Ch.92Awakened Hatchling (4)

“Then what happens to me?”

“Well… Lord Ruide seems quite angry this time, so it’s unlikely this will just blow over. Best case scenario would be expulsion…?”

Fenicia explained with discomfort. Expelling a student is never an easy decision.

“How… how could this… so harsh.”

Tears welled up in Klein’s eyes.

He grabbed Fenicia’s hand urgently.

“Vice Chancellor Fenicia. Isn’t there anything that can be done? I swear to heaven I did not commit such a disgraceful act as copying someone else’s exam.”

“Um, well… Student Klein.”

If Clifford was a man with a passionate heart, Fenicia was a realist.

-That lazy bum is a sleeping dragon. Don’t even think about using him carelessly, and don’t go against his wishes. He’s most helpful when he’s asleep.

Even without Clifford’s advice, Fenicia had no desire to upset the Windsor Duchy, which held authority second only to the Emperor.

“Whether it’s true or not, you should have accepted it when Lord Ruide raised his objection. Admitting to academic dishonesty would have been better than going against the young lord.”

“Th-that’s absurd! How can I when I committed no crime…!”

Fenicia smiled gently.

“Student Klein. You yourself once had a commoner expelled for allegedly looking at your exam paper. It’s the same thing. The truth doesn’t matter.”

This is truly absurd.

It makes no sense, Klein thought.

The gap between commoners and great nobles is vast.

But this was between two great noble families—Minerva and Windsor. Though Minerva was a smaller house compared to Windsor, they weren’t in a position to suffer such one-sided injustice.

“…We won’t let this go. House Minerva will remember this.”

“Um, hmm.”

Fenicia was troubled.

“…Did you think the Academy was easy to push around?”

Fenicia scratched her head.

“The Imperial Academy won’t be shaken by making an enemy of mere House Minerva. Please leave. Klein Minerva, you are expelled.”

A feeling like his heart dropping.

Klein barely managed to speak.

“Please… at least convene a disciplinary committee.”

“No, no.”

Fenicia waved both hands with an awkward smile.

“This is my unilateral decision. Please direct your complaints to the Imperial Family, not the Academy. Though it probably won’t help.”

Klein suddenly recalled something he’d once heard about Fenicia.

‘Wouldn’t Professor Fenicia be better as Chancellor than Chancellor Clifford! Professor Fenicia is so kind!’

That wasn’t true.

Fenicia was far more resolute and cruel than Clifford.

**

Klein walked with a soulless expression.

He stood before a mansion located in the center of the district. A servant rushed out to greet him.

“Y-young master. What brings you here at this hour…?”

The mansion hadn’t finished being cleaned yet.

Klein gave a gentle smile as usual, as if to reassure them.

“I returned early because I had something to do. Don’t worry about preparing a meal, you should rest.”

‘He really is such a kind person.’

The butler thought this as he bowed.

“Yes, I’ll be on standby if you need anything.”

“Very well.”

Klein entered the mansion with a smiling face. He greeted each passing maid with a smile. The maids blushed as they passed by.

After the maids had gone.

Klein transformed instantly.

His face contorted like a demon’s.

He strode purposefully toward his room.

He pulled a lever hidden between bookshelves.

Rumble-

With a slight noise, a passage to the basement opened.

It was the path to Klein’s magic workshop.

“Damn it, damn it.”

Klein cursed as he practically ran down the stairs.

“Ella! Ella!”

He looked around while fiercely calling someone’s name.

There he saw Ella, sitting at a desk looking haggard.

“K-Klein, sir.”

“You worthless bitch!”

Slap!

“Kyaak!”

Klein struck Ella’s cheek.

Ella rolled off the desk and curled up like a pill bug. Immediately after, violence she couldn’t resist rained down.

“Didn’t you assure me we wouldn’t get caught! Do you know what I’ve been through because of you?!”

Klein glared at Ella as if he wanted to kill her. Though no more kicks came, Ella trembled finely.

“I take in a lowborn like you, and this is how you repay my kindness!”

“I’m… sorry.”

Klein’s hands shook with rage.

He wanted to kill her right then.

It wouldn’t be difficult to kill this lowly woman.

‘I can’t let this worthless woman ruin all my efforts. The Academy—if I plead well with Father, this can somehow be resolved.’

But thinking of possible repercussions, he barely restrained himself.

“Get out now. If you ever breathe a word about what happened between us to anyone, I’ll exterminate your family for three generations.”

Ella struggled to her feet, clutching her side.

Then without hesitation, she prostrated herself on the floor.

“Please, forgive me just this once, Lord Klein.”

“……”

“I beg you. I won’t, I won’t ever make any mistake again.”

Klein looked at Ella with contemptuous eyes and pulled a cord.

Rumble.

A seemingly solid wall opened, revealing a meadow.

It was an emergency passage leading to the back alleys of the district.

“Get out. If you don’t want to die.”

“……”

Ella limped away.

**

Ella had been a first-year student in the Magic Department of the Imperial Academy.

Though she was expelled right after enrollment.

She heard that some noble had reported her.

She tried to deny it, but it was useless. No one believed Ella’s words.

That’s when Klein reached out. Approaching her while pretending to be a mannered nobleman, he extended his hand and said:

-I have a workshop that I run privately. I’m looking for someone to work there, would you be interested?

She was deceived by his kindness.

Or rather, even if she hadn’t been deceived, Ella had no other options.

She couldn’t give up and return home. She had to become a magician.

Klein’s angelic smile turned demonic the moment she entered his workshop.

Whenever she did something he didn’t like, she had to endure all kinds of verbal abuse, and on days when he was in a bad mood, she had to withstand countless acts of violence.

But Ella didn’t think it was that bad. Rather, she felt grateful that he had taken in someone as insignificant as herself.

Though Klein was violent every day, at least he didn’t touch her body.

And though he stole all the research results she had worked so hard to produce, he gave her enough money to send home.

Even that was something to be thankful for to the desperate Ella.

But now that she’d been kicked out of Klein’s workshop, she had nowhere to go.

‘What do I do now?’

She had grown up in an ordinary commoner family.

After discovering she had talent for magic, her parents worked tirelessly to earn money to send her to the district.

Her mother would leave at night and return in the morning, while her father took on all sorts of difficult jobs to earn money. He even went around asking to borrow money, which often resulted in beatings. Her father was missing two fingers on his right hand.

She had to succeed and return home.

That was Ella’s only mission.

It was atonement for her parents who had sacrificed everything for her.

But.

‘Now… I…’

It was over.

She was expelled from the Academy, and her only lifeline was cut.

She didn’t have confidence to overcome this situation.

Moreover, she…

-Ella, you’re a beast dumber than livestock. You’re completely useless. Live your life always grateful to me for taking you in.

-How could someone with such terrible magical talent get accepted to the Academy? They say they’re lenient toward commoners, and it must be true.

-Even if someone hadn’t reported your exam, the result would have been the same. Actually, it’s a good thing. Thanks to being expelled, you met a benefactor like me.

She had no talent.

“Ah.”

Her whole body ached with pain.

Hot tears flowed down her face.

She tried wiping them away with her sleeve, but they wouldn’t stop.

Ella stopped walking. Looking to the side, she saw a lake beyond the bridge.

She wasn’t sure how deep it was, but it would be enough for her body to sink.

With a blank expression, she murmured.

“Should I just end it?”

Wouldn’t it be easier to give up?

Ella felt a certain desire.

It seemed so sweet.

Ella approached the bridge.

Just as she was about to climb onto the railing.

“Isn’t it a waste?”

“…!”

On the railing that had clearly been empty a moment ago, a blonde boy was sitting.

His eyes, softly illuminated by moonlight, were so dreamlike that it felt unreal.

‘Is this a dream?’

Ella momentarily thought.

“Reaching that level means you’ve practiced a lot.”

Ella had never stopped studying magic.

Klein’s magic workshop had many books.

Though slow, she had been persistent.

Thinking it was fortunate for a commoner to access such expensive books.

“Don’t you feel wronged?”

‘…A fairy? A hallucination before death, is that it?’

She seemed to have seen something like this before.

They say mana has a will of its own, and when a magician it has been with is about to die, it shows them visions.

Ella thought that her own magical power, recognizing she was at death’s doorstep, had created this wonder.

So Ella could speak comfortably.

“I do feel wronged.”

“Right?”

“Why, among so many students, was I the only one falsely accused? I never cheated. My magic circle was perfect, so why did Lord Klein react that way? Why do these things only happen to me?”

“……”

“Fairy, why did you give me such mediocre talent? Someone like me… a commoner… would have been happier farming.”

Ella spoke in a sad voice.

Ruide just stared at her.

Ella smiled.

“But I don’t resent you. Thanks to you, I was able to dream a happy dream, if only briefly. I’m sorry. I don’t think I can go on anymore. Thank you for being with someone as lowly as me all this time.”

“Do you think you’re unlucky?”

“……”

Ella hates the concept of luck.

Because it’s determined regardless of one’s abilities.

She had tried hard to deny it.

But now, she could say it.

“Yes.”

But the fairy denied it.

“No. You’re lucky.”

“……”

Ella couldn’t agree.

“Because you met me. That’s really not an easy thing to happen.”

The fairy got down from the railing.

Looking up at Ella, he extended his hand.

“My name is Ruide Christopher Windsor. I’m a professor at the Imperial Academy.”

“…What?”

He was still holding out his hand.

Ella instinctively took it.

Unlike her own, his hand felt infinitely soft.

It was a nobleman’s hand.

And at that moment—

Ella realized that what she was seeing wasn’t a hallucination.

“From what I’ve observed, you have talent. So this isn’t pity. It’s the result you rightfully deserve.”

“What?”

Extremely confused, Ella could only repeat the same word like a parrot.

“Ella. From today, you’re my assistant.”