There were still two more princes that I didn't talk about but I didn't expect to do it so soon either. There they were in front of me in the middle of the hallway to our classroom drawing all my attention. Both of them were staring at me with their arms crossed, as if they were trying to figure something out about me. I was tired and wanted to get to my classroom, I hate drawing attention so I cleared my throat.
"Lord Abraham, Lord Gregory, would you be so kind as to let me through? Class is about to start." I tried my best to sound nice and not tell them to fuck off, even though I could easily provoke it with my powers, but I'd like to keep a low profile for now and having the princes against me wasn't a good idea.
Gregory Fairchild was William's childhood friend, son of an earl and older brother of three sisters. He had blue hair (because, remember, this was an otome game world) and black eyes. He had a calm and serene character like ice. He never got into trouble or other people's business, if Anika wanted to win him over, long silent talks awaited her until Greg smiled at her or turned to look at her from time to time.
Meanwhile, Abraham Harrington was the complete opposite. He is the third prince of the allied kingdom of Ilyng and the cliché character who is always animated and surrounded by flames of passion, he had long red hair but not as much as my brother's and his eyes were blue. He had a competitivea and fiery and above all, proud spirit. He would not spare the life of even a mosquito that dared to drink Anika's blood, he is probably one of the princes who loves her the most and who is most ignored by the public of my world. I remember that I myself as Sloan had never given much importance to Abraham, not until I had to play his route it was easier than I thought I finished it in two hours.
"Not so fast, Hosui Yoshino!" Abraham said. "We noticed that you've been spending time with Basil. What does that mean?"
I raised an eyebrow, not knowing what they were expecting me to answer. I'm really tired of these spoiled children. I decided to toy with them a little, because I hate them.
"Oh, nothing for you to worry about. We did what a man and a woman do when they get together in each other's house. Do you understand? It's nothing bad."
That sentence left a lot to the imagination of all the listeners (because there were listeners, we were in the middle of the hallway and there were many students around us) which was reflected on several faces especially Abraham's which turned a crimson red almost as intense as my eyes. That made me laugh and I had to admit that my laugh sounded like that of a movie villain.
"What did you imagine, Lord Abraham? What a pervert you turned out to be." I said, still laughing.
The only one who remained calm was Gregory who simply sighed and uncrossed his arms. What he said next made me lose my mind a little.
He had taken Abraham by the arm to take him to the classroom but not before turning to me.
"Don't get the wrong idea. What a man does with a lady has no influence on her marital choice. " Then he smiled sideways, as if he were underestimating me. "In other words, don't think too much of yourself for sleeping with Basil. You're barely hot meat for a good time."
Was it so bad if I killed one of the princes right now? I imagined myself blowing his head up like a watermelon but I was careful because my powers could make it happen and I'd really be in trouble. All I did was glare at him as he left ignoring the snickers of the others around me. Probably now the rumor would spread that I'm a slut and that I slept with Basil because of his status... although technically we have the same status, so it wouldn't make much sense. Anyway, I entered the classroom and ignored everyone until I sat in my seat.
I could see the princes with Anika, Gregory whispered something in Basil's ear who turned pale and looked at him in horror. I don't know if he felt that way because he was putting next to me, his best friend's little sister or Hosui, the gloomy girl in class. Although I'm both.
The day went by as usual maybe with some unpleasant comments from the boys who had nothing to do but nothing I couldn't control. Today we had a mission, we had to enter the restricted area of the library and look for clues of summons from other worlds. Something told me that I was on the right path, that by doing this I could find some clue about my brother.
I left my classroom and waited at the door because I wanted to be sure that no one would follow me to the locker room area. I saw Anika leave with her harem following her and I waited for five more minutes until I headed towards the meeting point with Basil. Once I arrived I waited until I saw him in the distance, he was almost running, apparently he had had trouble escaping.
"What did you say to Gregory!? Now he thinks that you and I…"
"Calm down, I was just toying with him." I said smiling. "Although it is interesting how that was the first conclusion he came to after what I said."
I let out a giggle and started walking towards the library, Basil was still complaining behind me but he ended up catching up with me and leaving the subject behind. We arrived at the library and I decided it was a good time to make use of my powers. I took Basil's hand and with my free hand I made a movement over our bodies that sent out black flames, turning us invisible. That way it was easy to sneak to the entrance of the restricted area, but as expected, it was protected by a spell.
This time it was Basil who used his magic, apparently he specialized in counterspells that was useful to disable the protective barrier and allow us to enter the restricted area. Still it couldn't be that easy. The moment we entered an alarm began to ring loudly throughout the school discovering that someone had entered the forbidden area of the library. But, since we were both invisible it would be easier for us to sneak away.
I got closer to Basil's ear so as not to shout over the alarm.
"We have at least twenty minutes to find something before they find us, come on."
Basil nodded and tightened his grip on my hand, if he let go he would become visible.
We entered the unexpected darkness of the area which I used to my advantage. I moved my hand to the right, as if I was shooing away a bug, when in reality I was shooing away the darkness. The darkness moved aside giving us a clearer view of our path. We searched through the books with the titles "Invocation" or "Pentagrams" and we also found one called "The Royal Pentagrams" which caught our attention quite a bit. We were going to grab more books when we heard the teachers running very close to us.
I let the darkness invade the entire space again creating reduced visibility for everyone but at least it would give us a little more time. For some reason I could see better in the darkness than other people so I guided Basil out of the danger zone safely and without being found. Once we got out I didn't let go of his hand or undo my invisibility spell. I led us out of the library to the school's backyard, at that hour no one should be there much less if a danger alarm had sounded.
We reached the yard and became visible.
"That was close," Basil commented. "You're really impressive. I didn't think you had such good control of magic."
"Hosui is good, I just imitate her."
"But you're Hosui now."
And that was a subject that I still had to touch on more deeply in some of my introspections, because I had Hosui's memories and feelings but I was also still Sloan. I didn't know if I could be both at the same time or if I could only choose one but I hope it doesn't become a problem in the future.
I gave half of the books to Basil and we shrunk them with a shrinking spell, now the books were the size of an eraser. We put them in our pockets and ran to our classroom, where we were questioned by the teacher.
"I was in the back garden, I walked here when I heard the alarm and I ran into Lord Basil who obligated me to run here." I said innocently.
"When an alarm goes off you must come to the classroom as soon as possible, Lady Lockwood, you must not just walk. Understand?" the teacher reproached me.
I nodded and swallowed the insult towards the elder for calling me by that last name, I remembered that in front of other adults I was a Lockwood no matter what, that was the deal I had made with my family after all. I don't know what excuse Basil gave the teacher but he didn't seem to make much of a fuss, he let him go without further and a part of me didn't want to ask what he had said.
The alarm continued for a few more seconds until it stopped. I thought we were going home but the headmaster made an announcement on the loudspeaker.
"Good afternoon students. I regret to inform you that four of the books from the restricted area of the library have been stolen, so a thorough search of everyone's belongings will be conducted before we leave the building."
Murmurs of indignation and anger soon appeared in the classroom, I suppressed the need to look at Basil because I had come up with a plan. The only way to get out of the school with the information we needed was to read the books and then return them. How were we going to do that? Reading as fast as possible. How were we going to read four books in a row? With magic. I took one of my mini books and began to read, I concentrated magic on my eyes and read at high speed until I finished the first one. I continued with the second and allowed myself to sneak a look at Basil, I also saw him reading and a smile appeared on my face against my will.
I finished reading and the director had not yet arrived in our classroom, there were still several to review so we had time to spare. What were we going to do with the books? How were we going to return them? Well, we couldn't do it. They had reinforced the guard in the library and we couldn't leave the room without anyone seeing us so there was only one option: one of us would have to take the blame and that was going to be me.
I stood up and looked at Basil who did as well, the princes followed him because they thought he was coming to talk to me when the reality was different. While Basil stood up to follow me in whatever plan I had in mind, I decided to use him to my advantage. The second he approached, I glared at him and pushed him to the ground. Screams from the girls and cries of indignation were heard for what I had done, the princes stood in front of Basil to protect him and Anika jumped to defend the black-haired boy.
"Hosui! Why did you do that?" the blonde asked.
I ignored her. I saw Basil on the ground and smiled as I noticed that my plan had worked, the mini books had fallen out of his pocket so I made them appear in mine.
Just then the principal arrived.
"What is this scandal?" he called our attention.
And I decided to become what everyone thought I was, for my brother's sake. I put my hands in my pockets and took out the small books and turned them back to their original size with my magic and left them on the nearest desk. I looked at the principal with a smile.
"I stole the books from the library. You should use a more powerful barrier if you want to get around my magic."
That day I became the villain. Or at least a little.