Chapter 2

My rival is in love? With Hailey, the Academy’s official goddess? With my sister?

Diana’s eyes widened. To think Raymond, who looked as though not even a drop of blood would come out if you pricked him, had this side to him. She could not believe that behind that cold and arrogant face, he had secretly written such embarrassing lines.

Diana rubbed her eyes and read the notebook several times over, but no matter how many times she read it, the contents did not change. Raymond Black was in love with Hailey Everhart! And for a very long time at that. To the point that he had even attached the words valedictorian and resolved that one day he would confess.

At first, she was simply dumbfounded. But as a little time passed, for some reason her heart began to pound.

This was a weakness. The first crack ever revealed in Raymond Black, who had never wavered no matter how much she clashed with him.

If she used this, then maybe…… maybe she could create a huge ripple even in that ice-cold bastard.

The moment that thought crossed her mind, her memories up to now suddenly came back one after another. In other words, all the moments when she had only ever collided with the wall he built came to mind.

At first, it had truly been pure goodwill. From the moment Raymond joined the Academy, he drew everyone’s eyes. Rumors had spread everywhere that during his time studying abroad, he had swept up every prize there was. How could she not be curious about a classmate the same age as herself who was already said to have elevated the Empire’s name?

Of course, aside from that, Diana was originally the type to become close to anyone very quickly. Getting awkward people to smile by speaking to them first was a talent of hers that everyone acknowledged.

So even if Raymond seemed a little lacking in social grace, Diana had been confident that with her own friendliness, she could one day draw a smile from that blunt face at least once.

[Get lost.]

At least, that was true until she heard those words directly.

[Hm?]

[I’m not free enough to go out and play with you, so stop making noise for no reason and move.]

It was the day she first came in 2nd. Her mood had been terribly low, but she had spoken to him first with good intentions in her own way. What came back, however, were sharp-edged words.

The shock had been so great that that night, Diana had forgotten even her ranking and kicked her blanket for hours.

[Guys. Even so, isn’t it a bit much to speak carelessly right in front of him? He said he’d never done swordsmanship sparring while studying abroad. It’s not like any of you were good from the start either, so why……]

[Hey. You’re more annoying, so stop getting in the way and move.]

And yet, even when she could not bear to watch the classmates mocking his clumsy swordsmanship and stepped in to defend him, she had never imagined she would hear even that from him.

“What am I, a door? Why does he keep telling me to move every chance he gets!”

As those past memories surfaced, Diana grabbed her head and shouted into the air.

After that, she remembered feeling a genuine chill down her spine when she saw Raymond, who practically lived in the sparring grounds, eventually take 1st place in sparring too. He was beyond relentless; he was frightening.

“That’s exactly why I should do at least this much.”

Gathering her thoughts, Diana looked down at the notebook in her hand. The corners of her mouth lifted on their own.

Surely heaven was helping her. Otherwise, there was no way a chance to crack someone like that stone wall of a man would simply drop from the sky right in front of her!

Clutching Raymond’s notebook tightly in her hand, Diana returned to her room and glanced once at Hailey’s bed, which was still empty. Somehow, the empty bed itself seemed to be nudging her on, telling her that now was the chance. She immediately sat at her desk and picked up a pen.

“This is harder than I thought.”

But once she actually placed the tip of the pen over the paper, she had to groan over it for quite a while. It was only natural, since she had never written a love letter before in the first place.

Still, as someone who shared a room with the school’s goddess, she had something she trusted in. She had seen the letters Hailey received over and over from nearby.

She especially remembered with certainty the kind that went straight into the trash the moment Hailey read them. That was exactly the kind she was aiming for.

After pondering for a moment, Diana searched through her memory and deliberately filled the letter with oily, low-grade expressions.

From Raymond Black.

After crumpling up the letter paper several times, Diana was finally able to fill in the name at the end of the letter.

“Phew. I finished it.”

Leaning back against the chair, Diana let out a satisfied sigh.

Then, giggling to herself, she lifted the letter she had worked so hard to write high with both hands.

“Operation name! Confess in his place to the one he likes and blow up his mental state!”

No matter how she thought about it, she really was a genius.

To think she had come up with a method like this.

Of course, when she read the letter over again, it seemed impossible that Raymond would ever write something like this, not in a million years.

But so what?

What mattered was not whether it looked real, but making Hailey come to despise Raymond’s very existence.

With a little acting mixed in, it would not be hard to make Hailey discover this trashy letter.

Then it would be over.

Before Raymond could say anything, Hailey would recoil first and turn her back on him…….

And when that happened, that cold face of his would surely waver.

As she imagined that far, the corners of Diana’s lips curled up even more deeply.

Her plan was absolutely perfect!

To put that plan into action, exactly two days later, Diana quietly slipped the letter she had written herself in front of the dormitory door.

“Sis! Look at this. A letter came?”

Putting on a casual expression, she picked up the letter and held it out toward Hailey.

“Just put it on the desk.”

After giving it a brief glance, Hailey waved her hand indifferently.

That response had been expected.

Her older sister, who received countless letters, never read them the moment she got them.

Usually, she read them all at once on a day off, but the unfortunate thing for her admirers was that no one knew whether that day off would come in a month or in two.

But it could not be like that now.

As long as the swordsmanship sparring and practical magic exam that would decide the final end-of-term rankings still remained, Raymond Black’s mind had to be shaken now.

For that, she needed Hailey’s reaction immediately.

“Hmm. Really?”

Pretending nothing was wrong, Diana brought the letter over to the desk.

“Huh? Sis, it says Raymond Black here.”

“Black? I’ve heard that somewhere.”

“Ah. Sis, I told you, didn’t I? The one in our class who always gets first place!”

“Really? Hmm. Give it here.”

Good.

She had succeeded in drawing her sister’s interest.

It was worth always telling her sister every day that she wanted to kill Raymond Black…… no, that she absolutely wanted to beat him.

“What is this?”

As Hailey leaned against the bed and read through the letter, she suddenly spoke in a sunken voice.

Diana recognized it at once.

Her sister was truly angry.

“Why?”

Diana asked back innocently, but in truth, she knew that the confession method Hailey hated most in the first place was letters.

If someone did not even have the courage to come and say it in person, then they should not bring it up at all.

That was her sister’s firm belief.

And this letter would probably be the worst of them all.

Words that assumed they were already special to someone who probably did not even properly know they existed, the shameless premise that the other person would naturally accept them, the gloomy nuance of having secretly watched them for a long time.

And on top of that, there were even lines that subtly mentioned the soft curves of the body that naturally drew the eye.

Really, it had been carefully packed with nothing but the kinds of elements Hailey would absolutely hate.

“What does it say?”

Pretending to tidy up her desk, Diana secretly watched her sister’s mood.

As expected, Hailey’s expression had noticeably turned colder.

“That boy named Raymond Black, which dorm building did you say he’s in?”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’m going to find him and say a word.”

“Y-you’re going right now?”

But at that declaration-like statement, Diana had no choice but to widen her eyes.

The situation was flowing in an unexpected direction.

She had only meant to see Raymond’s flustered face once.

Maybe tomorrow Hailey would coldly throw him a single remark in passing and that would be the end of it.

Just enough to make Raymond unable to focus on the practical exam.

That alone would have been enough.

But looking at her sister’s expression, she seemed much more seriously angry than that.

“Probably men’s dormitory building 3…… maybe?”

Diana answered slowly, thinking she should have toned the letter down.

It was already too late to tell the truth now.

If she confessed the truth at this point, her sister would surely half kill her.

‘No. If it’s Raymond Black, he can endure at least this much.’

Forcing herself to think that, Diana hurried after her sister as she left the room.