Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Romance Reader Syndrome
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‘Blocked?’
Of course, I hadn’t swung with full force. If I had, that scrawny guy named Sean’s head would’ve separated from his body and rolled across the floor in a gory scene.
But that didn’t mean I’d held back completely either.
I glanced at the burly man, who stared down at me without a flicker of expression on his face as he slowly tightened his grip.
He seemed intent on crushing my fist with his grip strength.
“......!”
But when I ignored his strength and pried his hand open instead, his eyes finally trembled just a bit.
The one who broke up our staredown was Tana, standing next to Eve.
“Daniel! Stop it! You’ll just end up hurting yourself for no reason.”
He’d come out of a juvenile detention center, so he was some kind of state counselor, and the soldiers with him didn’t look ordinary either.
Considering their social standing and my position as a student, it made sense to back off here, but I wasn’t in the mood at all.
“Get away from Eve, you bastard.”
I threatened the counselor plastered to Eve’s side, but the same soldier who’d blocked my punch earlier stepped between us.
Just his massive frame standing there was enough to block my view of the counselor and Eve.
And that only pissed me off more.
“These bastards......”
They had no business poking at a kid’s wounds over some petty excuse. I was about to step in, unable to hold back any longer, when a snide voice came from behind the man.
“Haha, the academy students are quite aggressive. We’ll withdraw for today. We can’t leave a bad first impression on Miss Eve.”
“......”
“In return, the student needs to watch himself. Starting fights with punches......”
He twisted his body away while muttering, “Aios’s standards have really dropped.” The soldier gave me a quick glance, snorted once, and followed after the man.
“You okay?”
My insides felt scraped raw, but Eve’s condition came first.
Her face looked like she didn’t grasp the situation, but her trembling hands suggested she’d been scared.
“Let’s head back to your room for now. Tana, take Eve. I’ll grab some warm tea from the cafe and meet you there.”
“Got it. Come on, Eve.”
After buying tea at the cafe, I headed up to the fourth floor.
It was the girls’ floor, but I ignored that cleanly and went straight to Eve’s room.
Someone screamed about calling the duty professor, but whatever.
Eve sipped the warm tea and seemed a bit better now, letting out a small smile with a deep breath.
“Thanks for getting mad on my behalf.”
“Nah, it’s only natural.”
“Chapheni’s back, right? He wants to apologize to me.”
Eve paused, as if even saying his name disgusted her. I nodded slightly without uttering it myself.
“Those crazies! Bringing Chapheni back to the academy? To see Eve, no less? I oughta go over there and just......!”
Tana clenched her fists, fuming.
I glanced at Eve, but she didn’t react much.
‘This might be a bit of a problem.’
Tana had once asked about my relationship with Eve, and I’d explained the current situation.
I figured Eve had neatly sorted out her feelings for me.
Otherwise, how could she stand by smiling while other girls flirted with me?
Eve wasn’t that good an actress.
But Tana had shaken her head.
Eve still liked me.
She just wasn’t accepting the current situation as her own reality.
‘Romance Reader Syndrome.’
The name was as childish as ever from Tana, but that’s what she called Eve’s current state.
When it came to men and romance, Eve wasn’t living as a character in her own life but as a reader.
And from what I could see now, the symptoms were getting worse.
‘She’s not just treating guys and romance that way anymore—she’s viewing the whole situation from a third-person perspective.’
Tana had noticed it too, looking back and forth between me and Eve with a worried expression.
‘I wish that counselor was actually a decent guy.’
Then I could trust him with Eve in this state.
“It’s okay. It’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, I’m not worried.”
Tana comforting Eve.
Watching them, I could only swallow bitterly in regret.
*
The rooftop at lunchtime.
“Mmm! So good!”
Eve beamed happily while eating Arni’s lunchbox, which had become routine. Arni nodded in satisfaction, but when I stared hoping for a bite, she got defensive.
“I-I really like Ares, okay? So don’t try to flirt with me.”
“What, do I give off pheromones or something? Every girl who passes by gets seduced? I’ve never even tried.”
“You never know.”
Girls who seem tough on the outside are always softies inside. She was so confident about swords, but when it came to romance, she was worse off than Eve.
Well, what could you expect from the eldest daughter of a swordmaster family who’d only ever held a blade?
“So there really is someone who likes Ares.”
“......”
Up until now—Hayun, Sen, Elise, Adriana, and so on.
Now that I knew the fish in his pond were just decoys,
Arni Duratan actually liking the real Ares felt more surprising.
‘Can’t even call it a pond anymore?’
Ares had switched professions to fisherman.
He was timing his confession to Rin right now, and Arni was waiting for it.
Thanks to Tana’s advice to target the moment he got rejected, assuming Rin would dump him.
“But what if Ares still likes Rin even after she rejects him?”
I gave Arni, who’d asked me about Ares’s confession plan, an exasperated look as I answered.
“Obviously he will.”
“Huh?”
That guy might look shady and act sly, but deep down he had a pure heart, and what filled it was always consistent.
“Do you know how long he’s liked Rin? You think he’ll give up after one rejection?”
“......”
“He told me himself—it’s real because he can’t give up easily or stop.”
I shrugged in agreement.
“Annoying as hell, but he’s right.”
Having confessed to Eris myself once, I could say it for sure now.
“Can’t give up easily, can’t stop.”
“......”
Tana seemed lost in thought, while Eve quietly savored the words like a line from a book.
Then, a girl with a lollipop in her mouth kicked open the rooftop door.
“Hey, they’re coming again!”
“Damn it.”
“We’re eating up here just to avoid those guys.”
At May’s shout, Tana and I grumbled, abandoning our lunchboxes as we grabbed Eve to head down from the rooftop.
But...
“Haha, so this is where you’ve been? You haven’t been eating in the cafeteria lately.”
The counselor strolled in with a smile, the soldier following behind.
A step too late. I glared at them in irritation, but the most hot-blooded girl here moved first.
“Why don’t you uncles just leave?”
May, who’d been using her delinquent network to tip us off about these two’s whereabouts lately.
Thanks to her, we could dodge them quick, but we still got caught like this sometimes.
“Sigh, you’re May, right? I’ve even memorized your name now. I hear you’re the dean’s cousin—did she put you up to this?”
“Bullshit. If you’re a shrink, figure out my head on your own.”
“Some people misunderstand our job like that. We don’t read minds—we’re not...”
“Yeah, whatever. Didn’t ask.”
May flipped him off while rolling the lollipop around with her tongue.
The counselor’s face twisted satisfyingly—he’d lost the psychological battle.
“Don’t cross the line.”
The soldier finally stepped in.
I’d heard about him from the dean’s investigation. He wasn’t your average soldier.
Supervisor Demerck.
He’d been demoted from captain of the guard for his brutal training that drove half his unit to discharge.
With that brutal muscle and hulking build, he screamed inflexible superior officer.
“You crossed the line, kid.”
“So what?”
May looked up at Demerck with her hands in her pockets. She was overflowing with grit these days—practically exploding with it.
No wonder the delinquents blindly worshipped their Back Alley Queen.
But I couldn’t just let it slide.
If we stayed like this, Demerck might actually use force on May, so I stepped forward.
“We’re done eating, so we’re heading down. Get lost.”
“Kids these days have no manners.”
“You’re the ones without manners. I said beat it.”
“You’re dead meat now!”
May pumped her fists excitedly from behind, swinging them wildly.
“My boyfriend’ll beat you half to death, you meathead bastard!”
“Boyfriend my ass! Don’t say weird shit!”
I snapped, turning around, and May pressed her index finger to her lips, feigning innocence.
“Not my boyfriend?”
“She’s pulling some weird tactic again?”
“Tch, eat this!”
May yanked the stick candy from her mouth and shoved it straight into mine.
I grumbled but chewed anyway since it was surprisingly good, and Demerck smirked.
“Causing a scene over childish puppy love.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
The moment I glared at Demerck in annoyance...
“I’ll go.”
A girl’s emotionless voice came from right behind us.
We all slowly turned to look at Eve, who stared blankly at the counselor.
“I’ll meet Chapheni, so stop harassing me.”
“Oh dear, harassing? Someone might get the wrong idea. But you’ve made the right choice. I have to applaud the courage you’ve shown.”
Clap clap clap clap.
The counselor’s applause echoed as Eve slowly followed behind him, glancing back at us briefly.
“Sorry for causing you all trouble. I’ll be right back.”
With an emotionless voice, Eve descended the stairs.