I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 8: The Duke’s daughter’s revenge is not too late even if it takes 3 years (2)

“Welcome, Ariana.”

As soon as I arrived at Margrave Francis’ residence and entered, my close friend Charlotte came out to greet me.

She must have realized that my family’s carriage had come down today, because she’s a perceptive person in more ways than one.

“I’d like to talk to you for a while today, is that still okay?”

“Of course, Arianna, I’ll show you to the parlor.”

As we sat across from each other over tea and refreshments, I cautiously opened up to Charlotte about the day’s agenda.

“Charlotte, this might seem like a strange thing to ask you to do….”

“It’s okay, please tell me. I’m always ready to do whatever Ariana asks.”

“But it’s a favor I’m a little embarrassed to ask, and it might hurt you, Charlotte.”

“I’d walk through thorns with you for Ariana, wouldn’t I?”

“Don’t say that again….”

It was a little overwhelming, but it was a clear statement, so I trusted her and cautiously told her my purpose for today.

“My request to Charlotte today is about Miss Sierra.”

“…….”

“I may need Charlotte’s help to bring Miss Sierra to justice for stealing my fiancé.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened at my words, and she turned serious as she told me the answer.

“At last, at last…at last….”

“What?”

“It’s finally coming out of Ariana’s mouth.”

Charlotte looked so excited that she looked like she was about to burst into tears, as if she had been looking forward to me telling her this story.

“Aren’t you disappointed? I’m trying to drag Charlotte into this for my own personal vendetta….”

“I have to ask, how have you been so patient all this time? Did that commoner woman ever save Ariana’s life when she was younger? Or is it just because your fiancé seems to like her better?”

“Well, nothing like that, I just thought it would be better to let it play out like this so I could be the bad guy….So that’s why I stayed put.”

“So it was better for Ariana to be accused of trying to poison the woman on her own, and to be misunderstood as having bullied her behind the scenes before, and to have her fiancé stolen from her?”

“That’s ………….”

“That wasn’t very Ariana.”

It was an inexcusable comment.

She was right, the way I’d treated Miss Sierra over the past two years had been a little too brazen, even for me.

“It wasn’t like me,” I said, “but I’m going to act like myself from now on.”

I decided to go back to my own belief that the only person who could make me happy was me.

I saw the corners of Charlotte’s mouth turn up slightly as she heard my resolve.

“I haven’t seen that look on your face in a long time, Ariana.”

“What?”

“When I was estranged from Prince Eamon, Ariana looked like that and actively helped me to mend my relationship with him.”

Come to think of it, that did happen.

Alex’s half-brother, Prince Eamon, is another targeted character.

Charlotte is Prince Eamon’s original fiancée and a villainess with a different vibe from Arianna.

I remember watching their relationship and realizing that it was similar to my relationship with Alex, and I wanted them to be happy no matter what.

“I’ve been waiting and waiting, wondering when I would be able to repay you for this favor.”

“….It’s not that big of a deal, and we’re friends….”

“Well, the closer you are to someone, the more you should return the favor, so let’s get our plans in order.”

Charlotte snapped her fingers in the air, and a magical pen and paper appeared.

It was a specialty magic that suited her personality perfectly, given her love of reading and writing.

“First things first, we need to build public opinion about Sierra.”

As if to record the meeting they were having, the pen hovering in midair moved of its own accord, scribbling something down on the paper.

“Currently, Sierra’s faction within the Academy accounts for about 65% of the total.”

“That’s a lot more than I thought….How can a commoner have that many connections….?”

“Most of them are forces attached to Alexander, so they are like imaginary numbers. He is also the next king, and it is probably a choice that there is no harm in putting him in line.”

That said, since Alex has been spending more time with Miss Sierra, it sometimes feels like there are more people sympathizing with her.

“If, as Ariana said, Alexandros no longer favors Sierra, the power surrounding Miss Sierra will probably drop to 5%.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Of course, this 5% power is not that small, so we will use Prince Alexander’s power to completely isolate her.”

What Charlotte meant by using Alex’s power, I didn’t quite understand at first.

“People tend to believe what they want to believe and disbelieve what they don’t want to believe.”

“Oh, right. That’s usually true.”

“When you realize that what you want to believe is different from what you actually know, and you think that the actual information must be wrong, it’s called cognitive dissonance.”

“Oh, right, I know what cognitive dissonance is.”

I’d used the term a lot in my previous life, so it made sense.

“In other words, even if we were to blindly bring out evidence that Arianna didn’t poison Sierra, it’s possible that this ‘cognitive dissonance’ would make them even more united.”

“That’s certainly true, and on top of that, you can’t ignore groupthink.”

“So I’m going to use Alexandros’ power here.”

Charlotte then began to explain the logistics of the operation to sway public opinion.

“Most of Alexandros’ forces are from powerful noble families, or people who have flocked to him to get ahead in life, so they’re usually shrewd, quick to move, and not very adventurous because they’re not swayed by emotion.

To them, it doesn’t really matter if Arianna did or didn’t poison Sierra, only Alexandros’ opinion matters.”

“Right.”

“If word starts to get out that Arianna is back on good terms with Alexandros, his faction will quickly separate themselves from Sierra’s faction, because everyone in the Academy tacitly acknowledges that Sierra’s arch-enemy is Arianna.”

“From the sounds of it, that’s what will happen.”

After saying that, Charlotte divided Alex’s force into two, calling them A and B respectively, and named Sierra’s force C.

“To make calculations easier, let’s assume that the combined power of A and B is 50%, and C is 10%.”

“Right.”

“If Arianna makes a move that looks like she’s going to reunite with Alexandros, his factions will move in the order of whoever is the sharpest and most astute, with A moving first and B still dipping their toes in the Sierra water.”

“I see.”

“Suddenly, when their power is reduced, the people in B and C will suddenly feel insecure, wondering if they’ve made the wrong decision, and it’s important to let them feed on that insecurity, but not let it get too deep.”

“So how do we do that?”

“First, we’ll save the evidence that Ariana didn’t poison Sierra, and then we’ll unleash it when it matters most, which is when we’ll use crowd psychology.”

“The moment when faction A has more people than faction B, and we can use crowd psychology to get people to go with faction B. At the same time, faction B still has more people than faction C, and we can get people to go with faction C. At that point, we’ll release the evidence.

If you can time it right, if you can get the crowd psychology of faction B and faction C to come out at the same time, you can leave Sierra’s faction with a handful.”

To summarize: A≥B≥C.

“That would be the point at which faction A goes from 25% to 30%.”

“It’s not as hard to get the timing right as you think, is it?”

I can’t believe I asked her ten minutes ago and she’s already gotten this far.

I’m glad I trusted you, Charlotte.

…Huh? But wait a minute.

“I’m just wondering if I’m missing something, Charlotte.”

“Is there something you don’t understand?”

“Do you have any proof that I didn’t order Sierra’s poisoning? I seem to recall that I was in such a hurry at the time that I didn’t take anything that might prove it….”

“What if this whole operation was set up because you thought I had proof that Ms. Sierra did it?

What if we’re going to have to start from scratch?

“What does it matter?”

“What? Because of course we need evidence to reverse public opinion….”

“Well, you can make all the evidence you want, you have the time and money, why not?”

“…….”

…I’m genuinely glad she’s an ally.