Lucilea pushed herself away from the pillar and glanced around.
“Didn't you hear me? I told you to stop right there.”
It sounded like a fight had broken out somewhere.
One of Lucilea's eyebrows slowly rose.
'Hmm. It's not like I enjoy watching drama or anything.'
Though, admittedly...
She was curious.
As if reading her thoughts, Cookie began bouncing excitedly in the air.
[Go check it out, Lucy! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!]
'Maybe I should. But I'm only going because you told me to. It's absolutely not because I want to see what's happening. May will probably be a while before she comes back down, so I'm just taking a quick look.'
[...]
Moving as quietly as possible, Lucilea crept toward the source of the voices.
After taking a few careful steps, she spotted two boys through the windows lining the outer corridor.
Both looked somewhere between thirteen and fifteen years old.
One was dressed neatly in expensive-looking clothes, while the other wore armor smeared with dirt and grime, as though he had just returned from a battlefield.
The well-dressed boy appeared to be a year or two older.
Still...
'Did that kid really go to war at that age?'
A frown formed between Lucilea's brows as she looked at the armored boy.
She had thought she knew a fair amount about Elvadin, yet she'd never heard rumors about children being sent into battle.
'Do they send children chosen by the Elite Order to the front lines...?'
Suddenly, Elvadin's cold, indifferent face flashed through her mind.
'Maybe they actually do...'
After all, it wasn't as though that boy had suited himself up and marched off to war alone.
Then another thought struck her.
'Wait a second. Then what about me?!'
Anxiety immediately crept in.
Her original plan had been simple:
Receive support from the Archducal House, save money, grow stronger, and leave once she became an adult.
'But if my ability turns out to be useful, won't I get dragged off to war just like him?!'
If that happened, there was no guarantee she'd even survive until adulthood.
Sensing her growing unease, Cookie spoke quietly.
[Lucy... does this mean our chance to turn our lives around is ruined?]
[What if we didn't improve our lives at all? What if we just crawled straight into our own graves?!]
His anxious voice echoed inside her mind.
"..."
For once, Lucilea couldn't confidently reassure him.
New settings and hidden details kept appearing one after another.
At this point, it wouldn't be surprising if Elvadin's secret character trait turned out to be sending children into battle.
Still—
Clenching her fists, Lucilea whispered fiercely.
'It's okay, Cookie! At least we found out now!'
[Finding out now is supposed to be a good thing?!]
'Of course! Now we can prepare!'
[...Huh?]
'It's simple. We just have to be careful. Work hard enough to survive, but not hard enough to stand out.'
Her gaze drifted back toward the armored boy.
'That's probably what happened to him.'
He had been exceptional.
Which was exactly why he had been sent to the battlefield at such a young age.
'So we'll aim for the middle. Not too incompetent. Not too talented.'
Just average.
Perfectly average.
'If we're too useless, they'll kick us out.'
The goal was clear:
Be just incompetent enough to avoid attention.
[Ooooh!]
Cookie sounded impressed.
[Lucy really is a genius! Let's become useless! Let's become idiots!]
'Do we really have to go all the way to idiot?'
Just then—
The neatly dressed boy, whose thin lips somehow looked naturally sneering, twisted his mouth into a smirk.
“How's life in the East Annex? Nice? Boring without me around to entertain you?”
“...”
“Make sure you keep it clean. I'll be using that place soon enough. Got it?”
Thud.
He lazily kicked the armored boy in the shin.
Yet the armored boy remained silent.
“...”
“Why aren't you answering?! Did moving into the East Annex make you think you're better than me now?! You?!”
After ranting at himself for a while, the sneering boy suddenly grinned.
“Oh, what is it? Did you become mute, just like your mother who died in a brothel?”
“...”
Wow.
Lucilea clicked her tongue internally.
That crossed a line.
[Right?!] Cookie agreed immediately.
[He already looks sneaky, and every word coming out of his mouth is even worse! He's basically a miniature version of Adoptive Father Shred!]
[It's honestly impressive that someone wearing clothes that expensive can still look so cheap.]
Yet despite the insults, the armored boy simply stared forward with an expressionless face.
As though he couldn't hear a thing.
Or perhaps...
As though he'd heard it all so many times that it no longer mattered.
Watching him, Lucilea's brow furrowed.
'...That's only going to make things worse.'
She knew from personal experience.
That kind of reaction only made people angrier.
Sure enough—
“You little bastard!”
SLAP!
The sneering boy struck him across the face.
'Hey! Hey! Hey!'
Startled, Lucilea nearly jumped out from behind her hiding place.
The bully shouted furiously.
“You think being called the heir actually makes you the heir?!”
What?
Lucilea's eyes widened.
'The heir...?'
Only then did realization hit her.
That dirt-covered boy in battered armor...
Was none other than Serdian, the male lead of the novel.
'Oh my god...'
No wonder his presence had felt so overwhelming despite being covered in grime.
Of course, she still couldn't clearly see his face.
But now that she knew who he was...
The scene suddenly felt much more real.
'So that's the male lead who's eventually supposed to kill me...'
A chill crawled down the back of her neck.
The bully continued.
“Nobody recognizes you as the heir! Not even His Grace! That's why he's delaying your final registration documents! Isn't that proof enough?!”
His face reddened as he ranted.
“In the end, you're nothing more than firewood! A tool to inspire competition among the gifted children!”
Panting heavily, he finally stopped.
And only then did Serdian slowly open his mouth.
“I see.”
His voice was calm.
“Understood. If you've finished saying everything you wanted to say, may I leave now? I still need to make my report to His Grace.”
“...What?”
Whoa.
Lucilea clenched both fists.
'This guy...!'
'He's the type who can make people die from anger!'
Predictably, the bully became even more furious.
“You little—!”
He swung another punch.
But this time, Serdian didn't just stand there.
The punch was slow.
Pathetically slow.
As though mocking him, Serdian casually dodged and continued walking toward the main mansion.
“Hey! Get back here!”
The bully couldn't even bring himself to follow.
He simply stood there, grinding his teeth in frustration.
'Hmph. As if anyone would stop if you told them to.'
Hidden behind a pillar, Lucilea clicked her tongue.
'What an unexpected discovery.'
She had met the novel's male lead almost immediately after arriving.
'And I got to see how he's treated here, too...'
She already knew the basics from the novel.
'There were plenty of people besides me who bullied Serdian.'
Not just that sneering boy.
The collateral branches of the Archducal family and the vassal houses had all joined forces to torment him.
'Reading about it didn't really affect me...'
But seeing it in person felt different.
'If even children are this vicious, how terrible must the adults have been?'
No wonder Serdian eventually destroyed the entire Archducal House after killing Lucilea.
'He'd been abandoned in that environment since childhood.'
Forced to endure threats to his life alone.
His resentment and rage had grown far beyond what could be satisfied by taking a single life.
They had named him heir.
But they hadn't given him the authority or power that title should have carried.
To those consumed by jealousy and ambition, he had been the perfect target.
Lucilea continued watching until Serdian disappeared from sight.
For some reason, she found herself thinking deeply.
'It's not really my place to worry about someone else right now...'
Then she realized something.
'Wait.'
'Serdian can't get kicked out of the Archducal House before I leave!'
If events followed the original story—
If Serdian was framed, expelled, and later returned with vengeance in his heart—
'Even if I hide the fact that I'm related to the Archducal family, I'll still be in danger when he destroys everything.'
Which meant...
At the very least, while she remained here, Serdian absolutely couldn't be unjustly driven out.
But how?
'To stay safe from the branch families and vassals, he needs to be properly recognized as the heir...'
Hmm.
The best solution would be for Serdian and the Archduke to develop a close relationship.
'But what kind of relationship do they have right now? It can't already be beyond repair, can it?'
After thinking for a moment, Lucilea shrugged.
'Who knows.'
I've got enough trouble trying to keep myself alive.
If anything, it only reinforced her determination to stay unnoticed.
'If they're willing to treat the heir like that, they'll treat me even worse.'
After all, on the surface, Lucilea was simply an orphan with no family, no allies, and no backing.
Serdian had powerful aura abilities and the protection of being the protagonist.
She had neither.
'Which means I need to be extra careful not to become the next target—'
Then—
Thud.
“Ah!”
A sudden shove struck her from behind.
Losing her balance, Lucilea stumbled out from behind the pillar and crashed onto the corridor floor.
Startled, Cookie shot into the air and landed on the nearby railing.
“Ow...”
Lucilea winced, looking down at her scraped palms.
[Lucy! Are you okay?!]
'Yeah. I'm okay.'
But...
'What kind of situation is this now?'
Still sitting on the floor, she looked up.
Three boys were staring down at her.
They looked about ten years old.
Among them, a red-haired boy stepped forward and asked,
“Who are you?”
“...”