I will not die a Villainess's death

Victor had a plan. A plan that he had been hitching for a long time now and it was finally time to put it into action.

The whole world knew about Lady Dirac's break-up with the Crown Prince and it was a delicate time for her.

What he had pulled a few nights ago, Victor was sure he had already made Lady Dirac conscious of him and his presence. That was the first step in his plan.

Now that Lady Dirac was conscious of him and his touches, it would be easier to seduce her and make her think this feeling was infatuation.

After all, what did an inexperienced brat like Elysia Dirac know of romance and romantic feelings? He knew that she had no experience and would be easy to confuse.

It was a similar concept to bullying to get attention but more subtle and hard-core. It might seem idiotic at first, but girls at Dirac's age liked rebellious men. And Victor would give her the illusion of that 'forbidden' feeling that attracted people.

The only problem would be the presence of her familiar but it seemed even that was going to be taken care of for him.

"Lady Dirac, Lord familiar, it is nice to see you both again. What a coincidence that we are both here on the same day."

God was on Victor's side as Lady White walked toward the group and subtly wormed her way between Lady Dirac and her familiar.

It left her on Lady Dirac's left and Victor on Lady Dirac's right.

"Lady White, it is nice to see that you recovered now. You look just as lovely as I last saw you."

Victor was the one who acknowledged her presence. He wanted her to stick around and to take the familiar's attention off Elysia.

That way he could whisk Elysia away and spend some time alone with her.

"Thank you, Mister Victor. I did not suffer any injury in the first place and it was all because of Lord Sorias. He has my eternal gratitude for it and I will repay this favor I owe him."

Emma White's eyes shined as she looked at Lady Dirac's familiar. There was a hungry in those young eyes Victor recognized and he instantly knew that he could use Lady White to achieve his goal.

She was a shrewd young girl but she was a child in the end.

"Lady White, why don't you join our group for today? I am sure Lady Dirac will be delighted to have a friend accompany her."

Victor only made this offer after seeing how awkward Elysia looked with the new company they had.

It was a given for Elysia to be on edge since Lady White had managed to separate the familiar-master pair quite well.

And it was not like Lady Dirac could ask Lady White to move away because it would be rude. She had to keep up her reputation and that made certain actions hard to execute.

"Hey lady, can you give me some space? It is rude to stand like this in between a familiar and their master, you know. You are getting quite on my nerves now."

"Sora, be polite. I'm sorry Lady White, Sora was just joking right now. I assure you that he meant no insult to you."

"No, I assure you that I did mean to insult you. Now go away."

Victor watched the fallout happening from the sidelines. The more that familiar spoke, the more red Lady White got.

How much she would be able to hold in, even Victor did not know. But it must not be much since Lady White had a nasty temper. The rumors about her temper were legendary and made Victor curious if she would explode right here and now or not.

"N-No, I am sure that Lord Sorias did not mean any insult with his words and I was being a little rude with my earlier actions. Ah, if it is not too much to ask, then can I join your group for today?"

'Wow, she held it all in. I should stop underestimating kids like here.'

Victor was impressed by the self-restraint Lady White showed. Maybe she will be able to hold out until the end after all.

"S-Sure you can come along with us if you want to. There is no need for Lady White to feel bad about her decision. I will enjoy her company as well."

That was all Elysia said but her uncomfortable body language was showing clearly. She was not happy about this company.

But things were working out in Victor's favor and it was nice.

______________________________

Elysia hated how the day was shaping up to be. Not only was she being accompanied by Victor of all people but Lady White had decided to join in as well.

Now, normally Lady White would not have been a problem to get along with but now was not the best time for Elysia to be happy about it.

Especially since there seemed to be an air of dislike around Sora. He seemed tense and ready to flee.

He was even flinching in-between sometimes and that just betrayed how uncomfortable he felt with the current situation.

"Are you alright Sora? We can change places if you want to."

Since she was in a similar uncomfortable situation, Elysia offered her familiar. Elysia was disturbed by Victor's hand lightly touching hers.

It took everything in Elysia's power to not tear the elder's hand apart when she was certain that he had attempted to grab it a few times as well.

"Let's head toward the cafeteria first. I neglected to have breakfast and now I am famished. Let's hurry up so that we are not late."

Before Sorias could reply to Elysia, someone took his arm and dragged him away. Despite being in his teenage form, the shock of that sudden action was enough for Lady White to successfully make away with Sorias.

Elysia could only watch in wonder as that all took place in front of her eyes. She had not even realized that Lady White was capable of something like that.

"They must like each other to run away like that. Isn't their love wonderful, Lady Dirac? I'm sure you must be cheering up on them as well."

Victor had a whistful expression on his face as he watched the pair disappear. It could almost make one think that he was reminiscing some memories he had of his past.

"Like? It looked more like Sora was being dragged along for the ride."

"Is that so? I guess Lady Dirac is still too young to see how love looks and feels like. Have you ever been in love before, Lady Dirac?"

Victor made an almost 'tsk' sound when he corrected Elysia. His tone sounded overbearing and his hand closed around Elysia's in a teasing manner.

Elysia instantly pulled her hand out of that man's hand and took a step back. She was almost afraid that the man would try and pull something more but he did not.

Instead, Victor stepped back with a closed-off expression.

"I might not have fallen in love myself but I have seen what it looks like when other people fall in love. And that doesn't look like love to me."

When Elysia said that, she did not just mean Adam and Eve. If anyone had to ask Elysia, she would not even say that those two were in love yet. But it was surely a work in progress.

No. Elysia was talking about those couples who came to the temple to get married. Many of them had been in love.

And they were also the reason Elysia believed in love and marrying for love over duty.

"Is that really so? Then maybe it is perhaps me that requires a lesson in love or two. Won't my lady teach me what love looks like?"

That uncomfortable feeling came back as Elysia felt the older man take a lock of her hair and twirl it in his hand.

The more she tried to ignore him, the closer he seemed to be coming to her. People were starting to turn around and gossip about them as well.

Elysia had thought that she was free for now because there were too many people around. She had been sure that Victor would not try to pull something like this with so many people around them.

But it seemed as if she had been mistaken. The man was shameless enough to try and push Elysia along.

"I am not interested. Perhaps the teacher should find someone more of his age to show him all this. Things like love and like don't interest me in the slightest. Now if you will excuse me, I need to find my familiar and Lady White."

It might have been rude of Elysia to push Victor away like that but she could no longer take this harassment.

The man looked a little taken aback by Elysia's bold actions before he let her go without much trouble.

He seemed to have realized as well just how many eyes there were on the pair and his face became impassive.

But luckily for her, he did not force his company onto Elysia for now. So Elysia ran away from him and into the deeper parts of the campus.

She knew where the cafeteria was from her memory but finding it in real life was a little more difficult than Elysia expected it to be.

The worst thing was the older students of the academy who were roughly the same age as her.

She could hear their biting words and gossip reaching her ears. They were talking about her and her broken engagement.

But the worst part was that her reaction from before had gathered their attention as well.

"Look, there she is. Did you see her? Just because she could not get the Crown Prince, she went after our professor."

"For real. I guess it was a real fall from grace for her."

"I would say that she could do better but apparently 'Lady Dirac' doesn't think so. Even her familiar left her to go with Lady White."

Those words were biting but they did not hurt. After all, how could they hurt when they were so mild?

'I guess practice does make one endure more. These insults don't even feel that sharp anymore.'