Lady Misfortune: Daddy, I'll Be A Righteous Villainess!

At times like this, imitating Maximilian can be quite useful.

Lady makes sure to just keep on smiling - not caring if it comes out ominous. Hartigan is really getting on her nerves at this point. It doesn't help that Fallon is stifling his laughter and looking all amused from the side either.

'Anyway, no more questions, right? Can I go back to my seat now?'

To her surprise, Belle suddenly raised her hand. That gets Lady perking up. 

"Is it true that you've got a crush on Hartigan?"

She feels the corner of her smile twitch then. 

Coos and whistles burst forth from their other classmates, which is starting to make her want to go on a rampage right at that moment. They all appear to be blind. She was obviously cursing that boy's very existence the whole time she was talking with him. 

But since it was Belle who's asking, Lady felt obliged to answer.

"No, I don't. He's the one who claimed I've got a crush on him-"

Then, she paused. 

Her eyes fall back on Hartigan who seems to be acting odd. Lady notices that his ears are all flushed red, but she's not sure if it's because of anger or something else. 

He isn't looking at her – or maybe rather, he doesn't want to. 

Such a strange reaction baffles Lady. It's a little out of character. Hartigan should have been smirking that cocky smirk of his right now, but instead, he appears to be somewhat flustered.

It's giving her the impression that he's mortified for what he said yesterday – like he should have been. 

"Ohoh, so you do have a crush on Hearty over there~?" Fallon suddenly chimed in, which finally made Lady look away from Hartigan. 

"No, I don't! Why're you adding fuel to the fire now?!" 

Just as expected from him, his level of teasing is way ahead of the CHEEKY Trio. Even though her introduction was good enough for a 'Genius Child' route, it seemed she was about to enter the 'Couple Debut' route instead. This wasn't supposed to happen at all. It's all messed up.

It's Fallon's turn now. Curious as to how his introduction will play out, Lady decides to forget those matters in the meantime and pay attention to him.

"I'm Fallon Mireille. Nice to meet you all."

And done.

That's it

Even with such a brief introduction, though, he's able to get quite a response from their classmates. They all appear to be impressed, which doesn't' make sense at all. That really didn't give them any additional information about him. But still, he has managed to hog their attention. 

"So, what do you feel about Lady crushing on Hartigan? Still bitter?" 

Of course, the CHEEKY Trio has to meddle. 

It's Chester who's taking the lead as usual while Erwin and Kyle snickers from the back. Lady sure hopes that they'll just drop the whole 'crush' thing already, though – it's aging pretty badly. 

'Are you guys trying to make enemies with everyone? You kept butting in our introductions. Oh, and you really should learn to listen properly. I just denied that, didn't I? Also, I thought you're afraid of him? Yesterday, you're hiding behind your boss like cowards.'

They're really against Fallon, though, it seems. Maybe they still think that they're going to get an interesting reaction from him if he gets jealous. Lady isn't foolish enough to agree to that, though. If anything, they're just digging their own graves – it's never a good thing when he gets peeved. 

"Say, why are you so obsessed with those two? Did your own crushes turn you down so badly that you wanted to pick on others instead? Or perhaps, you're trying to get me to see you the same way? Unless it was that, you wouldn't keep insisting that whole my-cousin-has-a-crush-on-a-boy-so-I-should-get-jealous nonsense, would you?" 

At Fallon's witty retort, the CHEEKY Trio was struck bamboozled. To begin with, Lady doesn't believe that their IQ is high enough to get it. 

Still, no one at this age would get what he meant unless they're as smart as him.

'Don't spin a random story that might cause even more misunderstandings, hey! Also, what do you mean by seeing you in what way? Aren't you being too ambiguous?! See? Those cheeky idiots are now confused. Even Hearty and the others, too!' 

Their homeroom teacher is also looking at them with bemusement – or maybe concern. 

She hopes that Mr. Richards isn't considering them the cause of all this ruckus. The last thing Lady needs is to receive the label of 'Problem Child' as well.

Thankfully, he didn't say anything, so she was probably just overthinking.

'Can I be blamed? This whole homeroom has been nothing short of nerve-wracking!'

After all the introductions were over, they've been given a few more lectures and some advice about school life, and once that's over, their first class finally ended.

---

One week later, school life only gets tougher.

Lady is having a dilemma. She can't manage to befriend Belle at all.

She has become more popular than ever. Everyone in the class wants to get close to her. She even has several admirers now. Someone is with her all the time as well.   

In other words, there are no openings for Lady to talk with Belle.

Even if she does, she is not sure what to say. The desire to make a perfect impression puts so much pressure on her that she keeps coming up with one scenario after another.

'Belle, my name's Lady! Pleasure to meet you!'

'Nice to meet you~ Now, if you'll excuse me~'

Those wouldn't work. She must have already heard that from everyone in the class.

'Wanna be my friend, Belle?'

'Hmmm… How about no?'

She can't do that either. The slight chance of her treating her as another one her admirers even though she's not confessing is enough for her to back away from that idea

'Hey, wanna take a walk together?'

'Huh? Are you shaking me for cash?

'Nooo! I'm no delinquent!'

It's useless. 

Lady keeps thinking about the worst possible outcomes – no matter how nonsensical they are. In the present, Belle is just way too out of her reach. She's like the female counterpart of Fallon who's also doing quite well in topping social circles and making acquaintances like it's the easiest thing to do. 

She did not expect it would be this hard to try to befriend someone. In her defense, she was not able to do anything like this during her past life, so she was not sure which step she should take first. Of course, it did not help that her target was almost never alone. 

Lady sighs out loud, catching Fallon's attention.

"You don't know how to become friends with Belle?"

It's lunchtime now. 

They're at the school's cafeteria. She's sharing a table with him at the moment. 

It had become a habit since the second day of school. She had planned to see if she could join any of the girls, but before she realized it, he had already grabbed a hold of her and dragged her all the way out of the classroom. From that point on, they always eat lunch together – just the two of them.

Even though it was not in her expectations, especially since some of their classmates also wanted to spend lunchtime with him back then, it was something that made her happy – albeit, a little bit annoyed as well. He could have at least asked her first. 

"Geez, that's not how you should treat a little lady, you know. You could have said 'Please join me for lunch today, Madam,' or something like that before taking off," was what she said to him then.

What Fallon replied to that at that time had taken Lady aback.

He ignored her complaint and just went on to give her an advice. It just so happened that some of their classmates were plotting to turn her into a loner, which was why he immediately acted. She was dismayed to learn that, but he reassured her, "Don't rush, Lady. Things are gonna be okay once they get to know you more. I'll be here for you all the time, anyway. So, there's no need to worry."   

While she was glad to know that he was looking out for her this much, she could tell that her standing in this class was worse than it seemed, considering how serious he addressed it. There is no doubt that a certain someone is behind this. But right now, there is really nothing much she can do. She just needs to work harder to create a better image of herself.

Now, back to the topic at hand.

"Belle sure is popular…" Lady sighed then slumped. 

"I can't get any opportunities to get close to her."

"You say that…" Fallon said, raising a brow.

"But you're actually afraid of making the first move, aren't you?" 

"W-Well, the same goes for you! If I'm the only one you keep hanging around with all the time, you won't be able to make any friends!"

"Really? I'm more than fine with being yours alone, though."

Lady stilled then, thrown off guard by Fallon's remark.