The One Within the Villainess 2

“Where was the last time you saw it?”

“I put it in my locker before our practical lesson.” Lumiere balled her trembling hands into fists. “I remember placing it with my uniform. But now…after I showered, I couldn’t find it anywhere! I’ve searched the entire changing room, and it’s nowhere to be found!”

Crimson mana crackled around her, threatening to rampage out of control, and I quietly defused it by siphoning off the runes. It wouldn’t do her any good to blow the place up. If anything, it would worsen the situation.

“That pendant was the last thing Mother gave me before she passed away.” Lumiere swallowed, her voice trembling and her face pale. “Whenever I was down, it gave me strength. Whenever I held it, it felt as if Mother was with me. I can’t…I can’t lose it!”

Seeing her, I realized this was the first time I had seen her so helpless. She had always maintained a steely exterior, cool, composed and strong. For all of her devastating quantity of mana, she was only capable of destruction, not reconnaissance. She might have the firepower to blow up the whole school, but that wouldn’t help her find her precious pendant. She possessed no spell that would assist her in searching for what she truly sought.

She didn’t, but…I had.

“Do you mind?”

Lumiere looked up at me before nodding hesitantly. I closed my eyes and reached out, my hand hovering right in front of her chest. I could still sense faint traces of the mana emanating from her pendant. It was just as well that I remembered the warm sensation when I first saw her produce it back in the reception hall, and when I encountered Diane, all those months ago.

Had it really been that long? Time really flew by.

I wove a fabric of esoteric threads together and released them. Opening my eyes, I saw the strands of mana leading elsewhere, fluttering to the outside.

“Your pendant isn’t in the locker room. At least not anymore. It’s outside.”

“Really?”

A semblance of hope returned to Lumiere’s eyes. I nodded, and we hurried along the corridor and exited the building. Following the strands, I saw them disperse across the courtyard.

“This is troublesome…”

“What is?”

“It’s complicated.” I grimaced. Even though the spell vaguely pointed me toward the location of the pendant, given how randomly the strands connected to it were fluctuating, it would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. “The spell can’t pinpoint the exact place, but I can confirm that it’s in the school courtyard somewhere.”

“Then let’s start.” Determination replaced despair, and Lumiere stalked off to the nearest hedge to start searching. I watched her, amazed. Even though she was the victim, she was still mentally stronger than me. I honestly wasn’t sure I would have the same resolve if I was in her shoes.

“Yeah. I’ll try this way.”

Picking out one of the thickest strands, I followed the path where it stretched along, past flowerbeds and neatly pruned trees. Lumiere straightened and waved.

“Let’s split up. I’ll go this way. It’ll be more efficient to search multiple areas at the same time.”

“Yeah.” I had no objection. Wading through the tall grass, I relied on the increasingly thinning strand to narrow the locations where the pendant could be.

How the hell did it end up in the courtyard? There was only one explanation. Someone was playing a cruel prank on Lumiere. I felt cold fury ice my veins, but I suppressed it with a surge of calm. Vengeance could wait. The priority was retrieving the precious keepsake from her mom. I recalled how distraught Lumiere was when she realized it was gone. To so cavalierly and callously toss it into the school garden like this…

My blood boiled, a freezing anger that chilled even the plants. I realized that a mist had formed around me, frost condensing on the once verdant plants. Taking a deep breath, I withdrew my mana and forced myself to calm down.

Just where could it be?

Though I was focused on searching for Lumiere’s pendant, I couldn’t help but notice that the deeper I ventured into this specific section of the school courtyard, the bleaker it seemed. Green gave way to gray, and the stench of decay wafted into the air. Gagging, I retreated for a moment and studied the area in dismay. Flowers had wilted, grass had rotted, and plants had decayed. The few trees that stood sentinel were withered husks, their wizened bark peeling from their emaciated trunks.

“What the hell happened here?”

From what I knew, a premier institution like Arcana Academy had plenty of professional gardeners in their employ. There was no way they would leave even a single spot in such terrible state. Adjusting my glasses, I shook my head in disbelief when I confirmed that I wasn’t hallucinating.

“Whoa!”

After splitting a couple of shrubs apart so that I could squeeze past between them, I almost crashed into someone I least expected to see. Hunched over a flowerbed, a familiar figure was tending to them, watering them with a can and digging at the soil with a garden scraper. She looked up, startled, and let out an undignified shriek.

“You…” I trailed off when I recognized her. My brow furrowing, I folded my arms and tilted my head. “Lady Silvia?”

“Ah…you’re Sir Trevor.” Silvia straightened and stood up, dropping the scraper and dusting her hands. “What are you doing here?”

“I might ask the same of you.”

“As you can see…” She spread her arms helplessly and gestured to the plants. “The flowers here are dying. I’m doing the best I can to save them, but without knowing the cause, I’m only delaying the inevitable.”

“Wouldn’t it be more, uh, effective to inform the teachers, or at least the gardeners in charge of this area? They’re professionals, so they might know what’s happening.”

“I already have, and unfortunately, they’ve been unable to do anything about it so far.” She scowled. “They’ve analyzed the soil content and conducted tests. There’s no plague. It’s not a sickness. They’ve watered the plants and nourished the soil. Yet, something’s…leeching their lives away. Whatever caused this, it isn’t natural.”

A chill ran down my spine. There was something unsettling about this place, and it wasn’t just the grim scenery and rotting plants. There was a suffocating sensation, as if there was a miasma curling around me and sealing my throat.

“What about you? I don’t think you came here to help with gardening.”

The saintess placed her hands on her hips and regarded me suspiciously, her eyes subtly shifting to my hair. I tried not to frown.

“You’re that boy who’s always with Lady Lumiere, aren’t you?” She looked around. “I don’t see her anywhere.”

“We split up to search for her pendant.”

“Pendant?”

“Lady Lumiere lost her pendant. I don’t have evidence, but I think someone took it from her locker in the changing room after our practical lesson, and hid it somewhere. I’ve cast a tracking spell, and it brought me all the way out here, but it’s not powerful enough to point out the precise location.”

Silvia’s eyes widened briefly, then she scowled. “I think I might have a clue.”

“What clue?” I demanded, a little too agitatedly. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind.

“Earlier, a group of girls passed by. I believe they’re from your class. Lady Beatrice, Lady Lydia, and Lady Redia. They called out to me when they walked through that path over there.” She pointed at a marble footpath that wound between the dying garden and a livelier courtyard on the opposite side. “I remember because they were giggling for some reason. For some reason, their tittering annoyed me, so I simply returned their greeting before returning to work.”

She poked her shoe into the dirt and sighed.

“I knew they were up to no good. I believe they stopped at the fountain over there before turning around and returning to the fire tower.”

“Thank you!” I bowed deeply and was about to rush off when I realized something. Swiveling back, I stared at her curiously. “Um…why are you…?”

Silvia cocked her head for a moment, puzzled, then she sighed. “Ah. I understand. You’re wondering why I’m helping Lady Lumiere, even after all I did to her.”

“Well, yeah. Sorry, I don’t mean to sound suspicious or ungrateful. I just wondered…”

“No, it’s fine. I would be skeptical too if I were you. After all, I haven’t done anything to earn your trust. Quite the opposite, actually.” She raised her head. “Believe me, I harbor no ill will toward Lady Lumiere. I’m also not petty enough to stand aside and do nothing while she is wronged.”

“Thanks.” I couldn’t say I liked her, but she had at least earned my respect. Silvia hesitated, and I paused, sensing that she had more to say. She looked as if she was struggling inwardly for a moment, but she finally came to a decision and spoke up.

“You might not believe me, but part of the saintess’s gifts is clairvoyance.”

“You can see the future?”

“Something like that, but only in fragments. Often, I catch glimpses of the future in my dreams, and I’m rarely ever wrong. I’ve seen portions of Lady Lumiere’s future. It might be hard to believe, but I saw her casting black magic and summoning a demon that laid the capital to ruin. That’s why I…I’m wary of her. I vowed to do everything within my power to stop her.”

I nodded thoughtfully, though something struck me. Was what Silvia saw in her clairvoyant dreams the future, or memories of the previous timeline? Lumiere had mentioned her recurring nightmares to me, and I wondered if Silvia had also received similar visions from a past life, rather than of the future.

“You seem to believe me.” Silvia stared at me, astonished. I shrugged, weighing what I could share and what I should keep a secret. This was Lumiere’s affair, and I had no business spreading it to other people.

“I’m also working to prevent that future you speak of.”

“That’s the thing. You do not appear in any of my clairvoyant visions.” Silvia frowned. “It’s almost as if you don’t exist in any of the futures I foresaw. Yet, many of them came to pass, several altered because of your presence. Lady Lumiere…I have not foreseen her using normal magic in any of the future fragments, and yet here she is, casting fire spells. She was not supposed to enroll in this school, yet she showed up a few weeks ago, with you by her side.”

“Like I said, our goals are the same.”

“No. I mean…your presence is unsettling.”

“Ouch.” I winced. “I mean, I’ve been indirectly told that I’m a creep, but this is the first time someone was so blunt to me.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Silvia snapped. Her voice quivered and she dropped her gaze. “You make things unpredictable. By changing the future again and again, it makes it exceedingly difficult for me to strategize and plan around. I don’t know what new dangers are lurking ahead, and it worries me. You’re an anomaly bringing ruin to every countermeasure I put in place to safeguard our future. I’d like to ask you to stop interfering and allow fate to run its course, but I can’t see any future with you in it. It’s as if you’re not supposed to exist in our world.”

“Sorry about that.”

My voice was icy as I regarded her. I turned away, trying not to snort. Her reaction somehow reminded me of Lumiere. But while Lumiere – despite being anxious at first – embraced the freedom attained from my tearing up the script that was supposed to determine her future and reveled in the joy of facing the unpredictable, Silvia shunned it. The saintess sought control, and when everything appeared to spiral and caused the collapse of her neatly composed plans, she despaired. Unlike Lumiere, who delighted in simply living, Silvia wanted a walkthrough. She wanted to plan ahead and prepare countermeasures. She abhorred surprise, and wanted every threat to be mapped in detail so that everything remained under her control.

The nature of their dreams might differ – Lumiere was plagued by memories of her past life, while Silvia was visited by visions of the future – but their abilities were essentially similar. Yet, the manner in which they tackled the challenge of uncertainty was worlds apart.

I felt my lip curl. As much as I was biased toward Lumiere, I realized I was in no position to judge Silvia. In my previous world, I had relied extensively on walkthroughs to play games and obtain hidden achievements, weapons and rewards. That attitude carried on in university. I had played it safe by studying for a degree and even enrolling in graduate school, in hopes that acquiring higher qualifications would guarantee a stable career in a precarious job market. If I were to be honest, Silvia and I had more in common with each other than I did with Lumiere. In another run, perhaps we could have been friends.

Taking a deep breath, I composed myself.

“Thanks for the clue. I really appreciate it.”

“No…no problem.”

She sounded chastened, probably realizing that she had gone too far. I didn’t see her expression. I didn’t want to. Instead, I stalked off and headed straight to the fountain Silvia pointed me toward. She was right. The strands thickened once again, all the ones in this area converging toward a specific spot. I had to lean over the rim and peer at the water.

My reflection stared back, a weary bespectacled guy with black hair and frost-blue eyes. I gritted my teeth and plunged my arm into the water, breaking my doppelganger with that single violent action. It didn’t ease the self-loathing. Far from becoming a person worthy of the girl I admired, I realized I was the same kind of individual as her rival, the one who should have been my enemy.

Just what was I doing? Why was I here? What was the point of my existence? Did I reincarnate in this world simply to cause chaos?

Then my fingers curled around warm metal. I retracted my arm and pulled the glowing pendant out of the water. Diane’s words echoed in my mind.

“I’m leaving Lumi in your care.”

A soothing sensation. My pulse slowed, and the pounding in my head eased, the boiling rage replaced by cool resolve. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, holding the pendant close to my chest the same way Lumiere did when she sought comfort. That was right. Diane had entrusted a task to me. I didn’t have time for unnecessary thoughts or hesitation.

I should just focus on protecting Lumiere.

Gripping the pendant tightly, I whirled and headed toward the fire tower, taking the same path that my three classmates did. Though I wanted to confront them, my topmost priority was returning Diane’s keepsake to Lumiere.

Everything, including revenge, could wait.