Side 1: Anger

The night had deepened, but for someone, it had yet to begin.

Inside a modest English mansion right by the city, silence prevailed. For the house's indentured servants, the chilly atmosphere was a part of their daily routine; however, something was different today.

Something indeed was different, as, after every exam at their mistress's school, she would return with a bright smile and chatter with the servants, but this day was different. She came home but didn't come out of her room, not even for dinner!

One of the maids couldn't hold herself anymore and went up the stairs to Tsubaki-sama's room with a tray filled with food. She knocked on the door, and asked with an alert tone, "Ojou-sama, please open the door. Dinner is ready!"

Just then, she noticed that the door into the room was ajar. The maid's face instantly paled, as she opened the door in worry and discovered an armed bow aimed right at her face!

"E-eek! O-ojou-sama, wh-what happened?! D-did I do something wrong?!" The maid was surprised, but instantly moved to look at her feet. Her body started to shake in the apprehension of fear that she had intruded in her privacy.

There, just a few meters behind the door, stood a tall, beautiful woman with a 60-inch recurve bow in her hands pointed towards the maid's head. She held a still, dead expression on her delicate face as she held the arrow back.

"Are you new around here?" Tsubaki asked. Her clean bangs cluttered her forehead, but she didn't move them, nor did she care that they hindered her view. She instead focused intently on the target in front of her – the maid.

"Y-yes, o-ojou-sama! Pardon me if I've made any mistake!" She bowed in worry, mostly for herself.

"No problem. Just don't interrupt me during my practice." Tsubaki offered a slight smile, and let go of the string. "You should remember one thing, I," Her eyes dilated. As fast as lighting, she turned and drew her bow and shot an arrow towards the window. Without interruption, she continued, "dislike being interrupted during my practice."

The maid turned towards the window in shock and discovered a crow with its head split apart outside the window. The unfortunate thing looked like it was just about to crow, but was pierced through with an arrow before it could emit a sound.

"U-uh, yes, ojou-sama! Pa-pardon, my mistake, I'll accept any punishment you give me!"

The tray on her hands also started to shake in unison with her body. It was her mistake, too; she should've asked the others before running into the room! She now regretted her decision to flatter the ojou-sama by acting worried for her…

"It's ok, don't worry. Don't do it next time."

"Ojou-sama…thank you. But what about your dinner?"

"I don't want to eat."

The maid looked up and sighed when she saw her back. Even though she wasn't cruel, the maid did feel anxious whenever she looked at her face. She replied in the affirmative and left, leaving Tsubaki to her own devices.

Tsubaki had donned a pure-white bathrobe on her body, even though it had been hours since she had a bath. She was far too consumed by the hurt inside her to care.

One mark. Just because of a single, one marked question, she failed to get a 100 in her maths exam. The intense disappointment she would see in the face of her teachers made her body shrink. It wasn't her fault, but they wouldn't believe her, would they?

"Useless, I'm useless. This is all my fault, I should've tried to write faster…" Tsubaki covered her forehead and miserably smiled. Her body had turned red due to her misery, so without any hesitation, she dropped her bathrobe and sat on the bed.

Tsubaki didn't cry, nor did she make any noise. She just lay down on the bed, nude, and replayed the same scene in her mind – where a boy that she had never seen before threw a pen at her and disturbed her during the exam. Recollecting his smiling face and calm behavior while handing in his papers made her curl her fists in anger.

Due to him, she was interrupted and couldn't completely write the last question.

Little by little, the anger in her mind increased.

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