IGBDS 5

Chapter 5

And rightly so…

‘Asking them to look for something he stole himself. What kind of grief does the staff have to go through?’

It really was an absurd little farce.

His desperate love for Charity Cressida was incredibly famous. Love at first sight, or so they said.

He’d passionately confessed at the end of the first-year fall semester and been thoroughly rejected.

The reason I knew this was because it had been a public confession…

Even after being rejected, Molden always hovered nearby, volunteering for menial tasks.

It was no use even when Cressida scolded him, saying he wasn’t her attendant.

After that, he confessed his passionate love a total of four times.

All were spectacularly rejected, but that only made Molden the academy’s greatest romanticist.

“I apologize. We searched the hall thoroughly, but…”

“How on earth do you manage things? Oh, Cressida… don’t worry, my love. I will surely find that item for you.”

“Even though you don’t know what I lost?”

“If it’s yours, I can find anything.”

How heartfelt, how heartfelt. Anyone watching would think they were already lovers.

I wasn’t the only one thinking this.

“Darren Molden, you know… isn’t he just so romantic?”

“Right? He and her ladyship make such a wonderful pair. Honestly, where else would you find someone who loves her ladyship as much as Lord Molden?”

“Truly. I wish Cressida would recognize his sincerity.”

“But won’t it all end once we graduate? I understand Lady Cressida’s feelings. The two of them are only equals while they’re students…”

All students enrolled are equal regardless of status.

That was the first principle established by the founding headmaster of Sen Tielre in the distant past.

Under that radical school rule, at least within Sen Tielre, all students could act without concerning themselves with each other’s status.

Though judging by how things actually ran, I had some doubts about whether it was truly equal. Anyway, that was the rule.

“But Darren is also from a noble family. Who knows? Maybe the ducal house will be moved by his sincerity and give their permission?”

“The ducal house not caring about status—does that even make sense?”

Various opinions circulated about the two.

But among them, no one doubted Molden’s love.

‘Well, that’s understandable.’

If I hadn’t overheard his scheme, I’d have thought he was a man driven mad by love too.

Suddenly, the memory of that day when I’d learned his true intentions and felt my head stinging came back.

That day was a week before the sixth graduation ceremony.

I was confident I’d lived a perfect school life up to then, but I wanted to wrap things up flawlessly to the very end.

So I went into the city to personally pick out a birthday gift for a close classmate.

“Damn it, I told you there were no problems. Sending people from Sparrow—what’s the big deal about that…”

I never imagined I’d overhear an enormous secret on the way back.

I slowed my steps at the voice coming from inside the alley.

It was a voice soft enough that an ordinary person would have walked right past, but something about it was familiar.

I leaned subtly against the wall and listened.

“Ha, Darren—”

What? Darren?

The Darren Molden I knew?

“Don’t worry, brother. The loose ends are already cut.”

Hearing it, it did sound like him. Though far colder and more chilling than I remembered.

“As long as we keep our mouths shut, no one will know how that item got there.

“That woman is completely fallen for me. Of course she is—think of all the effort I’ve put in… Just prepare properly. I’m going to marry her right after graduation, before she changes her mind.”

My goodness.

I couldn’t grasp the full context, but it was more than enough for someone who knew him to understand.

Darren Molden had deliberately approached Charity Cressida.

It was a story that would shock anyone at the academy. I covered my gaping mouth with my hand and scurried away.

After returning to the academy, I thought deeply.

‘If I leave this alone, Molden and Cressida will end up married, won’t they?’

With her personality, she didn’t seem like someone who’d casually date someone. There were even people who’d seen the two of them entering the ducal estate together on days off…

‘Isn’t that, like, kind of despicable…?’

Of course, it wasn’t my place to be indignant. It wasn’t any of my business.

But pretending I hadn’t heard and letting it slide was…

‘This guy is way more malicious than I thought?’

The story of how the two got together was famous enough that even I knew it.

Darren, who’d been scouring the academy inside and out, finally found the item Cressida had lost at a nearby auction house.

‘He recognized at a glance that it was a necklace she often wore, or something like that.’

It turned out to be her mother’s keepsake, and Cressida, deeply moved, eventually accepted Molden’s request to court her.

…But putting together what I’d just heard, all of this meant it was Darren’s own staged scheme.

“Mmm. Using even your dead parents—that’s crossing the line.”

Looking back on his misdeeds at the time, I reached my conclusion without difficulty. And the next day, I immediately called Cressida out.

“Cressida, I have something important to tell you.”

“You? To me? …Fine, I’ll listen. But I don’t have much time, so keep it short.”

“Break up with Molden.”

“…Are you insane?”

“He’s a con artist. He stole the necklace, planted it at the auction house, and made it look like he found it himself.”

Cressida looked at me with a shocked face.

“Properly. Say it again, at length…”

Two days later, rumors that the two had broken up spread wildly throughout the academy.

She hadn’t seemed to believe me outright, so it must have taken time to verify the truth.

That night, Cressida came to find me. Aside from the shadows under her eyes, her face was no different from usual.

“I have a question, Maze. Why did you tell me this? It has nothing to do with you.”

“I simply judged that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut once I knew the truth. I felt like it would weigh on my conscience for the rest of my life if I graduated like that.”

“What if I hadn’t believed you… what were you going to do?”

What do you mean, what. You’d have kicked away your own fortune.

“Who knows. Whether you believe or not is your freedom. I just did what I had to do.”

Cressida just looked at me for a while, then soon pressed one of her brooches into my hand.

The brooch had an eagle engraved on it. The symbol of the Cressida family.

“If you ever find yourself in trouble after graduation, come by the ducal estate anytime.”

Come back to the capital after graduation? Are you insane?

…That thought came first, but instead of voicing it, I clutched the brooch tightly and answered that I would.

Of course, I had no intention of going. No, I wasn’t even given the chance.

Before long, I regressed again.

And so I found myself facing the con artist of the century once again.

And right at the point where everything was about to begin.

‘Now… what do I do?’

Even after repeating time seven times, I hadn’t found a clear answer.

Wrestling with it alone this time wouldn’t change anything either, so I needed to raise the stakes entirely.

In that sense, Cressida was a fairly useful card. She was someone who repaid favors several times over.

…It occurred to me that finding her keepsake and using her wasn’t so different from what Molden was doing.

‘It’s not like I’m going to leech off her for life like someone else, and it’s only for a year.’

Cressida would thank me if she knew, wouldn’t she?

‘First, let me check whether the necklace made it to the auction house.’

I left the party hall and headed straight to the administrative office.

The staff member who’d rejected my withdrawal form just a month ago greeted me once again.

“Hello, is Darren Molden currently at school?”

What I wanted to confirm first was Molden’s entry and exit records.