Chapter 49: Embarrassment Part 1

“If you and we join forces, we can easily gift you the throne,” Teleman’s proposal continued.

“Once you usher in a new era, you’ll need your own followers who’ve never sworn loyalty to anyone else, right? We will become the loyal servants of the new emperor.”

The young man knelt on one knee in front of Ellie.

Though he was a professor, Teleman was only 23 years old, just like Merit, who was 21.

“Take my hand, and lead us.”

His hand, which he extended, was trembling.

It was, after all, an extremely risky proposal for him.

However, Ellie’s behavior at the academy had been enough to make him feel anxious.

The best time to buy the seeds of greatness at the lowest price is when they’re the youngest.

In just a few years, maybe even months, the figure of Ellie would be far beyond what he could afford to control.

“Ha…”

When Ellie’s laughter rang out, Teleman briefly wondered if she hadn’t understood.

But the look in her eyes, as she gazed down at him, was too bright to have been mistaken for a joke.

It felt like she could see straight through his heart.

“Teleman.”

Ellie continued to smile slyly and poked Teleman’s forehead with one finger while he knelt.

“You’ve come to the wrong person.”

‘What should he say?’

‘That…’

‘It was so, so irritating.’

Ellie sighed.

“Ha…”

She gently pushed Teleman’s forehead, which had turned blank, and began to dissect how ridiculous his proposal was, piece by piece.

“The most important reason, I’ll mention last, but first off, your ultimate goal is just to elevate your own status, right?”

“That’s…”

“Even calling it ‘us,’ your organization only has about twenty members, right? Out of those, five actively seek status, while the rest are probably just gathering to complain about their situation.”

“How… how do you know that?!”

However, Ellie didn’t explain, only giggling.

“Your members, including you, are people from the vague, unsatisfied upper class of the world. Perhaps a third son of a Marquis, or a baron from the border. You gather about twice a month, right? Under the guise of a system?”

“!?”

By this point, Teleman almost suspected that Ellie might have clairvoyant powers.

“If it’s just those few people, even if you try to bring me into a rebellion, 90% of them will run away. And most likely, they’ll betray you since that’s a much more guaranteed reward.”

Ellie spoke as if she were gently scolding a naive student.

“You have a weak eye for observing groups. Be careful and stay cautious.”

“Ugh…”

But instead of losing his pride, the professor, Teleman, felt his remaining knee drop to the ground, out of embarrassment.

Because the more he listened, the more Ellie’s words made sense.

“But you know,” Ellie giggled.

“The biggest reason you’ve come to the wrong person is something else. Do you have any idea what it is?”

“Th-that…”

“Simply…”

The girl poked the young man’s forehead again with her finger.

This time, she wrapped a bit of mana around it.

“Because I am so strong that your help would be meaningless.”

Before her finger touched his skin, Teleman instinctively cast a defensive magic.

He wasn’t a mere professor in magic combat for no reason; he was skilled.

He succeeded in minimizing the shock to just a hard tap on his forehead.

“Ugh…”

Ironically, even Teleman, the most skilled person in magic combat at the academy, aside from the dean, felt the impact.

“Oh, did I hit too hard? Sorry. I thought you could block it better…”

Then, Ellie truly rubbed his forehead as if she were apologizing.

“Oh dear. Does it hurt a lot?”

“It’s… it’s fine!”

Teleman jumped up.

Though he understood in his mind that she was superior to him, having a 15-year-old girl rub his forehead was humiliating.

The height difference between them was over 30 cm.

When he stood up, it almost felt like their roles as a professor and student were normalized again.

It was a ridiculous situation, and he knew it.

After all, he was the one who wanted to break free from the master-student relationship, only to find himself wanting it back.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

Ellie smiled softly and turned her back.

“Well then. Next class… oh, wait. If you have time, would you like to do a business together?”

“…What?”

‘A business?’

Given the context so far, it didn’t seem like it was a business aimed at the throne.

‘So what could it be? Was she seriously asking him to engage in a business of making or buying and selling goods?’

“That can’t be right, can it?”

“I’ll come to your study tomorrow. Right now, I need to tell the person who worked hard because of you that they did a good job.”

Ellie said, then quickly walked away.

Teleman stood there, frozen, realizing something.

From the beginning, Ellie had been someone far beyond his reach.

The young man felt embarrassed.

The academy’s student dormitories were to the southwest, and the faculty and assistant professors’ residences were located in the northeast, symmetrically opposite.

Since it was a place people lived in for decades, it wasn’t like the 5-story dormitories that were built to accommodate many people.

Instead, there were small houses suitable for one or two people, spaced out evenly.

It looked like a rural housing village in the suburbs of Seoul.

In front of one of these neatly arranged houses, Ellie first knocked on the door.

“Melrit?”

There was no response.

As expected.

When she put her ear to the door, she could hear faint snoring sounds.

Ellie checked to make sure no one was around, then slipped under a warding spell and squeezed her body through the gap.

The door clicked open, and after she stepped inside, it shut again.

A person, when deprived of sleep for a long time, ends up catching up on sleep all at once, and this was true for Melrit as well.

‘If she had to sleep for 8 hours each on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, that was 32 hours of sleep deprivation. She had dozed off here and there for a few hours, but still, she was incredibly sleep-deprived.’

That was why Melrit collapsed into bed as soon as she arrived home at around 2 PM.

“Grrhh…”

The snoring, which she usually didn’t do, was because she had collapsed on the sofa instead of going to bed.

She was trying to avoid the sunlight, burying her face against the backrest of the sofa.

This wasn’t a look she wanted anyone to see.

Moreover, the interior of the house was filled with a sense of ‘lived-in mess’.

Clothes thrown around carelessly, papers and books piled up haphazardly, dust that hadn’t been cleaned for a while, and so on.

The shadow of a person then blocked Melrit’s face.

As the sunlight, which had been gently tickling around her eyes, was blocked, Melrit’s sleeping face became a little more comfortable.

“Mmm…”

Then, the girl looking down at her came up with a good idea and giggled quietly.

“Ughhhhh…”

***

After a long, deep sleep, Melrit stretched out with a big yawn and smacked her lips as she lay on the bed.

“Hhh…”

‘What time was it?’

She lazily looked at the clock, and it showed 11 AM.

Thinking about when she had fallen asleep yesterday… she calculated that she had slept for over 20 hours straight.

“Haaah…”

Melrit turned her body on the comfortable bed.

Indeed, the bed was wonderful.

She had clearly fallen asleep on the sofa yesterday, but when she could sleep in a bed… the bed was…

‘Huh?’

Realizing something was off, Melrit slowly sat up.

It was the bedroom.

The bedroom was much cleaner than she remembered.

‘…Huh?’

This was strange.

She had been so busy recently that she hadn’t asked the academy’s maid to clean.

Still groggy, Melrit stepped out of the bed and walked out of the bedroom, and the whole house was tidy.

But it wasn’t something the maid had done, as the laundry was neatly gathered in a corner basket, and while the dust and dirt had disappeared, the books were still scattered around.

It was almost as if the mess had been magically removed.

But she was sure she hadn’t locked the door magically.

Only a very few people would have been able to break in…

Just then, a note caught Melrit’s eye.

Her hands trembled.

She could somehow tell whose handwriting it was without even looking.

She picked it up and read:

[You’ve been working so hard without sleep during your practical period! I didn’t get a chance to send this message earlier, so I couldn’t stop you. Rest well today!]

At the bottom of the note, in the corner, was written: From Ellie.

So.

It was true that she had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Ellie had come to tell her that she had worked hard, tidied up the house, and tucked her into bed before leaving?

“…Huh?”

And then, one second later:

“!?!?!?”

Melrit’s face turned bright red.

Half from embarrassment, and the other half from joy.

Then, she remembered what was among the laundry she had carelessly thrown around the house, and her face turned completely red from pure embarrassment.

“Gahhh…!? Ellieyyyy!?!”

It was autumn.