That night I had a dream. Maybe it was memories from my past life, because my brother was there and he watched me play "How to be a Villaness" in silence. At one point on my TV screen a character appeared to which my brother reacted with hurtful but true words.
"That girl will be a bitch." Caleb had said with all the certainty in the world.
It wasn't Elizabeth, Hosui or Anika. Her appearance didn't resemble any of them, but at that moment I couldn't remember her name or what she looked like. However, my brother knew that that character would be troublesome for me, so he warned me something.
"Keep her away from Basil."
And after that, I woke up in my king-sized bed in an aristocratic daughter's room. I was Hosui again, although I always was but my memories as Sloan told me that I should be careful today because a thorny flower might appear in my path.
My morning was like all the others, although I had more furtive glances from Reese than usual, until I got fed up and stared at him.
"If you have something to tell me, just say it." I said while drinking my tea, having breakfast with my family in the dining room instead of alone in my room was part of my punishment.
Reese smiled like a fox. "I heard that Basil Davenport has gotten a fiancée and that girl will start attending the academy starting today. Too bad for you, sister. I know you had a great affection for the boy."
I narrowed my eyes at the information I had just received, not because it had bothered me but because my intuition told me that something was wrong. Suddenly the memory of the dream I had that morning came back to my mind. Was it about that character my brother warned me about? If that was so, should I really take her away from Basil?
After finishing breakfast, we both drove with our driver to school. When I arrived, everyone was whispering while looking at me, I looked back at them in a withering way and they looked away from me. But I was still worried, something was surely wrong.
When I got to the class room, I found a new person sitting in my place, or at least, the place where I usually sit. Next to him was Basil, both very close and talking in whispers. I frowned a little because it seemed strange to me, I approached them without realizing that my legs were moving and I earned the look of both. That girl was beautiful, the color of her eyes was a magical mix between gray and blue, and her hair was reddish and blonde at the same time. Her pink lips and smooth, white skin reminded me of a princess from some fairy tale, she smiled at me and introduced herself.
"Good morning, Hosui Yoshino. My name is Isabella Bellerose, I am Basil's fiancée."
At that moment I remembered her. This girl was just as bad as Elizabeth was, making life impossible for Anika. But Isabella was my villain, she would make life impossible for Hosui and take her to the dark side. If everything remained the same at the end of the year, Hosui would end up killing Isabella and embracing her darkness completely. This girl is definitely dangerous and she must be kept away from Basil. But how?
Isabella's harassment of Hosui is like that of a demon to a normal human, she stops next to her and whispers hurtful words that only poison the soul. Sooner or later, she will do the same with Basil to have him in the palm of her hand.
I looked at Basil, my look was a little alarming but concealed. Basil noticed that, but shrugged, letting me know that he could do nothing about it. Given this, I decided to play along with Isabella and see what she was capable of doing.
"Nice to meet you, apparently you already know me, so there's no need to introduce myself." Then I pointed to the place where they were sitting. "That's my place."
Isabella opened her eyes in surprise. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that the students were assigned to certain seats."
"That's not true." Elizabeth said, joining in the conversation even though no one had called her. "Please don't take what Hosui says seriously, she's a user of dark magic, all her intentions are bad."
I raised an eyebrow and was about to answer her, when Isabella stood up and slapped Elizabeth that resonated throughout the room. Everyone was stunned and speechless, including me. I frowned because I didn't understand what had just happened. Had she defended me? My villain? I looked at Basil who seemed as surprised as I was, although in his case it must have been more because of the slap than anything else, as he did not know the history of the game very well.
Isabella was breathing heavily and her gaze was hard and sharp.
"Lady Elizabeth, that way of referring to others is not worthy of a lady. Please apologize to Lady Hosui, right now."
Elizabeth was so outraged that her face turned as red as her hair, she glared at me with hatred as if I had been the one who had hit her. Until suddenly a random boy said out loud an idea that must have been floating around in his head since he saw me interacting with Isabella.
"It must have been Hosui! She must have controlled Lady Isabella with her black magic to hit Lady Elizabeth!"
My head slowly turned to the person who had said that, a brown-haired freckled boy, who cowered in fear when he saw our eyes meet. I smiled at him and he shrieked, hiding behind a chair.
But even though it may have sounded stupid, more than half of the class believed it and started calling me "witch" or "demon," and it was at that moment that I saw it. The sparkle in Isabella's gaze, the mischief and victory in her eyes, this was her goal, this was how she led Hosui into darkness. I remember it all now. Isabella Rosebelle was the true villain of this story, at least, until Hosui's awakening came.
The hurtful comments turned physical when someone threw a book at my head which hit me in the forehead, I didn't stop it with my magic because I never thought this would escalate to this level. Murmurs were heard among the people at this act, it was not worthy of a noble to throw things at other people or so they thought for five seconds until everyone started doing it together. I formed a force field around me and the objects never touched me but it allowed me to see the looks filled with fear and hatred of others, that was what hurt me the most.
The princes stood back, watching the scene in horror and trying to get people to stop, Anika did the same but it was no use no one was listening to them. Until it was Basil who stood up and raised his hand to summon a gust of wind that sent all the objects flying away from me causing everyone's surprise including mine. I undid my force field as I watched him approach me and face the rest of the class.
"Hosui Yoshino is my friend. So whoever tries to hurt her, will have to deal with me."
I blinked a few times at his words until I exclaimed a "What?" without being aware of it, the others did too. I looked at Isabella and she began to glare at me, now she would definitely make it her life's goal to destroy me. I took Basil by the shoulder and pulled him to make him look at me but I was surprised to see that his usually brown eyes looked black as night, I remembered that it was one of Basil Davenport's traits when he got angry.
I let him go and went to sit somewhere else, away from everyone, near the desk of the teacher who had not yet arrived. Anika quickly came to my side and William sat near her too like the faithful guard dog he was. The other princes also came, while Basil was forced to sit next to his fiancée. I did not want to be in this situation surrounded by the main characters of this game but for now I would have to endure it.
When I got home, Walter noticed the bump on my head. There was a bump on my forehead, he was alarmed and took me to the kitchen to ask the cook for a bag of frozen vegetables.
"Here, miss. Put it on your forehead, we must prevent it from swelling."
I grabbed the bag of frozen peas and smiled as I placed it on the bump then giggled and looked at Walter.
"Where's the frozen gel you used to give me?"
And it was funny to see him panicking to look for that item, I grabbed it from the sleeve of his suit and shook my head still smiling.
"Don't worry. This works the same way. Thanks for worrying, Walter."
And that man smiled tenderly because he might be the only human being in that house who really cared about Hosui Yoshino.