Chapter 79
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: A Plea from the Third Princess
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Charlotte reminded me that a week had already passed since the tunnel incident.
It was pressure to get up already, but my answer was always consistent.
“…What do you mean, what am I going to do.”
I turned my gaze and made a face like I couldn’t understand why she’d ask something so obvious.
Charlotte gave a look that said ‘no way…’, but my response remained unwavering.
“I’m going to rest.”
Her excitement soared and then plummeted.
Before she could say anything, I lay back in bed and pulled the covers over me.
Charlotte gasped in disbelief, then slowly exhaled the breath filling her lungs with diaphragmatic breathing.
Judging by her expression, it looked like a struggle to suppress the anger bubbling up from her dantian.
Huuuuuuuh—
The sound of her breath passing through her throat was ominous, but I shot back with an equally annoyed glare.
I told you, I’m going to lie here all day.
I couldn’t fathom why she kept asking just to hear me say I’d get up.
Did she think I’d suddenly spring out of bed and start being productive? Ha, right.
I wasn’t the type of enthusiastic worker overflowing with motivation.
‘If the world weren’t so unforgiving.’
Do you know the etymology of that sweet phrase, unearned income?
It’s as warm as a benevolent mother’s embrace.
Resolve filled my eyes.
‘That’s why I need to rest even harder during paid leave.’
In other words, with the academy half-destroyed, I was a salaried worker on university-approved paid leave.
Like a child whose parents had given permission to play.
I waved my hand dismissively.
“I’m tired. I think I’m injured, so I absolutely need rest. I’ll have lunch brought by the servants later. You’re busy, so no need to show your face.”
Charlotte let out a rough exclamation of exasperation, her face going blank with disbelief.
A bit of groaning as if she were sick came as a bonus.
Charlotte knew better than anyone that I wasn’t hurt even a tiny bit.
But since I said I was, she had nothing to say about it……
Her chin just clenched and unclenched like a snake with nowhere to go.
Her anger had boiled over into a dazed state.
She looked refreshingly enlightened, like a transcendent sage.
‘So stop bothering me and go do your work. Let me sleep.’
I added one of my signature annoyingly cheeky remarks.
I always think this, but Aiden’s mouth is the problem.
‘But there’s something irresistible about it.’
That satisfying feeling every time I spat out one of these rice-sucking lines.
“Tsk tsk, thinking about work even when you should rest—what a serious workaholic. Charlotte, you have to rest when it’s time to rest. Take notes and learn. If you ever get a day off, that is.”
“Hey, no, ugh, urk.”
Charlotte clutched the back of her neck as if her breath was catching.
The image of her rushing in after the tunnel ended, on the verge of tears, asking if I was okay, was long gone.
Her disheveled hair suggested she hadn’t slept, and she’d run out in just her robe, which stirred some heartwarming emotions in itself……
“E-eek.”
I glared at the staggering Charlotte.
The pretty sight of her holding back tears and throwing herself into my arms was no more.
Probably comparing her nonstop busy work since the tunnel to me lounging in bed had evaporated her initial worry.
Now, every time she saw me, her gaze was turning more and more into one reserved for enemies.
Charlotte’s eyes reddened.
“Do some work! Work! Stop slacking off like that!”
I could roughly guess why Charlotte was so busy, but regrettably, I had zero desire to help.
From the start, Charlotte had been handling the young lord’s duties in my stead while I secluded myself.
At first, she worked hard to prove herself, but as time passed, her illusions shattered, and she subtly wanted me to take back the public duties.
To such a Charlotte, I unintentionally dealt an extra blow.
“I’ll pass, for the sake of my capable little sister.”
To be precise, it wasn’t the country’s letters, but ones coming from various families to me.
Normally, I’d have to reply, but they were annoying, so I handed them off.
Since I was going to have someone ghostwrite them anyway, it didn’t matter……
‘Replies fitting my reputation, gilded by the imperial family.’
I’d told her to just give perfunctory responses, but she was putting real effort into it.
The recent increase in letters was because my prestige, which had plummeted during my seclusion, had skyrocketed, drawing in sycophants.
It happened after the imperial family propped me up as their poster boy.
‘As previously unclear things get sorted one by one, my evaluation has reversed.’
Aiden’s activities before becoming a master were classified, so nothing was publicly known.
Oshua vouched for my master status, and the honors I was naturally expected to receive were delayed for trivial reasons, leading to my seclusion.
To the ignorant public, it looked like I was dodging.
Thus, rumors spread that the empire had deliberately fabricated a third master.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason for me to refuse honors or skip the banquet.
Of course, I didn’t care, hence my sullen expression.
‘It’s true.’
If not for this weird blessing making people look like chitinous insects, I would’ve attended the banquet as expected.
Propping my chin while lying down.
The Hallucination of Disgust had existed since childhood, but it worsened after becoming a master.
In the past, it stopped at an obsessive cleanliness.
‘I’ll have to look into this later.’
It wasn’t in the setting document.
It was something to investigate eventually, so starting now bit by bit wasn’t bad.
Charlotte ground her teeth.
“Then at least reply to the letters yourself! Why do I have to write and send them for you?! Even the love letters sent to you!”
“The only thing I’d write to those ladies’ love letters is ‘get lost.’”
Considering my position, I couldn’t afford to make enemies, and politeness was required, but dealing with them was a hassle.
And it wasn’t just one or two letters; noble daughters shamelessly urging replies.
“Why not just burn them? It’d save you trouble too.”
“You can’t do that!”
Charlotte paled in horror.
We weren’t some minor duchy; ruling territory the size of a small country meant paperwork piled to the skies.
The families we dealt with were countless.
Charlotte rattled on.
This family’s merchant guild is important, so we need strong ties; we have this business with that family; this territory relies on us for protection, so we must expand influence.
I let it go in one ear and out the other.
“You seem to be handling it well, so I trust you.”
Charlotte shrieked.
“You work too! Or at least handle your own letters!”
“No.”
“Work!”
“Then work hard as the young lord’s proxy.”
I burrowed into the bed.
The commotion from my room made Isel, in her maid uniform, sigh.
But there was pity in Isel’s eyes. Why?
“Professor…….”
“…Good! Isel, say something to him!”
“Charlotte, but I’ve seen what Professor Aiden does.”
“No! Isel, that guy’s faking it.”
“You must’ve had it hard. Really hard. I understand completely.”
Yes! Well said, my departmental assistant!
As she spoke, I thought of the academy.
The academy was half-destroyed.
Not just half—key facilities were completely wrecked, so they had to clear debris and rebuild.
Among the destroyed areas was the student dormitory, scattering the homeless students everywhere.
‘Is this the end of the academy storyline? Time for the protagonists to scatter.’
Right now, a simple report form would get them experiential learning credit for extended absence.
At this point, the protagonists are scrambling to uncover why heretic mages attacked the academy.
‘Not right away, though.’
Elin, losing her lodging, was taken to the Drake ducal family’s annex by Ladia, and Isel, originally a Pisvolt maid, naturally stayed at the annex.
Ladia could just go to her own annex, fine, but Elin……
‘She seems to have fallen for Ladia’s scheme or something.’
Anyway.
“Where’s Arion?”
“He’s been at the training grounds since early morning. …No one thought that way, but he feels like he didn’t do much.”
“Leave him be. He’ll figure it out eventually.”
With the academy scenario over and protagonists dispersed, I had virtually no more tasks.
Now I could finally live peacefully as a tenured professor.
Charlotte thrust a letter at me with a sullen face.
The ornate stationery bore the wax seal of a three-headed lion.
“I couldn’t open this one, so I brought it.”
“…From the imperial palace to me.”
Charlotte looked at me with deep concern.
I took the letter and glanced at it with clouded eyes.
Perhaps as a reward for this incident, the palace wanted to parade me as their face and lavish praises.
‘They won’t be stingy with rewards, but…….’
The problem was I couldn’t accept it at face value.
Ri Sete Academy’s destruction, heretic mage attack, demon appearance—the imperial family, unable to hide amid rising public opinion, released info to the public, filling the air with war clouds.
And here was one master suspiciously over-venerated.
The imperial family wanted to wield me, this sword, to punish those behind it.
If confrontation was inevitable, better to make an example—crush them utterly.
‘Can’t let that happen.’
Even if I stepped up, it’d only push the heretic mages’ base a bit.
If it escalated to national invasion, things would get messy.
That’s why I spared the beast tamer.
The target was heretic mages, not a mid-eastern nation.
Thus, this obvious ploy needed delaying or downscaling as much as possible.
In that vein, I read the imperial letter.
Or tried to.
‘…Double-layered?’
The writing didn’t show through, but the end split oddly into two.
“Charlotte, Isel.”
“What?”
“Leave my room for a bit.”
At the sudden eviction, they hesitated, but seeing me sit up in bed, Charlotte narrowed her eyes.
“Let’s go, Isel.”
“Y-yes?! Why?”
“Because it’s something we shouldn’t see.”
Sharp as ever from handling duties.
Confirming them gone, I split the letter along the gap.
“As expected, double-sided.”
One side visible: an invitation to attend the imperial commendation for this incident.
The other……
The hidden ornate stationery began:
—To Professor Aiden, fiercely touted in the world.
I have heard of your heroic deeds through reports.
Forgive me for not writing at length due to time.
Please save me.
—Donapart Lilian Alexia, Third Imperial Princess.
I clutched my forehead.
“To hide it this secretly in a letter means she suspects her palace correspondence is being monitored.”
If not versed in rear palace politics or intrigue, it could only be someone’s doing.
I crumpled the stationery.
“Demon worshippers.”
Those damn things were starting to move.