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Chapter 71: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat

Chapter 71



Scarlet’s connection to the witch must never be revealed.


Since everyone present agreed on this matter, it was already quite late by the time they finished tidying up the scene.


Scarlet, who had fainted, was supported by Luke and Yoon Si-woo, who lived near her home. Sylvia parted ways with them and returned to the mansion.


Waiting to greet Sylvia was her attendant, Sebastian, standing at the front gate.


"Miss! How could you just send a brief text message like that if you have something to do? Moreover, if you’re going to return this late, you should have at least informed me! Do you know how worried I was?”


Sylvia realized that she had turned off her phone after sending Sebastian the text.


Turning on her phone, she saw numerous missed calls and messages.


In the past, seeing this would have made her face turn pale, but now, Sylvia felt no emotion at all.


Calmly, Sylvia opened her mouth and apologized to Sebastian.


“Sorry, Sebastian. It was really urgent.”


“You should at least have told me where you were going! Even if there were no important events today, how do you think I felt being notified like that? What if the elders asked for you? What should I say? Do you want to see me fired from my position as your attendant?”


“That’s not it. I don’t dislike you, Sebastian. But I can’t tell you what it was about. It was a personal matter.”


Sylvia said this with a slight smile.


It was an act prepared to be greatly scolded.


Even though he was her attendant, he was a person assigned to her by the elders of the family. He had the authority to reprimand her if she did not act in a manner befitting the heir of Astra.


Until now, she would never have thought of speaking to him like this, backed by the authority of the elders.


But after learning about what the high-ranking members had done behind her back, such things felt trivial.


Sylvia waited for Sebastian to scold her.


"......Is that so? Understood."


But he simply nodded without saying much about her insincere words and positioned himself a few steps behind her as he always did while serving her.


Although she was taken aback by his unexpected reaction, Sylvia quietly walked towards her room, finding it fortunate not to hear any more scolding.


As they walked, the sound of footsteps echoed. Amidst those sounds, Sebastian’s voice mixed in.


"Miss, if you don’t mind, may I speak to myself for a moment?"


Sylvia slightly nodded at his words.


"Miss, I’ve always felt great gratitude towards the Astra family for taking me in after I lost my parents to monsters and became an orphan. That's why I’m working for Astra to repay that grace."


Just as he said, Sebastian was a human, not one of Astra’s people.


The elders of the family took in and raised Sebastian after his parents, who were connected to Astra, were killed by monsters.


"It was when I was twenty. I started this job when you were six, so it’s been over ten years now. Do you know what the elders asked of me when I was chosen as your attendant? To watch over you and scold you so that you could grow up to be a proper heir to Astra."


He wanted to repay that kindness, so he followed their orders, becoming Sylvia’s attendant, bodyguard, and teacher from a young age.


"I thought it was right to be as strict as possible for your sake. Always to excel, never to falter. But you accomplished all of that without a single complaint. And you grew up to be the most splendid heir to Astra. But lately, I’ve noticed you’ve changed a bit."


Sylvia thought she would hear the nagging she missed earlier.


But what she heard was completely different from what she imagined.


"And it looks much better. Seeing you happy about matching rings with a friend, smiling while reading a children’s book. Your expression has brightened a lot since you entered the academy, and I realized that was your true self, not just the heir to Astra. I also realized I had been making you suppress your true self. So, I’m sorry. I think I gave you a lot of grief when I was young."


Hearing those words, Sylvia clenched her teeth.


"I won’t report today’s events to the elders. Even though I’m an employee, I’ll still manage your schedule, but you can act freely during your free time. Just let me know in advance. And if you have any worries, you can talk to me."


Such kindness was rather a burden for her.


The elders of Astra were bad people.


Therefore, Sebastian, who followed their orders, was also a bad person.


If only he had remained someone she could hate, her mind would have been more at ease.


When they arrived at her room, Sebastian spoke.


"Miss, I’ll prepare some tea for you before you sleep. Today… chamomile would be good."


Sylvia, holding the doorknob, flinched and asked.


"......Did it show that much?"


Sebastian replied.


"I’ve been serving you for ten years."


Chamomile tea was known to be effective in calming sorrow.


Standing still at the door until the sound of footsteps faded, Sylvia finally entered her room.


As soon as she closed the door, she collapsed.


Remembering the stories she heard today, she sat in a daze until she heard a knock at the door.


Slowly getting up and fixing her clothes, Sylvia opened the door to find no one.


Only a steaming cup of tea and a tray with macarons were left.


Unnecessarily perceptive…


Pulling the tray inside, Sylvia sat by the door, took a sip of the tea, and bit into a macaron.


But before she could savor the taste, tears began to pour out.


“Sniff… sob… sob…”


Burying her head in her knees, Sylvia silently chewed over her worries that she could never share with anyone.


The fact that her friend was actually an experimental subject created by her family,


That the experiments were planned because of her,


And that due to the torturous experiments, her friend had no more than three years to live at most.


The guilt, sorrow, frustration, and confusion from that could not be soothed by her favorite sweets or calming tea.


And so, the girl buried her head in her knees and sobbed for a long time.


---


The next day, Sylvia told Sebastian she was going out.


When he asked where she was going in the rain, she replied she was going to meet a friend. He offered to drive her, but she declined.


She wanted to trust him, but Luke’s warning that if Scarlet’s existence was discovered by the family, they might try to dispose of her made her want to avoid any unnecessary risks.


Seeing her determined to go alone despite being in charge of her safety, Sylvia forced a smile.


After all, she was a hero and could take care of herself.


Thus, Sylvia passed through the gate to District 15.


She had received Scarlet’s address from Yoon Si-woo when they parted yesterday.


The ring that had fallen on the street yesterday.


In her daze, she hadn’t managed to return it, so she came to Scarlet’s house.


Arriving at the address she had been given, Sylvia was speechless.


‘...Is she really living here?’


The building in front of her was hard to call a house by her standards.


The already old-looking building, coupled with the rain, looked like nothing more than an abandoned house.


It was hard to believe that someone lived in such a building that looked like a ghost could pop out at any moment.


With trembling eyes, Sylvia climbed to the second floor of the building noted in the address.


A door labeled 203.


She knocked on the door, but hearing no response, she noticed a hole next to the doorknob.


Just in case, she put her hand in and managed to unlock the door.


‘No matter how you look at it, this is too much for a girl’s living place…’


Thinking so, Sylvia cautiously opened the door and entered, immediately spotting Scarlet lying on the bed, staring blankly at her.


The room was so small it could be seen all at once.


It was so narrow that the bathroom in her mansion seemed bigger.


She was shocked to realize Scarlet lived in such poverty.


"......"


Unsure of what to say, Scarlet, lying on the bed, spoke.


"......Why are you here?"


Regardless of her family background or past, those were not important.


Since she had nodded in agreement to the hope of continuing their friendship, she thought of treating her as she had before, bringing up her reason for coming here.


Taking out the ring she had put in her pocket, Sylvia spoke.


“...I picked this up on the street yesterday. I thought you might have dropped it, so I came to return it…”


She then saw Scarlet’s face, which hadn’t looked good, twist into a strange expression.


It was, if anything, a smile.


But Sylvia had never seen such a sad smile in her life.


With that smile, Scarlet gently pushed Sylvia’s hand, which held the ring, away and spoke.


"Sorry, but I can’t take that."


At that moment, Sylvia felt she somehow knew what would be said next.


The hesitation, the anxiety, but also the sense of inevitability conveyed by that smile.


It was a feeling she had experienced before.


What had she said back then?


“I’m sorry for everything. It was all my fault. So today, I’ll tell you the truth.”


Her chest pounded with a sense of foreboding.


Her lips moved slowly.


"I never"


"considered"


"Sylvia"


"a friend"


"from the start."


That was the last thing Sylvia wanted to hear from her.




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Comments

  1. Oh boy I'm excited of what's gonna happen next

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not sure if MC's wording is the reality.
    Although it's true that this started with an objective from MC's part...
    It's not like things didn't evolve later, at least a bit.
    So rather than cutting things off, i feel like it would be better if MC came clean about everything with at least one person.
    If Sylvia accepts it after that, they could really start over and that guilt that both feel, for different reasons, could dissipate with time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. welp, its all gone to shit

    ReplyDelete
  4. I honestly feel Scar is trying to push Syliva away so when her 3 years are up no one gets saddened

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know this is supposed to be sad but damn, they both hit each other with the same attack, heh.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thx for the chapter

    ReplyDelete

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