Chapter 38

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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Evi was still attending classes alone.

When she went to attend history class, the children who had arrived first and were sitting there openly wore expressions showing they hoped she wouldn’t come near them.

In the end, even though Evi had arrived quite early, she had to sit in the very corner seat.

It was the same when class ended.

Everyone headed to the cafeteria in groups of three or five, mingling with their own cliques, but Evi went inside alone.

Because everyone crowded in during a shorter time compared to breakfast and dinner, there were no seats in the cafeteria.

Evi eventually received a packed sandwich and a drink that could be eaten outside and came out.

Then, she looked for a place that was as quiet as possible and sat down.

There were people watching Evi’s figure from afar.

“There, it’s Evi.”

Ruska, who was looking out the window, stood close and pulled Arcel.

Arcel heartlessly brushed off Ruska’s hand pulling at his collar and straightened his clothes.

“So?”

While making an indifferent voice, Arcel’s gaze turned toward the window.

“Under that tree over there. See it?”

Where Ruska was pointing, there was Evi eating a sandwich alone.

“Ah.”

When Arcel acknowledged it, Ruska clicked his tongue.

“When I saw her last time, she didn’t seem very close with the kids either, but she’s still alone.”

“She’s a commoner student and didn’t make friends separately before entering, so she must be excluded.”

It was a Gifted Center that had reopened after a long time. Nobles were desperate to put in their children or relatives somehow.

But since a commoner child had taken a spot they couldn’t enter, there was no way she would be seen in a favorable light.

Even though it was a spot she had earned with her own ability.

“Let’s go.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why. It’s pitiful. And why are you acting so coldly again when you went to find Evi with me last time?”

At Ruska’s words, Arcel looked at Ruska as if he were pathetic.

“At that time, I went to find her because I thought something big might have happened. And after that, we stayed together for two whole days. I think with that, I’ve done all I had to do.”

“Wow, you sure say heartless things well.”

When Ruska spoke as if he were fed up, Arcel said with an still expressionless face.

“Just from the fact that we were together last time, wouldn’t it have bought the resentment of other students?”

“I know.”

“If you know, then restrain yourself now. If you take care of that child by meddling unnecessarily, it will only make things harder for her. Or are you going to keep going around with her from now on?”

Even while saying so, Arcel’s gaze was watching Evi, who was sitting alone.

Did she get it from the cafeteria? She was munching well on a sandwich that was about the size of her head.

There was no light of being discouraged just because she was alone.

Rather, it looked natural, as if she were accustomed to this situation.

That fact irritated Arcel’s nerves.

What’s with that state being natural.

When a surge of annoyance came for no reason, Ruska replied with a carefree voice.

“Shall I? That’s a good idea.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“What do you mean. Didn’t you ask if I intended to stay together with her? Then I can just do that. Hey, I’m going to go to Evi. You stay here. Bye.”

Ruska, who tapped Arcel’s shoulder, slung his school uniform jacket over his shoulder and quickly went out.

“Rus… *Sigh*…”

Arcel, who was about to call Ruska to a halt, let out a long sigh.

He had been poking at him, asking if he was interested after all.

No matter how one looked at it, the person who was interested was on Ruska’s side.

Arcel knew that leaving Evi alone was a good thing.

In the current situation, it was certain that an approach by himself or Ruska would rather bring about an adverse effect. Even though he knew that well…

“Damn it.”

Arcel, who was about to focus on what he was doing, eventually rose from his seat after seeing Ruska trot up to Evi and say something to her.

It would be better for him to stop that idiot before he unnecessarily made things bigger.

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‘It reminds me of when I was in the Upper School.’

While eating the sandwich alone, Evi recalled past events.

At first, she had taken on the simple cleaning of the Upper School to be of help to the orphanage.

Even until then, the children of the Upper School had no particular interest in Evi.

Just a pitiful child from the orphanage who came to clean.

Then, the situation changed when Evi listened to their classes through the window and memorized them, and the principal found out and she started taking classes together with them.

From then on, the Upper School students openly revealed their hostility.

Someone younger than them, who had started studying later.

Moreover, they felt fear when the child from the orphanage, who received no help at all, surpassed them at a terrifying speed.

That fear manifested in small and large acts of violence.

At first they threw crumpled paper, and later they threw small stones.

When passing through the hallway, they purposefully bumped into her, and they also applied sticky resin on the chair Evi sat on.

At that time, Evi realized that it was better when they had treated her like air.

‘I ate alone like this back then too.’

When Evi attended the Upper School, the Director of the orphanage packed boiled potatoes for Evi’s lunch every day.

During the students’ mealtime, Evi always ate potatoes alone outside.

Since even if she were there, she wouldn’t hear anything good, and they might take away the potatoes and throw them away somewhere, saying they were playing a prank.

‘Compared to then, now there’s no one throwing anything, and I can eat more.’

Evi looked at the sandwich held in her hand with a satisfied face.

The reason she had come to the Gifted Center, which she hadn’t dared to tell the Director until the end, was indeed food.

When she was at the orphanage, she shared food with many children, so Evi suppressed her desire to eat more and tried to eat only a little.

But not here. If she went to the cafeteria, it was full of ingredients she was seeing for the first time in her life.

Even if the children of the Gifted Center as well as the staff all ate, it was a surplus amount.

So for the first time, she had tried picking up something to eat greedily.

The result was the sandwich held in her hand right now.

With ham, cheese, butter, and even egg salad and vegetables packed in, it was of a thickness that was difficult to bite into at once with a small mouth.

‘It’s delicious.’

However, she soon became gloomy.

‘It would be good if I could send the food left over here to the orphanage.’

To Evi’s mouth, it was like food from heaven, but there were many children in the Gifted Center who wouldn’t even touch such food, asking how they could eat such things.

So there was a lot of food left over and thrown away in the cafeteria.

Every time she saw food being thrown away as time passed, Evi’s heart ached.

To think that things she and her friends had tried to eat even one more of somehow would become trash here.

‘Should I try taking some cookies later?’

It was when Evi was thinking so.

“Hi, Evi!”

Evi was startled by the voice that suddenly came and turned her head.

There, Ruska was waving his hand with a smile.

Evi jumped up and bowed her head to him.

“Master Ruska!”

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you for a few days, but it feels like it’s been a very long time. The schedule on the boys’ dormitory side is so busy that I was going to ask what classes you’re taking, but I didn’t have time. What classes are you taking with which professor?”

When Ruska spoke to her while grinning, Evi ended up flustered.

She had thought there would be no more occasion to meet after he had taken care of her last time.

But to think he would come look for her directly like this and greet her.

“I told you to do it in moderation, Ruska.”

“Oh, you’re here?”

At Arcel’s voice coming from behind, Ruska raised his hand and spoke insincerely, as if he had known he would come.

Evi’s eyes grew even rounder as Arcel appeared as well.

Even though she hadn’t particularly mingled with people for the past few days, Evi could hear stories of Arcel and Ruska here and there.

The young lords of the families with the highest authority in the empire.

And the people with the highest probability of becoming the Emperor’s adoptee.

To Evi, they were people so far above her that it was difficult even to dare to look at them, let alone have a conversation.

So she was worried if she had perhaps committed some rudeness to such people.

When Evi was flustered, not knowing how to act, Ruska questioned her again.

“I’m asking what classes you’re taking? Ah, just for your information, don’t apply for Professor Aindel’s math. I heard that even for the same math class, that professor teaches in a really uninteresting way.”

“Uh, I’m not taking that. I’m taking Professor Malles’ class…”

“Oh, that’s good! By the way, what do you take for history class? What about philosophy?”

At Ruska’s questions, which were like a downpour, Evi unconsciously blurted out the classes she had applied for one after another.

Then Ruska said to Arcel.

“You heard it all, right? Since the registration correction period remains anyway, we’re changing our classes to these too.”

“Why would I take those classes together…”

“Pardon? Why would you?”

Before Arcel could say anything, Evi cried out in surprise.

It was an expression that, no matter who looked at it, was asking why on earth he would do such a thing.

At such a reaction from Evi, Arcel felt a bit piqued.