Trying to help? I pursed my lips and dipped the quill into the correction fluid. However, when my eyes fell on the portrait of Dr. Vargas with cat’s whiskers, I burst out laughing without resistance.
Soon, the library’s librarian, Mr. Bradshaw, appeared with a solemn look on his face.
“Are you not being modest because I’m not a professor? Or is it because I’m not human but a small dwarf?”
He spat it out like a rapid-fire cannon. We quickly lowered our heads, not wanting to encourage this depressed dwarf’s ridiculous sense of entitlement.
“If my back starts to ache this evening, I’ll assume that Mr. Bradshaw has put me on a cursed altar. All thanks to an unwanted guest.”
I wanted to scold him, but I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face.
“To call me an unwanted guest, that is harsh. I told you, I brought you an amazing dessert.”
The same was true for Edgar, who responded coolly. Jaden’s expression was still stern, but his eyebrows were slightly arched.
“Amazing dessert? Are you making fun of me since all my tongue can taste is potato potage?”
The magic potion brewed in Brianna-Smart-Moseley’s cauldron had worked so well that I could still taste the potato potage the moment I swallowed. Edgar, who was extremely bored because his brother was busy with a love affair, and the Lokum—A Nadonian jelly he brought with him were, therefore, not welcome to me at all.
Moreover, Jaden and I were studying magic science in preparation for the final exam. Edgar Ramos, who has neither taken the course nor had any interest in magic, was not invited. When I confronted him about it, he feigned an exaggerated cry.
“You are cruel today again, Miss Dalton. How could I have thought you wouldn’t enjoy the chewy, sweet taste of lokum by boiling starch in lemon water, flavoring it with sugar and fruit, and setting it for three days?”
“Don’t describe it, it only makes my mouth water. The taste of potatoes is almost driving me crazy.”
I grunted, and Jaden put down the lokum he had picked up. I clicked my tongue and placed a fistful of Lokum in this giant angel’s pot-lid-sized hand.
After that, a rare moment of studying came. My judgment that Jaden Spencer was a great teacher was not wrong. He was able to explain the absorption-expulsion structure much more patiently than his cousin, Professor Houston. While Edgar was underlining the textbook on understanding magic circles he had brought along to fit in, he occasionally threw something between Jaden’s and my shoulders.
When a lokum flew by, I handed it over to Jaden, and when a crumpled piece of paper flew by, I swatted it away. Nadon’s youngest prince rested his chin and began glaring at me when his childish pranks didn’t work. My cheeks tingled.
“Ariel.”
The serious study phase that lasted for a while ended when my name was called. It was a strangely relaxed tone of voice. Instead of answering, I nodded. It was a signal for him to talk.
“Then, if I kiss you, will it only taste like potatoes?”
It was definitely an interesting topic. My lips had been on a temporary break since Lilu returned to Dalton Estate, so I never considered that possibility. I was lost in thought, touching my lips with the tip of my quill. If you can taste a potato when you swallow, maybe—
“Do you want to try it?”
It was a very cheeky joke. It even sounded slightly seductive, perhaps because the speaker was the Academy’s greatest libertine. I opened my mouth, facing Nadon’s shining flame (this was the expression Christa Edwards used to describe the twin’s red-purple eyes). Is there any other prince on the continent more worthy of the nickname ‘The Dream Demon’ than Edgar Ramos?
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Oh, was my voice always this deep?
“If you’re not going to study, leave.”
I stared at Jaden, craning my neck as if to say something, but I was too stunned to speak. The man who’d dropped the bombshell was looking at a notebook containing typical mana signature algorithms, and even though he had sugar on the corner of his lips, I could tell that he was in a bad mood.
What’s wrong with him? I was as bewildered as I’d been when I’d witnessed Lilu nipping at Countess Villard’s tenderly tended flowers like they were her mortal enemies. She’s not this kind of child. My child is usually very gentle. I can still see the countess smiling through clenched teeth as I stammered out an excuse.
“Huh.”
Edgar wrinkled his forehead for a moment, then let out a sound of disbelief. Even with his cheeks pressed into the palm that held his chin, making him look a bit funny, he felt quite intimidating. The laid-back authority of a man who’s stomped on the heads of the majority for nearly every moment of his life. Regardless of circumstances, royalty remained royalty.
“What’s your problem?”
“… … .”
“Haven’t you decided not to meddle in my affairs anymore, Marquis Hyland?”
If a member of a royal family mentioned my title, even if it was from a foreign country, a nobleman like me had no choice but to grovel. All you would have to say was “I totally agree with you, you are right,” even if they were bragging like a third-rate villain.
“This is Miss Dalton’s business, not His Royal Highness the Duke of Ramos’s.”
Nevertheless, the Marquis of Hyland, the hero of Milua and the only dragon knight on the continent, chose to fight very calmly. Even though he knew that Edgar had deliberately mentioned his title as a marquis to put him down, he seemed unfazed.
“It’s not exactly ‘His Royal Highness the Duke of Ramos’, isn’t it, considering the circumstances here?”
Edgar responded with a short laugh, which to my ears sounded closer to the barking of an animal than to a human laugh. Soon, the sound of a quill being crushed rang out so sharply that it gave me goosebumps.
The dwarf, sleeping off student feuds and just plain hating the world, didn’t show up until the tension was at its peak. Becoming salty and quiet, we buried our noses in our respective textbooks. Whatever the case, I had magic science to study, Jaden had two more mana signature algorithms to explain to me, and Edgar had to kill time while waiting for his brother.
***
On the way back from seeing Jaden off at the Griffon cricket training ground, Edgar asked me how Anais was doing. Well, he did escort Anais at the beginning banquet this year.
There was no need to wonder how their friendship happened. Even though Illestia, Milua, and Nadon have a border, they have frequent interactions. Just as there was an agreement between the Duke of Ramos and the Marquis of Hyland that Viscount Dalton’s daughter was unaware of, Lady O’Brien would also have had experience that Miss Dalton would be unaware of.
They have all probably become pawns in political ploys. Observing Edgar and his siblings erased the prejudice that I have that living as the highest noble would bring less sorrow than living as the lowest noble. And we should not forget Anais. Didn’t Anais’ self-esteem get shredded by the mere fact that she has O’Brien as her last name, making it impossible for her to even stand without leaning on it?
The dastardly tutor, Marvin Donnelly, pretends to be Anais’ supporter while tying her up. The more he was recognized for his abilities and honoured with titles, the more O’Brien’s rose took root in a narrower pot.
And when Anais finally weighed a bit less than her father on his scales, Donnelly began to look for an excuse. For example, a letter from Jacqueline Faulkner.
Baroness Donnelly unilaterally notified Anais of their breakup even before Faulkner’s letter reached O’Brien’s estate. At that time, Anais had finally managed to get out of the dormitory after some convincing from me, Bree, Kelly, and Liz.
The telegram arrived just after Anais had finished the Potions class, which she had been dragged to by Brianna. As soon as poor Anais read it, she ran into the dormitory like a frightened fawn. I really had no idea she was that fast on her feet.
Anyway, that was it. Anais is once again stuck in her own pot, and all the hard work of the girls’ salon members went to waste. To sum it up, things aren’t going well.
“That’s why I told her not to take that old man seriously.”
“That’s what I said! From the beginning, why should Anais be disappointed— Wait, you know?”
Thanks to the work of Brianna Mosley, who has an infinite talent for sending words a thousand miles, public opinion within the Academy has recently been leaning toward the view that the suspicions surrounding Anais are empty lies spread by a group of people who want to slander her.
“What do you think of Nadon’s information network? You don’t really think I’m just Eddie, a genius wizard, not the Duke of Ramos, do you?”
“So your spies are digging even into student’s love affairs? Aren’t they supposed to be dealing with state secrets and stuff?”
“One of the pieces of information I received yesterday was that Kirkpatrick’s first love was a man who dressed as a woman. A student’s love story can also be considered classified information, especially if it’s someone with a big name like Anais O’Brien.”
Anais’s influence on Illestia’s social circles was apparently greater than she would allow herself to describe. According to Edgar, Anais’s single word could make noble ladies in Illestia wear manure instead of perfume. Come to think of it, Brianna said something similar. The Rose of O’Brien was the second most noble and influential woman in Illestia’s social circles after Kaitlyn the Great.
She certainly had an elegance that nobles admired, and that didn’t just come from her appearance. The students banging on the door of the newspaper office were proof of that. The one person who underestimated Anais the most was herself.
“I’m really curious about how Kirkpatrick fell in love with a crossdresser, but I’ll ask something else first. Do you also think that Keran Illestia conspired against Anais?”
You can now sponsor an extra chapter by buying me a Ko-fi! 2 Ko-fi= 1extra chapter.
