Blythe hadn’t even been here for a full hour, and the library’s café, aptly named as Luscious Cocoa, was already her favorite place in the entire school. Now that she was actually inside, the coffee aroma was much more detectable underneath the heavy scent of hot chocolate. A few students occupied the small, square wooden tables in the café, chatting with their friends over food and drink. Nearly every single student seemed to be nursing a cup of hot chocolate.

  She could see herself sitting at the corner table by the window looking out into the forest at the edge of the school campus on a rainy day, sipping a cup of hot chocolate while reading a book. It reminded her of what she used to do on rainy weekends.

  A pang struck her heart at the thought.

  Luxurious as Blythe’s bedsheets and pillows and covers were, they could never beat the nostalgia infused in Mira’s cozy patchwork quilt given to her by her grandmother.

  She was snapped out of her thoughts by a loud snap. A student sitting at a table near the café entrance had just broken what looked like a thick, long stick of yellow-and-white striped candy into half with her hands. On the table in front of her lay a long, yellow foil wrap.

  Blythe blinked. She’d never seen those before.

  Glancing ahead at the ordering counter, she noticed a bunch of those foil-wrapped sticks, in varying colors, on display in a clear cylindrical container.

  “Why do you keep breaking your stick candies?” her friend, who was sitting in the opposite chair, asked in an admonishing tone. “And you always crunch them so loudly.”

  “That’s the fun part,” she replied, her words muffled around one half of the candy she’d jammed into her mouth. “Those sounds are my favorite. They’re the reason I keep buying these!”

  “That’s not very demure. Does Aunty Florentine know about this?”

  “Pansy! If you tell my mother, I’ll never speak to you again!”

  Blythe covered her mouth to hide her spreading smile.

  It seemed they were cousins, rather than friends.

  She went to join the short line of three students at the ordering counter next to the glass display of pastries and cakes, making sure to observe what they were doing. After they placed their orders with the upbeat man working behind the counter, he lifted a labeled, colored tag off its hook on the wall and placed it on the rounded marble slab resting on the countertop. When it glowed white, the students touched their hand to the slab, causing the glow to turn blue. Then he thanked them and asked for the next customer to place their order.

  She wondered if payment was somehow made through it, but she couldn’t ask without people thinking the daughter of the Duke of Obegary had lost basic knowledge of the world she lived in. During lunch period in the dining hall, students were simply given whatever food they ordered at the food stalls.

  Stuck on the wall behind the friendly barista was a large chalkboard menu, detailing the food and drinks available for today. While the menus in the dining hall stalls didn’t have any price indications on them, the prices of the café items were listed next to their names respectively. A cup of hot chocolate cost twelve copper coins, but the students obviously didn’t use physical coins to make payment.

  Blythe attempted to check the status of the marble slab.

  It didn’t reveal any information she couldn’t already guess. She’d already gotten the idea that it acted as some sort of ID-checker, anyway.

  When it was Blythe’s turn, the man behind the counter said brightly, “Good afternoon and welcome! What would you like to have?”

  Platters of cake slices, ranging from red velvet to cream-layered vanilla sponge cakes, and various pastries sat in the glass display in front of her, enticing her.

  In the end, she ordered what she’d come in for—a hot chocolate and a butter croissant. She imitated what the other students had done, touching the marble slab after the white glow appeared. For a second, she tensed, half-expecting him to say that the payment hadn’t gone through, or anything that exposed her as the ignorant isekai-ed high school girl that she was, but then the glow turned blue. The barista cheerfully thanked her before trotting to the side to prepare the drinks.

  Once Blythe’s order was ready, she brought the bamboo tray to the corner table next to the window she’d been eyeing. She made sure to take the seat facing the side of the café where the wall clock was.

  Then she continued reading History of Beast Taming: A Quick Overview. It contained all kinds of amusing anecdotes, like when some guy discovered he had the beast taming talent during his own wedding at a large, scenic park in which deer inhabited. One of the deer had barged into the reserved space during the wedding vows, causing him to fumble through his words.

  There were also heart-rending tales wherein the bonded animal pined after its trainer when they passed and refused to eat or be comforted. Blythe teared a little at those stories. The thick, rich hot chocolate was the perfect complement to the flaky, buttery croissant. She took one bite of the croissant and then drank a long sip of the hot chocolate, stifling the urge to let out a giant sigh of contentment.

  Now that she thought about it, she could probably ask the chef under the employment of her estate to make her some hot chocolate whenever she wanted. It was almost a shame she would become a boarder, given the flexibility of things at home, but at least this school offered tons of options for food.

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  Before she left, she went back to the ordering counter and got one of the striped stick candies she saw earlier. There were different flavors, so she chose the blueberry one, wrapped in blue foil, to start with. She could always come back to try the others.

  The candy was too long to put in her bag, so she held it in one hand as she made her way to the courtyard.

  She strode up to the carriage, and Micah left the brown horse he was standing beside to open the carriage door for her.

  “Good afternoon, Lady Blythe,” he said, bowing as he got nearer. “We hope you had a good day at school.”

  The other coachman next to the horses bowed as well, echoing the greeting.

  “Good afternoon, Micah,” she said pleasantly. “I did, thank you.”

  Both the coachmen seemed to start at her response. Micah’s eyes grew wide when they glanced at the stick candy in her hand, although he said nothing.

  He held a gloved hand out to support her. Taking it, Blythe resolved to build up her strength as soon as possible. It was totally ridiculous for her body to be as weak as it was.

  The ride back to home was smooth and peaceful, with no one in the carriage to glare at her. She decided to take advantage of the time she had alone to write down some notes. She pulled out the planner she’d found in the bag last night.

  Its unassuming exterior, a plain white cover, gave no indication it was a planner at first glance. Holidays and school events were already noted down in their respective monthly calendars in Blythe’s handwriting. The original Blythe had even written down the birthdays of her family members and Magnus. It would definitely come in handy one of these days.

  She grabbed a fountain pen and began thinking.

  The first bullying event took place yesterday, within the first week of their fourth year at school. She tried writing down every harassment event that occurred over the course of the entire game.

  Many scenarios popped up in her head, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what scenario would take place during which period or be certain of the chronological order.

  She couldn’t even be sure if she’d remembered all of it. After all, her main focus had been on the romantic moments with the love interests. Those were the scenes she’d tried to remember; the bullying scenes from Blythe had been tossed out of her head the second they were over.

  With a sigh, she went down the list of the jumbled-up scenarios and tried to remember which was the second bullying scene. Baby steps were better than nothing.

  Eventually, she managed to pick out the scene she was pretty sure would occur next.

  This took place in the morning at school sometime during the third week of school, where Blythe instructed Jessica and Sophie to toss Daisy’s school bag, along with its contents, into the school fountain as a symbolic warning to stay away from Magnus. They kept an eye out for the opportunity. The moment Daisy left her bag unattended long enough for them to get their hands on it, they sneaked it out to the fountain. Daisy later found it during a frantic search, when Cole pointed it out.

  Blythe groaned as she underlined this scene, wishing she’d paid more attention to the in-game dates. No amount of brain-racking gave her the specific date this would happen on.

  Reasoning that it wouldn’t happen if she wasn’t there, she decided to avoid Jessica and Sophie during the week this was supposed to occur. Although she couldn’t be absolutely sure she would be forced to harass Daisy again, Blythe didn’t want to take the risk. Her favorability points with Magnus and Daisy were low enough as they were.

  Besides, advancing the Villainy skill sounded like a bad idea all around.

  With that plan formulated, Blythe marked the third week of August in her calendar by putting an asterisk in all the relevant dates as a form of reminder.

  She’d have to check her planner more regularly now.

  For the rest of the ride back, she attempted to sort out the chronological order of the bullying scenes she’d managed to pen down.

  By the time they reached the front doors of her residential palace, the horizon was an intense orange.

  Micah helped Blythe out of the carriage, wished her a good evening, then left with the carriage and the other coachman. She looked up at the cloudless sky, its blue much darker than it’d been a couple of hours before, and spotted an eagle soaring through it.

  As with before, Suzy awaited her outside. Suzy’s eyes flicked to the stick candy Blythe was holding, and her mouth fell open the slightest amount before she shut it.

  This time, when she held out her hands as an offer to carry Blythe’s belongings, Blythe declined. Her planner held sensitive information now, and the stick candy was so light it made no sense to have someone else carry it.

  She’d had allowed Suzy to take her school bag yesterday, just going with the flow. But since she had officially resigned herself to living in her new reality, she had to put real thought behind her actions from now on.

  Except for the actions that aren’t really mine, she thought wryly.

  ???

  After luxuriating in her lavender-infused bath, Blythe reluctantly stepped out of it with Suzy’s help. It had been a long day—she was really feeling the effects of all that running around in PE class now.

  With aching, wobbly legs, she tottered to the armchair at her vanity and practically fell into it. Suzy, alarmed, hurried up to her, still carrying the bath towel in her hands.

  “My lady, what’s the matter?!”

  Hastily, Blythe waved off her concerns. “Oh, no, I’m fine. I just exerted myself during PE today, that’s all.”

  A strange expression crossed Suzy’s face, probably because the original Blythe seemed to abhor physical exercise.

  “I … see. It is a relief that you are well.”

  Blythe couldn’t be bothered trying to explain. “Thanks.”

  Suzy throughly towel-dried her hair, the sensation akin to what Blythe thought a professional scalp massage might be. Her eyelids slid shut as she enjoyed the five-star treatment, reclining against the plush backseat of her armchair. Finally, after several minutes, Suzy removed the towel from her head and began to retreat.

  “That was so good.” With how blissed-out she was, the words came out slurred. “Thanks so much, Suzy.”

  She nearly didn’t register the flash of green.

  Forcing her eyes open, she saw the new notification come in.

  “You’re … most welcome, my lady,” Suzy said.

  Ignoring how disconcerted her reply had sounded, Blythe continued to sit there in the armchair, her entire body feeling like jelly. She hadn’t washed her hair yesterday, but if this was what she got after washing her hair, she was tempted to do it every single day.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have put in the request to become a boarder at school. Then she felt guilty for wanting Suzy to do extra work. Her mind quickly went off on a tangent, wondering if Suzy would accept tips in the form of stick candies.

  When Suzy returned shortly after putting the used towel away, Blythe was still slouched in the armchair, reluctant to move. She grunted in response to Suzy asking if she was ready for dinner, to which Suzy intelligently suggested having dinner brought to her room instead. She was such a perfect employee.

  Blythe wanted to stay in this room and be waited on hand and foot forever.

  If only she didn’t have a million other things to do, like her homework and that stupid embroidery for Magnus. At least it was Friday.