Chapter 4

She hadn’t slept well.

Tislin walked into the classroom with a rough, weary face. Having suffered such a shocking experience yesterday, she had stayed up all night and only managed to catch a quick nap when morning came. Her mind was still half-hanging in dreamland.

Unfortunately, her first class was with Professor Talis, who never tolerated any distraction or slacking off. To avoid dozing off for even a second, she had to constantly pinch her thighs.

Tislin and Sierra, who had also stayed up all night, barely managed to survive the hour by digging their fingernails into the backs of each other’s hands.

In truth, classes in the Department of Administrative Sciences weren’t particularly interesting to Tislin.

While that was probably true for the vast majority of students, those who were heirs to their families or aimed to become government officials had a clear incentive to get good grades in this department.

Tislin, however, was neither an heir nor interested in becoming a bureaucrat, yet she had enrolled in the Department of Administrative Sciences anyway. Her parents had expressed a lot of concern regarding that decision.

“If you’re going to enroll in the Royal Academy, wouldn’t it be better to go to the Department of Liberal Arts?”

“Or the Department of Magic would be fine too. You’re not the heir, nor are you going to be an official, so I really don’t understand why you want to learn something so complicated.”

When her younger brother was born ten years ago, Tislin was moved away from the position of heir. Her parents’ suggestion that it would be better to join a department advantageous for finding a good marriage prospect certainly made sense.

However, the reason she brushed off those concerns and chose the Department of Administrative Sciences was simply because her education had been cut short in the middle. Ever since her younger brother was born, the lessons she had been receiving as part of her heir training suddenly became ‘things she no longer needed to learn.’

Even as a child who loved to play, she could vaguely tell that this wasn’t a good thing. That faint lingering regret was what pushed Tislin into the Department of Administrative Sciences.

The end result?

It wasn’t bad. Although she couldn’t compare to the few who studied day and night aiming to become officials, Tislin ranked around 5th or 6th out of forty-some students in the department over her three years, maintaining reasonably high grades.

Where she ranked at the Royal Academy might not be crucial to Tislin Ermiz’s life, but she felt satisfied knowing that her hard work yielded proportional results.

It was also a relief that she was able to make a like-minded friend like Sierra.

“Now, one final announcement. Students graduating next year must take the summer graduation exam. There are often cases where students wait boastfully for the winter exam only to ruin it and fail to graduate.”

“Often.”

“Woof! Woof woof!”

(Translators note: The word for ‘often’ in Korean sounds similar to dog barking sounds, hence the jokes.)

A few students in the back row giggled while imitating the professor’s tone. The professor glared sharply at the back row and caught the culprits in no time.

“Mr. Hickston, Mr. Alloin. You two must be confident enough in the graduation exam to mock my speech. In that case, you should be able to graduate comfortably even if you receive a penalty in this class.”

The graduating seniors, who were currently desperate for every single point, clicked their tongues at the two’s foolhardiness. The two would now have to run to the professor’s office and beg on their knees.

“What were they thinking, laughing at the professor when they clearly knew what would happen?”

It would be one thing if they were reckless troublemakers who didn’t care about their grades, but neither of them was like that.

Yet around this age, there were always boys who felt compelled to cause a stir like that. Tislin looked at Sierra and shook her head.

“Ack, Professor, wait a moment!”

Hickston and Alloin opened the classroom door to chase after the professor, who had turned on his heel and walked out with a icy cold face.

However, the two who tried to rush out into the hallway froze dead in their tracks before they could even step out. They had spotted a man standing directly in front of the door.

A long shadow cast deep across the classroom floor.

What caught their attention first was a crisp, sharply tailored uniform—rarely seen in the Department of Administrative Sciences where attire was casual outside of official events—and hair as black as a raven’s feather. And those piercingly cold blue eyes were…

“Gasp, Lord Xsanov?”

“Do you know me?”

“No, not that. Uh, I saw you in the newspaper.”

The cowed Hickston stepped aside slightly to let him pass. Thanks to that, everyone in the classroom got a clear view of Damien Xsanov, who had suddenly appeared.

Like everyone else, Tislin reflexively turned her head, only for her face to turn pale.

“Come to think of it, didn’t he visit yesterday too?”

“Right. He came to the lounge. Back then…”

The eyes of the students who had been in the lounge yesterday naturally shifted toward Tislin.

‘Ah, I’m ruined!’

The moment their eyes met, Tislin practically shot out of the classroom like a bullet.

She pulled Damien Xsanov by the arm.

For most of the time they had known each other, their relationship hadn’t been particularly close. Even so, there was a baseline level of tact that naturally exists between people who have known each other for a long time. Instead of opening his mouth and inviting trouble, Damien silently followed Tislin out.

The classroom heated up once again with yesterday’s gossip. Sierra Pontinaire quickly fled through the front door before the pack of hyenas could catch her.

Tislin dragged Damien to the most secluded spot on campus, a hidden corner far from people’s eyes, and pressed him before she could even catch her breath.

“Why are you here!”

Even as she said it, it sounded ridiculous. Asking why he came—he obviously came because of the engagement.

Of course, what Tislin actually meant was why he had gone out of his way to come all the way to the Administrative Sciences classroom, but in truth, even that wasn’t the main issue.

The important thing was to smooth over this awkward and embarrassing situation somehow.

“The engagement… I’m not the one who asked for the engagement. I told you back then too. I never meant for us to get engaged or married or anything like that. I would never send a marriage proposal without a word.”

“I never said you did. Tis, calm down.”

A large hand completely covering her shoulder pressed down gently as if soothing her.

Tislin gasped in surprise and raised her head, but as soon as their eyes met, she quickly looked away. Then, she muttered rapidly as if spitting out a memorized script.

“It must be a mistake on my parents’ part. I really don’t know why His Grace accepted it, but it hasn’t been announced yet anyway. No one knows yet, so we can just call it off right now! I’ll send a letter telling them to break off the engagement immediately. If His Grace asks you, just say we agreed to break it off. My parents might not listen to me, but His Grace will listen to your opinion.”

There was no answer.

Tislin fidgeted with her skirt with her fingers, trying to read his expression. Their long shadows overlapped halfway, which needlessly caught her attention again.

On the other hand, Damien didn’t give so much as a glance to the shadow and calmly asked back.

“Tis.”

“…What.”

“Why should we?”

What?

It was a completely unexpected question. Did Damien intend to go through with this engagement then?

“What do you mean ‘why’? What are you talking about?”

“I have no objection to this engagement.”

“Is it because His Grace arranged it? But if you say you don’t want to, he’ll accept it. In any case, my family wouldn’t be of much help to the Luxen Grand Duchy anyway. The same goes for Adelinde.”

“Yes, that’s probably true. But is that a reason why I shouldn’t get engaged to you?”

Of course, Damien Xsanov wouldn’t care who it was—as long as it was someone the Grand Duke wanted and someone who would be helpful to Adelinde.

He might have his preferences, but as long as it wasn’t someone he physically couldn’t stand being around, it didn’t really matter to him.

And Tislin hated that.

“…What if I don’t want to? If I don’t want to get engaged, can you break off the engagement for me?”

She spoke while avoiding his eyes, unable to bring herself to look him in the face. What good would it do to look at him anyway? It would only make her look like a pathetic child, blushing unsightly and saying ‘I don’t want to.’

The large hand resting on her shoulder slid off. She clearly felt the sensation of his fingertips grazing her thick sleeve. Tislin pressed down on her wildly beating heart with both hands. This was just as pathetic, but she couldn’t help it.

Damien let out a sigh, lowered his body slightly, and forced his eyes to meet hers. Then, he asked in a low voice.

“Why?”

Tislin stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

Once Tislin set her mind to being stubborn, even Adelinde—the most stubborn person in Luxen—couldn’t beat her. So there was no way Damien, who was always dragged around by Adelinde, could win against her.

Damien knew that fact all too well, so he didn’t do something foolish like waiting endlessly for an answer he wouldn’t get.

“Tis, it’s not like it’s completely unbearable. Just endure it. I’ll treat you well.”

His soothing tone was deliberately soft.

At some point, Damien had started speaking to Tislin in this manner. It wasn’t the way he handled Adelinde like a child, nor was it the crisp, decisive tone he used when dealing with the Grand Duke or his fellow knights. It was firm, yet strangely sweet.

If he hadn’t acted like that, Tislin wouldn’t have foolishly harbored expectations and confessed in the first place.