Vol 2 – Chapter 1: Return to Academy de L’échec
Translated by XianPiete
Rumors started to swirl around the campus of Academy de L'échec about a villainous woman who was seen holding hands with the most eligible bachelor on campus, the number one student of the first year's opening exam, Guy de Montfort. Even knowing he was the infamous Guy the Molester, the Count and Baron's daughters all were hoping to capture the prize of marrying the son of a Duke. Guy found himself mobbed by women wherever he went on campus. Guy didn't remember things being like this for him the first time through the Academy, but he hadn't been affectionate with any women at that point either, so this time because of his obvious attachment to Madeline, all the other women became much more aggressive about landing his attention.
Madeline, too found that the men were being much more overt about their attempts to get her attention. Her first time through the Academy de L'échec, she had been cold and indifferent to them, so they left her alone. This time, seeing her show Guy de Montfort attention, they all started to put much more of an effort into gaining her attention. Guy and Madeline spent much more of their time together than they even had been in the previous timeline. Guy was insistent on it because he had spent an entire decade without her while he lived a life as Ito Aoi. Madeline, of course, didn't mind at all as she felt cheated out of her honeymoon thanks to the mess they ended up finding themselves in when the Montfort was sucked over into Tokyo.
The girls found ways to make Madeline the scapegoat for any wrongdoings in the classes they shared with her and began to active plat and scheme against her trying to get her expelled. Guy felt new pressure now to advance his timetable and meet with Duke Aumont to propose marriage to Madeline. He knew that he hadn't achieved enough individual merit to be seen as a good fit for Madeline in the Duke's eyes. His previous reputation as a hedonistic wastrel wouldn't be toppled by just having good scores on the Academy de L'échec entrance exam. He needed to have a very real achievement. He knew that Madeline would be able to take care of herself for the time being so he approached Olivier about the issue.
Olivier gave him his normal goofy smile and suggested, "If you want to earn merits in a hurry, I would say join a knight order and fight on the borders. Since that would be like sending an elephant to deal with an ant though, perhaps you should make a scholastic contribution. As I recall my father was greatly impressed by that paper you wrote on the art of war."
Guy blushed and then said, "I plagiarized it from my world, it's a famous ancient document."
Olivier laughed and then shook his head, "Yes, but he didn't know that. I think though you would be better off winning a war like last time, that way you'd earn the King's medal again."
Guy frowned and said, "We only ended up in that war because of Diggory's accidental creation of... Wait. Wütendes Menschenreich might have already been ready to start a war with Pays Des Abrutis."
Olivier smiled and nodded then he said, "And they will have convinced El Pais de Lotharios to attack the Eastern front as well."
Guy thought for a bit, "We'll have to make it through the first year of school. If that jackass Claude tries to woo Madeline this time, I refuse to go easy on him this time. After he defiled my sister.." He clenched his fist.
Olivier broke out into a burst of hysterical laughter, "Easy now, despite that, you two were friends."
Guy looked at Olivier with fire in his eyes, "History can be changed!" He raised a finger and then laughed diabolically.
Guy then looked at Olivier and asked, "What about you, are you content knowing that Ella is spending every day happily working next to that pretty boy Algernon?"
Olivier laughed and said, "Not the same thing, Ella wouldn't fall for his shy act."
Guy shook his head, "You mean like Doreen?"
Olivier's face went from laughter to a sort of smile to deadly serious and then he asked, "I'm in serious trouble aren't I?" Guy just shrugged his shoulders and made a face that said, 'maybe?' Olivier said, "Excuse me, Guy, I need to go buy a violin."
*****
Claude de Rouvroy looked panic-stricken as he looked at his exam results. He thought to himself, 'I only scored the last place on the scholastic exam and worst of all only sixth place on the swordsmanship exam? This can't be, right? How can there be five people better at the sword than me in Pays Des Abrutis? Not even knights, but sons and daughters of nobles? I spent years perfecting my sword!' He looked at the names, Guy de Montfort, Madeline Celeste d'Aumont, Olivier de Girard, Doreen Leon, Alicia de Foix? None of these people should be better than me!'
He started to hyperventilate and had to force himself to calm down. He thought to himself, 'I grossly underestimated how tough the Academy de L'échec was, I need to get my head out of the clouds and start to take this challenge seriously. Those few knights that taught me were obviously not the pinnacle of swordsmanship I thought they were. The larger houses have been hiding monster swordsmen all this time and I stupidly underestimated them all. Most of all, I need to take my studies seriously. It's not the worthless endeavor I always thought it was, the other noble's children make me look like an ignorant savage. I am shaming my family honor.'
Claude de Rouvroy found a new passion for the art of study that day, both for his sword and his mind.
*****
Alicia casually walked around the school lost in the nostalgia of it. It had been nearly fifteen years since she had last seen these halls. When the young men approached her in an attempt to make her acquaintance she giggled softly and brushed them off. She had no interest in any of them. Only one man could make her happy and she knew it wouldn't be long before he would first come into her life. She just hoped that this time around, he wouldn't provoke her friends to the point that they would be forced to take his life. She knew in the back of her mind that it was a very real possibility. Further, she knew that the changes he made to his life that turned him into the man she knew and loved would come as a result of his failures to defeat her friends.
Her friends, specifically Guy de Montfort would be the fires that tempered and forged him into the wonderful and thoughtfully honest man that the one-time schemer and backstabber would become in the future. Alicia would only interfere if things were taken too far. She would keep him alive but make sure that his father and his country were taken to the brink of extinction so that he could become the man she needed him to become. She smiled and flipped her hair back looking in the direction of Wütendes Menschenreich. She thought to herself, 'I'm sorry my love, I won't make you wait long. I'll just hurt you a little so that you can rise to the greatness that I know awaits you.'
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