Ch.23Rael Gideon (4)
by fnovelpia
Surprisingly, the professor’s office is quiet.
I picked up my teacup, enjoying the pleasant silence.
But when did I start being happy about something so ordinary?
Recently, Lael has been constantly hanging around the professor’s office, making truly quiet days like this rare.
Of course, she would go straight back to the dormitory for a few days each month.
Well, even a tyrannical noble lady is still a woman, so naturally she’d have those days.
I’d started to predict which days she wouldn’t come.
But today isn’t one of those days I expected.
It’s not even close to my predicted range. There’s still quite a while left.
*Sigh*
She suddenly went back with ten more days to go?
I suppose it shouldn’t matter.
I’m just satisfied if I can enjoy the present moment.
But I shouldn’t have been satisfied with just that.
I should have wished more desperately.
I should have begged for nothing to happen today.
Because I ended up witnessing something utterly unbelievable.
Is this really our master’s workshop?
“Mmm! Delicious!”
“It’s good, right? It’s the most expensive cake in the Royal Capital.”
“No wonder, it’s worth the price. By the way, you look prettier now that you’ve gained some weight.”
“Really? Thank you.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I wondered if what I was seeing might be a hallucination.
What on earth would have to happen for Master and Lael to sit across from each other eating cake?
I quietly opened the back door and went outside. Then I looked up at the sky.
The sky was deep blue without a single cloud.
The sky hadn’t fallen, nor had the ground caved in.
This was reality.
While I was experiencing this confusion, the back door opened with a creak.
And Lael poked her head out.
“Professor, you’re here? Have some cake.”
“Why are you here?”
“Um…”
Lael raised her hand and made a circle with her index finger and thumb.
“Bribery?”
Bribery? She’s crossed the line, way too far.
No matter what, she shouldn’t mess with my family, with my master.
I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out a spoon.
I used to believe that education shouldn’t involve violence.
I’d been hit a lot by Master, and I had an aversion to hitting someone.
But Master was absolutely right.
If you do something deserving of punishment, you need to be hit to come to your senses.
“A-are you going to hit me?”
“I wouldn’t hit you if you didn’t deserve it!”
*Whack!*
“Eek?!”
When the spoon struck her head, Lael clutched her head and crumpled to the ground.
This is a professor’s discipline, student.
Just then, Master appeared, probably noticing the commotion outside.
Master looked back and forth between Lael sitting on the ground and the spoon in my hand.
Then she crouched down and put her arm around Lael’s shoulders.
“What are you doing, my disciple! How could you hit this child?!”
“I hit her because she deserved it.”
“What did she do to deserve it?! Is it wrong for your master to eat delicious cake?”
Master had already been completely bribed.
How vicious.
Now you’re even bribing my family with money.
But really, Master is too much.
We’ve spent so much more time together, yet she gets bribed with just one cake?
Master glared at me once, then helped the sniffling Lael up and took her inside.
*Sigh*
It’ll be brief, right?
From Master’s perspective, Lael came as a guest, so it might have been difficult to be harsh.
There’s no way our Master would be bribed with just a cake.
But that wasn’t the case.
Master really had been bribed with cake.
Making my brief expectation look foolish, Lael continued her long conversation with Master and eventually ended up joining us for dinner.
“Wow! Professor, this is delicious!”
“Right? I told you my disciple is an amazing cook!”
Master proudly shrugged as if she had made it herself.
I moved my spoon diligently while blankly watching the two of them getting along so well.
With the sole desire to escape from this place.
“As expected, since the master is excellent, the professor is excellent too.”
“You really know your stuff, don’t you?”
No, that doesn’t seem quite right.
After that painful dinner ended, we had tea time.
I don’t know why I was there, but Master had instructed me to attend.
Master took a sip of tea, put down her cup, and spoke.
“So, what’s your reason for coming to see me?”
Master’s voice had sunk heavily, as if it had never been otherwise.
As if she already knew the real meaning and was just asking for confirmation.
Lael carefully put down her teacup and answered.
“I just wanted to become friends with the professor’s master.”
“So there must be a reason why you want to be friends with me.”
“Well…”
Lael glanced at me.
It seemed difficult for her to speak with me present.
Master, who wouldn’t miss such a detail, looked at me and said.
“My disciple, go to your room and rest for today.”
Thinking that the inevitable had finally come, I nodded lightly and got up.
Then I went to my room and threw myself on the bed.
I was already tired from my professor duties, and having Lael at the workshop made it even more exhausting.
I just wanted to be a little comfortable while at the workshop.
That tyrannical noble lady.
As I gently closed my eyes, my consciousness instantly flew to a distant place.
* * * * *
Riano sipped her tea while staring at the cute girl in front of her.
Back then she hadn’t noticed because the girl was so thin, but now that she was healthier, she was quite pretty.
Riano put down her teacup and asked once more.
Now that her disciple had gone inside, the girl could speak more comfortably.
“So, what’s your reason for coming to see me?”
“Um… well…”
Her hesitant behavior was identical to her disciple’s.
But she couldn’t snap at her like she did with her disciple.
Not only was she not her disciple, but who knows what would happen if she laid hands on a duke’s daughter.
If you’re going to hurt someone, it’s better to just kill them to avoid complications.
“Take your time, it’s okay.”
“Yes…”
Lael took a sip of tea, perhaps trying to calm her nerves.
“You and the professor are in a master-disciple relationship, right?”
“Well… that’s right. But why?”
“You don’t have… other thoughts, do you?”
Riano had actually noticed.
That this woman, this duke’s daughter, liked her disciple.
But it was just a guess, so she had kept her here until now to hear it directly.
But actually hearing something like this felt like being hit hard on the head with a hammer.
She didn’t want her disciple to leave.
But if asked whether that was a woman’s romantic feeling, it probably wasn’t.
…Probably.
Besides, Lael was a duke’s daughter.
If he married her, a happy life would be guaranteed, so there was no point in worrying about it.
Her disciple couldn’t keep living with a 28-year-old virgin—no, an old maid—forever.
It was clear which option would be better for her disciple.
But words different from her thoughts came out of her mouth.
“I do have other feelings. So don’t think about taking him away.”
She didn’t know why she said such a thing.
But she wasn’t sure which was her true feeling—the words that came out of her mouth or the thoughts in her head.
She didn’t know if she cherished her disciple as a disciple or loved him as a man.
It was all just a mess of uncertainty.
“I thought so. I knew it.”
“What did you know?”
Lael stood up as if she had no more business, picked up her bag.
And as she headed for the back door, she answered quietly.
“The way you look at the professor isn’t ordinary.”
*Creak*
The door opened and closed.
Left alone at the table with three teacups, Riano sank into thought.
Is this right?
She was certainly anxious.
She didn’t want her disciple to leave.
She had been upset for days when he suddenly left that time.
But guilt troubled her heart just as much.
What if her disciple found out about this later?
What if he asked why she didn’t help him get together with the duke’s daughter?
What if he asked why she didn’t wish for his happiness?
Would she be able to stay with her disciple like now?
Riano sighed deeply while fidgeting with the innocent teacup.
“Ah, damn… if I were just five years younger, I wouldn’t be thinking like this.”
It’s a well-known fact that men prefer younger women.
In that respect, being 28—well past marriageable age—was a huge disadvantage.
Riano got up and headed to the room where her disciple would be sleeping.
And she examined him lying on the bed.
What could it be?
This fluffy feeling.
She thought she’d heard that love was supposed to be passionate.
The more she looked at her disciple, the more she felt like she was moving away from what love was supposed to be.
Instead, though it wasn’t quite the same, she felt like she wanted to watch over him.
To see what path her disciple would walk.
If he had difficulties, she wanted to support him from the side, and felt like she could cheer him on forever.
But this was the same as when she was just his master.
As Riano was lost in thought with furrowed brows, her disciple tossed and turned, talking in his sleep.
“Master… I’ll give you two cakes. No, three…”
Riano burst into laughter at her cute disciple and lightly kissed his forehead.
Just like she used to do when her young disciple had nightmares.
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