CICN 65

Chapter 65

“Grrr….”

“……”

“Grrhh…”

“……”

“Ughhh…”

“You’re driving me crazy with all that noise!”

At last, Irene couldn’t hold it in anymore and lightly kicked Ruska’s chair from under the desk.

“Ah! Don’t kick me!”

“You’re the one making those weird noises!”

“Then tell me with words!”

“As if someone who listens to words would act like this!”

“What kind of person lashes out with their foot first! Who in their right mind would call a lunatic water buffalo like this the princess of the South—ouch!”

As usual, Irene and Ruska bickered endlessly. Arcel sighed at the sight and said to Ivi,

“Ivi. Don’t bother watching them. Stupidity is contagious.”

“Y-yes…”

At Arcel’s words, Ivi quickly turned her head away from the quarrel she had been watching.

“Let’s just finish what we were working on. Earlier, you were confused in this Tennelton section, right? Here, you substitute—”

Arcel pointed at the formula he had rewritten in his notes, explaining to Ivi, who listened with terrifying concentration.

Meanwhile, Ruska, who had just slipped free of Irene’s grip on his collar, rushed over to Arcel.

“Arcel! You’re only teaching Ivi! How can you watch me suffer over the midterms and just ignore me?!”

“That was you suffering? I thought you were imitating some monster that got stabbed.”

Irene added dryly from the side,

“Really? I thought it was a drugged-up bug.”

Crushed by their merciless evaluation, Ruska slumped back down onto the desk.

“No one understands my pain… The term just officially started, and we already have exams?”

At his grumbling, Irene flicked her hair back and said,

“You’re the one who didn’t even check the academic schedule. We knew all along and were preparing. Right, Ivi?”

“Yes!”

When Ivi answered, Irene smiled approvingly and patted her on the head.

Ruska muttered at the sight,

“She’s right, but why does it feel so annoying… Ah, I don’t mean you, Ivi, I mean Irene.”

But when Irene’s eyes narrowed, he jumped up and hurriedly backed away.

Just then, a bell rang in the distance—the end of class.

Arcel closed the book and notes he had been showing Ivi.

“Let’s go eat lunch first. I’ll explain the parts you don’t understand afterward.”

“Yes, sir!”

Her lively answer made Arcel chuckle.

This was supposed to be Professor Malles’s class.

But since he’d caught a nasty cold, today’s class had been switched to self-study.

Ivi, who had been excited to learn new material today, had been crestfallen.

Arcel then offered to teach her himself, telling her to sit next to him if she liked.

Overjoyed, Ivi had darted to his side in an instant.

Irene had looked pitifully dejected at the sight, but unfortunately, she couldn’t explain the math parts Ivi was stuck on.

Meanwhile, Ruska had been making bizarre noises about hating the upcoming test, which only made Irene more irritable.

The four of them tidied up the classroom and left.

As Ivi held Irene’s hand on the way to the cafeteria, she turned to Arcel.

“Oh, right! The book you lent me—I’ll bring it back to you next class.”

“No need to rush.”

“But I finished it already.”

When Ivi replied with a sheepish grin, Irene shot Arcel a glare.

On their last outing, Arcel had brought back several books.

Then he’d handed some to Ivi, saying he thought she’d like them.

Ivi’s reaction had been explosive.

“Really? For me? I can read all of them?”

“Of course. I brought them for you.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

A seven-year-old bowing in awe over science theory books—what a sight.

‘Still, Arcel is far too nice to Ivi.’

Given his reputation, he should have had little interest in a child like her. Yet, strangely, he was especially attentive to Ivi.

Just earlier, too.

When Ivi was puzzling over her math book alone, he had naturally sat beside her and explained the parts she found difficult.

‘It’s infuriating.’

Irene wasn’t bad at math, but she couldn’t match Arcel. So all she could do was watch.

When the four entered the cafeteria, students’ gazes fell on them. But it was no longer the wide-eyed shock it had been at first.

By now, seeing the four of them together was such a normal, natural sight at the Academy for Gifted Youth that no one thought it strange.

As they settled and brought their meals, someone glared daggers at them from afar.

Izriella.

‘How did it come to this?’

Without realizing, Izriella bit at her thumbnail.

It hadn’t been like this when she first clashed with Irene.

So many girls had come to her afterward, saying how refreshing it had been.

They had whispered complaints about Irene, how they were sick of her strutting around like the “Princess of the South.”

And Irene hadn’t been their only target.

“I just wish she’d leave already. It’s embarrassing for the Academy’s standards.”

“Exactly. She’s so clueless… If she’d just quit and go back to some rural upper school, that’d be her place.”

“They say even His Majesty the Emperor doesn’t care about her. Must’ve picked her in a fit of whim. Rumors spread everywhere—no one in my culture class even talks to her anymore.”

And of course, they praised Izriella.

“As expected of Lady Izriella. Who else could’ve set things straight so firmly?”

“Right. You’ve always been at the center of the capital’s debutante circle. Please keep leading us.”

They said she was truly noble, that only she understood them.

And so Izriella grew more confident.

‘I’ll drive out Irene, and that little brat too.’

It didn’t even seem hard.

Even if Irene clung to that child’s hand for now, if they were ignored long enough, they’d break eventually.

But then Arcel and Ruska showed up, and everything flipped.

“They’re hanging out with them? Does this mean Irene really has been chosen as a crown princess candidate?”

“Maybe Ruska, but Arcel? He hates letting people close. I’ve heard there are barely a handful of boys he even greets. But he’s with them…”

“And even that commoner brat—he treats her kindly! I overheard them talking last time…”

And just like that, the crowd that had gathered around Izriella melted away like receding tide.

Soon, they were greeting Irene first instead, flaunting it.

And now…

The Academy’s atmosphere was almost back to how it had been.

The girls vied with each other for chances to approach Irene.

Then one day, Izriella overheard the girls who had once cozied up to her.

“If we’d known this would happen, we should’ve just stayed close to Irene.”

“Right? Izriella strutted like she’d do something, but in the end she was useless. She only fought Irene because she hated her, not for anyone else’s sake.”

“Hmph. Still, I almost feel bad for her.”

“Why? What’s there to pity?”

“Think about it. If she’d stayed on good terms with Irene, she’d be the one in that spot instead of that commoner brat. But she picked a fight and threw away her chance.”

“You say she’s pitiful, but you’re laughing.”

Their mocking giggles rang out, and Izriella clenched her lips and turned away.

But their words kept circling in her head ever since.

If only she hadn’t fought with Irene.

If only that commoner brat hadn’t butted in.

Then, as a noble of great lineage, she would be standing with those three right now.

That was how things should have been.

They weren’t just anyone—they were future stars of imperial society, possibly even the next Emperor and Empress.

Izriella thought the Academy was a complete mess now.

And all of it was because of that orphan girl.

After all, it had been because of Ivi that she’d first clashed with Irene.

‘Maybe that little brat deliberately drove a wedge between me and Irene.’

Surely Irene, as a fellow noble, would have preferred to be close with her.

But the fact she clung only to that child… Maybe that cunning brat kept feeding her bad words about Izriella to turn her away.

And as more students drifted from her side, Izriella became all the more certain:

If only Evie were gone, the Academy would return to the way it was meant to be.