🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 03
One early morning, Yulia rubbed her sleepy eyes and grabbed her grandfather as he was heading out the front gate.
“Grandpa, if you go to the market… could you please buy me just one textbook?”
Her kind grandfather, for the sake of his young granddaughter, spent what was quite a large amount of money for him—not just on one book, but on an entire set.
Sitting at a desk that looked like it might fall apart at any moment, Yulia devoted herself to thorough, textbook-centered self-study.
Perhaps because she already had a basic foundation of knowledge, the young girl quickly began to stand out in her studies.
At the rural school she attended once a week, her homeroom teacher was the first to recognize her talent.
“Yulia is gifted. Simply put, she’s a genius. It would be such a waste to let a child like her remain in this countryside. I’ll try to look into some financial support, so how about sending at least the child to Mondinium to study?”
Though poor, Yulia’s grandfather was the type of guardian who would sacrifice anything for his only granddaughter.
“My lovely and precious Yulia… it pains me to send you away alone.”
After scraping together every last bit of his savings, he sent the young Yulia off to the capital. Unable to bear watching her leave, he turned away and burst into tears.
Yulia, too, couldn’t hold back her tears at that moment.
By then, she had truly come to love her grandfather.
“Grandpa, I’ll definitely succeed and come back to repay you! Waaah…!”
Dragging a bag as big as her own body, Yulia stepped out through the gate—only to run back again, throwing herself into her grandfather’s arms as they shared a long, tearful farewell.
With nothing but a large leather bag, Yulia arrived alone in Mondinium. She hopped off the train and looked around the wide platform.
“Little one, did you come here alone?”
She turned toward the voice.
A station worker in a blue cap was walking toward her with a friendly smile.
He looked very kind—but there’s no such thing as kindness without a reason in this world.
Young but sharp, Yulia didn’t hide her wary gaze. She quickly moved her bag behind her.
The station worker froze on the spot, flustered by the look in her eyes—as if she were judging him to be some kind of petty scammer who preyed on children.
In that moment, Yulia quickly stepped back and then ran off to the opposite platform.
As she hurried along on her small feet, repeatedly glancing behind her, she noticed a white paper fluttering on a red brick pillar.
[Dubert Family Scholarship Project – Providing stable educational opportunities for the underprivileged!]
There was an illustration of a gentle-looking Duke Dubert, arms wide open, embracing children running toward him.
Yulia stopped in her tracks and, as if drawn in, approached the pillar.
The support money arranged by her teacher and her grandfather’s savings were far from enough for a young girl to live and attend school in the capital.
In other words, she needed new funds.
Yulia tore the flyer off the pillar and carefully tucked it deep inside her leather bag.
At the age of fourteen, Yulia stood before the gates of the Dubert estate, holding her public school report card in one hand and the scholarship flyer in the other.
The butler looked at the small girl who had come alone with a puzzled expression. Yulia boldly held out the flyer and spoke in a clear voice.
“Hello. My name is Yulia Heybel. I came to apply for the Dubert Scholarship Program.”
For the Duke and Duchess of Dubert, there was no reason to refuse a suddenly appeared girl—especially a poor but gifted one.
“It’s for promoting the Dubert family scholarship. It makes a good story—a story!”
And just like that, Yulia entered the Royal Academy—an institution only for the wealthy and powerful families of the empire—alongside Jerome Dubert, the duke couple’s only son.
She scored perfect marks on the entrance exam and was admitted as the top student.
“Yulia, that’s amazing! If you keep this up, graduating at the top will be no problem!”
At the school that would turn her into a success story, Yulia never once lost her first-place ranking after enrollment.
Everything was going exactly according to her plan.
…Until he transferred in.
“Cassian Isheide.”
That day, Yulia was sitting by the sunlit window, reading her alchemy textbook.
Turning stones into gold? How could that possibly make sense…?
Irritated, she flipped through the pages, reading and rereading a practical problem she couldn’t understand.
Just then, Lily, who was sitting next to her, shook her thin arm.
“Yulia! It’s the Archduke!”
“The Archduke?”
Yulia lifted her head slightly, though her eyes remained fixed on the textbook.
“Cassian Isheide, the Archduke! I heard he just returned from studying abroad last month!”
At that moment, Yulia doubted her ears.
Cassian Isheide…?
The Cassian Isheide from The Star Woven into Tritan? The son of the Tritan Emperor’s only sister? The male lead who lost both parents young and rose to the position of Archduke?
‘Th-that person… is Cassian Isheide?’
Thud.
Yulia didn’t even notice her precious textbook falling to the classroom floor as she stared in shock, mouth open.
From that day on, Yulia decided to openly avoid Cassian.
‘I never finished the novel, so I don’t know how the story unfolds.’
Rather than getting involved in the story by catching the protagonist’s attention, she planned to simply live her own life and leave.
After all, she and Cassian had nothing to do with each other from the beginning.
However, there was one thing she had overlooked.
“Huh? Yulia, I think Cassian got first place this time?”
“What?”
That was the fact that Cassian was very good at studying.
From the moment he transferred in, they became inseparable rivals.
After leaving the academy gates with Jerome, Yulia looked at him and smiled brightly.
“Jerome! Congratulations on graduating. I saw your grades earlier—they improved a lot!”
“Yu… Yuli… a… it’s thanks… to you…”
Jerome carefully pronounced each word.
Yulia looked at him with mixed feelings—half proud, half saddened.
Jerome had a congenital speech disorder.
His tongue would stiffen, making it difficult for him to pronounce words properly.
Despite searching everywhere for medicine, the Duke of Dubert—said to be the wealthiest man in the empire after the imperial family—could not find anything to cure his son.
“Hey… what did I even do? It’s because you worked harder than others, Jerome!”
At her praise, Jerome smiled brightly, his eyes curving.
As he smiled, the ladies stepping out of Mrs. Kiss Salon nearby stopped and stared at him, captivated.
“Oh my…”
“Who is that?”
Seeing their astonished gazes, Yulia felt oddly proud.
When silent, Jerome looked like an angel descended from the heavens.
His pale skin, platinum blonde hair that sparkled in the sunlight, and clear sky-blue eyes…
More than once, Yulia had thought that if an angel from an old fairy tale came to earth, it would look just like Jerome.
“Th… th… ank… you…”
But the moment Jerome spoke, the ladies who had been blushing at him widened their eyes and stepped back.
“Oh?”
“Cough, cough!”
One woman in an extravagant hat even coughed awkwardly.
They quickly hid their faces behind fans and began whispering.
From the fragments Yulia overheard—about his awkward speech and how it didn’t match his looks—it was clear they were talking about Jerome.
“Jerome…”
Perhaps sensing their gaze, Jerome closed his mouth tightly and lowered his head.
Though Yulia had long grown used to the stark difference in how people treated him before and after he spoke, she couldn’t stop the bitterness rising in her chest.
Unable to hold back, she stepped in front of Jerome and glared at the ladies.
“Excuse me.”
“Y-Yes?”
“We can hear everything. How about you stop whispering about someone right in front of them?”
“Oh my, what are you talking about? What did we say?”
One of them fanned herself, pretending innocence.
“Yu… Yu… li… stop…”
Jerome reached out and gently stopped her.
He gave an awkward smile, as if to say it didn’t matter.
Realizing that pushing further would only hurt Jerome, Yulia reluctantly held back.
She shot the women the fiercest glare she could manage before grabbing Jerome and walking away.
Such awful people…
“Jerome, I’ll head back to the dorm now.”
Standing before the grand gates of the Dubert estate, marked with the family crest, Yulia turned to leave.
“Yu… li… a… mo… ther… said…”
“Hm? Lady Catherine said she had something to tell me?”
Yulia asked, puzzled. Jerome nodded.
Taking her hand, he led her inside the estate.
Guided by the butler, they entered a spacious reception room. Catherine, who had been sitting on a plush velvet chair, stood up with a bright smile.
“Jerome! Yulia!”
Her rich red dress swayed elegantly with each step as she approached them.
