— Oh shit...!

Rude words involuntarily escaped from my mouth, but no one paid attention to it. All eyes were turned to the stage where the main event of the evening was taking place.

And for me, my crushing failure.

I couldn't believe it was really happening.

Damn Roman was able to breed me as the most naive fool in the world.

And worst of all... It was too late to fix anything.

— Dear classmates! — Phil, who actually turned out to be Prince Philip, turned to the audience with a wide smile, — I am immensely grateful that I was honored to open such a solemn event this year. To begin with, I would like to get to know all of you in a new way. I am Philippe Rensis de Blanche, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Azeroth. And this is my younger brother, the second Prince Razor de Blanche...

And then, everything was like a blur. I didn't even listen to his speech. Or, to be more precise, she simply couldn't hear.

The painful truth pierced me like a terrible dream.

I remembered our first meeting when Phil "accidentally" sat down with me on the train. Although, of course, this was not the case at all. The novel brought us together from the very moment we entered the academy, and I couldn't even notice it. And all this time only continued to aggravate the situation...

After all, how could I not guess when such a handsome man decided to talk to me for no reason at all?! And, moreover, who called himself by a similar name... Any idiot in my place would have noticed it.

But I was too naive. Following the stereotypes of novels of this genre, I believed that our first meeting would have to take place in some heroic setting. For example, I will be attacked by hooligans, and Philip will bravely stand up for me. But not that he will just sit down with me on the first day, because of the lack of other available seats!

I considered this too improbable a development of events, and simply did not pay attention to such obvious signs. Although, as it turned out, this was my biggest mistake.

The same went for Razor. I thought I was passing by the lake that day purely by accident, and could not in any way save the main antagonist of "Bloody Camellia". He seemed to me too cute for the future villain of the novel, and I considered him an ordinary timid student.

Even the name he introduced himself to me did not alarm me. Blake is nothing more than a nickname that he could get in his youth because of his black hair. However, since this fact was not mentioned in any way in the original novel, I simply did not know about its existence. And in the end, it played another cruel joke on me.

When my body finally recovered from the initial shock, I looked at the stage.

Phil and Blake really turned out to be the ones I've been trying to avoid all this time. More precisely, I couldn't call them those fake names anymore.

The Crown Prince and the second Prince of the kingdom stood in their ceremonial uniform, radiating the grace and nobility of the ruling family with their whole appearance. Only now I noticed how much they stood out from ordinary people, and even the aura around them was different.

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Philip and Razor were as different as day and night, but at the same time so similar to each other. Now they stood together as friendly brothers, but in ten years they would come together in a deadly battle over the woman they both loved. And in the end, it will be me who will suffer from their enmity.

This was the outcome to which the original plot of the novel pushed me throughout this time.

A minor role of the mother of the main character, whose life and death are needed only so that Brisney has the motivation to fight injustice. In other words, for this world, I was just an expendable material that was supposed to make the fate of the heroine more tragic within this genre.

Before that, I had never thought about why the mothers of the heroines in such stories almost always died. But now, being in the skin of such a character, I was not in the mood for jokes at all.

I was not ready to accept that this was all that could be in store for me.

No!

Don't even expect me to give up so easily!

I may have lost one battle, but I will definitely win the war. And no one can stop me in my desire to live a happy life.

My original plan was to sneak out of here quietly before these two noticed me, and then develop a further plan of action.

But it was too late to do that.

While I was thinking about all this, Philip and Razor had already finished their welcome speech, and went out into the hall to chat with people. Very soon, the first dance was to begin, which would be performed by both princes with their partners.

I fell into a terrible panic, and tried to sneak out of here, hiding behind the tables. But considering how clumsy I was, they noticed me anyway.

Prince Philip smiled brightly when he saw that I was here. The second Prince was also interested in my presence.

After finishing the conversation with their interlocutors, Philip and Razor simultaneously moved in my direction from different ends of the hall.

They're about to collide.

It could be compared to how two enemy war cruisers would notice each other from minute to minute before they started firing.

Damn it...!

Really, because of my rash actions, these two will start a feud even earlier than it should have happened in the novel?

It's called, I wanted the best, but it turned out a hundred times worse.

What am I supposed to do now?! I couldn't even escape anymore because they both noticed me!

I couldn't just snap and run away in front of the heirs to the throne. Therefore, I urgently needed another plan.

And at this moment...

In the crowd of people, I saw her.

Despite the fact that Rachel rudely refused me last night, she still came to the banquet. Her expression remained the same as always—cold and with a hint of contempt, as if she had done the world a great favor by coming to a party of aristocrats.

Rachel didn't really try to dress up, and went out in an ordinary black dress, which, by the way, perfectly suited her. However, with such an immaculate appearance, similar to a porcelain doll, even a potato sack would sit on it like a work of art.

I didn't notice how I started devouring her with my eyes.

In such a desperate situation, Rachel Cassius became for me like a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.

Even if she made me kneel in front of her in front of the whole academy later, I didn't care. The main thing for me was to survive right now.

Since Novella has decided to outsmart me and play with trumps, I will not back down either. No, I was going to do even more than that.

I'll change the tags and genre of this novel to hell.

— Rachel! — I called out to her.

The mother of the second main character looked at me overly biased, as if she intended to prove with her whole appearance that she had not come here for me.

"Oh, it's you," Rachel said casually, "I just got bored in the library, and I decided to take a look at what's going on here. So don't bother my eyes...

— Yes, yes! — I took the liberty to cut her off in mid—sentence, since the warships behind me have already entered the danger zone less than ten meters from our table, - Now it's not important!

— What?

Rachel clearly thought that I had lost all fear because of such an unceremonious treatment. But before she could get to me, I grabbed her first.

— Are you completely crazy...?!

I didn't voice the answer out loud, but it was obvious that it was.

Against her will, I dragged Rachel to the center of the hall to perform the first dance.