ODD 11

Chapter 11

During the three years at the academy, Aidan was always second place.

In an environment where nothing was lacking, no matter how hard he tried, he could never catch up to Cynthia Violetta—the academy’s unshakable number one.

That woman was truly stubborn.

If you asked how stubborn, she never missed a day at the library while attending the academy.

If you asked how Aidan knew that, it was, of course, because he also went to the library every day except during vacations.

“Pfft, doesn’t she smell like the gutter?”

“I think she smells like fish.”

“Both wrong. This is just the smell of a poor orphan with no parents.”

Occasionally, a few ill-mannered nobles harassed Cynthia.

The reason was simple.

Because she was an orphan, because she was a commoner.

And because someone like that dared to come to the academy and get better grades than them.

Well, it was roughly that kind of childish and pathetic reason.

No matter how much they harassed her with words, when she didn’t even pretend to hear, the severity gradually worsened. They locked her in the bathroom, threw her swordsmanship practice uniform in the trash, and even tore up her notes.

A male student in Cynthia’s class—what was his name again? Anyway, when that guy said one word, “Isn’t this a bit too much?”, he was told things like, “This is just a prank between girls,” and “Do you maybe like her?”

There was also his mother’s advice to not create scandals with female students at the academy for no reason, and he didn’t particularly want to intervene when Cynthia hadn’t even asked for help.

Studying during that time was more efficient.

Until then, to Aidan, Cynthia was nothing more than Student #1 getting in his way.

There was one incident that made him acknowledge Cynthia.

It was exam period. Spoiled milk was poured over her pure white silver hair.

“Hey, you study to get a scholarship because you don’t have money, right?”

“I’ll give you money, so could you just leave the academy? This is a place for kids with standards!”

Just as he was thinking this was a bit much and glanced over, Cynthia’s purple eyes didn’t waver as she only looked at her book. She only checked if milk had splattered on the book, and when there was no wet spot, she just continued studying.

How could she be like that?

Hoo—the child with such a frail body that she seemed like she’d fly away if you blew on her was quite tough, no, extremely ripe.

And so Cynthia established herself in Aidan’s heart as a rival he acknowledged.

Yes, Cynthia Violetta was that kind of stubborn woman.

“Sniff.”

Aidan watched Cynthia, who had her face buried in the diary.

She had been like that for a while now over the single phrase that her father had gone beyond the gate.

It was unexpected.

Was family to commoners all that meaningful?

He thought of his own family—though they lived in the same house, strictly speaking, they each lived in different buildings.

A father so busy he could barely see him once a month, a mother who deliberately avoided him because every time they met, she pushed photos of potential fiancées in his face—when he thought of them, it was a kind of emotion Aidan could never understand.

‘Still.’

If someone cried with a face like that when he disappeared, it might be quite nice.

Of course, there was no one in his family who would do that.

‘Hmm, if I ever get married, would my wife cry like that?’

He thought that and then laughed at himself. Just looking at his parents, it was obvious that the moment one of them died, the other would put a hidden lover in their place—so why would his wife be any different?

“Phew, this isn’t the time for this.”

As if concerned about her ruined face, Cynthia rubbed her cheeks and wiped her nose several times as she raised her head.

“I’m sorry, I got emotional.”

“No, I understand.”

Actually, he didn’t understand at all.

Aidan looked again at the sentence she had written. If Ashford had written the diary to leave that message for Cynthia, then that man had been planning to cross the gate for at least several months.

“But this much is certain now. Since Dad went beyond the gate himself, it wasn’t Aclos’s doing.”

“Right. Though we can’t know how the gate was opened.”

Even in the midst of this, a cool-headed judgment.

Truly worthy of the rival he acknowledged.

“Can a person go beyond the gate?”

How on earth? It wasn’t like a gate could be opened just because you wanted it to.

Could it be that the Core disappearing was part of a bigger plan to open the gate?

‘No, Neodymium didn’t seal the gates. Gates appear sporadically, anywhere, anytime. And even if he opened a gate, monsters would have overflowed from inside again. There were no such reports anywhere.’

But if Ashford really did cross the gate, there was a possibility he used the Core. It needed a bit more investigation.

Humans still didn’t know exactly what gates or Cores were.

“From what I remember, there are records of something coming out of gates, but no records of anyone going in.”

“Maybe no one ever thought to go in. It’s dangerous in many ways.”

Cynthia answered coolly, as if she hadn’t just been crying. She was certainly right.

From the gates, various types of monsters emerged every time. In enormous numbers, at that.

Humans always struggled to deal with those monsters, so they probably never thought of exploring inside the gate, their den.

“That’s true too. That’s why they focused on developing Neodymium to close gates rather than invading.”

“Why would Dad go to a place like that…”

Her once firm eyes wavered again. It was strange how this seemingly strong child became as fragile as a flower in the wind when it came to Ashford.

“Ashford was a great hero, wasn’t he? He wouldn’t have crossed the gate without thought. He must have prepared thoroughly.”

So those words came out without him realizing.

Even though he thought the probability of survival was slim if he really had gone inside the gate.

Cynthia probably thought the same. That’s why she cried like that. What Cynthia did best was thorough analysis, after all.

“Right? Dad wouldn’t be thoughtless like that.”

Seeing her face wipe away tears with a determined expression again was reassuring.

‘Reassuring? Why me?’

The feeling was strange. He rubbed the center of his chest with his palm.

“Maybe Dad took the Core not to open the gate but for something else?”

“But there’s no Core. So there’s no guarantee that the gate would open just because Neodymium weakened. Gates don’t stay open—they appear sporadically.”

“Ah, that’s true too. Hmm…”

A deeply thoughtful expression. He felt like he could hear the gears turning in her head from here.

“The Core might be a clue, so we should investigate it first. The Core came from beyond the gate. When I read the report the Young Master brought from the laboratory, the components making up the Core were definitely carbon, aluminum oxide, chromium, and…”

Watching Cynthia expand her thoughts one by one, voicing the same thoughts as his own, he understood why he felt reassured.

It was like when you end up doing a group project at the academy and there’s a team member who gets A+ in every subject in your group—that kind of feeling.

Of course, Aidan was that ‘A+ team member’ that people at the academy called “riding Aidan’s carriage,” but students who ended up in the same group as him must have felt this kind of relief.

So that’s why seeing Cynthia was reassuring. Because of the conviction that with her, this bizarre incident would somehow be resolved well.

Having reached his conclusion, Aidan lowered his hand from his chest.

“Oh? Young Master, I think we’ve arrived.”

At Cynthia’s words, Aidan turned his head. The rattling carriage had slowed down before he knew it. Outside the carriage window, along with dense foliage, Neodymium was visible.

“I hope there’s some kind of clue. It would be better if it was about Dad, but even about the missing Core.”

Looking at her purple eyes, once again firmly composed, Aidan also nodded.