Chapter 9
Episode 9
Only silence remained where the storm had swept through.
The stench of burning trash and the noisy chirping of insects.
Below it, only the pink-haired saintess stood there, staring blankly into space.
Lily looked down at the jerky in her hand, the half-eaten remainder.
She couldn't shake the afterimage of the storm-like man who had just been here.
The man who had suddenly appeared in her second life, a man she'd never once felt in her previous one.
'……Why in the world?'
Questions kept chaining together in her head.
'Why did he go that far for me?'
It was far too perfectly timed to dismiss as coincidence.
The moment Crown Prince Louis appeared, Cassian raised his voice as if he'd been waiting for it, making sure everyone knew he was there.
It felt almost like a signal telling Lily to leave right this instant.
One more thing.
'Besides…… he knew.'
Lily's eyes trembled slightly.
Cassian had correctly seen through the fact that she wanted to avoid the crown prince.
That was impossible.
Right now, the only thing quietly circulating was the rumor that Crown Prince Louis and his fiancée Elisia were on bad terms.
That Lily the saintess was the cause of that rift was something only a tiny handful inside the imperial family knew.
If I trace the timeline from my previous life, this should be a few months from now.
Until the huge scandal blew up, nobody was supposed to know.
And yet that so-called bumpkin noble, fresh up from a provincial estate, knew this?
'……Ah!'
At that moment, a flash of realization struck Lily's mind.
Right. His father is the Court Count Pharne!
He looked so different that even hearing the name Pharne hadn't made the connection.
The empire's shadow, the emperor's eyes and ears.
Corint del Pharne, the king of information.
Suddenly, Lily came up with a hypothesis.
All the bizarre behavior she'd heard about Cassian.
Feigning barbarism, his antics at the Victory Day festivities, laziness in class, and even the clown act he'd just put on.
What if all of that was a thoroughly calculated disguise?
If, even as the second son, he was the son of Court Count Corint and therefore bound to draw plenty of wariness, was he deliberately pretending to be a thoughtless country bumpkin?
"Oh my……."
Lily got goosebumps and raised her hands to wrap her arms around herself, then hesitated.
"There's no way he'd be like that……?"
She thought back to the pants he had been wearing and slowly lowered her hands again.
If she considered the tenacity and meticulousness of Court Count Corint, it made sense to think Cassian was putting on an act.
But Lily strongly felt that the spur-of-the-moment hypothesis she'd just had was wrong.
Every time Crown Prince Louis looked at her, he piled on suffocating labels like noble saintess and my savior.
The possessiveness and obsession in his gaze glittered, and even his polite manner of speaking tightened around Lily's throat.
The other noblemen were no different.
They either glorified the shell called a saintess or tried to use her as a tool of power.
But Cassian was different.
He was completely indifferent, and even rude.
He laughed off being called a barbarian on their first meeting, then tossed her jerky and told her to tear it apart with her hands.
Would an act really come out like that?
At least as far as her common sense went, it was impossible.
"It's hard…… really hard."
Even counting both her previous life and the life before her regression, this was the first person of his kind she'd ever met.
Though his tone was clearly cold and snappish, strangely enough, that rudeness didn't hurt.
Rather.
'……I can breathe.'
The way he treated her not as a saintess, but simply as a hungry little kid.
That rough hand, feeding her by telling her to just eat and get by without expecting anything in return.
Every one of those things, unfamiliar as they were, felt comforting to Lily.
"You're rude, but kind."
That bizarre contradiction tickled some corner of her heart.
Lily propped her chin on the bench and let out a long sigh.
A sentimental mood, along with a sudden surge of guilt, washed over her.
"If I'd known you were sneaking around because of the rumors…… I should've told you ahead of time."
What Lily had meant to tell Cassian was that he had picked up one more nickname.
The nickname Cassian had gotten after Professor Iris's first class yesterday: 'Pharne's Illiterate.'
They'd slapped an insult meaning someone who had never studied on someone from the Pharne family, of all people.
It was excessively blatant and malicious.
There had never been a precedent for the nobles to make up such childish, forced wording just to bury one person.
It was proof enough that the nobles were treating Cassian as a punching bag.
And yet the man himself was casually wandering around the incinerator.
"I got all kinds of help, and I didn't do a thing for him……."
Lily's shoulders slumped.
"Of course…… telling him this wouldn't help much, but still. He should have been prepared, at least……."
Just then.
Tap, tap.
She felt something persistently poking at her side.
Lily subconsciously wiped the wet corners of her eyes and turned her head.
It was a squirrel.
The one that had been sharing the jerky Cassian gave her.
"……Ah."
Lily smiled faintly.
"Were you trying to comfort me because I look sad too?"
They say even a mute beast is better than a person.
With a touched expression, she carefully reached out a hand.
"Sorry. I was being too gloomy all by myself, right? Thanks……."
The moment her hand was about to touch it.
Shoo!
The squirrel nimbly dodged Lily's hand.
"Huh?"
Then it came back over and tapped Lily's thigh with its front paws.
This time, it was a little more forceful.
Then the little thing held out its front paw.
Its bright little eyes were sending Lily a clear message.
'Enough with the guilt-trip. Hand it over. Nice and easy.'
"……."
Lily stared blankly down at the bag of jerky on her knees.
Then when she looked back at the squirrel, a rabbit had already joined it, and a sparrow was perched on a branch above, watching Lily.
She'd thought it was comfort. It was just an organized shakedown.
"Ah……."
Lily made a teary face.
"You…… you're too much……."
She hugged the bag of jerky tightly to her chest.
"I need this to get through today too……."
But the squirrel didn't back down.
Rather,
'Not giving it up?'
it let out a sharp squeak, as if threatening her.
In the end.
Saintess Lily had to hunch her shoulders, carrying the future of the empire on her back, and tear off a piece of jerky with trembling hands.
"O-okay…… I'll give it to you. I said I'll give it."
Crunch, crunch.
The animals' cheerful crunching on the jerky they'd shaken out of me sounded especially lively.
* * *
The moment I opened the manor door and stepped inside, I instinctively had to pull my collar closed.
Though it was clearly spring, a knife-like wind so brutal it should've been illegal, the kind you'd find only on the Siberian wasteland, was blowing through the entrance lobby.
Aunt Marie, who normally greeted me with, "You're home, young master! Today's snack is candied sweet potatoes!" wasn't even in sight.
Ah. No, wait. She was there after all.
She was just hiding behind a pillar, shaking her head with the most pitiful expression in the world.
Aunt Marie sent me a telepathic message.
'Young master, I can't cover for you this time either. Just pretend to be dead.'
……Why are you making a face like you're mourning the dead? You're giving me the creeps.
This atmosphere is definitely not normal.
But then Old Man Alfred, with the face of an undertaker, came gliding over.
"Goodness…… what did you do, young master."
"……Am I in a lot of trouble?"
"A lot? Did you just say a lot?"
Alfred let out a hollow laugh, deep shadows settling over his wrinkled face.
"Don't you have any idea?"
"……."
I stroked my chin and seriously rummaged through my mental log.
Today's list of karmic crimes.
1번. I told the crown prince to his face, "Please kill me!" while groveling in apology and mouthed off to the royal guard captain's son.
That one is kind of huge.
2번. This wasn't today but yesterday: I made eye contact with Elisia, the duke's daughter, then ignored her and ran away.
I feel like her pride would've kept her from telling anyone about it. It's embarrassing.
3번. Got caught sleeping from the very first class and played a ranked deathmatch with the professor over a delete-account wager.
This one looks dangerous, but honestly it's a little better.
Anyway, I cleaned it up, and I solved the problem, didn't I?
My father likes it best when I give off genius vibes, doesn't he?
"……Or maybe not?"
Maybe not.
Damn it.
There are too many choices; I can't pick the right answer.
This is the bane of multiple choice.
I can't figure out what the test maker was thinking.
"……I don't know which one because it wasn't just one thing."
"Haa……."
Alfred let out a sigh so deep it seemed to cave the ground in.
He took my coat and bag and said solemnly, like someone seeing off a prisoner headed for the execution ground.
"Please hurry upstairs. The head of the house is waiting."
"Um, sir. Human to human, let me offer one bit of advice: right now, wouldn't it be wise to bolt out the back door and make a run for the estate?"
"Yes. You really would be in huge trouble. He might even unleash the hunting dogs."
"What……."
Wow, that's a hard no.
Like a cow being dragged to the slaughterhouse, I plodded forward, each step feeling as heavy as lead.
Trudge, trudge.
Why were the stairs to the second floor so steep today?
My precious potato field floated before my eyes.
Ah, it's around the time the potato flowers bloom.
I should've watered it one more time before coming.
* * *
In front of the head of the family's office.
I took one deep breath and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
The voice from inside was surprisingly calm.
And yet why did that low, weighty voice sound so murderous?
Creeeak―
When I opened the door and stepped inside, I saw my father Corint with his back to me, looking out the window.
His shadow, stretched long by the setting sun, filled the room in a grotesque way.
As I closed the office door, he slowly turned around.
"You're here."
"Yes, Father. Did you call for me?"
I bowed as politely as possible, putting on my best 'I know nothing' face.
Corint leaned against the desk and crossed his arms.
"What's with that school uniform?"
I'd practically thrown myself flat in apology and forgotten there was one more reason why that still wouldn't work.
My father's gaze swept from my head to my toes.
No. Is that really the look a father should give his son?
If I said that out loud, I'd probably be inviting my own death.
Hmm. Right.
"I heard a rather bizarre rumor."
"A rumor? Oh, you mean the one about me eating a little too much? It's because I'm growing. I'm twenty; that's prime growing age. Yep."
"You confronted a professor head-on and nearly got expelled for insubordination?"
"……!"
Oh, that one!
So it wasn't the clown act in front of the crown prince that he'd heard!
You mean I went against the professor?
That was just a matter of solving the problem cleanly, wasn't it? Professor Iris even said, "That's correct."
When the result is good, the process gets prettied up.
I swallowed my sigh of relief and straightened my shoulders.
'Phew, thank goodness. I saved the potatoes.'
Since they'd probably reported that I avoided expulsion too, my father would be secretly proud, thinking, 'This kid's pretty good, huh?'
Now's my chance.
I opened my mouth in a tone full of grievance.
"Ah, that? Rebellion? Not at all. We were simply having an enthusiastic discussion in the halls of learning, and my voice happened to get a little loud. The professor recognized my ability, too."
"Ability?"
One of my father's eyebrows twitched.
"I see. Ability, huh……."
He tapped the desk with his finger, tap, tap.
The faster the beat got, the faster my own heartbeat climbed.
"So that rumor spread all over the academy. In just one night, not only did you become a barbarian-crazed fool, but now they've slapped the slur 'Pharne's Illiterate' too?"
"……Pardon?"
I asked back with a dumbfounded look.
Illiterate?
The hak (學) for study and the mu (無) for without?
"No, what do you mean I haven't learned anything? I solved the problem, didn't I? And I solved it so brilliantly the professor was left speechless, too."
"You stupid brat!!"
BANG!
My father slammed the desk.
"Because you got caught sleeping sprawled out before class even started, dared to challenge a professor's authority, and kept making a habit of behavior that left not even a shred of the basic etiquette and refinement expected of nobility, that's why they call you 'Pharne's Illiterate.'"
Hm.
So it wasn't a misunderstanding. Not a false rumor either.
Damned ink-stained bastards.
What a rotten label.
At the same time.
My father's right hand shot out and clamped around the crystal ashtray on the desk.
Blue veins bulged violently over the back of his hand.
Huh?
Wait a second.
That grip doesn't look ordinary.
That hold—spreading the index and middle fingers around the ashtray's edge.
"No, Father! Use your words, use your words! That's really not okay! If that hits me, I'll die! Your son will die!"
"Shut your mouth."
Whoooosh―!
The heavy crystal lump tore through the air and flew toward my face.
In that split second, I marveled at the ashtray's trajectory as it came barreling toward my forehead.
It's got spin on it.
A razor-sharp slider bending in from the outside.
The problem was that I was reading it from the catcher's perspective, with no helmet, glove, or any kind of protective gear.
"……Wow, his control is insane."
Thwack!
"Gyaaah!"