Rumors
A few weeks after the clash between Kenneth and Pernia, the academy was already on the verge of midterms. I was heading to the classroom when I picked up on a strange tension in the air.
“Look, it’s Young Master Luan.”
“Do you think the rumors are true?”
“I don’t know. But it’s possible, right? He’s been quiet lately, but his reputation was never good to begin with.”
It looked like some nasty rumors about me had spread. There were already so many circulating that I was genuinely curious what fresh hell this one involved. I tilted my ear toward the chatter, and a cluster of female students quickly filled in the blanks.
“But would he really rape another academy student?”
“He must have gotten tired of maids.”
“You think? Still, imitating Eun-rang of all people…”
“He’s pure evil. Dragging that hero’s name through the mud.”
Eun-rang was the alias for the masked man I’d used when I saved Alissa and her group. Apparently the nickname had stuck during the break. Piecing the whispers together, the rumor claimed I’d disguised myself as Eun-rang, put on a mask, raped a female student, and been caught in the act.
Who the hell started this rumor?
If word had gotten out that I was both Eun-rang and a rapist, I would have immediately started planning countermeasures since it was technically true. But the story said I’d been caught while imitating him? Plenty of people copy celebrities, so that part was believable. The part that felt forced was the convenient “caught red-handed” detail. This had all the hallmarks of someone deliberately trying to drag my name through the dirt.
What didn’t make sense was why. I was nothing more than a worthless scoundrel. Why would anyone bother crafting such an elaborate lie just to hurt me?
Did my real identity leak?
Even then, they could have just called me a transmigrator. The deliberate inclusion of rape felt… pointed.
“Plus they’re saying he’s a transmigrator?”
“Exactly. He probably used future knowledge to pull it off!”
“Then a variable appeared and he got caught!”
The girls kept feeding me new details the moment questions formed in my head. I was so grateful I could have cried.
This opens up possibilities.
Someone who had realized I was a transmigrator might be using this method to check me. The more I thought about it, the more my head throbbed.
I was walking down the corridor, lost in increasingly complicated thoughts, when a familiar voice rang inside my skull.
-Luan, are you okay?
The tone was heavy with worry. I looked up and spotted Deborah watching me through a sea of female students. People around her were loudly urging her to dump “that piece of trash.” Yet she remained completely unshaken, her starlight-purple eyes fixed solely on me.
I was about to smile and reply when—
“Luan Priulri!!”
This time an enraged voice from behind seized my attention. Alissa stood there, her face twisted with fury. She advanced one heavy, deliberate step at a time, radiating pure rage. Then she raised her hand.
Slap!
She tried to strike me, but I caught her wrist mid-swing.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I was used to her hitting me during our so-called sparring sessions, but I would never tolerate being slapped for no reason. My incredulous question only seemed to flip a switch in her.
“What am I doing? What about you? How dare you imitate Eun-rang and commit such disgusting filth? Did you honestly think I’d stay quiet?”
“…It’s just a rumor. There’s no evidence I did anything.”
“Don’t make me laugh! Who else would do something like that but you!”
To Alissa, I was nothing but a rapist. Nothing I said would change her mind. Frustration made my fist tighten, and that was when the female students’ whispers reached me again.
“It’s Lady Alissa.”
“Their relationship really is complicated, huh.”
“So does that mean she was actually a victim?”
“It’s possible. Otherwise why would she be this furious?”
Those words made me newly aware of the eyes on us. The crowd’s gazes weren’t filled with shock or concern—they held certainty and suspicion.
So that’s how it is.
Along with the rumor that I was a rapist came the attached rumor that Alissa—someone known to have a bad history with me—had also been one of my victims. That explained why she was this enraged. To her, this rumor could completely destroy her life if it took root.
I felt the tremor in her hand and the emotions bleeding through it. Before she could do something she’d regret, I quickly offered, “Let’s talk somewhere else first.”
“……”
“Or do you want to settle this right here in front of everyone? Weren’t you the one saying you needed to repay your debt to Eun-rang?”
“Don’t you dare mention him!!”
She violently slapped my hand away, breathing hard. After several long seconds of visibly trying to swallow her rage, she finally spoke.
“…Follow me.”
She turned on her heel. I glanced at the crowd that parted for her like the Red Sea and followed.
A short while later we stopped in a deserted clearing. Alissa scanned the area thoroughly before turning on me.
“Now talk. Why did you impersonate Eun-rang?”
“I didn’t.”
“So everything’s just a coincidence? There just happens to be another rapist like you at the academy?”
“Looks that way.”
“What? You piece of—”
My casual answer made her grind her teeth so hard I could hear it. Her eyes burned with such intensity that it felt like savage flames would incinerate me on the spot.
Just before her patience snapped completely—
“W-wait!”
With a high-pitched cry, Deborah rounded the corner.
Alissa flinched. “What are you doing here?”
“I followed secretly. I’m sorry. But I couldn’t just stand by.”
“…Because of what my lover did?”
The flustered Alissa, clearly trying to shift the conversation, put on a calm front and provoked her with sarcasm. Deborah shook her head firmly.
“I have plenty to say, but first—Luan didn’t do it!”
“How can you be so sure?”
“W-well, that’s because…”
Deborah glanced at me with a look that said play along before dropping her bombshell.
“A-actually we were together the entire time from yesterday until this morning! The incident happened at dawn on Sunday, right? So the crime couldn’t have happened in the first place!”
Deborah’s cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment. I wanted to give her a standing ovation for that display of courage.
Unfortunately, the situation didn’t resolve so easily.
“Oh? You two really are close, aren’t you? Too bad I already checked everything.”
“Checked?”
“Yes. One of this trash’s friends is in my class. We had lunch together on Sunday, so how do you explain that? Care to try?”
“Ah! Well… actually on Sunday we met in the afternoon and…”
“Oh, my mistake! I meant we had dinner together?”
“Then from nighttime…”
Deborah’s voice grew smaller with every sentence. Even she realized how ridiculous her story sounded. Meanwhile Alissa’s confidence swelled.
“Why don’t you stop lying? Do you really need to cover for him that badly? I honestly don’t understand. If my own lover was a rapist, I’d want to kill him immediately.”
“B-but it’s not true…”
“How can you be sure? Do you have any proof this trash isn’t the rapist?!”
People are sensitive to pain. That’s why they crave sympathy and secretly hope the person who hurt them falls from grace. Alissa was no exception. She wanted me destroyed, so she was trying to win Deborah over to her side. She wanted Deborah to join her in condemnation so that I would be hurt.
The one thing Alissa hadn’t considered was that Deborah already knew every one of my ugly secrets.
“…Then how can you be so sure?”
“What?”
“How do you know Luan is the culprit in these rumors? You’re not the victim! You’re just repeating what you heard, aren’t you?”
You have no right. The intent hit like a slap. Alissa’s expression changed instantly. Her blazing red eyes turned on Deborah. The fury that had been aimed at me now infected her as well.
“I… have no right? How dare a girl like you say that to me? You know nothing! That trash—he… he did it to me… to me……”
Alissa couldn’t finish. She was too angry to hold back, yet too ashamed to reveal her trauma to someone else. But it was enough.
Deborah spoke as if she had suspected it all along. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
“……Knew what.”
“That Luan… is capable of committing rape.”
“What? How would you—wait. You don’t mean…?”
Alissa’s eyes widened in horror as she connected the dots. Deborah gave a small nod.
“That’s right. I’ve also been intimate with Luan. …In a rather coercive way.”
“…Really? You were… a victim too?”
Alissa looked utterly confused, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After a moment she continued.
“Let’s say you’re telling the truth. Then why are you protecting that trash? Why defend the man who raped you?!”
There is a condition called Stockholm Syndrome—a phenomenon where victims develop feelings for their abusers. Alissa clearly suspected Deborah suffered from it.
Deborah answered that suspicious gaze with a gentle smile.
“Because there were circumstances.”
“Circum…stances?”
“Yes. When Luan took me, the expression on his face was desperate. It definitely wasn’t done purely for pleasure. What about you? Didn’t you sense the same thing?”
Alissa lowered her gaze. She was probably replaying the memory of her own assault. When you calmly examine such memories, details you missed in the moment often surface.
The problem was that Alissa wasn’t ready to accept any of it—and had no desire to. To her, I was simply a rapist. She refused to even consider the possibility that she might have misunderstood.
“Th-that’s not true! He raped me because he felt like it. That’s all. There were no circumstances!”
But Deborah wouldn’t let her run from the truth.
“You’re lying. Your face says you know better. You’re just running away from it.”
“Shut up! What would you know?! Circumstances? What circumstances could possibly justify raping a woman?”
“At the very least, it must have been a matter of life or death. You must have felt the same. There was definitely some—”
“Bullshit! Circumstances, circumstances, circumstances! The only circumstance is him shooting his load into your slutty cunt! Now I understand. You just submitted to his cock, didn’t you? You perverted bitch. Getting raped and then happily following him around like a dog in heat.”
Alissa’s eyes now held disgust and contempt that went far beyond simple anger. The profanity was so vicious that even Deborah faltered.
“Wh-what? How can you say something like that? Don’t you think that’s going too far?”
“You’re the one going too far! Telling a victim that her rapist must have had his reasons? So it’s okay to rape someone if you have a good excuse? Do you actually believe that makes sense?!”
“That’s not—”
The near-madness in Alissa’s voice left Deborah speechless. That was when I stepped between them.
“Enough. Both of you, calm down.”
I pulled Deborah behind me, shielding her, and looked Alissa straight in the eyes.