Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Misunderstood One-Sided Love
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"Does something hit too close to home?"
"Huh? No, not at all."
I'd just popped in to check on how the surveillance of Rin was going—the one I'd asked the Dean to handle—and there she was, fidgeting restlessly with an oddly anxious look on her face.
"She's acting suspicious."
"It's really nothing. It's just... I have this feeling Rin might've noticed something?"
"Hmm?"
No matter how you sliced it, a mage of the Dean's caliber putting her mind to surveillance... a third-year like Rin noticing that?
'Guess it's possible.'
Considering Rin wasn't your average girl student but the future calamity that would swallow the world whole, even the Dean's level of monitoring might get picked up right away.
'Doesn't mean I can back off, though.'
"Even if she has noticed, keep it up. Rin won't be able to do much about it anyway."
"R-Really? Got it!"
The Dean nodded vigorously, grinning like she'd found a hole to hide in. Felt like I'd given her the answer she wanted, but it didn't seem like a problem, so I let it slide.
"You're watching her right now?"
"Of course! Want to see?"
Without me even asking, she channeled mana and expanded the screen. After-school hours, looked like Rin was playing tennis with friends... but something felt off.
Not the school-issued gym clothes, but a pro tennis outfit with deliberate styling. Hair tied up high enough to fully expose her nape.
Her skirt swaying dangerously short, fanning herself to cool off the sweat in a way that oddly directed skin toward our view.
"Has she always been this careless?"
Of course, it was an angle invisible to others. Too perfectly aligned with our surveillance spot to call it coincidence.
Back in the village days, young boys would flip up skirts or sneak peeks at girls they liked.
Girls that age were naive enough to fall for it, but Rin had been different.
She was an iron wall—no gaps at all. Yet now? It felt like she had all these openings.
"Is she deliberately aiming this angle at us?"
I shot the Dean a glare, half-wondering if she was doing it for me, but she shook her head furiously.
'Is it the effect of hanging out with kids her age?'
The pure village girl who'd smiled innocently, now unwittingly exuding a subtle allure. Sure, she was still just an 18-year-old kid, but I worried a little that this might lead her astray.
"She should be more careful."
She was managing not to show it to others, but who knew who might see from where.
I gestured for her to close the screen, and the Dean quickly obliged. The Dean's office was empty, but she whispered like someone might eavesdrop.
"I've got some recordings. Want a few good ones?"
"No, are you insane?"
I knew she'd always been a bit unhinged, but this level? Unbelievable.
She reacted like she was shocked by my response, as if she'd expected me to drool and wag my tail. Ridiculous.
"Delete them all right now. Don't create weird evidence."
She deflated and nodded at my firm tone. A grown woman pulling stunts like this.
"I'm out."
I slammed the door on my way out of the Dean's office, hands in my pockets, lost in a strange mood.
*
"Haa."
What was she even doing?
Caving like a scared kid to a mere student.
After Daniel McClane left, the Dean sighed in frustration and empty defeat before turning back to her work.
With so much piling up lately—not to mention the Leiros Family in the west starting to probe slyly—her head was a mess.
'Maybe just expel them all.'
Deep down, she wanted to boot Penil Leiros and his gang entirely after their month-long suspension, but that would force a real showdown.
Just one week until their return.
She hoped this would make the troublemakers realize even their families couldn't fully shield them, toning them down a bit.
Knock knock.
A light knock.
The Dean instantly knew who it was, smiled, and invited her in. There stood Rin, towel around her neck, fresh from tennis with friends.
'What a kid.'
At first, she hadn't noticed, but Rin had entered in perfect stealth: aura suppression, scent and sound nullification, invisibility—all released only upon entering the office.
In other words, she didn't want anyone knowing she had ties to the Dean.
'Even fifth-years struggle with that multi-casting.'
Yet Rin built the spells with precision, at high speed, breathing steady.
As a fellow mage, the Dean saw it clearly: this girl was a genius worthy of a line in the continent's magic history.
"How'd it go?"
Of course, that wasn't why Rin was here now.
"He turned it down. Got an earful about why even record it."
"Oh?"
Rin looked visibly disappointed.
If asked if the Dean wanted to record? Of course not. Pointless hassle, hard to store.
But this was a mutual agreement.
Because Rin—the one being watched—had requested it.
"I thought he'd like it."
Watching Rin mutter, the Dean thought even she wasn't quite normal.
When Rin had first traced the surveillance back and shown up, the Dean had panicked. Thought she'd be branded a peeping dean thanks to Daniel.
'Who asked you to do this?'
Surprisingly, Rin had pieced together most of the truth herself and come with the right answer.
But some parts were off.
Like assuming the Dean was helping out of guilt for framing Daniel.
Pretty close.
Daniel avoided her, but she'd nailed that he was monitoring via the Dean.
From Rin's clueless future perspective—unaware she'd later stab her childhood friend and his fiancée—Elise's tale of Daniel's "special fetish" seemed to fit.
'Doesn't matter. No, even better!'
A special fetish, sure, but those eyes on her sent thrills, curving Rin's lips into a grin.
After that, Rin made an effort to look her prettiest toward the surveillance spell. But Daniel wasn't watching everything—just the Dean, right?
So Rin suggested recordings.
Couldn't stay cute forever—send the best moments compiled.
"Don't delete them yet. Might need them later."
"...Got it."
"Anything else?"
"Said her exposure was too reckless, people might see."
Rin's face lit up instantly.
'Worried others might see!'
Beaming with satisfaction, Rin said she'd keep counting on her, recast her spells, and left.
'No need to worry. I angled it just for you.'
Thinking that, but thrilled he'd worried, Rin's steps quickened.
After Rin left too...
The Dean caught her breath and brewed tea.
Whatever the Leiros Family or other nobles said outside didn't matter much.
Internal academy cleanup came first.
And the sole reason she helped Rin?
She mistakenly believed Daniel liked her. '...What a weird way to have a crush.'
'What?'
When Daniel first mentioned the surveillance, that's what the Dean muttered, and he just furrowed his brow without denying it.
Absurd from his view, but he couldn't spill the full truth, so he vaguely dodged.
The Dean misunderstood, and it spread to Rin.
'Help both Daniel and Rin, they'll thank me when they date. Internal issues resolve naturally.'
To them, she'd no longer be the framer who tried to expel him, or the secret peeper.
She'd be love's Cupid, curbing her whims.
"Hohohohoho!"
They were kids, after all. Dance in the palm of an adult's hand, savoring innocent puppy love.
But...
'Lately, the Dean's been having weird thoughts. Time to tighten discipline. Give her an inch, she slacks off.'
'Showing surveillance or recordings means she's alone with Daniel in the office? Need to handle that.'
Unfortunately, the boy and girl harbored something more twisted than the Dean's imagined innocence.