Chapter 126
Chapter 126
That night.
After slipping out of Professor Iris's lab, I fed Lily dinner and barely made it home.
It really felt like every joint in my body was screaming.
Thud.
I collapsed face-first onto the bed.
Just as I was about to fuse with the blanket and sprawl out there forever.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, I snapped my eyes open at the cold sensation that flashed through my mind.
I had realized there was still more I needed to get done today.
“It'd be rude to just sit around waiting until the other side reaches out to me, huh.”
I dragged my face up from the pillow with effort.
Lucius, that slick bastard, had come by himself first thing in the morning and even bowed his head to make the request.
Even if Lucius said he'd contact me first, using that as an excuse not to reach out separately would make me a total bastard with no sense of decency.
No matter how much I may lean toward being a freeloading shut-in, I still live by the bare minimum of human decency.
Wobble, wobble.
I crawled out of bed like a zombie and sat down at my desk.
I opened the drawer and took out paper and a pen.
“Haa....”
The first letter.
The recipient was Sophia von Rohanna.
Naturally, the content had to be a follow-up invitation to eat together again next time... but.
‘What am I supposed to write here?’
My hand holding the quill wandered aimlessly through the air.
Not only did I have no confidence in writing something sweet and romantic, I didn't even know what to write at all.
I'd never even written a polite letter asking a woman out like this in either this life or the last.
The closest I had was a love letter, maybe.
But would some faint memory from over twenty years ago really come back to me now?
Ah.
I don't know.
“Let's just keep it simple.”
If I tried to be fancy and clever, I'd only end up causing misunderstandings.
I wrote without hesitation.
[I very much enjoyed our meeting the other day.]
......
[Because our time together was so brief, I was left wanting, and I would like to treat you to another meal this weekend.]
......
[Please don't feel pressured; I would be grateful if you could come comfortably at your leisure.]
‘Okay, good.’
I wrote it myself, and it was as plain and polite as the textbook example of a well-mannered young man.
Adding any heavier embellishment here wouldn't suit my style, and the other person would obviously feel pressured.
Finally, I stamped the family seal on it and sealed it in the envelope.
“Phew. One down.”
There was one more letter left to write.
The recipient of the second letter was our family's pride and the eldest son of our house.
Naturally, I had no confidence in planning the date myself.
Help me, GPT!
I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and, as before, began briefly summarizing the current situation.
[Brother. I've set up a follow-up date.]
[Of course, as before, the emphasis needs to be on being polite without putting the other person on the spot. So somewhere without a cheesy feel, but still respectful.]
[Please recommend another date plan. It's not urgent, so reply when you have time.]
At this level, my brother's brilliant brain would figure out the optimal route and send it back on its own.
As soon as I finished both letters, I opened the door and rang the golden bell on the small table beside the bed.
Ding, ding.
Soon footsteps sounded in the hallway, and old Alfred came in.
“Did you call for me, young master?”
“Yes. I wanted to ask you to handle these two for me.”
“Hmm? Letters, are they?”
“Yes.”
I held out the two envelopes in my hand and said,
“This one needs to go to my brother, and it's a bit urgent, so please have it delivered by hand right away. This one goes to the Rohanna estate, and it's not urgent, so you can send it leisurely tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, young master. I shall send one to the elder young master and one to the Rohanna estate.”
Old Alfred accepted the letters respectfully with both hands.
But then.
“...Why?”
“Ah, no. Hmm. Ahem.”
“???”
Old Alfred's expression as he took the letters looked suspicious.
The corners of his mouth twitched, and his wrinkled eyes were so flushed with delight they almost seemed to shine.
He had that pleased look of someone whose ten years' worth of indigestion had finally been washed away.
I immediately guessed what kind of fantasy the old man was spinning in his head, so I firmly shut it down.
“Sir. There's not even a sliver of a chance this will work out, so don't go making assumptions on your own.”
“...Understood.”
At my cold rebuke, Old Alfred lowered his head with a face full of disappointment.
What the hell did he have to be disappointed about?
But even as he turned away with the letters, he grumbled softly loud enough for me to hear.
“Before I die, I'd at least like to see our young masters meet lovely partners and get married. Then this old man could close his eyes in peace....”
“....”
Pretending I hadn't heard him, I forced myself to ignore it and shut the door.
Click.
“Marriage, my ass.”
I can't even handle one girlfriend, and it's already a struggle just keeping myself together, so marriage can go freeze to death.
Have I lost my damn mind?
I clicked my tongue and flopped back onto the bed.
I turned off the lights in the room and pulled the blanket over me.
Now that all my tasks were finally done, I should be able to sleep.
But humans are damn sneaky things; the moment I actually tried to sleep, all drowsiness vanished.
Even after closing my eyes and counting about a hundred sheep for ages, sleep still wouldn't come.
Something felt off.
A strange itch gnawed at one corner of my chest, an awful frustration like being itchy somewhere but not knowing exactly where, so I couldn't even scratch it.
‘What is this? Did I drink too much coffee during the day?’
Or had the visual shock from today's click skill been stronger than I thought, and was I getting a delayed side effect?
I tossed and turned dozens of times in response to the inexplicable sense of foreboding.
“Ah.”
My eyes flew open in the dark.
I had already figured out exactly why I was so anxious.
“Tomorrow afternoon... it's the Introduction to Herbology class, damn it.”
That was it.
Tomorrow was the day of Viscountess Müller's Introduction to Herbology lecture, and Elysia, who was in my group, would be there.
That fact had been scraping at my nerves from deep in my subconscious.
“Haa.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a deep sigh.
‘As if today at school hadn't already been irritating and aggravating enough to drive me crazy.’
From the moment I passed through the school gate in the morning, people had split apart like the parting of the Red Sea, and gossiping busybodies were everywhere.
And among those blabbering mouths, there were definitely some claiming I'd had a romantic blind date with a beautiful young lady by the southern riverside.
Rumors at the academy didn't just have no feet—they had wings.
Professor Iris had heard that rumor too and immediately pouted at me, saying she felt hurt.
‘...She probably knows too, right?’
There was no way Elysia hadn't heard that rumor.
Rather, as the duke's daughter at the center of the noble ladies' information network, she would have heard the full details of my blind date faster and more thoroughly than anyone else.
“Haa... shit.”
I kicked off the blanket and shot upright.
Strictly speaking, Elysia and I had no romantic relationship whatsoever.
At most, I'd comforted her a few times on the terrace and escorted her once when she went to buy cosmetics; we were nothing more than old schoolmates, or perhaps business partners.
That meant it was none of her business who I ate with or who I went on a follow-up date with.
And yet.
I didn't know why this weird, faint sense of guilt was slowly creeping up on me.
This filthy feeling, like I'd been caught red-handed two-timing behind my girlfriend's back.
“No, why the hell should I be the one walking on eggshells?”
My head was screaming that this was unfair, but some corner of my heart had already shriveled up at the thought of facing Elysia in tomorrow afternoon's lecture.
It hit me all over again.
How had I ended up entangled with the Crown Prince and the two biggest heavyweights among the women in this world?
That is, Lily, the novel's true heroine, and Elysia, the villainess.
How had I ended up tangled up with both of them at once?
“It's my fate.”
Looking at the faint moonlight outside the window, I buried my face deep in the pillow once more.
* * *
Imperial Palace Intelligence Division, Chief Agent's Office.
It was late at night, with the world outside swallowed by thick darkness, but Harun's office was brightly lit as if it were broad daylight.
Scratch, scratch. Ssscritch.
The only sound echoing through the office was the endless scratch of a fountain pen signing away on documents.
“Hmm.”
Harun pressed firmly between his brows and turned the thick approval documents to the next page.
With the conflict between the noble faction and the imperial faction in the capital intensifying lately, the amount of information pouring into the Intelligence Division was nothing short of a flood.
On top of that, the internal purge within the church and the academy's commotion had piled on as well, leaving Harun unable to get a proper night's sleep for days.
‘Still, it's finally coming together somehow.’
He twisted his stiff neck left and right and let out a small breath of relief.
Just as Harun was about to stamp the final document,
Knock, knock.
“Chief. Sorry to bother you when you're busy.”
The adjutant's voice came from beyond the tightly shut office door.
“Come in. What is it?”
As Harun set down his pen, the adjutant in his crisply tailored uniform opened the door and approached at a brisk pace.
In the adjutant's hand was a small envelope sealed with the red wax of the Farne family.
“Just now, an urgent hand-delivered letter arrived from the Farne estate.”
“From home?”
Had something happened at the estate?
The moment Harun looked puzzled, the adjutant cautiously held out the envelope and added,
“Yes. We were told it was a letter for your younger brother.”
“...Hmm.”
Harun's fingertips froze in midair just as he was about to take the letter.
His eyes, gritty with fatigue, snapped open, and from deep in his chest he felt an unidentified lump of foreboding surge upward.
Harun swallowed hard.
‘Cassian sent me a letter?’
And.
‘...Again?’
Something was off.
“...Give it here.”
“Yes.”
Harun took the letter as if he were calm, but the slight tremble at his fingertips couldn't be hidden.
He immediately broke the red wax seal and unfolded the stiff letter inside.
Then he began following the crooked letters written in his younger brother's hand.
[Brother. I've set up a follow-up date.]
[Of course, as before, the emphasis needs to be on being polite without putting the other person on the spot. So somewhere not too cheesy, but still respectful.]
[Please recommend another date plan. It's not urgent, so reply when you have time.]
“....”
Harun's two hands, gripping the letter paper, went rigid.