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“You must be surprised, right? That Zen came from nowhere.”
“Did you don’t know that person would come to the academy, Young Lady?”
“Yeah, I didn’t know. He didn’t say anything to me.”
“Last time, you told me . . .”
Jeremy remembered all the things I told him.
“I think you said that person shouldn’t be seen by others.”
“We were just careful in case something bad happened to him. It’s not like he commited a crime, so there’s no particular reason why he can’t show himself.”
It was bitter inside my mouth.
I tried to reply with a smile, but I remembered Zen, who must have felt suffocated all this time.
The only one who knew about his existence in the magic tower was Master Cale alone.
We were the only ones he interacted with, and it was rare for him to show up and go around during the day, so could he not have felt suffocated?
Professor Ardin, huh?
The magic tower and the academy must have been inviolable to each other.
How could he be dispatched in the academy as a mage from the magic tower?
I was deep in thought while touching the glass, and then I turned my head to Jeremy.
“I’m sure you already know from what happened today, but Young Duke Bolton will stay in the academy as a professor for the time being. Needless to say, especially this semester, there will be irregular lectures to boot.”
“. . .”
“It was me who suggested you attend the academy, Your Highness. But, I know that you accepted it because of the half-threat from Orion.”
He slowly met my gaze.
“If you don’t want to, it’s fine for you to not go to the academy. I’ll talk about it with Orion.”
The two people, who made him afraid and stunned with just being in front of them, were in the academy.
Even though he avoided them well, he would be very tired because he was nervous throughout his academy years.
I couldn’t ask him to attend the academy while bearing that burden.
“No. I’m planning to continue attending the academy. I can just leave the swordsmanship lecture. I went there because of curiosity, anyway.”
I was a bit surprised with the unexpected answer.
I thought he would quickly say yes because I even offered myself to talk about this with Orion.
“I want to attend longer since today was only the first day. I also have talked with Benji, and he said if I don’t like that professor, I just need to plan my classes well so that I won’t meet him.”
“. . .”
It was rather me who was embarrassed because of his unexpectedly brave opinion.
I wondered if this was because his figure, who was afraid and unmotivated in the forest last time, stamped too vividly on my memory.
He was different from what I thought he was, a clumsy and timid boy.
“You can do that, then.”
Jeremy, who nodded, opened his mouth and hesitated as if he wanted to ask something.
I put down the glass I was holding and asked him.
“There is a lot you want to ask, isn’t there?”
He didn’t answer my question, but he couldn’t hide the curiosity in his eyes.
It was also very natural for him to get curious.
“You must be curious, but why don’t you ask me anything?”
“Your face when you entered was very bad, Marianne. I think the things that you said happened in the past have a relation with that person.”
“You’re very keen.”
Should I praise Jeremy for being so keen when he was still only twelve years old?
It also ached my heart that he seemed to be wary of others’ reaction and thoughts for that long.
Well, I also pondered if I had to tell everything honestly to this young boy.
He had already shared the secret he had been holding alone, the stories that were not different from the embarrassing side of the imperial family, to me.
And perhaps, really really perhaps, these were not totally irrelevant.
Half of those calculations were mixed up.
“Last time, we talked about Louver Village, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’s where Zen is from. The place where I met him when he was very innocent and like a puppy was there.”
“I still can’t believe that.”
“He was cuter than you, Jeremy.”
He looked at me while grimacing as if he was protesting.
It was a firm expression that stated he couldn’t accept the words that Zen was cuter than him.
Instead of convincing him about how cute Zen in the past, I continued the story.
“I’m from the capital, but as you know, my mother likes to travel, so I often followed her to far places when I was young. And then, I also coincidentally stayed in Zen’s house.”
While tracing the old memories, I continued to speak slowly.
“Zen’s father was only an ordinary person. He hunted in the winter, in the spring he gathered foods, planted seeds . . .”
The scenes that were so clear in my dream turned blurry in places as I spoke about it.
“When I stayed in Zen’s house, it was in the time when pre graduate students from the public academy were dispatched to investigate something nearby.”
“About the public academy . . .”
“The academy I attended before. It’s closed now.”
Jeremy’s eyes gleamed with realization.
“Zen’s father became a guide for them. Although we didn’t know the exact location for what they were looking for, looking from their hushed atmosphere, it didn’t seem like a formal investigation.”
Not only was it an old memory, my contact with them was nearly nonexistent so I didn’t have a lot of memories about them.
I couldn’t be sure, but I could faintly remember their attire wasn’t that good.
Worn-out robes and battered shoes.
They likely weren’t proud noble children.
Perhaps they were commoners with outstanding talent, or nobles who lost their peerage.
“The uncle who went with them as a guide didn’t come back.”
Jeremy flinched.
And I calmly added.
“Not only the uncle. No one in Zen’s family came back.”
The gentle aunty, kind older sister, and dependable father.
Zen lost them all.
The innocent smile like a puppy that I liked, too, disappeared.