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Chapter 53
“Professor?”
Clois tilted his head in confusion as he came to his senses at the voice calling him.
“Oh, yes. Did you receive the gift well?”
“Yes! I was originally going to write you a letter. To thank you for sending something so precious. But I just couldn’t get the words right… So I came here to thank you in person!”
Ivy got off the bench and bowed her head.
Clois quietly watched her.
He had agonized for days on end about what gift to choose.
He had sent a precious magic stone, stubbornly insisting that the child he was in charge of should not lose heart.
He had been confident until he sent it.
After all, who else would send a magic stone, even if everyone else sent good gifts?
But during a later meeting, when someone said, “Well, things the kids like are important too,” his confidence crumbled completely.
‘…Is there really any child who would be happy to receive a magic stone?’
Unless a child was like Seraphina, someone who would crawl out of bed at night just for a magic stone, what use would it be to a little kid?
Even regretting not sending hundreds of colored pencils or pretty clothes was too late.
But now, receiving thanks like this…
He felt proud, but the worry didn’t easily fade.
“If there’s anything else you want, don’t hesitate to say.”
He said cautiously, and Ivy jumped up as if that was ridiculous.
“No! I really like the magic stone! It’s warm and bright, so I’m not scared when I sleep anymore! I was even hugging it like this before coming out…!”
Ivy even pretended to hold the magic stone in her arms, and only then did Clois’s expression soften.
Just seeing her attitude, he could tell she truly liked it.
Besides, it made her not scared at night—that was exactly what he hoped for when sending it.
“I’m glad you like it.”
He smiled and gently patted Ivy’s head.
Was that a good feeling? The child’s eyes curved and she smiled brightly again.
Strangely, it was a laugh that tickled the deepest part of his heart.
At that moment, Ivy seemed to remember something and asked him a question.
“By the way, professor, where is your office? I asked the administration, but no one knows.”
“…!”
That question made Clois’s heart drop.
Seraphina had mentioned this issue before.
“Your Majesty! A magic stone! As a child’s gift! How could this be!”
Seraphina stormed into the office almost crying, completely ignoring etiquette.
With a half-resigned mind, Clois let her continue talking.
“You have no idea how much of a fuss it caused. When I heard about it, I grabbed the back of my neck. A magic stone as an entrance gift to the gifted academy. Truly unprecedented…”
Seraphina told him how the academy had been thrown into chaos because of that.
“Well, you should have given me a heads-up before sending it. Then I could have quietly delivered it. But now everyone is whispering about it…”
“Did a problem arise?”
“Of course. First, people are trying to find out who Professor Sian Roshen is.”
It was natural.
Even wealthy nobles found it hard to get their hands on such excellent magic stones, yet one was casually sent as a child’s gift.
People were curious about the recipient child, but even more so about the sender.
“I made up a rough story. That he was a professor hired only for research, not teaching. Also, that he is still looking for a place to live in the capital, so there’s no fixed address. But if no one ever sees him, suspicions will grow.”
“So, what can we do?”
“Not exactly a solution, but we have to at least pretend something.”
“How?”
“We need to make a professor’s office somewhere people rarely use. There’s an easier way too.”
“What’s that?”
“Change the guardian.”
At that, Clois looked up and stared at Seraphina.
“Change?”
“Exactly. Make someone else the guardian.”
“But there was no one suitable, so I made a fictional one.”
“That was at first. But someone willing to be the guardian has appeared. Professor Malres. He’s crazy about math… no, he’s made a huge contribution to the empire’s mathematical progress. He’s my mentor too.”
“Malres? Hmm, the name rings a bell.”
“You’d know him. He wrote the new advanced math textbook.”
“Ah.”
Clois had studied using that book in the past.
A man who wrote the empire’s basic textbook—hardly anyone would make a better guardian.
“Professor Malres thinks very highly of Ivy’s potential.”
“Potential?”
“She was second in the entrance exam after Arsel, right? Other classes will start soon, but Malres says she’s a student worth teaching. He’s my mentor but he’s a bit rough and misanthropic… yet suddenly he’s decided to write a new easier advanced math book. Seems like the child was struggling.”
A sly smile appeared on Seraphina’s excited face.
“Thanks to this, he stopped complaining about retirement and is quite happy. Hehe.”
It seemed she hoped her mentor would work more.
“Anyway, he’s perfect as a guardian. He’s always at the academy, so it’d be easy for him to take care of Ivy if anything happens. So change the guardian to Professor Malres…”
“No. I need to think about it.”
“Huh? I thought you’d accept immediately?”
Seraphina muttered, confused.
But Clois did not answer. Or rather, he couldn’t.
He didn’t know exactly why he opposed changing the guardian.
‘If I change…’
The child would gain a reliable guardian.
And the professor Sian Roshen—whom she only met once—would be forgotten forever.
That would be the right thing.
There would be no reason for me and the child to meet again, nor should there be.
Even knowing all this, Clois didn’t want to give up the name Sian Roshen.
Recalling the matter with Seraphina, he came back to himself at Ivy’s intent gaze.
“Oh, the contact info. Well…”
After some thought, he made up his mind and spoke.
“The professor’s office will be ready soon. If you need to ask me something, just leave a letter there. I’ll check it.”
“Really? Then I can see you inside the academy now?”
“Yes. But I probably won’t stay there much.”
At that, Ivy’s face, which had been happy moments ago, fell.
Seeing her like that, he felt he should be sorry.
But strangely, Clois smiled at the fact that the child wanted to keep seeing him.
Ivy didn’t know, but it was the first gentle smile he had made in years.
After that, Ivy and Clois talked for quite a while.
Actually, it was more like Ivy kept talking.
“So, Arsel and Ruska were having a meal, and a roasted chicken disappeared right before their eyes in an instant…”
Ivy sat on the bench, explaining the amazing scene she saw during the day.
Clois sat beside her, watching her.
When he asked if she liked the gifted academy and if anything interesting had happened, Ivy excitedly told him everything that had happened.
If the prime minister or other officials had been present, they would have silenced Ivy in shock.
Originally, Clois hated small talk except when necessary.
At meetings, when someone unfamiliar gave useless compliments, he would immediately cut them off saying, “Just say what you need and leave.”
But now, he listened to Ivy’s chatter as if hearing the world’s most fascinating story.
He didn’t just listen silently.
“What do they serve for meals at the academy these days?”
He asked things Ivy could explain.
Thanks to this, Ivy noticed his interest and explained even more enthusiastically.
“…So today I tried it for the first time. It was really delicious! Irene gave some out… Oh! Right! Irene!”
Ivy suddenly jumped up.
The moment she said Irene’s name, she remembered who she had been waiting for before coming here.
Just then, the distant chimes of the clock tower rang out.
