I hummed happily as I munched on the cream puffs we bought from the dessert shop.

Marie and I found a good spot in a secluded corner of the campus, so we were sitting on a bench in the sun.

I told Marie about the event I witnessed, and we had a good laugh.

“I wish I was there!” she pouted.

“Yeah, it was really funny,” I laughed, “The guy was really good-looking though.”

“Really?” Marie’s eyes widened, “For you to say that, he must really be good-looking!”

I tilted my head, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re so pretty! Pretty people have high standards, right?”

“Y-yes, I suppose so,” I laughed at her logic. It sounds odd, but it doesn’t seem flawed?

Marie then went on to tell me about the boy at the counter, and how he seemed like he was interested in her.

“He’s a second year in college, and working there part-time. So, let’s go back there another time!” she looked at me, her eyes filled with hope.

Ah, kids these days… it’s only the first week of class and all they want to do is date.

I just nodded in agreement to whatever Marie said.

--

After finishing our snacks, I returned home while Marie went back to the dorm. I only had one class that day, so I was pretty much free after that.

After greeting the housekeeper, I took a cold shower and sat down at my desk.

I spent the rest of the day in my room, trying to recall the novel and planning out my next steps.

The story starts in Lilia’s second year of college. For some reason, Lilia decided not to expose her family background in college. However, in her second year, her cousin transfers to her college, exposes Lilia’s identity and spreads a bunch of rumors. From then on, Lilia had a hard time in college due to her cousin’s bullying.

That was the first quarter of the book.

The remaining parts… if I didn’t recall wrongly… she somehow gets into an awful lot of dangerous situations, the male lead saves her, and ta-da, happy ending.

…I really should have paid more attention to the novel when I read it, right.

After reading the first few chapters, I got so frustrated with Lilia that I basically skimmed through the remaining pages. I mostly remember the scenes that angered me – like the villainess ruining Lilia’s dress, Lilia getting kidnapped and violated, Lilia being verbally abused by a group of girls in college…

Honestly, it wasn’t the situations that annoyed me. Bad things happen. They just do, for no reason, sometimes.

What really annoyed me was Lilia’s way of dealing with these bad situations.

In all the above situations, Lilia had the exact same reaction – cry.

Even after being bullied time and again, Lilia never seemed to care about improving her abilities to protect herself.

That’s something I can’t comprehend.  

If you only rely on other people to protect you, what do you really have? If the day comes when they no longer want to protect you, what can you do? You’ll end up being a doormat, trying to please the people who have the power to protect you. Might as well spend that time to obtain your own power, right?

So, now that I know that my fate is to be bullied, harassed and violated, I’m going to learn to defend myself first.

Strength comes in many forms.

With my knowledge from my previous life, I’m going to figure out the best way to defend myself in this one year. After that, when all these evil people appear, they’re not going to stand a chance against me.

I grabbed my left wrist with my right hand. I shook it lightly.

Lilia’s wrist – my wrist. Too thin, too pale, too weak.

This frail body. This won’t do.

--

“Big brother,” I called out sweetly.

“Yes, Lilia?”

We were sitting at the dining table, having dinner together. It was just the two of us today.

“Can I find a personal trainer?”

Luke looked up from his food, startled.

“Why?”

“I think I should learn to protect myself…” I gave him another sweet smile. I’m not used to begging for things doing things this way, but for now this is the most effective way to get what I want.

Luke shook his head, “You don’t have to, you’ll have a tough time learning.”

I frowned. Is he looking down on me?

Noticing the look on my face, Luke continued, “I’ll protect you, Lilia. If you’re really worried, I’ll hire a few bodyguards to go around with you. I know you don’t want to expose your identity in college, so I’ll get them to go undercover, okay?”

Okay, that’s one way of resolving things, but that’s not going to be helpful to improve my own strength.

Also, it’s going to be annoying to have to act like a good girl if there are bodyguard (Luke’s spies??) hanging around me.

I shook my head, “No, it’s fine then, big brother. I don’t need any bodyguards.”

“Is there a problem at college? Is that why you’re asking for this?” Luke leaned towards me; his face filled with concern.

“Not at all, big brother, I just saw this martial arts movie that looked really cool, so I thought I wanted to learn it too,” I giggled.

Oh-ho-ho. How’s that, that sounds stupid enough as an excuse Lilia would give, right?

Luke seemed relived at my answer, “I think physical activity doesn’t suit my dear Lilia though, so let’s not do that, okay?”

“Okay brother, I’ll listen to you!”

A sweet smile on my face, I rolled my eyes internally. I’ll have to give up on this for now. Pushing it won’t do me any good.

The rest of the meal went on peacefully, with Luke asking about my college life.

I answered his questions patiently, talking about things that he would like to hear.

After dinner, I went back to my room and lay down on the bed with a sigh.

I guess getting a trainer doesn’t seem realistic for now. I can train my strength by doing exercises on my own, but honing my martial art skills would be hard alone. Even with my expertise from my previous life, I still need to constantly spar with others to maintain my skill level. Plus, I’m not sure if the style of martial arts I learned in my past life would be suitable for Lilia’s frail body. It would be better to have an expert teach me to most suitable techniques…

It seems like I’ll have to hire a trainer on my own…

That means I need money.

Okay, first order of things: earn some cash.

More cash is always good.

--

A/N: leave me a comment?!?! :)