Chapter 56

Around the time when Emma and friends started to enjoy their long-cherished meal at the cafeteria… Robert was in a fit of anger inside the Monster Science classroom.

“Huh? Why isn’t she here? No apology for her rude mouth?”

Still frustrated, Robert couldn’t concentrate at all during the class. After the teacher left the classroom, he waited until a little after he couldn’t hear the teacher’s footsteps anymore. ‘Let’s say my complaint even a little,’ Robert headed towards the place where Emma and the others were sitting.

But everyone’s already gone.

“Oi! You over there! Where did Emma Stuart go!”

“Y-yes, she left immediately after the class is over!”

A timid-looking boy shakingly answered Robert’s question.

“Hmph, so that means she ran away in fear of me!?”

“H-how to say it? She was staggering when she left the classroom… Perhaps she wasn’t feeling well?”

The timid-looking boy replied while recalling Emma’s appearance when she left the classroom.

“Hah, I guess it’s because she takes Monster Science even though she’s a girl. A bloody class like today is an everyday occurrence, you know?”

Whenever slimes appear, huge casualties will follow. Gruesome stories were also told in today’s lesson.

That’s why girls… should just listen silently to what I say…

“She only got full of herself because the Second Prince is interested in her. In the end, she’s weak, just weak.”

I should correct him. Can I protect her if I lower my head? No, she has spoken rudely to this Robert Lance. It’s reasonable to get adequate retaliation.

“M-m-may I have a word! Robert-sama!”

Several noble sons stood up to the slander towards Emma.

“Lady Emma was not full of herself! Lady Emma is very shy and kind. She is an angel-like lady!”

“That’s right! Also, she is not weak at all!”

“Huh? Are you guys stupid? She staggered just because she took the class, didn’t she? Right?”

Robert once again called out the timid-looking boy.

“Y-yes… She also seemed to walk with her brothers’ support…”

George and William supported Emma on both sides when she stumbled just before reaching the classroom door. Her face color also didn’t seem to look very good.

Before the class, William said, ‘Your wounds hurt, don’t they’… He seemed to say that to mediate between the two, but maybe her wounds really hurt…?

He quickly explained it to Robert in a whispering manner.

“T-that’s-“

The noble sons who defended Emma hesitatingly said with a terrible look on their faces.

“See that! She’s weak, weak!”

Looking at Robert, who smiled triumphantly, the noble sons made accidentally let some information slip.

“It’s because the scar on Lady Emma’s face was from a slime! Lady Emma was hit by a slime last year and almost died! So it can’t be helped that she wasn’t feeling well in today’s class!”

Most of the noble sons who defended Emma were from territories near Palace, so they knew more about the details of the situation than the nobles in the royal capital who were far away from monsters.

There were rumors in the royal capital that she got injured from protecting the Prince, but not many knew that it was related to monsters.

Of course, the report on the local barrier hazard has been submitted, but between the ‘less concerned’ people in the royal capital, few enjoy reading.

A big scar was left on a girl’s face, and the noble sons who knew the situation also kept silent about it. But because they fervently wanted to defend Emma, they accidentally let it slip.

“Hoo? That ugly scar… is from a slime?”

*smirk*… An evil smile floated on Robert’s face.

The noble son who made a slip went ‘Ah!’ and put his hand on his mouth, but it’s too late. He already spilled Emma’s trauma.

“Oi! Bryan! Bryan!”

*thud thud* He kicked the desk and roughly woke the boy who had been fast asleep from before the class started.

“Hm-? Robert-sama… Has the class… started?”

With a sleepy voice, the boy called Bryan looked at Robert and shivered.

The nasty smile he remembered since last year, two years ago, and for a long time was plastered on his face.

Only his childhood friend Bryan knows what that smile means.

That is his expression when he found a new toy.

Robert will stubbornly play with that toy until he breaks it.

Who will be his toy this year?

How pitiful…

“Let’s go, Bryan. I have thought of a good idea.”