The Villainess Reika-sama

[74]

The day has finally come.
Will the protagonist really be coming to my school?
My heart is pounding. The next three years are going to determine the path of my life. Here we go!

The high school section entrance ceremony was held on a bright April day, sakura petals dancing in the breeze.
I turned about and scanned the auditorium, but I couldn't find anybody who matched the description.
Since about a hundred new External Students will be joining us, it makes sense that I couldn't spot her.
I suppose I'll just watch the ceremony.
The representative of the current Zui'ran students was Tomoe-senpai, the Student Council President of the high school section, and it was him who gave the speech too.
He sure has matured in the time I haven't seen him. A totally different person to the middle schooler who snacked on sweets with a smile.
As I was thinking about how cool he is, next up was Kaburagi, representing the new students.
When he reached the podium, the audience grew noisy. He does have pretty stunning looks, so I can hardly blame them for being shocked. His black hair together with the tinge of coldness on his face made him look like a black panther. Leaving the Internals aside, it must have been pretty shocking for the Externals with no resistance yet.
Anyhow, eventually the ceremony ended and we headed to our classrooms as we looked at the sheet with our classes on them.
After I found my name, naturally it was her name that I looked for next.
Doesn't seem to be in my class at least.
As I continued looking through the list of first years... umm... Oh!

Takamichi Wakaba.

...Her name was really there.
Wakaba-chan. The protagonist of 『you are my dolce』, and the heroine who ended up with the Emperor after many twist and turns. And the important girl who will determine my future.
Where is she? I wanna see her. I wanna see what Wakaba-chan looks like.
But since everyone needs to quickly make their way, I don't have time to visit another classroom.
Can't be helped. I'll have plenty of other chances to see her. I'll give up for now.
I decided to just give up and headed for my classroom.

When I entered my new classroom, the students were divided firmly into two camps: the new Externals who were sitting nervously by themselves, and the comfortable Internals who were happily chatting in groups of existing friends.

"Ah-, Reika-sama!"

"Reika-sama, gokigen'you. It appears that we're in the same class this time!"

Starting with my own group, girls began to form a ring to welcome me.

"Gokigen'you, everybody. It overjoys me that we will be together this year. Please take care of me."

"Gokigen'you, Reika-sama. I'm feeling terribly relieved to be in the same class as you."

"Reika-sama, gokigen'you."

Everyone started greeting me with a smile. A few Externals glanced my way. Some of them seemed familiar somehow, so I suppose they must be members of upper society. There aren't that many scholarship places, so the rest of the Externals have to be from fairly high backgrounds or at least rich enough to pay tuition. The number of genuine commoners is surprisingly little. And Wakaba-chan is one of those few genuine commoners.
She must be getting hit by such a culture shock right now. This is just totally different from any school she's been to, after all. I was shocked too when I entered the primary school section. But boy is she going to be even more shocked once they introduce the students to the facilities.

When our new homeroom teacher entered the class, everybody took a seat and we began our introductions.

"I am Kisshouin Reika. I sincerely hope that we shall get along this year."

When it was my turn I gave what I thought was a fairly standard introduction, but for some reason a number of people started applauding me.
Wha-, stop that!
I know that you kids don't mean anything bad, but please stop that!
Look! Look at the Externals! They're all shocked! They're all shocked and thinking, 'Holy shit, this girl is bad news!'
I'm not bad news at all, okay~ I'm not scary at all, okay~ I'm not a threat at all, okay~
After that, Sensei picked out people for class representative. I had the faint feeling this was going to happen, but I ended up as the female class rep. Ehh~ I'd already planned on being a proper Pivoine and staying away from chores and everything too...
There were some other girls who seemed like they could do it, but Sensei just looked at me with these eyes that said, 'Hey, you wouldn't refuse, right? Hey, you'll do it, right?' so in the end I accepted. Ueh~ Must be hard on you, Sensei.
The other class rep was a boy who entered Zui'ran in middle school.
Deciding the people for the various other roles as well as a tour of the school would be taking place during tomorrow's home room period, so with that, class ended and we were all excused.