For Givnen Lianster, the Horizon Academy was not a place he had any reason to visit unless there was official business to attend to.

In fact, even when there was work to be done, he rarely had to come to the Academy in person. Academy matters were ultimately finalized through the Council members and the Academy Chancellor, with Givnen receiving the final reports.

Since the Academy was such an independent institution with its own operational methods, there wasn’t much need for direct involvement. Given his personality, he also didn’t particularly enjoy crowded places, so his visits were inevitably infrequent.

Of course, the biggest reason was that he had neither cause nor time to wander around the Academy.

However, since Riley started attending the Academy, he had been pouring all his attention into it.

Having just received a brief report from Sack about Riley’s daily schedule, he checked the time.

“It’s lunchtime.”

“Yes, what would you like for lunch today?”

“Well…”

Givnen never ate lunch at exactly the same time. His schedule wasn’t rigidly divided, and his appointments were always flexible, so the concept of a fixed “mealtime” didn’t really exist for him.

Usually, he would either have meals during business meetings with clients or skip them altogether out of laziness.

But today, he suddenly found himself with some free time right at 1 o’clock.

“Is Riley in a lecture right now?”

“According to her schedule, she has a free period.”

“Perfect.”

Givnen had no intention of wasting this rare bit of free time.

The Horizon Academy was close by, and Riley would likely be on her lunch break too. Though eating together might draw attention and cause a bit of commotion, it didn’t matter since they would be announcing their marriage soon anyway, right?

“She’s in the library area now.”

“…Don’t tell me you’ve put a tracker on her?”

“There was a kidnapping incident before, and once our marriage is announced, we’ll need to pay even more attention to her safety.”

“…I see. Well, I suppose there’s no better hostage than the wife of Horizon’s Archmage.”

“We’d be lucky if it ended with just being a hostage.”

“Pardon?”

“Anyway, I’ll have lunch with my sister. I can’t miss this chance for a date when I’ve got some free time for once.”

Thankfully, she had been wearing the earrings he had given her as a gift every day. Thanks to that, Givnen was able to easily track her location. He grabbed his coat.

And so he went to Horizon. He had planned to surprise Riley, but he was the one who ended up surprised. His surprised expression froze in an instant.

What the hell was some other man doing holding Riley’s hand?

[This is the timeline separator]

“Don’t hold hands with other men.”

Riley looked straight into Givnen’s blazing eyes.

That cool, irritated gaze was different from the kind and warm eyes she usually saw. Riley suddenly recalled the moment she first met him.

‘I think he had this kind of look back then too.’

Come to think of it, his first impression was far from kind or warm.

He was gentlemanly and polite, and he smiled pleasantly at receptions, but it felt more like an artificial smile than a genuine one. Thinking about why that was, it seemed to be because of his eyes. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes didn’t give the impression of smiling.

Rather, at that time, his eyes under the dazzling spotlight were closer to those of a predator scanning for prey than someone enjoying a party. That strange sense of discomfort. She felt it now too.

Riley thought she should apologize first.

After all, he was clearly angry about the situation.

“…I’m sorry.”

Riley wondered why he was angry.

And the answer came simply.

For a couple about to be married, holding hands with another man wasn’t a good look, was it? He had clearly said when promising marriage that she should fulfill her duties as a “wife.”

This presumably included the implicit rule that during the marriage, she shouldn’t date others, engage in unnecessary physical contact, or create situations that could be misunderstood.

Of course, there was an agreement that he would grant a divorce if she fell in love with someone, but since Ban wasn’t someone she loved, she judged that this didn’t apply.

“I should have been more careful, especially with the wedding coming up. I was careless.”

It was a very one-dimensional response. Givnen looked at Riley as if dumbfounded, then let out a sigh.

“It’s not about apologizing or blaming. I’m just saying don’t hold hands with other men besides me, and don’t let them hold yours. I’m not trying to hold you responsible.”

“I won’t do it.”

The floating stone carriage came to a stop. Givnen took Riley’s hand and helped her up.

“Let’s go.”

·

·

·

Raniel Rough.

It was quite a famous restaurant here. Givnen had previously had a meeting with the steel magnate here and finalized a contract. He thought the atmosphere and food were nice then, so he had planned to bring Riley here when he had the chance.

Of course, he had originally planned to eat at the shopping street within the Academy today, but seeing that Riley seemed uncomfortable, he quickly changed the destination.

Givnen and Riley were guided to a table bathed in sunlight.

Despite the hasty reservation, the food was promptly prepared and served. Piping hot dishes that had just left the chefs’ hands were placed on the table.

“Now tell me.”

“……”

“What’s this worry that some other man knows about but I don’t?”

Givnen didn’t seem to have any intention of letting this matter slide.

Riley stared at him for a while before finally letting out a sigh.

“It’s really nothing much…”

“If it’s nothing much, why can’t you tell me?”

“Something happened yesterday. Bullying… I suppose you’d call it that. Anyway, I was in a bit of an awkward situation.”

Riley told him about what happened yesterday. How she was led to the storage area for magical tools and almost ended up tied to the top of a tree.

Givnen’s face, which had been listening without much thought at first, grew cold. After Riley finished telling everything, including how Ban helped and how she asked Ban for his testimony to the student council today, Givnen put down his fork and knife.

“You should have told me right away when something like that happened.”

“To be honest, I didn’t think much of it until yesterday. It’s just that today, people’s eyes looked so fierce, I thought the bullying might continue, and I wanted to handle it on my own. I just asked that person earlier if he could stand as a witness.”

“Did he agree?”

“No, he said it would be useless.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, that girl who was so angry at me is the youngest daughter of the Narvik Bank president. He said even if I report it, the student council will cover it up. So I decided to give up.”

Givnen, who had been listening silently to Riley’s story, was dumbfounded.

“Cover it up?”

“Yeah. What can I do if they won’t accept the report?”

Givnen was astounded by Riley’s nonchalant response. He found it unbelievable that she wouldn’t mention such an incident, that she showed no signs of anger or upset, and moreover, that she spoke about it as if it were someone else’s problem.

“Why are you so calm? Aren’t you upset?”

“I am upset.”

“You don’t look it at all.”

“There’s no point in getting angry. What’s done is done, and if I get angry about it, it’ll just come back to bite me even worse.”

“……”

“If you resist or talk back when they’re bullying you, you just get bullied more. It’s best to just stay quiet and endure it.”

Ah, Givnen inwardly sighed.

He finally understood why Riley was reacting so calmly.

‘She’s become used to it.’

Having grown up facing contempt in the Eadalin family, she had become accustomed to bullying. It seems she had learned from experience that if she spoke up or protested against the bullying, it would only get worse.

Givnen felt his appetite disappear completely and put down his utensils. It wasn’t just his appetite that was affected; he felt his temper rising, his head hot with anger.

He was angry. He wanted to vent this anger right away, but he was at a loss, unable to pinpoint exactly what he was angry about.

At Riley, who couldn’t even resist once and just took it, hiding such a serious incident?

Or at the Eadalin Baron’s family who had made her accustomed to bullying?

Or at those lowly bunch who tried to hang Riley from a tree?

Or perhaps at his own insensitive self, who only heard about all this now, and worse, made her seek help from others?

“Are you okay?”

Givnen didn’t answer. Riley looked a bit deflated and tried to gauge his mood.

But he couldn’t help it. He needed time to sort out this confused mind. If he didn’t sort it out, he might end up taking out his frustrations on Riley.

Despite her having done nothing wrong.

‘What am I doing?’

Givnen, who had been silent while unable to control his emotions, checked the empty plates and stood up.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you back.”

[This is the timeline separator]

What’s this?

Sack instinctively lowered her head, sensing the ominous aura.

‘He left humming a tune, so why…’

Sack hesitated to ask why his mood had turned so sour. At times like this, it was better not to risk drawing his ire.

“Sack.”

“Yes, Master.”

“My wife was almost hung from the top of a tree.”

Sack barely managed to suppress a scream at Givnen’s words. However, she couldn’t help her eyes widening to the point of nearly popping out. What should she say? What happened?

‘Surely the enemies haven’t already…’

Seeing Sack’s face turn pale, Givnen glanced at her and belatedly added:

“It seems it was school bullying. It appears her classmates bullied my wife.”

“…Oh? I thought the group that harmed the previous Archmage had tried to kidnap or assassinate the young lady.”

“I’ve only been worried about that kind of thing too, I never considered this… That’s why I didn’t pay attention.”

While his head was still hot with anger and confusion…

The emotion that was clearly rising as time passed was anger and guilt towards himself. Givnen was more irritated because he didn’t understand why he had to feel this way.

Moreover, he had never experienced such lowly bullying in his life.

People had always been busy watching his mood and trying to flatter him. The only “bullying” he had ever received in his life was death threats from those who came at him with knives, not such childish acts.

“I wasn’t attentive enough.”

“It happens, now that you know the young lady is being bullied, we can deal with it properly from now on.”

Givnen quietly gave an order while rubbing his forehead.

“Go to Ban Claff and Hila Durre, find out what happened to Riley.”

[This is the timeline separator]

“Your brother came by not long ago?”

At Hila’s words, Riley looked at her in surprise.

“Yeah, he was really handsome. What was his name again? Sack? Right, that was it. A single-syllable name. My goodness, even his name is so cool.”

Sack is a woman. Of course, she looks like a man on the outside, but she’s actually a woman. Hila must have mistaken her for a man because of her handsome appearance.

Anyway, what was Sack up to?

“What did he say?”

“He asked about what happened to you. If you were being bullied.”

“…Ah, so what did you tell him?”

“I just told him everything that happened to you.”

Was it Givnen who sent her? He did look upset yesterday, so he must have been concerned about it.

Riley let out a heavy sigh.

‘I didn’t want to create unnecessary worry.’

She didn’t want to rely on his help. While she didn’t want to burden him, she was also embarrassed. Being bullied by others wasn’t a good thing, and she had hoped he wouldn’t know about it. Because she knew he would go out of his way to help, just as he always had.

“You look gloomy, Riley. Oh, was I not supposed to say anything…?”

Riley patted the dejected Hila and said:

“No, it’s okay. He would have found out one way or another anyway.”

·

·

·

“I couldn’t meet Ban Claff. He’s quite reclusive… Instead, I met Hila Durre and got all the details. Since she’s close to the young lady, I was able to get all the information we wanted without having to find Ban Claff separately. Here.”

Givnen’s expression soured as he read through the documents Sack handed him.

“How childish.”

“Indeed, it is.”

“I can’t believe it, is this really true?”

“That’s what they say.”

Givnen was dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe they could do such childish things over such trivial reasons.

The first incident was a childish fight over seating that even kindergarteners would find embarrassing.

The second wasn’t Riley’s fault, nor was it Rivne’s.

“It’s surprising that Rivne stood up for her.”

“Rivne is actually quite caring, despite appearances.”

“Even so, why is the backlash that should have gone to Rivne falling on my wife?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Honestly, I was surprised too.”

It was shocking that such childish acts were being perpetrated in a higher education institution filled with grown adults.

These weren’t even uneducated people, but those who were supposedly accomplished in their own right. The level of their actions was far too low for their status.

Especially in the second case, where the main culprit was the youngest daughter of the Narvik Bank president. She wasn’t just any noble, but a very influential high noble.

Givnen had actually met her a few times. Since Narvik Bank was the largest bank in the empire, many companies did business with them.

But to think that the daughter of such a noble family would commit such a foolish act.

“Even if we hand this matter over to the Academy’s student council, it will likely fizzle out.”

“I know.”

As much as he wanted to overturn even the student council, in reality, there wasn’t much he could interfere with at the Academy using his title as Archmage. Most of the authority over the Academy lay with the Academy Director, and since the Director was a friend of his master, he couldn’t act recklessly.

“Moreover, if this issue becomes bigger, the attacks on young lady Riley might become more blatant. Since the Blestige nobles tend to band strongly together, they might designate Riley as a common enemy. If that happens, it could affect not only the young lady’s life at the Academy, but also her life after marriage to some extent.”

“Low methods must be met with low methods.”

“?”

“I’ve always preferred tricks over principles.”

Givnen smirked as if he had a good idea and ordered Sack.

“Tell the shadows, if anyone bullies Riley or picks unnecessary fights, they should deal with them very lightly. Hmm, to what extent? Yes, let’s say to the point of breaking an arm or a leg.”