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

I watch my classmates hold back the urge to rush into the hallway to check the bulletin board. Mary heads toward me, Ronan too. I wait for them. Darius is already trying to hurry Vincent along, who has no intention of getting on Catrina's bad side. When I step into the hallway, Alistair is there giving Ronan and me hearty slaps on the back while congratulating us.

What a brute.

I rub the spot, which is perfectly fine thanks to my high constitution, and approach the board. They make way for me. Sol shoots daggers at me with her eyes and leaves with a dramatic flip of her perfect dark hair.

"Cheater," I think I read from Caroline's lips.

I can't get closer either, Alistair is pulling Ronan and me forward.

And if she only knew… it's not that I'm a cheater, it's that I have six affinities.

When I have the sheet in front of me, I take a look. It's for both first-year classes combined; the top five are underlined in red. Our total points are listed. For example, my points are the sum of 353 from the trials and 19 from the aquatic dungeon exam.

First Place - Bianca L'Crom - 372 points

Second Place - Ronan Velbrun - 300 points

Third Place - Sol Vassilea - 110 points

Fourth Place - Vincent Draycott - 109 points

Fifth Place - Mary - 99 points

Not a single one of the five spots that give us extra shop points is from the other class.

As for the ball list, with the whole school, it doesn't change much. There's the swordsman and healer from the third-year tank's group, and some guy named Thalor I don't know—but looking at the other lists, I see he's first in second year. Darius is also there, the one who was first in our aquatic dungeon rankings:

First Place - Bianca L'Crom

Second Place - Ronan Velbrun

Third Place - Sol Vassilea

Fourth Place - Vincent Draycott

Fifth Place - Erika Laltiery

Sixth Place - Mary

Seventh Place - Thalor Thornbrook

Eighth Place - Darius Veylore

Ninth Place - Ashen Laom

Tenth Place - Kaito Kerty

Holy shit. Did Ronan and I do that well? Or did everyone else do that badly? Except Sol. I didn't expect Sol to dominate like that. Well, she was the villainess, but in the otome game she seemed more like a scheming noble trying to win the prince's favor than a powerful sorceress.

Hmm… actually, that reminds me that at tonight's ball, in the otome, she was supposed to go with Vincent and they'd get engaged. It was later—if you followed the protagonist's romantic route with the prince—that you'd get him to realize what a terrible person the villainess was and break up with her.

I step away from the board. I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by all these people congratulating me. Even Erika approaches and shakes my hand. I congratulate her on her fifth place. I don't say it ironically because she's the best among second and third years. She picks up on my sincerity and tells me, with the refined elegance that characterizes her when she's not encased in metal armor and cursing at creatures:

"Thank you. It's a shame first-years can't compete in the games. A team with you as leader and the rest of the top five would definitely be a winning one."

Uh, with Sol? Look, I wouldn't mind Erika. The girl's a tank, and while Vincent wears good armor, he's a hybrid, part tank and part damage dealer. Darius and Alistair are definitely warriors. Given how brutish they are, I can't imagine them using a shield instead of hitting hard with their weapons. But Sol, who I don't even know how she fights (does she have dark magic?), hell no. I'd prefer Mary a thousand times over.

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"Yeah, it's a shame. It would be nice to be on a team with you. Maybe we can do a dungeon together sometime."

"Whenever you want."

I say goodbye to her and approach my friends.

"Congratulations to you and Ronan, but seriously, you guys," Darius tells us. "You carried Vincent and Mary, taking away the rest of our chance at a fair fight to be in the top five."

Oh, poor guy. I hadn't realized. If he wants Catrina to tutor him, being on that list had to be important to him. And considering he was first in the aquatic dungeon, he would've moved ahead of both of them if it weren't for Ronan and me.

"I'm sorry."

"Well, what's done is done." He shrugs. "Let's see how you guys make it up to me…"

He looks at Ronan. He's clearly after his mounts, and though he's trying to joke around, you can tell he's bummed out. Ronan nods.

When the rest of our friends get tired of telling us how amazing it is that Ronan and I are the king and queen of the ball (well, Ronan doesn't look particularly thrilled about it), we each go our separate ways.

Ronan, Vincent, Mary, and I head to see the merchant. We need to spend those extra points. In my case, 70.

Well, 353×1.2−353 is 70.6, and here they round down.

By the way, Mary doesn't have a last name. Is it because she's a commoner?

"Oh, I would've liked them to crown you and Vincent," Mary tells me on the way, now far from the crowd of students still gathered around the board. "No offense, Ronan, I'm happy for you that you placed second. You definitely deserve it."

"I'm not offended, Mary. For me, being king and dancing isn't something I'm particularly excited about. To start with, I haven't had an etiquette teacher show me how to do it."

"Oh, damn. Well, I can't teach you, the dances I know aren't for nobility."

She turns her head toward me. Ronan and Vincent do too.

Bad, very bad. I have no idea what the official dance will be to open the ball. If this were Earth, I'd say a waltz—and I don't know how to dance that either.

"Sorry, I'm more of a follow-the-guy type. Maybe you could, Vincent…"

"Sorry, Ronan. My parents are coming. My mother doesn't want to miss the ball. I have to be with them and my older brother, who's accompanying them. Otherwise, I'd teach you no problem."

"It's fine, I'm not worried."

I hope it's not because he thinks I'm going to lead him. Oh my gosh, what awaits us…

Should I find someone to teach me, with the excuse of teaching Ronan?

We're going to make complete fools of ourselves.

What if I pretend to twist my ankle? No, they'd definitely heal me.

Agh, is this social anxiety?

Well, I have things to do. I'm not up for this. Whatever God… I mean, whatever fate wants.

As for the merchant and the points, Ronan picks up money again and Mary chooses mana potions.

"I'd been saving up my points in case I got the extras. Now I have enough for this amulet," Vincent tells us, apparently having had his eye on one that gives a point of constitution and one of strength.

"I never doubted that you four would be among those getting the extra points," the merchant comments with a broad, cordial smile. "Especially you two. My customers still can't believe the yeti pelts thing, but they bought them from me anyway."

"We really appreciate it, it helped us get points," I tell him.

"So? Are you here for those leather bracers I'm holding for you?"

"Yeah."

Because originally I wanted them but, as soon as I saw I could get the necklace, I saved all my points for that. These are the +1 constitution ones.

"Thirty-nine points, right?"

"That's right."

"Great. I have enough left for two mana potions and 11 more packs of arrows."

"That many?" Mary asks me.

"Yeah, I'll store them in my room. That way I won't have to buy any for a long time."

When I put on the bracers, that point raises my constitution to 18, and because of the extra hit point for every two constitution points, that puts me at 23. Nothing like the 6 I arrived in this world with.

Once we're outside the warehouse area where the points shop is, I say goodbye to Mary and Ronan since I want to talk to Vincent alone. About two things.

Well, what I came up with for the pup I could've said in front of the others, but about the ball, I'd prefer to do it with as much privacy as possible. Which, with the bodyguard around, isn't really feasible.

Sol.

The second daughter of Duke Vassilea couldn't believe it. 372 points?

What kind of sick joke was this?

It was rare for anyone to reach 100 in any given year. In fact, her sister had managed it and was crowned with honors as queen of the ball.

372…

She'd had to spend not only her monthly allowance but all her savings to hire eight mercenaries to take on multiple jobs at once (one job for each group) while she limited herself to collecting the rewards.

She'd managed no less than 110 points, officially participating as a one-person team. She wasn't about to pay for Ashe and Caroline to take away part of her well-deserved points.

She hadn't sent mercenaries to dungeons where there were already people, like the one that annoying daughter of minor nobility went to—the one who wouldn't accept her inferior social position. They had to be single-sheet missions, so there wouldn't be any chance of them running into other students and getting caught. Otherwise, she estimated she could've gotten around 150.

But come on, 110 should've been overkill. A walk to first place and being crowned queen alongside Vincent.

But no… that friend of the commoner had to ruin everything.

Alone in her private room, where no one could see her, she clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white.

That damn earth mage who dared to challenge her, to try to steal her prince, to show her up and prevent her perfect plans from coming to fruition.

She was going to get revenge. Oh, she definitely was. She knew where it would hurt most: with her friends.

She just had to wait a little longer, until the ball.