It's Overwhelmingly Convenient That the Female Lead Has Darkened - Chapter 28
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A villainess’s dark turn was painfully convenient.
#28
“You promised your father you’d become an excellent herbologist and turn the Merchant Guild into a specialist in medicinal plants, didn’t you?”
“H-how do you know that…?”
Anemone went pale.
No one was supposed to know that!
She’d wanted to enter Eldvain Academy, but lacking talent in Magic and Swordsmanship, Herbology was the only path she could find.
She’d promised her father she’d become a herbologist just to squeeze out the exorbitant tuition fees.
But she’d never intended to actually major in Herbology.
This was Eldvain Academy, after all—where the empire’s most distinguished noble heirs gathered!
She’d thought studying seriously in such a place was the height of foolishness.
So her plan had been simple: find some fool to prop up her grades with, blend in with the nobles, and build connections—nothing more.
But her fool had suddenly started lecturing her.
“That’s why your father scraped together your tuition and sent you here. Do you have any idea how expensive Academy fees are? Do you?”
Eldvain Academy’s tuition was shockingly, obscenely expensive.
To give you a sense of it: when the butler once shouted at Daisy asking if she knew how much the Academy had cost to get her through graduation, the sum was so staggering that Daisy actually wondered if maybe—just maybe—she really had been loved after all.
“But you can’t even pick a single herb on the first lesson? What does that even mean? A herbologist who doesn’t pick herbs—what are they doing? Are the herbs supposed to just roll toward you? Are they?”
At Daisy’s words, Anemone bristled and shot back.
“Th-that’s menial work! I can just have someone below me do it!”
“Ah, so I’m below you?”
Oops.
“Well, I’ll let that slide for now. I’ve known your personality was rotten from the start anyway.”
“What?!”
“But if you’re going to call yourself a herbologist, you at least have to take Herbology seriously. Treating it this lightly while blocking someone else’s path—what in the world is that supposed to be?”
“I-I never blocked anyone’s path……”
Anemone cried out as if deeply wronged.
But she had blocked it.
Daisy’s path, specifically.
‘…What?’
Daisy sighed as she opened her Herbology textbook, facing the assignment to memorize all the herbs, and felt a strange jolt of surprise.
She realized she actually knew quite a lot of these herbs already.
What they looked like, what they were used for.
As Daisy ran through the herb information that slotted into her mind so naturally after just one glance at the book, she understood something.
‘Oh.’
She’d liked it this much all along.
It was as if she were finally glimpsing, however faintly, the true heart of Daisy that no mere reading of the source material could have revealed.
And that made her all the more furious.
Because it was Anemone who had thoroughly destroyed something Daisy loved this much.
While plucking a Poison Herb and dancing on death’s edge, Daisy had missed the Herbology exam.
Her scores came back at the very bottom, and she couldn’t pursue the Herbology specialist track.
“If you hate Herbology, drop out now, Anemone. Just tell the professor you can’t handle grubbing around in dirty soil, and leave.”
“That’s impossible! If it’s not Herbology, then…!”
“Then what?”
“Then what exactly?”
She couldn’t say that she’d have to leave the Academy altogether.
If she couldn’t pass even a single Basic Course, she’d be expelled, and Herbology was her only lifeline.
But even so……
Why did she have to listen to this?
From that idiot countess who’d grown up sheltered and knew nothing—who’d only ever seen herbs in a book?
“How would you even find the herbs without me? You can’t actually think studying some pictures in a book is enough to locate them, can you?”
Anemone snapped sharply.
Somewhere along the way, she’d completely forgotten the excuse about her injured leg.
“You all don’t know anything yet, so you can’t even grasp the difference between the drawings in a book and real herbs—finding them alone is impossible. You need someone like me who’s actually seen real herbs……”
“You know, you don’t seem to know that much either.”
“What? What do you……”
“The herb you found,”
Daisy’s emerald eyes gleamed.
“It’s not Semon.”
“That’s impossible! It has to be Semon?! I’ve seen Semon so many times! It’s one of the most common herbs we stock at the Merchant Guild…….”
“Want to make a wager?”
“What?”
Anemone stared at Daisy with a bewildered expression.
“Let’s bet on it. Whether that’s Semon or not.”
“H-how…….”
“We’ll taste it.”
“What?”
“If we taste it, we’ll know. Semon has a sweet flavor, doesn’t it?”
“D-don’t say such ridiculous things! How can we eat something that hasn’t even been washed!”
“Um…….”
It was then.
“What are you doing now?!”
At the hesitant voice from behind, Anemone snapped sharply.
Boris Hegel, the bespectacled boy who’d been unobtrusive until now, produced a small box.
“A Portable Cleansing Device.”
“…….”
“…….”
“……Did I do something wrong?”
The moment Herbology class ended, Anemone resolved to smash those cursed glasses.
“Nice!”
Daisy laughed lightly and spoke.
“You heard what the professor said earlier, right? To taste it if you can’t tell with your eyes?”
‘And if you can’t tell with your eyes, go ahead and taste it yourselves. Don’t worry about Poison Herb—I’ve had them all pulled up for you newcomers!’
‘By whom?’
‘……Anyway, identify the herbs using your Five Senses. That’s the shortcut to becoming an excellent herbologist!’
There had been an awkward silence in the middle, but that was roughly what she’d said.
“So let’s taste it.”
Daisy said.
“Here’s the deal. If that’s Semon, I’ll harvest all the herbs you’re looking for.”
Anemone’s eyes widened.
“Really?!”
“That’s right. But if it’s not Semon, then you harvest all the herbs I’m looking for instead.”
Anemone’s gaze turned to the herb.
A thick stem.
Pointed leaves with distinctive red veins catching the eye.
Flower buds the size of a fist.
No matter how she looked at it, it was definitely Semon.
Anemone’s gaze shifted back to Daisy.
Daisy was still gazing beyond the forest with an indifferent expression.
Yet somehow she seemed anxious too.
‘That herb you found isn’t Semon.’
‘So she’s lying.’
Anemone was certain.
It was Semon.
Daisy Seibleheart was obviously just hoping she’d refuse the bet here.
If that was the case…….
A mischievous smile spread across Anemone’s face.
‘Daisy Seibleheart, you’re going to regret this.’
“All right.”
Anemone said.
“But add this too.”
Daisy turned to look at Anemone.
Her emerald eyes gleamed with depth.
“The period lasts until graduation.”
“…….”
“…….”
Daisy fell silent for a moment.
Anemone was convinced she had won.
‘All right, now there’s no risk of getting dirt on myself in Herbology class….’
Or at least, not until Daisy’s face broke into such a radiant smile it seemed to light up the air.
“All right!”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“……What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
Jessica, Anemone, and Boris were staring at me with expressions of utter bewilderment.
And Felix Arderon…….
“…….”
He was gazing into the depths of the forest.
He was clearly just as concerned about the polar bear as I was.
“Seibleheart, you…….”
Jessica Bonne opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Then she glanced sideways at Anemone.
Anemone’s pride seemed wounded somehow; she bit her lip hard, then burst out:
“Then make Helga’s Oath too!”
“Anemone! That’s……!”
Jessica stepped forward as if to stop her.
But Anemone’s voice only grew louder.
“Besides, if it’s just a bet, you can always pretend you didn’t know about it later. So let’s do Helga’s Oath.”
“Helga’s Oath?”
What on earth is that?
“You don’t know? Hah, I can’t believe someone like you doesn’t even know this…….”
Anemone clicked her tongue as though deeply disappointed.
“It’s a vow you make in front of witnesses, putting your honor on the line. If you break it, you’ll suffer terrible pain every night.”
“Terrible pain? What kind of pain?”
“……Just terrible pain.”
In other words, she didn’t really know.
“Anyway, I’m choosing Jessica as my witness. Who will you choose?”
“I’m…….”
Daisy turned her head.
She looked in turn at Boris Hegel, whose thick glasses caught the light, and at Felix Arderon, whose expressionless face betrayed no hint of what he was thinking.
After a moment’s hesitation, Daisy spoke.
“Boris Hegel will do.”
Felix Arderon seemed to find this sort of thing absolutely unbearable.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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