187 – Behind-the-scenes work (3)
“Usually, in this section, people who have too much of a difference in status or come from hostile families are written down, but in Trisha’s case… “It feels like personal emotions were deeply involved.”
“….”
As my expression hardened, Candinella waved her hand as if it was no big deal.
Is Trisha being bullied? If it were me, I would have just dealt with it, but she was easily influenced by her surroundings, so it could have been a problem.
Imagining Trisha being bullied made her blood race.
“What should I do?”
“Well, I’m glad you came forward voluntarily. In fact, it always gets worse when adults get involved in student affairs.”
“….”
“Please keep an eye on Trisha. And if you can afford it, take care of Cecil and Sion as well. Both seem to be in bad condition these days. “Those two are the faces of the faculty.”
“I was planning to see Cecil again soon… How bad is it?”
Candinella spoke eloquently.
“Um… He seems a little mentally confused. She never reveals her true feelings to the professor. Would you like to go and talk?”
The sight of him stabbing me with tears in his eyes bothered me the whole time, so I’ll have to meet him again and find out what happened. I have received a lot from Cecil, so I thought about ways to repay her in advance.
“I will meet Cecile soon. But Zion… “It might be difficult for me too.”
“Don’t worry about that. “Sion also considers you a friend.”
“Yes?”
Candinella was rummaging through her papers, took out one of her parchments, and shoved it all in front of me.
It was Zion’s adaptation evaluation sheet.
“You shouldn’t just show the evaluation paper, but Shion hardly wrote anything properly, so it won’t matter.”
She seemed to have been very uncooperative in the evaluation. None of the questions were checked properly.
“There’s no need to look at anything else, would you like to check the last question?”
“… ?”
The last question was about her closest classmate or senior/junior.
“Zion, she wrote your name there. Although she is technically a slightly different person.”
What Shion wrote was ‘Sanggi’, which is not even my real name.
I was speechless. Did he write me down because he had no one else to write down? I have a relationship with Shion that can hardly be called a friend. There was virtually no personal interaction or contact.
I could clearly see this. Zion says she has no friends.
“There are quite a few witnesses. “Sion, who has a dog-like personality and is not very sociable, met Candy and went on a date together.”
This was not done out of selfish interest, but was done in exchange for compensation from the Sword Master. The gold coins I received at that time were such a large amount that even after spending a lot of them, I still had some left over.
“… “It’s not the exact truth, but there were some circumstances I couldn’t tell you about.”
“Really? “I heard she bought you some earrings too?”
Her heart sinks. She briefly stopped at a jewelry store and gave it to Shion as a gift. How did she know?
“Is the Masters class even monitored?”
“You’re indifferent. “Don’t you know that Shion wears the earrings you bought her every day?”
“… ….”
Actually, I’m not sure about her because I’ve rarely met her up close. When I gave it to him, he didn’t seem to like it, but now he has changed his mind.
Candinella muttered to herself as if it were strange.
“If you look closely, it seems like you only play with strong and temperamental kids…. “Isn’t that what you feel too?”
“….”
In fact, strictly speaking, most of the human relationships around me were initiated by others. Even my relationship with Silverine, who was most precious to me, was not one I chose. The only relationships I started voluntarily were with Luna and Vivi.
***
After finishing my interview with Professor Candinella, I sent Stitches to Cecile in the form of candy.
It didn’t take long to get her reply.
[I was in the clock tower.]
Strangely, the writing is crooked and messy, as if it was written with a foot. Cecil’s handwriting was originally as flawless as that of a master penman, so what happened?
They say it’s in bad condition, but is it really okay? Even now, I can still see the image of that knife being stabbed.
After checking my attire again to see if I had made any mistakes, I took the clock tower’s magic elevator and went up to the top floor.
And as the clock tower elevator reached the top floor, Cecil’s back collapsed on the edge of the railing.
Her wavy dark brown hair hung down to the floor.
“Cecil.”
She heard my call and slowly turned her head.
“….”
Now I see that she is holding a wine bottle in her hand, and her lips are dyed purple.
A deep blush appeared on her cheeks, and her eyes were half-open.
Cecil has always looked like an adult and a mature girl, but now it’s like… He looked like the kid who had robbed her father’s liquor storehouse.
“Sataangi.”
She called quietly and slammed her palm violently on the seat next to her.
I had a feeling that this meeting with Cecil would not be easy.
As she approached and sat down next to her, the strong scent of wine wafted through her.
“Since when have you been like this?”
“Well, I just wanted to drink. “This is a good place to drink secretly.”
“Yes, it’s also a good place to trip and have an accident. Is something bad happening?”
“Bad thing? Wow, I brandished a knife at the most unlucky and popular girl in our class and tried to take off her clothes. Can you stay sane?”
“Damian?”
“… Joy.”
“Do you care about her?”
Cecile suddenly turned her head and looked at my face with her bewildered eyes.
“You are like that! “Do you care that I care about Damian?”
“I’m worried. “I’m hanging out with a bad guy.”
“Then shouldn’t you have treated me better? Why are you so at ease when you know that I like good-looking people? “It’s even more annoying because Damien seems fine, unlike what I heard.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
Cecil put her mouth on the bottle and took a gulp of her wine. Then he placed his lips on my shoulder and wiped the wine from my mouth on my clothes as if it were a napkin.
“Then be nice to me. Hiccup! You should be grateful when a pretty girl like me becomes your friend and treats you well to an ugly girl like you. Is not it?”
“….”
“Why does he wear that damn mask like that, making it complicated for me?”
“There are people targeting me. “If those people see that you’re close to me, they might bully you.”
Cecil put the bottle in her mouth and took another gulp.
“Yes, don’t worry, I’ll get a good share of the risk I took.”
“….”
“I recorded everything in the ledger. What I did for you I wrote down everything from the frost wind bomb to decoding strange research texts and artifact processing. I’m going to take all of this. Be prepared.”
“I will pay it all back. Don’t worry.”
Cecil continued speaking while pressing her finger on the lips of my mask.
“Do you know where a penny or two is? “Even if I spend one semester to pay it all off, it won’t be enough.”
“….”
“But especially, I- Hiccup, out of affection, I will give you a chance. Just once. If you impress me, I’ll pay you back in full. Well, considering the loyalty we’ve had so far.”
“Are you aware?”
“This doesn’t taste good, drink it.”
Cecil suddenly seemed to come to her senses, passed the bottle to me and stood up.
“Think carefully about what you can do to repay all the debt you have owed all at once. I’m going. “Candy hates you now.”
“….”
Cecil left me alone and staggered onto the elevator.
And then he turned around and spoke one last time.
“Oh, and I’m the only one who knows about this, but this time it’s a masquerade ball.”
***
“Do you know what Blanc did? He sneaked into the dormitory and kept knocking on Beth’s room door. “I want you to be my partner.”
“Why do you keep coming back to me even though I refused? Ugh, I really hate it.”
“So Blanc is now being disciplined, and if he makes one last mistake, he will be suspended from school.”
“Now that I look at it, class is also important. If you grow up in an educated family, you will understand when you speak politely. “Commoners don’t know that.”
“Oh, I guess not? Doesn’t Blanc inherit the title?”
“Oh no, no. Well, even if Blanc is an exception, most commoners were like that. “No matter how good I am, I don’t think I can dance with commoners.”
“Why? “It’s not like I’m going to get married, so there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“What if they attack me because they think I’m in the same class as them? No matter how good you are in Eternia, you will end up working for nobles when you graduate.”
“Is that so?”
“Think about it. If you marry a commoner with an open mind, you will have to do everything yourself: laundry, meals, cleaning, and maintaining the mansion. Can you handle that? “I wonder if I can rub my underwear in the stream every day.”
“You can hire someone with money. “Will that be a problem when I graduate?”
“Yes, we could follow our employer to a remote area to make money, and on top of that, we would end up having to bring in money from the family to maintain our standard of living.”
“I think even if I were a commoner, I would consider it if it was Victor or Damian.”
The female students there all burst into laughter.
“If it’s Damian, you should think about it a bit.”
“Shouldn’t Damien be grateful if we accept his dance request? Not to mention class differences. I have to teach them every single thing I don’t know, like dance moves and etiquette. “Do you know how embarrassing it is to get your steps tangled up on stage?”
Trisha stood still in front of the dance department’s costume room door and quietly listened to what they were saying.
Here too, she tells Damian’s story. Even before the sparring evaluation, she had never talked about it this much.
When her talking quieted down for a moment, she knocked on her door.
Knock knock.
“Who is it? Come in!”
Trisha opened the door and bowed.
“Hello.”
And the female students in the dance department looked at Trisha and looked displeased. As if she had known her for a long time.
“Why did you come?”
“I came to pick up the costumes I borrowed from the theater department.”
“Oh, that?”
A girl from the dance department brought her basket and threw her clothes in there.
“Hey! “Put all the borrowed clothes here!”
Other students also came hurriedly and threw their clothes. Soon the basket was full.
“Tell the director of the theater department that I am grateful.”
The amount had become so large that it seemed difficult for one girl to carry. Trisha said without much pain.
“Then let’s go.”
Trisha picked up her basket with difficulty and walked out the door whining. A giggling sound was heard from the back of her head. I didn’t know why she was laughing like that, but it felt like she was laughing at me.
Y tf you’re bullying my trisha?!!