Professor Peter’s words made me slightly doubtful.
‘The original Cesare is a villain, but Professor Peter doesn’t seem to dislike him.’
Rather, his expression showed regret that he couldn’t help, which seemed a bit strange. Of course, the poker faces of those from noble backgrounds were one of those things you should never trust.
“You two… aren’t thinking of going abroad, are you?”
Abroad? Was he talking about fleeing into exile immigration to avoid the imperial family’s eyes? What on earth was the reason the imperial family ostracized the ducal family to such an extent?
‘I should have kept up with the original story like Ju Shinyoung said…. It was a mistake to only watch the highly-viewed sugar overdose chapters.’
I learned the lesson that since I don’t know where I might get possessed next, I should watch all episodes carefully. Anyway, when I looked at Cesare, he shook his head strongly as if it was out of the question and answered.
“Thank you for your concern, but… I’m considering various situations. And I don’t really want to bring up that topic right now.”
Cesare answered while glancing at me nervously. It seemed he was anxiously worried that I might catch on to the current situation of the Yanox ducal family.
I found Cesare’s unexpected behavior a bit cute as he worried about being found out when I already knew he was broke. His black bangs flowing down to his forehead in confusion and his wrinkling nose bridge were cutely pretty. Right, mini-Cesare?
Mini Cesare. I asked while pulling on the soft cheeks of mini-Cesare, aka mini-Ce.
“Right. Then now, our clever Mellans.”
Finally Professor Peter looked at me and spoke. One corner of his mouth lifted slightly, which felt like a somewhat ominous sign.
Professor Peter was notorious as an infamous professor at the Imperial Academy. Making faculty and students miserable with murderous amounts of assignments was routine, and as a former Minister of Finance, he had high insight and was very moody, making him very difficult to deal with.
“Are you very close with Yanox?”
“We’ve been close since middle school.”
At my words, Professor Peter opened a leather-bound file folder from the side and moved his palm. Then letters wriggled up and appeared on the blank paper above the file. With each reading, Professor Peter’s brow furrowed more and more.
What was he reading so seriously?
“Hmm. Your grades are… unexpectedly disastrous.”
Right. Serious enough. What he was looking at were my grades.
“Still, you seem to be getting above average in finance and management… but you have no talent in magic, so why do you stubbornly keep taking it? You’re mostly failing swordsmanship too.”
At the academy, aside from required classes, you filled your credits with elective courses and extracurricular activities you wanted to study, but I forced myself to take magic classes I had no talent for because I was following Cesare around.
I was also forced to take swordsmanship because of Cain and Cesare, but my skills were barely enough to block an opponent’s sword.
As I scratched my temple awkwardly out of embarrassment at my disastrous grades, Professor Peter closed the documents with sparkling eyes.
“Right. It’s a good strategy to avoid attention. Lowering your average numbers like this to avoid people’s eyes is excellent, Mellans.”
Looking at his somehow pleased expression, there seemed no need to correct him by saying ‘That’s not it, this happened because I was being Cesare’s lackey.’
“Thank you.”
When I smiled with a “hehe” at the unexpected praise, Cesare poked my waist from the side and whispered.
“That’s not praise, you idiot.”
“Huk.”
I must have grinned foolishly again. Lately, Cesare kept telling me every so often that my smiling face looked stupid and idiotic, so I shouldn’t smile like that in front of others.
When I looked at Cesare with apologetic eyes, he smirked and shook his head slightly. Keuuk. My heart tingles at that handsome trash bastard’s face.
When I smile I look like an idiot, but why does he look so refined even when he just snorts?
“With grades like this… the application probably didn’t go through. Since you led the senior class well, I’ll write you a special recommendation letter. Apply to the tour group. It’s full of boring guys, but it’ll be fun if a student like you joins.”
“Application?”
“Right. The application for the Taitus tour group that goes during spring break after midterms. Yanox is going too, didn’t you hear about it?”
“……?!”
Taitus tour group. My hair stood on end at hearing this for the first time. And Cesare was going?! No. More shocking than that was the fact that Cesare hadn’t told me about it.
“Wh-what are you talking about, Cesare? Where are you going after midterms?”
“…I was going to tell you after the exam.”
Cesare responded nonchalantly while crossing his arms.
He was going to tell me after the exam? Hey, are you rich? You don’t even have money, so what tour group are you going on without me! And abroad at that?!
I barely held back from shouting this and shaking him by the collar. The tour group was like a trip the academy sent top students on as a reward.
The academy covered all travel expenses so that wasn’t a concern, but that itself was the height of money-wasting. Since you didn’t have to wear uniforms, you had to keep wearing casual clothes, you had to hire personal attendants or escorts separately, and it was an event where you had to spend money like water on restaurants and souvenir purchases.
I could picture Cesare appearing on the awkward fourth day of the trip wearing the same clothes he wore before, and the students whispering about it.
Oh my, look at Yanox. Those are the exact same clothes he wore the other day.
Does that mean he couldn’t hire enough attendants to carry all his new clothes around? Or does he not have money to buy new clothes? Hohoho.
Wasn’t he from a ducal family that could even make birds fall? Cesare is completely broke.
Doesn’t he even have an attendant to care for his tanned skin during the trip? Doesn’t his handsome face look somewhat rougher?
‘Cesare! Don’t say anything about my baby!’
In my imagination, I threw mini-Ce like a bowling ball at the whispering students and knocked them down, but their voices stuck in sharply and tears almost welled up.
On top of that, since this content wasn’t mentioned in the original work, I couldn’t help but feel anxious.
“It seems I brought up something unnecessary. Since you said you’ve been close since middle school, I thought you’d already discussed it.”
“I-I had no idea!”
When Professor Peter stood up and snapped his fingers in front of a bookshelf, a piece of paper popped out from there. He came up behind me, grabbed my shoulder, and held it out.
<Taitus Principality Tour Group Recommendation Letter>
“You can’t go just by applying. With your grades, there will probably be a condition that your midterm grades need to be good.”
“I-I have to do well on midterms?!”
“Someone said today that you have to do well while you can. So don’t hesitate when you have an opportunity.”
Professor Peter quoted what I had said and gripped my shoulder harder. Then he quickly whispered in a voice so small that Cesare couldn’t notice.
“Crown Prince Cedric is coming too, so you join and try to prevent any fights.”
Surprised at his secret order, I just blinked, and he burst into hearty laughter and ruffled my hair.
“Euik!”
“Your grandfather was like a bear, but how did you turn out cute like a small dog!”
Though it reeked of tobacco smoke as if he smoked, his hand was somehow warm, so I thought he wasn’t as scary as the rumors suggested.
* * *
First, before the question of whether to go on the tour or not, I had something to resolve.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going?!”
“I was going to.”
“When? After all the exams? Or were you just going to drop it on me the day before the tour group left?!”
“…Ha. Lionel. Lower your voice.”
“Don’t brush it off like it’s someone else’s business!”
Cesare looked around and pushed me into a corner of the corridor as I got excited. I was pushed slightly and my back hit the wall, but I had no time to care about such things.
I knew he didn’t like me that much, but I thought our relationship wasn’t so shallow considering we always stuck together.
At least for something this big, he could have told me, my heart was crying out like that.
“You should have told me in advance, Cesare!”
“What if I tell you in advance. What would change?”
Cesare pushed his arm next to my face and asked coldly. My words were blocked by his cold gaze and tone.
“It’s a place only top students can go anyway. It’s nowhere near possible with your grades. Even if I told you, it wasn’t a place you could follow to.”
Mercilessly beaten by the fact bombing that came out of nowhere, my bones crumbled and only boneless flesh remained.
“Y-you never went to those things before…. You said you didn’t like crowded places….”
“I’m going. So why are you getting angry?”
“I… I just… wanted to… be helpful to you….”
You bad bastard. Because you don’t have money. I was going to pay for you. Because I hate seeing you looked down on! But not even knowing that, this bastard with only pride left!
Inside I cursed with all kinds of profanity, but the voice that came out was full of timid moisture.
“I’m not… angry….”
