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“Gilles,” I hiss when I finally catch sight of him walking through the halls. He’s giving off an intensely dark aura that isn’t allowing anyone to come near him.
When he’s like this, no one would believe that he’s only a 9-year-old boy.
“Alicia!” he cries upon seeing me, rushing over to my side. He looks me over and then heaves a sigh of relief.
He must have been worried for me all this time, even if he hadn’t seemed that way just a moment ago…. Is that deadly expression just his way of concealing his true emotions?
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Really.”
“Who was that?” Gilles asks, his expression turning stormy.
“Duke-Sama from the Seeker family.”
“The king’s son?”
“Yup.”
Gilles brings his hand up to his chin and glances down, clearly lost in thought.
Seeing that huge wrinkle forming between his brows, I really want to tease him. I want to tell him to be careful, else his face might get stuck like that….. but when he’s thinking this deeply on something, then no matter what I say he won’t hear a word.
“Did Duke do anything to you, Alicia?”
“Not really. He just kissed this necklace that he had given to me as a gift a couple of years ago.”
“Huh? Wait, so that diamond necklace…. Duke, the king’s son, is the one who gave that to you?”
“Yup.”
Gilles’s eyes go wide as they dart down to stare at the glittering diamond resting above my chest.
Come to think of it, I suppose anyone would be surprised hearing that this was a gift from the king’s son. I was also quite shocked when Duke-Sama had first given it to me.
“So, could the reason he hasn’t done anything until now be because Alicia was still young….?” Gilles mutters, but his voice is too low for me to catch what he said.
I wonder if Duke-Sama has always acted that way with women? I could have sworn I heard a rumor that he’s as cold as ice when dealing with the fairer sex though.
I guess that just goes to show that you can’t place your trust in rumors. Though, now that I think of it, even in the game Duke-Sama was only ever nice to the heroine.
….Does that mean I’ve replaced her as the object for his affections? But what does Duke-Sama even like about me?
Ah. He must still think of me as a little sister. There are all kinds of ways to like someone after all. Having his affections doesn’t guarantee that he likes me in a romantic capacity.
“Alicia, look over there,” Gilles says, looking towards the courtyard. I follow his gaze, wondering what he wants me to see.
Oh, there’s Liz-san.
Liz-san and….. could that be one of the academy’s professors? With white hair, glasses, and a plump stature, he definitely gives off that sort of feeling.
And is he holding an essay that Liz-san wrote? I wonder what sort of essay it is. And what topic did she choose?
Ah, I’d really like to read it, too. I guess I’ll just have to stop that professor and have him hand it over.
“Gilles.”
“On it.”
Gilles’s so smart. He understands my intentions even without me having to say anything.
We creep over to a better vantage point and watch them carefully, confirming that Liz-san has left the premises before heading out into the courtyard ourselves. We slowly make our way over to the professor.
Will he be willing to hand the essay over to us though? I can’t help but wonder.
As we draw near, the professor must hear our footsteps since he stops reading and looks up at us.
“Ah, you two must be Alicia and Gilles,” he says, grinning.
I guess the rumors flying around about us have even reached the professors ears now. That will make this go much more smoothly.
“My name’s John. Nice to meet you,” he greets us happily. For a professor, he seems to be pretty laid-back. “Here. Take it,” he continues still smiling, holding Liz-san’s essay out to me.
I haven’t even said anything yet…. How did he know that’s what I wanted?
But I don’t ask. Instead I merely thank him as I take the essay from his outstretched hand.
As I’m about to walk away, I hear John-Sensei’s quiet and kind voice one more time. “Welcome to the academy.”
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T/N: Lol, you think the teacher’s in on it? He seemed oddly happy to meet them.
ALSO! Translation announcement! My goal for this month was to release one chapter every day. A sort of No Break November thing XD (I just came up with that now lol) I know I’ve missed like two days, but I’m still pretty proud that I was able to maintain this pace for this long haha. I just wanted to let you guys know that after November, hopefully when there isn’t too bad of a cliffhanger, I’m going to be taking a little break. I’d like to give some love to my other series, since I’ve been neglecting them this whole time. I figure it will be somewhere between 2 weeks to a month, so I just wanted to let you know ahead of time so you aren’t too startled when it happens. Thank you for all the love you guys have been giving to this story!! And never fear! I’m still hoping to come back with nearly daily chapters again, though maybe more like 5 per week or something.
