I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 96

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Ugh, this is really cramped to death.”

At the voice mixed with complaints, several students’ gazes turned toward Anita.

“How are nine people supposed to travel in this tiny carriage? It’s not even a short journey.”

As she irritably complained, one male student nodded his head.

“You’re absolutely right. We’ll have to ride the carriage for at least ten hours a day… If you find the seat too cramped, would you like to use this?”

He was the male student who had manifested poison abilities and joined Anita’s group on the day of the prospective student gathering.

“Oh my. That looks like a very fluffy cushion. Thank you, Joseph.”

Anita smiled with sparkling eyes. Joseph scratched his head with an embarrassed face.

“I-I originally brought it to give to Lady Anita anyway. It’s nothing much.”

As I watched this scene intently, Rosette whispered beside me.

“They’re really putting on quite a show.”

“…Pfft!”

Laughter burst out of me and I covered my mouth with a flustered face. I felt Anita glance over at us from across the way.

Rosette said quietly in a displeased voice.

“There are twenty carriages going to the Academy District. Of all things, we had to end up in the same carriage as them? What kind of cruel joke of fate is this?”

I nodded silently.

Before the entrance exam, the Academy operated twenty carriages on its own to transport prospective students.

This was due to the rule that not just any carriage could enter the Academy District.

Each carriage had a capacity of ten people.

It felt a bit cramped, but that didn’t matter.

The real problem was something else entirely.

“Not being able to use the royal carriage. Rishion is good in every way except for being inflexible in situations like this.”

Hanod, who was sitting in the corner in the most comfortable and spacious seat, muttered as if tired.

“Just bear with it a little, Hanod. Once we arrive, it’ll be comfortable from then on. I heard that Rishion Academy’s dormitories are more luxurious than even the drawing rooms of the Imperial Palace.”

Anita chattered away. Since they were in the same carriage, I could hear their words clearly.

Estelin beside me muttered in an unexpected tone.

“That crazy bastard… I mean, how can the royal descendant be so arrogant?”

I was startled by the harsh word that came from Estelin’s mouth and turned my head.

‘Since when has Estelin’s way of speaking been like this? She wasn’t originally this kind of character.’

In the original work, she was someone who only said kind and soft, squishy pudding-like words.

But lately, Estelin’s speech had been getting rougher and rougher.

“Commoners don’t even have carriages like this and have to walk that long distance. The fact that he thought he could travel comfortably alone in a royal carriage is infuriating.”

Rosette chuckled and replied.

“Hey, even nobles are incredibly arrogant! Would royalty be any less so? You just haven’t seen the real crazy ones yet, but when you actually see them, you’ll immediately realize that this much is nothing.”

“Really? If I ever encounter such a person, I won’t hold back and will give them a piece of my mind.”

At her quite serious voice, Rosette burst into laughter, holding her stomach.

“That person would really feel awful. When an innocent kid like you says such things, they probably won’t even be able to think of a rebuttal.”

“Oh no, that’s not true. I sometimes do bad things too, you know?”

I tilted my head.

“Estelin does bad things?”

Estelin made a “hmm” sound and raised her index finger.

“I secretly steal and eat Eria’s snacks from the kitchen, and lately I’ve been taking her clothes to wear. Then she gets really angry, saying ‘Sister—!! You stole my clothes again, didn’t you?!'”

I was laughing softly when I suddenly looked up.

“Wait a minute. Do Eria’s clothes fit you, Estelin?”

“Of course. Eria has grown even taller than me now.”

My eyes widened.

“Wow, kids in their growth period really are different. When I first saw her, I think she only came up to about Estelin’s chest…”

“Really, it’s so noisy I can’t get any sleep.”

Just then, a sharp voice cut off my words and echoed throughout the carriage interior.

It was Anita, sitting on the opposite seat, who had muttered as if for others to hear.

I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, then soon sighed. I smiled at Estelin and said.

“Let’s continue our conversation when we get off later. Everyone seems tired.”

Estelin nodded with a stiff expression.

But then it happened.

“Making such a damn fuss, making people tired just watching.”

Rosette, who was beside me, shouted in an even louder voice than Anita’s. Anita’s closed eyes snapped open.

Estelin and I looked at each other with surprised faces.

Rosette was just humming and looking out the window.

“…Hey there, Lady Grimaldi.”

Anita called Rosette in a cold voice. Rosette turned her head with a nonchalant expression.

“Yes? What is it?”

“That just now, did you say that for me to hear?”

Hanod shook his head from side to side next to Anita.

Rosette shrugged her shoulders and answered despite Anita’s sharp gaze.

“What do you mean? I was just talking to myself.”

Light wrinkles formed between Anita’s brows.

“No matter how I look at it, that wasn’t talking to yourself.”

“Oh my. I’m telling you it really was talking to myself, so why can’t you believe it? You must talk to yourself a lot in a way that’s meant for others to hear!”

“Lady Grimaldi!!”

As Anita shot up from her seat, the carriage shook.

Rosette smiled brightly without showing any sign of being intimidated.

It was the complete opposite of Anita’s fiercely hardened expression.

I rolled my eyes restlessly at the atmosphere that was heating up without me being able to do anything.

‘I deliberately put away the pendant because I didn’t want unnecessary fights, so why is she acting like this?!’

Adam and Amon could only reveal themselves when the pendant was touching my body.

When it wasn’t, they could only speak in faint voices. Even that couldn’t be heard if I ignored them.

“Hey, Rosette. Why are you suddenly like this? I’m fine, so stop…”

But I, who was trying to stop Rosette, soon closed my mouth.

“Lady Anita is really going too far!”

This time it was because Estelin beside me had suddenly risen from her seat.

Perhaps because she had some acquaintance with Estelin, Anita looked slightly flustered and stiffened her expression.

Estelin opened her mouth in a firm voice.

“Lady Anita, this carriage is one we’re all riding together. It’s a space that requires mutual respect and consideration.”

Anita replied with a bewildered face.

“Of, of course I know that. But…”

“Then why did someone who knows that say bad things to Lady Selene as if for her to hear just now? We hadn’t even been talking for 5 minutes.”

Anita closed her mouth.

Rosette was covering her mouth with her hand and giggling, finding something very amusing.

“Besides, I heard about what happened at the last gathering too.”

Estelin looked at Anita and her group members in turn, and finally at Hanod.

She bit her lips tightly and said in a sorrowful voice.

“…I’m really disappointed. I don’t particularly want to associate with you either. So if you’re going to be quiet, that would actually be better.”

Estelin turned her head sharply without even listening to Anita’s response and sat down.

Anita opened and closed her mouth, then sat down following Estelin with an awkward expression. A suffocating silence descended in the carriage.

I swallowed a deep sigh and whispered to Rosette.

“Why are you suddenly acting like this? How are we going to spend the next three hours in this state!”

There were still three whole hours left until we stopped at a nearby village for lunch.

Beside me, Estelin was still openly glaring at Anita. She looked as if the tense atmosphere didn’t matter to her at all.

Unable to sit still, I reluctantly tried to soothe her.

“Estelin, please calm down first.”

Estelin looked at me with a hurt expression.

“Aren’t you even angry, Selene?”

I widened my eyes, then patted the back of her hand gently as I spoke.

“Of course I am. But what’s the point of dealing with them one by one? It’ll only make me feel worse.”

“That’s true. It’s not like we’re avoiding poop because we’re scared of it.”

Rosette chimed in with a grin. I deliberately glared at her and said.

“You’re the one who escalated things.”

“Even if it’s the dirtiest poop, someone has to clean it up, right?”

Having nothing to say to that, I closed my mouth.

Looking across, Anita was also glancing at us and whispering quietly with her group members.

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

‘I never thought I’d be doing something here that I didn’t even do in high school.’

Of course, in my previous life’s high school, I was the one being bullied unilaterally.

Looking at Rosette and Estelin, a laugh escaped me.

“…Still, it’s better than having nothing.”

Rosette looked at me.

“What is?”

“People on my side. It’s better than having nothing.”

Estelin nodded beside me and spoke up.

“Of course it is! Until now, I only thought badly of people flocking together in social circles, but as of today, that thinking has changed.”

“Huh?”

“When the other side gangs up on one person to bully them, is there some law saying we can’t stick together too? This isn’t cowardly, it’s justified.”

Estelin huffed indignantly.

‘Just now it seemed like Anita was alone though…’

Swallowing my inner thoughts, I hesitated for a moment then nodded.

“R-right, then.”

“Selene, don’t just keep enduring everything. Those rude people won’t change just because you put up with them.”

“That’s right, you’re too kind for your own good.”

I made a bewildered expression.

Me, kind?

I’d never thought of myself as kind.

I just resolved not to become a bad person, but isn’t someone like me just ordinary…?

While I was pondering this, Rosette muttered quietly.

“Now that it’s come to this, we absolutely have to pass.”

Estelin nodded. Her light brown eyes were blazing with determination.

“Passing is a given, and we absolutely must score higher than Lady Anita’s group.”

She clenched her fists and added.

“We’ll make sure they pay the price for bullying our kind and gentle Selene.”

Huh…?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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