Chapter 58
“......”
Students in each section held their breath.
Their eyes openly said, ‘Please, don't come to our section.’
Elysia nervously looked around.
She looked like a frightened fawn that had lost its way.
Then.
Her golden gaze stopped at the northern section.
More precisely, on Kairen.
Jet-black hair.
The symbol of Northgard, and the person who had done her a favor by writing her a letter of recommendation.
“Ah! The Grand Duke's eldest son's younger brother!”
Elysia's expression brightened.
She walked over with quick, light steps, ignoring everyone else's gaze.
And without hesitation.
She plopped down right beside Kairen, in the seat everyone had left empty because they found it burdensome.
“......?!”
When Kairen looked at her in bewilderment, Elysia's eyes sparkled as she spoke.
“Wow, now that I see you up close, you really do look just like him! Like the Grand Duke's eldest son, Karl! Oh, we haven't met before, have we? Hehe.”
“......”
Kairen was speechless.
She had walked over of her own accord to the seat everyone else avoided and was speaking to him so cheerfully.
She had even brought up his brother as though it were nothing.
‘...She's exactly the same type as Prince Radiance.’
Kairen realized.
This woman was no ordinary person.
But Kairen tried to remain calm.
‘No. What would Brother have done in this situation? What would Father have done?’
The more everyone shunned the princess, the more the North should be able to embrace her.
Besides, if she really was so much like Radiance, she was probably capable despite her appearance.
‘Let's not be nervous. Just act naturally....’
But when Elysia stuck close to Kairen and began chattering away, the surrounding jeers started to become more distinct.
Especially from the western section.
“Look at that. With such lowly blood, she's already wagging her tail at a man.”
“Look at her fawning over the young master of Northgard, trying to get him to take her.”
“She's disgusting. Look at her throwing her weight around just because she's a princess.”
Kairen's face hardened at the blatant insults.
‘...She's not helping at all!’
He was horrified inwardly.
At this rate, she was going to tarnish the dignity of the North and everything else.
But at the same time, he looked at Elysia again.
At a single piece of malicious gossip like that, his hands went numb and his blood boiled.
Yet this girl kept smiling without even blinking while hearing far more blatant abuse.
As though she couldn't hear a thing.
Or as though she had grown so used to it that it could no longer hurt her.
‘......’
Kairen felt a strange emotion.
‘Her mental fortitude... I have to give her credit for that. That's something I can learn from.’
Then.
Creeeak-.
Once again, the grand auditorium's heavy doors opened.
Unlike Elysia's entrance, this time the doors were not opened cautiously.
A heavy, massive presence, as though someone were breaking through the castle gates.
Every gaze turned toward the entrance.
And two enormous shadows stood there.
Varg, a man nearly eight feet tall.
Beside him stood Kara, a tall beauty.
Both of them wore the black formal uniforms that symbolized Northgard.
Varg's outfit in particular had leather stretched over muscles that looked ready to burst, giving him the intimidating appearance of a beast wearing human clothes.
“......”
The noise in the grand auditorium vanished in an instant.
If the princess and the prodigy who had skipped grades were an interesting topic...
The appearance of this married couple was closer to biological terror.
The students in the western section became mute as if they had honey in their mouths.
“W-What is that? A barbarian?”
“Look at his size. Is he a bear?”
The students from the western kingdoms who had been trying to intimidate others immediately looked away when their eyes met Varg's.
Overwhelming physicality.
The embodiment of force that needed no explanation.
Varg swept his indifferent gaze across the crowd.
Then he spotted Kairen in the distance, looking at him and letting out a sigh of relief.
‘He's here!’
The savior had arrived.
The North's greatest pillar had been planted in the very heart of the academy.
* * *
Thud-.
The grand auditorium's doors closed.
Hundreds of eyes.
The eyes of noble scions and prodigies who would bear responsibility for the Empire's future were all fixed on our married couple.
Awe.
Fear.
Curiosity.
I could be grateful for that much.
But the contempt hidden beneath it could not be concealed.
Sticky gazes filled with countless mixed emotions seemed to cling to my skin.
I stared straight ahead as though indifferent, but swallowed my discomfort inwardly.
‘This is seriously overwhelming.’
I felt like a bear in a zoo.
‘Has Fu Bao endured this every day? What a trooper.’
Even though I was a barbarian nearly eight feet tall who had swung an axe to smash the heads of snow bears.
I wasn't used to so many people staring at me in a group, especially civilized people dressed in such finery.
In the snowy plains of the North, you either fought when your eyes met or ignored each other.
Here, their gazes doggedly followed me, trying to dissect me.
My shoulders hunched of their own accord.
Swish.
Then a soft sensation touched my arm.
It was Kara's warmth.
Kara deliberately slipped her arm tightly through mine and rested her head lightly against my shoulder.
Then she began humming.
“Hmm.”
She looked not merely relaxed, but even languid.
Kara lifted her head and looked around.
When her blue eyes swept across the crowd, the male students who had been sneaking glances flinched and looked away.
“Interesting. All the Empire's children are so pretty.”
Kara whispered in my ear.
“I just slapped on a little oil and came out this morning, but those kids must have spent ages on their makeup, huh? Even the boys have such red lips. They look just like cherries.”
“Pfft.”
I couldn't help laughing at Kara's blunt assessment.
Well, to our eyes, shaped by life in the wild, the Empire's young nobles looked no more than delicate flowers in a greenhouse.
“Why are you laughing?”
Kara playfully asked as she pinched the flesh of my forearm.
“Don't tell me... my husband is already looking at other women? You weren't laughing at that heavily made-up girl over there, were you?”
“Come on, of course not.”
“That girl looks interested in my husband, though.”
“Then what about you? The male freshmen over there keep fake-coughing whenever they look at you.”
I snorted and shook my head.
Then, without pulling my pinched arm away, I raised my other hand and gently cupped Kara's cheek.
I softly brushed my thumb over the corner of her mouth.
“You're all I can see, Kara. How could I have eyes for another woman?”
“...Tch.”
Kara's face turned bright red.
She lowered her eyes bashfully, but couldn't hide the smile spreading around her lips.
We gazed into each other's eyes and lost ourselves in our own world in the middle of the noisy grand auditorium.
“Oh, my...!”
“I-In front of everyone...!”
We heard people around us suck in startled breaths.
To the Empire's conservative nobles, such an open display of affection in public must have been a shocking sight.
A huge, beastlike man and a cold-looking beauty acting like that.
But thanks to it, the hostile gazes directed at us softened somewhat.
Instead, bewilderment—‘What are those two...?’—and jealousy—‘Are they rubbing it in?’—filled the space.
‘It worked.’
This was an application of the contrast strategy Eisen had told me about.
The romantic hidden beneath the frightening exterior.
The effect was undeniable.
I took Kara's hand and began walking.
No one blocked our path.
No one even dared consider it.
The intimidating presence radiating from my enormous frame and black Behemoth formal uniform.
And Kara's proud bearing as she stood beside me.
We crossed the grand auditorium like victorious generals.
Just then, a familiar head from behind came into view.
The very front row of the grand auditorium.
The exact center of the section where the students from the North had gathered.
A black-haired boy and a red-haired girl sat side by side.
It was Kairen and Elysia.
“There they are.”
When I pointed, Kara's eyes sparkled.
“Huh? Were you two already acquainted? You look really close.”
From a distance, it certainly looked that way.
Elysia was leaning toward Kairen and talking nonstop, while Kairen occasionally nodded and responded.
They looked like affectionate lovers or close siblings.
But.
‘Close, my foot.’
Once we approached, the reality became painfully clear.
“So! The tart I made was so delicious that Miss Alina ate it while crying! I don't know whether she cried because she was happy or because it was delicious, but she cried either way! Isn't that amazing?”
“...Yes, it is amazing, Your Highness the Princess.”
“And Brother says I'm unusually good at kneading dough! Maybe I'll open a bakery after I graduate from the academy! How about 「The Princess's Sweet Temptation」 for the name?”
“...How original.”
Elysia was spewing words like a machine gun.
Elysia's expression was bright, but Kairen's condition as he listened was dire.
His eyes were hollow and unfocused, and though his mouth mechanically responded, his soul had long since fled his body.
The little guy was breaking out in a cold sweat, his pupils trembling.
‘Poor guy.’
I clicked my tongue.
‘She really is Radiance's sister. That shameless energy must be hereditary.’
The princess had no ill intent.
She was simply happy to see someone she knew sitting beside her and was chattering to ease the tension of the entrance ceremony.
But for the person receiving it, it was torture.
Especially since Kairen was currently seated as the North's representative and was sensitive to the gossip around him, while a parrot chirped beside him nonstop. It was enough to drive anyone mad.
‘I should go rescue him.’
Of course, that wasn't the only reason.
I had another, more important reason for heading to that spot—the front line of the northern section.
An event from the original story.
The novel <The Snowflake Road of the Illegitimate Child>, early in Volume 1.
During the pre-ceremony proceedings of the entrance ceremony, the noble scions from the western Slokina Kingdom picked a fight with the northern section.
More precisely, they targeted Kairen or the illegitimate princess, provoking them by mocking their origins and weaknesses.
In the original story, Kairen finally tried to draw his sword, and Kara stepped in to subdue the bastards, earning the nickname 「Loyal Dog」.
Of course, it was meant negatively.
To the original Kara, it meant Northgard's loyal dog—a humiliating insult.
That incident put Kara on the nobles' watch list from her first day, leading them to isolate her through hostility and ostracism.
It was also the part of the early story for which Kairen received the most criticism, because he had failed to protect Kara.
‘Kairen's changed too, so it won't come to that...’
Now that Kairen was my friend, I had no intention of letting him get dragged into something so sordid and suffer the stress.
I took Kara's hand and strode forward.
Thud, thud, thud.
As my footsteps drew near, Kairen, whose soul had left his body, flinched.
“......?!”
Kairen turned around in surprise.
And the moment he recognized me, his expression changed dramatically.
He looked like a mortal who had met the Buddha after doing five sets of 108 prostrations.
Kairen pleaded silently with his lips.
‘Help... me....’
I grinned and nodded.
Then I plopped down in the empty seat directly behind Kairen.
Of course, I tried to sit as gracefully as possible, following Eisen's teachings, but there was nothing I could do about the chair's scream.
“Oh my! Kara!”
Elysia turned around and cheered.
The target had changed.
“Are you sitting here? Wow! Your clothes look amazing today! You had them made at the border, right? The fit is incredible!”
“Ah, Your Highness the Princess. Hello.”
Kara smiled with practiced ease and indulged Elysia's chatter.
“The clothes are a little tight, but your academy uniform looks good on you too, Your Highness.”
“Right? But the skirt is a little long and uncomfortable. I might just chop it off.”
“You mustn't.”
Once the conversation between the two women began, Kairen finally tasted freedom.
“Phew....”
He let out a sigh and sank back into his chair.
It seemed a sense of psychological security had finally returned to him.
Kairen glanced back and whispered in a small voice.
“...Thanks. I thought I was going to die.”
“Don't mention it. That's what classmates are for.”
I answered casually.
Even while talking with Kairen, my attention was focused elsewhere.
I subtly shifted my gaze and surveyed the left side of the auditorium.
The area where the noble scions centered around the Kingdom of Slokina had gathered.
‘The time for them to pick a fight should be coming soon.’
In the original story, it was time for Rainer, the eighth prince's loyal dog and the eldest son of Slokina's prestigious Marquis House of Roider, to appear.
Rainer had approached Kairen, insulted Karl, who was already deceased at that point, and belittled the North to provoke him.
Saying things like 『So you're the eldest son now? How does it feel?』
And spouting third-rate lines like 『The northern country bumpkins stink of leather. Disgusting.』
That led to Kairen exploding in anger and Kara throwing the punch in his place.
‘But this time, things are different.’
Karl was alive.
Kairen had changed.
Kara was pregnant.
If that bastard changed targets and said even the slightest offensive thing to Kara or the child in her belly.
‘I'll flatten him on the spot.’
I tensed every muscle in my body, ready to stand at any moment.
The Behemoth leather pulled taut and emitted a faint trace of mana.
My eyes swept across the western section.
But.
“......”
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Something was strange about the western section's atmosphere.
Far from picking a fight, they were all staring straight ahead, quiet as mice.
Not a single person turned their head or made a sound.
‘What is this?’
I narrowed my eyes and searched for the one who seemed to be Rainer.
A blond man with an arrogant, unpleasant-looking face.
Found him.
The one who should have been sitting arrogantly with his legs crossed in the very front row of the western section.
But something was wrong with him.
Rainer was....
Trembling.
‘....’
Why?