My Next Life as a Heroine – Chapter 8 – Old Friends and New Acquaintences

“Hair?” I questioned my assistant, running a finger through my blonde locks.

“Looks good.”

“Clothes?” I asked assistant number two, pulling at the hem of my pink skirt.

“No mystery stains found!”

“Anything in my teeth?” I asked assistant number three.

“Why do I get the weird job of staring at your teeth…?” 

“Because you’re the one who protested me using my magic mirror!” I pointed out. Something I was a bit peeved about, for the record! I mean, I’d worked hard on perfecting that – using my light magic to reflect photons and create a mirror wasn’t exactly easy, after all!

“Because I didn’t want you to set anything on fire!” Assistant number three snapped.

…Like I said, using my light magic to reflect photons wasn’t exactly easy! And I might have accidentally turned sunlight into a laser beam a time or two… Not a particularly strong one, of course! But enough to singe cloth or… set a particularly dry batch of hay on fire…

“But I haven’t done that in years, assistant number three!”

“Well, excuse me for not wanting to risk a relapse in front of the school gatess of a noble academy!”

“She’s not even going to comment on the assistant thing, is she?” remarked assistant number one.

“I figure it’s fifty fifty on whether she’s figured out what’s going through Maria’s head, already, or just doesn’t wanna fry her brain trying to understand it.”

“You say that like there’s something complicated going on between that idiot’s ears!” assistant number three retorted. 

“Yup…” assistant number one said, nodding. “That’s Maria’s Master for you, sis.”

“She knows her disciple inside and out!”

“How the hell is she still supposed to be my disciple when she can still barely climb a tree!?” 

“Hey! I can climb them fine! It’s just staying in them that’s the problem!”

“Ah…” assistant number two murmured. “I get it now. They’re both pretty simple, aren’t they?”

“What are you on about?” assistant number one asked.

“Well, they’re both just trying to avoid saying goodbye, aren’t they? Rachel by picking a fight, and Maria by… Well, I don’t know what Maria’s doing…”

“She’s calling us assistants so that she doesn’t have to face the fact that she’s about to say goodbye to her friends,” Rachel chimed in.

“If you know that much, why’d you have to say it aloud?” I complained, wiping a tear from the corner of my eyes. “Rachel…” I smiled at the gray haired girl, who crossed her arms and glared at me. 

“Don’t you dare go getting yourself into trouble with the nobles here, alright? You can’t depend on your ability to talk your way out of trouble with this sort, if you go around tripping and spilling things on them…”

“Beth,” I continued, choosing to ignore assistant number three for the time being and move my smile over to the brunette.

“Promise me you won’t try and start a vegetable garden or something, alright?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips. “It’s fine if you want to help some girl out with gardening – your magic’s good with that – but every time you try to grow something from scratch it ends up as a disaster. And you still have my notes on how to fix the soil if you fuck it over, right?”

“Greg…” I continued, moving over to my last hope – my last true friend-

“You guys know she’ll be back for holidays, right? It’s not like she’s disappearing for years on us, or anything.”

“That’s it! No goodbye hugs for any of you!” I declared, crossing my arms.

Which was, of course, the perfect opening in my defenses that my friends had doubtlessly been waiting for – which was most definitely the only reason they’d said such cruel things! – as they all proceeded to swarm me for a group hug.

“Show those nobles what us commoners can do, alright?” Rachel whispered.

“I’m sure you’ll wow everyone with all the progress you’ve made on your light magic,” Beth added.

“I’ll… Uh… See you when you get back, alright?” Greg finished, with an awkward laugh.

“I will!” I promised, swearing in my heart that I’d do all three of them proud! 

“But don’t go overboard,” Rachel warned me.

“Try not to blow anything up,” Beth cautioned.

“Yeah… It’s gonna be awkward arranging visits if you end up tossed in a dungeon, or something,” Greg laughed, parting from me to rub the back of his head.

“You guysssssssssss!” I scowled at them, for a moment, but it didn’t last long before the tears returned. “You’re just saying all that so that the goodbyes won’t be so tough, aren’t you?”

“““…”””

…I chose to take their silence as a confirmation!

***

The entrance ceremony was an awkward affair. Instead of paying attention to the boring speech from the academy staff, it felt like pretty much every member of the student body preferred to pay attention to me.

Not that I hadn’t expected it… In fact, that was the main reason I’d been so thorough about checking myself over prior to entering the gates! That way, I could be entirely confident that the awkward staring was about me being a commoner with light magic, and not some other weird thing!

Of course, that didn’t make it any less awkward… But at least it kept the speech from being boring? I guess? Not that I really had the attention span to listen to it. I mean, with all those eyes staring at me… two of them was bound to belong to Katarina, right?!

Ahhhh, just imagining it was enough to make me giddy… I wondered how long it would take me to run into her? I mean, she’d probably start off by actively trying to avoid me, since I was sorta synonymous with doom in her mind – but it was only a matter of time before people tried to bully me, and she leapt to the fore in order to protect me, right? And by that time, she’d likely have started her field (school edition), so I could offer my services! And maybe we could even have tree climbing competitions? As long as it was only about getting up the tree. (I’d gotten pretty good at healing injuries in real time, so there were no worries there! I just needed to avoid any instant death blows!)

Ah, I was so glad to be in school… I probably had a silly smile on my face, half the entrance ceremony.

The entrance ceremony where everyone (including Katarina) was staring at me…

…Well, said ceremony was over, and people were finally dispersing, which meant the eyes were gone. Which, in turn, meant that I could shove thoughts of Katarina seeing my goofy grin into deepest, darkest corner of my brain and not think about-

“You there!” a voice called, pulling me away from some thought or another. 

I considered ignoring it, but since there was a slim chance Katarina was watching – even though this definitely hadn’t been in the light novels! – and I didn’t really want to break her expectations of the sweet Heroine this early…

“M-” I started, turning around – only to come to a dead stop. Stand in front of me was Katarina. The Katarina. With her pretty (but maybe a little villainessly slanted) blue eyes and her hip length brown hair. 

She was standing in a weird pose, though, with her nose in the air and a finger pointed towards me.

“Yes, you! Commoner girl!”

…Commoner girl…?

“Don’t go thinking you’re the star of the show, just because you have some fancy sort of magic! This is a school for nobles, you know! There’s no place for you here!”

“Oh?” called another feminine voice from behind me, as a hand fell upon my shoulder. Auburn hair filled my view, as the newcomer moved to stand in front of me. “But she does have a place, Lady Claes – and it’s right by my side.”

My first thought? Katarina really does have a pretty voice.

My second? Wait, no this isn’t the time for that!

And my third? There was no third! Maria.exe stopped working! And she wasn’t coming back online until someone told her what the hell was going on?!

~~~

Author’s Notes

You know, I never did share the actual premise of this story with Patreon, did I? Oops~

When Maria (Danville) woke up as Maria (Campbell), it was initially exciting. She had always loved My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom, and was especially fond of the heroine she shared a name with. The idea of getting to meet (or even date) Bakarina herself was truly wonderful! And since she’d been a lesbian in her last life, anyway, she didn’t mind giving up the heroine title to Katarina one bit.

With all that in mind… Why is it… Why is it that now that she’s finally at the academy… It’s the original Katarina she faces!? This isn’t the world of the light novel at all! It’s the original game, and she’s the heroine…!

Now she has to dodge male suitors, save Katarina from her admittedly deserved bad ends, and try to forge a new path for herself in the process.