episode_0043

Where am I?

I slowly got up from the bed.

I forced my brittle head to move and looked around.

Looks like a dorm room. There is no one. But why am I here?

Let’s calm down and rewind our memories.

I went to Romelo Village yesterday and met Cobb Priestley.

Even though Cobb talked about his bullshit philosophy, the contract itself was concluded anyway.

When I asked to know the chairman’s past history, a drinking bet was made.

Asking a question in a drinking bet… three? Did you do four?

The film cut off after that. Hmm.

I looked around but had no idea where I was, so I decided to do some research first.

I walked to the closet and opened the drawer that was within easy reach.

and-

“Wow!”

Bras, panties, and sanitary pads.

Indecent, plain underwear with no lace or color.

But it was enough to knock me out, as I had never seen women’s underwear in real life in either my past or present life.

The problem was that I was holding on to the handle, causing the drawer to tip over and the underwear to be scattered all over the room.

To make matters worse, the door opened and the person I least wanted to see came in.

“Uh, Coleman. Wake up… ”

Blonde hair wet and disheveled.

A chest that stands out beneath light cotton clothing.

Smooth skin without any blemishes.

I made eye contact with Chairman Lilac, who had just returned from the shower.

She looked back and forth between her underwear spilling on the floor and me.

“Uh, I mean, it was a mistake.

I didn’t know that this was the chairman’s room, so I was rummaging through the drawers… ”

I slowly got up to explain, but then I realized there was a problem.

So, mine stopped working.

It’s also very upright. So much so that it caught the attention of the chairman.

A silence that couldn’t be more awkward.

I turned around slowly, or maybe quickly.

“… sorry. I’ll calm you down for a moment.”

“No. What is there to apologize for?

hmm. I know enough. The imperial family provides sex education for its successors.

So men do that in the morning… The fact that something like that happens… ”

after. Let’s think peaceful thoughts, peaceful thoughts.

The chairman must have gotten over the initial shock and regained his usual relaxed and relaxed tone of voice.

“And by the way, Coleman.

If I hadn’t been excited at all in this situation, I would have just felt bad, right?

As a woman, it’s a matter of pride-”

“That, Chairman.”

“Huh?”

“Please be quiet… ”

“Ah.”

A dejected voice.

“Sorry. I apologize. Sexual harassment… ”

“No, that’s not it. only… ”

“Just?”

“Because it’s a bit provocative… ”

President. You really have a beautiful voice.

If you softly tease people with that kind of voice, I won’t be able to endure it…

After 5 minutes, I finally regained my composure.

“Yes. I calmed down… ”

“Uh, um. I also cleaned my room… ”

The awkward silence returned again.

Before the atmosphere got weird again, I quickly filled in the sound.

“How did I end up in the Chairman’s room?”

“I don’t remember at all?”

“Yes.”

“You got off the boat after curfew, drunk.

I felt that if I entered the Kuroshio Dormitory like this, there would be bad news, so I moved to my room through a secret passage.”

“Secret passage?”

When the chairman pressed a specific wooden board with his foot, the door to the basement opened with a clanging sound.

“You can leave this way too.

I’ll go to the student council later and write a posthumous permit for staying out in Romelo Village, so let’s pretend I stayed out and came back.”

“Thank you… ”

Wait, but if I don’t remember anything…

“Hey, Chairman.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember, so did I make any mistake?”

“Hmm. Other than the one where he drank to the point where he couldn’t control himself and made me support him, took over my bed and made me sleep on the chair, and went through my drawers and spilled all my underwear?”

“Ah, yes. Not like that. Saying something embarrassing, being drunk, or sexually harassing someone.”

“That can’t be possible. Coleman was a gentleman even when he was drunk.”

Phew.

I breathed a sigh of relief and followed the chairman’s instructions and went down the ladder.

Baekyang’s basement, the academy’s sewers, and the island’s cave.

She guided me through the labyrinth, referring to her notebook.

“I didn’t know that the Chairman knew about these secret passages.”

“If you are a Baekyang dormitory student, you probably know a secret or two about the school.

We come in a year earlier than others.”

“Even so… ”

“And, there is also this notebook left by my mother. ”

A quiet confession. I stopped walking.

She stroked the worn edges of her notebook.

“You heard it from Cobb, right? That my biological parents are dead.”

“… sorry. Even though he was told not to dig into the past, he ignored it, went to Cove, made a bet, and caused trouble… ”

“No. It’s my fault.

I couldn’t even mention that Cobb Priestley was an acquaintance of my mother’s, and I couldn’t control my emotions just because of that, so I ended up relying on you.

No wonder you thought you should help me.”

The chairman took a deep breath and started walking again.

“Coleman, now you can ask me or anyone else about my past.

If I try to hide it from you any further, I think it will only cause more problems.”

“… So can I ask you now?”

“Any amount.”

I took a breath and opened my mouth.

“Tell me about your parents.”

“You know that I was a student at the academy, right?”

I nodded.

“My father was a member of the royal family who moved into the Red Horse Dormitory.

My mother was one of the lucky ones selected for Baekyang Dormitory.”

“There is a big difference in status.”

“My mother recorded their love story in this notebook, and it was truly a novel-like story.

Not only my father, but also many prominent men, such as Cobb Priestley, competed for my mother’s heart.”

This is truly a story that could only be found in female-oriented romance fantasy novels.

“Your mother must have been a very beautiful woman.”

“I don’t know. The mother I saw when I was young was so beautiful… Beauty is… ”

The chairman stopped. Her body began to tremble.

I grabbed the chairman by the shoulder and turned him towards me.

“Chairman?”

“… I don’t remember… Mom’s face… I don’t remember what it was like… ”

Tears begin to form slightly in your eyes.

He lifted his hand and wiped it away.

“She must have been a beauty.”

“I’ve never seen it before.”

“I can tell when I see the Chairman’s face.”

It was only after speaking that I realized that I had gone too far.

My face and the president’s face turned bright red.

She turned around and teased me in a slightly trembling voice.

“Oh my, Coleman. It looks like you learned the art of seducing women in Romelo Village.”

“That… sorry. I will keep the line… ”

“… ”

The chairman opened his notebook again without saying a word.

“This way. If you go here, you will come across five paths, and if you go a little further from there, you can come out to a cave near the Black Swan Dormitory.”

“Yes… ”

As the chairman said, an open plaza-like terrain with four exits emerged.

Even though it was a dark place, it was as bright as day due to the magic lights attached to the ceiling.

“What on earth is this place? There is a place like this in the basement of the academy… ”

“According to the notebook written by my mother, it is an ancient ruin from before the Academy, or rather, before the Circle.

Did you know that there is a death prevention spell on the Academy grounds?”

“Yes.”

“I guess it was the ancient people who created these ruins who cast that spell.

The circle that discovered the ruins thought it would be a perfect place for education, so they set up a training center here.

They say you can go into the deeper ruins if you go through the passage on the left, but it’s blocked by a barrier.”

That’s great.

I couldn’t help but admire the president’s mother, who investigated all of this.

“Your mother must have been an explorer.”

“As I said before, all Baekyang dormitory students are explorers to some degree.”

A statement full of strange pride.

When I think about it, the chairman had a very high level of loyalty to Baekyang.

During the brainstorming session, fierce defense of Baekyang and hatred towards Rosewater, who hacked up senior Baekyang.

And he even takes care of his junior, Angela, on a regular basis.

“… Is it because of your mother that the Chairman chose Baekyang Dormitory?”

A faint smile appears on the side of the face.

“It would be absurd to say that I chose it. Baekyang is not a place you can enter just because you want to.”

“But even if I had won the lottery, I could have given up on entering Baekyang and aimed for Red Horse or Blue Dragon.”

“You don’t have the skills to join Blue Dragon, and you have no connection with me anyway.

Red horse… Jeokma isn’t bad either, since it’s my father’s dormitory. but… ”

The chairman slurs his words. I thought I knew what she was going to say, so I finished her sentence instead.

“I didn’t want to ask His Majesty the Emperor, right?”

beck.

Before I knew it, sunlight was shining from the cave exit.

“Ah. It’s here. I know where it is. I can go from here.”

“Yes. … Coleman.”

“Yes.”

“Me too… Can I ask you one thing?”

“Which one?”

“Your sister, Hayley Cantor.”

I stopped walking.

“How much do you know?”

“Baron Cantor’s eldest daughter became pregnant through lovemaking with a wolf beast without being married.

After her parents scolded her, she ran away with the man into the night, and now no one knows where she is… ”

“You know enough. There’s no more backstory to tell.

I don’t know what happened to Haley after that.”

I flopped down at the cave exit.

The chairman let his voice drift into the lake breeze.

“It looks like you miss your sister a lot.”

“I am 10 years older than my sister. They loved me a lot.”

After being possessed by Colman Cantor’s body, he lived as a semi-madman for almost a year.

My parents were appalled, and Alistair seriously looked into finding an exorcist.

In the meantime, it was Haley who protected me, helped me adapt, and gave me hope in life.

“Haley was originally interested in the circus.

When there was a performance, I would watch it, and I would also practice juggling.”

“You have a unique taste.”

“My mother said something, but I still left it alone.”

Rather, my father enjoyed watching my older sister’s talent show.

Because Country Baron’s place is a boring place to begin with.

“But five years ago, I became pregnant with the child of an acrobat named Everad.

And he said he would leave home and join the circus.

If Everard was of low status but had a good personality, you wouldn’t know it. Just looking at him, he was a scumbag who could easily ruin a woman’s life… ”

My parents, my brother, me, no, everyone, Young Ji-min stopped my sister.

But my sister persevered. My parents criticized me for being a closed-minded person who knew neither love nor dreams.

The sister’s generosity, which used to understand even the possessed person, has turned into a naivety that makes people burst out inside.

“My parents kept giving in.

At first, he went crazy saying he would give up the baby and marry her off right away.

Next time, I will give you a baby, so leave it at the orphanage.

Since you refuse that too, I will have the maid register the child so you can see his face.

In the end, I will recognize him as your illegitimate son, so please break up with him… ”

“… But you still didn’t listen.”

My older sister fled at night with her pregnant body.

I ran as hard as I could to catch up with my sister. And what my sister gave me…

A brief apology and a kiss on the forehead. That was it.

I couldn’t stop my sister.

“Do you hate your sister?”

“No. Not really. I hope your judgment is correct.

I hope that Everard, his older sister, and his three nephews will live in poverty but happily, running a family circus somewhere… But that can’t be possible.”

“… ”

“So I just don’t want to think about Haley.

I try to live as if my parents, older brother, me, and older sister never existed.”

I slowly got up from my seat.

“I should apologize.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t even know that, I left you and ran away, irritating your wounds.”

“I left the student center and went to the dormitory. Can you say I ran away?”

“… Still, I’m sorry.”

“… yes. from now on… I hope you don’t leave me like that.”

“I understand. Promise.”

The chairman extended his little finger to me.

Even though he grumbled, “What are you doing in a childish way?”, I followed the beat.

“Coleman. Then promise me this too.”

“What?”

“If you have any questions in the future, just come to me and ask.

Don’t drink alcohol or do anything dangerous.”

“… I understand.”

We unpacked it.

The chairman smiled quietly as he looked at the lake in the distance. A sad yet faint smile.

It was my first time knowing that a person could laugh so brightly.

“Coleman. The luckiest thing in my life was being drawn into the Baekyang dormitory.

And the second piece of luck… I met you.”

“Chairman.”

“I’m sorry. Because you are such a great blessing to me… I made a lot of mistakes because I didn’t know how to accept you.”

If you say something like that to me, I don’t know what to say.

Unable to reply, I cleared my throat and said goodbye.

“Then I’ll go.”

“Yes. Be careful.”

After parting ways with the chairman, I started heading towards the Kuroshio Dormitory along the lakeside.

It was a bit of a struggle, but it all worked out well in the end.

My sister’s story… Well, I couldn’t hide it until the end.

As I walked whistling in a relaxed mood, a memory flashed through my mind.

Coleman. If I said that without permission, Lilac would literally turn me into a carpet.

No, the emperor is going to turn me into a carpet…

… Why did Tangaroa say that?

That notebook is just a keepsake from my mother.

The president may be reluctant to tell you that. I guess it’s a personal matter.

But why is His Majesty the Emperor here?

Because I don’t want it to be known that I’m not the biological child? Isn’t that a secret so important that it’s worth talking about?

I stopped and tried to think about this discomfort.

However, the weather in April was too bad to dwell on such discomfort.

With the wind blowing from the lakeside, I was relieved of my discomfort.

Hey. Why make a fuss about something like this and talk about the imperial family?

Tangaroa, that bastard, if you are a senior, pay your age like a senior!