Chapter Four: Studying Stupid Things (Part II)

Just as I had felt relief, Kaname dropped a bomb on me. “…But that’s why you have to study harder than anyone else.”

What’s wrong with you?!

“Well, you said it yourself; I’m pretty good for my age, right? Then why…?”

“—Because you’re stupid.”

…You just raised my morale, so why are you lowering it again so suddenly? I suspected that he was making fun of me, but Kaname looked unnaturally serious.

“Listen up, stupid. I’ve spent the last couple of months with you and learned something… There are two kinds of fools in this world: one that can be corrected and one that – no matter how hard they try – can’t.”

…Isn’t it too sad to call them uncorrectable? Humans have infinite potential, and sometimes effort transcends ‘possibilities.’

If you cut them down like that…

“—And you are the latter. It’s impossible to overcome it completely, but it can be alleviated.”

Hmm? Do you mean me?! I was the uncorrectable one?!

No, no, wait, stop looking at me with pity! I’m only ten years old! There’s plenty of room for growth from here on out (I’ll just put on the shelf the fact that I was stupid in my previous life), so don’t give up on me after just a couple of months!

Kaname ignored me – who was holding my head, half-crying – and continued speaking. “That’s why you need academic achievements. You need to become the best in your peer group.”

… Let’s see…

“…What do you mean?”

“It’s simple. What would you think if a wonderful inventor, who would leave his name in history, were a surprisingly bad person in his private life?”

How did the topic of an inventor suddenly come up? I don’t understand, but I’ll still try to think about the answer to Kaname’s words.

…A great inventor who is a bad person? That’s not really…

“Well… I’d think that heaven didn’t give them too many gifts. It’s a shame, but I’d feel a little relieved.”

I felt a little down as I recalled my previous life. Of course, I couldn’t do such a feat as to leave my name in history, and I didn’t have any family background or beauty (I can’t say it myself, but I’m practically the most beautiful girl in the world right now! You must be jealous, guys!)

I was just a fool at that time.

There are people like me who didn’t do that well, so it’s unfair that people who leave their names in history don’t have the option to do so secretly! Yeah. I think it’ll be frustrating to be a genius and to be a perfect person, even on the inside.

“What if you were a person who came from a prestigious family and had the perfect face, but the brain’s contents were too disappointing?”

“Hmm… My family and face were given to me at birth. I didn’t cultivate them like the inventor with his own talents. Generally, in modern-day Japan, there aren’t really any ‘safe’ families exempt from atrophy. Appearances also change as we get older so it’s not an absolute asset. If it’s just those two things, then bad things can still happen to them.”

“…Then, what if they were good at studying?”

“Well then, yes… That can be forgiven. There are three special beauty points.”

It can’t compare with great investors, but if you have such a good point, then you can just close your eyes if you feel a little useless. If you only keep on boasting about your family and appearance, rather, that’s a typical villain trait… Huh?

…A villain? Huh?

“…You know yourself well.” Kaname shrugged, looking sideways at me, who had unconsciously wrinkled my eyebrows. “That’s why you need to be able to solve high school problems to some extent to be an acceptable person even if you’re a fool.”

Hey, what? What is this?

“…Can a fool be forgiven?”

“That’s right. The slightest weakness can make your strengths that much more pronounced. Human beings have longed for ‘geniuses’ since ancient times. If you become a ‘genius’ in terms of studying, people around you will close their eyes when it comes to negative things.”

…It is true that there is only a fine line between a fool and a genius. Even in the previous life, many eccentric people were called ‘genius’. Even when they acted foolishly, people would say, “he is a genius, so his mind is different from an ordinary person’s.”

In school, good grades are a kind of weapon. If I can’t solve high school-level problems smoothly, then I might not be able to intimidate the students around me and become Empress-sama and rule over the academy…

Even in fiction, boasting only about family background and good looks is the standard role of any typical villain. I am the Empress-sama. I can’t be such a lump-sum villain, but…

“…But I still think it’s quite unreasonable to go up to high school level topics at this age…”

…I also want to put off studying high school sciences…!

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