I’m a Villainess but So Popular

Editor : Aru

“Hey, you really did a great job.”

After the performance, Yerine patted Eugene on the shoulder behind the stage and said.

Eugene always felt sorry for her after the competition or the actual class.

But for today, he was confident that he had done it perfectly without any regrets.

“You too.”

It was a short answer, but Yerine smiled very happily.

“Good job. Very good, Eugene.”

The performance is over. She was no longer on stage.

The back of the stage was relatively dark compared to the outside.

Nevertheless, her face seemed to be shining brightly.

‘Good job?’

For some reason, the moment Eugene heard it, he felt something wriggling inside.

Of course, today’s performance was almost perfect.

The audience also cheered and gave a standing ovation.

“What’s wrong? You did a good job.”

Eugene was not used to the words that someone else recognized him.

So he couldn’t say anything.

As Eugene stared at her face without answering, Yerine tilted her head and raised the corners of her mouth slightly.

Eugene recalled his father’s back when he turned around during the performance.

‘Is this okay?’

In that situation, the only answer he could say was a short word.

“You too.”

“You did a good job, too.”

Looking at Eugene with slightly enlarged eyes, Yerine soon burst into laughter. Eugene sneaked a smile around his mouth, hoping she would not realize his complex feelings.

***

“Father.”

Just in case the Duke of Ace didn’t hear his voice, Eugene called his father in a slightly louder voice.

“Father.”

Nevertheless, the Duke did not look back.

The Duke, trained by years of fighting, had a better five senses than others, as well as magic.

That’s why Eugene was convinced that the Duke intentionally did not react even though he heard his voice.

At this rate, the Duke would have left the building where the banquet hall was.

At this rate, there was no guarantee that the Duke would look back on himself even if he spoke out again.

Nevertheless, Eugene, who was in a hurry.

“Father!”

Fortunately, the Duke stopped abruptly at the sound, and slowly turned his back to face Eugene.

Eugene was relieved that he had finally looked back at himself, but the moment he saw his blue eyes, he felt frozen from head to toe.

Eventually, he lowered his gaze reflexively.

He has always been like this in front of his father.

Eugene became infinitely smaller in front of him.

“……what is it?”

That was the first word the father gave to his son.

Although he had a voice that had no high and low at all, Eugene could know instinctively.

The Duke was in a bad mood now.

“I have a lot of work to do, so tell me briefly about the matter.”

With an icy voice, Eugene still mused on his lips.

Honestly, there was so much he wanted to say.

But not only couldn’t he vomit it all, but he also did not even know what to say first.

Even with the words that came out of his mouth after picking and choosing, he couldn’t really ask what he really wanted to ask his father.

“Since you’ve been working hard, why don’t you take a little more rest at the banquet hall?”

Taking the word out, Eugene glanced up.

His eyes were so blue that they seemed to belong to wolves, not to humans.

Then Eugene quietly lowered his head again.

The moment he saw his father’s eyes, Eugene realized.

That he failed to live up to his father’s expectations again this time.

“That’s okay. There’s nothing more to see here.”

Eugene felt as if the Duke was saying he had nothing to do with himself.

With his fists clenched, he bit his lips.

“Aren’t you like that too? Don’t do anything useless and go back.”

At the remark, Eugene raised his head and asked in a voice of embarrassment.

“But Father, the banquet is not over yet.”

“Do you think you deserve the banquet?”

A word from the Duke seemed to stick to his heart.

The cutting edge froze Eugene on the spot.

“In this performance, you have lost to the Spade family’s successor.”

“You’re misunderstanding. Father, we’re being fair~”

“You haven’t come to your senses yet.”

The Duke, who paused for a moment, trudged and stood in front of Eugene.

“Although you have transformed the magic of the family in your own way, there has been little progress other than that. The kind of magic you used was also very limited. It’s a different kind of magic, but the spades were specialized in flame magic.”

There was nothing wrong.

It was a fact that he was already aware of.

Still, while listening to the Duke, Eugene felt as if he were sinking deep into the ground.

“For the 7 Imperial Family, absolute talent is important, but it is also important to constantly develop your magic. However, the fact that you have grown little this time doesn’t really touch me.”

Did not grow.

Did not develop.

He practised like hell for a month.

He stayed up all night studying the magic book and took classes and practised.

As a result, all the goals he had thought were achieved.

Nevertheless, he was still an ingrown creature.

“Father…”

“If you’d put all your energy into preparing for the performance, you’d have grown up. Well, I can’t deny you’re better than before.”

When Eugene raised his head, The Duke’s eyes, sharper than the frozen awl, and more merciful than the wolves in the mountains, were looking at him.

“But you haven’t progressed as much as the Spade family’s successor has evolved.”

“…….”

“She can light up a blue flame and activate two magic spells at the same time. But you, that’s all you could do.”

‘That’s all I could do.’

Ironically, it was Eugene himself who helped Yerine Spade operate simultaneously and invoke the blue flame magic.

Maybe he didn’t think about furthering his magic because he helped her.

Still, Eugene thought that was right.

He did so even though he knew that Yerine’s magic would be more prominent than himself.

In order to celebrate the Academy Foundation Day and make the performance a success, he thought it was necessary to catch people’s eyes with her magic, even if he was buried a little.

The judgment was wrong.

“There is no absolute ability or development at a time of slow progress slowly.”

Trump could only be one within the same generation.

At this rate, he would not be able to become Trump without any skills or progress.

“Do you understand?”

“……yes.”

As he struggled to answer, the Duke turned around and began to walk toward the exit.

“Get a hold of yourself.”

“Yes, Father.”

Eugene kept his back down until the Duke arrived at the exit.

It was all over the place.

He wanted to get rid of all these cumbersome clothes and go to the sparrow and practice magic.

That’s how he felt at ease.

‘I was permitted to remain at the banquet at any moment… .’

Under these circumstances, he could not have enjoyed the banquet with ease.

“Should I not go?”

But there will still be professors left in the banquet hall.

It was obvious that it would be uncomfortable to hear that he had left the banquet

“Ha. What should I do?”

Eugene sighed and scratched his head.

At that moment, Yerine’s face flashed through his head, smiling brightly and saying, “Thank you for your hard work.”

‘Good job. You really did a good job.‘

Her voice still seemed to be heard vividly in his ears.

Eugene stopped scratching his head.

She was one of the reasons he heard bitter words from the Duke. Of course, Eugene thought his efforts were more to blame for not meeting expectations, but it was true that because of her appearance, Eugene was under more pressure than before.

Still, Eugene didn’t resent her at all.

Of course, it was true that he was envious. And sometimes he felt a sense of inferiority bloomed when he saw her.

But the moment she told me that he did well, Eugene felt his heart warm.

After pondering the moment, Eugene turned around with a fist in his right hand and began to walk.

He was heading for the banquet hall, now.

‘If I go back now, it won’t be too late.’

He had no intention to return to the banquet hall, but Eugene did not know whether his judgment was right.

But one thing was certain, that he wanted to see Yerine’s face again.

***

“Eugene!”

Looking at Eugene standing in a crooked way, Rachel shouted in surprise.

Then, Rayl and Astra, caught in Eugene’s conversation, broke into a cold sweat and tried hard to escape the situation with a smile.

“No, we weren’t really talking about you, Eugene.”

“That’s right. We were just talking about the performance.”

But now such excuses have not worked.

Eugene’s eyes, looking at Rayl and Astra, grew thinner and thinner, and the two slipped away from his gaze.

“Spade said that I helped her but you asked if it wasn’t the other way around. Didn’t I hear that right?”

“No, honestly, everyone would think like us, Prince, can you imagine Eugene helping Yerine?”

Cassius shook his head at Rayl’s words.

“I would never have believed, either, if Yerine hadn’t told me.”

“Look.”

“Rayl Diamond, if you don’t want to be hit by my magic, shut up.”

While everyone was bickering like that, the bell rang, and Rachel laughed quietly covering her mouth.

“Come on, everybody, stop. I think the ball will start now.”

Erica clung to me and grabbed my right arm.

“Now let’s go to the corner, Yerine.”

“Oh? Uh, yeah.”

As soon as I was about to follow her without much thought, someone wrapped his hand around my shoulder.

“Wait.”

It was none other than Cassius.

He spoke in a subdued voice, with his golden eyes sharply open, which had only been softly shining since the banquet began.

“Yerine was supposed to go with me.”

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