I Woke Up as the Villainess's Friend. I Don’t Want to Be the Next Dark Queen

"Karina, I'm not going to hold the offense against you—that's just how you are—but you'd better keep your opinions about me to yourself. We were never close enough for you to really know me."

This last part is more of a guess than a certainty.

"No, but Edran told me."

"Well, maybe I was just playing the role expected of me, something I've grown tired of." I notice Mary wants to say something, probably to defend me, and I motion for her to let me handle it. "As for your crush on the prince, go find yourself another one. You two aren't exactly compatible."

And that's because I can't tell her he's mine, not until it's official. I feel some anger toward Marcos. I have to remind myself that not breaking up by letter was my decision, that he's not to blame.

I don't like this feeling of jealousy. Besides, I have no reason for it. I take a deep breath.

"And you are?" she snaps at me.

"I don't want to argue, Karina. You're my brother's best friend."

"Well, it didn't seem like you didn't want to argue a moment ago."

"I apologize. Your excessive familiarity with Vincent didn't bring out the best in me."

It's hard for me, but I apologize. Part of me wants to go for her throat since I saw her hanging all over my man. I suppress that part because I know I've treated her unfairly.

"Well, it's not such a big deal. Fine, see you later."

Somewhat confused by my behavior, she turns around and starts walking. I stay still, with Mary beside me, until I calm down a bit more. Then we both resume our path.

"It was very nice that you apologized, especially after she called you a social climber. It must be difficult not being able to explain that she's flirting with your fiancé," my friend tells me softly.

"Thanks, Mary. I shouldn't get like that. That girl is even more annoying than Sol."

At least the villainess has the good taste to keep her claws off the prince.

"I think Sol is scarier."

We arrive at her room door and stop.

She's right. Since the ribbon incident, Mary tries to avoid Sol.

"If she bothers you again, just tell me."

"Don't worry, she hasn't."

She won't anymore, because in the otome... Anyway, here it seems I've become her main antagonist.

"And how was the dungeon?" I ask her.

"Easy peasy, compared to yours, easy peasy."

I burst out laughing. It lightens the atmosphere, which was still heavy from the Karina situation.

"Well, the truth is, at least my area healing actually came in handy," she tells me. "Karina loves burning enemies and sometimes she'd draw aggro. I've put some shields on her and, when necessary, healed her."

I nod. The higher level the healing spell is, aside from becoming an area one, the fewer daily use limitations it has.

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"Hey, what's going on with Theodore?"

She turns red.

"Did you notice?" she tells me. "He's invited me to his parents' mansion. Alistair and Lily are going as well. As you heard, the prince still doesn't know what he'll do, and Darius is going with his family. They can't come to the ball and want to see him. I imagine Theodore was going to invite you too, but now I don't think so, since you've made it clear you want to stay."

"And are you going to go?"

"I don't know yet..."

She blushes a little.

"What about Ronan, didn't he invite him?"

Because he's the remaining group member.

She blushes even more.

"No... I asked him and he only gave me vague excuses. I think he doesn't want him to come."

Well, here I put two and two together without problems: either the high darkness affinity thing is what keeps him from inviting him to his parents' house, or he's more perceptive than I am and realized before I did that Mary doesn't seem indifferent to him.

And of course, you're not going to bring your rival to your house so he can win the heart of the woman you're trying to impress.

Though here, the one who seems to have no idea about her feelings toward the necromancer is Mary herself.

"Hey, why does it seem like you don't want to be with Vincent?" Mary pulls me out of my thoughts.

I look around. The hallway is empty. There's only one girl walking away toward her own room, who passed us earlier while we were walking slowly and chatting. Actually, when I say empty, I'm not counting the bodyguard, who stayed at the dining hall door and is now following us at a distance.

"Does it seem like that?" I lower my voice and point toward the bodyguard. "Will you invite me in? I don't feel like talking about boys in the hallway."

Once inside with the door closed—which I don't know if will be enough to keep him from hearing us with his air magic—I greet Mary's roommate and go to my friend's desk. I grab a quill and parchment and write something that I cross out and burn with a candle once she's read it. Her roommate looks at us strangely but doesn't say anything.

"It has to do with what I told you in the pastry shop. Vincent doesn't know."

Those are the words I wrote. Mary nods. She gives me a hug and we say goodbye.

Now then, to my room to rest.

Ronan.

Ronan had asked Tom to pull down a sack of horse bones from the top shelf of the wardrobe. He'd found them during one of his nighttime excursions and, since he hadn't brought any of his mounts from the goblin village to the academy, he'd cleaned them and stored them away.

Between his clothes—which weren't many—his three friends, a spare pair of shoes, and some books that didn't fit on his study desk, the wardrobe was packed tight. That's why he also used the top shelf. Up there were some winter blankets he'd managed to compress enough to make room for several stacked sacks of bones. In fact, since his roommate still hadn't returned, he was also using part of his space.

It was early Saturday morning, the day Bianca was going alone to the dungeon of the Blue Mountains. That seemed perfect to Ronan. Unlike her, he didn't have a specific interest in earning 300 points to buy himself gear. After all, his lady, with the intelligence and generosity he assumed were natural to a great leader, had left him both pieces of the frost set, since he could put them to better use.

Bob and Joe had left last night to spend the day with their family. They would have had to make the trip on foot, if not for Ronan summoning them a pair of zombie deer. He trusted no one would stop them, since they were completely covered in clothing and wearing hoods, but if that happened, he'd gotten them a letter written by his dark magic professor stating they were property of a royal academy student and had permission to travel to Plinks. He'd summoned the deer by spending extra mana so their bodies would be intact and could pass for living deer. At least if you didn't get close enough to notice their glassy eyes and lack of breath.

It wasn't the same with Bob. He'd canceled the spell that raised his bones to summon him as a zombie. He trusted that both his friend's strong soul and his recent improvements in necromancy would allow him not to succumb to the more feral instincts that seemed associated with flesh rather than just bones. However, the skin, not being covered in fur like a deer's or bear's, was noticeably not that of a living human. Considering how dramatically a student reacted when they crossed paths and looked at him closely, he talked it over with Bob and they decided to go back to the skeleton approach for now.

During the stretch of the journey where they were still close enough to their master to communicate with him, they sent him mental images and sensations that everything was going well. Along with gratitude. The truth was, since Bob's daughter's rescue, both usually sent him that emotion almost continuously. It was as if they felt it so intensely they couldn't block it out.

At first, Ronan found it a bit strange that this connection with two of his friends seemed to be constantly transmitting. He thought about asking them to focus on not sending him anything that wasn't new or relevant, but he left it alone. It wasn't bothersome. Actually, when they moved far enough away to be outside his range, he missed it. It was the closest thing to affection he'd ever felt and, certainly, nothing like what he'd gotten from his parents.