I Don’t Remember the Number of Regressions of the Villainesses Who Have Returned.

“Friends.”

Since it wasn’t a particularly difficult question to answer, I gave a short and simple response.

‘After all, isn’t it strange to have any other kind of relationship with a woman I’ve known for less than a week?’

Although I’m still not sure what Sephir thinks, to me, she’s still a skilled con artist without tears.

No matter how beautiful the woman embracing me might be, how could I trust someone who can casually slit people’s throats?

Though I waver occasionally.

As soon as my concise answer left my lips, my waist began to tighten.

“Sephir?”

Perhaps because I had fainted before.

While it wasn’t as suffocating as before, she was squeezing quite strongly – enough that I thought it might leave marks until this evening.

“Aaron. Say that again.”

Sephir looked at me, craning her neck.

“What am I to you?”

Was it just my imagination that Sephir’s eyes looked dead as she stared at me?

But that doesn’t change what I have to say.

“We’re friends.”

“…Trash.”

Sephir glared at me a bit longer before turning her head away in apparent irritation-

“Um… Sephir?”

“What.”

“Your tail is kind of…”

Suddenly, her tail’s grip on my waist grew even stronger.

If it felt like an elastic waistband from running pants before, now it felt like a tightened belt.

“Deal with it.”

“Huh?”

“It’s your fault.”

“……”

I wondered what I did wrong.

“Then, you and the Empress aren’t anything to each other?”

With a similar expression to Mordred, she pondered briefly before asking me.

“We-”

“Friends.”

Sephir cut off my words, the one word cutting through any attempt of defense.

‘Sephir, I think Lioness is asking about relationships like your underworld connections?’

It didn’t seem like the Elven princess was asking about mere friendly relations.

“Tch.”

‘See? She’s even clicking her tongue because you’re saying weird things.’

Lioness looked at me with a frown, perhaps thinking Sephir was mocking her.

“Aaron.”

“Yes.”

I quickly responded to her irritated voice.

For some reason, I remembered the construction site foreman’s advice that when women are annoyed, most situations can be resolved by responding quickly without long explanations.

Lioness hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“Be my friend too.”

“?”

I tilted my head at the unexpected response.

“No… uh, well… I have my status, you see? So I don’t have friends…”

Did Lioness interpret my head tilt as rejection?

She hurriedly explained her reasons without taking a breath, as if making excuses.

‘Was she embarrassed?’

According to her words, I could understand why, having lived without any friends.

However, asking someone to be your friend is a bit strange, too.

The longer I silently looked at her, the longer her explanation became.

“Um, Lady Lioness. You don’t need to beg so desperately… I’ll be your friend…”

I felt increasingly like garbage the longer I kept my mouth shut.

“Let’s be friends.”

Seeing Lioness looking like she might cry if I stayed silent any longer, I just agreed to be friends.

‘Since her hatred for humans is gone, there shouldn’t be any problems.’

Let’s think of it as rehabilitating one major villainess.

“Yes!”

Lioness nodded with a bright smile.

“But is it okay to keep a fallen noble around? You are royalty after all.”

I was worried that my status might cause problems for her. It seemed entirely possible – until I heard her answer.

“Do nobles these days dare to challenge the royal family of another race?”

“……”

Even as I said it, I realized the contradiction.

In a hierarchical society, royalty was far above any comparison with nobility.

“Aaron.”

Sephir’s trembling voice came from beside me.

“What?”

Her ears were drooping, as if something was worrying her.

She approached my ear to speak so only I could hear.

“Be careful of that woman.”

“Hm? Of what?”

“Just… be careful when I tell you to.”

She turned her head away again after speaking with puffed-up cheeks.

‘Could it be some kind of animal instinct?’

I was quite surprised by Sephir’s cautious behavior, though Lioness hadn’t shown any concerning behavior.

‘I’ll be careful even without you telling me.’

Though I say her hatred of humans has improved, mental illness is an area where complete recovery is impossible to confirm.

As Lioness’s friend, I’ll stand by her side while also acting as an observer.

To verify if her hatred of humans is truly gone and whether she might still be a villainess without it.

“Um… Sir Aaron?”

At that moment, Arcana’s voice came from behind me.

When I turned around, she was there behind me, even sweating nervously.

“Is something wrong?”

I wondered what situation could make Arcana this tense.

“Well, outside the door…”

She lowered her head and pointed at the classroom door.

“Hmm.”

Quite some time must have passed.

This time, I could see students who had actually come to class gathered around the door.

Students peeked through the door, carefully raising their heads to assess the situation.

Eventually, our eyes met.

They started darting their eyes sideways repeatedly with wide-eyed expressions.

Eyes flickering with bewilderment and embarrassment that seemed to say, ‘What’s with those people beside you!’

Although they needed to be in the classroom for the upcoming morning assembly, seeing the current lineup, they couldn’t dare take a single step inside.

The Duke’s family, Elven royalty, and the Empress.

Even those who would have licked the ground crawling for any of these distinguished guests couldn’t think of intruding on such a gathering.

That’s why they were pleading with me.

I could almost hear their silent, desperate requests saying, ‘Please! Convince them!’

Their earnest gazes saying ‘Don’t give up!’

Being late at the Academy results in penalty points.

The lack of penalty points is a self-esteem boost that nobles compete over regarding their diligence.

Of course, it’s even more dangerous since accumulating too many points leads to suspension or even expulsion in severe cases.

That’s why they’re so desperate.

However, the risk is too great to disturb this lineup to avoid one penalty point.

‘Neither Aslan nor Mordred, none of them are really that bad-tempered.’

I’m confident they wouldn’t face consequences for such minor things, but from their perspective, these are kings they’ve barely exchanged greetings with, so such fantastical misunderstandings are understandable.

‘Well… I should say something.’

Mordred and Aslan were in our class anyway, so we needed Sephir and Lioness to leave.

“Um, Lady Lioness. Sephir?”

Lioness, who had been staring at me for some reason, and Sephir, who turned her head toward me while gradually reducing her tail’s pressure.

“The morning assembly time is approaching, so we should prepare for class.”

The two hesitated for a moment but began to move without saying anything.

“Thank you.”

I was genuinely grateful for their quiet departure.

If they had said anything, another incident might have occurred.

Lioness, who was opening the classroom’s back door, stopped and turned to look at me.

“…Bye! See you later!”

Maybe it’s because Lioness said she had no friends.

Her gaze somehow made me feel a sense of kinship.

“Goodbye.”

I waved lightly.

Only after seeing me smile and wave did Lioness finally turn away and leave the classroom.

“…What about me.”

Sephir, who was about to leave after Lioness, also stopped at the door and turned to look at me.

With somewhat dead? eyes.

“Uh… bye?”

Though I didn’t know why she was acting like this, I waved goodbye roughly the same way I had to Lioness.

“…Idiot bastard.”

Leaving only those words behind, Sephir left our classroom, slamming the door hard enough to make a bang.

“Did I do something wrong?”

I think I acted a bit dense, but I didn’t do anything wrong enough to warrant that.

-Slide

Seeing the distinguished guests leave through the back door, the students poured in.

“Thanks!”

“You saved us!”

Some of them even expressed their gratitude.

‘I guess penalty points are as important as grades.’

—–

“Now I understand why you said being around Aaron is interesting.”

“Right?”

Aslan, who had quietly moved back with Mordred as soon as they saw Lioness approaching, thanks to Mordred’s brotherly instincts.

Mordred, who had been quietly observing their situation from afar without making his presence known, finally agreed with Aslan’s words.

“I’ve never seen my sister like this before.”

Mordred frowned as if thoroughly unfamiliar with the sight.

“Is Lady Lioness… your sister usually not like this?”

After brief consideration, he followed Mordred’s lead in calling her “sister” despite being classmates.

Though they were classmates by Elven standards, she was actually a long-lived race whose true age was unknown.

“That’s right. She started acting so… gentle? No, she has been somewhat strange since before coming to the Academy.”

“That is rather odd.”

“That’s why I’m suspicious of Aaron.”

“Of Aaron?”

Aslan showed his bewilderment at Mordred’s sudden expression of suspicion toward Aaron.

“I’m not sure if I should say this, but Aaron is a fallen noble with low magical power and poor health. Whatever you might think, he’s simply incapable of doing anything in his current state.”

Aslan emphasized that Aaron was his friend while describing his current state, implying that unfounded insults should be avoided.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m suggesting a different possibility.”

The completely different possibility that Mordred suggested…

“I suspect he might have learned some ancient hypnosis magic.”

“Hypnosis magic?”

“Yes. The strange behavior of both the Empress and my sister – I can’t understand it any other way right now.”

Mordred nodded.

“…Just let it be. They say even a Swordmaster who can split the heavens can’t understand women even as much as a grain of sand, and that saying exists for a reason.”

Aslan denied that was the case.

“For now, it’s just suspicion. I’ll uncover the reason by observing bit by bit.”

Mordred harbored expectations and hoped that he might be able to get one over on his sister.

“No matter how I look at it, that’s not it…”

Aslan just shook his head.