Chapter 78

Arriving at the front gate of Shierun Academy was after noon on the last Wednesday of July.

The area in front of the main gate was bustling, like a night market, as many students had already returned to school.

After leaving the luggage piled high in the carriage at the storage, Sir Ventus saw me off with a fist-and-palm salute, just as he had before. This time, I was able to return the salute without feeling awkward.

I parted ways with the Cervelle Siblings after promising to meet for a meal during the semester.

I set out to find Shayden Rose, who had arrived at the Academy before me.

Because there were so many courses, the class days and assigned professors often changed even right before the semester began, so I wanted to finalize our schedules together, as we had agreed, before the semester started.

However, Shayden’s room, where I went to find him, was firmly shut.

Shayden had said he would return to the Academy on the last Monday of July, when the break began. He was surely somewhere within the Academy, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

When attending classes, it was easy to gauge where he might be at any given time, but without classes, I didn’t know where to look and ended up wandering aimlessly around the Academy grounds.

During that time, I met many familiar faces.

Children with faces as smooth and round as boiled eggs greeted me loudly from all directions, or casually patted my shoulder as they passed.

I couldn’t recall the faces of some of them, but I figured they must know me if they knew me, so I returned their greetings and moved on.

Just as I was leaving after circling the library, a familiar purple head of hair suddenly entered my vision.

“Mikael! Did you have a good break? Why are you only arriving now?”

“It’s been a while, Marianne. Have you been well?”

“Oh, of course. Thanks to your concern, I had a great time and rested well.”

The letter I received from her had said she was feeling quite down, but seeing her now, I wondered if she had just been saying that. The spirited and lively girl looked much the same as she had before the break.

As is common among close friends, Marianne walked beside me, talking about whatever came to mind, without asking if I wanted company.

“Did you come straight to the library as soon as you arrived at the Academy? Really, how can someone be like that?”

“No, that’s not it… I was looking for Shayden. Has he not arrived yet?”

“Oh. I saw him at lunch today. I didn’t hear where he was going… Shall I help you look?”

“Hmm… Do you have to?”

“At times like this, you say, ‘Yes, please help me.'”

“Yes. Please help me.”

“Great!”

I had initially refused, thinking it unnecessary to go to such lengths within the familiar grounds of the Academy, but realizing Marianne’s desire to talk while walking with me, I belatedly gave her the answer she wanted.

Seeing Marianne’s strides wider than usual and her shoulders bouncing, she seemed to be in a very good mood, which made me smile for no reason.

“It seems something good happened.”

“Yeees… If it’s good, it’s good, right?”

“Is it about what you wrote in your letter?”

I vaguely recalled something about love.

Since the letter didn’t provide details, I wondered if her excitement was because she had found her beloved.

I remembered how foolish Jegal Amugae used to act whenever he dealt with Moyong Yeonhwa in his past life. …I wanted to prepare myself mentally.

As if my guess was spot on, Marianne, who had been chattering away moments before, suddenly closed her mouth like a clam and fell silent.

Her expression was both cute and amusing, so I gently nudged her shoulder with my fingertips as we walked in silence.

“Did you propose already?”

“As if!”

Marianne let out a shriek, glanced around, and then lowered her voice, mumbling,

“We’re just… just going to get to know each other.”

I fell silent. Marianne’s face was so radiant that it momentarily blinded me. She blushed, her fair cheeks turning red as if she had swallowed a white pearl, and smiled softly.

Though I had cherished many people over the years, I had never felt the emotion of romantic love at my age.

Upon reflection, I wondered if it was because I had become engrossed in sword training from such a young age.

After I took up the sword at the age of five, I had no room in my mind for any other thoughts.

After running until I felt like I would vomit my insides, and circulating my Qi until I was breathless, all I wanted in my youthful days was to wash in hot water and sleep; no other thoughts crossed my mind.

I was a very obedient child. I was told to train only with the sword and not to be distracted, so I lived that way.

As a result, I caught the eye of my paternal uncles, who saw promise even among the collateral branches.

It was thanks to that that I ended up in the Martial Arts Alliance, holding a position, however nominal.

Among the many people I encountered at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering back then, there were many female martial artists my age, but they were too wonderful to associate with a quiet man like me who didn’t know how to strike up a conversation, so I deliberately kept my distance.

My habit of diligent training and my mindset of staying away from pleasures proved to be of great help.

When I reached forty and was dragged along to hear friends boast about their children’s antics, I felt a pang of envy. However, considering that direct descendants in the Central Plains, who must continue their family line, often married at the ages of eight or ten, it wasn’t as if I was excessively late.

I worried about protecting my family with my own strength, having made too many enemies throughout my life.

It was embarrassing to act foolishly in my old age, so I feigned disinterest and ignored it, which has continued to this day.

Standing before Marianne, who was at the perfect age to be radiant, with a heart full of light and a shy smile on her face, I felt both pleased and envious, and a strange sense of awkwardness and ticklishness washed over me.

It was a far different sentiment from how I had watched Jegal Amugae make a fuss in my previous life, finding it pathetic.

Perhaps it was because Jegal, instead of smiling charmingly like Marianne, would grab my waist and cry, rather than the other way around.

“Just to get to know each other?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! Stop laughing!”

“Who is it that stole your heart so completely?”

I watched with a smile as her uniform collar flipped up every time she flinched.

Marianne, her fair cheeks flushed red, covered them with both hands. She seemed to know her face was burning with heat.

As I simply watched, her behavior—stamping her foot, bouncing her shoulders, shaking her head, and then lowering her gaze to mumble—was amusing.

“…Glotin Tenner, Young Master Glotin Tenner… Do you know him?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure.”

“Don’t tease me!”

“No, I said that because even if I don’t know the name, you probably know me. I wasn’t teasing. Anyway, so what happened?”

And then, as if waiting for me to probe further, Marianne poured out a torrent of words that were hard to distinguish as boasting, seeking advice, or a romance novel found in a marketplace.

Her voice was usually high-pitched, but filled with laughter and shyness, it sounded like a nightingale’s song.

I listened patiently as we strolled through the garden, hearing her proud account.

Marianne had spoken of her family’s financial situation before. Her apparent fear of Edwin Kiadris was largely due to his financial power.

For this Debutante, she couldn’t afford to spend much on a dress she wouldn’t wear often, so she had altered her older sister’s dress.

Because she was shorter than her sister, she had pinned the hem and added ruffles to hide it, but she couldn’t help but feel her shoulders shrink.

“You know, it’s like, no one else thinks anything of it, but I feel awkward and embarrassed all by myself. The men who danced with my sister last year might know about her dress, but really, what’s the big deal? But even knowing that, I still feel it. My head knows it’s not a big deal, but my heart can’t bear it sometimes.”

“Mmm.”

“So, instead of taking the wide, open path, I walked in the shade. I felt needlessly hurt, and as if I were all alone in this world. And I, Marianne Philodendore, am not usually like this. So, that must have been a fated, inevitable… kind of influence.”

“Aha.”

“I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I decided to get some fresh air in the garden and turned towards the terrace. And he was there. He was sitting on a sofa inside the half-open terrace, bathed in sunlight, looking far into the distance. The fine hairs on his earlobes seemed to shimmer like jewels.”

“Oh…”

“Then our eyes met, and, oh, really.”

I watched Marianne, worried she might faint on the spot. The girl whispered the rest of her words carefully, as if she could barely speak.

“…His eyes widened slightly as he looked at me, and they were so, so, so… beautiful.”

…So, she had fainted upon seeing the handsome face of that young man.

I suppressed a sigh that threatened to escape. Marianne looked dreamily and her voice trembled.

I couldn’t understand what kind of cunning man had captured her heart based on her description.

Sensing my lukewarm reaction, Marianne raised her voice again.

“No, of course, Mikael, you’re beautiful too. But it’s a different kind of beauty. I really want to bring him here and show him to you. He’s tall and slender, looks like he reads a lot. He looks amazing in glasses. He’s truly like someone who stepped out of my dreams.”

“Yes… I understand. So, what did you do?”

“What?”

“After your eyes met. Did you talk any further?”

“Of course!”

Marianne went on for quite some time about his jewel-like eyes, slender fingers, and melodious voice.

Listening to her chatter incessantly in her nightingale-like voice, my envy vanished, and I found myself chuckling uncontrollably.

Each time I laughed, her hand struck my forearm sharply, but I wasn’t so easily hurt, so I let her continue.

Yes, she was a thousand times better than Jegal Amugae, who would wail and roll on the ground, saying he wasn’t loved and that his life was no longer worth living.

It took a full two hours to hear the entire sequence of events, from Marianne refusing to give up her seat to shyly exchanging her first words with the young man beside her.

She said she still had much more to say but had things to do, so she would go ahead. I bid her farewell with a happy heart.

After she left, I felt completely drained, unsure if I was even myself anymore.