Chapter 31
“Uh? Let’s run away.”
As playfully as possible. With a smile. Like it was a joke.
In truth, going through something like that in front of everyone was so, so humiliating and embarrassing and infuriating that I just wanted to drop everything and walk away.
But I couldn’t.
It would only make me look pathetic.
So I brushed it off like a joke.
Arden didn’t react to my words.
I had no idea what he was thinking.
I just hoped he wouldn’t say something like, “But isn’t it partly your fault too? She was a customer after all. Did you try this? That? Maybe you should’ve spoken more gently.”
Even if he did say that, I wouldn’t be able to complain. It wasn’t like I could whine about someone not taking my side.
I was so busy trying to calm myself down that when Arden finally replied, I didn’t catch it at first.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
“…Huh?”
“Let’s go. Run away.”
“…….”
“We can leave right now, yeah?”
He even checked his imaginary watch before looking straight at me.
“You want to go to the imperial palace?”
“The… imperial palace?”
“Yes. The imperial palace.”
“O….”
Is he insane?
“Let’s go. Right now. We’ll go see His Majesty the Emperor and tell him: this country doesn’t know the first thing about respecting others, and the moment someone gets a tiny bit of power, they immediately abuse it, and people like that are rotting society from the inside, and at this rate the country will collapse by next week, so he’d better come up with a plan.”
“…….”
“Bring a pillow. If it comes to it, we’ll lie down and protest.”
“…You’re joking, right?”
“I’m not the kind of person who jokes.”
He really tried to drag me, right that moment.
“What are you doing? If you don’t come, I’m going alone.”
Is he a lunatic?
My shock wiped away all the anger I’d been feeling just moments before.
“Seraphina!”
Right then, the manager—our new manager, the one hired after the previous one was fired—came rushing down after hearing what happened.
“Next time, if someone like that shows up, don’t deal with them. Kick them out immediately!”
“But she was a customer…”
“A customer is someone who BENEFITS the shop! She only caused trouble, so she’s no customer! …Anyway, who’s this handsome imperial knight?”
“I came to run away with Seraphina.”
“Oh, running away sounds great.”
“Go rest for the day and come back tomorrow!” The manager practically pushed us out the door.
Once outside, Arden tilted his chin toward me as I stared up at him, bewildered.
“The imperial palace is that way.”
“…Since when were you watching?”
“When that woman said to you, ‘If you didn’t like it, you should’ve studied harder in school and gotten a better job.’”
We walked together toward District 1, the center of the capital.
Were we really going to the imperial palace?
Of course not.
“I finally got some precious free time. I’m not going to spend it cooped up in my cramped little room.”
I wanted to go to the library and read the books I hadn’t been able to lately.
Sit at the long desk by the big window where the sunlight came in like a grid, feel the paper under my fingertips as I turned the pages, zone out while watching the sunset.
Maybe buy ice cream and grilled chicken skewers from the street stall outside the library.
“Why didn’t you tell her you went to the Academy?”
While I deliberately thought about other things to avoid replaying the earlier scene, Arden suddenly asked.
“Hm?”
“When that woman was spouting nonsense. Why didn’t you say, ‘Don’t talk as if you know anything; I graduated from the Imperial Academy’? Why didn’t you say that?”
He raised his voice—this person who always said whatever he wanted without hesitation.
“Since you didn’t say anything, she thinks she won! She thinks she was right!”
He shouted, indignant.
“If you didn’t want to say it, you could’ve at least shown her your academy brooch! You always wear it. When else are you supposed to use it except moments like that?!”
“…….”
“…….”
“…Arden, are you mad?”
“I’m VERY mad!”
“Heh.”
He really looked like it—puffing up like a seven-year-old.
It was ridiculous, but the angrier Arden seemed on my behalf, the more my own heart eased.
Just seeing someone get angry for me… that alone soothed something inside me. Was this what empathy felt like?
I let out a small laugh.
“Even if someone didn’t go to the Academy, that doesn’t mean they deserve to hear things like that.”
“…What?”
“If I said, ‘Actually, I went to the Academy,’ then wouldn’t that imply that my coworkers who didn’t go there deserve to hear things like that? That’s why I didn’t say anything.”
Whether someone graduated from the Academy or not, it’s still wrong to talk to people like that.
“…Yeah, that’s true.”
“Yes.”
“You’re right.”
“…….”
“…….”
“But you know… actually, I know that woman.”
“What?!”
Arden’s voice grew even louder—loud enough that people passing by frowned and turned to look.
I whispered an apology to them and pulled Arden aside. He let himself be tugged, startled.
“Remember when I told you I once got in trouble for something someone else did?”
On the opening night of Opera Cernier.
When I asked if he had an unpleasant childhood memory, he answered, “I touched a cicada with my bare hands,” and I told him I got punished once for someone else’s wrongdoing.
“The teacher who punished me that time… was her. I was fourteen.”
“…….”
“She didn’t recognize me today. But the moment I saw her, I remembered.”
That memory had carved itself into me so deeply that even after nine years I recognized her instantly… but to her, it must’ve been nothing.
I said it lightly, but Arden didn’t speak.
After a moment, he asked quietly,
“What happened?”
“It wasn’t a big deal.”
Talking about something almost ten years old felt embarrassing. I scratched my hand awkwardly.
“When I was fourteen, she was my homeroom teacher. Back then there was a stove in the center of the classroom.”
You know the kind—long and narrow, where you can warm soup or boil tea.
“So what happened?”
“One kid stuck a branch into the stove fire, lit it, and then swung it at his friend, burning his arm.”
Naturally, the parents were called in.
“Except the boy’s parents were… a lot.”
‘Don’t you dare treat my child like a delinquent,’
‘Even if it’s true, how could you scold him in front of everyone? Do you not care about his dignity?’
‘Do you know my brother-in-law works as a lawyer for the Imperial Family?’
‘I’ll make sure you never teach again!’
“They screamed at the teacher in front of the whole class.”
My teacher is still quite young now—maybe just over thirty?
“So back then she must’ve been really young. Probably our age.”
Even when the principal came to intervene, the boy’s parents were relentless. The teacher wasn’t in a position to discipline him—she had to worry about losing her job.
‘N-no, that’s not what I meant. Sir, please, reporting this is…’
She was panicking, cornered.
“And then… she saw me.”
“…You?”
“Yeah.”
“And what? You being there magically solved her problem?”
Arden frowned, baffled. I shrugged.
“She decided to dump everything on me.”
‘R-right! Seraphina is the stove monitor this week, isn’t she? So she must’ve had the key! She must’ve been involved somehow!’
‘Huh?’
‘Seraphina, tell us. Did you tell him to bully his friend?’
“…That makes no sense.”
“It does.”
People do that. When they’re desperate, they look for someone to shove the blame onto.
Even if it’s utterly absurd.
“It was just my misfortune that I was the one there without anyone to defend me.”
“…So then?”
“You can guess.”
‘You can stick branches in from this slot—see? It’s easy. Me being the stove monitor has nothing to do with me telling him to do it.’
‘Seraphina, sweetie, I’m not scolding you. Just admit it quietly—’
‘Why should I admit to something I didn’t do? The one who swung the stick was Paul; shouldn’t he admit it first?’
‘Watch your mouth.’
‘No!’
SLAP!
“I told you—I’ve never backed down, not even as a kid. Even panicking adult logic wasn’t enough to shut me up.”
She was already terrified and irrational enough to blame a student. And the student she picked fought back logically.
You can imagine what happened next.
“…She slapped you.”
“Yeah, my whole cheek got swollen back then.”
I touched my right cheek with a laugh. Arden didn’t laugh.
‘Hah… hah…’
‘…….’
‘Seraphina, I usually don’t talk about other people’s weaknesses, but… you probably turned out like this because you grew up without proper parents. Don’t think this is unfair. You deserved it.’
‘…No.’
It’s the opposite.
I didn’t turn out this way because I didn’t have parents to teach me.
You were able to hit me because I didn’t have parents to protect me.
“I actually had the perfect comeback, but I didn’t say it. I was scared she’d hit me again.”
The caretaker at the orphanage I grew up in was kind, but she didn’t have the power to stand up against a teacher.
“That night, my face hurt so much I couldn’t sleep.”
While I lay there in pain, I kept thinking.
If only I had parents.
“I used to be afraid of sleeping alone, so I always slept beside my mom and dad.”
If they were away for work, I’d stay awake until they came home.
“But that night I was terrified, and they weren’t there. No matter how long I waited… they didn’t come…”
That’s when it really sank in.
Ah… my mom and dad aren’t in this world anymore.
“…….”
“I was so young, right?”
