🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 4
Seven times. That’s how many times I’ve started my graduation year over.
I’m going to make this my final cycle.
‘I can do this.’
The time I spent with my parents still lingered before my eyes, but it was fine. I had chosen to come back myself.
‘This time, let’s approach it completely differently.’
Until now, I’d been trapped in a somewhat irrational and narrow-minded notion that to escape the regression, I had to spend a perfectly normal school life like everyone else.
Even if I pretended otherwise, it seemed the influence of having read <Spring Blooming on Campus> so memorably had left its mark.
But continuing to cling to a method that had failed several times now felt meaningless.
If school life really were the problem, why would the regression happen in the middle of the graduation ceremony?
Not when the ceremony ends, but around when the representative speech finishes—wasn’t that a rather ambiguous timing?
“Exactly 1:19.”
The regression time as I remembered it.
Exactly at that moment, I returned to my 18th birthday.
Which was to say, it might be a clue that there was something I needed to resolve within that timeframe.
‘What happened between my birthday and the end of the graduation speech?’
I tapped the table with my fingertip. A habit that surfaced when I was thinking deeply.
‘I need to find the cause.’
Why I regressed to a year earlier specifically on graduation day, whether the cause was inside the academy or outside, whether it was a person or a phenomenon……
Let’s find whatever it is and try to resolve it.
And if that still doesn’t work, well, like Mom said, I’ll just set the school on fire.
“……Let’s go outside for now.”
With that thought, I headed out the door.
It was a lighter step than any cycle before.
* * *
Perhaps because the new semester was approaching, the dormitory was quite bustling.
As I was coming down the stairs, I ran into him again by coincidence.
“Hello, Belgrave.”
“…….”
Knox Belgrave looked up at me.
Blond hair glinting brilliantly under the chandelier’s light, green eyes set beneath long lashes.
Flawless skin without a speck of powder, a face as neat as a sculpture.
“You said you were withdrawing?”
If it weren’t for that insufferable way of speaking, he’d be much more likable.
With his indifferent, cold attitude that rarely showed interest in others, he was a figure who inspired much debate among the female students—some liked him, some didn’t.
‘Has it been a month?’
The day I wrote the withdrawal letter amid the repeated regressions and ran out of the school……
‘I really do hate you.’
That voice that had lodged itself in my ear with unusual persistence.
‘Ah, right.’
He said he hated me, didn’t he.
If I’d remembered beforehand I wouldn’t have spoken to him, but oh well.
“Oh, that? The more I thought about it, giving up graduation just like that seemed like a waste.”
“…….”
“I understand it must be unpleasant having to see a face you dislike, but we’re not exactly in a position to interact much anyway, are we?”
I shrugged and continued.
“So just don’t pay me any mind. I’ll do the same for you.”
Despite my suggestion to let things pass amicably, the bastard just scowled as if he’d heard something absurd and busied himself glaring at me.
Honestly, what a tiresome guy.
I walked right past him and entered the dormitory hall. I felt him follow me in belatedly, but I paid it no mind.
It seemed there’d been another party the night before—the students were in quite various states.
‘Pathetic.’
Alcohol wouldn’t be permitted at a student party, so I couldn’t even imagine what they’d done.
Amidst it all, I heard whispering.
“It’s Maze.”
“Who’s that? The name sounds familiar.”
“She’s pretty famous among the commoners.”
“No wonder. She’s quite pretty, though?”
“Don’t bother. Her temper is no joke.”
What am I, exactly?
An ordinary person wouldn’t have heard it, but having inherited Mom’s exceptionally sharp hearing, I caught even the most trivial chatter.
“But why is she coming in with Belgrave? Are they close?”
“Close? Didn’t you know she got caught violating school rules several times last year and clashed with Belgrave? They probably can’t stand the sight of each other.”
Hmm? I did butt heads quite a bit with Knox Belgrave, who was a student officer at the time, but wasn’t that evaluation a bit harsh?
“They must have just run into each other by chance.”
They easily concluded it was coincidence, but somehow that bothered me.
Really a coincidence? Him passing by the front of the hall and suddenly turning around?
‘……Suspicious.’
I glanced toward where Belgrave was. He was surrounded by other students the moment he entered.
To think they’d flock around someone with that kind of attitude—the title of Magic Tower heir must be something impressive indeed.
Since I didn’t think I’d get any answers from observing further, I decided to do what I’d come to do first.
‘Let’s see, a suitable person…….’
There were limits to investigating alone, so I needed an assistant. But I didn’t want to recklessly expand my social circle.
Especially not someone who’d stab me in the back and ruin my reputation like last time—absolutely not.
“By the way, I heard Eclipse won the Orbit Chase finals?”
“You couldn’t watch because you went to your family estate? It was incredible. There was even a celebration party yesterday.”
“I heard Lady Cressida attended.”
I’d been sitting and nibbling on finger foods for a while. Finally, some interesting conversation reached my ears.
“Oh right, she was pretty drunk and kept grabbing random people to dance.”
“Lady Cressida…… drunk and dancing……?”
“Yeah, all night long. It was so much fun.”
The voice sounded incredulous. And reasonably so.
Charity Cressida.
The precious only daughter of the Cressida Ducal House, one of the pillars of the empire.
Even though dormitory life was the rule for academy students, she spent not just breaks but even holidays at her family estate.
For a noble lady like her to attend a party was surprising enough, but to dance all night?
Even I had been quite surprised when I first heard that.
‘But that’s not what’s important.’
I had no idea what wind had blown in for her to enjoy a party all night.
What mattered was that she’d lost a treasured necklace while playing around yesterday. The duchess’s keepsake, no less.
‘She’ll be appearing with a troubled face any moment now.’
Hearing the surrounding chatter, I could picture exactly what was about to unfold.
Sure enough, a student lit up and jumped to their feet.
“Ah, Lady Cressida!”
“Cressida, you’re up early. Are you feeling alright?”
“I heard you came to the party yesterday. If I’d known Lady Cressida would be there, I would have…….”
The moment Cressida entered the hall, all eyes converged on her. Her influence was truly comparable to Belgrave’s.
In an instant, students surrounded her and poured out worries about whether she’d overdone it last night.
But to my eyes, it just looked like they were dying to get even one more word in with her.
‘That’ll only make her head hurt more.’
Cressida held her back straight, her posture impeccable, and opened her mouth.
“Of course I’m fine. Do I look like someone who’d fall ill from something like that?”
You did fall ill……
Anyone could see her complexion was poor, yet the students flipped their words like turning over a hand.
Now that they looked again, she seemed perfectly fine, her skin seemed even more translucent, and so on.
They’re trying so hard. So hard.
“More importantly, has anything been turned in as lost property? I lost something here yesterday.”
“Lost property? Let me think, I don’t believe I’ve seen anything…….”
Just as she was busily searching for her lost item, a male student popped out from somewhere and cut into the conversation.
“What? Lady Cressida lost something? What could it be?”
His name was Derren Molden.
A figure well known for his admiration of Cressida.
He made all sorts of fuss and called over a servant who had been making the rounds through the hall.
“Hey, was there any lost property turned in last night?”
“No, nothing but trash.”
“Go look. Her Ladyship says she’s lost something.”
I watched his sycophantic tone and behavior and could only scoff.
