Perhaps because my heart, which had been unable to find its bearings and wandering in confusion, was organized thanks to Professor Peter, it was a light day after a long time.
‘Certainly, to prevent him from starting a rebellion, I need to first untangle things related to the imperial family. But how can I untangle them?’
The bad relationship with Cedric was probably related to the Empress.
‘Gasp. Could it be that Cesare’s father secretly started a rebellion to claim the Empress?’
That seemed like the most plausible scenario at present.
While pondering this, I went out to the riding grounds for afternoon class. Since it was the last week before break, there was no lecture and it was free time.
Usually, I would chat with Samuel or Ban, who took class with me in the corner shade, but today I felt like taking a walk in the sunlight, so I rode a horse.
—Neigh.
As I rubbed the neck of the gentle-looking brown horse and entered the edge of the riding grounds, Jayden suddenly appeared on horseback and blocked my way. Around us, guys who appeared to be Jayden’s gang began to approach and surround me.
“Stop showing off and move aside, Jayden Fellox.”
“You’re really something.”
“Not at all. Thanks for the compliment.”
When I shrugged my shoulders and tried to pass by at words that didn’t seem like a compliment at all, Jayden growled.
“How dare you lower His Highness the Crown Prince’s reputation with a scandal and walk around so brazenly?”
I was dumbfounded by the traditional villain dialogue, like bullying the female lead, and was speechless. What’s next, bragging about birth?
“A commoner nouveau riche should stay quietly holed up where you belong. Don’t cause harm to His Highness or my sister.”
As expected. These feudal society bastards never deviate from their stale repertoire. I retorted to him with a prim tone.
“Perfect. I don’t like it either. But what can I do when they like this ‘commoner nouveau riche’ so much?”
“What?”
“Isn’t it strange that they follow me around so much because they like a mere ‘commoner nouveau riche’ so much? I even fell from the library because of someone.”
I looked around at the guys surrounding me, not just Jayden, and smiled.
I recalled what Professor Hugo taught me—that in battle, the sure thing is to strike the leader, but when that’s not feasible, the best option is to scatter the minions.
“I shouted so~o much to not come close, but ‘that person’ you all respect so much paid no attention. Well, you guys might have approached gladly. But I’m not really into imperial tastes.”
When I provoked them by mixing facts and lies appropriately, the lackeys turned red and were shocked. I don’t know about Jayden, but I don’t understand why these guys keep bothering me when they have no influence.
“Hyah!”
—Neigh!
I immediately hooked my foot in the stirrup, mounted the horse, and deliberately drove the horse in a threatening posture, scattering the surrounding guys. And glaring at the guys scattering in confusion and Jayden whose expression was distorted, I said.
“Are you guys the ones who don’t know how scary the Yanox Ducal House is and keep acting up?”
“……”
At my warning letting them know who my backer was, the surroundings froze in an instant. Not wanting to waste time on these nobodies, I was about to turn back when Jayden suddenly drove his horse toward me.
“You gloomy and filthy bastard who doesn’t know Torusian’s honor…!”
Before I could even think “oh no,” at the moment we were about to collide, I quickly turned the horse’s head and squeezed my eyes shut.
—Neigh!
But the collision didn’t happen. I quickly opened my eyes to see a large black horse standing in front of me, blocking my way. Thanks to that, it seemed Jayden had quickly changed direction.
“Lionel. Are you okay? You really require a lot of care.”
“Cesare…?”
Cesare on the black horse grinned and calmed the startled horse. While I was blinking, I heard Cain’s swaggering laughter from over there.
“Great picture! William, didn’t you say your Colt family runs a gallery? How much do you think that would be worth?”
“The composition and colors are good. How about 20,000 torka, Cesare!”
“20,000? Am I only worth 20,000?”
“Friend discount, you bastard.”
“Keke. Why are you giving Cesare a discount, you idiot. You should add a premium!”
The too-cool Cesare! …and my villain friends who would be embarrassing anywhere.
* * *
After my friends rescued me from there, we settled in the lounge of the dormitory where Cain lived. This dormitory lounge was dark and damp with little sunlight, so no one was there except us. In other words, it was perfect for a villain hideout.
“You guys weren’t even showing your noses, so why are you acting friendly again?”
“Ahem, we were just a bit busy with exam period.”
‘It’s not that—you were keeping quiet after Homecoming worried about getting on the imperial family’s bad side, you despicable bastards!’
“Anyway, you ignored Cesare for a while too. You and us are the same.”
At Samuel’s quiet fact attack, I just crossed my arms and glared at them.
“Lionel, did you grow a bit?”
“What? Our puppy grew? Let me see. I’ll miss you so much during break, what should I do?”
“Ah, stop it!”
Ban and Samuel pestered me annoyingly. The guys giggled and started useless chatter, and I sighed while looking at them with disapproving eyes.
‘The original rebellion failed because they had guys like these as allies.’
Then again, thinking about it from the opposite perspective, how desperate must he have been for allies to recruit even guys like these—it made me want to cry. It must have felt like doing a group project with nothing but free riders. And being the group leader at that.
“Anyway, despite hiding it, I ended up finding out. The Cedric-senpai sexual harassment incident.”
“You guys trying to hide that are amazing too!”
“Your body wasn’t even fully healed yet, so Cesare said not to give you useless worries. We thought if we hid it until before break, it would die down.”
“Anyway, because of that, Jayden’s been going around making a fuss that he won’t let you be these days. Our Lionel is marked for sure.”
“I’ve disliked those student council bastards from before—should we just wipe them all out?”
Ban suggested punishing the student council.
“Do you have the power to wipe out those guys?”
“I’m just saying let’s take them behind the library and scare them a bit.”
At the ridiculous plan, I glared at him with fierce eyes, and he awkwardly smacked his lips. I left sincere advice for Ban.
“Cut it out. The student council kids are all from families with influence. Strength might be priority in the Academy, but once you go outside, you guys can’t say a peep. Want to get your family support cut off before you come of age?”
William was the second son of Count Colt, Samuel was the third son of Viscount Gershwin, and Ban was Count Lauren’s nephew—all guys in ambiguous positions. Their intelligence was all about the same too.
Even their personalities and impressions were bad, so my evaluation was that they were worse than even Gan Yong, Sun Jian, and Mi Zhu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, who were famous for their ambiguous ability stats. Even Jayden, though hot-tempered, was phoenix-level compared to these guys.
‘Even if these guys stick to our side again, they can’t even match Cedric’s toes, let alone balance things out. Unless their ability stats themselves go up….’
If the forces are too weak, as Professor Peter said, Cesare, cornered, will hasten the rebellion before all the ducal house’s power is cut off.
‘But if I keep supporting him with money and Cesare’s forces become powerful, he might start a rebellion like in the original’s pace.’
Rebellion if forces are too weak. Rebellion if too strong. What am I supposed to do? In the end, there was only one conclusion. I had to properly care for him while resolving the cause of conflict with the imperial family. And undo the addiction placed on me too.
‘It’s a long road ahead.’
I secretly sighed at the bleakness and leaned against the lounge sofa.
“But is that true? That Cedric-senpai tried to… hold your hand before you fell?”
“Like, he touched your shoulder in front of the fountain on the first day of Homecoming too.”
“They say he took you to the student council’s private room before, picking on you for something ridiculous, and personally ‘guided’ you—is that true? And Cesare barely brought you out then too.”
No. It’s true. It’s all true, but why does the nuance sound so strange!
“Everyone stop asking. Lionel doesn’t want to answer.”
At Cesare’s curt dismissal, sounding somewhat displeased, everyone shut their mouths. They seemed more curious, but they immediately changed course and moved to flattering Cesare.
“Cesare. But who was your partner at Homecoming? Your fiancée? She was really pretty. Lucky bastard.”
“I’ve never seen such a beautiful woman. I think she was prettier than Princess Françoise, Cedric-senpai’s partner.”
Hmm, ahem—I could hear Cain trying to hold back laughter with a fake cough. I pretended not to know and just crunched on butter cookies.
“My partner is pretty, right? She’s not my fiancée, but I might get engaged to her.”
“Kuk. Kek!”
I almost choked because of Cesare’s proud voice. Cain quickly handed me a glass of juice.
“Her personality is cute too. She seems a bit promiscuous, but that has its own charm.”
You crazy bastard! When did I act promiscuous!
I glared at Cesare with bulging eyes, but he just giggled with narrowed eyes as if something was so funny.
“She seems shy but is also bold. She has a bit of a hot temper sometimes, but she also whimpers to me asking to be treated nicely. It’s like… I wouldn’t get tired of watching her all day.”
‘What is he blabbering on about!’
I couldn’t get my bearings on whether I should like it or hate it. Meanwhile, at William’s mischievous question asking if he’d kissed her, Cesare smiled leisurely and said.
“It tasted like cocoa. She must like sweets. Like Lionel.”
“Wowww! He must have done it!”
Ahhh!
At the shame that felt like it would burst, I just kept my mouth shut and lowered my head. He was clearly teasing me. As expected, my love could be nothing more or less than a source of amusement for Cesare.
‘He was the one who suggested kissing first!’
I felt like crying at the unfair feeling, but I just sniffled and held it in. Then Cesare smiled and whispered quietly, just to me.
“Today’s will taste like butter cookies.”
“……!”
“I don’t really like sweets, so personally, this would be better.”
At those words, I stopped chewing the cookie in my mouth and stared blankly ahead.
‘B-butter-flavored kiss….’
The cookie remaining in my mouth crumbled softly on my tongue. Melting gently while breaking apart like this cookie…. At the sudden rising heat, I buried my head in the lounge cushion. After that, I didn’t even hear what the guys talked about. My head was filled only with butter-flavored kisses, floating around in my own world.
The last day of spring semester. After closing my large suitcase, I looked around my dormitory room. Starting tomorrow was Spring Break, and it was also the day the tour group would depart for the principality.
Professor Peter faithfully fulfilled his promise, and thanks to that, Cesare and I were included in the tour group and just had to leave tomorrow.
‘I have to meet the Duke of Yanox in the principality. And find the other half of the artifact.’
Meeting the Duke seemed like it would be resolved easily. Anyway, Cesare also said he was going to see his father, so I could just tag along then.
Before leaving the dormitory, I sat at the empty desk intending to send Grandfather a greeting letter. Usually during break periods, I would go to Aunt’s house or Mellans main house, but I forgot to contact him that I probably couldn’t go this time.
It was probably because too many extraordinary things had happened.
I took out a sheet of parchment and even took out a quill pen from my cross bag. This was quite a luxury item too, but I missed my fountain pen that Cedric took.
‘He’s not planning to just swallow it whole, is he? It even has my initials engraved on it.’
That was a handmade product that Grandfather specially requested from a fountain pen artisan he knew to celebrate my Academy admission. Maybe because Cedric is the Crown Prince, he seems to recognize good items well. He just snatched it away.
“To Grandfather…. Grandfather. Me, Lionel…. Your legs aren’t even good… where do you keep wandering around…. Your grandson almost died….”
While writing diligently with my tongue sticking out, I got hungry, so I brought a cream éclair from the lounge and bit off half. I put the remaining half down beside me for a moment.
“Um, I’m planning to meet the Duke of Yanox…. In the Taitus Principality… if there are any good items…. Ah, by any chance, about the Dark Guild… if there’s anything you know….”
With my gaze fixed on the letter paper, I reached out to eat the other half again. But the plate was empty. I kept reaching out, but nothing was touched.
“Huh? I definitely only ate half?”
Finally taking my eyes off the letter paper to look at the plate, I made eye contact with small pomegranate-seed eyes. In the mouth of the familiar ‘thing’ I knew very well was an éclair bulging inside. Like time had stopped, I quietly faced it.
“Pyo.”
