Failed to Train the Beast Male Lead

“Louis! Why did you come all the way here?”

“Why are you here…?”

They knew each other’s faces because, thanks to Viscount Walden, he was able to supply some goods to the North.

Why would a noble come to a tutoring center like this?

His anger quickly cooled. And the thought that he had messed with the wrong person began to creep in.

“I was going to wait at home, but you were taking so long.”

“…I didn’t think you’d be so picky about your conditions.”

Carol let out a dry laugh at his voice, tight with clenched teeth. His anger had oddly turned towards Carol.

“I’m a teacher, and I don’t need to discuss my private affairs.”

“I was trying to do you a favor because of your age…!”

The man’s body trembled.

“That’s not something I asked for. I’m sorry if you misunderstood.”

It was unpleasant enough to be seen as a potential romantic partner, but it was absurd that he spoke as if it were some kind of reward for Carol.

“Mr. Bain, let’s not be rude and leave. I’ve already reserved her private time.”

At Louis’s words, the man’s momentum deflated as he opened and closed his mouth as if he had more to say.

Although Carol had spoken firmly, the man acquiesced more to Louis’s words. As if Carol’s wishes didn’t matter, and only Louis’s did.

“Yes. I didn’t realize she was an acquaintance of Viscount Walden.”

The man said, suppressing his anger.

“…Goodbye, teacher.”

“Goodbye, Benjamin. See you on Monday.”

The door closed, and soon the sound of a carriage leaving was heard.

Louis looked at Carol and let out a deep sigh.

“Why were you listening to talk like that?”

“He’s just an ordinary man.”

He was the typical wealthy man of the empire.

One who saw women as possessions and thought women only worked to look good to men before marriage.

“A guy who looks at least twenty years older than you hitting on you is not ordinary, you know?”

“…That’s true. If he had crossed the line a bit more, I was going to kick him hard.”

As Carol made a kicking motion, Louis burst into laughter.

“Unintentionally, I ended up saving that man.”

After confirming the man’s carriage had left, Carol agreed and smiled broadly.

Louis, seemingly worried about Carol, pulled up a chair and sat down, beginning to badmouth the man in earnest.

“And if that bastard likes you, he should feel rivalry towards me, why is he suddenly getting angry at you?”

“I guess he got mad thinking I was considering his conditions.”

“He’s talking like he wasn’t considering them himself.”

“I know, right? I should have told him I’m a beastman. He would have run away immediately. But did you come here after being at home?”

Unlike what she had told the man, there was still quite some time left until their appointment.

“That guy has been suspicious for a while, so Dylan and Kevin told me to come here right away.”

“Those guys are really overprotective of me.”

“Someone said they checked their schedule.”

“Sigh… I guess they saw through it easily. Let’s go quickly. The kids will be worried.”

Carol hurriedly gathered her things. Louis followed closely behind her.

The two were still getting along as before. There had been a brief awkward period, but Louis had always been a good friend.

She had refused when Louis previously offered to find her a job, but since moving to a city near the capital, Louis hadn’t mentioned it again.

As they crossed the street, Carol brought up the rumor she had heard earlier.

“Oh, right. I heard a strange rumor.”

“What kind of rumor?”

“It’s about the North. They say the Duke is coming to the capital.”

She mentioned it casually.

Until now, Carol had avoided talking about the North, fearing her feelings might be revealed when discussing the Duke. Louis, too, hadn’t brought it up with Carol.

But they couldn’t avoid talking about the North forever.

They were both from the North, and it was where most of their memories were.

Not only that, Louis was working on tourism projects under the Duke.

Pause.

“Uh…?”

But Carol couldn’t help but stop when she saw Louis visibly stiffen.

“…Why are you so surprised?”

Carol forced a smile. His reaction seemed too strong to just be surprised about mentioning the North.

“Well…”

It shouldn’t have been a question that required hesitation. But the fact that he was hesitating meant…

“…Is it true?”

At Carol’s question, Louis bit his lower lip.

“Yes.”

Her legs trembled. If Louis said it was true, then it really was.

For others, this might be something they could dismiss as the Duke recovering from accident aftereffects, but not for Carol.

She knew how significant it was for the Duke to be able to go outside.

“The Duke… have you seen him by any chance?”

Carol had tried her best to break the Duke’s curse.

But even excluding the condition of loving the Duke, she couldn’t find someone with holy power and beastman blood.

“Yes.”

“…Did you see his face?”

Carol asked in a desperate voice.

“Yes.”

But it seemed as if the Duke had broken the curse on his own, as if to show he didn’t need Carol’s help.

Before thinking about how he had broken it, relief washed over her first.

“I see… I see.”

Her legs gave out, and she ended up collapsing on the spot.

Thud.

Before she hit the ground, Louis firmly supported Carol’s waist and held her.

“Carol.”

“Thanks for catching me. You can let go now.”

Despite Carol’s words, Louis didn’t loosen his grip. Just as Carol could read Louis’s expressions, Louis could do the same with her.

Though they hadn’t mentioned it, over these two years, Louis had read Carol’s expressions countless times.

Louis wanted to keep believing Carol’s answer when she said she didn’t like the Duke. He thought, ‘She’ll forget someday, and then I’ll make my move.’ But now, it had gone beyond that limit.

Even after more than two years, Carol still trembled helplessly like a branch in the wind at the mention of the Duke.

He wanted to tell her to give up. But as he was still just a friend, such words would be presumptuous.

However, Louis knew words that could make her give up, even if they weren’t explicitly telling her to do so.

“They say the Duke is getting married soon.”

“…Married?”

Carol drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes widened.

“Yes. Married.”

Louis emphasized the word.

“…To whom?”

It was obvious it would be the person who broke the curse. Who could have broken the Duke’s curse?

“It’s not Miss Margaret.”

Through business, Louis had become closer to Margaret than before, seeing her face often. So Louis knew she wasn’t the marriage partner.

“Then…?”

“But I heard it’s a marriage with the Chesworth family.”

Carol froze on the spot. She knew all too well what those words meant.

‘Elisha Chesworth.’

In her absence, the wheel of fate had rolled along the same track as before.

The two would fall in love as if destined, break the curse, fall in love, and the time spent with her would be forgotten as if it were nothing…

It was as if fate was whispering in Carol’s ear that the great flow of events truly couldn’t be resisted.

A complex emotion that couldn’t be defined by a single word welled up inside her.

“Carol.”

The time Carol spent with the Duke was but a moment compared to the time she had shared with Louis.

Louis clenched his fist so tightly his hand turned white.

“…Why are you so shaken?”

“Me?”

“You’re trembling right now.”

“Just… I guess I was surprised by the sudden news.”

“You’re surprised by news of a marriage even though you were nothing to each other?”

“…”

The words “nothing to each other” struck her painfully. Heat rushed to her eyes. Her vision blurred.

“I’ve been avoiding talking about this on purpose, but now I need to hear it. What happened before we moved?”

“…”

Carol’s lips quivered. She could feel the stares of people looking at them oddly as they stood still in the middle of the street. Carol pressed her temples firmly. A thought flashed through her mind that maybe it would be better to open up rather than swallowing it alone.

“Sister?”

“Kevin, Dylan.”

But fortunately or unfortunately, Kevin and Dylan, who were returning home, spotted the two and waved their hands.

“You’re back earlier than you said?”

“We heard someone checked our schedule, so we came back early. What about that guy?”

The two brothers’ eyes flashed fiercely as they remembered the unsettling way that man had looked at their sister last time.

“Nothing happened.”

“Really? But why are you two standing in the middle of the street?”

Carol quickly gathered her emotions.

“…We were thinking about buying something on the way. Right, Louis?”

When Carol nudged Louis’s side, he reflexively answered.

“Yeah.”

Louis looked at Carol with a complicated gaze, but she deliberately pretended not to notice.