Wondering how much further it was to the dormitory, Neris passed through an area with many houses with low walls, allowing her to see into the courtyards.
Some of these houses were inhabited by Katen’s residents, while others were used for educational purposes. A few also served as dormitories for wealthy students.
One such dormitory appeared to be a two-story house with a yard full of white egret orchids.
A boy was sitting in a small gazebo in the first-floor garden.
The boy, who looked no older than seventeen, had slightly curly dark pink hair carelessly falling over his forehead.
His soft peach-colored cheeks and large eyes with long lashes made him look young, but the boredom and anger on his face as he chewed on a blade of grass made him seem more mature.
“What?”
The boy frowned as he noticed Neris standing still and staring at him over the wall.
“Who are you to stare at me?”
“I’m a new student.”
“How does a new student know this path?”
“I came here by chance.”
Neris lied without hesitation. The boy jerked his chin dismissively.
“Then leave by chance. Why are you staring?”
It was a fair point. Neris had no habit of staring at unknown boys.
If she hadn’t noticed the red tinge at the boundary between the blade of grass in his mouth and his lips, she probably wouldn’t have given him a second glance.
“Isn’t that a prohibited item?”
At her cold question, the boy’s eyes widened.
The types of dirty substances used by people in high society were countless. More than half of the noble families dealt with secret extreme drugs passed down only to their direct descendants.
However, there was only one recreational substance that, when chewed, produced an ominous red liquid like the young boy was currently holding in his mouth.
Pezal herb.
Named after the most famous product of the Pezal region, this herb had a powerful calming effect. It was quite potent even when chewed raw.
That’s why foreign doctors occasionally prescribed it. Imperial doctors rarely used Pezal herb, because…
‘It’s poisonous.’
Additionally, it was addictive. That’s why it was a controlled substance.
“You, how… No, never mind. What does it matter? You don’t even know who I am, right?”
“You’re Ren Feyel, aren’t you?”
At her words, the boy’s face immediately turned red. Annoyance appeared as deep wrinkles between his brows. He spat out the blade of grass and glared at Neris.
“How do you know me? I’ve never seen you before. Wait.”
Ren narrowed his eyes.
“You’re a Jaan, aren’t you? The second child of the Elandria family? Nelrysion’s younger sister?”
“A distant relative.”
“Ha.”
Neris felt a momentary surge of anger at being referred to as Nelrysion’s sister, but she masked it with calm as she replied. Ren snorted.
“There must have been an uproar. It’s been a long time since a Jaan was born in the main family.”
The most recent Jaan owner in the portraits at the Elandria family’s main house was the Duke from over 100 years ago.
But this was a fact not widely known outside the Elandria family and the Imperial family, so Ren seemed to know more than he appeared to.
Ren finally took his eyes off Neris. As he stomped on the blade of grass he had spat out, he grumbled.
“Damn it, I wasted a good one because of you.”
Ren grumbled at Neris and stood up. Before he could turn away, Neris quickly said:
“It would be a shame to die from Pezal herb addiction at such a young age. If you live healthily, there will be good days ahead.”
Neris had heard the story of Ren Feyel, the younger brother of the previous Pope, being exiled to the frontier before even graduating from school and dying there, after she had grown up.
According to high society gossip, he was found dead, extremely emaciated after a life of debauchery.
Pezal herb was an item that only a very small number of licensed doctors could handle. There was no way such a young boy could easily obtain it.
Omnitus III, who had become Pope very recently as of the year Neris entered school, would have tried to erase as many traces of his political rival, the previous Pope, as possible.
This boy, known for being debauched and arrogant, was likely actually a victim of adult politics.
But as an enemy of Omnitus III, he wasn’t an unpleasant figure to Neris. After all, you can ally with the enemy of your enemy.
“Mind your own business.”
Ren, who had recently lost all his allies both in his family and in the temple, didn’t seem in the mood to be moved by kind words.
Neris sighed. Ren looked at her strangely.
“Such a tiny thing sighing like an adult.”
“If a current student is at school on new student orientation day, it probably means they had nowhere to go for summer vacation. You must have always been welcomed before, so it must be hard. But don’t harm yourself. You should seek revenge instead.”
Ren stood still in his spot. He remained frozen like a statue, then looked at Neris with suspicious eyes.
His pretty eyes were trembling for reasons beyond just the herb or suspicion. Neris met his gaze without looking away.
After a moment, he abruptly turned away.
“I told you to mind your own business.”
But his voice sounded weaker than before.
Ren strode into the house, and Neris watched his retreating figure before resuming her own path.
***
The Noble Academy was broadly divided into the Theology Department and the General Department.
The Theology Department was where priests, led by the Pope as their head, directly taught students to nurture the next generation of excellent clergy. The General Department was where imperial and noble children, with the Emperor as their head, invited tutors to study the necessary academic subjects for their future lives.
Therefore, even within the same academy, the Theology Department and the General Department had completely different curricula and atmospheres.
On the first day of classes, all the children gathered in the same classroom with Neris were from the General Department. Barring any changes, this group would likely stay together until graduation.
Neris knew everyone currently in the classroom. Except for Diane, they were all familiar faces.
Diane naturally sat down in the seat to Neris’s right, but the other children cautiously introduced themselves to their neighbors as if they were strangers.
“Neris?”
Neris inwardly smiled bitterly at the familiar voice calling her name from her left.
She had expected this from the moment the girl approached and sat down as soon as she saw her. Though she couldn’t remember exactly, their first meeting in her previous life was probably similar.
“You know me?”
But Neris reacted as if she was surprised that someone knew her. The chestnut-haired girl sitting to Neris’s left spoke with a shy face.
“It is Neris, right? It’s me, Angarad Nine. Do you remember?”
How could she not remember?
“Since when were we that close? Don’t talk to me. You’ll make the others misunderstand.”
“I saw everything! It was Trude who did it! She’s the thief you were looking for! I can’t believe it, and now you’re talking to me? This is ridiculous!”
Angarad Nine was the daughter of a noble who ruled the territory right next to where Neris had lived.
When people from the Nine barony visited the castle where Neris’s father served Earl Wilmot, they brought Neris, who was the same age, to be Angarad’s playmate. Thanks to that, the two had childhood memories together.
So when they first arrived at the Noble Academy, Angarad approached Neris again. But not long after, when Neris was falsely accused of something, Angarad changed her attitude as if she had been waiting for it.
Moreover, after becoming an adult, she was the one who fabricated and spread malicious rumors about Neris’s background in high society. Though Megara likely had a hand in the latter.
The betrayal by someone she thought was a friend was a big shock to the young Neris.
Neris didn’t realize it at the time, but thinking back now, Angarad was the one who first created the atmosphere for the children to ostracize Neris.
She probably wanted to avoid becoming the weakest in the class. Neris, who was only interested in books and couldn’t read the atmosphere among the children, and who had a suitably low social status, was a good target.
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember well.”
The Nine barony wasn’t a very wealthy place. It was weak even compared to other baronies.
The baron and his wife probably drilled into their daughter’s ears how important relationships at the academy were before sending her here.
And Neris knew that whatever expectations Angarad might have had about school would betray her.
If Neris wasn’t the weakest person in this classroom, then Angarad, from a weak family, would naturally become everyone’s prey.
Angarad didn’t give up and spoke again in a slightly smaller voice.
“We played together when we were little…”
Yes, they had. For Neris, it was already more than 20 years ago, but for Angarad, it might not have been that long ago.
The scenery of Rohen Forest where they had run around until dusk, the golden water scales breaking on the bow of the leaf boats they had floated together in the stream – these might still be vivid in her mind.
Her chest ached, and Neris hesitated for a moment.
What should she do?
The current Angarad hadn’t done anything wrong yet.
And the bullying from childhood, for an adult like her, it shouldn’t mean much…
Just then, Neris noticed some children sitting across the classroom whispering among themselves and glancing this way.
Her chest felt tight, as if squeezed by someone’s hand. She knew the identity of this feeling.
Fear.
Every glance someone sent her way, every whisper behind her back. It had become her habit to fear them all.
The culprit who had created this habit over many years was this entire classroom.
Despite all those memories, it was the other side that betrayed first.
How could she have thought that those incidents meant nothing!
The wounds from that time had grown right along with her.
‘Did you think what happened to me was nothing? Then… from now on, what happens to you should be nothing to you as well.’
Don’t worry. It won’t be anything worse than what you did to me.
It felt like flames were rising from her stomach. Neris looked at Angarad with clear eyes and then said with an expressionless face.
“Sorry. I’ll ask my mother later.”
“Oh… okay.”
It was a gentle rejection that left no room for further conversation.
Angarad felt somewhat embarrassed to continue talking and looked around unnecessarily. However, the surrounding children already had their own conversation partners.
“Riz.”
Diane called Neris by her nickname. She had insisted on calling her ‘Nel’ if Neris didn’t teach her a nickname, and since Neris wasn’t confident she could maintain her composure hearing that name, she had no choice.
Neris turned to look at Diane, who was calling her as naturally as if they had known each other for years, and asked indifferently.
“What?”
“Who’s that? Someone you know?”
Diane lowered her voice very softly and whispered in Neris’s ear. Neris frowned and answered.
“I told you I don’t remember.”
“It doesn’t seem that way.”
If it was really someone she didn’t remember, Neris would have asked how they knew her instead of stiffly saying “I don’t know,” and would have started a conversation about what they might have in common.
Diane, who pointed this out, was too quick-witted. Neris cut her off coldly.
“I really don’t remember.”
“Alright.”
At that, Diane backed off.
Diane already had experience socializing with peers in her own family and was born with good observational skills, giving her more insight into human relationships than most gathered in this classroom today.
To Diane, Neris was a friend with several advantages.
First, Neris was cool. Diane was used to her distant relatives from the McKinnon family eyeing her possessions whenever they met her, so Neris’s indifferent attitude felt noble to her.
Next, Neris was very elegant. Not only was her face pretty, but her speech, pronunciation, and demeanor were flawless.
Since it was the mature and intelligent Neris doing it, there must be a reason. Having accepted this, Diane looked towards the front of the classroom. And her eyes widened involuntarily.
A boy with long silver hair was walking in. The boy had a balanced and handsome face like a marble sculpture with a sharp nose bridge, and his dignified walk exuded vitality.
“Riz, look over there. Isn’t that Nelrysion Elandria? Your maternal relative.”
All the first-year students had seen him during the student council introduction on orientation day, and it was famous in high society that the Elandria family siblings possessed dreamlike beauty, so there was no way she could have mistaken him.
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Daily Life of a Scumbag Man Giving Birth (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The way for a promiscuous scumbag man to atone for his sins is to let him get… pregnant.
Synopsis:
Meng Huan, a scumbag who has dated countless girlfriends, scammed countless women, transmigrates to a female-dominated country.
Day 1: Whether it’s female dominance or not doesn’t matter. The beauties here are passionate and amorous. Isn’t it easier to scam them than in modern times?
Day 2: After a night, Meng Huan discovers the differences in the female-dominated world. Men here actually have chastity locks and menstrual cycles. This hinders his ability to perform, damn it!
Day 3: What’s wrong with sleeping around? I don’t want you to marry me. I’m meant to be a playboy. I don’t care about male virtues… What? You want to drown me in a pig cage? Marry, I’ll marry!
Day N: Meng Huan inexplicably vomits and receives the shocking news of his life… He’s pregnant.