TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 221
The words spilling from Olivia’s mouth gripped Yuria’s heart tightly.
“You don’t know anything.”
“You don’t know what Ricardo did because of you, how much that fool was criticized just for your sake.”
Olivia looked at Yuria coldly as she spoke, as if there was no reason for her hatred.
“Do you know why Ricardo goes to the Academy so early in the morning?”
“Have you ever asked why Ricardo lingers in front of your shoe cabinet like a puppy needing to go out?”
Olivia stared straight into Yuria’s eyes as she spoke, conveying the feeling that Yuria was under a Great Misconception.
“You must feel wronged. I know it’s absurd for me to say this, and I understand it’s a situation bound to cause misunderstanding… because I orchestrated everything.”
“But what changes if you know it’s unfair?”
“Nothing.”
To Yuria’s harsh question, Olivia shrugged and answered.
“Nothing would change.”
“…”
“I have no intention of making excuses to you. Saying it was because others coaxed me or I got swept up in the mood would just be pathetic excuses.”
“Why am I telling you this? Are you saying I should hate you instead of Ricardo? That since you pressured him, I shouldn’t hate you so much?”
“I told you. You don’t know anything right now.”
Olivia calmly opened her mouth in response to Yuria’s question. Bringing her hand to her lips, she began to unravel the secrets Ricardo had told her not to reveal.
“Graffiti on the desk.”
“Thumbtacks in the shoe cabinet.”
“Backstabbing. And more. You think Ricardo did all of it.”
Yuria remained silent.
She simply kept her mouth shut and focused on Olivia’s words.
“That’s right. No matter how much I ordered him to do it, if Ricardo did such things to you, the Sense of Betrayal would be immense.”
“But. But, you see…”
Olivia spoke with a small smile.
“That fool absolutely cannot do it.”
Recalling the fool who would never do something he didn’t want to, Olivia lowered her head. Even she thought Ricardo was too kind.
“That fool absolutely cannot do it.”
“…”
“He meddles unnecessarily, takes the blame himself, and claims responsibility for things he didn’t even do. What’s this about being from a Slum? Even if you said he was from a Monastery, I’d believe it. Don’t you think so?”
At Olivia’s words, Yuria felt something inside her crack.
-Crack.
The faint crack split further, and from the fissure, complex emotions squirmed, trying to emerge.
Yuria spoke with trembling eyes.
“What are you trying to say…”
“Ricardo never bullied you.”
Olivia calmly inhaled and looked at the Disgustingly Bright Moon. The moon, as if evoking someone’s image, made her feel a bit unsettled.
She had revealed everything Ricardo had told her to keep secret.
It was the same back then. On the day she, blinded by Jealousy, forced Ricardo to fulfill unreasonable requests, the moon was just as bright as tonight.
-Don’t hang out with Yuria.
-I don’t want to.
-Do it because I said so. People are looking at it negatively.
-Am I popular now? That’s actually good, isn’t it?
-You’re dodging the topic again.
-Anyway, I refuse. If you have a problem, tell them to come to me.
Recalling Ricardo rejecting her orders, Olivia spoke in a Low Voice.
-Sigh.
“Do you really think that fool would do everything I told him to?”
And she spoke to Yuria.
“No. That fool cannot do it.”
Because he was the same with me.
“That’s why Ricardo was always out of place.”
“He deliberately did things the others disliked, ignored everything I said, and cleaned and tidied your desk by himself, which is why he was out of place.”
Olivia let out a long sigh as she spoke.
“At some point, Ricardo began acting mean toward you, didn’t he?”
“…”
“And after that, your school life got a little better.”
“…”
“Why do you think that is?”
“…”
Stop. Don’t.
Ignoring Yuria’s inner plea, Olivia coldly laid out the harsh reality.
“Do you think it’s because people changed?”
Olivia shook her head.
“No, it’s because of Ricardo. That Guy acted harshly on purpose to make you seem pitiable and help you make Friends, even if it meant becoming the bad guy himself.”
Please stop.
If you continue, I’ll Break Down.
“No…”
“The Tragic Heroine sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
“No, that’s not true…”
Don’t make me waver.
I had made up my mind.
Why did I hate Ricardo…
Please…
“Stop it.”
“It’s satisfying to see a Commoner bullying another Commoner, isn’t it? If someone more annoying than you shows up, you want to bully them too. Picking who’s better.”
“I said stop!”
Ignoring Yuria’s warning, Olivia continued.
“All of it was Ricardo’s doing.”
Just to make things easier for you.
“He used his meager wages to buy chocolates and put them on the desks of your classmates.”
To improve your image.
“He took the trash, milk, and thumbtacks from your desk and put them on his own.”
Just to take care of you.
“Every morning, he came to school early to check if nothing had happened that day.”
Olivia looked directly at Yuria as she spoke.
“That fool absolutely cannot do it.”
*
In a story no one knew.
A Lady was shedding tears in front of someone’s Tombstone. The black sword placed next to the Tombstone was rusted, as if it could never be pulled out, and lilies were piled around the sword.
“It’s my fault.”
The Lady with pink Hair knelt before the Tombstone, clutching her chest and caressing the Tombstone.
“Because of me… you…”
The Lady’s mournful words, filled with Heartwrenching Pain, desperately sought an answer from the unresponsive Tombstone.
-Doubt.
If she could cast a Curse.
She would want to curse her Past Self.
Telling herself to doubt and not to trust, that giving too much Faith would lead to unbearable Heartwrenching Pain.
-I’m glad. You weren’t hurt….
Even now, this kind of pain.
A pain that cannot be shared with anyone.
The Lady shed tears as she looked at the Tombstone, saying she couldn’t bear it.
‘Doubt.’
She had hated him over something trivial.
At the same time, if the reason she approached him so freely had been amplified, she thought she might not have started at all.
The Lady wiped the Tombstone with her tears and cried all night.
Hoping for one more chance.
***
Even after a week passed, Yuria’s mood did not improve.
Even though Father had awakened.
Even though she ate delicious food.
There was no sign of improvement.
Yuria wore a dark expression and lowered her head.
It was strange.
The words she had heard from Olivia were so strange. Everything she had thought she understood and accepted positively, believing it was orchestrated bullying, turned out to be contradictions.
She thought she couldn’t trust Olivia’s words, but the memories that flashed through her mind cast doubt on Yuria’s negative thoughts.
-What were you doing?
-Ah… that is.
Even the time she ran into a startled Ricardo at the Shoe Cabinet by chance.
-What are you doing!
-Oh, you’re early today?
The scene of Ricardo drawing Graffiti on the Desk when she arrived earlier than usual replayed in Yuria’s mind.
At that time, she had been angry.
Because everything she saw pointed to Ricardo’s wrongdoing. She had thought the Classmates’ ostracism and every word from her Friends were all insults directed at her. She had taken it sensitively and had been scared.
So, she hadn’t had the leisure to look back at Ricardo. To see what he was doing, who he was with. She liked him, yet she knew nothing about him. How foolish of her.
Slowly, the puzzle pieces in her mind began to fit together.
From the moment she started making Friends in class, she began to understand why Ricardo, who no longer spoke to her, had such a lonely Back Figure.
As more Friends invited her to eat together, she began to realize why Ricardo was no longer seen in the Restaurant.
She had thought he was avoiding her.
She had thought he found her uncomfortable and didn’t want to eat with her, so he avoided the Restaurant. But everything was a contradiction.
Why was he avoiding me?
Why was he bullying me?
Why did he hate me?
If only he had told me back then, things would have been different. If he had given me even a hint, things would have been at least a little different…
-Miss Yuria, are you happy with your life at the Academy now?
-I’d be fine if you weren’t here.
-Is that so? That’s a relief.
‘Ah.’
Only now did Yuria understand the meaning behind Ricardo’s words when he was expelled from the Academy. The farewell he had kindly given to her, even though he hadn’t to others, was something she was only now beginning to comprehend.
It was all because of ‘me.’
Late at night, sitting by Father’s sickbed, Yuria rubbed her cheeks at the hot sensation she felt.
“Huh…?”
Tears were falling.
“Why is this happening…?”
She felt so foolish.
For doubting Ricardo.
For holding onto Hatred in her heart until the very end, only to realize it was directed wrongly, tears streamed down her face.
“Ah… Ahhh…”
Even as she rubbed her eyes, the tears didn’t stop.
Amid the tears glistening under the Moonlight, the emotion she felt was not the Emotion of Regret but an overwhelming sense of guilt.
This wasn’t it.
This wasn’t what I wanted.
Swallowing her sadness in her heart, Yuria lifted her head.
I need some fresh air.
She thought that if she took a deep breath, enough to clear her chest, she might feel a little better.
Yuria covered her eyes with her hands to hide her tears from Father and ran to the Veranda.
-Creak.
And then.
“Huh?”
“Miss Yuria?”
She met the person she least wanted to see at that moment.
“The wind is cold.”
She encountered someone who always worried about her during her most difficult moment.
And at that moment.
-Clatter.
The shell that had been encasing Yuria’s heart began to crumble.
*
[The Curse of ‘Jealousy’ within ‘Yuria’ begins to stir.]
-The Needle of Memory, which had been stopped, begins to move.