'Why on earth did I agree to this?'
Less than an hour ago, Soren had been making it his goal to kill the trash in front of him.
What was he doing now?
Now he was eating lunch with him.
"Hahhh…"
"What's wrong, little hedgehog?"
"Just.. shut up, trash."
"Is that what you're going with?"
"Why? Don't like it? I think it fits a pervert like you perfectly."
"Me? A pervert?"
"..."
Felix scratched his head awkwardly in response to Soren's silence.
'Being around this guy really will taint my image even more. I need to be careful.'
'Speaking of my image though…'
"Why is everyone staring so hard today?"
Soren was already getting used to the glares of his peers, but today it felt different for some reason.
In Soren's mind, there was only one possible explanation for this.
The person sitting in front of him.
Human Trash.
Womaniser.
Scum.
Even though classes had only been going on for a few weeks, Felix had already attracted all sorts of awful rumours thanks to his womanising ways.
"…I knew having lunch with human trash was a mistake."
"You're being too harsh…"
Soren recoiled in disgust at Felix's attempt at faking sadness.
"But you know, Soren, doesn't it make sense that people are staring?"
"Not really?"
The look on Soren's face was that of genuine confusion.
Seeing this, Felix chuckled in disbelief.
"Well, you might not have heard, but Annie told me that—"
Soren quickly cut him off.
"—Wait, who's Annie?"
"The girl I was with the other day."
"..."
Soren looked at him with a face filled with contempt, but Felix just ignored it and continued.
"Anyways, she was telling me that during their tea party, they were talking about guys."
"And what does that have to do with me?"
Soren still had no clue where he was going with this.
"Apparently, our names came up quite a lot. You should be happy."
'But why?'
Soren tried to think about why his name might have come up in conversation, but nothing came to mind, no matter what.
"So why exactly was my name brought up?"
Felix looked at the guy in front of him with an expression that seemed to be asking, 'Are you stupid?'
Soren felt wronged by the look Felix was giving him.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...No, it's nothing. Hmm… how do I put this…"
From Soren's perspective, Felix seemed to be genuinely struggling with how to choose his following words.
"Okay, so.. Soren, what reason would girls have to talk about guys at a girls-only event?"
"Uh…"
"...Of course it would be to talk about who they're interested in."
"Oh! Oh? Huh?"
Soren's face was filled with confusion.
He pointed to himself to double-check that Felix's words were correct, to which Felix just nodded.
Soren couldn't understand it, so he voiced his thoughts.
"But why?"
Felix sighed.
"Are you being serious?"
Soren nodded.
"...I hate to ask, but... when was the last time you looked in the mirror?"
'Uh…'
"...Never."
Not once since transmigrating had Soren looked in a mirror.
'Was I really that uninterested in how I looked?'
"I want to believe that isn't the case… but the look on your face is telling me it's somehow the truth."
"..."
"Just.. go look when you get the chance, you'll understand."
"..."
Soren couldn't help but nod his head in shame at Felix's words.
No matter how distracted he had been, it didn't make sense that Soren hadn't even looked at his own appearance since transmigrating.
'Something doesn't add up though..'
"But if that's true, why the hell does everyone avoid me?"
Shrug
"Why would I know?"
'I should've expected as much, all that goes through this guy's head is women.'
"Well, whatever, I'm going to the bathroom."
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
On his way to the bathroom, Soren was lost in thought.
The reason for this was that he was trying to figure out why people were so blatantly avoiding him.
It didn't make sense to him. If what Felix said was correct, then surely people would be more likely to approach him, especially in a world like this where nobility is such a big deal.
He was aware that if someone were attractive, there would be people who were too intimidated to approach and others who would be jealous, but there would still be some people outside of those two groups who would at least greet him.
But that has never happened.
Never.
Not once since transmigrating has Soren been greeted by his peers.
'But why..?'
"..."
"..."
"..."
'Wait… am I stupid?'
Soren's footsteps came to a halt as he pieced together the most likely answer.
'That actually makes a lot of sense if it's true…'
"Freya Arden." He muttered her name under his breath.
That was the answer he had reached.
'How did it take me so long to figure that out?'
The moment that name came into his head, it was as if the final puzzle piece had finally been found.
A few months before the entrance ceremony, Freya Arden had passed away in battle.
In Soren's room is Freya's personal weapon.
The original Soren must have been quite close to Freya; otherwise, the weapon would have been sent back to the main house.
Again, Freya died months before the start of the academic year.
That would mean Soren personally received her weapon, then lugged it all the way to the Academy with seemingly no other belongings.
Why else would you do that other than being close to that person?
Even the fact that the axe itself was in pristine condition meant that, up until the time of his transmigration, the weapon had been constantly maintained by Soren.
This leads to the reason why Soren is being avoided.
A few months might be enough time for some people to move on, but for others, especially those so close to the person who died, it can vary hugely.
The most likely answer is that when the original Soren started attending Stellaris Academy, he was likely very gloomy due to grief and probably shut out anyone who tried to come close.
'...I can understand how he felt.'
Soren understood how hard it can be to accept help when you're at your lowest.
But what must've happened was that the original Soren was unapproachable and refused to let his walls down at any point.
The students and staff probably realised that it was better to leave him alone for the time being and give him some space.
As a famous person, Freya Arden's death was widely public knowledge, so it was likely that many people knew exactly what was going on with Soren.
'Wait, then were some people seriously looking at a frail, grieving 18-year-old boy with envy just because he has decent looks?'
Soren clicked his tongue in disgust.
'Wow, people really are trash.'
'Well, at least that's been solved.'
It was a relief to him that he had finally figured out what was going on.
'The solution is pretty easy then.'
To improve his current situation, it would be sufficient to clarify that he was okay now.
Soren knew it wouldn't be an instant fix, but he was convinced that it was the solution.
'But do I want to fix it?'
Thanks to the existence of Alex, he was able to live quite freely, but Soren was still worried that if he garnered too much attention, he might be dragged into the story, which was the thing he desperately wanted to avoid.
Sure, being in class F made that worry seem somewhat pointless, but after hearing what Felix had said, he couldn't just casually shake it off.
After all, in a world filled with narcissistic nobles who care way too much about vanity, there was a chance that even with his awful skills, Soren could still be roped into things depending on how good his appearance was.
"Ugh…"
Soren groaned in response to his own thoughts.
'It's all so tedious.'
All Soren wants is to live a happy, comfortable life in this world.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
When Soren walked into the bathroom, he felt a strange sense of anticipation.
'Why had I never been curious?'
It had been almost a fortnight since transmigrating, and Soren had yet to think about his appearance even once.
'Well, to be honest, I'd stop caring about that sort of thing long ago…'
Back on earth, it had been months since he had put even a speck of effort into looking after himself, so maybe it made sense that he hadn't been curious until now.
Reaching the mirror, Soren raised his head and immediately froze at the sight of the face reflected back at him.
'This isn't just an attractive face…'
He reached out and touched his face in disbelief.
He was once again reminded of the almost S-rank charm stat that he had been so annoyed about until this very moment.
"This is fucking crazy…"
He couldn't help but curse.
The silky snow-white hair and porcelain skin gave an air of decadence.
Warm-looking, scarlet eyes painted by long, black eyelashes.
The soft, slightly red lips.
Beauty marks sat just under his eye on the left and his mouth on the right.
Not to mention the slender yet somewhat short body that was reflected back at him.
Everything came together to create a beautiful yet delicate appearance.
'I take back what I said earlier, no wonder people were envious, I can't even call them trash anymore.'
There was only a single question Soren had with his current appearance.
'Is this really a guy?'
Back on earth, he had also had a fairly androgynous look, so he occasionally got confused for a woman, but the face reflected at him made his old face seem macho in comparison.
'I can already feel the future headaches…'
————「❤︎」————