The Noble Lady of Lust

Chapter 337: A Friend

*****

”Astrid! Help me, I’m in trouble now!”

”Calm down, honey. Don’t come barging in like that—it’d be bad if someone else was here. Close the door first.”

As soon as I heard what happened I wanted to meet Astrid, but the instructor’s meeting had been extended, and most of the afternoon was self-study, making it impossible for me to come see her and tell her what happened.

Anxiety overwhelmed me and, to make matters worse, Cordelia stared at me (Phina) and Alice, with a face that looked as if she wanted to kill us.

I was lucky that it was self-study and when I found the opportunity, I was able to disappear again with Alice and Elena, really her gaze was so intense that everyone in the class noticed it.

I had no idea what Cordelia might do now, my impression of her is better than it was a few months ago and I have some understanding of her, but, still, I was really worried about what would happen now.

I (Chris)-who only found out after I was done with the twins- tried to distract Cordelia a bit, who seemed determined to follow me when she saw me running away with them, I don’t know what for.

I was dreading it, yet I (Chris) tried to talk to her, but she said absolutely nothing and basically ignored me.

Her red face and agitated breathing worried me a little—especially when she seemed to be hunting me (Phina) down, very insistently.

I could only watch her closely in silence, in case she found me.

But finally I heard that classes were resuming, which was the same as the meeting ending.

However, instead of going to teach the last class of the day, I came straight to where Astrid was.

I immediately ran over here, to the point where I broke the rules and went back to using my art, in the hallways. Something had to be thought of before this got out of hand, I wanted Astrid’s help.

..

I closed the door as instructed and began to explain as clearly as possible what had happened to Astrid, who was sitting at her desk calmly reviewing some papers.

”Astrid!, Cordelia.... Cordelia at recess, to Alice, to me, me, Elena, we, explosion, and agh!”

”Honey, calm down, you’re really worked up, you even bit your tongue ”

”blessing, concealment, caught , yandere, trouble, explosion...’

”what explosion, I can’t understand you at all... but if you’re talking about Lia seeing them in the bathroom, I know.”

”Yes! That’s it, I need your help to—wait, how do you know? Did she come here first...? No, unless she teleported...”

My clear explanation didn’t convey well, but she seemed to know, which made me alert and I cautiously looked around the room, stretched my senses, but then reacted.

In fact, I had her in my sights until a moment ago and came immediately, and she must not have had time at any point to meet... which makes me wonder how Astrid knows.

”Haah~ I couldn’t help it, honey. I really love you...but I love my daughter too.”

She finally lifted her gaze from the papers and looked at me letting out a heavy sigh, she got up from her desk and slowly walked towards me, who was still near the entrance.

”Huh? What do you mean?”

I didn’t understand what she meant. I mean if I understood, but that wasn’t the issue right now. The important thing was dealing with Cordelia.

”Honey, you promised me you would be serious about my daughter. It’s been months and no progress. I didn’t want to do it, honey, but I was forced to act on my own.”

”...”

Astrid walked over to me, put her hand on my cheek and said those words as she looked into my eyes with regret and guilt.

I was dumbfounded. I didn’t understand... no, I refused to believe it. I couldn’t accept what she was saying.

”Time is running out, and I couldn’t stand by and watch my daughter - who doesn’t even understand herself - suffer for her love.”

She broke away from me again and turned her back on me, walking back to her desk.

She walked slowly, as if each step weighed on her. It was already clear what had happened, and although I didn’t want to accept it, she basically just confessed it, the reality was.

”Astrid...you sold me out to Cordelia.”

She stopped in front of her desk. She looked down a little, as if she saw something about him, and after a short silence she spoke....

”Haah~ Yeah. I did, honey. I knew - because you told me - that you used to do it in the bathrooms... and I told Lia to go, to wait and see with her own eyes what happened.”

”Astrid! Why, we had an agreement! Why betray me like this? There were other ways!”

I was dumbfounded and shocked, I came here to ask for her help, and now I discovered that she was the mastermind of all this... and not just a coincidence.

Admittedly, it had been a few months since I had promised her that I would try something with Cordelia.

I considered that we were going at a good pace, and I had assured her that before the end of the academy something would possibly happen.

It was more than clear that Cordelia liked me. So it was just me who had to take the last step. And I know Astrid knew it too.

Since that day I’ve made an effort to understand her, to understand how she thinks and how Cordelia really feels about me, so that there is no doubt.

I thought that by the end of the year I would be able to get along well enough with her to ask her out wholeheartedly.

Besides, because of Cordelia’s quirkiness - yes, her yandere side - I wanted more time.

Time for Astrid to instill values in her, to handle such extreme emotions. Although Astrid already said she was ready a little more was not too much, I wanted that when the time came, there would be no problems.

Obsessive yanderes and a harem... do not go hand in hand.

And not only in fiction: in reality it is obvious that, when someone has an obsession of that level, it is rare to want to share the loved one.

Well, Cordelia, although she does have an obsession, has not yet done anything that would categorize her as a yandere in this life, but I tend to think of her that way because of what I saw she is capable of doing, considering what she did to my alternate self.

Everything she did to my alternate self may have been a misunderstanding to some extent.

But it is true that at some point there was no room for it to be just that, and since I now know that it was not hate that she felt but love, it is obvious that something was distorted very badly.

I can’t make a clear judgment because I don’t know all the factors, but that doesn’t change what happened and not to mention that there must have been something more serious that made my alternate self put her on the elimination list and not simply on the ’keep away’ list.

With all that and like Silvia’s case, I realized that the potential is there, and had to be handled with care.

But now... my plans were completely altered by Astrid’s intervention.

This was a clear fault on her part and a very unilateral decision when it was something we worked on together, to get it right.

”I didn’t want to do it this way, but there’s no time left, honey. You know, a few days ago she asked me if it was okay to want things like..... hand-holding, hugging or kissing a friend?”

”that’s...”

’Don’t tell me...’

”Yes, honey—’a friend’... That’s when I realized everything had gone wrong from the start. She doesn’t even understand herself. Haah~ It’s my fault... She inherited it from me, someone who didn’t even know what I wanted for most of my life.”

”...”

”I couldn’t even realize this even though I was supposed to have been counseling her for months on love issues, but you knew, didn’t you?... you knew and you didn’t tell me!

”ugh!!...w-well, starting out as fr-friends isn’t bad right, I said we’d do it na-naturally....”

”That wasn’t going to work, it made me realize that she and I are a lot alike, and I don’t want her to develop that feeling of existential emptiness that I had, I’ll eliminate any possibility.”

’Damm!, so that’s what happened...’.

Yes that was the loophole I was exploiting, to procrastinate on this and keep Cordelia under control.

Not long after learning of her interest in me , I realized that Cordelia had in mind the premise that she wanted to just be my friend.

Yes, to everyone who saw that room, as well as to Astrid and me, it was more than clear that it was love (obsession), and to a high degree.

But Cordelia, with her emotional intelligence practically in the negatives, knew she wanted something from me — she just didn’t understand exactly what.

If I had to say, she was someone dense, but with a firm taste, a bit contradictory, but almost everything Cordelia does is contradictory, so I wasn’t surprised.

But I used that to buy myself as much time as possible and take my time to understand her and really start a reciprocal relationship.

I wanted to take advantage before the bomb called ’Cordelia’s love exploded’. It was not with bad intentions, but rather that I wanted to understand her, to understand her, so that, when starting a relationship, there would not be any problems and it would be a healthy relationship.

Honestly, I thought I had succeeded to some extent, but not totally, and this situation caught me off guard.

Apparently, Astrid realized that doing as I said would only postpone this, she acted on her own.

Now Cordelia knows she doesn’t have to hold back because I like girls, and since she saw me with Alice, she knows that a physical relationship and beyond is possible.