"Well, look who it is—the ultra-wealthy Miss Aria gracing us with her presence?" Seeing the arriving woman, Lin's face twitched as he brushed his hair back with his hand and looked coldly at her, knowing very well that it was probably she who had provoked her friends to bully Amrita.
"Sorry? What are you even saying, Lin?" Aria clenched her fist upon hearing him refer to her in a taunting manner, controlling her expression to appear sincere as she glanced between Amrita and the group of three young women who were Aria's benchmates.
"Shut up, Aria. Don't act like I don't know how much you hate Amrita," Lin stepped forward and glared at her.
"What? Why would I hate her?" Aria felt confused as she lifted her hand towards Lin to understand why he was even thinking this.
Slap
Lin, using his hand, slapped away her hand, and with a mocking smile forming on his face, he reminded her, "Don't act like I don't know why you took admission in the art section instead of the music."
"L-Lin?" Aria's eyes slightly trembled, but she controlled herself in front of several classmates who were looking at her as she felt their gazes. She clenched her fists tightly while looking towards Lin.
"Hah, don't call my name like that. Just remember this: control your dogs on a leash or next time...." Lin pointed his finger at her as he warned her against ever trying to use her status and family to bully Amrita through underhanded tactics by using her friends as scapegoats.
"At least hear me out—I will," Aria wanted to at least explain herself but just gripped her other hand, feeling the pain of his slap. Knowing very well that he would not even listen to her, let alone believe her, she just slightly nodded.
"Good, let's go Amrita," Lin turned towards Amrita, who was looking at Aria with a saddened gaze, but Lin came forward, grabbing her hand before both of them moved towards their seats, leaving behind Aria, who stood there looking towards their backs.
'Hah, does he really love her that much?' Aria looked towards the departing figures of both Lin and Amrita, as in her eyes a screen was visible above their heads, a small narrow screen with a few words written on each one of them.
Aria glanced towards Lin's head where the screen floating over his head revealed:
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤPROTAGONIST
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
Looking towards the window, her eyes turned towards Amrita's head where it showed:
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤHEROINE
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
Looking at both of their titles, a defeated smile formed on her face. As she closed her eyes and held her other wrist with one hand, suppressing the pain, she moved toward her seat. However, those three women from before sprinted towards her, approaching her as they said, "F-forgive us, Aria, we didn't know he would blame you."
The woman who had mocked Amrita a few moments ago rubbed her forehead, feeling guilty for creating a scene for her friend, slightly annoyed that if she was the one who looked down on Amrita, then why did Lin go after Aria?
"No, it's fine," Aria wasn't angry with her friends as she could clearly see the screen above their heads showing:
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤㅤㅤ STEPPING STONE
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤㅤㅤ SIDE CHARACTER
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤSUPPORTING CHARACTER
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
Looking at their heads, she at least knew that this wasn't their fault to begin with, as they were already considered some kind of characters meant to become the stepping stones for the love between the protagonist and heroine to form.
Moving upward while passing through the glass window of the classroom, her eyes turned towards her own reflection, looking towards a screen hovering over her head, revealing her title, which appeared different from others, completely black.
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤVILLAINESS
━─━───────༺༻───────━─━
It was true that since the moment of her birth, she had always seen screens above others' heads revealing their most appealing titles, which hid their weaker ones. For example, those who had some profession of assassin or belonged to a rich family would have their titles as "assassin" and "second-generation young master," etc.
But if that assassin has more interest in cooking, while the rich family member has a greater interest in kindness as he helps others, she would see "Cook" or "Kind One" as their titles.
Mostly, the titles were the most dominant ones belonging to that person's personality, and it could only be one.
As a child, she developed feelings for Lin, who reflected numerous traits she recognized in herself and came from a family with a similar standing. Both of them desired to pursue their own ambitions rather than depending on their family heritage.
While she respected him and he did the same, suddenly her father and his, having the same status and wealth, decided to engage them with each other.
And that was the time from whereon her and Lin's friendship started deteriorating.
Since her childhood, she had never seen any title screen over her head until the day she met Amrita.
It was the day when, as if some fate played a cruel game, a woman named Amrita transferred to Aria's classroom. For the first time, she saw a title on someone's head written as "Heroine," and that woman was none other than Amrita.
On that same day, as if a resonance occurred, several titles started to appear above the heads of all the people she was close to, including Lin and her friends, with Lin becoming the protagonist and the others becoming supporting characters or extras.
On that day, Aria found herself consumed by anger and slapped Amrita in frustration, feeling overwhelmed by the situation. However, the outcome was quite the opposite of what she had anticipated; Lin ended up growing closer to Amrita while distancing himself from her.
And from there on, everything kept falling down, making her decide to just look at them from afar to avoid creating more bonding between them due to her actions, considering her role as the villainess, which would only make them come closer.
But it was all in vain, as if luck was playing a cruel game.
Everything just kept bringing both of them together.
She hated her fate, the fate of a villainess.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Inside City A's Sector 18, considered part of high society, the architecture and buildings soaring into the sky were indicative of the economic centers in City A.
The atmosphere was reminiscent of a bustling city, with several people wearing office uniforms and formal attire as they headed toward their offices, while women went shopping, and the roads were filled with cars, making the environment lively and vibrant.
"Damn it, I will be late!" A young woman seated in a car, driving toward the airport, glanced at her watch and noted the potential delay if she remained in traffic for more than five minutes.
She had been informed about the arrival of higher-ups from the Kingdom of Thaloris early in the morning. Considering that the guest was none other than a member of the Sertsul family, she felt even more urgency.
Beep Beep.
She pressed the horn as the sound of the car echoed through the traffic, but with a jam ahead, the vehicles remained still, making her clench her teeth in frustration.
Glancing out her window, she noticed the footpath was deserted. Then, with determination, she pushed down on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel toward the footpath before speeding off.
"Damn you! Leave my way!" she shouted as she drove, causing several individuals who had just turned toward the footpath to leap out of her path, cursing her car from behind. However, since she was already a considerable distance away, none of their words reached her.
Instead, the sound of police sirens from patrol bikes began to follow her.
"Huh? Damn you all!" Entrusting everything to her fate, she accelerated the car to evade the police, racing toward the airport. There, she intended to relinquish her predicament to her superiors—noblemen by birth.
Given the legal framework of the empire, her association with the noble men would provide a means for her escape.
The noblemen were granted their own royal court, which effectively shielded them from central government accountability.
Now that she intended to align herself with one of these noblemen, she could leverage their status to avoid both a fine and imprisonment. "Hehe, that was very smart of me. I hope to see you soon, dear noblemen!"