Emilia almost rolled her eyes at Cynthia's two faced behavior, and decided to just ignore her or else she'll really lose control over her expressions.
Dixy kept blabbering in her ear, interceding most people who came to talk to her, and there were only ten minutes left for the classes to begin. During this time, her new friend had already told her about her family and businesses.
Apparently, Dixy's family ran a pretty successful confectionary company. Their products sold not only on a national level, but were starting to trend overseas as well. Even if their Brown family wasn't as powerful as the Black Tiger or the White Deer, they were also a prominent rising force.
What she was quite curious about now was who will be the one sitting next to her on the other side. After all, it was a three-seater bench, and from what she knew there were no empty seats in this school.
Unless some people squeezed four into a single bench, or someone was absent on the first day, it was impossible for this seat to remain empty.
Emilia watched curiously as a spectacled boy that looked like he belonged in 'Class A' stood in front of her bench and stared at her seat for almost three minutes straight.
There were still around ten seats left empty, but most of them were at the back of the classroom. She guessed from his appearance and attitude that even though he was from a well off family, he must have relatively good grades, but perhaps not enough to get into class A.
Class S had a higher standard of education than the other classes, except for class A. For him, it made the most sense to come here in this case. And it seemed like he really preferred the front bench close to the gate, but was too shy to sit next to her.
Even when she scooted over a little to hint that she was fine with him sitting there, the boy just gulped and left. He looked quite depressed as he slumped down on one of the back benches.
"Uh, Dixy, tell me, do I look very scary?"
The short haired girl rolled her eyes, thinking that it must be really nice to be so oblivious. If she was like that, she also wouldn't have a single worry in her life. After all, she would never notice anything wrong.
"No, you don't look scary, but would a nerd like him sit next to you by his own initiative? He probably thought he would get ridiculed by everyone later if he did that."
Emilia found it quite strange. Although there was a separation between men and women in her previous two worlds as well, no one would get beaten up over such a minor thing, right?
It's not like she was a married woman and he was going to molest her, so who's honor would be so infringed that they would beat him up?
"Will that really happen?" she asked with some doubt.
Dixy nodded. "Most likely, yeah. He might even get bullied if his background isn't good enough for some of the nastier boys. Even if his family is well off, he may be a soft persimmon that can be squeezed at will. After all, there's no need to fear his family if he's too gutless to even complain to them."
Emilia blinked, a little surprised at the 'education system' in this world. Although the strong bullied the weak even in her first world, this was the first she was hearing of people of equal or even lower standing bullying someone and simply hoping that nothing bad would happen.
What if he complained to the school? What if he complained to his family? When there's so many things that could backfire, and little to no benefit other than a momentary power rush, are the people in this world really so brainless to still risk it?
But… it's not necessarily a bad thing for her.
Normally, it was very difficult to instill a strong sense of loyalty in people. Setting up 'coincidences' like she had done with Dixy could only happen in very specific situations, but there was a sure fire method that Emilia knew worked universally.
'Saving' people from distress. Being the ray of light that split open the darkness gripping their heart, how could that not instill some loyalty in people?
If there were brainless morons going around creating opportunities for her for free, who was she to refuse? Saving people from being bullied seemed like an easy way to earn loyal followers, and Emilia felt excited just thinking about it.
As for the enmity festered amongst the bullies? Emilia didn't care about it at all. There could certainly be exceptions amongst them, created by their own circumstances, but most of them should be malicious by nature.
She would judge the exceptions individually if she came across them, but for most of the bullies Emilia would rather be their enemy. After all, it was better to have disgusting enemies than disgusting allies.
If she was accompanied by pig allies, she didn't even need enemies for everything to fail and fall apart.
"Well, if you hear about him getting bullied or anything, you tell me, alright?"
The short haired girl's eyes went wide in surprise. "Ehhh? What, why? Do you like him? No way!"
Emilia rolled her eyes. "It's not about him. I just don't like it, I guess? As long as you hear about anyone getting bullied, you tell me."
Dixy held her throbbing temples, thinking it was even worse than she thought. It wasn't love at first sight, it was the heroine syndrome!
"I guess I get what you're thinking, but what are you even gonna do about it? Are you going to get in between every conflict between students and have them make up with each other?"
"Of course not, Dixy. Why would they even listen to my meddling?"
Dixy rolled her eyes, thanking the heavens that this stupid princess at least knew that much. "Why exactly do you want me to tell you if I hear about someone getting bullied, then?"
"Well, let's just say I enjoy bullying too?"
The short haired girl frowned, feeling a little unsettled. Will she have to give some knightly education on justice to her own 'princess'? So soon after being knighted? She just got used to all these funny titles, and she was already thinking of flipping over the hierarchy!
But it was also her duty as a friend to prevent her from becoming a bad person!
She felt that to raise such an innocent daughter, Emilia's parents must be decent people at the very least. They would definitely not hold it against her if she helped their daughter along the right path! But if she bullied her because of a misunderstanding, then she'll probably find tons of 'White Deer' chewing on her chocolate factories!
Therefore, it was necessary to confirm her assumptions first before she started doling out some 'discipline'.
"Tell me, Emilia, do you want to join in with the bullies or something?"
Emilia blinked, as if surprised. "Of course not. Why should I bully people who are already being bullied? Do you think I'm such a bad person, Dixy?"
Looking at her pitiful looking face, Dixy couldn't hold her stern expression at all, and quickly began placating her with a guilty conscience.
"O-Of course not. Emily is so innocent and sweet, why would I think you'll be picking on the people being bullied? I'd never think like that. Nope."
Emilia nodded with satisfaction. "Right! Isn't it much more fun to bully 'the bullies' instead?"
The short haired girl felt like she was going to get mental whiplash from all this back and forth.
"Eh? You're really going to bully? No wait, you… how would someone like you be able to bully anyone? Won't they just enjoy it? No no no, what am I thinking?! Anyway, get your head straight, Emily! Bullying the bullies won't make you any better than them, so don't even think about it!"
Emilia looked confused, not understanding her argument at all. In her mind, her friend's words made no sense. As a princess, if she held off on executing a murderer because that would make her a murderer herself, isn't that just being an accomplice to his crimes?
But there was no need to explain her reasoning to Dixy. The knights did not need to know what the princess thought. They just needed to know what the princess wanted done.
Of course, she did not have the authority of a ruler now, nor was Dixy her actual loyal knight. It made things a little more complicated than she would like, but there was little that Emilia could do about that.
So she just smiled at her 'knight'. "Did I say I am on a quest to show I'm better than everyone else? I just wanna have fun. Won't you help me?"
Dixy rolled her eyes, thinking that her mom was right. Getting overexcited over her first day at high school and rushing here so early in the morning to make friends was really a bad idea. Why didn't she listen when her mom told her to calm down and at least finish her breakfast first?
Of course, if someone told her to hand Emily over to them, she would punch them in the face.
Now that she had made such a cute but dumb friend, then it was just right to take care of her. If it caused her worry, well, that was also part of being a good friend, was it not?
'But how do I explain to this sheltered, innocent and spoiled young lady that we're here to make connections and get good marks, not enforce justice? Isn't that like hitting my head against a wall?'
Feeling that it was not a good sign to have symptoms of migraine on her first day at high school—before the class even began, no less—Dixy decided to try one last time to reason with her 'Princess'.
"Okay, okay, let's just say I did what you said, and we go to a bunch of 'thugs' bullying someone. What are you gonna do then? Look cute and tell them to please not do it?"
Emilia gave her a 'are you stupid?' look.
"No, why would they listen to me? I'll beat them up, obviously."
Dixy almost vomited a mouthful of blood from anger. Look at the frail arms and delicate build of this princess, and look at her daring! She really was going to get into big big trouble if she didn't keep a close eye on her!
But arguing with her was also pointless. In that case…
'I-I'll ask mom to sign me up for karate training or something…' she thought tearfully.
"Emily, you'll make me middle aged from worry by the time I'm done with high school, right?"