Chapter 50
The feeling of your heart sinking—could this be what it feels like? Shocked, Nox blinked, forgetting even to blink, staring at Elaina.
“P-Paper? What paper?”
“I like people with pride. But having pride and being stubbornly foolish are completely different things, Nox.”
Nox couldn’t understand how Elaina had found out about the paper he had carefully hidden, but she clearly knew what had happened to him today.
“I’m not saying it was right to hit someone.”
Nox flinched.
“…I know.”
“But sometimes, in this world, there’s no other choice. If I were you and someone insulted my family, I probably couldn’t have held back either.”
He was just a child. If everyone could handle such impulses maturely, they wouldn’t be called children.
“Have you reflected on it?”
Nox nodded solemnly at Elaina’s question.
“Will you hit your friend again next time?”
“He’s not my friend.”
“Anyway, you know exactly what I mean, Nox Grant.”
Elaina’s cold tone when she said his full name made Nox hesitate before answering.
“…I won’t hit him.”
“No matter what happens, you shouldn’t hit anyone. If anything, maybe challenge them to a duel over an insult—but that’s another story.”
Elaina held out her hand.
“The paper.”
There was no point in hiding it any longer. Nox took the paper from his bag and handed it to Elaina.
On it, in large letters, was written: .
It explained that a conversation with a guardian was required to resolve the conflict between Bark Birua and Nox Grant.
“…Please keep this a secret from my brother.”
At Nox’s request, Elaina raised her eyes.
“Why?”
“I don’t want him coming to the academy. I don’t want him to know that those kids said bad things about him…”
Bark Birua, the youngest son of the Viscount Birua, was notorious among the lower-grade students at the academy. Elaina had already heard rumors that he was spoiled by being the youngest child of the viscountess. Though he appeared composed in front of adults, it was hard to imagine the kind of brat he could be otherwise.
“He always bothers other kids. He calls the girls pumpkins and even pulls their hair…”
There were countless children upset by Bark and his friends’ bullying. When they got angry and called him petty, the children chose to avoid him rather than confront him.
Now Bark had set his sights on Nox. More precisely, it started after Lyle returned to the capital following the war.
“He says I’m showing off. He says I’m obnoxious because I have an older brother now.”
Their relationship had never been good. Nox had always stepped in to stop Bark whenever he bullied the girls.
Bark Birua was the son the viscount had waited for a long time. Being the heir had made him grow up arrogant.
In Bark’s eyes, no one at the academy could surpass him as the son of a viscount. Nox Grant, being from a poor and rebellious family, was beneath him. That someone like Nox could suddenly become the younger brother of a duke was a severe blow to Bark’s pride.
“So that’s why you’ve been bullied all this time?”
Recalling Bark Birua’s name wasn’t difficult. He was the boy they had bumped into at the botanical garden while Nox and Lyle were working on a previous assignment.
Even then, his manners had seemed poor. They’d dismissed it as harmless mischief among friends.
At Elaina’s question, Nox nodded weakly.
She glanced again at the paper in her hand: the Guardian Attendance Request. Elaina carefully folded it and linked her pinky with Nox’s.
“It’s a promise. I won’t ever tell your brother.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
She already knew the situation from Marion’s vague explanation. She also understood why Nox wanted it kept secret from his brother.
“Don’t worry too much about what happens tomorrow.”
“Really? Bark’s mother is supposed to be really scary… She warned me that she’d be furious because of the bruise on my cheek.”
Elaina gripped Nox’s shoulder firmly.
“No need to be afraid. If you’ve done something wrong, apologize and reflect. Everyone makes mistakes once. What’s important is not becoming a fool who repeats the same mistake.”
Nox silently repeated her words in his mind: a fool who repeats the same mistake.
“And it was him who started it, right? Hitting is wrong, but insulting someone’s family isn’t right either.”
“But he won’t apologize.”
“Will he really not? I think differently. Want to make a bet?”
Having confided in Elaina about what had been troubling him, Nox’s face relaxed slightly.
Then, his stomach growled loudly. He hadn’t eaten lunch properly today, and barely touched dinner, so the hunger hit him hard.
“You’re really not going to eat? The butler made this milk with cinnamon especially for you. Finish it all.”
Nox nodded instead of speaking. Elaina ruffled his embarrassed head and left his room.
The smile she had deliberately worn to reassure him had already faded.
In her eyes, clenched tightly, the winter blizzard of the past season was already raging.
“Don’t worry.”
Elaina had said this as she saw Nox off to school. It was impossible not to worry, yet somehow her words calmed him.
The guardian meeting was held after all classes ended. Until then, Bark found every chance during breaks to provoke Nox.
“Hey, beggar! Is your murderous brother coming to the academy today too?”
“Hey! Didn’t I tell you not to say that? Why do you keep picking on Nox?”
Even when Marion got angry, Bark only teased by tugging at her long hair.
Nox remembered what Elaina had told him yesterday and held back.
One mistake isn’t the same as a second.
‘I’m not a fool.’
Though angry, he restrained himself. Seeing Nox act maturely, Marion stopped arguing with Bark.
During breaks and lunch, Bark loitered near Nox, trying to provoke him, but Nox either avoided him or ignored him.
Finally, classes ended. Before leaving, Bark and Nox had to go to the meeting room.
“Hah. You’re finished now. Do you know how angry our parents were yesterday? I barely stopped them from dragging you off to the beggar’s den. They said it’s dangerous because a killer lives there.”
Nox ignored Bark completely. Frustrated by Nox’s disregard, Bark pushed him from behind, and Nox’s knee hit the dirt, starting to bleed.
“Oh? Falling by yourself now? Haha, silly. I’m leaving first.”
His clean clothes were now dirty with dust. Seeing this seemed to amuse Bark; he walked away lightly, as if off to play.
In the meeting room, Bark and Nox were seated far apart. The teacher, shocked at Nox’s injury, quickly brought a first-aid kit to treat his knee.
“Oh my. How did you get hurt like this?”
“Bark Birua pushed me.”
“What?”
The teacher looked at Bark, as if questioning the claim. Bark shook his head, appearing innocent.
“I don’t know anything, Teacher. I just fell while walking alone.”
“No, he pushed me.”
At that moment, the door burst open, and a harsh female voice cut through the room.
“What did my son do?”
The woman resembled Bark Birua perfectly. She marched over in her shoes and glared at Nox.
“Really hopeless. Not only does he strike others, now he falsely accuses people too.”
Tsk. Who knows how she raised him? Muttering to herself, but clearly for Nox to hear, he bit his lip tightly.
