Chapter 05
“What did you just say?”
“Se이블하트 is going to the Maze of Bears?”
“The student council president’s sister?”
“Isn’t something wrong?”
Leaving the barrage of gazes behind her, Daisy staggered down from the podium and took her seat.
Then she looked down at her name tag.
At some point, the name tag had been dyed black, the color of her dormitory.
【Daisy Sableheart】
Oh, God.
Daisy prayed with a calm expression.
Have you lost your mind?
The contents of her prayer were anything but calm.
‘I asked you to keep me away from those psycho crows, and you gave me a bunch of crazy bears instead? What, are you telling me, “You won’t be exploited, so just get torn to pieces”? Is that it?’
Villains who destroy the entire world? Fine!
But having one of those villains sleep in the bed next to mine is a completely different matter!
‘My quiet and ordinary academy life…….’
Daisy cautiously raised her head.
“…….”
Then─she lowered it again.
It’s over. It’s completely over……
Every single student in the academy was looking at her.
If people could be burned to death by gazes alone, she would have died about a hundred and eighty-two times by now.
No, this wasn’t the time for this.
She needed to get a grip.
From now on, she had to survive among crazy villain bears instead of psycho crows.
The original Daisy had answered “yes” to everything, gotten taken advantage of, lived a miserable life, and eventually died.
Then?
Daisy clenched her tiny fists tightly and made up her mind.
‘From now on, every suggestion and request will be answered with “no.”’
Daisy Sableheart would never become a pushover.
And,
‘I’ll blend in without standing out as much as possible. I’ll have no presence at all…….’
“Just be completely ordinary.”
Daisy’s gentle eyes, which had resolved to become completely ordinary, flashed with an unmistakably extraordinary light.
“…….”
“…….”
Daisy didn’t know it.
The moment the surrounding freshmen met those eyes, they instinctively lowered their gazes.
Hey, her eyes are crazy.
She’s insane.
Don’t make eye contact.
As expected of someone from the Maze of Bears.
Daisy received the surprisingly quick recognition of those around her for someone who was worried about becoming a pushover, and thus became a student of the Maze of Bears.
The final announcement of the helmet shocked more than just the freshmen.
A huge commotion erupted among the returning students sitting in the stands as well.
It had definitely just said……
Yes, Sableheart was going to the Maze of Bears……
“…….”
Hearing the whispers of the other students, Caylen’s sharply angled platinum eyebrows twitched.
His gaze remained fixed on one place.
On the platinum-haired girl staring down at her black name tag.
Daisy Sableheart had gone to the Maze of Bears.
That Daisy.
“Hey, isn’t that your sister…….”
The person beside Caylen started asking in surprise, but after seeing Caylen’s face, he immediately fell silent in even greater surprise.
This wasn’t the usual face of the calm and rational student council president.
‘Why.’
Caylen simply couldn’t believe it.
He had been certain Daisy would go to the Hall of Crows.
In a rare case, he had even considered the possibility of the Garden of Bees.
But……
“Wow, your little sister got into the Maze of Bears?”
At that moment, a voice filled with amusement came from right beside him.
Caylen turned his head and saw a silver-haired man with golden eyes grinning playfully.
“……Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“I told you to call me Ash.”
“I thought you weren’t attending the entrance ceremony.”
“I thought so too.”
The man called the Crown Prince blinked his long silver eyelashes with an innocent expression.
His face was so beautiful that every time he blinked, it looked as though stars were falling from his eyes.
People often described the Crown Prince, Ashburn Pendulum Whilsmoor, that way.
What a load of crap.
Caylen thought as he looked at the Crown Prince’s utterly infuriating face.
Of course, he had absolutely no intention of saying it aloud.
But Ash opened his mouth with an even deeper smile, as if he had heard those thoughts.
“What happened? The Maze of Bears? I thought she was a quiet and obedient girl.”
“…….”
He had thought so too.
‘Brother.’
‘…….’
‘I was asked to deliver this to you…….’
Caylen’s brow furrowed as he remembered that gentle face, which had tirelessly carried letters around even before the entrance ceremony.
The expression on Daisy’s face as she stared down at her black name tag didn’t look like the Daisy he knew.
Come to think of it, when was the last time that girl who used to visit him with letters almost every day had come?
Watching her, Ash chuckled with a sparkling expression.
“Hmm, interesting.”
No, it wasn’t interesting at all.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap!
“You’ve been assigned to the Maze of Bears!”
Suddenly, a loud round of applause came from above Daisy’s head.
The winged sparkle was hovering about five centimeters in the air, clapping his hands with delight.
“The Maze of Bears is a truly wonderful dormitory! It really is!”
At those words, an ominous feeling suddenly ran down Daisy’s spine.
Don’t tell me that sparkle is……
“That’s right. I’m the dorm supervisor of the Maze of Bears.”
Wink.
The winged sparkle winked.
“…….”
Why were ominous premonitions always right?
“I never thought you thought so highly of me. I’m honored.”
“I didn’t think highly of you.”
“I’m touched.”
“I said I didn’t think highly of you.”
“Even God must think you’re incredibly adorable!”
“What? What does that…….”
“All right, let’s go! Freshmen of the Maze of Bears! This way!”
Before she could finish her question, Daisy was pushed along by the winged sparkle and began walking.
Among the waves of different colors, there weren’t many black ones.
Naturally.
If there were too many black ones, then it wouldn’t be the world that was in trouble. The academy itself would be doomed.
‘About twenty?’
Daisy was roughly counting the black-name-tag freshmen gathered around her when she suddenly spotted a girl whose eyes were red, as though she had been crying for a long time.
Daisy flinched.
The girl was glaring at her as if she wanted to kill her.
“What the……?”
Then Daisy suddenly realized where she had seen the girl before.
She was Lydia Penmarch’s left-hand woman.
Lydia was nowhere to be seen.
‘Figures.’
Daisy raised her platinum eyebrows as she looked at the black name tag hanging beneath the girl’s disheveled chestnut-brown hair.
She had been abandoned by Lydia the moment she was assigned to the Maze of Bears.
“This is all…….”
The girl muttered with a twisted expression.
“This is all… because of you……!”
What would the original Daisy have said at a moment like this?
She probably would have apologized.
But not her.
The dorm assignment was an MBTI test in the first place, damn it.
“No, how is that my fault?”
Daisy said firmly.
The girl looked up in surprise, as though she hadn’t expected an answer.
“W-What?”
“You chose it, didn’t you? I mean, your answers to the questions.”
“N-No…….”
“Then what, did Lydia Penmarch choose it for you?”
“No!”
What do you mean, no…….
“No! It’s not! I said it isn’t!”
Suddenly, the girl screamed.
At the high-pitched voice mixed with sobs, the freshmen nearby turned to look in surprise.
“It’s not! I’m not supposed to be in the Maze of Bears!”
Sob!
The girl stomped her feet and burst into near-hysterical tears.
Daisy was the one who became flustered.
“W-What? Why are you crying…….”
“Look, Daisy Sableheart must have made her cry.”
“Wow, what’s with her personality?”
“As expected of someone from the Maze of Bears.”
“…….”
Daisy felt a sense of crisis.
Her sole goal—‘to graduate quietly and ordinarily’—was rapidly moving farther and farther away.
To escape all these gazes……
“Waaah! Sob… ngh!”
Daisy immediately spread her arms and grabbed the girl in a tight embrace.
Then she patted her back and comforted her.
“There, there. You’re sad because you were assigned to the Maze of Bears. I understand.”
Although her voice was practically mechanical……
“You were already sad about being assigned to the Maze of Bears, and then you became even sadder because Lydia abandoned you. I understand.”
The girl twisted her body, trying to escape.
“Gnh… Are you making fun of me……?”
“Oh, dear.”
Daisy paid no attention and hugged her even tighter.
Then, with their ears close together, Daisy growled in a low voice.
“Quiet.”
Hic.
A hiccup sounded from within her arms.
She got scared even though I barely said anything.
Apparently, Lydia’s left-hand woman was even more timid than Daisy had thought.
To prevent the girl from bursting into tears again, Daisy hugged her even tighter.
Squeezeeeeeze.
“……Uh, ugh…….”
Daisy didn’t know.
At that moment, it was actually faster for her to crush the girl than for the girl to burst into tears.
What… is this?
The girl, Nora Spence, blinked her bulging eyes as she thought.
Daisy Sableheart was… this strong?
No, that couldn’t be.
The Daisy Sableheart she knew was, well, a hamster.
Not because she was cute, but because she was simply a pathetic, easy target.
A stupid hamster that couldn’t say anything no matter how much people squashed, kneaded, or poked her.
But that hamster had suddenly acquired an absurd amount of strength and was trying to crush her.
Hamsters were pathetic.
But a hamster trying to crush you?
That was enough to make someone think, ‘God, if you just get rid of this crazy hamster, I promise I’ll live a good life from now on.’
“I really just want to graduate quietly.”
To graduate quietly, she had to stop crushing people first.
Nora wanted to say that, but she couldn’t open her mouth.
If she opened it, she felt like she would literally pop.
“So cooperate with me.”
“…….”
“Understand?”
Daisy’s low voice sounded as though it carried some kind of hidden meaning.
‘Even if you don’t understand, you’re going to say you do, right?’
“Sniff, sob…….”
“Don’t cry. Answer me.”
“Sniff… yes…….”
“Good.”
It was not good at all.
“All right, then stop crying.”
Thump, thump.
Feeling Daisy’s hand pounding her back so hard that her internal organs felt like they were about to be expelled, Nora thought that she resembled a hamster.
A crazy, superhumanly strong, psycho hamster.
A crazy-super-hamster, for short.
Thus was born a nickname that was deeply unfair to Daisy, who had been trying to show kindness.
