Episode 146

Under the curious gazes of the other students, I stepped out of the classroom.

“Josh.”

I met up with Joshua again in front of the Chancellor’s Office.

He looked stiff, his expression tight with nerves.

I smiled brightly and reassured him.

“It’s fine. Nothing bad will happen.”

“What if we open the door and Father’s already inside?”

“He’s stuck at the Imperial Palace until afternoon because of the cabinet meeting.”

Joshua blinked at me, momentarily stunned at how casually I recited the Duke’s schedule.

“…That could be even worse.”

“……”

“They’ll just gang up on us without any guardian here to help… maybe we should call the butler or—!”

Rattle.

Ignoring his panicked rambling, I swung the door open.

Inside, the reception sofas were packed with adults.

Just as I expected — nothing surprising.

“Rep-representative!”

The Chancellor, sweating buckets between the noblewomen, rushed over to me.

“I deeply apologize for calling you here like this! It seems there’s been some… misunderstanding with the parents…”

Afraid he might lose the promised donations, he kept bowing and scraping before me.

I crossed my arms and coolly asked,

“What misunderstanding?”

“It’s you! You beat up my kid!”

Suddenly, one of the seated women jumped to her feet, pointing a finger at me.

“After the last class ended last week, you dragged them to the junkyard and beat them up! My Hans almost died because of you! You know that?!”

“Me?”

I widened my eyes dramatically, pretending to be shocked.

“How could I beat up so many boys? Especially boys who are all bigger than me?”

“You—you used some kind of weapon, didn’t you?! There’s no way Danvers and all the others would have fainted, or Hans would have broken his arm otherwise!”

“Weapons are banned at the academy, ma’am.”

I shrugged and answered calmly.

“T-that’s…!”

The woman, who had been ferociously attacking me, faltered for the first time.

Apparently, without seeing it firsthand, she couldn’t push harder.

Judging from how she kept bringing up the Campbell brothers, she must be Lady Campbell — the Baroness herself.

‘The cousin of the Second Prince, huh…?’

She wasn’t a familiar face, meaning she wasn’t a regular customer at the Belze Salon.

In fact, it was the other noblewomen beside her who looked more familiar.

It seemed they were just as unsettled about running into the salon owner like this — even though they kept their manners, their stiff faces and hostile eyes said enough.

“Don’t lie!”

At that moment, Danvers Campbell, hiding behind his mother’s skirts, suddenly shouted.

“W-we all saw it! That weird magic teddy bear beat us all up! Maxim, Robert, Gael — you saw it too, right?”

“Y-yeah!”

“T-that giant bear sang about catching mice and everything…!”

The other boys chimed in one after another, their faces still pale with fear.

“Maybe… the seniors were all hallucinating or something?”

“W-what?”

“I mean, I was at the junkyard too, but I didn’t see anything like that.”

“Hrk, huuugh!”

I locked eyes with each of them one by one, flashing a slow, chilling smile.

The boys froze up, swallowing hard.

“Gael! Why’s your face so pale? Come on, Gael, snap out of it!”

One of the noblewomen shrieked in a panic, noticing her son trembling like he was about to have a fit.

“You! What did you do to them?! Why are the kids acting like this?!”

‘Countess Torte.’

A regular customer at the salon, and part of Madam Cloud’s social circle.

I had assumed the boys tailing after Danvers were nothing special…

‘Turns out they’re actually from respectable families, huh?’

Glancing sideways at Countess Torte, I pouted slightly.

I had thought we were on familiar enough terms, exchanging greetings at the salon.

Seeing her rush to accuse me based solely on her son’s words was bitterly disappointing.

‘Well, it’s fine.’

If they wanted to come at me like this, it just made things easier.

After the initial chaos calmed down—

Another noblewoman, who had stayed silent until now, finally spoke.

“Rather than Representative Belze, why don’t we hear from Young Master Joshua himself?”

“U-uh…”

Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, Joshua shrank back, his shoulders trembling slightly.

‘Countess Quirel.’

Another regular at the salon.

Pulling a handkerchief from her sleeve, she dabbed at her eyes and began to speak, her voice heavy with emotion.

“Surely you all know that I was once close friends with the late Duchess?”

“Ah…”

Joshua blinked blankly, clearly unaware.

Of course, I hadn’t known either.

“Even after she passed away, I was so relieved to hear you were growing up strong and healthy… And when I heard you had entered the academy, I was truly overjoyed.”

“……”

“I was so happy that I even made my son, Robert, promise to look after you personally…
And yet — now, school violence?”

“L-Lady—”

“How heartbroken the late Duchess would be if she could see this… sob…”

She suddenly burst into tears, dabbing at her eyes dramatically.

Watching her push Joshua into the role of a violent delinquent made me scowl without even realizing it.

I could handle insults thrown at me.

But dragging Joshua — who had already endured so much — into it? That was unforgivable.

Unable to stay silent, I opened my mouth, annoyance written all over my face.

“Chancellor.”

“Y-yes, Representative!”

“Has the rule about handling academy matters internally already been thrown out?”

I stared him down, silently demanding why he hadn’t taken care of it earlier.

The Chancellor shrank under my gaze, practically about to cry.

“W-we did explain that, but…”

“Oh my, look at this one.”

Bolstered by the other noblewomen, Lady Campbell spoke up again, all smugness.

“That’s exactly why we came all this way — to handle it within the academy. If you’re upset, you can call your guardians too.”

“……”

“Oh! But you’re an orphan, aren’t you? Poor thing. You don’t have anyone to call, do you?”

The woman snapped open her fan, hiding her mouth behind it.

Her voice was dripping with mockery, and I was left speechless by the sheer audacity.

“Tsk, tsk… Truly unfortunate for the Duke’s house. Taking in a child like that after the Duchess passed away… And His Grace, being so burdened with affairs of state, can’t afford to involve himself in such petty matters either.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s right, indeed.”

The noblewomen around her nodded along.

‘Wow. Low blow much? So this is how you want to play it?’

Grinding my teeth, I thought to myself.

They weren’t entirely wrong:
Even if today’s situation had been reported to the Duke, he likely wouldn’t have been able to come.

Not only because of the important meeting he had—

But also because here, in this conservative environment, it was frowned upon for the head of a noble house to intervene in “petty squabbles” between children.

On top of that, academy rules discouraged parents from storming in to handle matters personally.

If it had only been the Campbell family stirring up trouble, the Chancellor could have smothered it quietly.

But—

‘They ganged up and pushed their numbers. No way to block them all.’

Had the Duchess still been alive, this would have been easily solved.
But sadly, that wasn’t possible.

And clearly, the other side knew it well.

Only Hans Campbell was actually injured, but it was obvious what they were aiming for —
To use this opportunity to push down Joshua, to emphasize the absence of the Duchess, and to bolster their own standing in society.

I checked the time briefly and took a deep breath, trying to calm my boiling anger.

Unfortunately, all of this was still within the range of what I had anticipated.

‘I was willing to handle this nicely since they’re customers…’

But bringing up the fact that I had no mother?
That was going way too far!

Right then and there, I vowed to throw the membership cards and carefully prepared gifts Charlotte had readied straight into the trash.

It was at that moment—

Knock knock.

A knock echoed through the tense Chancellor’s Office.

“W-who’s…?”

Everyone’s heads whipped toward the door.

Slide—

“Hmph. I thought I’d arrived on time… but it seems everyone’s already gathered.”

The door opened, and a noblewoman, dressed elegantly in a deep green gown, stepped inside.

The moment the noblewomen recognized her, their faces froze in shock.

“Gasp! L-Lady Cloud…?!”

“L-Lady Cloud, why are you here…?”

One after another, the women who had been lounging so arrogantly on the sofas all scrambled to their feet.

Her mere presence — her aura — told everyone in the room exactly who held true power here.

Lady Cloud, moving with a calm, leisurely air, scanned the room slowly.

And finally, her gaze landed on me.

“I seem to have arrived a little late, Belze.”

“D-Duchess! Wh-what brings you to the academy?”

The Chancellor, his mouth hanging open, stammered the question.

“Why else would I come to the academy? I heard something happened to my girl, so I came.”

Lady Cloud snapped back crisply.

Then she strode toward me and placed one hand firmly on my shoulder.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Elena Cloud — Belze’s godmother.”