Chapter 86
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: I Knew This Day Would Come
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I knew something like this would happen someday.
Saying that made it sound unreasonable, and I did have some regrets.
No matter what Isel said at the start of the semester, I should have reinforced the chitin exoskeleton identification method enough to at least distinguish gender.
Or just lived life as it came.
I let out heavy sighs inwardly.
‘Why on earth did she have to say she’d come to me herself…….’
Thanks to that, I did recognize the princess herself.
If she hadn’t been the princess in disguise.
I couldn’t decide if this counted as things going according to plan, or if I should scold her for picking an unnecessary fight and coming out worse for it instead of just letting it slide.
After vowing to ask Isel later what exactly a woman was, I followed the head maid to the princess’s temporary residence.
It was a somewhat modest mansion for a princess who had only ever stayed in the palace, but the maids had decorated the interior quite nicely.
The princess excused herself, saying she’d freshen up briefly.
In the meantime, I sat there receiving gloomy glares from her closest aides.
Among them stood out a girl with a strikingly sharp impression.
“How did you know?”
The white chitin mixed with gray… no, the princess’s stand-in demanded.
‘How did I know, huh.’
The chitin exoskeleton was different from what I’d imagined.
Explaining that would require starting with how all those people looked like giant cockroaches to me, but that would get me treated not just as an eccentric, but half-mad, so I stayed silent.
I already had a reputation for being prickly, stern, and terse, so if things got even slightly unfavorable, I could just sit there with a grave air.
They’d convince themselves and back off on their own.
But this princess stand-in clung tenaciously, determined to get an answer.
“It’s rude to the Master, Silveia.”
Her aide, unable to bear it, pulled the princess stand-in… Silveia away with a sigh.
The head maid stayed quiet to attend to me, but her eyes seemed to mildly reproach Silveia.
“L-let gooo. You know I hate people touching my hair.”
“Then you won’t back off otherwise.”
Silveia whipped her head around gleefully.
“True, but this is a security issue. Plus, it shows I’m different from Lily. We have to fix any discrepancies, right?”
‘Lily?’
I furrowed my brows.
No way that was the imperial princess Lilian’s nickname?
Hearing an unexpected pet name made my head spin.
Just then, Silveia grabbed her dress hem with a sigh and curtsied politely.
It was the same elegant etiquette I’d just seen from Princess Lilian.
Even the tiny habit of rising onto the tip of her rear foot while lifting the hem showed this was no first or second time.
“I am Silveia Rel, stand-in for Her Highness the Third Imperial Princess, Donapart Lilian Alexia. Please forgive my rudeness just now, and if there’s any way Lilian differs from me…”
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. Better to keep playing nice than strain that dull brain of yours.”
What I’d meant was something like, ‘It’s beyond you, so don’t bother.’
She narrowed her eyes after I cut her off with an irritated retort.
“What do you mean by that…”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. If you’re so curious, ask Oshu. He’ll explain better than I can.”
Mentioning Oshu turned Silveia speechless, like she’d swallowed honey.
“You don’t mean the Mage Lord by Oshu, do you?”
I nodded slightly instead of answering.
Her aide bowed her head apologetically beside her.
“We don’t have the authority to meet Master Oshu privately.”
“But you have the authority to grill me, apparently.”
I subtly showed my discomfort, and they both fell silent in unison.
Just as I thought I’d escaped this awkward interrogation, Princess Lilian appeared.
In a typical story, this would be where I’d heap on flowery praise for her fantastical beauty, but to me, she was just a white chitin bug in different clothes.
Yeah, Teacher Bug with a wardrobe change.
I honestly couldn’t tell the difference……
But they had no way of knowing that, so she leaned lightly against the doorframe, exuding a languid, seductive aura under the midday light.
She even subtly evoked a protective instinct with her delicate air.
“Stop it, Silveia. You’re making Master Aiden uncomfortable.”
“But, big sis…”
“No pouting.”
She acted like the stern eldest sister telling her to cut it out, then glanced at me.
“There’s probably some nuance we don’t get. I’ve heard something similar from Philia now and then.”
Princess Lilian addressed me with a familiar tone, like we were old friends.
“Oh, Philia’s my personal guard knight. She claims to be the empire’s top female knight—have you heard of her?”
I looked at Princess Lilian.
Each moment seemed fine on its own, but the overall picture felt contrived.
Not that it was a bad thing.
She was easing the mood to help me blend in while tossing out knights as a common topic.
This performative tone might even be her way of saying, ‘Play along even if you know.’
Like an adult indulging a child’s antics.
‘If she knows I won’t be fooled, she approaches like this instead.’
I could see why Princess Lilian won everyone’s love.
She dropped the act upon seeing my indifferent gaze, having expected a good reaction from me.
“It’s an honor to meet you. Master Aiden, though Silveia introduced herself as my stand-in first, I am Donapart Lilian Alexia, Third Imperial Princess. The emperor’s fifth child and third daughter.”
I closed and opened my eyes briefly, as if to say I got it.
“Since you’ve come here, I assume you received my letter.”
“Correct.”
“Then, may I entrust my safety to you?”
Princess Lilian asked in a serious tone, sans the earlier playfulness.
“You seem to be under some delusion.”
“Pardon?”
I met her gaze slowly with a look different from before.
If I’d eyed her till now like an energetic kid, from here on, I was treating her as a princess.
Her face stiffened briefly at the shift in conversational control, but I pressed on slantingly.
“I only came to see the cheeky face of a brazen kid demanding I save her, someone I barely know.”
Princess Lilian’s expression hardened rigidly.
“Whether you’re in danger or not is none of my concern.”
I smiled faintly.
* * *
Princess Lilian found her lips refusing to part easily amid this discord.
From what she’d heard, evaluations of Professor Aiden were split: half prickly, half mild.
‘The turning point was before and after his academy professorship.’
Before his academy post, Professor Aiden was the epitome of nobility.
No, calling him ‘typical nobility’ might be a stretch.
It diluted the meaning of ‘typical’ too much to box him in like that.
‘A cold, meticulous predator.’
The young duke, armed with severity and sharpness, was chillingly competent and always made examples of those in his path.
It seemed he hadn’t forgotten the scandal once swirling around his rare public activities, the mysterious deaths of his stepmother and eldest son, and the inheritance rights shifting to himself, the second son.
‘Assassination suspicions.’
Professor Aiden and the entire Pisvolt Ducal Family paid it no mind, but the tale still circulated in social circles now and then.
“There’s zero evidence Professor Aiden orchestrated it, so only he knows the truth.”
Even accounting for that, his fame and extraordinary feats kept it a hot topic.
The collaterals and elders denying Aiden, who had tasted his brother’s blood.
The frontmen clinging to Charlotte to pull down the direct line and wield the main family’s authority.
While they busied themselves belittling him as if the truth didn’t matter, he purged the corrupt underworld, reformed unjust systems, opened trade routes, and resolved noisy protectorate issues.
Like daring them to yap again, the young duke proved his prowess in record time.
And the skill with which he forced his opponents to the sidelines.
Once he marked them as examples, his ruthless hand choked the life out of them, terrifying many.
All this happened in a flash, crushing the rumors swirling around him with sheer ability.
‘That marked the start of the Pisvolt Ducal Family’s golden age.’
He let those who didn’t defy him be.
But defiance met cold severity, reaping the price of hubris.
That was the young duke Aiden’s way.
Then, becoming a Master changed everything.
‘Seclusion first, then the professorship. Appointing his sister Charlotte Pisvolt as proxy for the young duke title.’
Considering rumors that even the ducal house was Aiden’s puppet, this was radically unconventional.
The public image of Young Duke Aiden was a brutal power-seizer who discarded even blood ties.
Princess Lilian thought of it this way.
“That’s probably his true nature.”
If he’d ruled venomously before because his position was precarious, after becoming Master, he felt secure enough that no static could shake him.
“So he teaches comfortably as a professor, warmly accepting the students.”
Relief from a stable position.
Might that have drawn out the true self he’d hidden till then?
Weighing her own perilous situation against Professor Aiden’s reputation, Princess Lilian made her bold move.
That was why she’d pushed through despite Silveia’s vehement opposition.
Professor Aiden was a joker the emperor himself eyed, not just imperial descendants like her.
Pull him to her side, and the entire power structure would flip—a game-changer.
‘He’s lived peacefully since becoming a professor, as if forgetting his pre-Master days, so it should be fine.’
Princess Lilian mulled inwardly.
What faced her then was…
A massive beast with slitted pupils wide open.
She likened the languidly staring Professor Aiden to some unknowable beast.
Before the novel fear of the unknown could shrink her, Professor Aiden stretched his mouth into a sinister smile.
“You seem to be under some delusion.”
“Pardon?”
“I only came to see the cheeky face of a brazen kid demanding I save her, someone I barely know.”
Professor Aiden chuckled slyly.
“I don’t do charity work, you see.”