Chapter 31: The Worst Timing[R-18]
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 31: The Worst Timing[R-18]
The place Lorein led me to was none other than her room.
I hadn’t expected it to happen like this, but a part of me had hoped she’d invite me to her room, so my heart pounded.
‘Hmm, it’s a pretty ordinary room, though.’
All it contained was a desk, a bookshelf, and a bed.
To put it nicely, it was tidy. To put it badly, it was devoid of personality.
My own room, with its sofa and table, felt more furnished.
Given Lorein’s practical nature, she probably wouldn’t bother decorating it like Ryuz would.
Of course, a woman’s room is worth experiencing just by looking around and taking in the scent.
It had a sweet fragrance, similar to Ryuz’s but slightly different.
As I was taking in Lorein’s room for a moment…
“…What have you been putting in Ryuz’s head?”
Lorein said, glaring at me with her arms crossed.
She didn’t even offer me a seat. She must have been seriously angry.
I had expected her to confront me about Ryuz, so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
“I’m not sure what you mean. Putting in her head?”
“She was so quiet and sweet, but she changed the moment she started taking your class. Are you still going to say you have nothing to do with it?”
She’s sharp, as expected.
No, wait. In a situation like this, is it only natural that I’m the first one she’d suspect?
Of course, it would be simple to play dumb here.
Because the fact was, I hadn’t actually done anything.
I had never said a single negative thing about Lorein.
On the contrary, I praised her at every opportunity, almost daily.
‘Well, that probably just put more pressure on Ryuz and made her jealous.’
In other words, I hadn’t done anything to Ryuz ‘directly.’
As for the charm, its only effect was to raise her affection for me.
So, I could maintain my innocence no matter what.
The important thing was how I responded to Lorein right here.
“I don’t know what you mean by Ryuz has changed. Are you talking about what happened at dinner?”
“Yes. It was obviously not normal.”
“What wasn’t?”
My feigned innocence left Lorein momentarily speechless.
She stared at me for a moment before speaking.
“The way she answered me so coldly, and how she suddenly left in the middle of dinner.”
“Well, she might have been upset because her older sister nagged her after she went to the trouble of dressing up, and maybe she left because she’s busy with her studies. Is that really such a problem?”
“That’s…!”
Lorein was about to shout but stopped herself.
Hearing my words, she seemed to realize it anew.
What had just happened wasn’t something worth confronting me over like this.
Seeing her reaction, I smirked.
“It’s not my place to speak carelessly about matters between sisters, but things like that happen between siblings all the time.”
“That’s… normal?”
“If anything, the fact that you aren’t screaming and fighting is proof that you have a good relationship, isn’t it?”
Lorein pondered my words for a moment.
She was undoubtedly a genius and a skilled swordswoman, but she was still, at heart, a noble lady from the countryside.
In other words, aside from her time at the academy, she was overwhelmingly lacking in social experience.
But in the end, Lorein shook her head.
“No. Even if that’s normal, Ryuz was never like that before. She definitely changed all of a sudden.”
Watching her, I wet my lips with my tongue.
Was it because I’d had a taste of the game?
I wanted to see that shocked expression on Lorein’s face again.
‘Hmm, what should I do? This is a bit of a dilemma.’
Pushing her now would be easy, but I felt like the affection I’d worked so hard to build would drop.
As I wrestled with my internal conflict, the devil Hyun-woo appeared and whispered in my ear.
-What are you hesitating for? Hurry up and push her, shatter that prideful woman’s mind!
The devil’s whisper was so stimulating.
Still, since I’d heard the devil’s side, I decided to hear out the angel Hyun-woo as well.
-Corner her about her little sister and make her sob! Don’t you want to see that cold woman cry?
…That’s strange, where did the angel Lee Hyun-woo go?
Oh, right. That bastard Leon stabbed him to death.
That fucking bastard.
Thinking about it again made me start to get really pissed off.
Since there was a punching bag right in front of me, I opened my mouth, my tone slightly caustic.
“Perhaps she hasn’t changed. Perhaps this is Ryuz’s true self?”
“……What?”
Lorein’s eyes widened at my words.
As if such a thought had never crossed her mind in her entire life.
“Maybe she was just holding it in all this time. And today, she let out what she’s been suppressing in her own way.”
“Ryuz… has been thinking like that all along?”
It was amusing to watch Lorein’s expression change from moment to moment.
Even more so because my words weren’t a lie.
Of course, I was the one who lit the fuse.
“It hasn’t been long since Ryuz graduated from the academy. It’s a sensitive time for her. I doubt she’d look kindly on a sister who meddles with her fashion choices at a time like this.”
“Meddling… I did it all for her sake…”
“Of course, you did, Lorein. But from Ryuz’s perspective, it must have been unpleasant. So much so that she’d rebel against the sister she respected.”
“N-No.”
A flicker of anxiety crossed Lorein’s face.
It was the first time I’d seen her look anxious since I arrived here.
“Ryuz is such a sweet girl. There’s no way she’d harbor such feelings toward me…”
“Sweet? Isn’t that just an image you’ve arbitrarily projected onto her? You just conveniently thought of her as a ‘sweet little sister’ because she always put up with you.”
“Stop it… What do you know about Ryuz when you’ve only been here a short time?”
“Sometimes, you can see things more clearly when you’re not family. Perhaps Ryuz, unlike you, Lorein, dislikes her older sister…”
“I told you to stop!”
Lorein, momentarily overcome with emotion, roughly grabbed my clothes.
Thanks to her sword training, her grip was quite strong.
Pretending to fall, I used my magic to pull her toward me.
Naturally, we ended up on the bed, with Lorein on top of me as if she had pounced.
Even in that situation, Lorein didn’t stop talking.
“I’m Ryuz’s sister! With Leon gone, I’m the only one who can protect the estate and our family! That’s why I’ve been working so hard every single day…!”
Lorein panted, looking down at me.
For a moment, we just stared at each other without a word.
The tense atmosphere gradually subsided.
Lorein’s face turned bright red.
It wasn’t just because she was on a bed with a man.
This was a woman who didn’t know how to express her feelings well, even to her own family.
To have poured out her heart to a complete stranger like me must have been embarrassing.
“……Sorry, that was a mistake.”
As Lorein tried to get up, I grabbed her wrist.
“No, I’m sorry too. I thought you wouldn’t understand unless I was a little harsh.”
“……Let go of me first, then we can talk.”
“Shouldn’t you look someone in the eye when you talk to them?”
Perhaps because she was still in shock from our conversation about Ryuz.
Lorein obediently met my gaze.
Her cheeks were still red.
For a noble lady, especially a cold woman like Lorein, even this proximity must be mortifying.
“I may not be able to teach her for long, but I cherish Ryuz as my student.”
“……”
“So please, face Ryuz’s true feelings properly. Even if she seems to be going a little astray in your eyes, please be patient, watch over her, and wait. I’m sure she’ll open her heart to you again.”
“……I’ll take your advice to heart.”
Lorein forcibly pulled her hand away from mine and stood up.
Hmm, a little disappointing.
I’d seen her chest many times during our sparring sessions, but this was the first time I’d seen it from this close.
“……And I’m sorry. For suspecting you of doing something.”
“You don’t suspect me anymore?”
“If you had really done something, you would have pretended to be concerned and glossed over it. I’m not so shameless as to suspect someone who would say all this.”
Hmm, I just spouted all that because I thought it would be more beneficial to my plans.
But if Lorein saw it that way, I was grateful.
‘Besides, there was an unexpected bonus harvest.’
I glanced at the slightly ajar door and smirked.
It seemed the agitated Lorein hadn’t noticed it at all.
‘Did she leave before seeing the end?’
I wondered what kind of look Ryuz would give me tomorrow.
This family never failed to excite me.
I have to apologize to my sister.
Ryuz thought as she walked down the hallway.
She had gotten a little worked up during dinner and spoken harshly.
It wasn’t something worth getting so upset over, and the thought that she had taken out her irritation on her sister for no reason pricked at her conscience.
‘Getting angry at my sister for no reason, and showing a bad side of myself to my teacher. Ugh! This is the worst.’
With that thought, Ryuz arrived in front of her sister’s room.
Suddenly, she froze, sensing a presence inside.
Her sister, who was always cold, didn’t like people entering her room.
‘Uh… what’s going on?’
A strong sense of unease washed over her.
Perhaps it could be called a woman’s intuition.
Pushed by her anxiety, Ryuz opened the door just a crack and peeked inside.
And she saw it.
Her sister, lying on the bed with her teacher, as if she were pouncing on him.
‘……Huh?’
She couldn’t understand the situation.
No, to be precise, her mind refused to process it.
‘What… What is this?’
This was her sister’s room, a place not even the maids entered without permission.
A man and a woman, lying intimately on the bed.
Every part of the scene pointed to only one conclusion.
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
She knew they had gotten closer while sparring.
But the sister she knew would never allow a man that kind of physical contact.
Yet there they were, staying like that for a long time, as if whispering secrets.
That meant her sister considered the teacher close enough to allow that kind of contact.
‘Haha… what is this…’
So you act all pure and uninterested in men, looking so cold all the time. But the moment a man you like appears, you snatch him up?
No, that would be fine.
But why did it have to be ‘my teacher’?
“……You thief cat.”
A harsh curse she would never have imagined uttering in the past.
But now, Ryuz felt not a shred of guilt as she directed it at her sister.
She didn’t need talent, popularity, or brilliance.
As long as her teacher was by her side, that was all that mattered.
But now, her sister was trying to take even that away from her.
Just like she always did, meddling in my life and trying to take everything.
‘Like hell you will.’
Ryuz bit down on her thumbnail.
She gnawed at it hysterically, even though it was already worn down to almost nothing.
She couldn’t let her take anything else.
Anything else was fine.
But not her teacher.
She would never hand over the happiness she felt when he stroked her head, especially not to her sister.
‘……I will never let you take him from me this time.’
Ryuz walked down the dark hallway, chewing on her nail.
Her eyes were desperately focused on only one thing.
How to outmaneuver her sister and make her teacher her own.
—Crunch, crunch.
