Chapter 3

* * *

At the end of the class, Irina packed books, writing utensils, and a dark red blanket. The face, looked sleepy and she felt annoyed.

However, her face quickly brightened when someone appeared through the back door of the classroom.

“Ludwiiiiiiiiiiig!”

The man had dark eyebrows and a slightly bubbly impression. When Irina shouted, he closed his ears as if her yelling stung his ears, but at the same time, he opened his arms with a smile as if he couldn’t help it.

“Rina, can you please be quiet? Everyone is surprised.”

He scolded her, who was shorter than him.

The classroom was remarkably quiet, and there were only six people packing their belongings, including the Ilse language teacher. Ludwig bowed his head to apologize for the commotion, but the old teacher only smiled kindly.

Ludwig put both hands behind Irina’s back and pushed her, saying, “Let’s go.” Ludwig grumbled in embarrassment to her, who smiled cheerfully as if this situation was just enjoyable.

“Why the hell are you listening to this?”

Ilse language was, so to speak, a minority language.  It was common sense for Kissien nobles to prefer the neighboring and powerful Impenon language rather than the Ilse language.

Irina, who was walking happily, had a slightly lonely face at those words.

“The teacher looks so kind, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, he looked kind.”

“I have a feeling that he won’t say anything even if I doze off.”

When Ludwig narrowed his eyebrows, Irina calmly admitted.

“It went wrong from there.”

They giggled and laughed for a while and headed for the sparsely populated vacant lot.

Ludwig took a seat first on the bench under the tree, and Irina laid flat on his thigh.  Ludwig, who was fiddling with his girlfriend’s red hair, opened his mouth as if he just remembered about it.

“I mean Elenoa.”

Irina flinched unconsciously when the name that recently made the academy buzz came out of her boyfriend’s mouth. Ludwig looked down at Irina curiously.

“Rina, why are you so surprised?”

“……No, but what about Elenoa?”

“He came back to the dormitory. I think the suspension is over.”

Oh, that’s what you meant?

Irina, who was lying on Ludwig’s knee, nodded with a steaming face.

Elenoa was recently suspended for a week by the Academy Administration. This is because he once again had a big quarrel with the Martin gang.

In fact, such disputes have always been common in Elenoa’s academy life. It wasn’t anything special at all.

However, the incident went in a completely different way this time. This is because Elenoa, who had always ignored, somehow swung his fist that day.

It was Martin who started the quarrel and the one who used violence first, not Elenoa. But does that justify Elenoa’s response that day?

Many people found it difficult to readily answer that part. This is because the beatings were so unilateral that it was difficult to defend that he had been a victim.

The person lying on the floor was already motionless.

He was drenched in blood and was violent, like a man who silently executed the task assigned to him. So the figure made him look like a broken person somewhere.

Those who were watching thought the same thing. They could have died… Definitely.

Elenoa was beating those people with murderous intent.

Students called adults because they could no longer see the scene of the assault where humanity was exterminated.

Irina, who learned about it late, was embarrassed and guilty.

She thought it was her fault. As she touched Martin and because of that Martin tried to take it out on Elenoa.

But it was a wrong idea. What Irina touched was Elenoa Schuberg, not Martin.

“Rina, you slapped Count Georg’s second son the day before.”

At Ludwig’s point, Irina flinched.

“Uh…Uh? Uh?… Did you hear that?”

There is nothing scary in the world, but Irina, who is quite aware of her boyfriend, looked gloomy.

She pulled out her victim card and showed her face to him that said, ‘The victim is me’

However, Ludwig, who had seen Irina since she was a child, was not deceived.

“Rina, I beg you to live with a low temper.”

Then she immediately changed her expression and jumped up.

“No, he said I was crazy.”

“…….”

Irina was the first one to slap his cheek. Martin was definitely the next to swear at Irina, but Irina told the story, extremely omitting the scene. Rather, she was saying that she should have hit him one more time.

However, the truth is that the second son of Count Georg did not intend to swear at her Irina.

— T-This c-crazy bitch…….

That was Irina’s nickname.

Her classmates used to secretly call her a madman at the academy, who was somehow not aristocratic and sometimes did actions that other people don’t expect.

Ludwig, who learned the truth, had an embarrassed look.

But he also couldn’t mediate with Irina, saying, “It’s actually your nickname” or “Count Georg’s second son would just addressed with your name.”

Ludwig liked and adored Irina, but he also sometimes found it difficult to handle the tomboy-like personality of his girlfriend. It was obvious that there would be a big uproar.

If he told her about it now, she would ask why hadn’t he told her about this nickname scene earlier and obviously a big uproar will shook the grounds of the academy.

In the end, he sighed deeply and said something like the Marquis of Noviac.

“It’s because I’m worried that something big will happen to you someday after running around without knowing how scary the world is.”

“…..oh, why again?”

“Be careful.”

Irina closed her mouth when her boyfriend sighed repeatedly. She still looked like she had a lot to say, but she put her head back on Ludwig’s hard thighs as if she were going to her place.

And as she pouted her mouth, she suddenly remembered that day.

A much whiter and more delicate finger than her own, holding the handkerchief she handed over.

“…….”

Elenoa thought Irina’s actions were unnecessary kindness and annoying concern, but in reality she wasn’t that kind. She was rather uninterested and ruthless to others and Elenoa was arbitrary.

To be honest, Irina has thought that Elenoa’s personality is not good. It was impossible for her to just be beaten by others.

However, even though he was being insulted countless times, there were times when she felt that he was looking down on people. At that time, he seemed like a really cryptic person.

That day was the same as usual. Elenoa was listening to unfair words pouring toward him, and he even got beaten up and left alone.

Irina did not feel a great sense of justice or sympathy for the scene. Nevertheless, she stood in front of him as if she were being led because the rough shoes were about to trample on Elenoa’s fingers.

— …….

Such a thing is too bad and barbaric.

In fact, she couldn’t understand herself well either. However, at that moment, she wanted to prevent white and thin fingers from breaking.

The academy has only been talking about it for a while. No one would have guessed that the pretty and quiet Elenoa was such a sadistic fighter.

But now that everyone knows, such nonsense quarrels will decrease in the future. Then everything would be fine.….

“Hmm. I feel uncomfortable for no reason.”

Irina frowned.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Strangely, I feel like my luck has gone downhill. It feels like I stepped on something.”

“Rina, what are you talking about?”

Irina’s hunch was accurate. This time, it was an accurate hunch, but she could not specify what it was specifically.

After thinking about it for a long time, she eventually tried to forget and brought up another topic.

“Luby, did you hear that the monarchy collapsed in Ilse?”

“At Ilse?”

“Yes.”

“Did the king change?”

“No, it seemed that the system under which the king ruled had collapsed.”

“… Is that possible? Who said that?”

“Who do you think it is? The language teacher.”

Ludwig was surprised and asked, but Irina was calm.

“The teacher didn’t know either. Ilse is far away. But, maybe this is the time when the status system is going to collapse, well, he said something like that.”

It was a topic that was profane to put in her mouth.

Ludwig had a bewildered face, but Irina, who spoke her words, looked like she had no thought about it.  Her interests were entirely different.

“Ludwig, Luby. If that really happens….Shall we go to Ils later and get married?”

It was a surprisingly optimistic way of thinking. Moreover, it was a bold proposal, but Ludwig’s expression quickly darkened.

“…Will the marquis allow me to marry?”

Among young people, free dating was fashionable, and marriages based on family interests tended to decrease.

However, Marquis Noviac was still a family with great power. Moreover, the marquis cared and loved his eldest daughter the most among his three daughters.

It was impossible for a marquis like that to want to see his first son-in-law from a humble family.

Moreover, the Viscount Fontern was a vassal family of the Marquis Noviac. It was obviously a marriage in which one side leaned too hard.

However, Irina’s attitude when she brought it up was confident.

“Don’t worry. My dad can’t stop me. Because… I’ve always been like that.”

“… Does the marquis know that you think like this?”

Ludwig always wondered what the source of this confidence was. However, Irina also frowned because she lacked confidence in that part.

“…I think he knows.”

It meant that he might not know.

Ludwig looked at Irina in embarrassment, but Irina still sounded confident.

“Just come to me. Luby, my Luby.”

Her face with no shade was lovely. The sparkling golden eyes shine even more when she sees the one she likes. Ludwig still had a heavy heart, but eventually laughed after her.

She doesn’t know the world is scary, but that’s why Irina’s biggest strength is not to have worries.

He scratched his dark eyebrows with his index finger and replied with a shy smile.

“……You too, come alone, Rina.”

“Okay”

The two burst into laughter at the same time.

It was a very happy time.

In a little while, winter will come. And by the following year, they will go on to the next grade together.

The heart of the young lovers was full of excitement.

And it was the very next day that Elenoa, who returned to the academy, visited Irina.