Please Leave Emily Alone

Chapter 5

Emily, who had been nervously watching Lucas moving away, suddenly stopped and looked back, and couldn’t help but make eye contact with Valenti.

Unlike when she met him in the morning at the infirmary, Valenti, wearing a clean school uniform rather than a training suit, looked neater than usual. As soon as she encountered the neatly pulled back black hair and the clear gray eyes that were still wet with rain, Emily remembered the handkerchief that she had forgotten until then.

Come to think of it, she received a handkerchief from him at the infirmary this morning.

After washing the handkerchief, Emily recalled leaving it in the dormitory to dry. As Emily looked at him in dismay, Valenti moved his lips as if he had something to say before closing his mouth tightly again. Then, he bowed to her and turned around again. At his gaze, Emily became anxious, wondering if he wanted to have his handkerchief back already.

As soon as she returned to the dormitory, she looked at Valenti’s receding back, thinking that she should have it ready in advance.

“Oh, my goodness, you’re going to a banquet with me! Did you hear that, Miss Emily?”

“Yes, I heard it.” 

Kira, who stood next to Emily, finally came to her senses and sighed as the lingering aftertaste of the shock subsided. Looking at Kira’s profile, which showed surprise, shock, and strange joy, Emily nodded and responded to her words.

“Miss Emily, what is the second prince thinking…?”

“I don’t know… I have no idea.”

Emily had no idea what the Second Prince was thinking, and frankly, she didn’t want to know at all. It was just out of politeness, so whenever she was with Kira, she didn’t want to be emphasized as Kira’s close friend. As if naturally grasping Emily’s intention to get away from Kira, the second prince repeating the word “friend” several times felt like shackles, and Emily suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

* * *

When Emily returned to the dormitory after class, she ironed Valenti’s handkerchief first and put it away.

She contemplated for a while whether she should bring a small gift as a thank you, but decided against it because it would be embarrassing if he misunderstood that she was interested in him.

In fact, it was a common method used by young children to show their sincerity to whom they were interested in.

“In order to avoid misunderstandings, let’s just return the handkerchief.”

Weren’t she and Valenti completely different species like the sparrow and the wolf? He is the son of the famous Marquis Valenti while she was a former noble with no territory. Besides, what was his appearance like? Emily, reminded of Valenti’s beauty, shook her head alone and opened the closet door. Originally, trees that cannot be climbed are for ornamental purposes.

“I’ve got the handkerchief. Let’s see, which dress should I wear to the party?”

Emily rummaged through the closet, took out two of her innermost dresses and laid them out on the bed. Dresses were quite expensive. Especially for families as poor as hers, buying a dress requires a considerable amount of money.

So these two dresses were all Emily had. One is a dark green velvet dress, a basic line dress with a square line up to the collarbone and no excessively inflated sleeves, which was her most recent purchase, but it was still out of fashion.

“But even if it’s spring, the weather is getting warmer, so I think wearing a velvet dress will make me sweatier… It’s a dilemma.”

The other one was a summer dress, which was dark navy and very beautiful with tiny jewels scattered around the chest.

In fact, this dress was already worn by her mother, but it was simply mended by removing the excessively inflated sleeves to match the design these days. However, the fabric was thin and the shoulders and arms were exposed, so it felt a little early to wear in spring.

“Hmm, they are both summer and winter dresses, so it’s a little iffy to wear them in this season.”

Emily, who was carefully contemplating while looking down at the two clothes, decided that it would be better to wear the navy dress and buy a long velvet glove that covers her elbows.

– Click

“Phew, it’s pretty hot today, too. I guess summer is coming soon.”

After choosing the dress, she hung it in the closet and closed the door, when suddenly, Kira opened the door and came in. After finishing her evening run, Kira wiped the sweat off her flushed face with the towel draped over her shoulder.

“Oh, Kira. Did you just come from a run? Didn’t you run early this morning?”

“Yes, I only ran for a short while this morning, so I was tired all day. Now that I’ve ran as usual, I’m feeling a little refreshed.”

Kira entered the shower room with a refreshed face and said she would wash up first. Emily stuck her tongue out at her diligence and sat down at her desk. She took out the class registration guide book, which was given to her at the entrance ceremony, from the desk shelf and looked at it for a long time. Kira, who came out of the shower, changed into pajamas and wiped her dripping hair, before approaching Emily and looking over her shoulder, curious about what book she was reading.

“It’s a course application guide. Miss Emily, would you like to take more classes?”

“Yes, what Miss Kira said during lunch was quite impressive. I want to take a life magic class. I have weak mana, but I can do a little bit of delicate magic. Are you also interested, Miss Kira?

“I’m fine. I’m not interested in life magic.”

After speaking, Kira went to her bed and sat down. Then, with her wavy blonde hair hanging over her shoulders, she wiped it dry with a towel.

“Is that so?”

Emily turned her head and glanced at Kira while reading the book.

“Yes, I’d rather deal with powerful forces than delicate systems. I’m especially interested in offensive magic. If possible, I want to learn professionally.”

“Offensive magic?” 

Emily opened her eyes wide when she heard that she wanted to learn offensive magic in this day and age.

“Yes, I want to protect myself with extremely strong power.”

Kira responded with a smile to Emily’s question. Then she focused on drying her hair again. Emily looked at Kira, who was drying her hair with her head slightly lowered, and opened her mouth slightly to ask questions, but closed it back again and turned her eyes back to the guidebook.

Strong offensive magic in this day and age. The only class that taught it was the course of becoming a knight mage. It also taught lethal magic.

‘…Hmm, let’s pretend I didn’t hear what she just said.’

When she became confused and couldn’t see the text of the guidebook, Emily opened her eyes wide again and focused on the contents of the guidebook.

Trying to erase the imagination of Kira’s beautiful blonde hair and her bright smile on a bloody battlefield, she used her superhuman concentration to find the life magic introduction page and looked at the teacher in charge.

And she was surprised to see an unexpected name written on it. It was because the name of Liam Karlov, the person in charge of the illusion magic class, was written on it.

He was a teacher who always looked at Emily with pity as if he were a pitiful puppy, so Emily, who remembered him, was a little amazed.

‘… Is he also in charge of life magic? I heard that he became a teacher at a young age because of his outstanding skills, but he must have been better than I thought, having already been in charge of two classes.’

‘I hope life magic suits me.’

Emily shrugged her shoulders as she recalled the sharp eyes that she saw through his glasses, and immediately filled out the class application form.

* * *

The next morning, as she left the dormitory room, Emily was already conscious of the handkerchief in her school uniform skirt pocket. And it had been bothering Emily all morning. Emily, who wanted to return the handkerchief to Valenti as soon as possible, soon realized that returning it to him was an unexpectedly difficult mission.

This was because the swordsmanship department and the magic department were far apart from each other, and there were hardly any classes that overlapped. In addition, Valenti, unlike Kira, Emily, and Lucas, was in the third grade so she had no means of contact. Although he was always there to assist Lucas, he attended the Academy two years earlier and was 18 years old; 2 years older than Emily.

The only time they met was during lunch break where Kira and Lucas greeted each other, but Emily couldn’t bring herself to speak to Valenti.

It was because the moment she would speak to him, everyone in that place would turn their attention toward her. In the end, Emily couldn’t return the handkerchief, even during lunch break when she ran into him.

“Well… I never thought it would be this hard to return a handkerchief. I’m in trouble…”

Emily, who came out of the hallway after an afternoon class, scratched her head in embarrassment. Kira went into the next class because she had one more class, and Emily was walking alone in the hallway because the fourth class was her last class.

She eventually gave up returning her handkerchief to Valenti today and decided to submit her application for the life magic course that she had filled out yesterday.

The hallway was quite quiet as the fifth period had already begun. Walking along the wide white hallway, Emily appreciated the arched window that looked twice her height.

In the old days, the Academy, which was built with the support of the imperial family, had an admirable beauty despite its long history.

– Creak

“I’m here to submit my application form.”

“Oh, leave it there.”

Arriving at the teacher’s office, Emily opened the door and showed the application form, and the teacher sitting in front of the door pointed to the submission box right next to her. She put the application form there and came out to the hallway and was walking and looking around, and she was able to find an unexpectedly quiet space in a corner.

“Was there such a space before?”

In the remote space at the end of the hallway, there were only old bulletin boards and large windows, but the space was quite spacious and the view was good as there were large branches hanging from the window.

Emily, who had no afternoon schedule, decided to sit on the window railing in the empty hallway and take a break.

As the end of spring was slowly approaching, the scorching sunlight was shining on the dense trees, but since it was the first floor, the shadows fell and it felt pleasantly cool.

“The wind is warm, so it feels good…”

Sitting by the window, she felt a sense of relaxation after a long time, and she could see a person with his head lowered through the shadow of a tree. A male student seemed to be washing his face at a hand washing area a little far from the training ground.

He must have been a student of the swordsmanship department since he was wearing a training suit, but his large physique, dark hair, and pure white skin seemed familiar the more she looked at it.

Emily stared at the student washing his face with cool running water under the strong sunlight, and the next moment, she suddenly sprang up from her seat.

“…Sir Valenti!”

When Emily called his name out loud with the desperation she felt when she found her friend who had borrowed money and ran away from a distance, Valenti, who was washing his face, paused, turned off the water, and looked up.

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