The next day, the first class for the first-year students was dance. As Angarad Nine walked to the classroom, she painfully felt that the children were avoiding her more blatantly than usual.

‘This is better.’

She tried to steel herself, thinking. If she couldn’t expect a ‘good’ school life, it was better to be satisfied with a ‘peaceful’ one.

Truly, anything would be fine. As long as it wasn’t a school life where she was needlessly picked on and insulted by passing children.

Alecto was mixed in with the children, chattering with a much better mood than the day before. Her voice echoed through the corridor all the way to the dance hall.

“That was their fault. Isn’t that person really funny? I’ll tell you more details when we eat lunch later…”

Though not popular in the traditional sense, no child disliked Alecto being part of their group. As a result, Alecto tended to know quite a bit about many children’s personal lives.

So even though it was clearly about someone else, every time Angarad heard a negative expression directed at someone, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

‘They won’t dare do that anymore.’

Although she had grumbled, Alecto must have learned too. That there would be some kind of punishment for carelessly talking about other students.

As the class began, the children stood against both walls as usual when the music stopped, and when it started again, they approached each other, constantly changing partners.

Angarad felt humiliated as she watched a boy approach her with a really displeased face when she was the only girl left. That boy had even been particularly friendly to her before.

“Hey, don’t do that. She’ll call her dad again.”

Another boy passing by threw a mocking comment at the frowning boy. That boy was holding Neris’s hand and seemed quite proud of that fact.

Angarad unknowingly looked at Neris’s face. Neris wasn’t laughing at her, but for some reason, Angarad disliked that fact even more.

Anger surged in her heart. Not even a hint of remorse, how shameless! What a state this is now because of that nasty girl!

She should have been the one in this state!

“Don’t grip my hand so tightly.”

Angarad’s partner complained before they even started dancing. I swear, Angarad didn’t particularly want to hold his hand either. She was only dancing because she couldn’t stand alone.

Watching this, Neris gracefully turned, relying on her partner’s hand. Her partner thought Neris seemed to be in a slightly better mood.

Could it be because she’s dancing with me? Useless imagination swelled in the boy’s heart.

Regardless of the boy’s thoughts, Neris occasionally stole glances towards the classroom door.

The reason for her good mood was, of course, not because she had become partners with a boy who had bullied her in her previous life.

She was waiting for someone’s visit. Seeing how Nelrysion had gone out of his way to warn her yesterday, ‘that incident’ was bound to happen today, just like in her previous life.

There were no particular incidents, but perhaps feeling upset about something, Angarad left the class crying in the middle. However, the children’s dance class continued as if nothing had happened.

When it was time to change partners, there was an odd number as one girl had left. The boys quickly claimed the popular female students, and even after the music started, Rhiannon was left.

Two boys looked at each other with displeased faces. One of them had to dance with Rhiannon.

At that moment, a tall adult wearing a black coat knocked on the classroom door. Madame Lunis approached him, raising an eyebrow.

“Who are you? We’re in the middle of class.”

The children didn’t miss the fact that the adult had a white ribbon on his chest. Some people knew what it meant.

It was a death notice.

“Excuse me. I’ve come to fetch our young lady.”

Madame Lunis, thinking that someone’s close family member must have died, softened her attitude.

“Which family are you from?”

“The Berta family. I am a servant of the former Lord Berta, who has now become Count Berta.”

Berta. At that name, Rhiannon’s gaze turned to the classroom entrance. She called out the servant’s name in a shrill voice, her eyes wide.

“Ollie!”

“Young lady.”

Ollie greeted Rhiannon, holding his removed hat to his chest. Rhiannon pushed through the dancing children to approach him.

“What’s happened?”

“A moment.”

Madame Lunis sent the two out so Rhiannon could talk with her family’s servant and closed the door. The children pretended not to be interested and kept dancing, but they pricked up their ears.

Soon, the children with particularly good hearing and close to the classroom door whispered what they heard to their partners, and the partners shouted what they heard to the child next to them. Before long, everyone in the classroom knew the purpose of Ollie’s visit.

The old Count Berta and his heir, Lord Berta, had died simultaneously in a carriage accident, and the count’s second son, Lord Berta, had inherited the title.

Rhiannon Berta had become the count’s daughter, a young lady of undeniably high status.

Because it was an event where the highest elder in the family and the title holder had died, Rhiannon was absent for about a week. As it was a school where noble children were enrolled, there was that much flexibility. After all, what could be more important than matters related to titles?

And on the day Rhiannon returned and attended class for the first time, the first-year students whispered seeing her confident back.

She came in a four-horse carriage, they say? A carriage with the family crest… Gold buttons engraved with the family crest… That necklace made of diamonds and pearls… Who comes to school wearing such things? Come to think of it, that bracelet from last time too, if she had known there would be magic practice, she shouldn’t have worn it…

There were hardly any favorable reactions.

The children who had been upper nobility from the start didn’t like the fact that Rhiannon Berta, who until recently had been just a lord’s daughter, was trying to act as if she was of the same status as them.

And the children of lower nobility didn’t like the fact that Rhiannon Berta, who until recently had been just a lord’s daughter, was now trying to act as if she was of a different status from them.

Strictly speaking, there was a difference in rank between a count’s granddaughter and a count’s daughter. After all, only the direct line of a title holder was always included in the ‘nobility in the narrow sense’ as defined by imperial law. How could someone who ‘would eventually not be in the direct line’ be placed on the same level as someone who ‘would always be in the direct line’?

If the usual inheritance had occurred where the old Count Berta died and his eldest son, Lord Berta, inherited the title, Rhiannon would no longer have been in the direct line.

Still, Rhiannon herself had thought that she was as good as upper nobility and liked to associate with friends whose fathers were counts or higher. After all, while her grandfather was alive, she was Lady Berta, and there were many high-ranking people among her close relatives.

The children from upper noble families found her attitude ridiculous, but because they were distant relatives of hers or had to save face for her grandfather, they didn’t quibble about technical status until the letter incident.

Even the children of lower nobility felt an inner distance from Rhiannon but didn’t openly criticize her.

After the letter incident, when Idalia Kendal came to dislike Rhiannon, no one associated with Rhiannon anymore, but unless someone was very brave, they didn’t bring criticism related to status to the surface.

However, when Rhiannon actually became a count’s daughter, the situation changed.

The children felt that she was lucky to be able to act above her proper status. Of course, every item she brought from home and seemed to show off became a target of whispers.

“Say something. If you speak, she won’t be able to ignore it, right?”

Idalia’s partner in the Common Runde class grumbled. She just smiled awkwardly.

“What could I say…”

At that moment, Rhiannon raised her hand.

“Teacher.”

Madam Allix, who was teaching Common Runde 1, responded kindly.

“Yes, Rhiannon. What is it?”

“Alecto keeps glaring at me.”

The first-year class was bound to be somewhat noisy no matter how strictly the teacher warned them. Rhiannon’s words brought a silence that no teacher could easily achieve. The children exchanged glances with faces that said ‘it’s finally happened’.

Breaking the silence, Alecto sneered coldly.

“When did I?”

“You’re glaring even now.”

Rhiannon spoke firmly without looking at Alecto.

Seeing those wide, barely blinking eyes, Madam Allix thought about what to do. Of course, she knew about the incident in the dining hall too.

Alecto also raised her hand but spoke without waiting for the teacher’s permission.

“I didn’t glare.”

“Look now. You’re glaring. You glare every day.”

The classroom became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After a brief consideration, Madam Allix put on the sternest expression she could muster.

“If there’s a problem between you two, resolve it during break time. This is class time, and other students are here too.”

“But it can’t be resolved. Shouldn’t the teacher scold a student who continuously bullies another student?”

Rhiannon tried to say ‘continuously’ but failed to pronounce it correctly. Alecto, being in a bad mood, didn’t miss this fact and snorted.

No one said it out loud, but ultimately, issues between children were under Megara’s jurisdiction. Idalia looked at Megara, and Megara slightly furrowed her brow.

Megara judged that this wasn’t a situation that required her intervention.

When no one intervened even after a while, Alecto lashed out sharply.

“Can’t you even speak properly? Did someone write it for you to read? Stupid. How will you manage if you can’t even read properly? That’s why the kids don’t like you.”

Rhiannon’s face turned red and blue. Rhiannon, who had been trying to report that ‘bad girl’ elegantly and with dignity, finally couldn’t hold back and shouted fiercely.

“Hey! Are you done talking?”

“‘Are you done talking?'”

Alecto mimicked Rhiannon’s voice ridiculously.

“You always say others are funny, but you’re actually the funniest.”

“Enough!”

Madam Allix could no longer tolerate it and sternly intervened. The two girls glared at each other, breathing heavily as if they would devour each other.

The class ended in a mess. As the students poured out, they whispered to each other like thunder. Did you see? Did you see? Rhiannon crying? That’s why she shouldn’t have started it. I thought I was going to suffocate.

Alecto left the classroom with her chest puffed out, still angry. And as she approached the children who would attend the next class with her, she grumbled with momentum.

“Ah, this is really ridiculous! That’s why no one would like her. Does anyone have something sweet? I’m hungry because I’m upset!”

Normally, anyone in Alecto’s group would have smiled as if they couldn’t help it and offered what they had.

The children she spoke to now were among the quieter and more passive ones in the class, so they would have acted in a way that didn’t upset this wittiest child in the class.

However, the response from them was different from expected.

“Do you really have to go that far?”

“Huh? What?”

Alecto, upset by the cold reply to her words that sought sympathy, defensively questioned. The children shrugged.

“Never mind, forget it.”

In the jungle-like relationships of the first year, nothing was scarier than the words “it’s nothing.” It meant not acknowledging the value of conversing with the other person.

Of course, Alecto, who knew this fact well, was furious.

“What’s this, why are you acting like this? What are you dissatisfied with?”

“Hey.”

The answer came not from the children in the group Alecto had joined, but from a male classmate passing by.

“What’s with the class atmosphere today? It’s really noisy and exhausting. Your voice echoes all the way to the corridor during class.”

“What?”

Alecto was taken aback.

Wasn’t the incident during today’s class entirely—in her view—because of Rhiannon? It was incomprehensible why everyone was suddenly acting this way when they would have agreed with her normally.

“What did I do wrong? Rhiannon started the fight.”

“You never stay quiet normally. Let’s stop hearing about Rhiannon. It’s tiresome.”

After pouring out those words, the boy left. The children who had to go to the same class as Alecto also glanced at her and just left.

Left behind, Alecto looked around for an ally who would denounce this ridiculous situation with her.

There wasn’t a single gaze that looked at her favorably.