Chapter 72: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat

Chapter 72

Lies.

Sylvia hated people who lied.

Thus, she asked Scarlet, who was lying on the bed, unwell from yesterday’s events.

"...You never thought of me as a friend?"

Scarlet slowly nodded.

If she was going to say something like that, she should at least have a cold expression, but how was Sylvia supposed to react to such a sorrowful face?

Sylvia's face twisted.

She hated those who approached her with lies, pretending to be friends while actually using her.

She hated them.

But when the person she considered her first and most precious friend said she never thought of her as a friend, her first thought was:

Even if she had lied to her all this time, she wished she wouldn’t say something like that.

So, half-begging, Sylvia asked.

"Is it a lie?"

"..."

"Please, tell me it’s a lie..."

However, Scarlet remained silent.

Realizing that Scarlet was not lying, a single word slipped out of Sylvia’s mouth.

"...Why?"

That one word expressed all of Sylvia’s feelings.

What was her purpose in approaching her and asking to be friends?

And if she had a purpose, why confess it now instead of keeping it hidden until it was achieved?

As if responding to Sylvia’s question, Scarlet muttered in a small voice.

"...I wanted to live. So..."

That short answer hit Sylvia like a hard blow to the head.

Wanting to live, a primal desire that everyone has.

Scarlet said she approached Sylvia for that reason.

Sylvia recalled what Luke had told her yesterday.

Scarlet had endured unspeakable experiments at Sator's hands.

Perhaps she had set the research facility on fire and escaped because she didn't want to die.

Having finally managed to live a normal life, she met the heir of the family that had tortured her on the first day at the academy.

What did Scarlet think at that moment?

Faced with the possibility of returning to that horrible life.

Maybe she thought if she became friends with Sylvia, she wouldn’t have to go back?

If Scarlet approached her because she was the Astra heir, then Sylvia had no value to her.

At that moment, Scarlet muttered again.

"...I'm sorry, Sylvia. I’m really sorry..."

Her voice was filled with regret and guilt.

She might have approached Sylvia for the same reasons as those people she despised.

But Sylvia didn’t feel any desire to resent her.

She just felt pain in her heart.

Who could blame her?

She just wanted to live, and the guilt should lie with Sylvia, not her.

She was the cause of Scarlet’s suffering.

Even so, Scarlet kept apologizing to her.

Just as she was about to tell her it was okay, Sylvia noticed something wrong with Scarlet.

Scarlet’s body, drenched in cold sweat, was breathing heavily.

"Scarlet! Are you okay? Ugh...! Your body is burning up!"

Sylvia, holding Scarlet’s hand, was shocked by the heat radiating from her.

Even though those with the ability to control flames had a higher body temperature, this was abnormal.

She quickly fetched a towel from the bathroom, soaked it in cold water, and placed it on Scarlet’s forehead, but her fever showed no signs of abating.

Her heart pounded as if it would burst.

At most three years.

Scarlet was a patient with a terminal illness.

And "at most" meant she could die even sooner.

Sylvia, trembling with sudden fear, looked at Scarlet, who was breathing heavily.

No, not death, I can’t accept that.

Desperately thinking of a way to reduce the fever, Sylvia recalled a pharmacy she had seen on her way.

Wouldn’t the fever go down if she took some medicine?

"Wait a moment! I’ll get some fever reducer!"

Before she finished thinking, her body was already moving.

Running outside, she realized it was raining.

Her clothes and body were soaked by the pouring rain, ruining her usual composed appearance, but that was not important now.

"Fever reducer, please! Quickly!"

The pharmacist, startled by the sudden entrance of a soaking wet customer, handed her the medicine, and Sylvia grabbed some money from her wallet, threw it, and took the medicine.

"A check?! Excuse me, ma’am! Your change!"

"I don’t need it!"

The pharmacist, flustered by the check that was far too much for the price of the medicine, called out, but Sylvia was already running with the medicine in her arms.

She ran faster than she ever had before.

Back at Scarlet’s house in no time, Sylvia opened the refrigerator to find water to take with the medicine.

And she cried out, teary-eyed.

"How can a house not have any water!"

Leaving the fridge door open, she hurriedly filled a cup with tap water and brought it to Scarlet along with the medicine.

But Scarlet, still breathing heavily, seemed unable to take the medicine.

Sylvia, thinking it might help a bit, cast a calming spell.

A sphere of starlight settled on Scarlet’s forehead.

After a moment, Scarlet’s breathing steadied a bit, as if her condition had improved.

"It’s a fever reducer, so please take it quickly."

Scarlet, with difficulty, swallowed the medicine with water.

Sylvia felt the heat in Scarlet’s body gradually subside.

It seemed they had passed the worst of it.

With a sigh of relief, Sylvia moved to close the still-open fridge door.

Then she noticed the contents she had missed earlier in her haste.

The fridge was filled with simple ingredients like whipped cream, butter, and chocolate, which seemed odd to be called just food items.

The only things that could be called food were eggs and bean sprouts.

Closing the fridge door, Sylvia wiped the rainwater off in the bathroom with a towel when she felt a sense of unease.

Realizing what caused her unease, she came out of the bathroom and opened the fridge door again.

Examining the contents one by one, she found it hard to breathe.

Except for one thing, bean sprouts.

Everything was for making macarons.

As she looked into the fridge, she heard someone behind her stir.

Sylvia quietly asked.

"...Scarlet, do you only eat bean sprouts at home?"

From behind, a response came.

"...I... I like bean sprouts..."

Elves in stories don't survive on just bean sprouts.

Moreover, she knew better than anyone that Scarlet had a big appetite.

She ate so much during lunch at the academy.

A shabby, narrow house.

Meager meals.

Yet, she still made macarons for her.

Even when it was hard to do so with one arm missing.

Scarlet said she wanted to live, but if that were the only reason, she wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths after already becoming friends.

It was sad and also made Sylvia happy.

Sylvia closed the refrigerator door and quietly turned her body to look at Scarlet, who had raised her upper body and was staring at her from the bed.

Usually, she had an almost expressionless face, but today, Sylvia felt like she saw many expressions that Scarlet didn't usually show.

Expressions like a sad smile from earlier or the troubled look she had now.

Sylvia muttered, recalling the events she had experienced with her.

“...When we first met, you were the one who asked me to be your friend.”

Their first meeting was when Scarlet had asked her to be friends on the first day of school, and Sylvia had told her to buy macarons from the store.

Back then, she thought Scarlet approached her to use her, like everyone else.

“...Whenever you gave me macarons, you always said it was because we were friends, with no other reason.”

Even though she must have known Sylvia was being difficult, Scarlet always handed her macarons, saying it was because they were friends.

Sylvia thought there had to be some reason for Scarlet to approach her like that.

“Do you remember when I told you I didn’t consider you a friend and said you didn’t have to buy me macarons anymore? So you made them yourself instead?”

Even though Sylvia had hurt her first, Scarlet didn’t mind and extended her hand again.

So she thought Scarlet genuinely wanted to be friends with her because she had been consistent from the beginning.

Sylvia fully opened her heart to Scarlet after that.

Although Scarlet had a motive, she had worked so hard to become friends with Sylvia.

So if she suddenly told Sylvia she only wanted to live, there could be only one reason.

“I thought you were unconscious yesterday, but you must have heard our conversation. You probably didn’t know before that.”

Seeing Scarlet’s slightly shaken eyes confirmed it.

The real reason Scarlet confessed she had a motive was because she was kind.

She had always known when Sylvia wanted to eat macarons and gave them to her as if she had read her mind.

Kind and perceptive, Scarlet must have known how much it would hurt Sylvia if she died and wanted to end their relationship to spare her the pain.

Yes.

No matter who she was or why she approached Sylvia, it didn’t change that she was that kind of person.

At least Sylvia liked that about her.

She feared Scarlet’s death that much.

And she desperately wanted to remain her friend until the end.

“You said earlier that you never thought of me as a friend from the beginning, right? Then let me ask you one thing. Answer honestly, please.”

So she didn’t want to give up.

“Have you ever, even once, wanted to be friends with me?”

Scarlet’s head stopped for a moment before slowly shaking.

Not up and down, but side to side.

That was enough.

“I said the same thing last time, didn’t I? It’s okay. Let’s start over. Let’s pretend today is our first meeting.”

Sylvia smiled and extended the ring she had been holding close.

Just like the day they first met when Scarlet had asked her.

Just like the day Sylvia had opened her heart to Scarlet.

“Scarlet, will you be my friend?”

Scarlet’s head slowly moved again.

Once again,

Side to side.

It was the expected answer.

“I’m sorry...”

Scarlet lowered her head like a sinner and apologized.

What had she done so wrong?

Sylvia knew.

She knew Scarlet hadn’t opened her heart yet.

Sylvia smiled, putting the ring back into her pocket, and said,

“Next time, instead of hearing ‘sorry,’ I will hear ‘thank you,’ so be prepared.”

With that, Sylvia left Scarlet’s house.

Walking back to the mansion with an umbrella, Sylvia looked up at the sky and then closed the umbrella.

Raindrops trickled down her face.

As the cold raindrops ran down her face, warmth seeped in.

What she had expected was one thing, but the disappointment was another.

But Astra does not forget its debts and grudges.

Scarlet had tried so hard to open her heart to Sylvia.

So Sylvia would try even harder to open Scarlet’s heart.

In the pouring rain, the girl made a firm resolution.

Of course, after returning to the mansion, she got an earful from Sebastian.

PREVIOUS | TOC | NEXT