Chapter 6

As Briseyes remained frozen in shock, Callisten looked at her once and said with a smile:

“I look forward to spending the day with you. I understand that positions aren’t considered here, so please treat me comfortably.”

After saying this, he looked at the professor’s fingertips.

“You can sit in any empty seat.”

“Is there assigned seating?”

“No. You can sit wherever you like.”

With that, he smiled with his eyes curved and approached Briseyes. She was always someone who sat in the very front row and studied the hardest.

“I’m going to sit there. Move, Saturn or Evusi or whatever your name is.”

“E-Evusi! Got it!”

Saturn and Evusi were identical twin brothers. Unlike the tactless Saturn, Evusi had a close friendship with Briseyes. In fact, it was Saturn and Evusi who were awkward with each other.

“Thank you.”

“…You….”

“Seeing you again makes me so happy, Bri. This must be fate.”

He smiled brightly at Briseyes, who looked at him, shook her head, and then faced forward.

“There are no special announcements for today’s assembly within the Academy. However, since the wars with the Merbenia Kingdom and Biaten Empire have ended, students who were dispatched to the war must take supplementary classes.”

When the professor finished speaking, sighs could be heard from all around. They thought they would have a miserable time with studies after barely returning alive.

“It can’t be helped if you want to graduate, everyone.”

The professor laughed heartily, and Briseyes stared at the empty seat where Demian had sat yesterday.

“There will be a victory ceremony this evening, so if you are nobility, please attend and grace the occasion with your presence.”

The mundane assembly continued like that.

Briseyes kept her lips tightly sealed until the first period began.

“Now, focus on your studies, everyone.”

The professor in charge of Class 1 said this and left. People who had been curiously looking at Callisten continued to stare at him but didn’t approach.

Everyone knew. That Callisten had annihilated the Biaten Empire and brought back the head of the Biaten Emperor.

It was an extraordinary feat. But Callisten’s reputation as Crown Prince was also well-known.

He was someone who had risen to the position of Crown Prince after his mother died. Though pretending to be neutral, he was actually a wild colt running around with the support of the Philia Marquis household, which supported him, and his mother’s family, the Pendleton Duchy.

This wild colt wasn’t just a ruffian; he had proven his own abilities and was someone who could do anything.

The common sentiment was not wanting to catch the eye of this capable ruffian.

“How did you manage to visit? This isn’t even the period for observational classes.”

“Is there anything I can’t do when it comes to seeing you? Bri.”

“Why did you come here anyway?”

“I told you, I came to see you, Bri.”

He was a capable ruffian. He had a memory that never forgot what he had seen once, remembering it like a photograph. On top of that, he was a monster who always brought victory in war.

He even used very unusual strategies in battle. He employed strange methods that no one could predict, but these methods had never failed.

Yet everyone had predicted he would lose in this war.

But he mocked all those who had predicted his defeat by achieving a historic victory that should have been impossible with the number of soldiers he had taken—an achievement that would go down in history.

An accomplishment that past emperors might not achieve even if they dedicated their entire lives.

At just twenty years old.

“Bri.”

“……”

“Look at me. Otherwise, it hurts too much for me to bear.”

Briseyes momentarily glanced at his waistband, and her face flushed at the clinking sound heard whenever he moved.

“Sit somewhere else.”

“Should we sit somewhere else together? Who should I ask to move?”

“Just you go somewhere else.”

“I won’t go unless we go together.”

He was looking at Briseyes with his chin resting on his hand, smiling leisurely like a fox. Briseyes found it difficult to keep looking at him because her face felt too hot.

“Bri.”

Briseyes looked at him, thinking he would continue to bother her. He smiled prettily and said:

“It hurts more now.”

“Close your eyes, then.”

At that, he closed his eyes obediently, like a well-trained dog.

“With my eyes closed, I can smell your perfume.”

“Just don’t talk, please.”

“You like the quiet type? Then I’ll be that.”

He opened his eyes and continued to look at Briseyes with a smiling face.

And so the first period began.

“Hello, everyone.”

The professor for the first period, Law and Punishment, entered.

“Since there have been two consecutive wars, I’d like to conduct a class on a topic related to you all. After all, the Cropus Empire is an empire with frequent wars.”

At the professor’s words, Briseyes picked up her fountain pen and began writing in her notebook.

“As usual, I will award one bonus point to the student who answers best today.”

She placed her book on her left and her notebook on her right. To her right, Callisten sat with his desk pushed right against hers.

“Do you know what happens first when a war ends?”

Briseyes raised her hand.

“When a war ends, reparations are demanded.”

“That’s correct.”

“When a war ends, reparations are demanded. If reconciliation occurs during the war, there may not be a clear distinction between the victorious and defeated nations, so one side might end up with an advantage. But if there is a clear division between winner and loser, the judgment for reparations doesn’t end with just an advantage.”

Briseyes quickly jotted this down. It was content she had already previewed.

Callisten, who had been watching her write, wrote something in his own notebook with his fountain pen and passed it to her.

「 You look pretty even when studying. 」

She pretended not to see it and looked ahead to concentrate on the class.

“When a war ends, war criminals are punished according to the reparation procedures.”

Briseyes was recalling judgments on war criminals in her mind when Callisten wrote on a new piece of paper and passed it to her again.

「 Seeing you concentrate makes my heart flutter. If I were a book, would you look at me like that? 」

She ignored him again and looked at the professor. The professor stuck a map picture on the blackboard and began speaking again. Then, pointing to a specific area, he said:

“A war broke out in this region before. Does anyone know about it?”

Briseyes raised her hand again.

“It was the Lamerdin War. In the now-vanished Lamerdin territory, the lord abandoned his people and fled, which led to a rebellion by the residents, starting the war.”

“Correct.”

The Law and Punishment professor smiled as if impressed by Briseyes’s answer. Although he looked at her as if she were excellent, he deliberately didn’t praise her. It was obvious that she would take the bonus points in this class anyway.

“Can you tell us what happened to the lord of Lamerdin who fled, student Briseyes?”

“The lord of Lamerdin was forced to return his fief because he abandoned his people, and his title was confiscated. Additionally, since there was evidence that the rebellion started due to economic hardship, the Lamerdin Baron family was demoted to commoners and confined to Lesis Island.”

“Correct. Precisely right.”

Suddenly, Callisten noticed the gazes of several young men looking at Briseyes.

The atmosphere in Class 1 had subtly changed. Only Briseyes remained unchanged.

When they learned that Demian was keeping a mistress, the young men who had harbored feelings for her but couldn’t express them no longer needed to hide it.

“As in this example, as the owner and ruler of a territory, we must never abandon our land, even if we face beheading.”

The ratio of young men to young ladies at the Academy was not equal. It was roughly 9 to 1.

“The content learned today must be submitted as a report in two weeks. I will only accept reports exceeding 20 pages. This report is worth 2 points in total, so make sure to complete it properly and bring it in.”

And so the first period ended.

“Where are you going?”

“To prepare for the victory ceremony.”

Callisten stood up as soon as the professor left.

“I came because I wanted to see you.”

“……”

“Now that I’m about to leave, I miss you again. Will you ask me not to go?”

“Go, please. Go and don’t come back.”

At Briseyes’s words, Callisten smiled brightly and said:

“I’ll be back, Bri.”

She didn’t respond, and Callisten waved to her as he headed to the victory ceremony.

⁕⁕⁕

Around the start of the third period, Demian and Delilah returned.

“Hello, Bri?”

Delilah greeted her, pretending to be friendly, and Briseyes smiled elegantly and replied:

“Yes, hello, Miss Delilah.”

“Aren’t you curious where your husband went, coming back so late?”

Demian spoke sarcastically as he sat down with Delilah in the empty seats. Even as he sat down, he patted his thigh as if telling Delilah to sit on it, and Delilah pretended to be mindful of others but sat on his lap.

“I’m sure you handled everything well, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

“You’re narrow-minded. I see you’re still angry.”

Briseyes hated herself for continuing to be hurt by his words, so she decided not to engage with him anymore.

“Oh, by the way, Bri. I heard you’re the top student in the fourth year?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Then Delilah smiled and said:

“Not this time. I’m going to be first.”