Noble Lady Reformation Guide

‘It’s a familiar ceiling… and yet strange at the same time…’

When Trisha opened her eyes, the program of the opening ceremony was already almost finished.

Each student had completed their application for the dormitory they desired, so all that remained was for the representatives of each dormitory to review the candidates.

However, Trisha was simply lying on the bed in her private room of the Sepia dormitory, her head spinning.

Apparently, the academy staff had personally brought her there.

“…”

Noticing that it had already grown dark outside, Trisha ran her hand over her face several times and muttered softly.

“I want to die…”

“Do you really think so?”

“Hiieek…!”

Convinced she was alone, Trisha jolted in surprise when she heard the reply.

Just as she feared, Dereck was sitting beside her, reading some books he had brought from the Duplain family library.

It was hard to imagine that someone as busy as him would come all the way to a secluded corner of the Sepia dormitory.

Trisha hurriedly cleared her throat and, lifting her chin, spoke.

“Sir Dereck… I didn’t think you would come all the way here. Ohoho. Ohohoho.”

“……”

“It was… it was an embarrassing scene. The truth is that lately I’ve accumulated a great deal of fatigue. There are also far too many matters to attend to in the Renuel family, and you know that great responsibilities are always demanded of us nobles. You understand that well, Sir Dereck…”

“……”

Seeing Dereck in comfortable clothes was something unusual.

It seemed he had spent quite some time there. He already appeared to have a clear understanding that the reason Trisha was so cornered was not due to the tension of just one or two days.

After clashing for a long time with talents of a higher level, the accumulated pressure had burst all at once.

Today had merely been the trigger.

Having reached that conclusion, Dereck decided to stay by her side to check on her condition.

He was always running back and forth without rest, but when necessary, he also knew how to put down roots in a single place.

Realizing that, Trisha swallowed.

“Your mother, Countess Rodelia, sends me letters frequently, asking me to take good care of you. She always encloses expensive gifts or local specialties, so I couldn’t help but worry.”

“My… my mother…?”

“Yes. It seems Lady Rodelia is always uneasy about you. Although she is feared by all as the butcher of Rodents Island, when it comes to Lady Trisha, her presence softens considerably.”

Closing the book and placing it on the side table, Dereck continued in a low voice.

“Even so, I didn’t imagine you were this cornered. I understood it intellectually, but I didn’t truly comprehend it.”

Although Trisha had put on a pitiful display during the dormitory presentation, Dereck showed no sign of reproach.

It was a crucial moment.

Was this indulgent attitude perhaps because he had never expected anything from her in the first place?

Thinking that way, Trisha’s expression darkened even more.

“To be honest, I can’t completely put myself in your place. As I told you, while learning magic I was obsessed solely with refining my own. I was never surpassed by others, nor did I ever fall behind.”

“I suppose so. They say that, when it comes to magic, you were born with unparalleled talent.”

“But mastering magic and teaching it well are completely different abilities. Watching you, I realized something new—I’m not capable of empathizing with those who fall behind, are discarded, and are labeled as inferior students.”

The direction of the conversation was strange.

Rather than a reproach, it sounded like a personal confession from Dereck.

Trisha, who had just propped herself up on the bed, had a stunned expression.

She thought she had lost control and spouted nothing but nonsense, yet it seemed that Dereck’s evaluation of her had unexpectedly increased.

‘Did I… do something…? Huh…?’

Trisha was breaking out in cold sweat, unable to understand where the situation was heading.

In moments like this, the proper response would be to laugh with an even louder “ohoho” and say something like “you’ve finally recognized my true value,” while shrugging her shoulders.

But to laugh arrogantly, she needed to know the reason.

She couldn’t understand where Dereck’s goodwill was coming from, so she had no choice but to lower her head, utterly confused.

“I learned a lesson, Lady Trisha.”

“Y-you learned a lesson… from me?”

“…?”

“…?”

For a moment, a strange silence settled between them.

Feeling that the conversation wasn’t quite lining up, Trisha shook her head and let out another forced laugh to ease the atmosphere.

“O-oh, ohoho… thank you for saying that. Although my magical prowess may be somewhat lacking… still, as a lady of the Renuel family, my prestige is not low…”

“Be that as it may, the Sepia dormitory has received quite a number of applicants. Fewer than other dormitories, but that means many chose your dormitory because they saw you.”

“R-really…? They chose… me?”

Not knowing what had moved their hearts, Trisha nodded and accepted the documents Dereck handed her.

They were filled with personal data.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many.

“……”

However, as she reviewed the papers one by one, Trisha felt her shoulders gradually relax, as if something inside her were calming down.

Even when she attended the Rose Hall, there were always quite a few people who approached her with admiring gazes.

Most of those eyes were calculating, concerned with family backing and momentary advantages.

But the people she had met since the opening of the Ravenclaw Academy were subtly different.

The students who had chosen her dormitory also felt different from the usual social circles she had dealt with until now.

The words of Hutton, the banker and Trisha’s father, seemed to float through her mind.

There was no need to shrink back.

In any place, there are bonds destined to meet, and if one lifts their chin and keeps their shoulders firm before them, connections will inevitably form.

All those years of clenching her teeth to avoid falling behind in a social world as cruel as a cutting wind seemed to lose their meaning.

But bonds, in the end, are born from opportunities as unexpected as this.

“What foolish students. Having such dazzling dormitories and representatives, and yet they choose Sepia…”

Every time she moved through the gatherings of the Rose Hall, she had observed the followers who were always hovering around Aiselin.

That peculiar light in their eyes, so different from those who followed Trisha—now she understood that she had never truly understood it.

Chasing authority for its own sake had been ridiculous.

In the end, it was that simple.

Trisha remained for a long while with her head lowered, memorizing one by one the names written on those documents.

“Ah, right, by the way… I think it would be better if you were a little more careful with your words when you’re in front of the other ladies.”

“…Eh?”

After finishing checking on Trisha’s condition, Dereck brushed off his trousers a couple of times and stood up.

It seemed he had an enormous amount of work piled up, so it looked as though he intended to return to the main building right away.

However, as he left the room, Dereck added something with an expressionless face and a strange tone.

“From the perspective of Lady Diella, Lady Ellen, and Lady Denise, it may not have been very pleasant to hear. Lady Siern didn’t seem to give it much importance, though…”

“W-what do you mean by that?”

“After you came down from the stage, when you were half disoriented… don’t you remember what you were saying…?”

Dereck shook his hands and spoke casually.

From the way he put it, it seemed he had also exchanged impressions with the other ladies.

Hearing that, Trisha tried to recall what she had been saying.

She didn’t remember anything at all.

At that moment, she had been in a state similar to being half drunk, so she had the feeling she might have said whatever came to her mind.

“A-and I, when I was mentally unsettled… w-what exactly did I say…?”

“…”

“Sir Dereck… w-why are you making that face…?”

“I understand. You had just come down from the stage, you were agitated, and your pupils were spinning as if everything were turning—in a situation like that, saying whatever comes to mind without thinking isn’t all that strange…”

“Please tell me what I said…! I beg you…!”

Trisha’s last memory was going to apologize to Dereck with her heart pounding and then vomiting everything all at once.

It was probably because she had drunk the whisky that was in a corner of the hall to calm herself.

After that, amid the heat rushing to her head, what exactly she had said had not been etched into her memory.

“Well… let’s just say you threw out something like a declaration of war against the other dormitories.”

“…”

“You said things like those who grew up like flowers in a greenhouse have never experienced real failure, or that they shouldn’t be deceived by the desk theories of people who have never dirtied their hands—it sounded a bit like speaking without a filter, saying whatever came to mind. Though, seen another way, I also thought that stirring up competitive spirit and igniting the students like that could be considered a skill in itself.”

“I said all that?”

“……Had you been drinking alcohol?”

“…”

Trisha brought a hand to her mouth and began to tremble like a rodent about to have its house collapse on it.

“Even so, there were students who felt inspired by that defiant side and decided to come. Looking back, it may not have been such a bad thing.”

“A-and… and the other ladies… how… how did they react…?”

“…I think it’s better that you don’t know.”

“……….”

Creak!

Leaving behind Trisha’s desperate scream, Dereck closed the door.

In any case, the opening program seemed to have concluded without issues, so now it was time to focus on putting everything in order.

Swish.

As he walked down the corridor, Dereck reviewed the letters he had received from the house of Count Elvester, which he carried tucked against his chest.

The sender was neither the Margrave Elvester nor Katia, who served under him.

They had been sent by the Margrave Elvester’s youngest daughter, Lady Countess Freya.

The 6-star necromancer mage, Baroness Fina Raffaella Tigris.

Of all the masters Dereck had encountered, she was the most dangerous and formidable; and among all the disciples he had known, also the most deeply twisted.

Reading that letter filled with reports about her recent situation, it seemed clear that Margrave Elvester had already realized that the situation in Tigris territory was anything but normal.

‘…Letters from the Margrave Elvester’s side were always sent by Master Katia. Why have they come under Lady Freya’s name this time?’

He had a premonition that something serious would soon happen in the County of Elvester, at the eastern edge of the continent.

That woman, who had long been sitting in a corner of her barony, merely waiting for Dereck, had begun to move on her own.

From Dereck’s perspective, there were also many things he needed to prepare.

The academy side was more or less on track; to fully stabilize the overall situation, he would have to face Fina.

The image of the sovereign of death came to his mind, capable of making countless lives tremble with a mere snap of her fingers.

More than anyone else, she desired to have Dereck in the palm of her hand.

“…”

Dereck gazed for a moment at the landscape of the Ravenclaw Academy spreading beyond the window.

As time passed, his position and status had changed, and now there were far more things he had to protect.

The more he had within reach, the more power he needed to safeguard it.

He had to reach the 5-star level as soon as possible.

“Dereck!”

As he walked down the corridor, lost in those thoughts, someone called out to him.

When he turned around, he saw Aiselin, who looked as though she had run all the way there, panting.

“Miss Aiselin…?”

“So you were in the Sepia dormitory…! Dereck! R-right now… Lady Katia is at the Duplain mansion…!”

“What?”

She worked in the County of Elvester, at the far eastern edge of the continent.

That she was now, at a time like this, in Duplain territory was undoubtedly something strange.