LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 25
I once heard that life is a series of coincidences. So unexpectedly, things happen, and if you’re not quick to respond, you’ll just get swept away. The reason I thought of this out of the blue was because of the villainous young lady standing in front of me.
“Hello, Professor!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Is there a rule that prohibits students from visiting their professors?”
“No, but showing up on a weekend is pretty disrespectful. More importantly, how did you find out where I live?”
“Our family has way too much money.”
She meant they used the power of money to track down my home. I was about to scold her, wondering if she was out of her mind, but the words just wouldn’t come out. There’s no law against students finding out their professors’ addresses. If she were threatening me or stalking me 24/7, that would be a problem, but Rynelle was neither of those. She had simply come to visit me on a lazy weekend.
“So, what do you need?”
“I just wanted to see you, Professor!”
“Alright, you’ve seen me. Now go back.”
“You’re so cold! Normally, wouldn’t you invite me in for tea or something?”
“I’m not really a tea person. The only thing I have is water.”
“What about snacks?”
“I don’t have any, so go home.”
If the Academy is the stage, my home is my private sanctuary backstage. A place for me to peacefully rest after rolling around on stage. But one of the characters from that stage wanted to invade my sanctuary. Naturally, I couldn’t accept that.
“Unfortunately, I can’t let you stay.”
“Why not?”
“Because I ran away from home!”
“What…?”
“I left because I was bored and frustrated.”
“There’s probably nothing to see at my place either, so it’ll be boring.”
“That’s not true! Your reactions are just so colorful and entertaining!”
“Grrr….”
I nearly cursed at the student without realizing it. Since someone might be watching, I kept my lips shut and held back.
‘You’ve won the duel, so I’ll let it slide this time, but if you cause more trouble next time, I won’t be able to overlook it, okay?’ The words from Chancellor Lunia echoed in my head, calming me down a bit. After all, as Rynelle said, if I gave her an intense reaction, it would only amuse her more. If I responded like a robot, she would get bored and leave.
“Why did you stop talking?”
“It’s nothing, but showing up out of the blue like this is problematic. What if rumors spread about a male professor bringing a female student to his home?”
“If that happens, I’ll publicly announce that it was you and me!”
“Are you trying to make the newly appointed professor unemployed?”
“I’ll take responsibility! For someone like you, I can provide food, clothes, and even a place to sleep! If you want, I could even bear your child!”
“What the heck?!”
That could be good, though? I accidentally smiled at the thought of a comfortable old age and quickly covered my mouth with my hand to cough, but that mischievous young lady had already caught on. I felt embarrassed for being momentarily tempted.
“Were you imagining it just now?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie! I saw you smiling just now after being so serious!”
“You must have seen it wrong.”
“Then could you please move your hand away from your mouth?”
“Sure.”
“Are you pretending to be serious again? Professor, I’m sorry to say this, but that’s a bit pathetic.”
“If you wanted a picture, you should have taken one.”
“Whoa! Seriously, wow….”
It felt a bit childish as I returned to my innocent side and played around. I don’t think professors always need to act like adults. When both body and mind are tired, doesn’t everyone want to be a baby at least once? I couldn’t act like an infant in front of a student, of course, so I ended up acting immaturely. Just when I thought my dignity might drop, Rynelle was enjoying it, chuckling away. It looked like it was backfiring.
“Well, I’ve played with you enough, right? Now, are you satisfied and ready to head home?”
“Can I ask why you want to send me back?”
“Because I think I might get a complaint from your father.”
“That’s unlikely. You know my father doesn’t give a hoot about someone like me.”
Rynelle’s voice, which had been cheerful, suddenly softened. I felt compassion as I noticed her eyelids drooping slightly. How did I end up entangled with a troubled child who had such a complicated family history? Thinking about the problem child I need to rescue now might be an unavoidable fate.
“…I’m sorry, but I need to get back to the Academy, so I can’t take care of you.”
“Right now? On a weekend, and it’s already getting dark?”
“There are various circumstances.”
“Hmph….”
Rynelle looked disappointed but then gave a small smile. The moment I saw the corners of her mouth lift, I realized she had made up her mind to follow me no matter what. There was no point in trying to dissuade this mischievous young lady since she wouldn’t listen anyway.
“Are you following me?”
“Of course! I’m just so curious about what you’ll be doing at the Academy so late at night!”
“It’s not that fun. It could be dangerous.”
“Don’t worry. I can at least take care of myself.”
“Follow me. I’ll explain everything along the way.”
“…Okay!”
As I gestured for her to follow, Rynelle beamed and bounced toward me. She hugged my arm and pressed against me, so I hurriedly pushed her head away. If I kept walking around with her, I felt I’d soon announce my resignation from teaching. The villainous lady was grinning away, completely oblivious to my feelings, which was maddening.
*
If I were to choose the most unfortunate princess in history, it would be me. Yuer Isipin Arungard had always thought of herself that way.
“Haah…! Haah…! Cough! Cough!”
On the bed, the blonde princess gasped for air in distress. Her complexion was severely flushed, and her body drenched with sweat, soaking her clothes. A wet cloth that had been dipped in cool water lay on her forehead, but it had long since turned lukewarm.
Yuer was currently suffering from a terrible cold.
“Cough! Cough!”
She tried to take some of the medicine provided by the Academy to help, hoping for a quick nap, but it wasn’t easy. Nightmares that had tormented her for years were disrupting her sleep. Especially when she was sick, nightmares frequented her dreams.
“Water….”
After sweating so much, she felt an intense thirst. Yuer reached out to grab a water bottle and brought it to her lips. However, only a single sip came out—nowhere near enough to quench her thirst.
“Ugh…!”
Even though she was a princess, Yuer had no attendants, so to drink water, she had no choice but to fetch it herself. Dragging her burning body along, she stepped out into the hallway.
As soon as she did, the cold wind greeted her.
“It’s cold…!”
Yuer was on the rooftop of the Academy. She had set up her living situation not in the girls’ dormitory, but on the Academy roof.
There were three significant reasons Yuer chose to live on the roof.
The first reason was the dorm’s security system was lacking. While outside intrusions were well defended, there were many loopholes for internal ones. If a female student in the dorm were targeted for assassination, she wouldn’t be able to sleep even for a moment.
The second reason was that Yuer relied on her own ability. Her power was hallucination magic, possessing a level of skill that could deceive even a great sorcerer. The many assassination attempts on her life had been survived thanks to her hallucination magic. Influenced by her mother, Yuer could use hallucination magic and had outstanding talent.
The third reason was that the rooftop area of Kia del Academy was ridiculously large. Since the Academy buildings were so massive, even if a garden was created on the rooftop, there would still be ample space left.
Seeing this, Yuer used her hallucination magic to make a portion of the rooftop appear as if it were empty air. Using the space made invisible by the illusions, she engaged in the bizarre act of building her sanctuary.
Of course, she got caught by the Chancellor, but managed to obtain proper permission under the condition of belonging to a special class.
Thus, Yuer had built a residence on the roof and had been living there without being discovered by anyone thanks to her hallucination magic. Her frequent appearances on the roof were due to such backstory.
Cough! Cough!
Having descended from the rooftop down to the main building of the Academy, Yuer staggered towards the water cooler. She filled the bottle with water and was about to return to the rooftop when suddenly…
“Ugh!”
Bright light shone on Yuer, causing her to squint her eyes involuntarily.
On a weekend night, the only person shining lights and walking around is usually a patrolling guard.
Calmly, Yuer cast her hallucination magic. She aimed to deceive the guard’s senses, making him think that he hadn’t seen her.
“Eek?!”
However, the moment the guard stepped out of the shadows, Yuer lost her focus.
With vacant eyes, decaying flesh, and walking with a grotesque movement while sticking out a black tongue, a hideous sight emerged. The smell of rotting corpses invaded Yuer’s sensitive nose.
The guard of the Academy had appeared before her as a zombie.
“W-Why is there a zombie inside the Academy…?”
The problem wasn’t just that. Behind the first zombie, others began to emerge as well.
Terror gripped Yuer as she took in the sight of the hideous dead.
The water bottle she had been gripping slipped from her hands, and at the same time, she turned and started to run.
“Gah…! Gah…!”
She didn’t understand.
She didn’t know why corpses had suddenly appeared before her, why the guard had turned into a zombie, or how the undead had infiltrated the Academy.
With her head spinning from the cold, she could make no sense of it.
All that remained was the instinct to flee, driving her to escape.
‘The rooftop is……!’
There was no safer place than her sanctuary, but being on the roof meant she was at a dead end.
To fully escape the Academy building, she had to make her way down the stairs.
Yet, Yuer’s escape route was futile from the start.
“Ugh!”
Another horde of zombies appeared from across the way. In trying to stop herself too abruptly, she stumbled and fell.
As she tumbled to the floor, she finally realized.
There was one sole reason to define this whole situation.
“I’m unhappy…”
Yuer didn’t get back up.
With zombies closing in from both sides, her escape route was completely cut off.
She accepted that being torn apart by the zombies was her destined end.
“Hahaha…!”
As she let go of the last thread of hope, the light disappeared from Yuer’s eyes.
Letting out a hollow laugh, she softly closed her eyes.
Born as a child who was never wanted by anyone but her mother, she had lived a lifetime of being pointed at.
The only one who had loved her was her mother, who was murdered by someone unknown, and her biological father, the Emperor, could not face her.
The Emperor, along with everyone else, scorned her, claiming that the noble blood of the royal family had been tainted by the filthy blood of beasts.
Though she had tried desperately to survive, it all felt pointless when she was alone.
Even in moments of loneliness, in excruciating pain, and even now when faced with danger, she could do nothing alone.
“I didn’t even want much….”
She sought nothing grand.
She had only wished for one person to appear by her side.
Someone who would look only at her, regardless of bloodline or birthright…
Yuer quietly opened her eyes.
A tale her mother had told long ago resurfaced in her mind.
Her mother had said that if one prays earnestly to the moon, it will grant their wishes.
Just as she had intended to make a final wish, a shadow suddenly eclipsed the moon.
At the moment when she lamented that she would never escape her unhappiness, the darkness drew nearer.
But it didn’t seem to be darkness; it was the shadow of a person.
“Get away!”
─Crash!
As the silhouette became clearer, the owner of the shadow burst through the window, entering the hallway where Yuer was.
A figure dressed like the patrolling guard zombie was approaching, rolling across the floor in a dramatic entrance.
However, due to the shattered glass shards scattered across the floor, numerous pieces were embedded in his back, and blood was flowing out.
“Ugh! Are you alright?”
“Um…. That’s what I’d like to ask you.”
“…To be honest, it hurts like hell.”
“Yes, it shows.”
There’s a reason they say to not imitate reality.