Blythe awoke with a gasp, and Suzy instantly stood up from the small wooden chair she'd been sitting on. The chair didn't belong in the room; Suzy must have brought it in to sit on after ascertaining that Blythe wasn't getting up from her nap anytime soon.

  "My lady, are you alright?" She went to the coffee table and poured out some water into an empty glass. "You fell asleep immediately after coming back from school."

  Blythe gratefully gulped down half the contents at one go.

  "Thanks," she said, nodding at the glass. "I'm fine."

  Suzy still looked hesitant, but she said, “Would you like to take your bath now?”

  After a quick shower and some dinner, Blythe settled down at her study desk and got to work. She worked her way through the year-specific study guides borrowed from the school library, taking down physical notes and attempting to absorb as much information as possible.

  There wasn’t much time left for her to find a recipe book for chocolate truffles, much less the one that the original Blythe had used. Deciding to look for it tomorrow, she went to bed instead.

  The next morning, she didn’t bother working out before school because she had PE for first period. The earlier part of the day went by uneventfully, with her trying her best in PE and then paying attention to what the professors were teaching.

  Lunch period took place after a class in which she shared with Magnus and Cole. The three of them walked to the dining hall together after Blythe sent a quick VocAvis message on her whereabouts to Jessica.

  She would've preferred making her way there herself, but Magnus seemed to carry the expectation of going there together. Every time she tried slowing down enough to give them the opportunity to go ahead of her, he came to a stop and waited for her to catch up. It got to the point where Cole kept shooting glances over his shoulder at Blythe as if anticipating the next time she would change her walking speed. If she tried overtaking them, Magnus would simply keep up with her pace like nothing had happened. Considering how low her physical stats were, there was no chance of getting away from him if he didn't want her to.

  Confused by Magnus' obstinacy in walking with her, Blythe cast him a sidelong glance. What was he thinking?

  The neutral expression on his face gave nothing away.

  Giving up on shaking them off, she just walked beside them until they arrived at the dining hall.

  "I'm surprised you haven't whisked Magnus off yet to enjoy your 'quality time' together," Cole said suddenly, grinning at Blythe. "Thanks to you, Magnus has been able to eat lunch with us for the past few days. You usually only let him eat with us once a week."

  Us?

  Blythe didn't want to ask. She was going to assume Magnus had a bunch of friends with whom he hung around in school whenever the original Blythe wasn't forcing him to spend time with her.

  "I have autonomy, you know," Magnus complained, brushing off the hand Cole had placed on his shoulder. "It's my choice whether or not to eat with you."

  If he could make his own choices, and he clearly disliked Blythe's company that much, why did he let the original Blythe hog all his spare time at school in the past?

  Was it just to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn't up to no good?

  Cole ignored Magnus' disgruntlement, still directing his pleased gaze at Blythe. "It's been nice to have Magnus around again."

  He and Magnus were close childhood friends after all, so this level of comfort around each other was natural.

  She opened her mouth, about to tell him that she had no intention of holding Magnus back from hanging out with his friends, when Jessica's clear voice cut through the background buzz of the dining hall.

  "Blythe!"

  Perking up, she whirled around with a big smile for her friend. "Jess!"

  Jessica noticed the company she was in and promptly greeted both Magnus and Cole.

  "Where's Sophie?" Blythe asked.

  "She's placing her order. The line for grilled steak is always so long."

  Blythe made a sound of acknowledgment before turning back to Cole. "I've been reflecting on my past actions. I've pulled Magnus away from his friends too much, even though you and the others want to spend time with him too."

  Although Cole hadn't said as much, she could guess it since he'd tried to coax her out of demanding Magnus' time in the morning before school just yesterday. Besides, the original Blythe clearly yearned to spend very waking hour of her life with Magnus.

  Magnus stared at her, his jaw slack. Cole's eyebrows rose so high that they disappeared behind his electric-blue bangs.

  "To make up for all that lost time," Blythe continued, looping her arm through Jessica's, "I was thinking that I should have lunch with my friends today, Magnus. I don't want to hinder you from being with your own friends."

  Magnus' dark brown eyebrows knitted together. "Again?"

  Cole didn't seem to hear it, whooping and draping an arm over Magnus' shoulders. "Thanks for being so considerate, Blythe. Come on, Magnus, let's go!"

  Letting Cole pull him along with one last glance back at Blythe, Magnus' frown disappeared as he answered Cole's question about what food he was getting today.

  "Where do you want to have lunch?" Jessica asked.

  Truth be told, Blythe was glad that she'd had that conversation with Jessica yesterday. With the pressure of explaining why she wasn't throwing herself at Magnus gone, she was able to relax.

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  Since there was no longer any fear of Magnus inviting himself to sit with them, Blythe said, "How about we eat here today?"

  "Okay! Is there a table you'd prefer to sit at?"

  Blythe lowered her voice to a whisper, moving closer so Jessica could hear. "I want to give Magnus some space to make up for monopolizing so much of his time before. Let's look for a table away from him and his friends."

  "You're such a thoughtful fiancée!" Jessica clapped her hands together, her eyes sparkling. "No problem. Cole and the others usually sit in that section closer to the drinks stall, so we can pick any of the other sections here. I’ll tell Sophie we’re eating here too."

  They found a vacant table, and Jessica volunteered to get food for both of them while Blythe waited there.

  Jessica and Sophie returned at about the same time, each bearing a tray of food in their hands.

  After sitting down, Sophie raised her head and looked around. “Oh, is His Highness not eating with us again today?”

  “Yeah, he’s with his friends. I’m trying not to occupy too much of his time, remember?”

  “You’re so kind and sweet,” Sophie said, bringing her hands up to cover her open mouth. “He’s really fortunate to have you.”

  Blythe’s face twitched with the effort to quash an oncoming grimace. “No, you’re praising me too much …”

  “No, it’s just the truth,” Sophie insisted, slicing up her steak. “We all know you normally prefer to spend lunch period alone with him, but you’re even sacrificing that time for his sake.”

  Blythe found herself speechless. She dug into her shepherd’s pie, occupying her mouth with the savory mix of ground beef and mashed potatoes so she couldn’t talk.

  At the sound of light throat-clearing beside her, she turned her head. Jessica leaned forward, bracing her forearms against the edge of the table. Her own shepherd’s pie, set in the center of a white ceramic plate, remained untouched.

  “Hey, did you hear about Rose's outburst in the courtyard during third period? I heard they revoked her facilities privileges for a week."

  Immediately latching on to the piece of juicy gossip, Sophie abandoned all thoughts of Blythe's self-sacrificial behavior for Magnus and leaned in as well.

  "Rose?! No way! She's always so calm. What happened?"

  Jessica shared what she'd heard about from another classmate. Rose had thrown a fit over someone else allegedly plagiarizing her essay, and she'd apparently resorted to siccing her sparrow beast onto the other student, who had vehemently denied it, to express her anger. Then a professor had happened to walk past them right at that moment. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Rose, the tiny sparrow hadn't been able to do much, if any, damage to the other student. Through the interesting tale, Blythe inferred that 'facilities privileges' meant the school's amenities, including the swimming pool and the student kitchens.

  “Excuse me,” came a soft, hopeful voice from behind Blythe. “Is this seat occupied?"

  Jessica and Sophie, both of whom were seated across from Blythe at the table, snapped their heads up and narrowed their eyes. The comedic effect of their simultaneous yet identical actions made Blythe press her lips together to keep from smiling.

  Turning around, she saw Daisy looking down, with just the slightest hunch in her shoulders, at a bunch of girls sitting at the table behind Blythe's. She was nodding at the vacant chair in front of her.

  Blythe's desire to smile died on the spot.

  After what had happened at the library yesterday, the last thing she wanted was for Daisy to be anywhere near her two friends. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

  Blythe turned her head back. Maybe she could distract them with more talk about the alleged plagiarism.

  But Jessica's and Sophie's eyes were fixed on Daisy, cold and unyielding.

  Blythe couldn't understand why they were determined to have it out for her. Even faced with all the facts laid out that Daisy hadn't done anything to deserve their targeting, they still refused to acknowledge their own irrationality regarding this matter.

  The possibility of this mindset being 'programmed' into them flashed across her mind. She herself had been forced to say and do things to Daisy that she didn't want to.

  She couldn't stop the grimace from coming onto her face.

  That was just a big bag of yikes.

  She glanced back again, curious about what was going on.

  "No," one of the girls at the table answered.

  "Oh, thank you!" Gratitude filled Daisy's voice.

  Right as she moved to sit down, the girl sitting beside the empty seat transferred her school bag from her lap to the chair.

  Stunned, Daisy shrank back with her tray of food still in her hands. "Um ..."

  "We said it wasn't occupied," another girl said lazily, twirling her cream pasta around the fork she was holding. "We didn't say you could sit there."

  Yet another girl from their group of five sniggered, setting off a round of snickering and smirks at Daisy's awkward expression.

  The girl next to the seat drawled, "My bag is so heavy. I was about to leave it on this chair when you walked up to us. It wasn't occupied, but now it is."

  If that had happened to Blythe, she would've died on the spot from the humiliation. While the game had mentioned how disliked Daisy was among the other girls in school, she hadn't known it was to this extent.

  Even the mob characters held her in contempt.

  Behind her, she heard either Sophie or Jessica scoff.

  Daisy showed no hint of mortification—even though she had to be suffering on the inside, Blythe was sure—and retreated wordlessly from that table. Instead, she approached the next table of five girls, which happened to be right beside this table.

  "Hello, Leah," she said to a girl who had her light blonde hair in a tall ponytail. "Is it alright if I sit here?"

  Leah looked up from the neighboring table to stare at her in shock.

  One of the girls eyed Leah skeptically. "How do you know her?"

  Blythe would bet all the craft paper in her desk drawer that Leah got whiplash from how vehemently she shook her head. "No, I don't know her at all. She's just in my healing class."

  Daisy's face began crumpling up, but she caught herself in time and managed to smooth her expression out. Blythe couldn't stop watching the train wreck unfolding before her.

  Every single girl at the table, except for Leah, gave Daisy a hostile stare. Leah dipped her garlic bread into her bowl of cream of mushroom soup, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

  Getting the hint, Daisy backed away and turned around.

  "As if anyone wants to sit with her," Sophie said, her expression snide. "I almost lost my appetite looking at her."

  "She should just sit with the boys and be done with it," Jessica agreed, withdrawing her chin from the palm she'd been resting it on. "She obviously only wants their attention. So shameless."

  Sophie made sounds of agreement.

  A pang of pity hit Blythe right in the chest.

  Daisy was probably sick of sitting alone for lunch. Otherwise, she could've simply sat at a a table by herself like she usually did. The game didn't go into much detail about how lonely Daisy felt without friends; that took a backseat to the romance events and the unraveling plot of her missing mother.

  For a second, she nearly opened her mouth to offer Daisy a seat at her lunch table.

  A tiny voice at the back of her mind, the side of her that leaned toward self-preservation, shouted at her not to do it. She paused, looking back at Daisy sitting down at an empty table by herself.

  There was no telling what would happen come the next in-game bullying event. Of course, she was planning to keep a safe distance from Jessica and Sophie to avoid triggering it.

  Many of the protagonists in the web novels she read befriended the original heroine of the story, leading to a good turn of events for the protagonists. However, none of them had been forced by the original story or plot to harass the original heroine at any point. Blythe had no idea if the dining hall bullying scene would be a one-off or not. Would she lose control of her body again when the time came?

  What was the point of extending a hand of friendship if she was just going to end up bullying Daisy again later on? It would be cruel.

  Abruptly somber, Blythe did what she did best in her original world—keep her head down and eat her lunch.

  At least she had friends to eat with.

  The rest of the school day went by without any further notable events.

  Blythe was waiting at the courtyard for her ride home when Magnus popped up in front of her.

  "Blythe." His smooth, low voice was cold.

  Her heart nearly dropped out of her ribcage. Hand over her chest, Blythe stared at him with wide eyes. She'd been spacing out too hard to notice him approach.

  Forcing some deep breaths to calm her heart rate down, she broke their eye contact to stare at the grass instead. What a jump scare.

  "Um, hi."

  "What's going on? You've been avoiding me recently. Are you up to something?"