Heroine On Strike

Whatever the case was, it was certain that Clara wasn’t acting alone. Ella couldn’t shake Bazel away from her mind, so she asked, “What’s he like?”

“Who?” questioned Ethan.

“Bazel.”

“Oh, him. He’s the firstborn of Viscount Corsch. Technically, he was valedictorian of the year.”

“What do you mean? Technically?”

“I mean, first place should actually go to that monster, but you can’t compare a monster to a human. So…”

Soon, she understood what Ethan meant. Ella, herself, was very intelligent, but she was nothing compared to Cladis. It was as if he was made to become the next emperor that his intelligence was extraordinary. The prince could process multiple things at once without failure and remember every detail.

“Oh, you mean excluding his highness.”

“Yeah, something like that. But he’s the only one who’s on par with his highness if you exclude the hands-on training.”

“Then he must be really smart. What kind of person is he?”

“Why are you so interested in him?” Ethan asked suspiciously.

Astonished, Ella looked back at Ethan, which caused him to look away. He still felt apologetic towards her.

Demanding his answer, Ella snapped, “I was just curious.”

“You don’t need to be. He’s boring. One of the most boring guys I know. All he knows about is the library,” Ethan answered grumpily.

“Anything else?”

“Do you really need to know?”

Ethan considered Bazel the most boring guy he knew. If it wasn’t for Cladis, he certainly would never talk to him at all. It irritated him to be asked about a person he absolutely had no interest in.

Her brother seemed more relaxed after he had told her everything. But he didn’t seem to realize that he had now given Ella more problems to deal with, which irritated her. She then made a dangerous smile and replied, “No, I don’t need to know. So, it seems you agreed that Lady Mellin should be by his highness’s side? Did you even object to that idea? You skipped the details on that part.”

“Huh? Did I?” Ethan replied nervously.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Ethan froze at the spot where he was trying to move his butt off of the couch. “Oh- I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

“I see your feet trying to move,” threatened Ella.

“Hahaha… Well. I’m sorry, Ella. I’ve made a grave mistake. I just thought those words sounded so convincing at the time. I wasn’t thinking about you. I’m sorry,” apologized Ethan. He actually never doubted Clara’s intentions until he received an investigation report from Evan. Who would have known that she would have planned so many thing and left such a direct criticism on the diary with such an innocent face?

Useless buffoon. Sister-loving idiot who doesn’t even know who his sister’s romantic rival is.

In many of the excerpts from Clara’s journals, she had referred to Ethan as Muscle Brain. Thinking about that made Ethan blush. He realized that nickname accurately described him, which made him even more ashamed. Despite knowing that running away wasn’t the solution to this issue, he still wanted to if he could. If Ella didn’t stop him, he might as well run. As such, he apologized to her, “I am truly sorry. I was a fool.”

Irritably, Ella shook her head as he begged for her forgiveness. Ethan was quick to accept his wrongdoings and apologize, which also made it difficult to accuse him of his offenses. He was also someone who tried very hard to never make the same mistake. Cladis loved Ethan’s simple and direct personality, which Ella also liked about him from the book.

At this moment, however, she couldn’t like Ethan’s character. He shouldn’t be forgiven after a simple apology. Besides, Ella wasn’t sure if he actually knew what he was apologizing for, so she asked, “Do you know what you have done wrong?”

“Uh- Not stopping a woman from flirting with his highness?”

“Then you knew she was flirting with him.”

“No. I didn’t know… I mean. I kind of realized it much later when she used her first-love title as a shield,” explained Ethan. Although he was slow, there was no way he wouldn’t have known at all. He simply agreed with the other boys that Clara was someone who could help Cladis. Her brother believed that it was a short-lived romance that would only last until they left the Academy. He didn’t realize that feelings didn’t work like that.

“And you also thought there wouldn’t be an issue if I never found out,” Ella added.

“…Right. I’m sorry.”

Ethan was convinced by Bazel’s words that Ella would never find out, because she had no connection to any ordinary girls to hear about it. It was especially convincing when Bazel pointed out that she never came to any of the three festivals. Because of that, Ethan, unaware that an incident was going to happen, thought it was possible to hide it from his sister forever. Not realizing that even if she didn’t know, the whole situation was deceitful. He was essentially blaming her for not visiting the Academy and that shame overwhelmed him.