Chapter 79

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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The items spilled on the floor were literally junk.

Pencils with broken leads, snapped pen barrels, notebooks that seemed to have only about half their pages filled with notes, and so on.

In fact, they were things close to trash that it was even embarrassing to call them junk.

When items completely different from their expectations came out, all the students surrounding them were bewildered.

Among them, the most bewildered person was Ezriella.

“Th-This isn’t it……”

The moment Evi opened the box, she had inwardly cheered.

Because she thought that she was finally giving up and showing the stolen items.

However, the things in the box were ones that people wouldn’t even take for free, let alone steal.

“It can’t be!”

Ezriella rummaged through the items fallen on the floor.

But even so, her friends’ bracelets or other expensive items she was thinking of were nowhere to be seen.

Then, among the items, she saw a paper bag that had its top neatly folded after being rolled up.

Unlike the other things that were just put in, this one was hidden with more care.

‘This is it!’

Ezriella grabbed the bag and roughly tore open the top.

Then, the things inside the bag tumbled out onto the floor.

“That is……”

Again, just like moments ago, the bewildered voices of the people were heard.

“Cookies?”

“There are other snacks too.”

Because the broken cookie pieces were scattered messily, a savory and sweet smell wafted up.

Ezriella checked inside the bag as if she couldn’t believe it. But only cookie crumbs remained there.

“Th-This can’t be happening……”

Ezriella reached out and snatched the box still held in Evi’s hands.

She grabbed the box and shook it just in case, but still, nothing came out.

The confident attitude vanished in an instant.

When Ezriella looked back, the students who had hit Evi along with her had already retreated some distance away.

Faces filled with fear came into view.

Ezriella felt her mouth go dry.

The students who had been watching with excitement and cheering for her until a moment ago now had expressions that said, ‘It looks like you made the wrong guess,’ to anyone looking.

Clois stood up while holding Evi.

The false accusation of being a thief had now been cleared. Therefore, her injuries had to be treated.

“Wait! Where do you think you’re going!”

Becoming desperate, Ezriella even forgot her fear for a moment and grabbed Clois’s clothes.

When he glared, she quickly let go, but that didn’t mean she had backed down completely.

“Evi Alden isn’t the only liar!”

Framing Evi as a thief had already failed. However, the fact that this man was not Professor Sian Roshen was clear.

Because this was something her older brother had reconfirmed several times.

She pointed her finger at Clois.

“You! You’re a fake!”

At Ezriella’s words and actions, Arcel and Ruska couldn’t stand it anymore and tried to rush forward.

Clois shook his head. He had become curious about what and how far Ezriella had looked into.

“My family looked into everything. The professor named Sian Roshen is a geology professor and an old professor over 70 years old! He went back to his hometown and has been staying there because his health worsened! So why are you Sian Roshen? Speak up! Are you really Professor Sian Roshen?”

At Ezriella’s voice screaming like a madwoman, Clois answered calmly.

“Yes. Just as you said, I am not Sian Roshen.”

At those words, people murmured.

‘Finally!’

Ezriella breathed a sigh of relief. She had gone as far as hitting Evi while framing her as a thief, but she was bewildered when nothing actually came out.

So at least the fact that this man was a fake had to be true, and the man admitted he was not a professor more readily than she had thought.

‘Since he won’t be able to run away.’

The surroundings were already surrounded by students. Employees of the Gifted Center had also arrived and were standing in the hallway.

At that moment, Evi, who had been trembling in Clois’s arms, asked him.

“Professor, you’re not?”

“Evi, I am……”

Was she disappointed by the fact that the person she believed in had lied?

When Clois was about to make an excuse in a hurry, Evi spoke again.

“Then, can I not see you anymore?”

“…….”

At that question, Clois’s throat tightened.

Evi was not resenting him for lying. She was afraid that if he wasn’t a professor, and that fact was caught, she wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. Her green eyes, which met his, trembled slightly.

“Everyone, please step aside!”

Right on time, employees of the Gifted Center began to enter.

Ezriella straightened her chest and said, pointing at Clois.

“Catch that swindler! Evi, she conspired with that lowly thing to impersonate a professor……”

“Why do you call Evi lowly?”

“Well, she’s a child from the orphanage!”

“I’m asking why being from an orphanage makes her lowly.”

“Uh, that’s……”

Ezriella was at a loss for words at Clois’s question.

Why is the orphanage lowly? Isn’t that too obvious?

“That’s, just……”

Ezriella hesitated without being able to answer. Then, seeing the things still rolling on the floor, she had an expression as if she had found the answer.

“Look at this! Picking up things others discarded, picking up and eating them! If you look among these, there must surely be things she stole secretly while others were using them!”

At that moment, Evi, who had only been trembling, spoke up.

“It’s not true! There’s nothing stolen!”

Perhaps because the shock hadn’t worn off yet, her voice was also pitifully trembling because her body was shaking.

“I just picked up everything people threw away. Because everyone here just throws them away…… I thought it would be okay if I took them…… That’s why I gathered them……”

The speaking voice was gradually becoming smaller.

Students of the Gifted Center were children of noble families, or even if they were commoners, most were wealthy children.

It was inevitable, as children of such families had the leisure to receive education.

Naturally, most of the children were not the type to use things sparingly.

If they broke while being used, they threw them away, and even if they had used only a little of a paper, or if it seemed somehow messy after doodling, they just threw the whole notebook away.

Evi had gathered those and put them in.

In front of other students, how much her pride must have been hurt to say that she had gathered what they threw away.

Clois became bitter at the smell of cookies filling the room.

They were nothing more than what everyone threw away without eating more, but Evi had wrapped them several times more with paper bags as if they were something important and put them away in a box.

For her other friends who were far away.

‘I see why you didn’t want to show the things in the box.’

Even a child has pride.

She wouldn’t have wanted to reveal the fact that she picked up and used what others threw away.

Furthermore, trying to send them as ‘gifts’ to her friends at the distant orphanage was even more so.

While Clois was feeling sorry for hurting Evi’s pride, Evi looked at the things scattered on the floor.

Since coming to the Gifted Center, it had been full of good things.

Of course, there were people like Rimora like herself who made it hard for her sometimes, but still, there were many people who treated her kindly, including Professor Sian, Irene, Arcel, Ruska, Professor Malles, and so on……

It wasn’t just people. She could fall asleep in a warm and fluffy bed every day and eat as much delicious food as she wanted.

They kindly told her what she was curious about, and she could see as many books as she wanted.

Could heaven be a place like this? With a joyful heart, Evi wrote letters to send to the orphanage every day.

What she saw, what she learned, with whom and what she did, and even what she ate.

As she wrote such letters, her hand would stop after a while.

‘I’m the only one doing well.’

The friends at the orphanage would still have to eat a fixed number of potatoes and would be fighting over who gets to read a single old book.

And yet, she was the only one spending a dream-like day here.

Out of a sense of guilt, Evi wanted to deliver at least one thing she enjoyed to her friends far away in any way possible.

What caught her eye then was a pencil rolling on the classroom floor.

It was just that the lead at the end was broken, but students had thrown it away saying they couldn’t use it anymore.

She gathered such things. And after checking the day they threw away snacks at the restaurant, she took a handful from the things left out to be thrown outside.

It wasn’t stolen.

I only brought what you threw away……

At that moment, a loud voice was heard from the door.

“What is all this commotion?”

It was Seraphina. After pushing through the people and entering, she shouted in surprise upon seeing Clois standing in the middle.

“Your Majesty! What in the world is going on?”

Your Majesty?

At Seraphina’s words, people were momentarily dazed, unable to process the meaning of those words.

And a short while later.

“……!!!”

A shock incomparable to anything until now spread among the people.