Chapter 3: Why do you do this to me!

The next day, Cais saw Lucia in the hallway.

He was about to approach to apologize for yesterday’s incident, but his steps faltered and stopped.

Because next to her was another man.

‘That man who blocked me yesterday….’

The two were walking, talking amiably.

At a glance, they looked like a couple, and Lucia also had a smile, as if she didn’t dislike the man.

Cais realized that if he stayed there, he would run into them.

Without realizing it, he hid behind a wall, wanting to avoid the situation.

‘Why did I hide?’

Cais hated himself for this.

Meanwhile, their conversation could be heard from behind the pillar.

Though he couldn’t see them, he recognized Lucia’s voice.

“So, the puppy in front of me…”

“Ahaha, I see.”

Their conversation was affectionate.

Cais felt his heart tearing apart.

‘That spot was supposed to be mine….’

The mere fact that he had been thoroughly ignored, one after another, by three childhood friends who were once closer to him than anyone else, was maddeningly painful.

But now, seeing Lucia smiling brightly by another man’s side, Cais felt he could no longer endure it.

He even had this thought.

‘Perhaps… I was the only one mistaken.

Perhaps they and I weren’t childhood friends at all, but strangers from the very beginning.’

The suspicion that he had suffered from a severe mental illness and lived in vain delusions all this time.

Even more terrifying was that he had become so unsure of himself that he couldn’t simply deny it.

Cais slumped onto a nearby bench.

Before the wounds from his father’s sudden death had even healed, he never expected to experience an even deeper despair.

Other students were fine, at least.

No matter what they chattered about him, he could endure it by ignoring them somehow.

But the betrayal of his trusted childhood friends was an indescribable pain.

It tore at and gouged Cais’s heart more fiercely than any other wound.

Overwhelmed by an intense loneliness, as if he had been cast out into the world alone, Cais’s eyes welled up with tears.

His bowed shoulders trembled slightly.

‘No one would comfort me even if I cried.’

He was alone anyway.

Just then, someone carefully approached and sat next to him.

“Cais…….”

Cais, whose name was called, opened his eyes wide and looked at the person.

He was a male classmate named Olga Stonewill.

His peculiarity was that he was one of the few commoners in the aristocratic academy.

“I have something to tell you.”

“Something to tell me…?”

Olga’s voice was tinged with hesitation and caution.

Cais, on the other hand, couldn’t hide his surprise at the very fact that a student was speaking to him in such a situation.

“Could we move somewhere for a moment?”

Olga led Cais to a secluded corner of the academy where few people ventured.

Then, he immediately bowed his head.

“I’m truly sorry!”

“Huh…?”

“I… I’ve been ignoring it all this time.

Cais treated me, a commoner, without discrimination, but I lacked the courage…”

Cais, who received a sudden apology, was bewildered, not understanding why.

This academy was centered around noble children, and commoners were extremely rare.

Olga, one of the few commoner students, was being ignored and shunned by those around him, unable to fit into the academy.

It was Cais who had first extended a hand to him.

However, the two were not particularly close.

Their interests and personalities were very different.

What Cais had done was simply treat Olga as an equal classmate, just like the other noble students, rather than specifically taking care of him.

“You’re the only one who still doesn’t know why the other students are avoiding you.

Someone should have told you, but everyone remained silent… I was the same, though.”

Olga spoke vaguely, a look of pity on his face, and lightly clenched his fist.

He had always been grateful that Cais, in the past, had treated him, a commoner, without discrimination.

That’s why he couldn’t possibly ignore it any longer and decided to tell him the truth.

Olga cautiously looked around, lowering his voice, in case anyone might overhear.

“I absolutely have to tell you this.”

“There was a reason…?”

For Cais, who had been isolated from his surroundings without knowing why, it was like a welcome rain in a drought.

“Yes.

Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you.”

Olga slowly began to speak.

“Cais, while you were away… rumors about your father and your family spread widely throughout the academy.”

“Huh?”

“The Royalist Purge incident… the story that your father died while opposing the Aristocratic Faction.”

Cais’s eyes widened.

Since there had been no mention of that incident, he hadn’t realized it at all.

“Everyone knew…?”

“Yes.

And you know that the Aristocratic Faction’s power is formidable in the capital right now, don’t you?

Especially… our academy head’s family is one of the central powers among them.”

Olga paused to take a breath.

Tension also appeared on his face.

“That’s why everyone is reluctant to associate with you.

They’re afraid of falling out of favor with the Aristocratic Faction if they get too close to you.

Your family has already been branded as a dangerous entity… Everyone is shunning you for their own safety.

It might be hard to accept… but that’s the reality.”

Olga’s explanation was incredibly cruel.

Cais bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut.

He knew well that aristocratic society was calculating and moved based on observing others.

He had felt it keenly, recalling the many nobles who hadn’t shown their faces at his father’s funeral.

But he never knew it would be so blatant and materialistic.

Moreover, weren’t all the students in this academy, including himself, still students before entering society?

Do these people, who already curry favor with power and even cast out their classmates, truly have the right to boast as nobles and lead this country?

Fury surged within him.

However, there was something else Cais could not accept above all else.

“Even if it’s true for the other kids… Lucia, Serena, and Valeria would never do that!

What kind of relationship do we have?! They would never…!”

Cais strongly denied it.

“I’m sorry, but… the incidents where you were recently rejected by them are already the talk of the entire academy.

You’re being ridiculed and ostracized.

Unfortunately… the children you knew might not exist anymore.”

“No! No, you’re wrong! What do you know to speak so carelessly?!”

“Cais….”

Olga merely called out to him with a look of pity.

“We’re different! How long have we been together?! It’s been ten years, ten years! More than ten years!”

Cais, agitated without realizing it, blurted out harsh words.

“Cais, calm down! Where are you trying to go?”

“If I go and talk to them directly… I’m sure I can clear up the misunderstanding.”

“You’ve already tried several times.

You’ve experienced the results yourself.

Stop now.”

“This time… it’s different.

If I speak from the heart, they will surely…!”

Despite Olga’s dissuasion, Cais stumbled and stood up.

He still couldn’t abandon hope.

He believed that if he met them directly and spoke from the heart, he could win back their estranged affections.

He wanted to prove that the time and bonds they had built were special,

and not so trivial as to be shaken by such a problem.

No, he had to prove it.

Therefore, even as he was rejected and hurt again, he continued to approach them.

But the results were even more devastating than before.

Now, Lucia would scream in terror and rush to escape the moment she saw Cais.

Serena even drew her sword and threatened him, not allowing him to approach at all.

Valeria would frown with a cold gaze mixed with contempt and disgust, avoiding him before he could even come near.

‘Were the past ten years we spent together truly worthless?

Was it so insignificant that you could cast it aside and ignore it so easily?!’

****

A few days later, the day of the regular sparring matches, held periodically, arrived.

It was an important event where students were assigned opponents through a lottery and openly competed to test their skills.

Cais also checked his sparring opponent.

When it was his turn, he stepped onto the central stage of the arena.

Looking around, the student audience filled the stands.

Since these sparring matches were one of the few entertainments within the academy, there were almost no empty seats.

They booed as Cais appeared.

“The fallen noble is here!”

“He’s still attending the academy?”

“Whoever it is, beat that bastard to a pulp!”

Cais ignored the torrent of ridicule.

There was no need to pay attention to such things.

He silently waited for his opponent.

Soon, from the opposite side, a silhouette slowly ascended onto the stage.

The person who appeared, shaking a red ponytail, was someone entirely unexpected.

Cais’s eyes widened in surprise and dismay.

“Serena? Why are you….?”