Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

194 – The Secret to Strength

“..So, all this just because of one sparring match..”

“Just because? Do you even

know how much I’ve been racking

my brain over you?!”

“..No, I don’t.

But I’m still your senior─”

…So damned loud.

As if my head wasn’t already pounding,

from staying up late last night,

of all the days it could’ve chosen, why today?

“Really… If I could,

I’d go back to the past..!”

“….”

“I should have beaten you,

proven my strength, no matter what!!”

…Aye, so there was the story.

If only I could,

I’d turn back time this very instant,

And plead with myself to *never*

Throw open that dorm room door for her.

“Excuse me, is this where

Senior Jennison resides?”

“Pardon…? Why is *milord*…”

“Ah, the senior invited me

Personally the other day. May I come in?”

“Mi…Milord?! Please, come in at once!!”

To think, he’d exploit Ella

While I was lost in a deep slumber,

Striking while the iron was hot.

If I’d known, I would have

Hammered the point home to Ella last night.

To never open the door, no matter

Who was standing on the other side.

Even if she is the Marchioness’s

Daughter, possessed of great power,

Barging into someone’s dorm

Without invitation like this

Is, in any age or land, a rather rude act.

Especially when the target is

Another noble, all the more so.

‘So, knowing this, he introduced himself to Ella as my guest.’

Whether that was fact or fiction,

From the moment one calls oneself

A guest, it becomes difficult for servants to refuse.

If they rashly turn them away

Based on their own judgement,

And it turns out they *were* a guest,

The responsibility falls squarely on the servants,

So unless they’re absolutely certain,

They usually just let it slide.

Of course, if the person wasn’t

Actually a guest, then *they* would

Bear the consequences of the impersonation,

So such incidents were quite rare, even among nobles.

Moreover, though I can’t fathom why,

Her attire, too, was…

These were decidedly high-class goods.

Even a servant with little

sense for current fashion,

would, upon seeing her now, immediately be stuck with the prejudice that she was a noble.

Her violet dress,

almost teasingly

grazing the floor, was

embroidered with beautiful topazes and

rubies, and from

her shimmering, violet hair,

wafted the pervasive scent of

a considerably fine pomade.

It’s only natural to think that someone dressed like that

would have no reason

to impersonate my guest.

I, too, had no intention

of scolding Ella over such a thing.

After all, I was the one

who left the address so she could come here.

‘…Even so,

does one usually seek out the

person who made them that way in just a day?’

Well, frankly, I would have

preferred she didn’t come at all,

but that didn’t mean

I could just arbitrarily chase her away.

Despite appearing to be

completely fine,

she had been complaining

of feeling unwell for some time,

pleading with me about her suffering.

‘No, you really look like you’re—’

‘No, I don’t! My whole body

aches and is so sore, I feel like I’m dying!!’

‘…’

Though her expression

certainly betrayed a good deal of fluster,

who was I to argue,

when the person in question said so?

It’s not as though I could

feel her sensations directly.

“Hey, are you listening to me?”

“…Yes, I’m listening.”

Truth be told, I wasn’t.

Barging in here without so much as a by-your-leave,

spilling forth her piece,

while not revealing, not even a hint,

the purpose for which she came.

And then she demands I listen to her long-winded tale?

Isn’t that utterly preposterous?

She should at least have divulged her reason for being here.

She says she’s come for treatment,

but won’t say where it hurts,

and instead of crying out in pain,

she’s been droning on, since she arrived,

about her grand design,

repeating it until my ears ache.

At this point, I’m rather proud

that I’m even pretending to listen to her.

For a full thirty minutes, no less.

“…”

“Anyway, so now, regarding how to revise my plan…”

*Sigh*

I wondered if showing my annoyance

would make any difference, so

I deliberately wore a bored expression,

radiating my disinterest through every pore,

but far from being discouraged by my attitude,

she instead redoubled

her efforts to explain.

Daring to suggest I was uninterested in her words,

she declared she’d keep talking until I became interested.

A truly tiresome type to deal with.

If only she approached me with clear malice.

But this… this barely qualifies as malice, does it?

“…*Sigh*, I’m going to get up now.”

“Ah, wait just a moment!! My story isn’t finished yet, where are you…!!”

“Classes start soon, don’t you have one too?”

Before I knew it, time had flown by like an arrow,

and now the moment had come when

I could no longer simply

sit and listen to her stories.

Professor Oliver had suggested

I take a special class with the younger students,

but that didn’t mean my own lecture schedule had changed.

He’d managed to excuse me

on the first day, thanks to his discretion,

but I couldn’t keep skipping

lectures like I had yesterday,

and neither could she, most likely.

Being the daughter of a Marquis wouldn’t

make the Academy’s class schedule

bend to her will.

Ultimately, she, too, was in the position

of needing to go to class with me.

This wasn’t the time to be

hanging around in someone else’s dormitory.

“It’s alright, they said they’d

mark me down as sick for today!”

I flinched, ever so slightly, upon hearing the word ‘sick’.

If a sick leave had been granted,

it meant there was genuinely something wrong with her.

Well…perhaps the professor had misjudged her condition,

but the professors at the Academy were

all notoriously sensitive about student safety.

Whether they were worried about their reputations,

or perhaps concerned about the pressure

from the students’ parents,

they always put student

safety above everything else.

Almost to an excessive degree, from my perspective.

So, what I’m getting at is this:

the possibility of them misjudging a student’s

condition was extremely unlikely.

Even just considering the professor in charge of the infirmary,

he was someone who saw hundreds of

patients every single day.

And the fact that *he* granted her

sick leave, it meant that

though unseen on the surface,

inwardly he was perhaps enduring

a considerable amount of pain.

‘Come to think of it,

her complexion *did* seem a little pale─’

“Now then, I’m giving you a special

opportunity to escort me, so hurry..!!”

‘..Must be my imagination, I guess.’

No matter how I look at it, the infirmary

professor seems to be mistaken about something.

How could *that* be the behavior

of someone ill enough to take sick leave?

Rather, she seems more like a mischievous

rascal, brimming with excitement.

‘..To top it off, yesterday’s events

are already giving me a headache..seriously.’

As if the news that the First Prince

was taking notice of me wasn’t

enough to make my head explode,

now I have to take on this

troublesome baggage of hers from this early morning on,

it was like receiving a month’s worth of stress all at once.

‘..Ah, should I just ignore her and

go to class?’

“You!! You’re thinking rude thoughts again, aren’t you!!”

“..If you’re sick, wouldn’t it be better to go back to

your room and rest quietly?”

“Are you even saying anything sensible?

Whose fault do you think it is that I’m sick?!”

Yes, that’s why I’m

fumbling around like this.

If it weren’t for that, I would

have ignored her a long time ago.

I don’t know what she expects of me, ambushing me like this so early in the morning,

but either way, I too

have a routine that’s been laid out.

If it were just once or twice, maybe.

But if this continues, constantly disrupting my set

If these daily routines were going to be ruined,

I wasn’t about to stand by and watch.

“…So, I kept asking where it hurt, didn’t I?”

“It felt like my whole body was aching, so I

couldn’t quite answer, hmph!”

At that sharp, almost coy reply,

I could practically hear my blood pressure rising,

and the words, ‘if your whole body hurts,

go crawl into bed and sleep,’ nearly

exploded from my throat, but I barely

managed to swallow them back down,

an act of superhuman patience

I truly hadn’t displayed, not even once, recently.

“…Hah, do as you please.

I’ll head out first.”

In the end, after that endless

back and forth,

it was none other than I who

threw up my hands in surrender.

Because she wouldn’t let me

go, no matter what I did,

and the thought that this was

nothing more than a waste of time

was dominating me.

Not that she’d tell me what she wanted, either. Seriously.

I just wanted to go listen to the lecture

and finish my day.

It’s not like staying here and listening to

her stories would change anything.

‘And I really need to

get back to my research soon…’

I stood up from my chair and

slowly walked toward the

dorm room door,

intending to head straight

for the Academy, running through the

day’s lectures in my head.

…Intending to, that is. Truly.

Yes, if only she hadn’t grabbed

my sleeve just as I was about to leave.

“…?”

“U-uh… u-uh…”

“..What is it? Is there still something more to say?”

“I… I want to attend the same

lectures as you!”

For a moment, I thought my ears were playing tricks, and I whipped my head around, but

all that remained behind me

was her expression, brimming with sincerity.

As if she truly wanted to take the same lectures as I did.

“..So, you’re saying you want to take the same lectures as me?”

“Yes, exactly. Lead the way, quickly!”

“..Putting aside a seat for you, the

lecture content is completely

different from anything you’ve learned so far, you know?”

“It doesn’t really matter for just one day, and I can persuade the professors.”

So, if you combine everything she’s saying…

Does that mean I have to spend

the entire day today

with that troublemaker?

Oh, heavens.

Just thinking about it makes me shudder.