Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Then, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had almost gone ahead and stupidly went looking for Dustin. Time was scarce. She didn’t need to know what happened to Dustin Airak. Andra turned back and walked towards the opposite direction, heading for the dormitory.

But her plans were thwarted. Andra unfortunately had to change her destination before she even got to her dorm. It was because she had heard that her major’s professor, Professor Velott, was urgently looking for Andra. Andra hurriedly ran up the stairs and arrived in front of the professor’s office. She went in a hurry, and her forehead was full of sweat.

“Long time no see, Miss Avellin. How is your body?”

Assistant Ren found Andra and greeted her warmly. Andra glanced throughout the faculty room, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a handkerchief given to her by the assistant.

In fact, every time she looked at the professor’s room, she remembered what happened yesterday, and Andra couldn’t easily enter the professor’s room. How could she possibly look at the professor’s face?

“…Excuse me, Assistant Ren. Why did the professor suddenly call me?”

“Uh, um, that’s… You’ll find out when you go in.”

Without explaining, the assistant urged Andra into the professor’s room. She felt a little uneasy about this, but she couldn’t not go in, so Andra immediately knocked and opened the door and went in. She then saw the man inside and she was terribly perplexed.

“Why are you here?”

Professor Velott, whom she had expected to be there, wasn’t there. Instead, it was Dustin, who was dressed in a dark blue knight uniform and already sitting down.

Andra struggled with the crumpled look on her face. It was the same with Dustin, so he turned his head away as soon as he saw that the person entering the room was Andra.

“Do you know who called us here?”

Dustin responded nervously, unclasping the first button of his shirt. Wary of his movements, Andra looked for Professor Velott.

“The professor?”

“That’s what I want to ask.”

“…Are you saying the professor called you as well?”

“There’s no reason for me to come here.”

Dustin left after yesterday’s events, but Andra didn’t point it out. He didn’t want to bring it up again. It would have been better if he could just forget about it forever. He doesn’t want to think about it. Andra decided to change her question.

“Why did the professor call you?”

“Well. We’ll find out when the person comes.”

“What, so you’re saying you don’t know.”

“Think whatever you want. More than that…”

Turning to Andra, who was standing with her back against the door, Dustin frowned involuntarily. Since a while ago, Andra stayed as far away as she could as if he was a germ, not even taking a single step in his direction. It was the complete opposite of half a day before when she was constantly intertwined with his naked body.

For some reason, Dustin felt sullen.

But why?

He didn’t even know himself. Why did he feel that way towards Andra?

He just got annoyed. In the end, Dustin was unable to find an answer and he pretended to be as casual as possible.

“How long are you going to stand there? You’re blocking the entrance.”

“Whether it’s blocked or not is up to me. Don’t mind me.”

Andra nodded coldly and crossed her arms. Who would have known that Dustin would be in the professor’s room when she came to see the professor. Above all, it was only yesterday that they did something in this very office. There’s no telling that an accident wouldn’t happen today, especially if she stayed close to Dustin for no reason.

Andra couldn’t rely on Dustin. She’d rather have relied on the shepherd boy, but not Dustin. In the first place, he was a descendant of a swordsman family in the barbaric northern region of the country. How could she ever believe in such a guy? It’s laughable. Andra twisted the corners of her mouth.

On the other hand, Dustin glowered with displeasure as Andra leaned her back against the door, as if she was really waiting at the door for Professor Velott to come. The expression on his casually pretending face has been distorted for a long time.

“Sit down. Stop being so fussy.”

“Didn’t you hear me tell you not to mind me? Whether I sit down or not is up to me.”

“We don’t even know if the professor would come because you keep standing in front of the door.”

“Why are you suddenly such a meddler, Lord?”

“Don’t you know that it’s obviously annoying if you stand around in front of the door? It must be difficult for Lady Avellin to sit still.”

When Dustin nodded, as if he was about to come and sit her down while speaking to her properly, Andra felt nervous. Why was he so openly argumentative today? He kept urging her to sit next to him. Usually, this made her expression distort just by being in the same room as him.

“Did you eat something wrong today? Why do you keep telling me to sit down? Sit down as much as you want by yourself. Or did you not understand what I meant because there’s nothing in your head?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you wear your head as a decoration? I’m just doing this because I don’t want to be by your side. Have you already forgotten what you did here yesterday? Do you think I’ll willingly agree with you after that?”

As expected, he was shameless—and stupid too. Andra looked at Dustin with an openly disgusted expression on her face. At that, one of Dustin’s eyebrows rose slightly. However, as soon as he wiped away his wrinkled expression, he let out an arrogant smirk.

“Who was the one who asked me to do it deeper?”

Crazy bastard, this is really…

It was the moment when Andra could not stand it and magically dragged the vase near her. The door swung open, and after a while, Professor Velott appeared.

“I am a little late. I’m sorry.”

Professor Velott stopped entering the room when she found Andra standing holding the vase. What are you doing with that? With her eyes that seemed to say so, Andra gently returned the vase to the original place.

“Haha, the vase is so pretty. I think the professor has a really good eye.”

Right after, she hurriedly sat down without saying a word. She, of course, didn’t forget to keep some distance from Dustin.

Professor Velott, who saw this, made a face that seemed to understand.

“You two seem to get along better than I thought. That’s nice to see.”

It was Professor Velott who spoke elegantly and made them flinch.

“Well, anyway. I called the two of you because I have a request.”

Professor Velottt sat down and explained, placing her interlaced hands on the desk. She immediately got to the point.

“I would like you two to represent our Ishlan Academy and join the Aslan Ruins dungeon team.”

It was Andra who immediately responded to Professor Velottt’s words. Andra jumped out of the chair and looked at Professor Velott with a look of serious surprise. Join the dungeon team? Me? And with that Airak kid?

Professor Velott waved a hand to Andra, whose lips fluttered with an agitated face.

“Sit down, I haven’t finished talking yet. And I think student Airak has already heard of it. Has Professor Bachzen told you?”

“Yes, I heard.”

“Then…”

“I don’t care.”

Andra’s gaze turned to Dustin in response to the concise answer, and then she turned to Professor Velott again. Andra was the only one who knew nothing about this. That fact gave Andra a great sense of shame.

Dustin Airak knew and only she herself didn’t know!

“Professor!”

“Well, it looks like student Airak already agreed? Then we won’t have to discuss it for long.”

Ignoring Andra’s exclamation, the professor was visibly pleased and handed Dustin a sheet of paper and a pen.

“After you sign it, you can go right away. Rather, I am concerned that I may have wasted your time. If that’s the case, you should do it through Professor Bachzen.”

“No. I have to come here once.”

He actually came to decline it, but he changed his mind.

Dustin glanced at Andra, who was about to explode. He felt refreshed when he thought that he wiped off that arrogant look on her face. This was an impulsive choice, but he signed it with a light heart. Would she be able to move far away from him even if they were both in the dungeon?

Dustin stood up, touching the glittering pattern on his wrist with his fingertips.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

Not knowing that the student had such burning, blazing dark thoughts, Professor Velott saw Dustin off with a friendly smile. Andra glared at Dustin ferociously. She should have killed him right away.

Dustin only smiled at Andra, and then disappeared out the door.

“Professor!”

When Dustin was gone, Andra once again called Professor Velott loudly.

“Oh, my ears are going to fall off. Do you think I can’t hear you? Speak softly.”

“Professor, am I going to the dungeon? And go in with that bast, no, Lord Airak? Why are you doing this to me all of a sudden?”

It’s unfair. Out of the blue, what with the dungeon team, and most of all, Dustin. Professor Velott gracefully crossed her legs in response to Andra’s vexed question.

“Don’t do that too much. That’s a good suggestion for you too. Would I ever make my disciple do something strange?”

“It’s strange for me to enter the dungeon raid in the first place. What were you thinking?”

Dustin was known as the Awakened, so even if he entered the dungeon, Andra had no reason to enter the dungeon. And only Dustin knew that she was an Awakened as well.

When Andra made a perplexed expression, Professor Velott opened her drawer, pulled something out of it, and she threw it at Andra lightly.

It was a thesis proposal that Andra had written and submitted in consultation with Professor Velott at the beginning of the semester.

“Are you not graduating? How are you going to do your thesis?”

“Well, that’s the thesis topic…”

“Are you going to come and change it now? Set your mind straight. How many days did it take you to write the thesis proposal? I chose a lot of things, so when I said it was dangerous, you told me to trust you just once because you were confident. Isn’t that the case? After choosing so confidently, are you going to come and change it now?”

Professor Velott’s words hit her one after another, and Andra was instantly rendered speechless.

“When are you going to rewrite your thesis proposal? Now, when you’re about to finish your first thesis, are you going to change the topic this way? Do you not plan on graduating? You say you don’t want to lose to Lord Airak, but he will graduate after training. What kind of disgrace is that if you can’t graduate because you can’t even finish your thesis? Do you think your family will like it?”