Villainess, Retry!

[V3] Red Pill [0]: Evictions, Beatings

Written on 11/9/21. NaNoWriMo, November 2021 edition.
Lady Mindy Kessler (picture reference).

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Villainess [3]: Rosalie's Followers

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Red Pill [0]: Evictions, Beatings

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Before this tale continues with Janet Fleming, it must take a detour to the fortunes of three other ladies attending Lassen Academy, so let the mind's eye shift from Mariana House to Guinevere House, where the scene of another outrage was about to begin. Just before 7:00 a.m., while Janet was still asleep, another lady named Mindy Kessler was already up and dressed in her school uniform and combing her green shoulder-length hair before the mirror at her vanity table. And right beside her was her silver-haired maid waiting for Mindy to finish and holding Mindy's book bag in the meantime.

When Mindy Kessler put her comb down, she reached out for her book bag, and her maid obliged her with it, and Mindy slung it over her shoulder and stood up, thinking of the events of last Friday for the umpteenth time. Mindy Kessler had a lot of things on her mind as she stretched out her arms and yawned, ready to greet another day, yet what she had witnessed on that fateful Friday afternoon last week still haunted her, still left her mulling over the details of it.

"My Lady, are you okay?" her maid said.

"I'm okay," Mindy said, smiling. "Why do you ask?"

Her maid was about to explain—

When there came a knock on the door, accompanied by a voice that said, "Lady Kessler, there's a message for you that you need to see at once."

Mindy's maid was about to utter something abrasive, but Mindy stopped her with a grab of her forearm and a shake of her head, then said, "Is that you, Lady Felton?"

"Yes," Lady Felton said. "May I come inside?"

Mindy and her maid traded glances, and her maid said, "Don't."

"It's okay, Ellie," Mindy Kessler said, then to Lady Felton: "Yes, you may."

The double doors opened, revealing a gray-haired lady dressed in her school uniform with a ribbon in her hair and a piece of paper in her hand. Lady Felton was looking at Mindy Kessler with a flash of her steely velvet eyes and said, "This is for you, Lady Kessler," and she handed it over to her.

Mindy Kessler took it and read it through to the end, where she noticed Prince Blaise's signature on the underline and said, "What the hell is this? This is a joke, right?"

"It's not a joke," Lady Felton said.

"What did I even do?" Mindy Kessler said.

"You must've done something to anger his Highness," Lady Felton said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have received that notice. Goodbye, Lady Kessler," and she exited the room.

Mindy Kessler just stood there.

"My Lady?" Ellen said.

Mindy Kessler said, "Keep an eye on this room for me. I need to talk to Jean and Saraya about this."

Exiting her dorm without listening to her mind's response, Mindy Kessler headed down the central hallway of Guinevere House. On the way, she passed by Lady Felton talking with Rosalie Edgeworth still in her nightgown at her own dorm and felt their gazes on her back as she reached the back of the dorm house. Then Mindy Kessler ascended one set of half-turn stairs and passed by another student named Lady Childeron descending the stairs and paused on the steps.