Chapter 35

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***

Weaver didn’t say anything for a while after he brought Filina into his office. He just busied himself with the pile of papers on his desk.

He didn’t even tell her to sit down, so she just stood there blankly in front of Weaver’s desk.

Filina passed the boredom by looking around the office.

He heard a voice after a while.

“Let me ask you the most basic question.”

Weaver opened his mouth, still keeping his eyes fixed only on his papers.

“Do you have a purpose for applying to the Swordsmanship Academy?”

Filina replied, looking somewhat bored.

“It’s because I want to learn swordsmanship.”

It was a reply she had already said many times.

At this point, she wanted to ask other students. How many times had she explained to others why she wanted to join the Swordsmanship Academy?

Weaver turned his gaze upward as he closed his papers. His eyes were firm as they faced Filina’s red eyes.

“I wasn’t looking for a common response.”

Her eyes widened for a moment at the sound of his low voice, and then she opened her mouth again .

“Well, I want to live…….. would that be an unusual answer?”

Weaver frowned at Filina’s sarcastic voice.

“Because you want to live… ?”

It was an answer he had never heard from any students before.

I had often heard that they wanted to join the academy simply to become stronger, but this was the first time he had heard that she wanted to live.

Moreover, it was somewhat far from the words that would come out of the mouth of a noblewoman.

Weaver opened his mouth and spoke in a heavy tone.

“Did you pass the exam with such desperation with the help of someone?”

Filina had no answer. Then Weaver snickered and spoke in a cold voice.

“If you got in on your own merits, I might have been somewhat persuasive. But now, I can’t relate to you at all.”

Filina bit her lips quietly at his words.

Now Weaver was telling her that if she had passed fair and square on her own merits, he might have turned a blind eye to what her father had done.

But she couldn’t say it with any confidence. If she could go back in time, would she have taken the test with her strength instead of choosing potions?

Unless she was born like Bessie, the barriers were too high for an ordinary woman to pass the exam.

She had to learn swordsmanship skills that could save her life as soon as possible, and she used the potion just for that thought.

Her life would be cut off at any moment……How could she choose to be reasonable like this?

It was the choice she couldn’t afford.

‘I just ……. I just wanted to live …….’

Filina’s red eyes stared coldly at Weaver.

“From the beginning, the examinations of the Swordsmanship Academy were conducted with the exclusion of women from admission, were they not?”

Weaver’s brow wrinkled at her words. Filina spat out in a low voice.

“That’s why I had to use cowardly means to enter the Swordsmanship Academy.”

“Now you’re telling me that’s the reason?”

“Of course. It’s a good enough reason.”

She replied with a cold face.

“You’re saying you would be convinced with an open mind if I got in the academy with my own strength? Do you think that make sense? Is that a person in your imagination? I’m just an ordinary person. There are limits to how hard I can work, and the standards the Academy are too strict for women to pass.”

Hearing her words, Weaver’s face twisted as he opened his mouth.

“You’re right, women are limited in their physical strength. Even if they learn sword fighting in the same way, their results will be considerably inferior to those of men.”

“Is that why you won’t even give women a chance? Women were born with weak anyway, so you want them to live like that for the rest of their life?”

Filina spoke with a look of dismay.

“I think it’s outrageous. In fact, it should be the opposite. Women were born with little strength, so they must be helped to develop it.”

Having said that, she put her hand on her forehead with a tired look on her face.

“I understood the Commander’s thoughts. You said you wouldn’t accept me as a cadet if I enrolled illegally. You can do whatever you want. But I don’t approve of the rules of the military academy examinations either.”

Filina turned straight around and tried to walk out. But Weaver’s pious voice caught her in her tracks.

“Does that mean you don’t mind if I declare you a fraud and expel you from the academy?”

Filina chuckled and turned to face him again. Her sharp gaze glared at him.

Everyone tended to stiffen in the face of Weaver’s intense atmosphere. Filina, however, only met his eyes with a strange look.

She slowly approached Weaver.

Placing her hands on his desk, Filina leaned her upper body forward.

The edge of her mouth lifted in a thin line, and she spat out in a flat voice.

“Suit yourself. If it’s something you can do…”

Weaver frowned at Filina’s words.

Her beautiful voice rang deep in the quiet office.

“Did my father really meet the Commander without expecting much?”

“What……?”

“When my father met the Commander, he must have chosen a place where many people came and went as the appointed place. Right?”

“What’s wrong with that? I didn’t receive the money Duke Debussy offered.”

Filina burst into a faint laugh at his answer.

“No ypu didn’t. I’m very sorry. Since it came to this anyway, I think it would have been better if you took it.”

“…I don’t understand what the hell you’re talking about.”

As Weaver spoke in a low voice with a firm expression, Filina, who had straightened her upper body, tilted her head.

“At the very least, the Commander should have given my father back his bag of money right then and there. Without the slightest bit of slip.”

“…”

“The place you two were in was a busy place, with lots of people watching, and I’m sure the Commander checked the bag that my father offered.”

Weaver’s eyes opened wide at her words. Then Filina shrugged lightly as she added.

“I meant that it’s useless for the Commander to send the bag of money to our residence later.”

“You can’t be………are you accusing me of being an accomplice?”

Blue veins protruded from his forehead. Filina, who was staring at it, said leisurely, folding her eyes in half.

“I heard that the Commander really cares about the Swordsmanship Academy.”

Her elaborate voice flowed through the desolate space.

“You don’t want to quit the academy you love so much, do you?”

“Are you threatening me now!”

Weaver shouted, slamming the desk hard with his fists. But Filina opened her lips without changing expression.

“The decision is yours, Commander.”

She turned and left the office without hesitation. Weaver’s eyes looking at Filina’s back were severely distorted.

His clenched fists on the desk trembled.

***

The next day, the new students started their classes in earnest. Filina started by getting up at dawn and running around the spacious training ground.

The seniors had already gone for breakfast after running around the playground. Lawrence purposely placed Filina and Bessie in the middle of the gathering of students.

Whenever their speed slowed down even a little, the pressure blowing from behind them forced them to move their feet. It was no mean feat to match the man’s speed. But she gritted her teeth and ran.

There was sweat on her forehead, but she didn’t care. It was because of the words Weaver had spoken yesterday, and for no reason, she was stubborn. After the run was over, they all headed to the cafeteria. Filina also tried to walk with Bessie.

“Sir Debussy.”

She heard a voice calling her from behind. Turning her head, she saw Lawrence standing in the distance and beckoning her to come. The Swordmaster’s Academy gave the designation “Sir” to all students unless there was a separate rank.

Also, the writer of the original ‘Cecilia’s Flower’ gave a great deal of meaning to the appellation. Such a setting had also begun at the Sword Academy. Filina told Bessie to go to the cafeteria first and then approached Lawrence.

“You wanted to see me, Vice-Commander?”

At her question, Lawrence said in a calm voice.

“I called for you because I was curious about something.”

Lawrence’s blue hair and light blue eyes shone beautifully in the sunlight. For some reason, he scratched his forehead with a troubled face and slowly opened his lips.

“What did you talk to the Commander about yesterday?”

“The Commander?”

Lawrence nodded as Filina stared at him.

“The Commander has been looking unwell since Sir Debussy dropped by his office yesterday.”

“….”

“He has never been a person who laughs a lot, but he always keeps his composure, but somehow yesterday he looked terribly angry.”

Lawrence asked her with a strange look on his face.

“Did something happen yesterday?”

Filina, who was listening to him with a casual face, shrugged her shoulders and replied.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

Somehow, Lawrence was convinced without a doubt.

Suddenly, Filina found herself walking to the cafeteria with him.

“Didn’t you have a hard time practicing this morning? Sir Bessie and Sir Debussy seem to have a harder time with physical training than the rest of the cadets.”

Lawrence sometimes worried about Filina and Bessie during practice.

He didn’t want to exclude them from training simply because they were women, but he was aware of their condition and told them if they had a hard time they could tell him at any time.

“Yes, it was fine.”

Lawrence smiled faintly at her answer.

“I’m glad. Let me know if there are any inconveniences in the practice. I pay attention, but there may be something I miss.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“But that doesn’t mean you should give up without trying properly.

Try to keep up with your practice as much as you can, and if you feel like dying, then call me.”

Instead of answering, Filina turned her head and looked at Lawrence. His hair, calm and subdued, was flying in the wind.

He seemed to favor her somehow.

Why?

She tried to think of a reason, but nothing in particular came to her mind.

The last time she saw Lawrence Winston was only the third lifetime, when she took Cecilia hostage.

The reason his favors had not been pleasant was due to the memory of that day.

Of course, before, whenever Lawrence looked at her, he gave her a nasty look like she was this wicked woman who bothered his lord.

She didn’t care because she didn’t have much to do with him.

There were plenty of people who looked at her that way anyway.

Perhaps, she was caught like a fool because he was not wary of him in her third lifetime.

It was purely because of Lawrence’s quiet approach from behind when she let Cecilia, her hostage, go. Filina’s dry eyes looked straight ahead. She could feel Lawrence’s eyes staring at her from the side.