Chapter 529: Why Lucianne Stayed at School
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 529: Why Lucianne Stayed at School
"You went away to school for half a year, and you managed to lose the school entirely! Do you even know what kind of school you were attending? One of the Three Top Academies! And after six months, you're telling me you've moved to some 'Witch Academy'? What kind of pheasant academy is that?"
"Do you have any idea how much hope this family pinned on you? When you come back, how are we supposed to explain this to the relatives? We already threw a banquet for everyone to celebrate you getting into the Wizard Academy, and now you're saying you've changed schools? Where are we supposed to put our faces?"
"And now you have the nerve to want to come back... Stop talking to me with that sissy voice! I don't have a son like you. I think you've lost your damn mind. I'd be better off counting on your younger brother. Figure it out yourself—if you can't get back into the Wizard Academy, don't bother contacting this family ever again!"
Lucianne sat in a bar, her mind involuntarily replaying the events that had transpired not long ago.
She had been at the Witch Academy for a long time now—longer, in fact, than she had ever spent at the Wizard Academy—to the point where she had almost forgotten the harsh reality she had to face.
She picked up her drink, ready for another glass. She was an adult now, anyway, and her physical constitution was far more formidable than it had ever been. Yet, her real-world troubles were so solid that even alcohol couldn't wash them away.
Just as she reached for the glass, a hand pressed down firmly over the rim.
"Take your hand off. Who do you think you are?" Lucianne snapped. She was suppressed by a fire she couldn't vent, a mixture of grievance and a final, lingering shred of male pride. Her tone was sharp and aggressive.
"What exactly happened to make you come here to drown your sorrows? Don't you know that alcohol leads to poor decisions? If you get wasted, who knows which Senior Sister is going to get lucky with you?"
"I won't get drunk. I know my own body..." Lucianne started to retort instinctively, but as the words sank in, she realized the voice of the person lecturing her sounded familiar.
She looked up. It was Senior Sister Daphne.
Lucianne bit her lower lip unconsciously, but she still stubbornly snatched the glass back.
"Aren't you going to look at the glass before you drink?" Seeing how emotional Lucianne was, Daphne spoke up in warning. There was a hint of teasing in her voice, as if trying to lighten the mood, but it failed to have any effect.
"Huh?"
Lucianne looked down at the glass in her hand. Something at the bottom was fizzing like an effervescent tablet. The sight immediately cleared her slightly tipsy head. "What is this?"
"What is it, she asks..." Daphne chuckled softly and sat down on the sofa, leaning in close to Lucianne. "With your IQ, you dare to drink here? If I hadn't gotten here first, you'd probably be waking up in some Senior Sister's bed by now."
"You drugged me?"
"Yes, so don't drink it. Drinking too much is bad for your—hey! No! Don't!" Daphne had intended to talk her out of it, but before she could finish, she watched Lucianne tilt her head back and swallow the whole drink, undissolved tablet and all. She didn't even have time to stop her.
"I drank it. So what? Go ahead, ruin me... We're all women here, who's afraid of who? I've lost everything anyway, why should I care about this?" Lucianne slammed the glass onto the table, her tone one of reckless resignation. She stared blankly at the empty glass for a moment before asking, almost possessed, "How long until the drug kicks in?"
"You... Hmph, half an hour," Daphne said crossly.
"Heh... that long? I don't feel a thing," Lucianne grumbled. She slumped back against the sofa, looking as though she no longer cared about anything in the world.
Daphne took a deep breath and looked at Lucianne, her voice softening. "Lucianne, tell me what happened. You were fine before. Why have you been a different person ever since we got back from the Bobapus Archipelago?"
"There's nothing to say. There's no going back anyway."
"If something is bothering you, you can talk to me..."
"I don't want to talk!"
"Fine... then I'll guess, okay? I'm guessing... you had a fight with your family?" Daphne asked tentatively.
Every year during the first semester at the Witch Academy, a large number of students encountered this problem. It was unavoidable. The power plays between Transcendent Academies forced the students to bear the brunt of the pressure, especially at a place as unique as the Witch Academy.
Because of this, whenever this time of year rolled around, clubs related to psychological counseling and various self-organized groups would appear in the freshmen's line of sight.
They used their own strength to help the New Students resolve the practical problems they faced.
One could not underestimate the support these Senior Sisters provided. Without the pressure of future survival, most people chose to spend their time on things they found meaningful—such as helping others resolve personal, physiological, psychological, cognitive, familial, or financial issues.
Lucianne fell silent. Daphne had hit the mark with just one guess.
She had clashed with her family—an irreconcilable conflict.
She wasn't an only child. Her family wanted her to return to the Wizard Academy solely for the sake of their own reputation.
She kept reflecting, kept remembering the smiles on her parents' faces when she was first accepted into the Wizard Academy... It was a reflected glory, as if that was what they lived for.
Because she was the one who got in, not them, those smiles were for boasting to the relatives. They enjoyed the pleasure of controlling a genius son.
They had become parents and, for the first time, tasted the flavor of power.
She was the family's most successful zero-capital investment. Her older brother and sister hadn't made it into good academies. Originally, they could have gotten into decent Beast Academies, but her parents had dismissed those as "pheasant academies."
To go to a Beast Academy and become a tiger or something? They wouldn't allow it, claiming the family didn't raise "beasts."
Their goal from the start had been the top academies. Her parents had a low level of cognition; they thought it was easy to get in, believing that if they just had enough children, one was bound to be a genius. Thus, the day she was accepted by the Wizards, her parents immediately canceled all future plans for more children.
Only after she escaped her native family and saw the outside world did she realize one thing: the lower someone's cognition, the more they possessed a bizarre, inexplicable confidence. This mindset had stayed with her for a long time, until she met Yang Yuehan.
People only reflect when they feel pain. Her parents were the same, but now they had no chance to feel that pain.
With a single phone call, they expected her to somehow find a way to transfer back to the Wizard Academy. Was that even possible?
It was impossible. How could a mere student negotiate with a Transcendent Academy?
This cognitive gap caused her immense agony. Her parents had placed the shackles of enslavement on her in childhood, and now she realized she couldn't take them off. It should have been a simple choice, an easy thing to let go of, yet it caused her unbearable pain.
Her parents constantly said the family didn't raise beasts, but when she tried to remove the shackles they had placed on her, she realized that beasts don't have hands.
And she couldn't remove those shackles.
"It's okay. I'm the one who brought you to the Witch Academy. I'll stay with you..."
"It's you... You're the one who ruined my entire life!" At Daphne's words, Lucianne's emotions instantly ignited.
If this girl hadn't forcibly turned her into a Witch and kept her at the Witch Academy, none of this would have happened! She wouldn't be in a position where she had a home she couldn't return to! She wouldn't have these worries!
She wanted to lash out with her fists, but when they landed on Daphne, they were weak and powerless... Did she really hate this Senior Sister?
She should hate her parents!
But she couldn't!
The shackles in her heart made it impossible for her to hate the parents who had raised her, or the family she came from.
She only hated that she knew too much, yet was powerless to change anything.
"It's okay... just let it all out..." Daphne reached out and pulled Lucianne by the back of her neck, pressing her into her embrace. She admitted she was the one who did it, but if it hadn't been her, it would have been someone else. There was never a shortage of people willing to play the villain.
But when that first punch landed with no strength behind it, she knew she had bet correctly.
Therefore... she was willing to take responsibility for all the consequences.
"Talk to your Senior Sister. I'm actually quite curious about your past~ Things haven't reached the worst-case scenario yet. You still have me."
Lucianne stayed like that for a long time. The last shred of her former male dignity kept her from crying, until a small patch of Daphne's collar was soaked. Only then did she stubbornly lift her head, insisting she hadn't cried.
Whether it was because the intimacy was too much or because of the drug in the drink, Lucianne's face was flushed. The words she had been unwilling to say now poured out like a dam breaking.
Lucianne remembered talking for a very long time until she fell asleep. The "aphrodisiac" effect she had expected never came; she only felt her body relax and her consciousness grow heavy. She drifted into dreamland before she even realized what she was saying.
Daphne looked at the girl lying in her arms like a "little bird," a doting smile appearing on her face. She teased the girl's cheek slightly before picking her up in a princess carry to take her away. After all, it wasn't safe to sleep here.
The drug she had used was merely a sleep aid, an alchemical product designed to suggest to the user to vent the words they were unwilling to say. Once those bottled-up thoughts were released, weariness would pull the user's consciousness into a deep sleep, aiding mental recovery and reducing internal emotional exhaustion.
However, this kind of drug was still among those not permitted for regular sale at the Witch Academy. Like certain aphrodisiacs, it was a controlled substance. But as for how the Witch Academy actually "managed" such things... well, they managed a whole lot of nothing.
After all, in some Alchemy elective courses, certain Witches would even teach how to brew these things as part of the standard curriculum.
* * *
"Passionate love is the form of interaction most yearned for by both parties, while emotional stability is the state both hope to maintain. However, achieving a balance between the two has always been a difficult feat in a relationship."
"First of all... I am glad you have come to my class. But I do not wish for you to love according to my methods. There is no standardized template for romance, and there is no standard answer for love. Everything I say is merely for reference. Only when you understand this will you be qualified to begin today's love subject."
I was currently walking down the hallway of the teaching building. For the time being, the research regarding the Great Spellbook no longer required my presence.
The insight and abilities of those Academic Transcendent Witches were far beyond what I could currently compare to.
The only reason they had needed me before was because the ability belonged to me. They could have chosen to go off on their own in any way they pleased, but they hadn't.
When I chose to give them that freedom, I gained my own freedom in return. This was always meant to be a mutually beneficial exchange and cooperation; I had no right to restrict them.
I didn't regret opening up these things for them to research. As the saying goes, one's own time is the most precious thing, even if I chose to "waste" it by spending it with someone else.
They gained the honor of research and innovation, while I shared in their results. It was a win-win situation.
If I tried to keep everything in my own hands, it wouldn't be a proper partnership; it would be one-sided exploitation. They weren't my followers or my slaves; they were Transcendent Mentors of the Witch Academy.
I stopped outside a classroom window. Through the glass, I saw a familiar back sitting there as primly as any student, listening intently. I froze.
Finally, a knowing smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Sister Bai really is incredibly cute in certain ways... sneaking off behind my back to take... a love course?
Now that's an idea!
At that moment, the mentor lecturing in the classroom spotted me outside. After our eyes met, she returned a kind smile, looking as though she had seen right through my thoughts.
"Love has no threshold, so why stop at the window? If your beloved is in this classroom, then my class welcomes you to come in and listen along~"
With this sudden tangent, many students in the room followed the teacher's gaze to the window. One student suddenly let out a loud cheer, which immediately set off a wave of hooting and hollering from the rest of the class.
Bai Yu realized something was wrong. When she turned around to look, a rare trace of panic flickered in her eyes.
Seeing Sister Bai's expression, the awkwardness of being the center of attention vanished instantly.
I straightened my collar, though it wasn't messy, walked to the classroom door, and stepped inside with confidence.
My entrance sent the cheering to a crescendo. Eager eyes scanned the large room, trying to figure out which lucky girl (or unlucky guy's) girlfriend had tracked them down here.
After entering, I politely bowed to the mentor and indicated that I would pay for the "ticket" later, as these kinds of lectures were usually paid courses.
Once I received her permission, my gaze never left Sister Bai. Amidst the clamor, I walked straight to her corner. What had been an inconspicuous spot instantly became a place of envy for everyone else.
"Sister Bai told me she was preparing for her own classes, but here she is, secretly getting extra tutoring~" I teased her in a voice only she could hear, then sat down beside her, satisfied.
With a gesture from the mentor on stage, the noise in the classroom quickly subsided.
"Good~ We have just witnessed the arrival of another couple. I told you my course is best suited for couples to attend together. Love is never about one-sided tolerance; it is about mutual maintenance by both parties."
"Alright! Now, let us get down to business~"