Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 140
Chapter Title: Fairy Professor #3
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Me, Mirna, and Professor Stella headed to a café operating within Arc Academy grounds.
The café, bathed in plenty of sunlight, was built with brown bricks, giving it an antique and cozy vibe—perfect for couples on a date.
We entered a quiet room on the second floor, ordered drinks, and took our seats.
“…….”
Even amid all that, Professor Stella Belhock's amber eyes kept darting busily around the room. She looked as jittery as a deer drinking from a pond in a grassland teeming with predators.
“Tweety.”
─Pirrrruk.
She soon summoned a massive blue eagle flying overhead. Leaning in, she whispered something into its ear.
“Keep a close watch for any debt collectors coming or going.”
─Kweeeeng!
Whoosh.
Watching the bird fly out the window, I finally recalled why Stella was being so cautious.
She owed a whopping 500 million coins to Arc's bank. That's why she was dodging collectors left and right, or so she'd said.
Rattle, rattle.
Finally, she dragged over some folding screens from nearby, enclosing us in a private space. Only then did she nod in satisfaction.
“Perfect.”
Seeing her so on edge was starting to make me anxious too.
Truth be told, I was a bit tense.
Me, Mirna, and Professor Stella—what an odd trio.
It was a combination I'd never imagined. I had no clue what might unfold from this conversation.
Awkward as hell.
Slurp.
“So.”
Mirna took a sip of her milky tea and set it down, speaking first.
“So, is it true you owe 500 million coins? From the looks of it, the collectors are hounding you.”
“What...?”
Stella's amber eyes snapped toward me.
That glare felt like it was scolding, “Just how much did you tell her?” So I decided to come clean.
“When the lady of House Draco asks, how could I possibly lie?”
“Fair enough, but still. This is out of line. Spilling someone's secret they asked you to keep. Theo Gospel, I'm truly disappointed in you. Sincerely.”
Professor Stella clicked her tongue at me for blabbing her secret to Mirna, acting genuinely let down.
Of course it was.
Promises are built on trust, after all. I'd shattered that trust. But honestly, I thought it was for the best.
The 500 million coin debt Professor Stella carried, plus the looming council meeting—they were burdens too heavy for me alone.
However.
With Mirna Draco's backing, I could see a way through.
That's why, when Mirna grilled me about the affair earlier, I'd hoped linking House Draco and House Belhock might solve everything at once.
Sure, whether Mirna would actually help Stella was uncertain, but I had some confidence.
A plan had flashed into my mind when she'd cornered me.
“Theo Gospel. You broke your promise to me. Apologize.”
Professor Stella's tone was firm.
Pretending ignorance, I echoed, “Apologize?”
Stella Belhock shot back even harder. “Kneel before me and apologize. You've tarnished my honor.”
Kneel, huh.
Frankly, that felt too lenient.
I'd spilled the secret of House Belhock's lady to another great house's daughter. If it were me, I'd have lopped off the head.
Stella's softer than expected. Must be nice being rich.
I was quietly bumping up my internal score of her when Mirna bristled instead.
“Professor Stella, wasn't it you who snuck into his room first? Rummaging through his things, no less. Hardly befitting a lady of a great house, is it?”
Mirna defending me herself—touching, yet it also gave me that “look who's talking” vibe. She'd been ready to devour me just minutes ago.
Stella just huffed dismissively. “Hmph, that's one thing. Breaking a promise is another. It shatters trust between people.”
“Tr-trust?”
Shattered trust. Mirna flinched at the words.
“…….”
She started sneaking glances at me, probably recalling how she'd accused and raged at me over my supposed infidelity that morning.
Mirna hadn't trusted me.
And now, she might think I'd lost trust in her too.
In a way, she owed me a debt of the heart. At least, that's how I saw it.
Whether she knew our dynamic or not, Professor Stella added a few more words.
“House Belhock has a motto: 'Trust is like a finely crafted glass—once broken, it can never be mended the same.' You might glue it back with effort, but it'll never be whole again.”
Srrk.
Stella Belhock fixed me with a chilling stare.
“Theo Gospel, the trust between you and me is already shattered. If this gets out, no one will ever make promises with you again.”
“...You're right.”
I let out a deep hum, feigning profound remorse. The more I did, the more fidgety Mirna seemed beside me.
Maybe it felt like arrows aimed her way.
“But I'm a magnanimous and merciful soul. Kneel, kiss my shoe, and apologize, and I might just forgive you.”
Stella wrapped it up like she was granting a grand favor.
Kneel and kiss her shoe. Having lived as Theo Gospel, I'd endured worse humiliations without batting an eye, so it was no big deal.
But Mirna clearly felt differently.
“Kneel and kiss your shoe? Isn't that overly harsh?”
“…….”
Professor Stella arched her slender purple brows.
“Lady Mirna, you've been butting into my conversation with Theo all this time. Are you two an item or something?”
“W-Well—”
Mirna Draco clamped her mouth shut as the spotlight swung to her. She glanced at me, then mumbled in a tiny, hesitant voice.
“Angmar's scribe, Sir Theo Gospel... is my fiancé...”
Her voice lacked conviction.
She knew suspecting a spouse or fiancé's fidelity was grounds for major divorce or broken engagement in the Church of Radiant Flame.
Mirna still seemed unsure if our relationship even stood.
That's when Professor Stella slammed her cup on the table.
“Fiancé? For real?”
She looked intrigued by the revelation.
Word of me being Mirna's fiancé was common knowledge in Arc, but her ignorance suggested her info was a bit outdated.
Stella asked,
“A half-fairy's fiancé, huh. So, how far have you two gone?”
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Skinship. Held hands? How many days since you met?”
“...How rude! I'm offended, Professor Stella...! Why ask something like that...!?”
Flutter—
Mirna snapped open her fan and fanned her flushed face furiously. Her shock and disgust were palpable.
But Professor Stella wasn't one to back down.
“Why ask? Theo must've told you everything about me already. Didn't he mention my research paper?”
“Certainly...”
Mirna muttered behind her fanning fan at Stella's question.
“Certainly something about ways to increase the fairy population...”
“Right. Finding a way to boost the dwindling nymph numbers would win this year's paper award hands down!”
“Nymphs...?”
Mirna kept questioning, struggling to follow. Professor Stella explained eagerly.
“Unlike elves, nymphs' lifecycles are shrouded in mystery. Especially mating and reproduction—total secrets!”
Her explanation jogged my memory of the nymph entry from the encyclopedia.
Nymphs looked like elementary or middle-school girls, secretive folk.
The biggest veil? Their reproduction method.
Practically nothing known about how they propagate or increase numbers.
Like how eels or lampreys couldn't be farmed for similar reasons.
Unveiling that secret and boosting their numbers would rock the academic world.
Professor Stella said,
“Even half-nymphs are fairies. Detailing Theo's lifecycle and urges could unlock insights into other nymphs too.”
Srrk.
Excited mid-explanation, she shot to her feet.
“Here's my proposal. Lady Mirna, Theo. If you're truly engaged, help with my paper research?”
Mirna shot back bluntly at the professor. “You make it sound like we're lab specimens.”
But Stella was all out of backs-to-the-wall moves.
“You blabbed my secret without permission. Want forgiveness? Do this. Or kneel and kiss my shoe.”
“Th-that's out of the question—!”
Mirna sprang up too.
“One who might bear House Draco's name kneels only before the divine in prayer.”
“Then?”
“…….”
Mirna bit her lower lip hard.
* * *
“Well, I've got a faculty meeting. Think it over, everyone. I'll give you two days.”
Professor Stella left first. Soon, only Mirna and I remained in the spacious, quiet second-floor café, her face flushed with humiliation.
Mirna flicked her fan open and shut, fiddling with its edge, radiating unease.
She looked like she had plenty to say but couldn't due to the mood or other reasons.
Fearing she might do something impulsive beyond my predictions, I broke the silence.
“I could just kneel and apologize. No matter how you slice it, I'm the one who broke the promise with Professor Stella.”
“I said it before. One who might bear House Draco's name can't kneel to some Belhock black sheep. And—”
Fingering the closed fan's tip, Mirna hesitated. Calmly, I prompted, “And?”
She set the fan on the table, pressed both hands to her forehead, and hid her face.
From behind her palms, Mirna said,
“...And this stems from me doubting you, Theo Gospel. The root fault is that fairy professor barging into your room, but still...”
As expected, Mirna was anxious over grilling and suspecting me. I'd nudged that along a bit myself.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
But seeing etiquette-obsessed Mirna trembling her legs under the table, she looked so tormented I wondered if I'd gone too far.
“Lady Mirna—”
“Theo Gospel.”
As I started to speak, Mirna beat me to it.
“...I-I want to apologize to you.”