Chapter 18 …
The Daughter of a Scoundrel Heir?!
If I get accepted into that academy, Grandfather will definitely not only acknowledge me as a member of the Shablin family, but also cherish me dearly—there’s no way he could kick me out.
I definitely won’t be abandoned.
I’ll finally shake off the disgraceful label of “good-for-nothing”!
At the thought of such a clear way to escape the miserable original storyline, I clapped my hands and jumped in excitement.
“Then send Ersha there too!”
“Pardon?”
“I wanna go too! Ersha! I’ll even have a teacher!”
Even if he seemed like a scammer.
“Young lady?”
Nocton looked at me as if I were ridiculous, then shook his head.
“That’s not a place just anyone can enter just because they want to. Even Young Master Oscar—our family’s pride, hope, and sunshine—has already failed once.”
Tsk, tsk.
Clicking his tongue, Nocton bowed slightly as if he had nothing more to say.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“……”
Watching him leave, I absentmindedly scratched under my nose.
As expected, the family wouldn’t support me just because I said I wanted to go. Even if I told Grandfather, the response would be the same.
‘Then how am I supposed to get into So Genius Academy?’
It didn’t seem like something I could solve quickly. Dragging my feet, I returned to my room.
Before long, the door opened and a familiar voice called out.
“My lady!”
“Huh? Ebot!”
I sprang toward the door. Ebot approached me with an unusually bright expression.
“You’ve been doing well on your own, right?”
“Of course! But what happened? What kind of person is Ersha’s teacher?”
Could he really be a thug?
A fake teacher doing all sorts of shady things like that scoundrel father? Someone bribed by Leo to pretend to teach?
I had just gained a clear yet seemingly impossible goal—entering So Genius Academy—and yet my teacher might be someone like that.
As I sank into gloom expecting the worst—
“My lady, you mustn’t be too surprised!”
“Why?”
“Well, that person is actually a genius among geniuses who even got into So Genius Academy!”
“…What?”
Without realizing it, my clenched fists loosened, and my mouth fell open.
“It’s that school where even getting ten students admitted a year in the entire empire is difficult!”
“……”
Really…?
* * *
Leo only returned to the Shablin ducal residence late at night.
Was that what elves looked like when drunk? Even today, the people at the marquis’s mansion clicked their tongues at how someone so scoundrel-like could have such an un-scoundrel-like appearance.
Marquis Leo seemed to be in an excellent mood thanks to the alcohol. Just as he was slowly making his way into his room—
He suddenly whipped his head back toward where he had just passed.
“What is that?”
His eyes narrowed.
On a table he rarely used sat something utterly absurd.
A hallucination?
Had he drunk so much that he was seeing things?
Frowning deeply, Leo stepped closer to confirm what he had seen.
Purple yarn hair, and eyes of the same color.
No matter how he looked at it, it was clearly the doll he had seen earlier that day at the doll shop.
“N-no, why is this here?”
Dumbfounded, Leo picked up the doll. A note fell to the floor. Helen quickly picked it up and handed it to him, and only then did he read it.
[Marquis, please make sure to give this to Erusha as a gift! You must not throw it away! Hehe.]
Leo crumpled the note instantly. He didn’t even need to check—this was definitely Croby’s doing.
“Has he lost his mind?”
He had completely crossed the line. Croby had touched something he absolutely shouldn’t have.
“How dare he bring something like this in here?”
Furious, Leo threw the doll.
The small doll, resembling Erusha’s hair and eyes, traced a parabola toward the floor—
And just before it hit the hard ground, Leo’s hand swiftly snatched it midair.
“Gasp!”
Helen and the other servants swallowed their shock as they watched silently.
His tall, slender body wavered slightly but quickly regained balance.
“Damn it.”
Holding the doll lightly, Leo didn’t even look at it. He tossed it back onto the table irritably, as if trying not to see it, then turned his body away.
He wanted to forget going to the doll shop earlier that day. He had drunk until he was intoxicated for that very reason—but seeing the doll made all that effort meaningless as his mind cleared.
Because now he understood why that damn doll had troubled him all day.
Knowing that made things a little easier.
Was it because of the alcohol?
At that moment, Helen carefully approached him.
“M-Marquis, do you need anything?”
“With just one doll, what is that even supposed to do?”
“Pardon?”
Leo shook his head, pitying Croby’s lack of sense.
Then he ordered the servants:
“Go to that doll shop right now and buy everything. Throw out all the junk in Erusha’s room and replace it with new ones.”
Saying that, Leo collapsed onto the bed and muttered:
“When you’re debating whether to buy something or not… you should just buy it.”
The heavy intoxication quickly dragged him into sleep.
* * *
“Is that really true? It’s not the teacher’s sibling or someone else, right?”
Still unable to believe Limerick’s identity, I repeated the same question for the tenth time. Even so, Ebot smiled patiently.
“It’s true. I was so surprised myself.”
“Wow…”
So Genius Academy wasn’t a place you could enter just by being smart.
A child needed not only genius-level talent, but also a powerful family’s information network, wealth, and connections to win fierce competition.
No one would coach a complete stranger into passing just for money. It was a matter tied to the pride of noble families who lived and died by honor.
Even powerful families with all these advantages often failed.
Families that had already produced successful candidates had an easier time, but seeing how Oscar had struggled for over five years, it was clearly especially difficult for the Shablin ducal house.
That’s why the duke longed for it so desperately.
‘How did Oscar pass in the original story again?’
As the protagonist, he was a true genius—and because he never gave up and kept applying every year, the academy gave him a lot of bonus points.
But now, my private tutor was someone from So Genius Academy?!
“Then why would someone like that be Ersha’s teacher?”
“I don’t know that part either. Why indeed? I’ve heard that graduates from So Genius often join the imperial research institute and receive top treatment, or return to the academy as professors. Hmm…”
“That’s strange. There’s no way Ersha’s father would get a genius teacher for her…”
“Maybe he knows the Marquis?”
“Maybe?”
I made a V-shape with my fingers and placed it under my chin. Ebot mirrored my pose as we both thought seriously.
A private tutor personally assigned by Leo… and he was a genius from So Genius Academy.
This might actually turn out easier than I expected.
But Limerick had already tried to slack off in my lessons twice—could I really get any help from him?
I thought he was just a thug, but turns out he was a genius thug. That made me see him differently.
Knock, knock.
At that moment, a sudden knock made both Ebot and me turn toward the door. I tilted my head in confusion.
‘Who could it be? No one should be coming to my room this late.’
“Who is it?”
Ebot quickly got up and opened the door. As soon as it cracked open, several maids pushed their way in.
“Excuse us!”
“W-what are you doing?!”
Ebot was pushed back in confusion. Each maid carried a large box in her hands.
Seeing that, I immediately had a bad feeling and stood up.
“The Marquis has ordered us to clean out all the trash in the young lady’s room.”
“What? There’s no trash in my room!”
“Regardless, excuse us!”
“!”
In an instant, the maids swarmed my cabinets.
It looked like they were about to collect all my old dolls.
