Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 1 -1 - Noble Girl and The Stalker

Chapter 1.1 : Noble Girl and The StalkerShe held the flower between her fingers lovingly, a thin smile blooming on her face as she tenderly gazed at it.

Her silky black hair draped lightly around her neck. The smooth strands shone as if spun from the feathers of a healthy waterfowl, a rare bird in this kingdom.

Her beautiful eyes shone like rubies, blessing everything she gazed upon.

Her pristine snow white skins looked as if it’s going to melt when you touched it.

She was beautiful, noble, and radiant.

Every single part of her were precious treasures that couldn’t be compared with anything in this world.

Oh my lady…how beautiful you are…

I had found her graceful figure sneaking into the forest. She was carefully looking around, making sure no one saw where she was going. Her careful action roused my curiosity, thus I ended up following after her.

Just in case she ever discovered my presence, I had brought a bulky leather-covered book as an alibi.

However, for now, there’s no need for me to use this book for she has yet to find my presence.

At this moment, she was staring at the beautiful flower before her, whose beauty matched hers perfectly, in a daze. Oblivious to my silver eyes who were gazing at her from behind one of the trees in the forest. I was sure that not even in her wildest dreams she would think of this scenario, where I was gazing at her secretly.

「Alicia…will surely be delighted…won’t she? That girl loves this kind of flower after all.」

Muttering that out loud, she skillfully gathered the flowers, and perfectly secured the [corolla] flowers petals in all its exquisiteness. [TL : Corolla is a flower in its entirely]

Although she wore the academy’s mantle, the outdated design did not diminish her beauty. The sight of her sitting amidst the flowers left a mark deep inside my heart. It was like beholding an angel descending from heaven. Some would say she was the incarnation of the Goddess, but they’d be mistaken.

In my eyes, she was far more beautiful than even the Goddess.

By the way, like any other nobles, they were required to stay at the dormitory. Thus, the nobles need to bring their own personal servants with them. And, Alicia was the name of her personal maid, the one who took care of her daily life’s needs, hailing from Maria’s very own household.

By nature, this country…this disgraceful, insignificant small country breeds needlessly prideful nobles. It was particularly evident in their daughters…and normally, someone of Maria’s status would disregard the well-being of their own servants or maids. Yet, Maria was different. She cared for her own maid. Something that was rare in the nobility.

Furthermore, she not only memorized what her maid was fond of, she even went a step further by picking it up with her own tender hands. All for the sake of giving the corolla to her maid. Her deed amazed me.

However, this place was near one of the academy gardens, and other students who passed by might tilted their head, pondering about what she was doing, if they saw her.

From what I saw though, she didn’t look like she cared about the looks she might receive from her surroundings.

At this moment, I realized. Underneath her snow white skin, laid a heart so compassionate and filled with affection. She was the very manifestation of what a just and kind noble lady was said to be.

She was The Lady, and no women could match up to her.

And, that’s precisely the reason why I was looking at her from my hiding place.

Thus, she completed the gathering of her corolla under my watch.

「Well, this is good enough, I guess. Now…to prevent it from withering right away… 《Eternity》」

She chanted a spell at the corolla flowers within her hold. As she finished her chant, a pale and warm light enveloped her for a moment, before going toward the corolla.

She had just chanted a sorcery spell, and the light that enveloped her was the emission of her mana.

At any rate, the sorcery spell that she just used was the kind of sorcery where the user would need to spread their mana and manipulate it to envelop the desired object. It belonged to that of an extremely high level, and was definitely not something that a royal academy student of her age could master!

According to the standard of modern magic from research institute of the Loughna Prena empire, a country that was acclaimed with the most advanced level study of sorcery in the continent, otherwise known as empire of sorcery; it was a spell recorded in the latter half of the 7th rank spell list.

Normally, being able to use a 2nd rank magic spell would make a girl around 16-17 years old be considered as quite excellent girl amongst her peers. As for 7th rank spell, those usually could only be seen done by one of the researchers in the Research Institute for Magic.

Even then a person would need to consume a vast amount of mana to use 7th rank spell. As such, it wouldn’t be strange if a normal girl collapsed from exhaustion if they ever used that spell before they’re ready.

And yet, she just nodded with a satisfied look on her face without even breaking a sweat. At the very least, she should break a sweat after using that spell, right? But. no!! She’s perfectly fine…even though I really wanted to see her in that state…

「Yup, it’s perfect.」

She said while furtively looking at her surroundings before she clenched her fist in satisfaction.

Her act of clenching her fist with a satisfied look on her face was too adorable.

And after pondering for a while, she suddenly gave a nod to herself as she prepared to leave this place. There’s no hesitation in her graceful movement, and for a moment, I was charmed by her elegance.

Or to be exact, I’ve always been charmed by her.

But, right now was not the time to revel on her charming self. I suddenly snapped out of my dazed state when I saw her walking towards my hiding spot, flustered.

At the beginning I thought she was headed towards my way because she had detected my presence somehow, but in the end it finally dawned on me that it was not the case. My hiding spot was merely in the way between her and the academy’s main building.

There’d be afternoon lessons after this that I had just remembered, and apparently she was not headed to her dorm. Instead, she was heading straight towards the academy’s main building.

In the first place, the reason I chose this spot as my hiding spot was because this was the best place for me to observe her discreetly. A spot that would most likely led me to be discovered by the person herself right at this moment.

And, while I knew other spots with similarly good angle to observe her discreetly, I simply couldn’t bring myself to discard this spot.

That’s simply a blasphemy.

If you’re wondering what I am talking about, I mean that observing her from any other place aside from this one would be blasphemy against her beauty and loveliness.

By all means, I absolutely had to see her from this spot.

But, buuut, though I should’ve retreated back to the academy after she had chanted her spell, I didn’t. I committed a blunder, so charmed I am by her loveliness.

I felt like a foolish thief who failed to escape since I got charmed by the treasure.

It couldn’t be helped then.

Really! It really couldn’t be helped! The treasure was way too brilliant for me to not be charmed senseless!

Oh, I guess I had to do something to get me out of this situation now. She’d definitely see me if I left, and she’d know that it was me. I was a pretty distinct figure after all.

And, at the pace she was walking to the academy, she was bound to find me. I preferred to avoid that situation at all cost.

Thus come… What should I do in this situation I found myself in?

After pondering for a while, I came up with a plan. It was not a new plan per se, it’s just an old one I decided at the very beginning.

I sat on the ground, leaned my back on a tree, and slowly opened the book in my hand to the page I last opened it. All these were done so that when she saw me here, she wouldn’t be suspicious of me.

Yeah.

I went with 「Eh? I’ve always been in this place though. Did you do something just now in that place? Please tell me, I’ve been too absorbed in reading my book that I failed to notice you. What’s that in your hand?」 Plan.

Although it should be impossible to work in reality, this plan seemed to be the most natural way to fool someone like her. I chose this plan especially because it was her who was the target, and that was only after considering her personality.

Yes, it’d go according to the plan if the other party was her.

I very much doubted my plan would fail.

◆◇◆◇◆

After being satisfied with my handy work on the corolla of the flowers that I gathered, I ended up using sorcery spell on it to prevent it from withering immediately.

Alicia would definitely scold me for doing this.

She was not only my maid, but also my childhood friend who had grown up beside me. And, she had been telling me again and again, not to use my sorcery spells in the public, worried that someone might see and do…something.

The sorcery spell I used just now, 《Eternity》 was a bit peculiar. The reason was because there were few people who could use it, especially so amongst the noble girls who went to the academy. In other words, it was a rarity.

Due to the intensified conflicts amongst the countries in recent years, the case where a country kidnapped a noble girl who could use high ranking magic and forced them to pledge their loyalty to the country that kidnapped them, irrespective of said noble girl’s status in their home country, wasn’t a rarity.

Therefore as a precaution, using such high level spell was almost forbidden. And since using magic in a conspicuous place would expose me to danger, Alicia acted as my limiter.

In fact, she was correct, I’d heard some rumors that a girl from a certain earl household, in a certain country, had been kidnapped. I also heard that the reason for that was because of her impressive amount of mana.

And a while later, it was discovered that the girl had became the wife of a foreign noble…

That was a frightening situation indeed.

But I think there’s no problem now.

I mean, there’s no one around me.

I’d made sure of that fact using 《Detection》spell.

Nevertheless, if Alicia knew, she might still scolded me later. But, I didn’t wish to give withered flower crown to Alicia, so this was a special case.

After pondering for a while, I looked at my corolla handiwork.

「Yup, it’s perfect.」

I said so to myself.

Incidentally, I ended up making a guts pose when I saw my perfect handiwork.

It was a gesture I picked up from my little brother. He did the same gesture when he won a match against our big brother in the garden of our family mansion in royal capital.

And, just now I subconsciously did the same things as what my little brother did when he won that match.

Truthfully, as a lady, that pose was something improper to be shown to other people, but it’s alright. Since I WAS ALONE RIGHT NOW!

By the way, my little brother has yet to notice that big brother deliberately let him won that match.

Really, despite being the heir of ducal house, big brother was highly skilled in the art of deception and could be quite playful at times. At that match, he decided to act careless at the last moment, letting the victory went to our little brother.

Furthermore, after losing, he also mumbled that little brother’s swordplay was no way inferior to his own.

And a long time ago, I even believed those words of his. However, when I saw big brother’s match with the other knights in the royal palace, I realized that his remark at that time was merely a sophisticated lie.

His speed, his expression, even the way he was moving was completely different compared to when he fought our little brother.