Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"According to the rumors, you are the mastermind behind the kidnappings."

Burushi repeated herself without breaking the eye contact with the shocked black-haired boy.

That statement took a while to really sink in, as honestly, it could not get more ridiculous for Zoemi.

"I... I was unconscious. In an actual coma...! Like, gramps, did you ban anyone from visiting me or something?!"

When he finally regained the ability to speak, Zoemi asked in disbelief, turning towards the confused dark-blue-haired butler.

"Of course not! In fact, you were visited multiple times by not only your adoptive father and his fiancée, and the first prince and young lady Espine, oh, and Aspakeony too. But also official representatives of the Espine family, Victureo family, and even the current king... not to mention the medics sent out by the royal family to check up on you."

Benevirau shook his head, immediately explaining the misunderstanding.

"Wait, even his majesty showed up?! So where is that rumor coming from?!"

Still, the new information the boy received not only didn't clear up anything, they straight up made this whole situation that much more hard to comprehend.

"The first prince had even used his first official speech during the end-of-the-summer ball, to declare you completely innocent."

Burushi invited herself back in to the exchange and added her own information to the pile of already mind-boggling news.

"Then everything got cleared up, right? And you are telling me this because it was a big deal that thankfully got resolved - right?!"

The black-haired boy asked glaring between the blond heroine and the dark-blue-haired butler.

"Yah... that would be nice, wouldn't it...?"

But Burushi's heavy sigh was like a bucket of ice-cold water poured onto his head.

"What is that supposed to mean?! Horeo is basically the only candidate for the throne now! Who is stupid enough to try and contest his word - especially when it is supported by the king's testimony?!"

"Zoemi, calm down."

Zoemi gasped, getting worked up enough to shift on the bed, about to stand up, but was stopped by the extremely worried-looking Benevirau.

"You see, if the bad rumor about you would show up in just a few places out of context, the first prince's speech would have nipped it in the bud, and no one in their sound mind would even dare to bring it up again."

Burushi pointed out and fidgeted awkwardly.

"But the end-of-the-summer ball and the official speech happened too late, and what made it really bad was that the first prince had given his full support to you, declaring his unwavering trust in your innocence in front of every single student and the invited guest. And he did that in his normal way too, which made it worse."

The blond-haired girl revealed, but her words only caused the black-haired boy to tilt his head and shake it with a sour expression.

"Okay...? Why exactly was that a bad thing?"

The boy asked, failing to see the problem.

After all, what would be the use of a speech giving support to someone if there was no one who would listen to it?

"Zoemi... the first prince said that he trusts you completely to a bunch of kids amongst whom many of either had a family member be abducted, or had been kidnapped themselves! I myself have overheard one of the girls that went missing and was later rescued, saying that while she was held captive, she heard the kidnappers talk about you, mentioning you as the ringleader! And there are many others like her. No one would come with an accusation in the open, as it seems like they all are worried about their saviors getting in trouble over revealing the mastermind... which once again is supposed to be you."

"...oh... oh no..."

Burushi said in a serious voice, which made Zoemi gasp and lower his head in realization.

Although he might have been terrifyingly dense when it comes to love, there thankfully were a few fields where he was quite quick-witted, so he connected the dots that the blond-haired heroine has hinted at.

"For a second I thought this might have been some annoying plot from the Ghosts of Bellcephora but... this whole thing wasn't actually aimed at me, was it?"

The black-haired boy raised his head and asked slowly.

"Unfortunately... yes... it seems like since the queen couldn't stop you from inheriting the Banemor territory, she has found a different use for you."

Burushi nodded.

"Basically, the condemnation event during the end-of-the-summer ball did happen, but both the person condemning and the one getting condemned turned out to be one and the same person. The first prince Horeo."

"...?"

Zoemi added, wanting to clear out another detail that was bothering him, even though that doused the dark-blue-haired butler by his side to shake his head and look at him in confusion.

"Yah... pretty messed up if you ask me. And let me tell you something, if you could see the expression Arisu was making while Horeo was unknowingly losing most of his supporters, you would agree with me that his route also got all messed up... the good thing is that there was no accident in the magic tower... but they found another way to get someone expelled for using magic..."

Burushi glanced over at the completely lost Benevirau but did not clear anything up and continued talking with the only other person in the world who understood her.

"Who got expelled, don't tell me that it was still Miriette...!"

Zoemi tensed up and gulped down his saliva, getting pale-faced from worry.

"No, your waifu is safe and sound, although her engagement with the first prince is looking kind of shaky since because of the first prince's speech the Espine family seems to be slowly withdrawing their support."

The blond heroine waved her hand dismissively, before becoming serious again.

"...it is THAT bad...?"

The black-haired boy whispered.

"You should know better than me how the first prince is - although he is very charismatic and sticks to his opinions if he thinks they are correct, he messed up. He basically declared that you are an angel that can do no wrong and no investigation would ever be launched against you - which might have been not as terrible move if not for the already extremely swayed public opinion."

Burushi shrugged her shoulders and looked away.

"For the others it must have sounded like he knew about everything and was covering my back, threatening everyone else to back off..."

Zoemi covered his eyes with one hand and sighed.

Horeo often spoke about himself as a tyrant, and even though that was hardly the case, he would come out like that to people who didn't know him.

"Yah. Exactly."

The blond heroine nodded and stayed quiet as if she was finished with the subject and didn't want to continue.

"He is still attending the Academy, right? Miriette is helping you out, then, did you have a chance to talk with him? How is he? "

That did not stop the black-haired boy from asking another question in concern.

"..."

"Burushi...?"

But the blond heroine did not answer him making a dejected expression, prompting the boy to call out with concern.

"I do not know how things are in the Aspakeony Academy currently."

She said without making eye contact.

"The person who got expelled for experimenting with magic was me after all."

"...!"

She explained lowering her head even more.