Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"That is quite worrisome. Did Asp... did the headmaster expel you without looking into it some more? I was under the impression that... he... treasured every student. Aristocrat or not."

Her words made Zoemi furrow his brows and ask cautiously with a concerned expression.

"No, that's not it. The headmaster did his best... lord Vereq didn't have much choice in the matter in the first place. Apparently, Hontreu family had first gone with the case of the royal family - straight up asking for my head.

Burushi sighed, lowering her head while clenching her fists on her knees.

"And guess what response did they get?"

She scoffed, smiling bitterly to herself.

"If I have to guess, that would be overwhelmingly positive – that is if Horeo wasn't informed about the whole deal."

"You are correct – he wasn't informed. Apparently, the queen basically took it upon herself – literally – to deliver justice for the supposedly heinous crime that I have committed. With that in mind getting me expelled was the lightest punishment I could receive. He was apologetic when he informed me about it. Not that his compassion changes anything, but it was nice..."

The blond heroine explained shaking her head and looking away, deeply upset.

Still, if that was the end of the story, it was missing how the blond girl found herself in the Banemor territory, which was most likely one of the furthest places she could go to seek shelter right out of the Aspaekony Academy's gate.

"...oh, I wonder...?"

With Burushi staying silent, Zoemi glanced over at Benevirau and let out a discreet noise, searching for an answer.

"...Aspaekony asked me to take care of her after the expulsion..."

The blind butler picked on the cue without missing a beat and mouthed the answer to the longer question that was implied by the black-haired boy, making him nod with understanding.

"...I can relate to your regret tied with getting involved with that kind of people..."

"I do not regret helping Miss Metavicero – what I regret is not doing a background check and helping her get away from those horrible bunch daring to call themselves her family first!"

Zoemi turned back to the blond-haired girl and breathed out but that was when Burushi looked up at him and scoffed furiously.

"Ah! I see. That certainly clears up some things – very, very annoying things..."

The black-haired boy nodded, speaking more to the blond girl than the dark-blue-haired man.

"Let's not forget that this might very well be a case of just people being horrible for no reason other than they can't accept anything outside of their own bubble."

The black-haired boy said, although even while he was saying that, it certainly didn't feel like he was believing that what he was saying could apply to this particular scenario.

"Who knows? Maybe that was the case... but if so, it must have been before the queen has gotten herself involved. From then on... it's a messed-up continuation of Arisu's route. You played that one too, didn't you?"

Burushi wiped off the tears from the corners of her eyes and scoffed before motioning at Zoemi with her chin.

"I did, it was the most annoying one since there were so many roadblocks before it could progress... Didn't people use to say that Surou's jewelry even was infuriating enough to make them want to quit? Well, for me personally entire route of that holier-than-thou piece of crap was like that."

The black-haired boy frowned in annoyance.

"Speaking about Surou – are we on the same pace here? Do you also think that everything that happened to me has been orchestrated by the queen just because I was close with Surou and even though I am not a noble, my healing magic would be influential enough to aid him in the long run?"

The heroine asked the former attendant, all while the young-looking butler was staring between them in complete and utter disbelief.

"Yes, we are on the same pace – from what we know at the moment, it plays out somewhat along the line of the Airsu's route's a bad ending. This is even more annoying because if we're being honest now – in my pinon Arisu's route never made much sense to me, it was full of plot conveniences, not to mention that people simply believed him without ever bothering to question anything he did. If that somehow ended up bleeding to this world then we might be screwed."

Zoemi made a sour expression and started tapping his chin with his thumb in an attempt to jog his memory.

"Pardon me, but... are you both speaking in some king of code...? I can assure you, aside from us three there is only a single gardener, and she is currently busy working. Are you two doubting me...?"

Benevirau couldn't really handle the talk in which many words sounded like some suspicious gibberish, so he asked, subconsciously slouching down with a sad expression while misunderstanding what was going on.

"..."

"..."

The two reincarnated people glanced at him, then looked at each other with awkward expressions, and then turned back to the dark-blue-haired man.

"Uncle Benevirau, it's not like that...! You know the thing is..."

"Yes, we are using a code – sorry, a habit – you already know that the queen doesn't like me, right? Burushi and I knew about it long before either of us even showed up here and met you so we made up a code and are using it ever since. There's really no reason to take it personally."

Burushi was seemingly set on finding some good-sounding explanation, or who knows, maybe even trying to explain the truth to the dark-blue-haired man, which could be bad, to say the least...

So instead of actually trying to fix it, Zoemi chimed in and built upon the young-looking butler's mistake.

"Ah...!"

Benevirau flinched and gasped, and even blushed a little as the black-haired boy's explanation had caught him off guard.

"That said, Burushi, we don't really have to hide things from grandpa, do we?"

Zoemi nodded, satisfied with the effect, and turned to the blond girl to make sure she will follow up on his words.

"Of course! We're sorry, uncle, neither of us wanted to make you feel left out!"

Not only did she do that splendidly, Zoemi could actually have a peek at how the heroine felt about the butler – it really seemed like she wasn't just using a name for a family member just to try and win him over, instead, it was as if she trusts him a lot.

"And now I'm embarrassed for acting so self-conscious... But, then – if it's okay for me to know – what exactly the two of you found out about the current queen that you started using a code?"

Benevirau didn't stop blushing, but there was no trace of sadness on his face,

"That's..."

Burushi's eyes widened and she hesitated with her answer but...

"You know how the Vanterl family pushed for her marriage with the king even though she already had the child with another man?"

Zoemi said without hesitation – this time going for the actual truth.

"Of course – before marrying the king, she was together with the royal magician, Lazaram. It was a big deal a few years back, because their son, Arisu Karde Lazaram, was born with the unique variant attribute that allowed him to use spells from many different attributes. Most nobles know about that since similar situations do happen from time to time."

Benevirau furrowed his brows, not understanding why would something like that be a big deal.

"Well, yes, but in the case of our dearest queen – she wants to discredit both children of the current king, and put her own bastard on the thone. And because the king already proved that he adores his wife a bit too much, that might very well happen."

"!!!!"

Zoemi explained, causing the dark-blue-haired butler to straighten his back while making a flabbergasted face.

"I could help the second prince Surou regain his support thanks to my healing magic, so that's why the queen decided it would be best to get rid of me. Similarly, she knew that the first prince is too smart to make any false steps when it comes to himself, so she got him through his best friend, Zoemi."

Since they were apparently going full honesty, at least for the particular fact, Burushi joined in and finished the explanation started by the black-haired boy.