30
The sound of slow, heavy footsteps leaked out.
Seraphina looked at Lemora's back, which was spinning lifelessly away, her shoulders slumped in obvious defeat.
“No, I don't want to!” I would rather receive another punishment even if it is penalty points!”
“She certainly thought she was being clever in her own way.”
But Lemora wasn't really that clever girl with real cunning.
If she had been, she would have nodded in agreement with Seraphina's instructions, and she would have said that she would visit Evie daily until she could forgive her, lowering her head submissively.
But Lemora, instead, flatly refused and turned around, leaving Evie without hesitation.
That action alone was enough to reveal the truth.
Lemura had no intention of sincerely apologizing to Evie.
Seraphina made a slight displeased sound on her tongue, then returned to the room. As soon as she entered, she addressed Evie who was there:
“You took care to be considerate of other people's feelings so as not to attract the attention of other children, but it ended very sadly.”
At the mention of the word “considerate,” Evie gave an awkward smile.
In fact, when Seraphina wanted to summon Lemora, she intended to tell the employee that she had something to talk about related to Evie, and that she should come.
But at that moment, Evie grabbed her dress and shook her head.
“You shouldn't do that. If you do, everyone will know...”
Evie then added to ask the employee to summon Lemura under another pretext, so that she could come here without the other students knowing that Lemura was involved in this matter.
When Seraphina complimented her, Evie laughed sheepishly.
“That's what the headmistress always did.”
In the orphanage, there were many children, so the arguments never stopped.
Among them were children who secretly committed “bad deeds.”
Especially stealing things, or damaging other friends' property.
When such incidents occurred, the children would look for the culprit with burning eyes.
During those times, the principal would sometimes call some children under the pretext that she needed their help with something.
Evie really thought that these kids were called to help the headmistress.
Until the moment when I forgot to knock on the door and overheard a conversation inside the room.
Then, she was shocked to discover that the children who had been summoned were in fact the perpetrators.
Later, when she was alone with the principal, Evie asked her why she lied and called them in like that.
“Because this is the greatest punishment and true repentance.”
Evie didn't understand the principal's answer.
When the director saw her puzzled face, she patted her head and said again:
“Wrong must be atoned for by self-repentance. A forced apology that comes out of fear of the eyes of others is worthless. To live without being able to reveal what is in your heart, and to always be afraid that your mistake will be discovered, is a very painful and disturbing thing. Even as you see your friends laughing and playing, the one who made a mistake cannot laugh sincerely.”
Evie told Seraphina the headmistress's words that she had memorized.
Seraphina smiled and patted Evie on the shoulder and said:
“What a wonderful teacher.”
At that moment, a voice emanated from behind a wooden partition separating the room.
“It's all nice, but can we go out now?”
“Oh, sorry, I totally forgot about you. Come on.”
Serafina laughed, and Ruska came out from behind the barrier grumbling, and of course Arcel was with him.
“Now you two can go back. This building is intended for staff, but belongs to the girls' dormitory. Even if you two have privileges from His Majesty the Emperor, it is inappropriate to enter the girls’ dormitory, right?”
“That's why we didn't go in!”
Ruska shouted loudly, as if defending himself against the accusation of harassment, then quickly closed his mouth.
“I mean, we stayed here because we were worried that Lemuria, or Lemuri, or whatever her name is, would continue to lie to the end...”
That was true.
The two stayed to make sure that Lemora would not deny what she had done until the end.
“Luckily it was over before he got to that.”
Arcel addressed Evie, while Ruska muttered.
Evie noticed that his borrowed jacket was wrinkled, so she lowered her head and said:
“Oh, thanks for lending me the clothes. And thanks also for letting Lemora speak first.”
When Lemora entered, deliberately turning off the lights to excite her, and then showing Eevee, was Arcel's idea.
“Maybe that's enough to make her talk about her mistake herself and get angry.”
And as Arcel expected, exactly that happened.
Seraphina looked at Arcel as he spoke quietly, and inwardly she made a slight sound of dissatisfaction.
“How young he suggests something akin to interrogation of prisoners of war...”
She didn't stop him because, frankly, she wanted Lemora to be punished for doing so.
“No one knows fear unless he experiences it himself.”
At least, Lemora would no longer think about locking someone in the dark alone.
“Anyway, it's getting late, so go back to your rooms. I won't accompany you, is that okay?
"naturally."
"naturally."
“Then let us postpone our greetings until later. "Go carefully."
At Seraphina's words, the two bowed in greeting, then waved to Ephebe.
“See you tomorrow!”
Ruska laughed merrily.
“It was a tough day, wasn't it? "Rest now."
Arcel spoke in a calm, polite voice.
Evie bowed to the two waving to her and said:
“Thank you so much for today.”
The two continued waving until they closed the door.
Seraphina looked at this scene and thought things had gotten really strange.
“These two are not the type to care about others like that.”
Since Seraphina was close to Cloïs, she had known the two since their childhood.
“They seemed to have only each other as friends in the world, so what happened?”
Then her eyes settled on Eveb, who was quietly collecting her bag.
Now that she thought about it, she felt that she herself was different today.
“Reciting the spell was easier and faster than I expected.”
The entire imperial palace is imbued with an ancient power that makes reciting spells difficult.
So, even when she borrowed a magic stone, she wasn't sure that she would find Evie easily.
But not only was the spell cast with greater force than usual, but something seemed to guide her, for she had found Evie in an instant.
“It was just like how I felt when Lillian was here...”
Then, suddenly, I remembered the faces of Arcel and Ruska.
She felt that the two children, whom she saw after a long time, were both strange and familiar at the same time.
They were laughing like they did when Lillian was alive.
“Why?”
She herself, and the two children too.
Why are we different from the norm?
“Okay, I'll go now. Thank you so much for using magic to find me. “The light was falling like stars, it was so beautiful!”
Evie smiled brightly as she remembered that moment.
“Ah…”
At that moment, Serafina realized something.
The slender little girl in front of her was smiling with a familiar smile.
It was the same smile she had seen in the photo of Lillian leading Eppie out.
Serafina's eyes scanned Evie.
Faded but bright golden hair, and deep green eyes.
“It looks like her.”
“The dean?”
“Oh, sorry.”
Serafina snapped out of her thoughts when Ehi called her.
Princess Evbian is dead. Everyone in the castle witnessed the death of the two, and Cloyce himself received the bodies.
Despite knowing this, Seraphina's eyes settled for a moment on the back of Evie's hand.
Then she smiled bitterly when she saw a clean hand devoid of anything.
“What was I thinking?”
Why did you search for the features of the emperor and his wife in a girl from the orphanage?
Seraphina took Evie and left the room.
* * *
“Huh...”
Evie walked up the stairs and quietly opened the door to her room, No. 305.
Seraphina offered to accompany her to the room, but a staff member from the academy called her from outside.
From his complaints, it seemed like she had a huge backlog of work.
Seraphina apologized repeatedly and said they would meet later, then slowly left, so Evie returned to her room alone.
She had to quickly shower and get ready for tomorrow.
“I must go in quietly.”
It was very late, and Irene was probably already asleep.
As Evie gingerly opened the door, she noticed a paper bag sitting in front of the door.
“…?”
Curious, she opened it and found inside a sandwich, fruit, cookies, and candy, clearly from the academy's restaurant.
“It looks like the staff prepared it for me.”
If she had known earlier, she would have thanked them.
Evie hugged the bag and entered the room.
Shortly after Eihei entered, the door to the opposite room opened slightly, and Irene poked her head out.
She made sure that there was nothing in front of Evie's door, then closed the door with a satisfied smile.
Thus ended the tumultuous second day.
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