2
I stared at the floating text. King? Were they talking about Professor Pierce?
TUgh, that snake Luna needs to just disappear. Stop getting in the way of Julian and Sera’s relationship!j
I’m Luna. Since when was I a snake? And a relationship? They’d only known each other for a week.
Another comment, this one in bold red, scrolled past, echoing my own thoughts.
This is messed up. A professor’s duty is to teach his students. If he’s only going to focus on the heroine, he should just be her private tutor.j
Exactly! That’s exactly right! If you’re a teacher, you treat everyone the same. Why should Seraphina get special treatment?
The lines of text kept coming, and with them, the answer.
We were living in a novel. And I was the designated villainess.
In this story, I was in love with Julian Pierce. I couldn’t stand seeing him be so kind to Seraphina, so I constantly targeted her. According to the feed, my next move was to steal her materials to make her fail the assignment.
But the plot would twist. She would use the incomplete set of materials to build an even more powerful component, shattering the existing perfo- rmance records for that part. Her genius would catch the eye of a legendary Grandmaster, who would take her on as his personal apprentice.
Meanwhile, the component I slaved over all night wouldn’t even be deemed worthy of testing before being tossed into the recycling bin.
Right on cue, we were all collecting our materials. If you weren’t eating in the campus dining hall, you could go home.
Seraphina casually tossed her materials onto her desk, patted her stomach, and smacked her lips. She nudged her deskmate.
“Kira, dining hall?”
Her deskmate was Kira, an ice queen who preferred to be alone. I had tried to be friendly with her several times, but she’d given me the cold shou- Ider. Now, after less than a week of knowing Seraphina, she was like a different person.
Her frosty eyes seemed to melt. Though her expression remained neutral, her voice was soft. “Yeah.”
The feed went wild.
[See? No one can resist our sunshine girl, Sera!]
[Anyone else: ‘Get lost.‘ Sera asks: ‘Yeah.‘ The ice queen and the sunshine girl. I ship it.J
LOL, Luna the snake is about to have a meltdown!]
I’ll admit, it stung. My family was wealthy, and I’d been doted on my entire life. I was used to having a circle of “friends” constantly trying to win my
favor. I’d never been the to initiate friendship.
one
Except for with Julian Pierce. And with Kira. And both of them treated me with utter disdain while putting Seraphina on a pedestal. How could I not
be furious?
As I watched them walk away, I clenched my jaw and glanced at Seraphina’s materials. Just as they reached the door, Kira paused. “You’re just
leaving your stuff on the desk? Will it be okay?”
Seraphina stuck out her tongue. “What could happen? Let’s go, let’s go, I’m starving!”
The feed flashed a warning. Sera, baby, be careful! The snake is about to steal your parts!]
Go, brave Sera! No fear! Even if Luna steals her stuff, Sera will do it a hundred times better!]
Steal? My pride would never let me stoop so low.
I gave the materials one last look, then turned and walked out. I’d like to see how the girl who slept through the entire lecture was going to do a
hundred times better than me.
