"Did you forget about our appointment today?"
I was brought to a stop in the hallway on the route to the lab by the presence of Nurse Oakley.
"Y-yes?" My mouth, already paralysed from chatting with the Principal, forced out.
Nurse Oaklock did a mature sigh then looked at me with pity.
"You really forgot our meeting today? Roselyn, please don't tell me you did."
Her sad but stern stare pierced through me, and intimidated me to the bone.
"Of course I didn't! I was actually going to come to the Nurse's Office!"
I managed to squawk out.
Truth is, I didn't even know that I had a scheduled meeting today.
Embarrassed, I started to follow the Nurse with my head down.
I suddenly remembered that this woman right in front of me was the childhood friend of the Principal.
Before I perceived her as a rather clumsy lady who played Nurse, but now I saw her in a completely different way.
This woman in front of me had grown up with the Principal, and even got along well enough to still be familiar with the Principal.
In this world, having a true friend was difficult.
Not for Ivy, of course, but all the people Roselyn were close with were just for Roselyn to use as she pleased.
Even her own parents, for their money and status they gave her.
But it wasn't so unusual, for the lower ones to pair and hide behind the ones on top. And Roselyn used that system very well.
And even rarer, Nurse Oaklock and the Principal were of different genders, and had managed to stay companions for so long.
Sure, this would be alright if they were still toddlers of some sort, but usually people didn't risk scandals and drifted apart once they were old enough to understand this concept.
Besides, it looks like the Principal hasn't even confessed to Oaklock! I wonder if he really is too shy to admit it.
But anyways, that's not my concern.
My one and only job was to bring them together.
Having someone who could monitor the whole academy was desperately needed, no doubt it.
Nurse Oaklock whipped out a key as we stopped in front of her office, and I finally managed to ask.
"So...uh, would you mind explaining to me what's going to happen? Or like, what the appointment's for again?"
Sheepishly, I spoke.
I felt uneasy and awkward because I had never missed something so important like this before.
Even I'm aware that someone as perfect as me shouldn't exist.
But to conquer my supposed destiny, I had to prove that I was valuable to society to survive.
It was almost like a backup, in case I ended up in the worst situation imaginable. It would, in the very least, keep my head attached to my shoulders.
Oaklock hushed me to a medical chair, and I sat down on it.
"What did James discuss with you?" She said the moment I was perched on the seat.
James? Who was James?
I dug through my memories, including ones from my past world. Maybe I would have a clue about who this James was from the otome game.
But no answer came to me. I had never met someone named James, or knew him from the game.
"Who—?" Just as my mind was in shambles, an answer surged through.
".................Oh."
The only person who could be James would be the Principal.
It's quiet a laugh, this one character. Never mentioned, and not a single student even knew his own name.
Nurse Oaklock was the only exception, except the game never told us anything about them being childhood friends.
And the Nurse was a bit of a big influence on Ivy.
Being the only other person who had the affinity to heal, Ivy relied on her teachings since the teachers couldn't educate much because this form of magic was so rare.
Nurse Oaklock had been self-taught, to the point of mastery.
Well, it was considered mastery because nobody had gotten so far with healing magic in history, which is due to the scarceness of this element.
"What did he say to you?"
Breaking free from my thoughts, I snapped back to our conversation.
"Nothing, really. We only discussed about how I was good of a student I was." I answered immediately, not knowing what else to say and only came up with this.
Her left eyebrow raised.
I gulped and hoped that she believed my story, but it was clear that she wasn't.
"I see." The Nurse nodded. Then, she looked at the ticking clock hung on the wall. "It's getting late now, Roselyn."
"Thank you very much." I did a small, quick bow and left.
I clutched the notebook under my arm. But my hands were getting sore and tired from gripping it, so I speeded up my walking pace.
***
I sighed in relief. I had never been so, so reassured before.
Elios, to my relief, wasn't standing there with that scary questioning expression plastered over his face.
If it were someone else, that look wouldn't be so horrifying.
But it was Elios, and seeing that was probably one of the rarest things in this world, but not in an exactly good way.
After all, he usually would never gather up the courage to even look someone in the face properly.
I headed over to my corner, and saw that my tray again.
I frowned when I saw a bit of the second test vial missing, but it was only a few drops.
I had measured everything to 4 inches, while that one only had 3.5.
'It must have been Elios. Was he that onto me and this...........unknown chemical? Is it even that special? Maybe he suspected me of trying to poison someone with it, likely Ivy, but I'm not even sure it this is poison.'
I cocked my head for a moment, and concluded, 'Nevermind, it's definitely poison or something like that.'
As I gritted my teeth, a flash of fear surged through me.
What if he brought this to the administrative? I would get expelled for it, no doubt.
I would fail my Onii-sama, my parents, and most importantly, myself.
But even I couldn't find what type of potion this was.
I looked at the test vials again, and all of them were a fine, clear purple. Not a single hint of reaction.
Still, no progress.
But this would mean that the potion is quite rare, not even having one of the 12 common bases in them.
They manufacturers would have to make another special base separately just for this one potion, so I assumed it cost a lot and was a hard find.
Did Baron Castria have a lot of connections?
He, of course, had enough money and status to buy this vial, but that wasn't the only requirement needed to obtain something like this.
Come to think of it, I think Ivy had a lot of supporters from family heads. That was one reason the nobles were keen on crowning her.
Which I presume were the Baron's acquaintances in some way.
With all these things surrounding Ivy, she would have obtained this, but with a few hardships.
I clicked my tongue as I threw all the vials out in the incinerator bin, keeping one in a glass container.
Being born in high status means you were commonly judged and watched over by all of society, so you had to maintain perfection until the end.
At least she doesn't have to worry about her reputation going down, hence not having a large one as such.
I regretted thinking this immediately after seeing Ivy giggling like a drug addict with a few other girls as if they were talking about light, girly gossip that happened to be hilarious.
I turned away from the garden, pretending to have not seen the sight and continued to my dorm.