exam papers, she quickly realized how important a school diploma was.
Genevieve’s dream was simple.
To inherit the Darling family title and live comfortably using the family’s wealth.
To achieve that dream, obtaining an educational qualification was the first obstacle.
The Kingdom of Cardir recognized only two foreign institutions:
Saint John’s College.
And Mayon Academy.
They were considered the two pillars of the Pine Tree Circle.
Getting into either school was harder than reaching the stars.
Naturally, Genevieve wanted to attend Mayon Academy.
Compared to Saint John’s College, where the original story took place, it was the much safer option.
After the scandal, everyone in the Darling family worked tirelessly on her applications and recommendation letters.
But Mayon Academy rejected her.
And being rejected by Mayon Academy was practically the same as being rejected by Saint John’s College.
“Genevieve, if you’re that worried, perhaps you should get engaged. The second son of the Woodville family is your age and seems like a respectable young man.”
Around that time, Marquis Darling proposed an engagement with the most suitable young man among the families friendly with theirs.
Since Genevieve wanted to inherit her family title, she accepted.
The engagement ceremony was held that summer.
But the engagement didn’t last long.
Because two months later, she was accepted into Saint John’s College.
And the engagement was broken off.
Is this how a prisoner feels on the day of their execution?
The closer they got to Saint John’s College, the more uneasy Genevieve felt.
As the carriage entered through the wide-open gates, the coachman slowed down because of the thick fog covering the grounds.
Beyond the mist, an ancient castle barely came into view.
It stood proudly, carrying centuries of history.
“So this is the place… where that tragedy will happen one day.”
After stepping out of the carriage, Genevieve cried inwardly.
The moment she saw the buildings, descriptions of Saint John’s College from the novel resurfaced in her mind.
“…This school certainly has a lot of traditional charm.”
Marchioness Darling carefully chose her words to describe her husband’s old school.
She wasn’t wrong.
History seemed to flow from every building.
The sharp Gothic structures, built centuries ago, were breathtaking to look at.
Their gray appearance made the place feel less like a school holding an entrance ceremony—
and more like a funeral.
