Chapter 48

Al didn’t tell me in detail of what happened afterwards. Only the fact that Lucrecia contracted a heavy illness, so she moved to the countryside territory to recuperate. She dropped out of school. Since there was no prospect of recovery, her engagement to Prince Andrew was also annulled.

Worried for their daughter, Lucrecia’s parents gave up their territory to the royalty and followed Lucrecia to where she received the treatment. Lucrecia’s younger brother—the heir apparent—was still young, so he was arranged to be adopted by a childless viscount.

The Grand Duke decided to retire on account of his old age and passed the title to his son, husband-and-wife, but they were too inexperienced to carry out the duty as the Grand Duke; they relinquished half of their territory to the royalty and also the title of the Grand Duke.

As for Prince Andrew, on the surface, it appeared that only the engagement was gone, but in reality, he had completely lost his backing. It was virtually impossible for him to succeed to the throne.

The two guys that came to the hut with Lucrecia, despite wearing the academy uniform, were not current students of the academy; they were actually academy alumni. They were older brothers of Lucrecia’s cronies, both had bad conduct and made a lot of troubles and ended up being chased away from their families. Al refused to tell me what kind of sentence they were subjected to; he only told me that I would never again meet those two.

Whoever had instigated Lucrecia had vanished, along with the man in red and the gang. They left not a single trace, leaving Al and the others with no clue to work on, only able to see them get away and do nothing.

As soon as Louie and I were rescued, I asked whether Jil and the other two were okay. I was so relieved to hear that three of them were seriously injured, but not life-threatening; I cried out in relief. Honestly, I wanted to go visit them right away, but I didn’t get to. I was told that it was out of the question for me to go visit them alone, and that Al and the others were busy cleaning up after the incident.

It wasn’t until about a week later that I finally got the chance to go.

The three of them were in the same hospital room. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I hugged them all and was about to rub my cheeks with theirs, but Al, who came together with me, instantly grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pulled me away from them.

Of course. To rub cheeks with other guys would only give them the creeps. I was supposed to thank them, yet I almost harassed them instead. That was bad of me.

“Thank you, for saving me. Thank you so much. I know just these words are far from enough, but thank you.”

I was so glad they were still alive. It was quite embarrassing but tears streamed down my face as I bowed to them.

“Goddess. Here is a goddess.”

“So reverent. My eyes will soon be damaged from over exposure.”

“So cute, no, so beautiful~”

Their reactions were inexplicable, but I was a man of principle. I would stick to my decision to properly nurse them to the point they feel I’m stuffy.

“Okay, open your mouth. Aaahn~”

“I just managed to come back alive again, I don’t wanna get killed.”

I went all the way to bring the spoon with grated apple to his mouth, yet Jil was so cold.

“Eh, you hate apples? Is cake better?”

I sat on the chair by Jil’s bed and directed the spoon to him, but it was still far to reach him. No, it was not like it was because I was a chibi, okay. I found it bothersome, so I tried to climb on Jil’s bed to get closer. Again, Al grabbed the scruff of my neck and pulled me away from Jil.

Of course, I was not supposed to climb on a patient’s bed. That was bad of me.

I wouldn’t have imagined that Jil, Trois and Arlo were actually Zernite’s direct subordinates. They were assigned as my bodyguards in the academy grounds.

Oi, Zernite, what’s this deal with you having a subordinate while you’re only a student, huh? You’re a boss? You’re so great, huh?

“Therefore, there’s no need for Fania-sama to thank us.” Jil said that, but does that matter?

“Jil, Trois, Arlo, the three of you had saved me, that’s an indisputable fact. It was thanks to you guys that I’m safe and sound now. No matter if you’re Zernite’s subordinates or simply doing this out of duty, you guys stood up and fought off that many thugs for me. You could just leave me there and escape.”

“No…” Trois’s face flushed red as he gazed downcast.

“On top of that, what is that ‘Fania-sama’? Your way of speaking is weird. Just speak like usual.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

In the classroom, he spoke casually with me as classmates, but suddenly he treated me like we were strangers, I sulked.

“I know what you’ve done for me, okay.” I huffed my cheeks as my mind wandered.

When there was rumours floating around saying that there was a son of a Duke behaving shamelessly at the ball venue, everyone was curious to know who was the person in the rumour. The list of enrolling students was disclosed to everyone, so it was known that there were a total of three students from ducal houses. For some reasons, there were only two of them in Class 1, and both of them had firmly refused being the one in the rumour.

If that was the case, then the remaining person was only one. His name was Fania Arginia, the heir to the House of Arginia. He was supposed to be a high noble, yet no one had seen him, nor did anyone know which class was he from. But, there was no other student who was the son of a Duke. Everyone was thus certain that the shameless person in the rumour was Fania Arginia.

I was disheartened at the time, but Jil, Trois and Arlo dispelled all the negative feelings enveloping me as they declared it out loud—‘Fania is not that Fania Arginia. Fania is not that vile noble son.’. So loud that everyone in the class could hear it, like they were announcing it to everybody. They laughed it away and blew the rumours away from me.

Jil, Trois and Arlo had protected me. Not only physically, but also my heart.

“As I thought, I’ll nurse you guys back to health to the point you feel I’m stuffy!”

“I sense danger to my life, no thanks.”

“Whyyyy~~”

“Because there’s a devil behind you, Fania-sama.”

“Don’t call me ‘Fania-sama’!”

“Uwah, don’t come hug me. I’m innocent!”

“Gwahh. Al, I’m choked, let go of my collar.”

“Fania! Don’t be clingy on Jil.”

“It’s okay. I’ll also nurse Trois and Arlo too.”

“Nooo, I don’t mean that!”

“PLEASE, DON’T INVOLVE US!” Jil, Trois and Arlo, all their faces went pale.

On that day, Fania went to visit the three patients, alas, their condition only worsened.

author’s note: The punishment on Lucrecia and the others were much harsher and gruel, only Fania was oblivious to it. What Fania was informed was the same content as disclosed to the public.