Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: The Cold Boy and the Fiery Girl (2)
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Amy's mind raced. It had to be a lie. There was no way a commoner could be a guest in a noble household. It was a conclusion she reached because she didn't know about Rian's knightly oath.
"You. You haven't told anyone you know me, have you?"
"I haven't told a soul. It's not exactly a fond memory."
In that case, Shirone was a ticking time bomb. The thought of going through school life with a bomb like that attached to her was truly dreadful.
Amy came up with a plan. She feigned arrogance, lifting her chin and speaking.
"You're in Class Seven, right? I'm in Class Four."
"I know, senior."
"Then from today on, you're my subordinate."
"What? Your subordinate?"
"I'm holding your weakness, aren't I? One word from me and you'll be expelled. So from now on, you'll be my subordinate. You have to do whatever I say."
Shirone looked utterly baffled.
"Why would I need to do that? You're my senior, so I'd follow your orders anyway."
"How naive. You think I'm going to give you easy tasks? I'm going to make you cry your eyes out, so you'd better look forward to it."
If she couldn't follow Shirone around, she would make Shirone follow her. By keeping him in her sight and provoking his pride, she could figure out his hidden intentions.
"What kind of tasks will you give me?"
"When your classes end, buy bread and coffee and run to me. Got it? If you spill even a single drop of coffee, I'll make you go back and get it again."
Despite his good nature, Shirone felt a surge of anger this time. Bread? Did she think he came to this academy just to be a delivery boy?
"Hahaha! Then wait for me in front of the First Library starting tomorrow. If you listen well, I'll let you off easy, so don't worry."
Amy poked Shirone's forehead repeatedly as she burst out laughing.
Shirone was dumbfounded. Was this really the Amy who was called the Goddess of Alpheas?
"Oh, right. And..."
Amy, who had started to walk away, turned back to look at Shirone. As she raised her hand, the air around them began to swirl. At the same time, Shirone's body was lifted into the sky.
"Gasp!"
Tornado magic, which manipulated atmospheric pressure to create wind. It was the same magic that had once left Shirone helpless, but to Amy, now in Class Four, it was like child's play.
Shirone flailed, suspended in mid-air. Perhaps because he was facing a crisis, the ground below seemed much clearer. Even the fallen leaves tumbling on the ground were vivid.
As was Amy's smirking face.
'If I fall, I'll die.'
The moment he had that thought, Amy leaped up and grabbed the back of his collar. The fabric pressed against his throat, cutting off his breath. When he came to his senses, he was sprawled on the ground.
"Cough! Cough!"
Having demonstrated the power of her Schema on top of her magic, she dusted off her hands with a satisfied look. She had stopped training her Schema after the age of twelve, but her movements were still superhuman.
"With this, we're even. See you tomorrow. Hahaha!"
As Amy walked away with a triumphant laugh, Shirone seethed with frustration. He had never met such a detestable girl in his entire life.
But rank was everything, and skill was king. Swallowing his anger, Shirone lowered his head and left the forest. The thought of having to see her again tomorrow made his future seem bleak.
* * *
The five o'clock bell rang, signaling the last class of the day.
Basic Physics was over. Shirone sighed heavily as he packed his bag and left the lecture hall. It was already the tenth day he had been running Amy's bread errands.
He bought bread and coffee from the campus store. The cost was negligible compared to the sponsorship funds from the Ogent family, but it wasn't about the money—it was about his pride. And that was exactly what Amy was targeting.
"Why is she doing this to me? She's the one who was in the wrong first."
Walking without spilling the coffee required considerable concentration. Right, he should just think of this as a form of training—adjusting his gait to keep the coffee from shaking.
"As if! How long do I have to keep doing this!"
Shirone felt pathetic.
"Oh! There he goes, the devoted admirer."
"Looks like he's going to confess to her again today. At this point, it's an obsession."
Passing female students pointed at Shirone and whispered. This was the biggest problem.
When he presented the bread and coffee to Amy, she would accept them with an elegant posture and disappear into the library.
A rumor that Shirone had a one-sided crush on Amy was already spreading like wildfire among the students. The more the rumor gained traction, the colder Amy treated him.
Seeing Amy so persistently take out her grudge from six years ago completely shattered Shirone's illusions about women.
"Hey! Here comes your prince."
"Prince? More like her servant."
Amy waited for Shirone at the main entrance of the library with Seriel. The area was crowded with students who had taken the time to come and watch the bizarre spectacle.
As Shirone climbed the stairs, the watching female students giggled and clapped. Shirone's face turned beet red.
Seriel spoke with a sympathetic smile.
"I feel a little sorry for him. He's going this far; maybe you should just accept him?"
Amy's eyes widened.
"What? What are you talking about? Why would I accept him?"
"Stop playing coy. Honestly, for someone who won't even make eye contact with boys, you always take the coffee and bread Shirone brings. Some students are even whispering that the Goddess of Alpheas has finally found her match."
This was absurd. It was supposed to be a strategy to provoke Shirone, but things were taking an unexpected turn.
She had actually planned to do this for about a week. But for some reason, Shirone never once showed any displeasure and diligently brought her the bread every day.
'Ugh! At this rate, I'm really going to get tangled up in weird rumors. I should stop this now.'
When Shirone handed the bread and coffee to Amy, the crowd burst into cheers. His devotion to not spilling a single drop of coffee for the woman he loved was admirable. Of course, it was a complete misunderstanding, and the rift between the two only deepened.
"Senior, here's your coffee."
"Tch! How annoying!"
Amy raised her hand. The best way to dispel this ridiculous misunderstanding was to humiliate him.
She intended to slap his arm and make him spill the coffee. Then Shirone would become just like the countless other boys she had rejected, and the strange rumors would die down.
"Who told you to bring this crap?"
As Amy swung her hand, the students' eyes widened. But the expected tragedy did not occur.
Amy glared at the coffee, her hand trembling.
'He could at least show that he hates it. Is he an idiot? A fool? Does he have no pride?'
It was an unexpected pang of conscience. But that was Shirone's strength.
If you have to do something anyway, it's better to think positively. That attitude was what made Amy feel guilty.
"Um, senior, here's your coffee."
As someone who had studied harder than anyone to secure her place in Class Four, Amy knew. She knew that this was an incredible waste of Shirone's time.
When her thoughts reached that point, she felt quite sorry. It wasn't as if she avoided boys out of fear of what others thought; it was simply a nuisance. She just couldn't stand the ones who acted all high and mighty because of their noble status, despite having no real skill.
'Let them think whatever they want. As long as it's not true, who cares.'
Amy took the bread and coffee. At that, applause erupted from all around, as if they were watching a performance.
"I don't need it anymore, so don't bring this stuff again! Got it?"
"Huh? Oh, yes."
Had she finally vented her anger? Thinking he wouldn't have to see her again, Shirone let out a sigh of relief.
But in the end, Amy's words only caused an even greater misunderstanding among the students.
"She accepted! Amy accepted Shirone's feelings!"
"She said she doesn't need the coffee anymore. Does that mean he can just come as he is?"
Amy, as if she couldn't be bothered to respond, entered the library. Seriel scurried after her, unable to hide her excitement.
"Hey! What are you going to do? It's great if it's true, but did you really mean it like that?"
"Ah, I don't know! Let them think what they want. They must have nothing better to do. I'll be in the graduate class soon enough anyway. Let them play their childish games by themselves!"
Shirone felt light as a feather as he descended the library steps. Ten days of torment. He honestly hadn't expected it to end so soon. Starting tomorrow, he could head straight to the library without wasting any time.
"Yahoo! I can read at least one more book now!"
Shirone, the one who captured Amy's heart. The male students, caught in that delusion, watched him run off with envious eyes.
11 PM.
Amy closed her book and sighed. She had never found studying fun, but she liked the library. It was far better than mingling with people who cared more about others' love lives than their own.
Even as midnight approached, the library was still overflowing with students. They had no interest in who was dating whom. They were racehorses, sprinting madly toward their own dreams.
Observing them, she realized that even the time spent lost in idle thoughts was a waste.
Still, she remained first in Class Four and had no doubt that she would be overtaken.
Seriel, sitting next to her, turned her head.
"Huh? Why'd you close your book? Leaving already?"
"Yeah. I'm a bit distracted today. I'll just get a good night's rest and wake up an hour earlier tomorrow."
"Really? Then let's go together."
"No, it's fine. You don't need to take a break because of me. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, then. See you. Make sure you get up early tomorrow."
Amy smiled and packed her bag. Seriel was the only person she had considered a friend during her six years at the academy. She was a chatterbox like any other girl her age, but she knew when to be serious. Her grades were also sixth in Class Four, a rank that safely secured her spot in the graduate class.
Amy liked Seriel, who knew how to enjoy mature competition rather than flimsy friendships.
After encouraging her friend, Amy left the reading room.
Everyone except the person on night duty had gone home, so the hallways were silent. For the students, the academy held their dreams, but for the staff, it was just a place to earn a living.
Amy stretched to relieve the day's fatigue as she walked down the stairs. Then, she noticed someone standing in the darkness of the landing.
Pale skin, dark circles under his eyes. His black hair covered his cheeks. Amy's face contorted the moment she recognized the man's face in the moonlight.
It was Ardius Jake.
He was from a Second-Rank noble family, and its head was the Royal Treasury's financial executor. Due to the unique nature of managing the royal finances, the family's power was said to be on par with that of the First-Rank nobles.
Jake's personality was arrogant and abrasive. But the real reason Amy disliked him was that he was a student with little talent who didn't even bother to try.
Although he was in the same Class Four, Jake was far from the level required for the graduate class. Furthermore, there were rumors that he was the president of a research society called the Black Magicians.
In Amy's opinion, the only thing the Black Magicians researched was how to torment students who were better than them.
It wasn't an officially approved society, so it didn't even receive funding. In short, it was a dark circle where kids suffering from inferiority complexes bullied talented students.
Of course, they didn't openly pick fights or extort money. Most students were children of high-ranking nobles, so acting like back-alley thugs would get them expelled immediately.
Nevertheless, rumors of a few students falling victim to the Black Magicians suggested they were active in some way.
"Amy, you finished early today. I was planning to wait until midnight."
"Why were you waiting for me? Do you have nothing better to do?"
"Don't be like that. I heard the rumors about you. They say you've opened your heart to some nobody underclassman named Shirone?"
Amy put a hand to her forehead and sighed. Was he out of his mind? To come all the way to the library, of all places, just to talk about such pathetic nonsense.
Jake offered her a cup of coffee with a greasy smile. Amy could tell just by the aroma. It was civet coffee, popular among the nobility.
"I kept it warm for you. The great Amy deserves at least this much. You can't be dirtying your palate with cheap coffee, can you?"
Amy stared at the coffee, then looked up, dumbfounded.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Courting you, as you can see. You know full well the power of my family, and I'm set to follow in my father's footsteps managing the royal treasury. Wouldn't you say I'm the man who's truly worthy of you?"
"Sorry, but I don't engage in private chatter in the library. So you've got the wrong place and the wrong time. Oh, and I forgot the most important part—you've got the wrong person. I don't like you. So let's both be careful to avoid this happening again."
Amy stepped to the side to continue down the stairs. But Jake placed a hand on the wall, blocking her path.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I suppose I was being too gentle. I have my family's honor to consider, and this won't do. It's the same for you, isn't it? Aren't you studying so desperately to avoid tarnishing the Carmis name? We share the same burden."
Amy scoffed. No matter how great the Ardius family was, the Carmis family was not one to be trifled with in their gossip. More than anything, she hated the way Jake spoke.
"You're nothing but a money-grubbing miser."
"What?"
"My family's motto is to live doing what we want. We're fundamentally different from someone like you, who thinks that following in your father's footsteps to count money is some great accomplishment."
A vein bulged in Jake's eye. Even a First-Rank noble couldn't treat him so carelessly.
My father is the Royal Treasury's financial executor. Money solves everything in this world. Amy was the one acting like a clueless child.
"Is the Carmis family so great? You're only First-Rank in name. How many of you actually hold power in active service? With my family's influence, we could financially ruin the likes of Carmis. What do you say? Shall we give it a try if you don't believe me?"
Amy felt a chill from Jake's foul aura. He was a man who would endlessly torment others for his own gain. She finally understood why she had felt so unsettled all day.
"Hmph. Thanks to you, I get it now. Why I accepted that coffee."
"What?"
"You're different from Shirone. In a word, you're a coward."
"Haha! You think I'm more of a coward than that pathetic little runt? Should I prove you wrong right now?"
"You look like you're dying to do something. If you're going to, then get on with it. Stop wasting my time with your blabbering. You think I'll get scared just because you're glaring at me when you can't do a damn thing?"
Amy slapped the mug out of Jake's hand. The expensive coffee splattered against the wall. The mug hit the stairs and shattered into pieces.