Ch.5858. The Lion King’s Birthday

The Lion King’s Birthday was one of the most important commemorative days in the Infractus Empire. Though the kingdom that preceded the empire had fallen, imperial citizens placed great significance on honoring the great king who had ruled their ancestral nation.

While it couldn’t quite compare to Empire Foundation Day, this was simply the empire’s culture. Even ordinary commoners never forgot to celebrate the Lion King’s Birthday each year.

The situation was no different at Demeia Academy, where children of powerful noble families gathered. Rather, it would have been strange to casually observe an imperial holiday established by the imperial family.

Every year as the commemoration approached, a grand festival was held to honor the valiant Lion King. During this time, even students would temporarily forget their busy academy schedules and enjoy the festivities.

As the years passed, the festival grew in scale until it became one of the most prestigious social gatherings in the empire, one that any noble wishing to make a name for themselves would certainly attend.

However, Demeia Academy’s commemorative event wasn’t limited to nobles alone. During this period, the academy’s doors were opened to ordinary commoners as well, and naturally, the place bustled with merchants who smelled profit and people who wanted to see the famous Demeia Academy for themselves.

This was a radical departure for the typically closed academy, which normally had to worry about spies from enemy nations, but it was being carried out under the principle that limiting access solely to nobles would contradict the academy’s founding ideals.

It was also a decision made because those without academy affiliations could only access limited areas anyway.

For these reasons, Demeia Academy’s Lion King’s Birthday celebration was always included when listing the empire’s greatest festivals.

Even now, the academy was unusually bustling as the Lion King’s Birthday approached. It felt as though the festival-like commemorative event had filled the void left by the fading excitement of the competition.

That wasn’t wrong.

Today too, Gilbert surveyed the empty training room while dripping with sweat. At his youthful age, it was natural to be caught up in the joy of a festival.

That was true whether one was noble or common. In the austere academy life, such events would be a ray of light.

But contrary to the festive atmosphere, Gilbert was focused on physical training. While outwardly he claimed he hadn’t completed his daily routine, inwardly it was closer to intensive training in preparation for the upcoming attack.

After finishing strength exercises that bordered on overexertion, he exhaled deeply to regulate his breathing. Though he wiped away the pouring sweat with a towel, his overheated body wouldn’t cool down easily.

*Swoosh*

Gilbert, who had been replenishing the fluids he’d lost through sweat, glanced toward the suddenly opening door. It was surprising that any student would visit this place at such a late hour, given the festive mood.

But seeing who entered, he couldn’t help but stiffen slightly. It was Lily, with her distinctive pink hair and commanding presence.

“Ugh.”

Lily’s face hardened immediately upon seeing Gilbert in the training room. For her, he was the person she least wanted to encounter at the academy.

Gilbert likewise couldn’t help but tense up at the sight of Lily, his most awkward acquaintance. From the entrance mock battle to the comprehensive evaluation and then the competition—those were the only times Gilbert had been involved with Lily in this world, but past events always held him back.

Because of that, he had no choice but to sever his connection with Lily, whom he had always recruited as a companion.

If he thought about it carefully under the name of “what if,” there might have been a way to resolve things positively with her. Though it might have taken a roundabout path, a way to establish an amicable relationship surely existed.

But Gilbert had completely cut that relationship at the comprehensive evaluation. He had said hurtful things to her, things that would make her hate him. The reason was to become someone she could direct her hatred toward completely.

But suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Wasn’t that his arrogant thinking?

To pour harsh words onto a victim with emotional wounds and redirect that hatred back to himself—this wasn’t a normal course of action.

Perhaps it was a side effect of his possession experience. Occasionally, there were moments when he acted in ways that even he considered uncharacteristic. This time too, the thought crossed his mind that he might have been influenced by the original Gilbert.

“My mood was already bad, and now this late at night…”

Seeing Lily’s hostility, it seemed impossible to mend their relationship. But the thought crossed his mind that he should at least offer a sincere apology.

While he hadn’t directly done anything terrible to Lily himself, it was true that in creating the character of Gilbert, he had inflicted an indelible wound on her. Just as he felt resentment at being thrown into this incomprehensible world, he needed to feel sorry toward Lily.

If someone had been deeply hurt by settings he had written without much thought, that was entirely his responsibility.

“Lily.”

“Do we have anything more to discuss?”

Seeing her unwillingness to exchange even a single word with him made him laugh bitterly, but he needed to say what he had to say.

“Do you remember the comprehensive evaluation?”

“What are you trying to say?”

Her voice rose noticeably. Lily couldn’t help but react sensitively to the mention of the comprehensive evaluation. She hadn’t forgotten Gilbert’s brazen words from that first night—that he had no intention of apologizing.

“I clearly told you I had no intention of apologizing.”

“The reason you’re bringing this up again seems like you want to fight with me. Am I wrong?”

“Not at all. I have no intention of fighting with you.”

“Then why bring up that topic?”

Gilbert calmly observed Lily, who looked like a cat with its fur standing on end. Even if offering an apology now wouldn’t change anything, it was something he had to convey as a matter of human decency.

“I’d like to retract my statement from then. I sincerely apologize for what happened that day.”

“…What did you say?”

Lily couldn’t process Gilbert’s sudden words. How could he be apologizing now after so brazenly stating he wouldn’t?

“Are you serious right now? You said you had no intention of apologizing, and now you’re saying sorry? Ha! Is this some image management now that you’re gaining fame? If that’s the case, you’re truly a hopeless piece of trash.”

“Not really. My already terrible reputation won’t change with a few words of apology. I just thought I needed to say this to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think anything will change because of this? You detestable person.”

Gilbert couldn’t help but sigh at the sight of Lily glaring at him while grinding her teeth. Seeing her unexpectedly intense hostility, he slightly regretted bringing up the topic.

“I don’t think anything will change. You can fully hate and despise me. I didn’t do this expecting your forgiveness. I just thought I absolutely needed to apologize to you.”

After delivering his apology, he gathered his things. Though Lily’s expression was contorted beyond description, he decided to ignore it. Perhaps this action too was Gilbert’s selfishness, wanting to ease his conscience a little.

“You really…!”

“My apology is sincere. I just wanted the kind-hearted you to be able to hate me completely. That’s all.”

With those final words, Gilbert passed by Lily, who was clenching her fists, and left the training room. If he had stayed any longer, he felt he might have heard her angry outburst.

But as he left the training room, he reflected on what he had said. While he had expressed his true feelings well, perhaps due to the original Gilbert’s influence, his words seemed somewhat nauseating.

Inside the now-empty training room, Lily stared intensely at the door Gilbert had exited through. Though his words held no magical spell, she couldn’t easily move her body.

What wind had suddenly blown to make him say such things?

Apologizing? Now, after all this time?

It wasn’t something she could simply accept and move on from. Did he think she would just accept it if he suddenly retracted what he had said during the comprehensive evaluation?

Lily’s fists clenched tightly. If that was the case, she couldn’t describe it as anything but worse than before. The nearly abusive words she had heard from Gilbert that day had once again torn at her heart. After all, this was the response the perpetrator Gilbert had offered after more than a decade.

Perhaps Lily had been waiting for his sincere apology. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so angry at Gilbert, from whom she expected no further disappointment. That’s what she meant when she thought about reopening wounds.

No, she was certainly thinking that way back then. Being kind-hearted, she often thought of people’s gentleness.

But on the day of the comprehensive evaluation, Gilbert had ultimately said hurtful things to her, and that continued until now. That’s why she had come to the training room today—to break that hopeless scoundrel.

But why had he said such things today?

Though she was reluctant to admit it, Lily, who was skilled at understanding others’ true feelings, couldn’t help but recall Gilbert’s recent apology.

He had conveyed a genuinely heartfelt apology to her, adding that during the comprehensive evaluation, he had acted that way because he wanted her to hate him completely.

“I really don’t like this at all.”

Biting her lip, Lily irritably threw the bag she had brought to a corner of the training room. It was truly a moment when she found herself detesting Gilbert to the core.