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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
POV: Violet
A friend.
An existence I once dismissed unnecessary for the nobles.
Someone you can recognize as an equal and open your heart up to.
Now, I’ve slowly gained more people I can call friends, like Kriemhild and Ms. Cyan…
“… Sorry, if I heard you correctly, you just asked me to-”
“I said I want to be your friend.”
And Mary Sue just declared that she wanted to be such an existence to me.
The girl who I was once jealous of and humiliated wants to be my friend…
–Wait, don’t tell me!
“If you want to kill the general, you must kill his horse first…!”
“I do think Mr. Clo is charming, but this is not about that.”
I was wrong?
She wasn’t trying to make me let my guard down, get close to Lord Clo and steal him from me because she fell in love with him? But in that case, I don’t understand her even more.
“Sue, I’m not qualified to be your friend. What I’ve done in the past—“
“If we’re talking about qualifications, I’m far less qualified, considering what I’ve done to you guys.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t go into the details, but— alright. It’s going to be a horrible story. Is that fine?”
“… Sure.”
She took a thinking gesture and paused for a moment.
She was just as elegant and beautiful as before… but strangely, she felt different from before. I couldn’t put my finger on it though.
“Preoccupation with others, whether it’s support, sabotage, love or hate, is ultimately one of the ways of escaping from oneself. Competition is fundamentally running away from self.”
“… That’s-“
She spoke as if she was quoting somebody, but I couldn’t tell whose words they were.
As for the meaning… I guess, in a nutshell, she was saying that working hard for other people, even if it was done out of the consideration, was running away from self.
“You see, I was running away from ‘myself’ and ‘the world’.”
So, was she behaving the way she did until now to avoid facing herself?
But for that to be true, she’s been too–
“Even if you were running away, you still saved a lot of people, didn’t you?”
Even if she was running away, she had worked hard and acted to make Azalea Academy a better place.
At first, she was scorned by the nobles, including me, but now…she has accomplished many things that I could never achieve, to the point that most people at the school festival loved her.
First of all, even if it was an escape, if you say that, every act of saving others becomes an escape, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.
“But it’s also true that I didn’t see anything. Even though I didn’t see it, I acted only on superficial words… and drove you out of the academy.”
“In other words, you feel guilty about driving me out, and you want to ease that guilt by becoming friends with me? What you did was wrong and I shouldn’t have been expelled. Is that what you are trying to say?”
I sounded mean and sarcastic, just like how I used to be.
But if that’s the reason why she wants to become my friend, I have no intention of doing so, even if I still feel guilt. That’s not an equal relationship.
“You have it wrong.”
But she denied it with a straightforward look in her eyes.
…Ah, that’s right. While she interacts with others with a smile and kindness, she also possesses strength and firmly denies anything she believes to be wrong. That’s why I said earlier that she had saved people.
“I do feel guilty, but I don’t want to deny that I wished to make people happy. However empty I may be, the principle behind my actions of wanting to make everyone within my reach happy remains unchanged.”
“… I see.”
Hearing that, I was a little relieved.
I don’t understand why she started saying that she “didn’t see anything” now. Maybe she experienced a turning point in her life without my knowledge.
However, even if she was empty, she certainly reached out to me too.
…And His Highness and the others were probably saved without my knowledge too. As long as she’s not going to deny those feelings, it’s all fine.
“However, I want to face what I’ve been turning a blind eye to until now. You, who I considered my enemy and refused to look at properly until now.”
I’m sure her standing in front of me right now is also motivated by kindness, but more than anything else–
“To face you, who I never looked at properly before, I am going to do what I want to do.”
“… By that, you mean-“
She wants to—-
“Yes, I want to become friends with you, talk with you, grope each other’s chests in the changing room, get into the bath together, and feed each other! Then I think I’ll be able to face you!”
“Oh, I see… I… see?”
Wait, huh?
I was agreeing until halfway through, but I couldn’t understand the ending.
“Wait, I don’t have many friends either, but I think you got some things wrong.”
“I read it in a book a long time ago. Gal pals talk to each other about boys they’re interested in, get closer to each other by comparing each other’s chest sizes in the changing room, they do the same in the bath, and they feed each other! In some cases, they would even hold each other!”
“What kind of world is that from!?”
Even if we’re girls, that kind of physical contact is excessive…no, is it…normal…?
I’ve seen Kriemhild and her classmates feeding each other, and she’s also talking about it confidently, as if it’s completely normal.
…is it just that I’m naïve and that’s how the females in the world interact…?
“No, to start with, the fundamental issue that I cannot be friends with you still remains.”
If you think about it, all that talk about qualification doesn’t resolve anything.
I understand that she has her own thoughts, but there are many obstacles stopping me from becoming her friend.
“What?! But why?!”
“I mean, if I become your friend, His Highness and Ash won’t take it quietly. That has to be solved first.”
“- Ha! Come to think of it, that’s true!”
She looked shocked, as if she had just realized it.
… She definitely changed, but I feel like she’s missing something else. Right now she looks more like a human girl of her age rather than a pure saint.
“Besides, I myself haven’t fully sorted things out yet…”
There are some things I haven’t resolved myself.
I can’t just skip everything and become friends with her when there are still so many things to be resolved…
“What?…. I can’t believe you still like Vermillion, Violet…!”
“Why would you think that?”
“Eh, aren’t you hesitant to become friends with me, who’s close with him, because you still like Vermillion? Even though you’re married to Mr. Clo, you still have lingering feelings…”
“Are you picking a fight with me?”
If she’s picking a fight with me, I’m not going to run away.
Right now I really, really love Lord Clo, so it makes me mad to be suspected of emotional cheating.
That’s not what I meant when I said I had to sort things out.
“But in the books I read long ago, there were a lot of stories about… love wavering between the current and the old boyfriend.”
… Maybe someday I should confront her about the books she reads?
“—Ah! Don’t tell me you were jealous because I was surrounded by many guys…!”
“You’re really picking a fight with me!”
“Why would you say that?!”
“That’s the only way I can interpret your words!”
Okay, she’s definitely picking a fight with me. I won’t step back.
Even if she really attracts a lot of men, it means nothing to me.
“Unfortunately for you I already have a loving Husband and Son! You can be with as many men as you want, whether it’s His Highness or Ash!”
“What are you talking about as a maiden who still hasn’t even been touched!”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, who’s been touched by everybody! Aren’t you more adult than me?!”
“I’m still pure in that way! In fact, if I was in your position, I would have done R-rated things even faster!”
“What are you talking about?! Even if that’s true, there are still rumors that you kissed Ash! Haven’t you done it with His Highness and Ecul too?!”
“Uuu…guh… don’t make me remember it…! Shut up, a married couple that hasn’t even kissed after being married for 4 months is like a fake couple!”
“Kuh… uu…It’s proof that Lord Clo cares about me! He’s being considerate and waiting for me to sort my feelings out!”
“Mr. Clo is really amazing to be able to hold back in front of a charming woman like you, Violet! Even though it’s so obvious that he loves you!”
“Thank you!”
“”–Ha, so the reason you can’t be friends with me isn’t because of jealousy or lingering feelings, but because of past mistakes and the people around me…! But why don’t we start by being friends to overcome all this?!”
“What do you mean?”
“First, we won’t let anybody around say anything by taking the initiative to become friends! We have to take the first step! And to do that, we have to start as friends!”
“Okay, let’s be friends or whatever!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, so first of all, let me apologize, Mary! I’m sorry about everything back then!”
“No, it was me who wasn’t considerate enough!”
We apologized to each other and held hands.
There are some heavy feelings left, but my original purpose of apologising has been achieved—
… Wait a minute, something’s wrong here.
——-
Author’s note”
“I think Mr. Clo is charming, but this is not about that.”
Translation: I think he’s a good person, but I’m not really interested in him as a man…
R-rated things
The sword and magic themed otome game ‘When the Ring of Fire is lit, World is painted Red’ is R15, so R18 things aren’t shown in the game.
Silavin: Wait. Does that mean Mary slept with the Prince or just kissed? I need to know!
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