Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 11 - In Ceremony Venue

Chapter 11 : In Ceremony Venue

The regular morning assembly of Royal Academy was held in a big hall that was usually used for ceremonies, and it was linked with the school building.

「This place is often used for event that gather the entire students body.」

Conrad explained by my side.

Conrad and I were currently sitting beside each other, occupying two of several hundreds chairs that were prepared in this place. And, since today was not special whatsoever, being only a regular morning assembly that was held once a month, the rules were considerably lax as well. Therefore, I only needed to sit in a specific seating area until it was time for my introduction.

Each grade and class had its own specific area.

Nevertheless, save for this class, the special class that is basically the gathering of the geniuses in this academy, each class was just a normal class that was divided by the number of students.

The special class, Class-1, aside there were Class-2 till Class-5. Each one of them held twenty students within.

Conrad was placed in Class-3, and though I’d yet to know in which class I was assigned to, I didn’t really care about this matter. Besides which, I’m currently sitting in the area of either Class-5 or Class-2, and I didn’t plan on moving at all.

「Is there any other event except for regular morning assembly that will need this place? 」

Conrad pondered on my question for a while before answering.

「Yes, like the entrance ceremony, graduation ceremony…. Party, and such.」

「I can understand if they’re using this place for graduation ceremony and entrance ceremony but…. I see now, so it’s also used for party as well, huh.」

However, I really couldn’t agree with the last function Conrad told me about.

But well, nobles were creatures who loved to party regardless of their country. Then again, the party wasn’t just an event for them to play around, but also as an intermediary for the nobles to build connections with their fellow nobles. Aside from that, it also served as regular meeting occasions.

Since a problem was bound to occur if they couldn’t understand what the other nobles were thinking about. Hence the need for it. However, that did not preclude the chance that unexpected situations might occur during those events as well.

I mean, it wasn’t something rare in the school of my motherland too.

In addition, Conrad told me that the party in this Royal Academy was also the best event for the students to look for their future marriage partner.

There’s no other convenient event to do so.

Well, that motive was easy to understand, but still…

「What’s the matter, do you hate doing that? 」

I nodded to Conrad.

「Well. I never have good memories when it comes to party.」

He spoke and he looked like he was recalling something when he heard my words.

「Aah, is it the gazes of the surrounding people that was locked on your hair color? 」

「Yes. And no women ever approach me.」

Although, strictly speaking, it wasn’t like there weren’t ANY women who approached me. But, the ones who did approach me were hard to deal with, in various ways.

Besides, there was always this melancholic feeling in me whenever I attended a party, since I couldn’t have a normal interaction with people that attended.

「Well, that might be true but…. Well, that won’t be the case in this academy. You might be able to enjoy the party in this place. I am almost convinced that you’ll be drowned with dancing invitation from the noble girls once you attend the party here.」

「That sounds…. Even more troublesome.」

In the first place, I’m not exactly that interested in women.

Of course, that lack of interest didn’t go as far as hating the idea of marriage or hating women. It’s more like I had no interest in wooing them.

If I stayed as I am, showing no interest in wooing women, my marriage partner might be decided by my own family as matchmaker.

That’s why I wouldn’t exactly be surprised when such a marriage offer came to me.

「Even so… If, for example, you spread that kind of story about me, won’t that make the women avoid me as soon as they saw me as a mere poor noble? 」

Even if for example Conrad spread a rumor telling the noble girls 《Here you come! The most suited young noble for your husband!》, the real me was just an abandoned person.

But contrary to my expectation, Conrad was looking at me with a dumbfounded look on his face.

「….. You, what? Could it be that…. You have yet to realize it?」

What was he talking about?

「Realize what? 」

「Look at your reflection in the mirror! There’s no girl who will not fall over heel once they see your face! 」

「…. Is that so? Back in my homeland, others had always told me that I look like a girl. Really, rather than this kind of girlish face, I prefer to have a masculine appearance, just like those refreshing and muscular knight you know.」

「Well, I can understand your sentiment…. BUT. But, girlish faces like yours are becoming more and more popular as of late. The effect is even more apparent in this kingdom thanks to those theater shows. The male actors with girlish and dainty features were extremely popular and their portrait is always sold out.」

「Theatre」

Thanks to the global increase in the agricultural industry in recent years, economic strength and leisure time increased, while simultaneously pushing forward the arts and culture development as well.

This kind of situation happened in many countries recently.

And I could say that for sure since the same things happened to my motherland. Quite a lot of nobles had in fact had their own theatre troupe.

Though I felt that there’s many expressions that abuse women in the words of 「Girlish face」, what Conrad meant to say to me was not that. He was trying to tell me that 「It’s okay, many famous theater actors have the same face as you」.

I see now, in that case, I…. Might have a bit of hope of being liked by the girls with my appearance.

「I see, I can look forward to the party in this academy then. Though I don’t know how well-liked I’ll be, at least I won’t feel lonely like I was in my motherland as long as I’ve a chance to dance with some girls.」

Conrad look like he wanted to scream something when I said those words but,

「You…. Really have a lot of hardship in your motherland huh. Please do pardon me who used to think that a princeling like you never have any trouble due to your appearance.」

「….. Why did you think so? 」

「Dunno! Well that’s trivial anyway. Anyway, please look forward to the party. You can still dance with me if no one is unwilling to dance with you. I’m master of dancing after all.」

「Conrad…? 」

Somehow, I felt even more dejected the moment I imagined our figure dancing together under everyone’s gaze in the venue. What a tragic scene.

Even Conrad, who was the one who said those very words to me, faltered once he registered what he had said. Perhaps his mind was imagining the same things as me.

「Well…. Let’s keep that as our last resort….. If we can’t find a dancing partner.」

「…. You’re right. Well I mean you’re beautiful enough to be mistaken as a woman, so it might feel wrong to see you leading the dance.」