Capítulo 12: Chapter 12- Alexis Pearl
"Reiré, you're spacing out. Is everything alright?" Lady Rium asked.
"Ah, yes I'm fine. I'm just a bit worried about Alex."
"You mean her plans of stalking Lady Charlotte?"
I let out a groan. "I have no idea how her logic came down to stalking. I just hope she doesn't get into trouble."
Once classes ended, Alex announced that she will be following Lady Charlotte again to see if she could get another opening. What opening exactly? Well, I have no idea. She ran off after the blonde before she could explain her new 'master plan.' If she ends up on Lady Charlotte's hit list, I won't have any way of helping her and for my own safety, I'll have to cut ties with her as well.
Lady Rium giggled, "I'm sure Lady Charlotte won't do anything rash. She finds Alexandra quite adorable. That commoner reminds us of an adorable puppy."
"You seem to have gotten close to Lady Charlotte. We don't even have any classes with her." In the novel, Lady Charlotte and Lady Rium never really spoke to each other. It's not like they dislike each other, they just never got the chance to meet. They had their own problems to deal with after all. If all the love rivals were to band together from the very beginning, I don't think Alexandra would have a chance against them.
"I'm pretty sure Alex is older than me by a couple months, but she can be a bit childish and it's worrisome," I mumbled. I blame that childish personality she brought with her when she remembered her past life.
"Alexandra is old enough to take care of herself. No need for you to babysit her."
I smirked, "You say that but ever since you got into Roseward Academy, haven't you been babysitting Lord Raphael?"
Lady Rium blushed and voiced, "As I've stated, it's because he is hopeless without me. Where is he anyway? I thought we were gonna meet up for dinner?"
He said he had to return some books and told us to head to the dining hall first," I answered.
We had already secured seating for the three of us. Now we were just waiting for Lord Raphael to appear. It's been awhile, we have already been waiting for thirty minutes. It shouldn't take that long, at most it should take at least twenty minutes to return some books and walk over to the dining hall.
"I hope he isn't caught in his own world reading again. I swear his head is always in a book whenever I see him free," Lady Rium grumbled.
I giggled, "Could Lady Rium be jealous that he pays more attention to books than you?"
Lady Rium glared at me, but her cheeks were visibly pink. "Hmph!"
So she doesn't deny it. It was really cute to see her act this way. "Then shall we go pick him up? It would be bad if he were to miss dinner."
Lady Rium sighed and stood up. "Let's do that."
We both left the dining hall and made our way towards the library. It feels just like the move in day when both Lady Rium and I were visiting Lord Raphael. At that time, he was also at the library and we had to go find him. To think that it's only been a week. It almost felt like a month with how many insane events that have occurred around me.
We arrived at the library and I was definitely starting to get hungry. "Let's hurry and get Lord Raphael."
This was the first time entering the library for me. Last time, Lord Raphael met us outside, so this was the first time I'm seeing the interior. It was really big inside with rows of tables in the middle for students to work and towards the walls were columns and rows of shelves that were filled with books. Looking up, I can see railings that marked each floor of the library. Kind of a bad design since the students will have to walk down to the first floor if they want to use the tables.
"I don't see Lord Raphael," I voiced. "He might be on the second or the third floor."
Lady Rium huffed, "Honestly."
I followed Lady Rium to the stairs that lead up to the next floor. She must have come here a lot for Lord Raphael if she can find the stairs that were hidden by the bookshelves.
"I'll check the third floor," Lady Rium said.
I nodded, "Okay, I'll check around this floor then."
Lady Rium continued up the stairs and I began my search for the tall handsome target. Roaming around the second floor, I peaked over the railing to see the marbled floor of the first floor. If I did end up falling, I might end up with a broken leg or arm, doesn't look like the fall can kill unless you fell and cracked your skull or neck. Looking through the bookshelves, surprisingly, there were tables, just not as much as the first floor. The wooden tables were stacked against the walls between each bookshelf with the window being the source of light.
"So you read a lot?"
"Yes, I've read almost all the books in this library ."
Hmm? That sounded like Lord Raphael's voice. Was he talking to someone? Following the soft voice, I found Lord Raphael with another person. I wasn't sure what I was doing. Maybe it's because Alex had influenced me somehow, but I hid behind a shelf as I eavesdropped on Lord Raphael.
"Have you read any folklore?"
Lord Raphael nodded, "Yeah, there're a lot of interesting ones that even come from different kingdoms."
The person Lord Racheal was chatting with was a tall girl, who looked only a few inches taller than me. Is that Alex? No… Her voice is slightly deeper. She had strawberry blonde hair like Alex and wore our school uniform. From my angle, I couldn't really see her face. I wish she was turned a bit so her back wasn't facing me.
"Have you heard the story of the Seven Witches perhaps?"
Hmm? Did she mean the Witches of the Seven Deadly Sins? That's the only folklore I can think of that involved witches.
"Seven Witches? You mean the lore involved with the Deadly Sin?" Lord Raphael asked.
The girl nodded, "Yes! Do you know of it?"
"Yes, I've actually read a book about it. It's not really a popular story though. Are you interested in it?" questioned Lord Raphael.
"Very! I was actually wondering if you know anything about it. Say…" The girl closed in on Lord Raphael and said, "The Eye of Pride perhaps?"
I felt my heart drop. How does she know about the Eyes? The lore never mentioned about the Eyes. It only talks about how the witches got their powers.
"Eye of Pride? N-Not really…" Lord Raphel moved back as he was getting uncomfortable from the closeness.
"But I think you do. As the son of Duke Robert Graham that manages foreign affairs for the King, you must know about the Eye of Pride."
She knows… She knows the Eye of Pride is in the castle. Just who is this girl? No one should know about the Eyes except for the Royal family with the exception of me and Alex.
"I don't understand… What's the Eye of Pride? I never heard of it."
Lord Raphael's eye suddenly glazed over and his shoulder's slacked.
"I'll ask again," chirped the girl. "Tell me where the Eye of Pride is located in the Royal Castle."
As I thought. She does know it's in the castle.
"I don't know," Lord Raphael simply answered.
The girl hummed. "Seriously?" She let out a soft sigh. "Useless. Then what about the Eye of Envy?"
The Eye of Envy!? Maybe if I can find the Eye of Envy I can stop the Witch of Envy from possessing Lady Claudia.
"I don't know," Lord Raphael answered once again.
"Tch!" The girl clicked her tongue with irritation. "Then the Eye of Wrath! What about that?"
Eye of Wrath? That's a new one. The Witch of Wrath never appeared in the novel so I never thought to hear about that.
"I also don't know."
The girl stomped her foot against the floor in anger. "Useless, useless, useless! First Prince Clovis, then Lord Philip and now you also don't know!? These Eyes really are guarded. Looks like I have to to chum up to Prince Leonhardt after all."
This really has become problematic. This girl sounds really dangerous. What I'm worried more about is that Lord Raphael was acting strange. He had been answering her question with no emotion whatsoever. And I also don't like the look in his eyes. It almost looked as if he was soulless.
"Reiré, what are you doing? Did you find Lord Raphael?"
Oh, no!
The girl snapped her head back and met with my eyes. I was shocked because her eyes were a deep indigo color. That was quite a color to see considering how the people of this world don't have rainbow colored eyes like anime characters. But now that I got a clear look of her face, I can definitely say that she was someone I don't know, but I do remember her from Lady Rium's gathering.
"What's wrong, Reiré? Why did you freeze up like that?" Lady Rium walked out from behind me to see the person she was looking for. "Lord Raphael, we were looking for you. Is this girl a friend?" Lady Rium casually asked.
Lord Raphael and the girl didn't reply. I was frozen stiff as my eyes were locked with the girl's. It felt like she was looking deep into my soul and my mind was slowly being clouded over. Something was wrong and I could feel it in my bones as I could not rip my gaze away from her.
"You know about the Eye of Pride," the girl finally voiced.
Crap!
"Sorry? I don't understand," Lady Rium voiced.
The girl smirked and bowed, "My apologies for the late introduction Lady Rium. "My name is Alexis Pearl. Pleasure you to make your acquaintance."
Hmm… Alexis Pearl? Why does that name sound familiar? But I'm pretty sure I never met her before. I also don't believe the name was mentioned in the story either… so why?
"Rium Bazanine," Lady Rium voiced.
Lady Alexis looked towards my way and I flinched. Coming out of my hiding place, I also bowed, "Reiré Norman."
"Ah, yes. The commoner." Lady Alexis's voice sounded like poison to me. It was making my head spin and my heart race. I felt like a rat that had been caught by a vicious cat and I don't like that feeling.
Lady Rium seemed to notice my discomfort and decided to hurry along. "Lord Raphael has an appointment with us, so we'll be taking him."
"But Lord Raphael, promised to read books with me." Lady Alexis clung to Lord Raphael's arm as if she was super close to him. "Isn't that, right?" She leaned in close to his ear and murmured seductively, "Lord Raphael?"
Usually Lord Raphael would blush and be embarrassed by a girl's closeness, but his facial expression didn't change one bit. He didn't even flinch. Lady Rium was definitely more expressive.
"How dare you cling to him! Lord Raphael does not like to be touched like that!"
Lady Alexis grinned, "Eh? But he didn't push me away. So doesn't that mean he's alright with it?" She rubbed her finger in circles on Lord Raphael's chest as she said, "You like this, don't you?"
"Yes," Lord Raphel answered.
Lady Rium was shocked to hear this. "What!?"
This was not Lord Raphael.
"Can't you see that Lord Raphael would rather spend time with me than you? Why don't you head back and do whatever you were doing?"
"How dare you speak to me that way! Do you have any idea who I am!?"
Lady Alexis giggled, "Of course I know who you are. You hold the status of a duke's daughter, but what does that have to do with Lord Raphael wanting to spend his time with me instead of you? It's not like you two are engaged, are you?"
"N-No, but-! W-Well that's-! That has-! I-It's…"
To think that Lady Rium doesn't have a comeback. This was the first time that I saw Lady Rium at a loss for words.
I can't stand to see Lady Rium this way. "Lord Raphael," I called out. "Didn't you promise to meet with us after classes ended? Were you not happy to be with the two of us when we barely got the chance to get together like we used to?"
Lord Raphael opened his lips, but he didn't speak.
Lady Alexis frowned at me, "Plans change, you know. Lord Raphael has decided to stay here with me. We'll be getting dinner together later, so why don't you two hurry along?"
I ignored Lady Alexis and continued to speak to Lord Raphael. "Could it be that Lord Raphael doesn't want to be with Lady Rium and I anymore? Both Lady Rium and I will be quite sad then. Lady Rium was looking forward to just the three of us together again."
"Wrong…" Lord Raphael finally got a word out. His amber eyes seemed to clear a bit as awareness slowly came back to him. "You're wrong. I do-"
Lady Alexis grabbed Lord Raphael's head and forced him to look at her. "Lord Raphael!"
Lady Rium reacted to Lady Alexis's forceful behavior. "What do you think you're doing to Lord Raphael?!"
Lady Alexis gave Lord Raphael a saddened look as she said, "Didn't you say that you will be with me? Are you gonna let me go?"
Lord Raphael's eyes became stern and clear. They were no longer glazed over, but they held no light. He sweetly smiled and said the most cheesy line ever that could rival Prince Leonhardt. "I could never let you go, my darling. You are my light that guides my soul, you are my forever that keeps me yearning. I shall never let go of this flower until the day I die."
Lady Alexis beamed as she hugged him. "Oh, Lord Raphael!"
I can't believe this… Who the heck is that person and what have they done to Lord Raphael!? He would never say such cheesy lines like that!
"Lord Raphael… What are you saying…"
Lady Rium seems to be in the most shock. Well, I couldn't blame her.
"Lady Alexis is my everything! I have no need to for you or that filthy commoner! She is all I need!" Lord Raphael claimed.
What a jump in personality! This was the first time that Lord Raphael used the term filthy and commoner on me. That actually kind of hurt my feelings…
"What has gotten into you!? Reiré has been our dearest friend for the longest time, how can you call her a filthy commoner all of a sudden!?"
Even though Lady Rium was clearly heartbroken, she still stood up for me. I can't let her interact anymore with this fake Lord Raphael. For her sake and mine.
"You don't seem to understand. I've gotten sick of you two. Don't think so highly of yourself just because you're also from a duke family." Lord Raphael gave Lady Rium a very cold gaze. He used to look at her with such fondness, but now there was no such emotion anymore.
"L-Lord Raphael…"
Lady Alexis chuckled, "See? You were just interrupting us. Lord Raphael and I are very close. Don't think you can get in between our relationship."
"Lady Alexis means the world to me. She understands my love for books. She understands my troubles as a duke's son. She makes me feel like there's hope. I have come to lo-" Lord Raphel suddenly paused as his face was twisted in discomfort. "I lo… love… No I…"
Lady Alexis grunted and voiced, "Lord Raphael. You don't look too good. Shall we go? You must be hungry."
Lord Raphael blinked a few times before smiling once again. "Of course my dearest. Let us go."
As Lord Raphael and Lady Alexis moved past us, Lady Rium grabbed onto Lord Raphael's arm. "W-Wait! What you say can't be true. Please tell me what's going on!? Aren't we your best friends!? Lord Raphael, I've always… always…"
Lord Raphael ripped his arms away from Lady Rium and held Lady Alexis close to his body. "You've always what? Can't you see that you're wasting my precious time? I have nothing to say to you. You who always bother me. Have you ever noticed how much I'm annoyed when my reading is interrupted? The world doesn't revolve around you, Lady Rium."
"Lord Raphael, please…"
He turned away from her, "Don't ever talk to me again."
Lady Rium dropped onto her knees in disbelief.
Lady Alexis grinned as she looked down on her. "It was nice meeting you." She then turned her gaze up to me. "Let's talk sometimes."
I could only glare at her. Never have I felt such hate for a single person. This feeling doesn't even compare how I felt for the people that bullied me. Alexis Pearl. She was the first person that I ever wanted to beat up in this life.
"I don't like you."
Lady Alexis giggled, "Oh, but I like you very much, Reiré."
The way she said my name felt like a bucket of ice cold water was poured onto me. As she turned around, I caught a glimpse of her pendant. I don't understand why my eyes would notice something like that since I was never a big fan of jewelry. But something about that pink sphere shaped jewel caught my attention. "An… Eye?" No, it couldn't be. Something like that so early in the story. That's impossible. Right now, I have better things to worry about. "Lady Rium."
I kneeled down beside her and placed my hand on her back. Her complexion has gone pale and her knuckles have turned completely white from how hard she was clenching her hands. I placed my hand on her fist to ease her. "I'm sure Lord Raphael didn't mean any of that."
"Maybe if I didn't baby him so much… Maybe if I was understanding…"
"Lady Rium, you understood Lord Raphael better than anyone else, so don't think otherwise!"
"But he… He said to never…"
I grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at me. "Like I said, he didn't mean any of it!" Lady Rium's expression was filled with sadness and doubt. My words alone can't reassure her. "Just give him some time. He will definitely come back and apologize, so just wait for him."
Lady Rium bit her lower lip as her body slightly quivered. I was beginning to feel bitter. Seeing this look on Lady Rium made me feel like I swallowed a large stone. It hurt. It hurt just as much as being slapped. I'm sure that's what Lady Rium feels right now. This was all I could do as her friend.
I wrapped my arms around her and brought her close. "I'll bring Lord Raphael back to his senses, so just leave everything to me…"
Lady Rium clung to me. I could feel something wet on my shoulder and I knew right away what it was.
"Don't let me go…" she mumbled.
"I won't," I said.
"Don't… Don't look at me…" she gasped out.
"I won't," I said.
Her form was shaking horribly. "D-Don't listen to me…"
I clenched my teeth as tightened my hold on her. "Just let it out…"
Like all hope was lost, Lady Rium let out a scream. She cried out like no tomorrow as I held onto her. Her broken voice was like a boulder that was weighing down on my shoulders. This situation felt really familiar. Yes. Something like this also happened in my past life. I held onto someone dear to me just like I held onto Lady Rium. She cried out just like her too. And I was there shouldering her pain just like I am now with Lady Rium… over the loss of someone…
These memories… It was something important… so why… why can't I remember her name…?
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Shiena_Gin
Shiena_Gin So the plot is finally going if you haven’t notice. It’s a bit confusing as to what Alexis did to Raphael, but it’ll be more clear in future chapters, but you guys are smart. I’m sure you guys already figured it out.（＾ω＾）
As always, if you enjoyed the chapter feel free to comment, review or vote. Thank you for reading ‘But a Side Character...or not?’
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