Chapter 71

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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“It would be better to part ways around here.”

Clois stopped at a place a short distance from the dormitory.

As the curfew time approached, children who had been studying in classrooms or professors’ offices were flocking back all at once.

Among them, there might be a child who had seen him at a banquet where they were invited with their parents a few times.

‘That would be troublesome.’

He didn’t want the fact that he was the Emperor to be discovered.

If that happened, he wouldn’t be able to meet Evi comfortably like this.

People would attach useless meaning to every single action he took.

He thought of something that happened in the past.

Seeing a child born in the same year as Evbien, he had looked after them a few more times, wondering if his daughter would be about that size if she were alive.

At that time, all sorts of people brought children the same age as Evbien, to the point where he wondered if the Imperial Palace was a nursery.

There even appeared those who borrowed relatives’ children or other people’s children if they didn’t have one themselves.

‘I can’t see that sight again.’

That was a terrible thing for him and by no means a good thing for Evi.

If it was revealed that she was a child the Emperor personally looked after, how many people would flock to her?

“What about you, Professor? Are you going straight out of the Imperial Palace?”

“I think I’ll have to stop by the main palace for other business before returning.”

Clois returned the bag to Evi.

Then he smelled a sweet scent again. It was the smell of cookies he had smelled in the professor’s office.

‘It didn’t seem like there were cookies inside.’

If so, there would have been a rustling sound when he carried the bag, but it was definitely full of only books.

‘Did she put them in her bag during the day?’

If that was the case, the smell of snacks remaining in the professor’s office was also understandable.

‘Next time, I should bring some food too.’

As it was the Gifted Center which received full support, there was no shortage of snacks for the children.

However, since they should not be too excessive, the types of snacks in the cafeteria were not that many.

Even when he attended, wasn’t it that the quantity was large but the types were not very many?

Clois recalled the chef who, excited when he recently increased his food intake, had made and brought up all kinds of desserts.

“Chief Chamberlain, do you think this is an amount one person can eat?”

Clois had asked the Chief Chamberlain with a fed-up face at the dozens of desserts, and the Chief Chamberlain had answered that he would only bring up one type from next time.

‘It would be good if she could go to the main palace together.’

Then he could feed her all the snacks in the Empire in the wide and beautiful garden until she said she couldn’t eat anymore.

Clois swallowed his regret and waved his hand.

“Then go in well. Let’s see you again next time.”

“You too, Professor!”

Even though they had greeted each other like that, the two stared at each other blankly.

“Aren’t you going in?”

“I want to see you go and then go in!”

“No. You should go in first.”

“But I’m going into the dormitory, while you’re going back to work, Professor. I’ll wave to you.”

Thinking that alone wasn’t enough, Evi promised one more thing.

“Until you can’t be seen, Professor.”

He had tried to hold out a bit more.

Clois couldn’t hold out any longer at the cute suggestion that she would wave to him.

“Alright, then I’ll be going now.”

He raised both hands as if defeated and turned his body.

After walking a few steps, he looked back and saw Evi waving one arm vigorously.

At the sight of her keeping her promise, he ended up laughing without realizing it.

Evi continued to wave her hand until he turned the corner and was no longer visible.

Even after he disappeared, she continued.

“Evi? What are you doing?”

“Irene!”

When she turned her body at the voice heard from behind, Irene was standing there with her eyes wide open.

“I was waving to Professor Sian.”

At those words, Irene looked toward where Evi had been looking.

Who was she saying was in a place where no one was?

“Maybe I should have come out a bit earlier. Then I could have greeted him too.”

“Um, do you want to go together tomorrow?”

Irene shook her head at Evi’s suggestion.

“No. I’m busy listening to more supplementary lectures tomorrow as well. I have to study more too. I’ll go see him after the exams are over.”

It wasn’t that Irene wasn’t curious about Professor Sian.

‘Because that mana stone was real.’

He was the professor who caused that commotion. Even thinking about it now, it was a mystery with what thought he had readily given such a precious thing to his ward.

So she thought it was strange, but Evi followed that professor very well.

‘I think she likes him more than us, whom she sees every day.’

According to Evi, he was a very kind guardian.

When they had gone home leaving Evi behind, she said he had gone to the seasonal festival together and shown her around.

‘He also gives a lot of gifts.’

Evi had shown her a squirrel doll made of wood.

The way she proudly bragged that she was the one who pulled it out was just like the squirrel she had pulled out herself.

‘It’s not like Evi has been with Professor Sian for a long time.’

Yet how she followed him like this…

She had withdrawn her suspicion that he might be a strange person.

Even though she was still young, Evi was keen to notice people who had ill will toward her.

She thought that if he was a person Evi followed this much, he couldn’t be bad.

“Let’s go in first. It’s still cold at night.”

Irene stroked her arm and went inside together while holding Evi’s hand.

After a while, Ezriella revealed herself from behind a tree.

‘Good. For now, I’ve confirmed that person is Professor Sian.’

While going up to her room, she recalled the appearance of Professor Sian she had seen.

He was a more decent person than she thought. No, he wasn’t just decent, but had a very handsome appearance.

His physique was large enough to remind one of a knight rather than a professor, and he had a lean body with not a bit of fat.

‘No matter how I think about it, he doesn’t seem like a professor.’

At that time, a dormitory staff member called Ezriella.

“Something has come from your home. There was also a request to check it quickly as it’s an urgent matter.”

An urgent matter? Looking at the letter, it was sent by her older brother.

‘He really has a lot of interest in this matter.’

She could guess the reason.

It was certain that the story of the mana stone had piqued her brother’s curiosity.

Ezriella’s father had many mana stones.

Her brother also thought that was a hobby befitting a noble, and often peeked around auction houses to find his own mana stone.

So he must have taken an interest in the story of the mana stone that caused enough commotion in the Gifted Center.

‘Furthermore, he seemed to know something about Professor Sian.’

Ezriella, who entered her room, hurriedly tore open the letter.

[To Ezriella.
Are you saying that a person named Professor Sian is really in the Gifted Center now? I checked, and I confirmed for sure that ‘Sian Roshen,’ the professor registered in the Gifted Center, is a geology major and is currently back in his hometown.
Furthermore, he fell ill, and since he is over 70 years old, he is not recovering easily and is delaying his return to the Gifted Center. They say at this rate, he will quit his professor position and completely retire…]

Ezriella’s eyes widened.

“A person over 70 years old?”

That couldn’t be. A moment ago, the person Evi called Professor Sian was in his late 30s at most, even if one estimated his age high.

A person who absolutely could not be 70 years old. Furthermore, he was back in his hometown.

The content of the letter following that was her brother saying he had confirmed several times that it was Professor Sian Roshen of the Gifted Center.

Then who was the person she saw a moment ago?

A smile appeared on her face.

‘What does it matter who it is?’

What was certain was that the person was not a professor.

And that he was impersonating a professor and coming and going from the Gifted Center as he pleased.

Also, that he was claiming to be Evi Alden’s guardian.

‘That brat, she’s hiding something in the professor’s office.’

Like last time, Evi had crouched down here and there in the school, picked something up, and put it in her bag.

It was the same today.

The bag clearly looked full when she entered, but when she came out, the volume of the bag Professor Sian was carrying had clearly decreased.

‘Furthermore, there are quite a few students who have lost their items.’

Including the female student who lost her bracelet in the classroom last time, there were many students everywhere saying they had lost items.

The image of Evi secretly putting lost items in her bag appeared in Ezriella’s head.

It was just an imagination, but in her head, it was already becoming a thing that had clearly happened.

She stood up abruptly from her seat and looked for the book where the school rules of the Gifted Center were written.

Ezriella’s hand, which was flipping through the pages like crazy, stopped.

[School Rule Article 17, Paragraph 1.
A person who steals a fellow student’s item shall be punished by expulsion.]

It was a school rule that Ezriella wished for so much right now.