Chapter 132
Chapter 132
I’d misread it.
Louis had tried to interpret that day’s situation only through the mindset of Elysia he had always known—the Elysia who, as the future Crown Princess, had blindly fixated on him.
The reason she had come looking for him at the Academy.
The reason she had spat out those barbed words right after witnessing him reach for Lily and try to forcibly take her away.
He’d thought it was all because she loved him, because she couldn’t stand the thought of him being stolen by another woman, because she was jealous.
'If I frame it that way, everything fits.'
But no matter how unpleasant and how badly it stung his pride, truth had to be faced coldly.
'Had Elysia’s feelings already cooled by then?'
Louis's heart sank unpleasantly.
The gaze she had turned on him held none of that hateful love-hate from the past, nor the despair of a wounded woman.
It was only indifference, as if she were looking at some ordinary young nobleman.
Then why?
If it wasn’t obsession with him, nor hatred toward Lily.
Why had she personally gone to such a dangerous place?
To support the imperial princess, the highest-ranking noble, who had been mediating the conflict between the Church and the Academy?
'No.'
Then, as the heir of a ducal house, to learn the full details of the incident?
'Not at all.'
Elysia wasn't the sort of woman who would run around in fluttering skirts for some lofty cause like that.
So, the one and only hypothesis that remained after all those eliminations was.
"……Ha."
Louis covered his face with both hands and swallowed down the truth, which was not merely unpleasant but downright insulting.
It was that bastard again.
'Cassian. Cassian del Farne.'
Elysia had not come to see him.
His fiancée had, that night, come all the way to the Academy merely to protect the second son of House Farne.
The corners of Louis's lips twisted.
The two women he had believed were perfectly controllable—and absolutely had to be controlled.
The Saintess and the young lady of a marquis house.
That both of their gazes were turned, not toward him, but toward some worthless nobody.
"That's rather unpleasant, indeed."
Louis picked up the quill pen resting on the desk.
Under the force of his suppressed rage, the nib snapped off with a cracking sound.
* * *
It stings.
Seriously, it feels like the back of my head is going to be pierced through—I could die from this.
Academy Introduction to Tactical Theory class.
At the lectern, Professor Wilhelm was speaking with fervor, veins bulging in his neck, as he explained the Empire's defensive tactics and the formation used to subjugate magical beasts.
But all my attention was fixed on the diagonal back-right side.
The reason was obvious.
It was because of Lily, the pink puppy, who was taking the same Introduction to Tactical Theory class as me.
'No, look at the blackboard.'
Didn’t I specifically keep telling her from the moment we left after lunch in the lab?
-Lily. Where are you going to sit today?
-Me? I was going to sit next to Sir Cassian...
-You can't. Sit somewhere else, away from me.
-Huh? Why?
-If you came to the Academy, you should make friends your own age and widen your connections. If you stick to me all the time, no one will ever approach you, Lily. So sit somewhere in the middle and try talking to the student next to you.
I had definitely given her the kind of sincere advice only a proper guardian with ideals could offer.
At twenty, it was the perfect age to chatter with friends and swarm dessert cafés together, squealing with laughter.
And besides, you used to sit apart from me in the first place.
Since she couldn’t live as my clingy little shadow forever, I had been trying to build up her independence with this tearful grand plan.
Intently—.
Instead of making a friend, she’d just sat two rows behind me and planted herself there all by her lonesome.
For over forty minutes since class started, she hadn't once turned her head and had only been staring fixedly at the back of my head.
I know because it was reflected in the metal part of my fountain pen.
Those pastel light-green eyes—like a dog watching its owner's every move.
'Geez.'
I touched my forehead and let out a quiet sigh.
This feels, how should I put it, exactly like that.
Like taking a dog to a pet café and letting it off with 'go socialize~,' only to realize the dog you raised is an ultra-introverted mutt that refuses to socialize.
I’d ended up leaving a stray dog in the middle of the classroom by accident.
The students around us had apparently noticed that Lily had been staring only at me, because they’d been murmuring since earlier.
I’d have nothing to say if a bizarre rumor started floating around that 'the barbarian of House Farne brainwashed the Saintess.'
I can already see the Inquisition. Shit.
"Now then, that will conclude today's lecture! Be sure to review thoroughly!"
Thud!
Just then, Professor Wilhelm slammed the lectern hard to signal the end of class.
The air in the lecture hall instantly loosened, and the students started packing their things in a flurry.
I was just about to shove the fountain pen I was holding back into my pocket and stand up from my seat.
Tap-tap! Tap-tap!
"Sir Cassian!"
What is this? A flash step?
Lily had dashed over to me with a speed like some dog greeting the master who'd just come back from deployment, or like a magnet snapping its north and south poles together.
The pink puppy stopped right in front of me, gripped her bag strap with both hands, and looked up at me with a grin.
Her eyes are sparkling.
'Yeah. What can I do.'
Already resigned, I tapped the pink puppy on the top of the head once and asked.
"Did you listen to the class well? Did you take notes?"
"Eh……."
"?"
The shoulders of Lily, who had been wagging her tail a moment ago, stiffened with a flinch.
Lily sidled away from my gaze, fidgeting with both index fingers as she wore an embarrassed expression.
"I... didn't listen very well."
"So you were just staring at my back the whole lecture?"
"......I'm sorry."
Lily apologized in a voice barely above a whisper.
'What do you have to apologize to me for?'
It's not like I paid her tuition or anything.
Of course, it’s true that staring a hole through the back of my head was still something to apologize for.
'Honestly.'
She can't even lie, and she doesn't know how to beat around the bush.
This girl is so honest her emotions are crystal clear.
Even if it wasn't visible right now, if Lily had had a dog tail, it would be drooping between her legs and sweeping the floor by now.
Looking at the pink puppy's dejected face, even the urge to nag her vanished completely.
"Well, it's fine. Not knowing something like Introduction to Tactical Theory doesn't make any difference in life. If you don't know it, I'll do the fighting for you instead."
"Sir Cassian...!"
As I answered with a faint smile, color rushed back into Lily's face.
She was just about to part her lips and express more of that overflowing emotion when.
SMACK-!!!
"Ghk?!"
Suddenly, lightning struck my back.
A blow so tremendous it felt literally like my spine had been split in two.
I gasped for breath and bent my upper body sharply forward.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
The culprit who had mercilessly smacked my back was Professor Wilhelm, who'd come up behind me without a sound.
No, does this old geezer have iron plates in his hands or something?
Maybe because he used to be a knight, his hands are insanely rough.
"Professor Wilhelm..."
As I coughed and barely straightened my back, Professor Wilhelm looked down at me with a satisfied smile.
"Very manly, indeed!"
"......Pardon?"
I furrowed my brow hard.
What the hell is he talking about?
What, am I a woman then?
"Professor. Why did you suddenly try to break someone's back, and why are you checking my gender all of a sudden?"
Even at my grumbling, Professor Wilhelm showed no sign of caring and laughed heartily.
"No need to be modest! The rumors have already reached even my ears!"
"Rumors?"
"Exactly! The rumor that you spent time alone with the daughter of House Rohanna in the southern capital a few days ago! Youth is wonderful, isn't it? Hahaha!"
"......Crazy."
I really couldn't believe my ears.
And now this.
No, seriously, and now this.
'The meeting with Sophia even reached this old geezer's ears?!'
Fine, I can understand the Academy students gossiping; they're nobles' children, so news travels fast.
But the fact that my private life had reached the ears of an old army hardliner who would drag anyone he could seize straight to the battlefield at any moment.
'Did it just get posted as an announcement on the Academy's entire bulletin board or something?'
This is insane, seriously.
"Haah……."
I touched my forehead and felt a deep sense of despair.
Just who is spreading it?
Does the Imperial Intelligence Bureau print newspapers and distribute them or something?
As I stood there with a face that seemed to be rotting from the inside, Lily also fidgeted beside me and watched Professor Wilhelm's face for clues.
But then.
"Heh heh heh."
I quietly lifted my head and studied Professor Wilhelm's face.
Strange.
If he learns that a student in his class went out to meet a woman over the weekend, wouldn't it fit this old geezer's character to chew him out for slacking and tell him to focus on tactical drills?
Yet for some reason, even after he’d had his fun smacking my back and teasing me, the smile on Professor Wilhelm's face never left.
Not teasing.
It was more like the expression of some old-timer in a retirement hall, proud that his grandkid had come back after accomplishing something other kids his age couldn’t match.
'......This is seriously ominous.'
Experience says there's only one case when old guys with some rank and power look at a young guy with that kind of face.
Right before they dress up the youth and vitality of the young as something honorable and then exploit it.
While spouting nonsense about how admirable it is and how bright the country's future looks, and then trying to put a leash on someone else's son—that was exactly the face they made.
I slowly backpedaled and switched into alert mode.
"Uh, Professor. Why are you acting like that? Why are you looking at me like that—like I'm making you feel sick? No, like I'm putting pressure on you?"
"Student Cassian."
"......Yes."
"No matter how I look at it, you should be serving the nation."
"......"
Ah, shit.
What the hell kind of bullshit is this?
I barely swallowed back the rough words that almost slipped out of my mouth.
But swearing at this was legal.
Work for the nation?
Why?
What crime had I committed that I should become a slave to the country?