Not the Villainess, but the Maid

Chapter 11: Is Dia a Model Student?

Last night, a strange sound echoed in the room where Ruby and I were sleeping.

It sounded like a baby crying or perhaps the noise of some animal, and it was quite unsettling.

In the end, Ruby and I woke up in the middle of the night.

With my hair disheveled, I spoke with a serious expression.

“…You heard it too, right, my lady?”

“…Yes. There’s definitely something.”

The source of the sound seemed to be the large bag that held Ruby’s clothes.

“…Should I open it?”

When I grabbed the bag with a grave look and asked, she nodded beside me.

As I lifted the bag, something jumped out at me.

“Ah…! Save me, my lady!”

I rolled on the floor, calling for help, when a familiar sound reached my ears.

“Meow.”

At that distinct cry, Ruby quickly lit a candle.

Then, she looked at what was stuck to my face and spoke.

“…Milk?”

It was a sensation I had felt many times before—it was Ruby’s plump white cat, Milk.

We sat across from each other with tired faces, placing Milk between us.

“…When could she have sneaked into your bag, my lady?”

“Who knows.”

We had fallen asleep without unpacking our luggage due to exhaustion, which is why we only discovered her now.

“Meow.”

“This is bad. Merilda must be frantic, thinking Milk is missing, right?”

By now, I imagined the mansion must be in chaos with her searching for the cat.

“…I’ll send her a letter about it. In the meantime, Amber, could you get some water for Milk?”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

When I brought Milk a bowl of water, she eagerly lapped it up, clearly parched.

“By the way, are pets even allowed in the dormitory…?”

At least in the original game, there was no mention of students keeping pets.

“…I don’t know.”

“…For now, we’ll have to hide her.”

Milk, unaware of our concerns, calmly yawned and licked her fur.

As a refresher, the protagonist of this game is Dia Osteon.

She is a beautiful woman with golden hair and blue eyes.

Unlike me, whose grades were below average, Dia consistently maintained a rank in the upper-middle tier.

Rather than being exceptionally skilled at any one thing, she gave the impression of being competent at everything.

A well-rounded character, you could say.

I remembered how her stats could change depending on the player’s choices as the game progressed.

In comparison, the abilities of a mere extra like me as a commoner were…

“You there, student! Pay attention to the lecture.”

The professor’s sharp rebuke snapped me out of my daze as I sat beside Dia, nodding off.

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

This was already the second time I had been called out.

People say that arriving in another world changes a person, making them suddenly diligent or hardworking, but I was living proof that this was nonsense.

I mean, the moment I sat on a chair, sleep would come over me just like it used to.

The professor of magic studies was a very strict person.

She reminded me of my math teacher back in high school before I got reincarnated.

She wrote complex formulas on the board without hesitation before turning to us and asking,

“Is there anyone who can answer this question? I’ll award bonus points if you get it right.”

The board was filled with intricate formulas and terms about elements and whatnot.

‘…Can anyone even solve that?’

Just looking at it made me feel queasy.

When I glanced around, it seemed the other students were thinking the same thing.

Even Ruby, who was among the top students, hesitated to speak up, proving how difficult the problem was.

“The professor’s really being unreasonable, don’t you think, Dia?”

I whispered softly to Dia, sitting next to me, trying to get her agreement.

However, Dia, deeply focused, continued scribbling something in the blank spaces of her textbook without acknowledging me.

‘…?’

She filled the page with notes and then wrote the number ’72’ before finally putting down her pen and turning to me.

“Oh, did you say something, Amber?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

At that moment, the professor pointed directly at me.

“You there, the student chatting away, would you like to give it a try?”

“Me!?”

“Don’t worry if you’re wrong. This question wasn’t designed to be solved easily anyway.”

All eyes in the lecture hall were now fixed on me.

‘I guess I have to say something…?’

The question she posed was about calculating magical resistance values, something I obviously had no clue about.

Trying to think of a reasonable answer, I suddenly recalled the number I had just seen in Dia’s notes.

“72…?”

“…”

Since there was no way it could be correct, I expected the professor to correct me and planned to sit down quickly.

“…Amazing. That is correct.”

“What?”

At first, I thought she was joking, but her expression seemed entirely serious.

“…I don’t know how you figured it out, but as promised, I’ll award you bonus points.”

Stunned, I couldn’t move from my spot.

Just then, the bell signaling the end of class rang, and the professor quickly wrapped up the lecture.

“That’s it for today. Make sure to review the material on your own. See you next time…”

I immediately turned to Dia and asked,

“Dia, that number you wrote in your book just now…”

“…!”

When I looked at her book, she quickly closed it and stood up.

“I’m sorry. I’ll take my leave first.”

“Wait. I just wanted to apologize…”

I tried to stop Dia, but she avoided me with a strange expression.

“…Forget about it!”

In the end, I couldn’t get an answer from her, and the class ended just like that.

“Forget about it…?”

I had intended to apologize for taking her answer, but that was her response.

If she solved such a difficult problem, she should have been proud of it.

I was worried that Dia might have been upset by my actions.

Usually, I would spend this time with Ruby, but since we had chosen different electives, I ended up having this free time alone.

“Is there anyone else skipping class?”

Thinking about it, the only people I knew besides Ruby were Dia and Amethyst.

Dia had avoided me earlier, and I hadn’t seen Amethyst since class ended.

Feeling a little envious of the laughing and chatting students walking together, I wandered alone around the academy’s backyard.

“Everyone seems to have made friends already.”

Looking around, I noticed that most of the students walking through the backyard were commoners dressed in white uniforms.

While groups of students from the same social class stuck together, there were almost no commoners mingling with nobles like I did.

Perhaps other students found me difficult to approach because I always stayed with nobles.

Even so, I continued walking alone through the backyard.

Having some time alone like this wasn’t so bad—actually, it was awful.

Being left alone made me feel achingly lonely.

“Huh?”

In the distance, I saw a group of students in black uniforms gathered together.

I wondered what they were doing when I noticed their hostile posture, surrounding someone in a threatening manner.

Sensing something unusual, I approached quietly and hid behind a pillar to see who they were.

“Those girls from yesterday?”

It was Clara and her group.

The person being bullied was also a noble in a black top, so I looked closely to see their face.

“…Dia?”

The person surrounded by Clara and her group was none other than Dia.

“Why is Dia with them…?”

As I thought about the reason, an event involving the protagonist came to mind.

“Could this be the bullying event for the protagonist?”

It was an event where the protagonist, not long after enrolling, was harassed by jealous girls.

In the original story, the mastermind behind this incident was Ruby, who became the leader of a delinquent group.

She initiated the incident out of jealousy when the protagonist’s grades improved, gaining attention from others.

“That’s odd. This event isn’t supposed to happen for a while.”

Even if Dia, the protagonist, focused solely on raising her magic studies stats, it would take at least two weeks to meet the event’s conditions—not just two days.

With Ruby absent from their group, Clara had taken on the role of the instigator.

Clara leaned against the wall behind Dia, cornering her menacingly.

“Tell us the truth. During class earlier, you gave that commoner the answer to the question, didn’t you?”

“…I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about it…”

“Liar! Who else could have told her the answer except you, sitting right next to her? Are you trying to claim that dim-witted commoner solved it herself?”

It seemed Clara was referring to me as the “dim-witted commoner.”

“…Is it really that strange for me to get the answer right?”

Of course, it was strange, but still, it stung.

Clara became even more threatening as she spoke to Dia.

“Are you trying to get close to that commoner to gain favor with Lady Ruby?”

“…What?”

“Otherwise, why would a noble associate with a commoner? Oh, wait…”

Clara’s eyes gleamed as a sly smile spread across her face.

“Could it be that you, Dia, as a noble adopted from a commoner family, feel pity for someone like her?”

A blatantly rude and offensive taunt meant to provoke.

Clara’s comment targeted Dia’s background as a commoner adopted into a noble family, which was a sensitive issue in noble society that valued honor.

“…”

Dia, who had been silently enduring Clara’s words, finally responded.

“Social status isn’t the only measure of a person.”

“…What?”

“If being a noble means being like you, I’d rather be a cultured commoner.”

At this, Clara trembled with rage, dropping her pretense and revealing her true nature.

“You little…! How dare you…!”

The situation became tense.

Clara, consumed with anger, raised her hand, and I instinctively stepped in to block her.