I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 10: The Duke’s daughter’s revenge is not too late even if it takes 3 years (4)

The rest of the winter passed in a series of secret tactical meetings with Charlotte.

The spring of my third year at the Academy came around faster than I expected, as I listened to her give me point-by-point advice on what I should do once the Academy opened.

For the record, Alex never visited Anastasia’s mansion, not even once, until the winter was over.

He said he’d come back another time, but it looks like I’ve been waiting for nothing.

…Well, it’s not like I’m disappointed or anything, I’m sure Alex had his own things on his mind.

He’s royalty, and he’s the next king, so he probably doesn’t have time to deal with the busywork that lies beneath the story.

And for someone who’s so consumed with his work, I must have seemed like a bit of a nuisance.

While it’s true that I’d like to spend a little more time with Alex, it’s not so important to me that I have to hold him back.

After all, he’s the one I’ll be seeing every day again once the new semester starts.

I don’t miss him, not one bit.

“You’ve arrived, Miss Ariana.”

“Thank you, Derek.”

The carriage carrying me and Elise had finally arrived at the Ersilia Academy of Magic.

I never thought I’d be able to come back, but I’m kind of happy to be able to start my third year here.

The academy’s staff was transferring my bags from the carriage’s luggage compartment to the floating carts one by one.

Elise was pulling the float, which was loaded with all the luggage that we would need for the next three months in the dormitory.

As the building of our spring dorm was getting closer and closer, my attention was naturally drawn to the eyes and voices around me.

“Uh, what are we going to do?! Lady Ariana has arrived!”

“I wonder if I’ll get in trouble for talking to her first? Last time I saw her, she was at Miss Sierra’s tea party….”

You’d think they were whispering so they wouldn’t be heard, but I listened to each person’s voice enough to know what they were talking about.

They were all talking to me first, and then they were worried that I was pushing them away.

If anything, I’d take the hat off to them for apologizing, because my indecisiveness confused them.

This reaction I’m feeling now, by the way, was definitely not what I expected.

Alex had dropped the bombshell at the prom that he was suddenly going to rekindle our relationship, but it had been an isolated incident.

Had he said something else that I didn’t realize? I haven’t heard anything, but here’s what I know….

“Good morning, Ariana.”

As I walked away with that small question, I turned to face Charlotte, who had arrived at the dormitory first and was waiting for me.

“Good morning, Charlotte.”

“It’s been almost a month since we last spoke, I hope nothing special has happened to you in that time?”

“Special things? What kind of special things are you talking about?”

“Like, for example, that prince, Ariana’s fiancé, bursting into her bedroom and trying to force himself on her, or kidnapping her and dragging her to the royal palace and trying to marry her off somehow.”

“Oh, Alex would never do such a thing!”

I felt heat rush to my face at her comment, wondering what the hell she was talking about.

“I don’t think even the dumbest prince would do something like that, but you never know what a person will do when they’re in a hurry.”

“Ah, well, there are degrees, and we’ve only just decided to repair our relationship, so there’s no excuse to be so rash.”

“Well, Arianna’s got Elise by her side almost all the time, so I’m sure she’ll keep her from breaking, even if Arianna’s the kind of girl who takes it all in stride.”

“Of course you’re right, Charlotte.”

It made me feel a little frustrated to see the two of them treating Alex like a plague.

I can’t wait for Alex to be accepted by both of them….

“You know what?”

I quickly changed the subject to lighten the mood, knowing that if I left it at this, Alex’s gossip would undoubtedly come out of both of their mouths.

“Just getting out of the carriage and walking over here, I could tell that the way you were looking at me was a lot different than it was a few months ago.”

“I see.”

“Could it be because of that incident at the ball last year? As I recall, they were only about two percent of the Academy’s students who attended that ball.”

The circumstances of the incident itself were bizarre in many ways, and the speaker fainted and collapsed as soon as he spoke.

It’s hard to imagine a rumor of this nature having this much impact, even if the facts were clear.

“As for their attitude toward Ariana, I did a little dictionary work.”

“What?”

“For a month, I’ve been deliberately going to social events and tea parties and things like that, and I’ve been dropping little rumors about Ariana here and there.”

“Rumors about me?”

“I couldn’t mention the poisoning because I had to leave the evidence behind, but I did pass on rumors about Ariana’s previous harassment of Sierra, with slight modifications.

I think it was someone else, not Ariana, who was harassing Sierra before, and I’ve been telling that kind of story to a lot of different people, saying different things, and keeping it under the surface, with the occasional moderately credible piece of evidence.”

I feel like I know what “evidence” Charlotte is referring to, even without seeing it.

“Initially, I started by spreading it to the neutral faction’s friends who are favorable to Ariana, because they want you to be a good person, so they’re more likely to accept the information they want to believe as true, which is how we use cognitive dissonance in reverse.

If you tell them something with a little bit of evidence, they’ll spread the rumor without you telling them, and then they’ll hear it again from someone else who’s already heard it, and then they’ll hear it again from someone else, and they’ll be even more convinced. At that point, the fact that there’s only one source is kind of buried and invisible.”

“So that’s why you didn’t want me to visit you for a while, because you’ve been busy with all this stuff.”

I thought she just had other things going on, but I didn’t realize she was doing this for me under the radar again.

“Why didn’t you tell me, I would have had something to do too….”

“You don’t have to do the preliminary work, Ariana’s going to be busy after school starts anyway, so don’t worry about that.”

When Charlotte says I’m going to be busy, she means I’m going to be really, really busy.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it on top of my studies.

I suppose it’s my karma, too: I’ve let what’s right next to me slip away, and it’s only natural that I’ll have to put in more time and effort to get it back.

“…There, there.”

As I was walking with Charlotte upstairs to the dormitory, a young lady approached me from the side.

Upon closer inspection, I realize that he’s one of the people who stuck by my side almost to the end when I refused to deny the poisoning.

“What’s going on?”

“Spread, spread, flat…” .”

“Hmm?”

“Are you at peace, Lady Ariana?”

She just came to say good morning.

It was a greeting I hadn’t heard in so long, I almost didn’t understand what she meant for a moment.

It probably took a lot of courage for this young lady to say those words to me.

Naturally, I was obliged to respond properly.

“Are you at peace, Miss Amy?”

“Oh, yes, I’m at peace, if you’ll excuse me!”

As soon as Miss Amy heard my answer, she shyly ducked into the crowd and disappeared.

As the other young people watched, one by one, they began to come up to me and greet me.

“Are you at peace, Young Lady Ariana?”

“Dear Ariana, it’s been a long time.”

“Have you been at peace, Lady Ariana?”

The flood of well-wishes, starting with Ms. Amy, left me standing in place for a while, unable to move.

It was a moment that made Charlotte’s words about how busy things were going to ring true.

* * *

Alex’s arrival at the Academy was a week after my arrival.

The original Alex would have been in his dormitory and ready for the start of classes three days before, at the latest, so to arrive this late was quite unusual in my opinion.

Alex’s half-brother, Prince Eamon, had already arrived three days earlier.

Seeing his carriage arrive at the entrance to the dormitory, I prepared to step out of my room to greet him.

“Are you going to greet Prince Alexandros?”

“Yes!”

“…….”

“Oh, well, it’s not like I’ve missed him terribly or anything, but Charlotte said it was important to show him that I and my fiancé are on good terms.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

…But your eyes were saying it.

I can’t help it, she still doesn’t like Alex.

It’s something she’ll have to get over, so I’m just going to keep my head down and do what I have to do.

…At least I can cheer him on from the sidelines, right?

With that thought in mind, I walked to the first floor of the dormitory and waited for Alex to get out of the carriage.

Finally, the royal carriage opened, and I saw Alex’s butler, Dale, get out first.

Alex poked his head out of the carriage as well, being assisted by the first person to exit,

“Huh?”

The face was recognizable from a mile away, a tired, haggard, gaunt figure.