CH 152

“The person herself told you to forget it. Why do you have such an expression? Did Lady Sophie tell you some sort of cute and sarcastic remark?”

“…Could that be considered a cute and sarcastic remark?”

Evert’s nonsense was replied to by Keith with hollow eyes.

“I couldn’t begin to understand the creature known as a woman, though.”

For Keith, who grew up in an environment with only brothers, the words and actions of the girl who received the purple star were too unfamiliar for him to judge.

Keith also had a fiancée, but they only met a few times, moreover, the fiancée had a quiet personality and Keith never heard fierce words come out of her mouth.

“So, what did Lady Sophie say?”

“Are you asking me to die?”

Keith might really die if he blabbed.

Looking at Keith’s fearful appearance, Gerald recalled the appearance of the purple star girl who exuded clear killing intent with a strong gaze back on the first day.

Normally, they ought to move to confirm the situation and immediately give strict punishment to Lars. However, since the purple star herself had ordered for it to be forgotten, it would be rude to dig things up.

The purple star girl didn’t “request” but “order,” so it was natural for them to comply, and there was no room for others to complain about it.

It was exactly because she knew that, that the purple star girl issued the order.

“…I understand. We’ll drop the issue regarding Lars Rydholm.”

After a brief silence, Gerald opened his mouth.

Keith exhaled with a visibly relieved expression.

“It’s great that the son of Viscount Rydholm, one of the heavyweights of the gold star, didn’t end up decapitated.”

Yup, said Evert with a light tone, but he then snapped his fingers as he recalled something.

“Now that I think about it, I’ve seen Lars with Lady Sophie several times. I see, so because of that incident, Lars became Lady Sophie’s servant.”

“It’s not certain if it was because of that incident, but the people of the gold star seemed to establish ‘a society to worship Sophie Linier as a goddess’.”

Before Gerald could reprimand Evert for his thoughtless words, Keith made a mysterious remark.

“’A society to worship Lady Sophie as a goddess?’ What the heck is that?”

“I also don’t understand.”

“They’re not messing around with the purple star, right?”

“No, I don’t think that’s the case. Lars Rydholm seems to be very devoted to Sophie-sama, and he also participated when she toured the copper star.”

As Evert muttered how incomprehensible that was, Keith divulged more information that further aggravated his doubt.

“A gold star toured to the copper star? For what? In the first place, how did he become so obsessed when he was the one who uttered the remark that she had small breasts? Does Lars actually prefer small breasts?”

“—Evert, if you say more than that, I’ll have to crush that face you’re so proud of.”

Faster than Gerald’s rebuke, Keith’s fists turned in Evert’s direction.

Perhaps his interaction with the purple star girl was quite traumatic, so his complexion changed when the topic of breasts came up.

“Sorry, sorry. The more immunized the woman is about it, the bigger the scar she has.”

Evert raised his hands and took the pose of surrender, but didn’t forget to add some comments, which made Keith sigh in resignation and continue his report.

“It seems they participated in the mountain exercise of the copper star.”

“…Mountain exercise?”

Gerald was exasperated with the two’s interaction, but his voice sharpened when he heard the word “mountain exercise.”

“I’ve never heard of such a report before.”

Rather than the fact it went unreported, Gerald had a hard time understanding why Luca, who served as her escort back then, actually allowed it to begin with.

Although the purple star wasn’t forbidden from leaving the academy, it was only under the assumption of going to the city; going to the mountain was outside the expectation.

“Isn’t the mountain exercise of the copper star well known for its tough slope? Did they really go there?”

Evert asked to reconfirm, to which Keith answered, “Yes, there’s no doubt about that,’ as he nodded.

“And one more thing.”

“There’s more…?”

Despite most of his doubts being left unanswered, seeing Keith keep delivering his report one after another, Evert had a fed-up expression.

“At that time, it seemed the copper star also fell for Sophie-sama.”

Perhaps because the first thing he reported was something he had a hard time saying, the report that came after came out smoothly from Keith’s mouth. However, no matter how smoothly it was reported, it being within the scope of understanding was an entirely different issue.

“That copper star? Isn’t that Marcus in the copper star?”

Evert’s muttering also represented Gerald’s thought.

Marcus, the director of the copper star, despite seemingly being an easygoing man, wasn’t a man who would fall by any conventional method. In addition, Marcus was one of the few people who weren’t afraid of Gerald.

Even though Marcus was also there during the first-day introductions, it was hard to think that man would move according to the will of an aristocratic daughter, and Gerald put his hand on his mouth as he pondered.

“Eh? Seriously? I thought he wasn’t a man who would move by money or political power, though? I heard he ended up quarreling with a gold star over that matter a few years ago.”

Marcus, who was prominent ever since his enrollment to the academy, had many gold star students who wanted him to act like their guard dog.

But Marcus, who had no intention of becoming an aristocrat’s bouncer, didn’t seem to care about a large amount of money or a good offer to be someone’s escort after graduation.

Marcus’ attitude fueled the uselessly high pride of the gold star, who believed they could do anything to the copper star as long as they showed him money.

It turned into eagerness for anyone to make Marcus kneel, and their ugly exchanges and attitudes disgusted not only Marcus, but also the other copper star students.

The copper star was the only star that allowed commoners to enroll in, and there were many who originally came from slums and already had a tendency of disliking students of the gold star who acted domineeringly using their parent’s influence, but the dislike intensified because of that incident, and the copper stars who had a favorable view of Marcus confronted the gold stars, causing a series of turmoil.

The gold star students from back then had already graduated, but because of that incident, the relationship between the copper star and the gold star became much worse.

“It seems those copper star students are teaching gold star students how to ride horses.”

“The copper star teaching the gold star how to ride horses? That copper star?”

Initially, only Luca and Marcus had instructed them how to ride horses, but with more and more people requesting teaching, other copper star students also helped. However, Evert, who had no idea how it ended up like that, couldn’t help but tilt his head in wonder.

“Lady Sophie is a daughter of the Linier family, who has a father of a gold star, right? …To think that Marcus fell for the daughter of a gold star. I guess it’s as expected of the financial strength of the Linier family? How much did she invest in him?”

At Evert’s remark, which was mixed with mockery, Keith shook his head.

“No, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Apparently, something happened when they were accompanying them in the mountain exercise, but we couldn’t find out what exactly happened. Perhaps because the copper star doesn’t have good thoughts about us black stars, they don’t want to talk about Sophie-sama, whom they look up to as a teacher, and they’re being tight-lipped about it.”

“Teacher?”

“Apparently, the copper star has established ‘a society to look up to Sophie-sama as a teacher’.”

“…Keith. If you keep saying such ridiculous things about the purple star, your head might seriously come off your neck.”

“I’m just reporting the facts, and I wasn’t the one who came up with it!”

“After all, what the heck is with that ‘teacher’ thing?”

They couldn’t understand why copper stars, who compete using swordsmanship and physical strength, looked up to a girl as a teacher. What did that teacher mean?

No, speaking of what they were unable to understand, they couldn’t understand the whole thing.

Evert completely erased his cool expression when he made fun of Keith as he said, “I don’t understand!” with a rough tone.

“What the heck did Lady Sophie do? How did it end up like that in such a short period of time?”

“I also don’t understand.”

Keith shook his head, then he said, “But,” and continued.

“I think she is a terrifying person. After all, she is the only genius who got acknowledged by that Lorenzo Forsell-sama.”

Lorenzo Forsell, the director of the Institute of Medical Science of Orlando Kingdom. With his extraordinary talent and brain, he was the youngest person in history who managed to receive five silver stars, and he also exerted great influence not only in the institute, but also in the royal government. He was also a second son of a marquis family.

“If something happened to Sophie-sama, he might turn into our enemy.”

The first prince, who read the plan that caused the girl to be granted the purple star, first sought Lorenzo’s opinion.

Lorenzo, who received it from a servant, seemed to be dissatisfied at first, but as he read it, he didn’t move at all except to turn the page. That lasted for a few hours until he finished reading it. As soon as he was done, he immediately stood up from his seat and proceeded to head straight for the royal palace.

Then Lorenzo Forsell, that “Genius of the Generation,” praised a girl’s plan. She was a genius who was acknowledged by other geniuses. That was Sophie Linier.

Gerald was also a person who had cultivated his academic ability and knowledge, but to be honest, even when he received some explanations, he had a hard time understanding Sophie’s plan. However, he at least knew that she was trying to make something that didn’t exist in this world.

The only person who could truly understand her talent would be Lorenzo, who was known as the “Genius of the Generation” within the kingdom. Gerald had heard Lorenzo was so intoxicated that he presented his half-brother to Sophie to be her pawn.

Therefore, it was impossible for the silver star students to be hostile to Sophie Linier. For people of the silver star, neither the fact that she hailed from a baron family nor the fact she was a woman mattered to them. She was the girl who was acknowledged by Lorenzo Forsell. That alone already became an absolute value to them.

Well, except for one person, though.

There was one exception even among the students of the silver star.

Even if said person was rumored to be able to surpass Lorenzo, his motivation didn’t even amount to the size of the tip of a person’s fingernail.

As Gerald recalled that, he felt like his tiredness might leak out of his mouth. As he unconsciously held his mouth with his hand, Keith furrowed his eyebrows greatly and gazed at Gerald with a desperate expression.

“Gerald-sama, things won’t be good at this rate.”

“What do you mean?”

It was a good thing that gold stars and copper stars were supportive of the purple star. Why wouldn’t things be good?

“As of now, only the black star is not supportive of Sophie-sama!”