When Botany IV ended, Blythe found herself trudging out of the greenhouse with Magnus hot on her heels.

  It was lunch time. Her appetite shrunk to nothing at the thought of eating at the same table as him. She was actually annoyed at the original Blythe for establishing the habit of constantly sticking with him.

  They wordlessly made their way into the dormitory building where the dining hall was. The silence between them was tense, but she had no desire to fill it with mindless chatter just to make the atmosphere less awkward.

  Magnus deserved to feel awkward.

  Once she stepped into the dining hall, she caught sight of a slender hand shooting up into the air behind a group of students and waving vigorously in her direction. She took a step to the side to get a better angle at seeing who it was. The students in front scattered in different directions, revealing a beaming Jessica. Sophie stood by her side, wearing an equally bright smile.

  Relieved to see some friendly faces, Blythe strode over to them.

  “Hey,” she said once she got within earshot.

  They greeted her back and bowed in acknowledgement at Magnus.

  “I was thinking of sending you a VocAvis,” Jessica said. “I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to catch you.”

  Sophie giggled. “But we know sometimes you’d rather have lunch alone with His Highness, so we didn’t want to intrude either.”

  “You wouldn’t be intruding,” Blythe said hastily, dread creeping in at the thought of being ditched because her friends thought they were great at pushing them together. “I love spending time with you two. I’m sure Magnus enjoys being with his friends as well, don’t you?”

  He frowned as he looked down at her. “Well … yes …”

  His quizzical stare seemed to be asking, ‘What’s your point?’

  “Have you chosen a table?” Blythe asked her friends.

  Sophie’s smile turned bashful. “Actually, I was thinking … We had a really nice time at the garden yesterday. Could we go there again?”

  “Oh, sure,” Blythe said, surprised by her eagerness.

  “That is, if you don’t mind, Your Highness,” Jessica added.

  It would be perfect if he did mind and refused to go. She was tired of being around a constant downer like him. She didn’t care that she was supposed to adore him and that her distance might come across as suspicious to the people around them. If it wasn’t necessary, she didn’t want to interact with him.

  “I would love to do a girls’ lunch at the garden again today,” she gushed, latching onto Sophie’s arm, ignoring the way the latter’s jaw dropped. “I feel like I rarely spend time with you two these days. Magnus, you wouldn’t mind that, would you?”

  By phrasing it that way, he would come across as petty and controlling if he declared that he did, in fact, mind his fiancée spending time with her female friends.

  “That would be so wonderful,” Jessica squealed, casting a slightly envious glance down at Blythe’s hands on Sophie’s arm.

  After a split second’s hesitation, Blythe looped her arm around Jessica’s too and pulled her close so that she ended up being in the middle of Jessica and Sophie.

  A flash of green light.

  She smiled sweetly up at Magnus, who seemed utterly confused.

  “Would that be alright, Magnus?”

  “I suppose,” he said stiltedly, “we could both stand to spend more time with our own friends.”

  Delighted at having shaken off the infuriating tagalong, at least for lunch period, Blythe grinned at him. “Thank you!”

  They watched him leave, already getting approached by a few other guys who’d seen he was walking alone.

  “Shall we get some takeout, then?” Jessica said, turning to smile at Blythe.

  “Yes!”

  While Sophie went to get beverages for them, Jessica and Blythe were in charge of ordering the food. Once they had their food and drinks, they met up outside the dining hall.

  Blythe inhaled the fresh air of the garden as they walked past the trees and plants down the cobblestone path, her steps light. She wondered how often she could get away with having ‘girls’ lunches’.

  Out of the corner of her eye, a squirrel ran across the grass and scurried up a tree trunk. She smiled at the sight.

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  Instead of sitting on one of the benches closer to the entrance, they went further into the garden this time. Because they were presently the only ones here, they had their pick of seats. Unable to bear the deferential stares Sophie and Jessica were giving her, Blythe deliberately hung back and asked them to pick a spot they preferred.

  “You’re leaving it up to us?” Sophie squeaked.

  She nodded. “I don’t have a preference. Also, I’d love to see where you’d choose to sit given the choice.”

  The two of them promptly launched into a discussion about where would be best. Eventually, they decided on a bench under a nice, large tree and next to a flourishing flower bed.

  “There’s just enough shade and lovely flowers to admire,” Sophie explained, sitting down on one side of it.

  Jessica sat at the other side, leaving the middle spot vacant for Blythe.

  “It’s great,” Blythe agreed, gazing at the different sections of pink, purple, and orange flowers.

  They dug into their food, an assortment of finger sandwiches they’d chosen for ease of convenience.

  Blythe held back a sigh of contentment at the refreshing taste of her cucumber sandwich. The food truly was the only good thing about suddenly becoming an otome game villainess. At least she had this.

  “Blythe?” Sophie said as they were all starting on their second finger sandwich. “I’ve been wondering this, but why did you suddenly decide to participate in PE this morning?”

  At the unexpected question, she nearly choked on her ham and cheddar sandwich. Somehow managing to swallow her bite of food properly, Blythe reached for her glass bottle of freshly-squeezed orange juice and gulped down a quick mouthful.

  She decided to go with the explanation she’d given the other girls on her volleyball team earlier. It was easier that way, and it was true. Blythe’s body was too pathetically weak for her to continue like this. She needed to be able to get on a carriage by herself without needing another person’s support.

  “I’m trying to be healthier, so I’m going to start exercising regularly. That means that I’ll be participating in PE class from now on.”

  “Even though you despise being hot and sweaty?” Jessica piped up with an astounded gaze.

  Blythe nodded. “Exercise is good for the health, so it can’t be helped.”

  She didn’t especially enjoy being hot and sweaty after a workout back in her original world, but she didn’t detest it to the point of finding excuses to get out of PE class.

  “Wow …” Sophie breathed out. “You’re like a completely different person with how you’ve changed so much the past couple of days!”

  At that declaration, Jessica’s eyes switched from admiring to shrewd, the intensity piercing through Blythe’s eyes. It was all Blythe could do to not flinch.

  In a moment of silliness, she imagined that Jessica could see through her and realize she wasn’t the original Blythe.

  She snapped out of it when Jessica said with a small smile, “Well, change always starts somewhere, right?”

  She returned it. “Definitely.”

  Sophie’s eyes were still filled with awe. “You’re so determined! That’s amazing.”

  Blythe didn’t know where to look. “No, not really …”

  While it was nice to have allies in this world, it was also really weird that they happened to think she hung the moon.

  “It is amazing,” Jessica agreed. “You’re sacrificing your short-term comfort in order to reap long-term benefits! As expected of the crown prince’s fiancée.”

  “What? No, no, that’s just too much!”

  If possible, she hoped they would stop calling her that.

  As a horrible thought struck her, her stomach lurched.

  She’d only been thinking about how she could survive by stepping out of the villainess role. Until now, she hadn’t given any thought to the possible outcome of actually getting married to Magnus if she somehow managed to evade death or exile at the end of these three years.

  She could not marry this guy. Besides, wasn’t he the crown prince? There was no way she could be the queen of Beryllia. There was just no way. She was just an ordinary teenager who had attended public schools her entire life!

  A waving hand swam into her field of vision, and she blinked.

  “Blythe? Are you alright?”

  Sophie and Jessica peered at her, visibly concerned.

  With a short gasp, Blythe jerked back into reality. “Yeah! Yeah! I’m fine! Sorry, I, um, got distracted.”

  She had to get this engagement broken. She made a mental note to revisit this topic again when she had the time to sit down and plan out her next move.

  Jessica laughed lightly. “Again?”

  Blythe made up an excuse about having seen a squirrel run up a tree in the distance, but neither of her friends appeared convinced. Thankfully, they were good at reading the room and changed the subject to the Culinary Arts class Jessica had before lunch period.

  Jessica complained about having to share the same workbench with a girl named Ingrid, lamenting the fact that Sophie and Blythe weren’t taking that class with her. According to her, Ingrid was constantly messing up the proportions of her ingredients and the steps in preparing the dish. Although she’d taken this elective in hopes of improving her cooking skills, she was proving to be lacking in both talent and sense in this particular area.

  Sophie and Jessica used this time to trade gossip, and Blythe attempted to absorb as much as she could. She learned that two girls from Jessica’s Patisserie Arts elective were feuding over baking cookies for the same guy, and word had recently gotten to him about it. The drama was juicy, and Blythe, who’d never gotten to be in the loop about these things before, listened with rapt attention.

  When they finished eating, Blythe remembered something. “Oh! I have to send a VocAvis to my family coachman.”

  After she’d been dropped off at school, Micah had politely reminded her that she could call him to change the pick-up time if needed. Otherwise, they would arrive right when her classes were supposed to end.

  She intended to go to the library after school to see if she could learn some of the basics of this world, such as the ’beasts’ clinging to the handful of students and professors she’d seen walking around.

  She pulled out her scroll, spoke out her message to Micah, and the galah cockatoo took off into the sky.

  “Do you have plans after school?” Jessica asked curiously.

  “I’ll be going to the library for a bit.”

  Sophie’s face lit up. “Ooh, want us to go with you?”

  “Oh, I would love to accompany you!”

  “Oh, it’s okay …“

  They might start asking questions if they saw her looking up basic information. But before she could firmly decline their offer, Jessica sighed.

  “Wait, I nearly forgot I have Culinary Arts club activities after school today. I won’t be able to join you.”

  Almost simultaneously, Sophie deflated as well. “I forgot I have something on too! I need to visit the greenhouse for my project. I just got so excited.”

  Blythe laughed. “It’s fine! You two would be bored if you accompanied me, anyway. I’m just going there to find some reference books.”

  Despite still being disappointed, they seemed to cheer up a little.

  The rest of school passed by uneventfully, and Blythe was grateful that she didn’t have any other classes with Magnus for the day.

  When the blue bird sang out its dismissal tune in her final class, she felt the tension dissipate from her muscles. It was time to do some research.

  She first went to her locker to put some things away. Then she headed for the library, which she’d spotted from a distance coming out of the greenhouse earlier. It was a tall, standalone grey building diagonally behind the classroom block and the dormitory block. There was a stone path on the ground leading in the direction of the library from the classroom block, which she took.

  She was humming to herself when red light darted across her vision.

  Her jaw dropped.

  Are. You. Kidding. Me?!

  She really was living rent-free in his head. What was he doing? She hadn’t spoken to him since lunch!

  There was nothing she could do about it. She didn’t even know what had caused the drop in favorability. She certainly had no desire to go looking for him just to ask what his problem was.

  Gritting her teeth, Blythe continued on her way to the library.

  Magnus: She's really not asking for a ride home today. She has to be up to something! [favorability drops]