Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Her blue eyes narrowed into thin slits.
That mysterious, people-drawing gaze unique to the squinty-eyed type skimmed across my face in an instant.
It felt different from Elysia's brazen flirting.
Like a feather carried on the wind, brushing my cheek as it passed.
A subtle, languid smile that somehow lingered.
"I enjoyed myself as well."
I forced my voice into a calm tone.
"Then."
Sophia gave a slight nod, apparently satisfied with my answer, and carefully climbed into the carriage.
Thunk.
The coachman closed the door.
The carriage slowly turned and began to roll away over the cobblestones by the southern riverbank.
I stood there quietly and saw her off until the carriage rounded the corner and vanished.
At last, when the Rohanna family crest disappeared completely from view,
"Huuuu......"
I let out the breath I'd been holding and slapped my chest a few times with my palm.
"That really startled me."
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
No, I'd gone nowhere near a battlefield, so why was I this wiped out?
All I did was eat with a pretty girl, drink tea, and have a polite conversation.
She hadn't even come right out and said, "I love you!"
She'd just smiled softly and tossed out a single, "I'm annoyed."
But that was what hit hardest.
"...By the way, why did she suddenly feel like a completely different person?"
I muttered, rubbing my face with both hands.
At first glance, she seemed like someone one wrong move away from breaking a bone, trying hard to pretend she was sturdy.
But in just a few hours of eating and drinking tea alone together, she'd suddenly become a little brighter and started letting her playfulness slip out.
'Of course, the fact that she feels way more human is nice, though......'
Being honest is a hundred times better than being a bundle of pretension.
I had figured that slick, slippery gene of her brother Lucius's had to be hiding somewhere in the sister too.
Then.
Flash!
Two very familiar silhouettes suddenly intruded into my head.
Just a little while ago, silver-haired Elysia had been acting coy in the Star-Tree Forest, draped in my old cloak and asking, 'Can you come running to me first?'
And this morning, pink Chapchu Lily was probably in my private lab, wagging only her tail while doing her little 'manggeunchu' and saying, 'Have a safe trip!'
"......"
In that instant, a horribly uncomfortable, icky feeling started crawling up from deep in my gut.
It was the filthy guilt of some two-timing sleazebag right before getting caught.
'No, what the hell.'
I let out a dry chuckle.
Why the hell was I feeling guilty like I'd been cheating on someone?
I don't even date! I'm not in a relationship with those girls!
I haven't even touched a single finger!
The fact that two people popped up in my head at once was proof enough that my mental state wasn't normal.
It was definitely because my stress was too high and my brain circuits had gotten tangled.
The empire's core power brokers were circling around me like they were filming some harem story centered on me, so it wasn't strange that I was going crazy.
"Ah, fuck it, I don't know."
I ruffled my hair with both hands and dumped all my complicated thoughts straight into the trash.
Whatever. Let tomorrow's me deal with tomorrow's problems.
Only after I emptied my head did I climb into my carriage.
"Thomas, old man. To the academy."
"Yes, sir."
The schedule left for me now was, thankfully, not a love-triangle mess.
* * *
As soon as I arrived at the academy, I headed straight for Professor Iris's private laboratory.
By normal common sense, I should've gone to my own lab first, where Lily would be waiting quietly by herself.
I should probably go check that she's alive and well, saying something like, 'I'm back. Did you eat well?'
And yet I stopped in the first-floor lobby, hesitated for a moment, and then turned around.
'No. If I go now,'
I didn't know exactly why, but if I saw Lily's bright, cheerful face, I felt like my feet would go painfully numb for no reason at all.
It made no damn sense that I should feel this shitty when I wasn't even some cheating husband coming home.
'Right. In times like this, studying is the move.'
Of course, I didn't mean I'd actually sit at a desk twirling a pen and study.
Let's just call it magic training for form's sake.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
The instant I knocked on the lab door, a calm voice answered from inside.
I immediately turned the doorknob.
Creeeak.
"Teacher, I'm back......"
My motion froze completely as I greeted her and was about to close the door.
Professor Iris, sitting at the desk, was looking at me.
'What is this now.'
Her expression was anything but normal.
Why was this person making a face like that right now?
Her brows were faintly furrowed, and her tightly closed red lips were puckered out just a little more than usual.
In a word,
'She's weirdly pouty as hell.'
After staring at me for a few seconds, Professor Iris slowly stood up.
"Wait here. I'll bring you some tea."
Even her voice had dropped by about half a tone from her usual gentle, rational cadence.
It was clear evidence she was in a terrible mood.
I opened my mouth toward her as she turned to fetch the teacups.
"Please sit down for a moment."
"Why?"
Iris flinched and turned back to look at me.
Her red eyes stared straight into my face.
Once I met those eyes from a little closer up, my hunch turned into certainty.
'She's definitely in a bad mood.'
I hadn't even done anything major, so why was she in such a foul mood?
"Sit down, hurry."
When I urged again, pointing at the sofa with my chin, Iris straightened her back and shot back,
"I am the teacher here."
Ah.
So my cocky way of speaking was the problem.
"Yes. Please sit down, Teacher."
After I corrected myself with one respectful word added in, Professor Iris finally sat lightly on the edge of the sofa, as if she couldn't fight it any longer.
Flump.
She crossed her legs, folded her arms tightly, and leaned back a little against the cushion.
She'd said she'd wear a different suit every day, and sure enough Professor Iris was sitting there in a suit I'd never seen before.
Looking at her, I thought, well......
Today, she really reminded me a lot of my sister from my past life.
This was exactly the pose my sister used to strike when she was in that disgustingly uncomfortable mood.
Damn.
I don't know why all the women in this world have to be cut from the same cloth.
Once she was settled on the sofa, I leaned against the table across from her and asked bluntly,
"Why are you in a bad mood?"
At my direct hit, Professor Iris's eyebrow twitched.
"Do I look like I'm in a bad mood?"
"Yes."
"...With such a firm answer, I can't help but think about it myself."
As Professor Iris uncrossed her legs, she lowered her gaze slightly through the lenses of her glasses.
As if she were seriously trying to analyze her own emotional state scientifically, deep wrinkles formed between her brows.
A moment later,
"I suppose."
She slowly moved her lips.
"It seems you're disappointed because you think women always come before magic and your teacher."
"...Huh?"
What in the world is this nonsense?
Women come first?
When had I ever neglected magic and run after women?
"What are you talking about?"
When I asked back with a blank face, Iris pushed her glasses up with her index finger.
"Did you enjoy the arranged meeting?"
"Keh, cough!"
Damn it!
Do I have to get asked that here too?
What kind of information network does this academy even have, if my meal on the southern riverbank got to the professor in charge in less than two hours?
"...How do you know about that, Teacher?"
"Did you think I wouldn't know?"
Professor Iris snorted.
"No, I mean, why?"
Setting everything else aside, wasn't this the same woman who heard academy-wide rumors dead last?
"The man who escorted that carriage all the way was the second son of the famous Farne family. That's only natural."
Huh, so that wasn't it.
She knew right away because it involved me.
Heh.
Heh-heh-heh-heh.
"Sigh."
I let out a small sigh, pressing a hand to my forehead.
So, to sum up the situation right now, it was this.
'I stressed that my disciple, who'd nearly died, absolutely had to keep up with her magic training, but she tossed it all aside and spent a weekend afternoon dawdling around downtown with a noble young lady, so I got sulky because I was annoyed.'
So this sister really was a workaholic research addict.
"Teacher. I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding."
I began my excuse while making the most wronged-looking face I could.
"That was less of an arranged meeting and more of a debt repayment."
"A debt?"
"During the Legion Tour, I borrowed some potions from a guy in the alchemy department named Lucius. He said we could square the cost by treating his little sister to a meal, so I had no choice but to go. I swear I only ate a meal and came back. I only found out yesterday that the family name was Rohanna, not Hosanna."
At my earnest explanation, the teacher's tightly shut lips loosened by the tiniest bit.
I could see the line of her shoulders, which had been knotted up, relax slightly.
"...Really?"
"Why would I lie to you, Teacher? You know I hate troublesome things."
Was I comforting my teacher here, or comforting a pouting student?
At that, Professor Iris lowered her glasses to the bridge of her nose and inspected my face carefully.
"For someone who only ate a meal, the signs of unusual fatigue on your face, along with your elevated adrenaline, are obvious."
"That's because it sucked the life out of me."
I really felt like I'd been drained dry, soul and all.
By the way, isn't that a little too perverted an observation?
"Anyway, I have never neglected magic or my teacher. That's why I rushed straight here as soon as I finished eating."
At my shameless flattery, Professor Iris's red eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
"Good."
Haa.
In my past life and in this one.
The whole world is full of women you have to stay on guard around.
Damn it.
Is this really how it's supposed to be?