Compared to Ashton and Charlotte’s warnings to expect hardship, Nigel’s days passed uneventfully according to the calendar in her head.
And conversely, Noah was becoming more popular day by day.
If previously he had willfully ignored Nigel and acted selfishly only when he looked troubled, this time he was so busy it was hard to tell if it was voluntary or not.
As soon as the absurd rumor that Noah Beselion was dating her disappeared, female students handed flowers to Noah at every opportunity.
Adding to that, when news spread that Noah had won a duel against the second-ranked sophomore in swordsmanship, it fueled his popularity, attracting great interest from students regardless of gender.
Thanks to that, even his close friends Nigel and Allen found it difficult to approach Noah easily.
“Um… you know, Noah said he was sorry earlier in class. He said it would be hard to have lunch together too.”
“It’s fine.”
Nigel replied to Allen with her gaze fixed on her tray. However, both Nigel herself and the perceptive Allen knew those words were a lie.
Nigel quickly added, as if making an excuse.
“Connections made at Sienia are so important, he should focus on that.”
Imagining Noah not giving her even a small gap to inject magic while fully opening his doors to other students, Nigel aggressively tore into a sausage as heat rushed to her head.
Thud.
At that moment, someone set down a tray next to Nigel. Nigel looked up with a bit of expectation.
“…Ah.”
And the moment she saw who it was, Nigel’s eyebrows dropped mercilessly.
“Nigel, it’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has been a while, juniors.”
Oliver and Jayden took seats next to Nigel and Allen.
The two looked more haggard than usual. And besides their complexion, there were many other signs indicating their poor condition: wrinkled uniform shirts, crooked neckties, arms trembling even while holding just a spoon, and more.
“What happened to you?”
“What else, your future.”
Oliver smiled while casually saying those terrifying words.
“Really, admission to this academy is hellishly difficult, but why is graduating even twice as hard as getting in? Isn’t it sad that students applying to Sienia don’t know this fact?”
Having finished speaking, Oliver barely raised his trembling arm to eat some soup. Even Jayden, who would normally have refuted Oliver’s words, quietly put chicken breast in his mouth and chewed it slowly like rubber.
The scene was like watching ninety-year-old elders with diminished strength, and Nigel didn’t feel like responding.
“Oh, right. Any interesting news among the first and second years these days?”
“Well… I’ve been busy just adjusting to classes.”
“I almost had my magic stolen by Professor Nubilus’s magical beast.”
As soon as Allen finished speaking, Nigel brought up a carefully selected story. However, Oliver quickly brushed it off, saying he already knew about that.
“…Oh, that’s right! The ball is coming up soon!”
At that moment, Oliver’s face lit up as he stared at a flower tucked into a female student’s uniform pocket.
“After fighting stories, my next favorite is other people’s love stories.”
“That’s unexpected. I thought the president would prefer tales of passion rather than romance… Oh, my mistake!”
Allen covered his mouth belatedly after speaking without thinking.
“…Pfft!”
At this, Jayden, who had been soullessly stuffing salad in his mouth, burst out laughing.
‘Allen, nice.’
Nigel also swallowed a laugh, feeling satisfied.
“Well, you need romance for passion to occur in the first place.”
Oliver, who cleanly acknowledged it, gulped down a chunk of meat in one bite and then greedily looked around.
“Wow, Lord Beselion is exactly as expected. There’s always one or two popular kids in each grade, regardless of gender.”
Nigel followed Oliver’s gaze, which was smiling contentedly like looking at trapped prey.
At the end of it were Noah and a female student. The lovely-looking girl shyly held out a blue flower.
‘…Blueming bell.’
It was a flower so sensitive to its environment that it was almost impossible to grow artificially, and as difficult as that was, its bell-shaped petals were stunningly beautiful.
Following the flower, Nigel recognized the girl’s identity. She was a classmate from the same magic department as Nigel, and Noah’s partner for the group project in History of Theology.
At this moment, Noah looked at the blueming bell with a troubled smile.
‘Will he accept the blueming bell? Well, you need a partner here too since Meriel isn’t around, right?’
Watching that scene from afar, an inexplicable heat rose in Nigel.
“…Youth, isn’t it?”
At that moment, Oliver’s voice rang in her ear.
Startled by the sudden voice, Nigel dropped the spoon and fork she was holding.
Clang.
The two utensils met the metal tray, creating a painful crashing sound. At the same time, attention focused from the surroundings.
“Why are you so surprised? You almost gave a heart attack to a third-year student about to graduate. What, got something to be guilty about regarding Lord Beselion?”
Nigel shook her head.
“…Nothing at all.”
“No way. There was even that interesting rumor going around that you two were dating. If I didn’t know you well, I would have believed it right away.”
“If there was anything interesting, I told you earlier. …That I was targeted by Gwangsil.”
Nigel said with a sigh.
“Hey, what good is being popular with magical beasts? Magical beasts only know how to suck our magic, they can’t make ball partner requests, dramatic love quarrels, or interesting rumors.”
“Is your standard for value judgment rumors, senior?”
“Yes.”
Oliver answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Give up, junior. This one doesn’t change.”
Jayden shook his head. Oliver skillfully ignored Jayden’s words and opened his mouth again.
“So Nigel, you really have nothing? There’s no way there’s nothing, right?”
“I said there’s nothing, why do you keep asking? If something had happened, I’d be surrounded by people, not leisurely eating lunch like this.”
“Ooh, you’re a bit scary today. Jay, I’ve got a feeling. Don’t mess with Nigel today. We might get hurt like during the magic sword competition.”
“Am I you?”
Jayden muttered as if exasperated. Then, seeing the clock behind him, he quickly got up from his seat.
“Oliver, we have to go now. Are you satisfied? I barely made time because you said you wanted to see the junior.”
“Of course, of course. Our Nigel never fails to disappoint me.”
Oliver got up leisurely and smiled gently towards Nigel. In contrast, Jayden, who couldn’t stand it anymore, quickly cleaned up Oliver’s tray and came back.
“Well then, see you later!”
Oliver waved his hand while being grabbed by the nape of his neck by Jayden. As Nigel and Allen waved back, a fresh green light instantly swallowed up Jayden and Oliver.
“…The seniors left.”
“Yeah.”
Nigel stared blankly at the quiet empty space left behind.
Befitting nobles with dedicated etiquette tutors, the empty space left by the two was clean without a trace.
Nigel was oddly irritated by her own empty seat next to her today.
It had been three days like this already. She should be used to it by now, but this irritation wasn’t subsiding, only growing.
She tried pretending it didn’t bother her, like he never existed, burying her nose in her tray as if to eat it. But it didn’t work.
‘It’s all because of him.’
Nigel glared at Noah with sharp eyes.
Yes, she had to admit it now. Noah Beselion was annoyingly on her mind.
She didn’t know what nonsense Noah was up to, but if his goal was to get on her nerves, he had succeeded.
It was a sense of frustration she hadn’t known when he was always buzzing around in front of her, making it easy to pour out magic.
Like how he would only frown when looking at her but smiled easily at others, or how they always used to have meals together as a trio but now he skipped eating with them just because he was surrounded by people.
And yet, with an oddly good sense in strange ways, he would quickly approach when Nigel was in trouble, then leave swiftly without giving Nigel a chance to speak.
Now, just every single action of Noah Beselion grated on her nerves.
‘Cruel bast*rd.’
“…!”
For a moment, her eyes met Noah’s. Nigel, stung by her own thoughts, quickly turned her head away.
Sting.
And at that moment, her chest stung.
Never once had her heart ached like this. Even searching through her memories, there had never been a time like this.
When she had lost her family before, it felt like her entire heart had disappeared, and when she had quarreled with Allen and Noah, it had been uncomfortably prickly.
This was completely different. Her entire heart throbbed unpleasantly and ached with a tingling sensation.
“…Nigel?”
At Allen’s questioning voice, Nigel whipped around to look at him. When she looked at Allen, she clearly felt nothing.
‘I must have thought wrong. Or I’ve caught a heat stroke from getting so unreasonably angry.’
Nigel shook her head. And then turned her eyes again to look at Noah smiling gently at the female student.
“…?!”
The pain that had disappeared when looking at Allen started again.
It felt like sharp needles pricking, or as if a knife was hidden in the soft cloth wrapping her heart.
It was a sensation she had never felt before.
Unpleasant and irritating, yet irresistible and all-consuming.
Nigel couldn’t find the definition of that sensation for the rest of that day.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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