Chapter - 115

“Your friends arrived and were making too much noise around you, so I kicked them out. Are you doing okay?”

The marquis seemed to notice that I was quite uncomfortable at the moment. It would be really comforting to have close friends around me, but it was nice to have some peace and quiet as well. I was grateful for his consideration and nodded at his question.

“How do you feel.”
“I feel incredibly refreshed. I feel like I could just get up and leave immediately.”

I rushed to blurt out a reply to the marquis as I rushed to get up.

“I already contacted your family regarding your situation, and Baron West will take care of your school situation for you. Don’t worry about anything and just rest comfortably.”

The marquis didn’t seem to flaunt his status around. He felt more like a nice next-door neighbor, which helped me relax as I nodded, sitting back down. He seemed to be a pretty free person.

“….I was told that we were able to stave off the attack thanks to you. First, I want to tell you that I’m incredibly grateful.”

The marquis said as he handed me a cup of warm tea. He handed me a cookie alongside the tea, which he apparently baked with the marquess recently.

It was an incredibly rare scene to see a couple cook together in this world, but it wasn’t that weird considering the kind of person the marquis DuBois seemed to be. Wow, what a great couple.

When I asked if I could eat the cookie right now, the marquis just smiled and told me to eat as much as I wanted. Both Viedielle and Cory didn’t seem to act like high-and-mighty nobles, but it seemed like it was because of the marquis’ influence.

I was a bit nervous so I just kept nibbling on my cookie. The marquis just wordlessly watched me before speaking.

“…..If you already knew about the attack, then does that mean that you’re already aware of the situation right now?”

I almost spit out my cookie at the sudden question.

Well, it was an incredibly suspicious situation. To have a baron’s child just popping in out of the woodworks to help? Moreover, if he had been watching since duke Yulinelle had been healing me, then that meant that he knew why I had passed out to begin with.

He must’ve felt the black and normal magic jumping around in my body. It would’ve been even weirder if he didn’t find it suspicious.

I didn’t have the words to explain the entire situation, so I just hastily nodded.

“If it’s difficult for you to explain, then I won’t ask too deeply. The important part is that you helped us.”

Thank goodness that the marquis DuBois was a good person. I awkwardly smiled and sighed inwardly.

The marquis took a seat where the duke had been sitting earlier. He buried his head in his hands and sighed deeply.

The air around him became heavy and serious.

“After what happened to Caradil, my close friend, I began to feel anger and resentment towards the royals. I began planning a lot of things because of it, and ended up entrenched in the academy’s plans because of it.”

When I said that I had a basic understanding of the situation, the marquis seemed to want to give me a more detailed explanation. I was surprised with the amount of trust that he seemed to be giving me, but I just took a sip of my tea and decided to pay close attention to his words.

I had already heard that the marquis was tied with the principal’s plans, so I had a lot of questions.

“At first, I decided to help the principal because I thought we had the same ideals, but his plans slowly became more and more needlessly cruel and wide-scale. So I stopped helping him.”

I remembered what Yves had told Cory in the dream. The marquis DuBois had stopped helping the principal’s plans, so Yves had told Cory to keep his family’s wishes alive and to help him.

A chill ran down my spine when I heard how the contents of my dream fit in with the real world.

“I could finally see the world clearly after I stopped helping him. I saw myself, too busy with work to take care of my family. I was especially sorry to Cory, who I had wordlessly sent off to do work instead of paying him attention.”

The marquis said, a bitter expression on his face. He had his fingers locked together as he tapped the back of his hand with his finger. He seemed incredibly apologetic to Cory as his expression deepened.

So that was why they didn’t care for Cory during these years.

In both real life and in the dream, Cory fiercely loved his family but didn’t seem to receive that affection back. It had been confusing to witness.

Just like dream Cory had said, they had been too busy to focus on him.

“I said something needlessly emotional.”

The marquis muttered to himself, regretful. I took another bite of the cookie and told him that it was okay. He gave me a slight smile as he continued.

“Anyway, I’m not completely sure but the attack is probably linked with the principal. Even if we’ll have to collect some more information about it for now.”

The person who was in charge of it was probably the principal. Dream Yves had said that it was him, after all.

“You’re currently attending that school, so I just want you to be especially careful.”

I nodded at the marquis’ words.

I was told that I couldn’t just drop out in the middle of my schooling. No, well, I could, but I would be at an incredible disadvantage if I dropped out of school without a good reason for it. It was the same for transferring schools. I would have to live with the bad reputation that came alongside it.

If I wanted to join the knights, then I had to safely graduate from the school. That meant that I couldn’t just leave.

Regardless of what the principal’s plans were, regardless of why the Augran mountains were dangerous, I needed to live my life first. That meant that I had to safely graduate first. Graduating came first.

I didn’t know about the others, but as someone who had no plans to transfer schools, I needed to be especially careful.

I told the marquis that I would be areful.

At my response, he told me that he had kept me for too long and smiled as he left.

“I’ll be sure to pay you back. If there’s anything that you want, then just give me the word.”

The marquis DuBois handed me a small piece of metal that looked like a coin.

I stared at the coin-like object that he had given me.

On the coin was the symbol for the DuBois family.

The symbol was in the shape of a magic circle. It resembled the semi-permanent time magic circle that I had seen when I had visited the residence before–the one that I couldn’t figure out.

If the royal family’s symbol was the black dragon and the Blanche dukedom’s symbol was the white dragon, then the DuBois family’s symbol was a magic circle. I found this tidbit kind of entertaining so I just peered carefully at the coin.

The marquis gave me a more detailed explanation about the coin. With this coin, I could borrow the marquis’ name or power whenever and wherever I pleased.

With this, I gained another supporter other than the prince. I tried to suppress the smile that was growing on my face at the huge blessing that had just landed on my doorstep.

The marquis left me alone in this huge room and closed the door behind him.

He had told me to prepare myself before he left, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I tilted my head in confusion.

As soon as the marquis left, I heard the incredibly loud rush of footsteps.

Then, the door burst open.

“Shushuuuuuuuuu! Shushu!”

The first person I could see was Hestia, whose face was a mess of tears and snot. Hestia seemed to run in while fighting with someone with silver hair.

But the silver-haired person seemed to trip because of an orange-haired person, and Hestia ended up rushing into the room first.

A few other people came in after Hestia, but Hestia hugged me tightly and blocked my sight, so I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Shushu! Shushu! Huaaang! Why is Shushu always hurting? Why are you always going away? Huaaang.”

Hestia hugged me so tightly that I felt like I was going to choke as she sobbed loudly, tears dripping down her faec.

“I was so scared that I thought I was going to dieeeeee. Mommyyyyy……. Huaaang! Shushu, I hate you. Don’t get hurt!”

I raised my head to look at Hestia’s face.

I was shocked when I saw her face. Tears and snot were dripping down her face, and I had half a mind to hide her face to protect her image. How did I blur her face?

Her snot was about to drip down, so I hurriedly grabbed some tissues to wipe her face.

After I finished wiping Hestia’s face free of tears and snot, I hugged Hestia, who was probably beside herself with worry, right back.

Hestia cried endlessly. She pressed a kiss on my eyes and my cheeks and kept checking that I was still alive as she cried. She cried so much that my shoulder, where she had rested her face, was wet.

She cried for a long time. If somebody saw the two of us, they might think that I was dead. When she was making too much of a fuss, I gave her the warm tea that I had been drinking and told her to calm down.

Hestia sniffed and drank a bit of the warm tea. She finally seemed to calm down. Her pretty green eyes blinked open and closed as she spoke.

“Shushu, but are you sure you’re okay now? You’re not going to pass out again?”
“Mhm, duke Blanche came over and healed me to perfect health.”
“Thank goodness….”

Hestia let out a huge sigh of relief as she hugged me gently. As if she wanted to check that I was still alive, she put her ear near my heart and closed her eyes to listen.

While she calmed herself down and leaned on me, I put down one of the cookies I had gotten earlier and happily munched on it as I waited.

“……get off.”

Then, I heard a familiar voice from behind her.

Swanhaden was just about to throw Hestia behind him before he paused, looked at me, and tapped her a few times.

Hestia buried her face in my arms before scowling when Swanhaden poked at her.

Swanhaden stared at Hestia. She didn’t seem like she was planning on moving anytime soon. He frowned for a moment before suddenly drawing a magic circle of some kind.

Looking at the contents, it seemed like it was a circle that helped with digestion. Swanhaden casted the circle on Hestia. Moments later, Hestia grabbed at her stomach, confused, before rushing out of the room.

Swanhaden didn’t even glance at Hestia as she ran to the restroom. Instead, he just continued to stare at me.

He seemed like he had a lot to say to me. His face was filled with emotions that I couldn’t place. I frowned when I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

I couldn’t help but flinch for a moment. He seemed too similar to dream Swan for a moment. But I decided to try and separate the two of them in my mind. It’d be wrong of me to ignore the current Swan just because of what I had seen in my dream.

I needed to be able to separate dreams from reality.

“…….Shushu.”

He called my name, voice shaking, as he slowly came closer.

Swanhaden was just about to say something to me but closed his mouth shut. Then, he just watched me.

With eyes that were full of hurt, he glanced at my face and then my hands before putting his hands in his pockets and taking out a ton of items at once.

They were all rings filled with different types of white magic.

Chapter - 115

“Your friends arrived and were making too much noise around you, so I kicked them out. Are you doing okay?”

The marquis seemed to notice that I was quite uncomfortable at the moment. It would be really comforting to have close friends around me, but it was nice to have some peace and quiet as well. I was grateful for his consideration and nodded at his question.

“How do you feel.”“I feel incredibly refreshed. I feel like I could just get up and leave immediately.”

I rushed to blurt out a reply to the marquis as I rushed to get up.

“I already contacted your family regarding your situation, and Baron West will take care of your school situation for you. Don’t worry about anything and just rest comfortably.”

The marquis didn’t seem to flaunt his status around. He felt more like a nice next-door neighbor, which helped me relax as I nodded, sitting back down. He seemed to be a pretty free person.

“….I was told that we were able to stave off the attack thanks to you. First, I want to tell you that I’m incredibly grateful.”

The marquis said as he handed me a cup of warm tea. He handed me a cookie alongside the tea, which he apparently baked with the marquess recently.

It was an incredibly rare scene to see a couple cook together in this world, but it wasn’t that weird considering the kind of person the marquis DuBois seemed to be. Wow, what a great couple.

When I asked if I could eat the cookie right now, the marquis just smiled and told me to eat as much as I wanted. Both Viedielle and Cory didn’t seem to act like high-and-mighty nobles, but it seemed like it was because of the marquis’ influence.

I was a bit nervous so I just kept nibbling on my cookie. The marquis just wordlessly watched me before speaking.

“…..If you already knew about the attack, then does that mean that you’re already aware of the situation right now?”

I almost spit out my cookie at the sudden question.

Well, it was an incredibly suspicious situation. To have a baron’s child just popping in out of the woodworks to help? Moreover, if he had been watching since duke Yulinelle had been healing me, then that meant that he knew why I had passed out to begin with.

He must’ve felt the black and normal magic jumping around in my body. It would’ve been even weirder if he didn’t find it suspicious.

I didn’t have the words to explain the entire situation, so I just hastily nodded.

“If it’s difficult for you to explain, then I won’t ask too deeply. The important part is that you helped us.”

Thank goodness that the marquis DuBois was a good person. I awkwardly smiled and sighed inwardly.

The marquis took a seat where the duke had been sitting earlier. He buried his head in his hands and sighed deeply.

The air around him became heavy and serious.

“After what happened to Caradil, my close friend, I began to feel anger and resentment towards the royals. I began planning a lot of things because of it, and ended up entrenched in the academy’s plans because of it.”

When I said that I had a basic understanding of the situation, the marquis seemed to want to give me a more detailed explanation. I was surprised with the amount of trust that he seemed to be giving me, but I just took a sip of my tea and decided to pay close attention to his words.

I had already heard that the marquis was tied with the principal’s plans, so I had a lot of questions.

“At first, I decided to help the principal because I thought we had the same ideals, but his plans slowly became more and more needlessly cruel and wide-scale. So I stopped helping him.”

I remembered what Yves had told Cory in the dream. The marquis DuBois had stopped helping the principal’s plans, so Yves had told Cory to keep his family’s wishes alive and to help him.

A chill ran down my spine when I heard how the contents of my dream fit in with the real world.

“I could finally see the world clearly after I stopped helping him. I saw myself, too busy with work to take care of my family. I was especially sorry to Cory, who I had wordlessly sent off to do work instead of paying him attention.”

The marquis said, a bitter expression on his face. He had his fingers locked together as he tapped the back of his hand with his finger. He seemed incredibly apologetic to Cory as his expression deepened.

So that was why they didn’t care for Cory during these years.

In both real life and in the dream, Cory fiercely loved his family but didn’t seem to receive that affection back. It had been confusing to witness.

Just like dream Cory had said, they had been too busy to focus on him.

“I said something needlessly emotional.”

The marquis muttered to himself, regretful. I took another bite of the cookie and told him that it was okay. He gave me a slight smile as he continued.

“Anyway, I’m not completely sure but the attack is probably linked with the principal. Even if we’ll have to collect some more information about it for now.”

The person who was in charge of it was probably the principal. Dream Yves had said that it was him, after all.

“You’re currently attending that school, so I just want you to be especially careful.”

I nodded at the marquis’ words.

I was told that I couldn’t just drop out in the middle of my schooling. No, well, I could, but I would be at an incredible disadvantage if I dropped out of school without a good reason for it. It was the same for transferring schools. I would have to live with the bad reputation that came alongside it.

If I wanted to join the knights, then I had to safely graduate from the school. That meant that I couldn’t just leave.

Regardless of what the principal’s plans were, regardless of why the Augran mountains were dangerous, I needed to live my life first. That meant that I had to safely graduate first. Graduating came first.

I didn’t know about the others, but as someone who had no plans to transfer schools, I needed to be especially careful.

I told the marquis that I would be areful.

At my response, he told me that he had kept me for too long and smiled as he left.

“I’ll be sure to pay you back. If there’s anything that you want, then just give me the word.”

The marquis DuBois handed me a small piece of metal that looked like a coin.

I stared at the coin-like object that he had given me.

On the coin was the symbol for the DuBois family.

The symbol was in the shape of a magic circle. It resembled the semi-permanent time magic circle that I had seen when I had visited the residence before–the one that I couldn’t figure out.

If the royal family’s symbol was the black dragon and the Blanche dukedom’s symbol was the white dragon, then the DuBois family’s symbol was a magic circle. I found this tidbit kind of entertaining so I just peered carefully at the coin.

The marquis gave me a more detailed explanation about the coin. With this coin, I could borrow the marquis’ name or power whenever and wherever I pleased.

With this, I gained another supporter other than the prince. I tried to suppress the smile that was growing on my face at the huge blessing that had just landed on my doorstep.

The marquis left me alone in this huge room and closed the door behind him.

He had told me to prepare myself before he left, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I tilted my head in confusion.

As soon as the marquis left, I heard the incredibly loud rush of footsteps.

Then, the door burst open.

“Shushuuuuuuuuu! Shushu!”

The first person I could see was Hestia, whose face was a mess of tears and snot. Hestia seemed to run in while fighting with someone with silver hair.

But the silver-haired person seemed to trip because of an orange-haired person, and Hestia ended up rushing into the room first.

A few other people came in after Hestia, but Hestia hugged me tightly and blocked my sight, so I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Shushu! Shushu! Huaaang! Why is Shushu always hurting? Why are you always going away? Huaaang.”

Hestia hugged me so tightly that I felt like I was going to choke as she sobbed loudly, tears dripping down her faec.

“I was so scared that I thought I was going to dieeeeee. Mommyyyyy……. Huaaang! Shushu, I hate you. Don’t get hurt!”

I raised my head to look at Hestia’s face.

I was shocked when I saw her face. Tears and snot were dripping down her face, and I had half a mind to hide her face to protect her image. How did I blur her face?

Her snot was about to drip down, so I hurriedly grabbed some tissues to wipe her face.

After I finished wiping Hestia’s face free of tears and snot, I hugged Hestia, who was probably beside herself with worry, right back.

Hestia cried endlessly. She pressed a kiss on my eyes and my cheeks and kept checking that I was still alive as she cried. She cried so much that my shoulder, where she had rested her face, was wet.

She cried for a long time. If somebody saw the two of us, they might think that I was dead. When she was making too much of a fuss, I gave her the warm tea that I had been drinking and told her to calm down.

Hestia sniffed and drank a bit of the warm tea. She finally seemed to calm down. Her pretty green eyes blinked open and closed as she spoke.

“Shushu, but are you sure you’re okay now? You’re not going to pass out again?”

“Mhm, duke Blanche came over and healed me to perfect health.”

“Thank goodness….”

Hestia let out a huge sigh of relief as she hugged me gently. As if she wanted to check that I was still alive, she put her ear near my heart and closed her eyes to listen.

While she calmed herself down and leaned on me, I put down one of the cookies I had gotten earlier and happily munched on it as I waited.

“……get off.”

Then, I heard a familiar voice from behind her.

Swanhaden was just about to throw Hestia behind him before he paused, looked at me, and tapped her a few times.

Hestia buried her face in my arms before scowling when Swanhaden poked at her.

Swanhaden stared at Hestia. She didn’t seem like she was planning on moving anytime soon. He frowned for a moment before suddenly drawing a magic circle of some kind.

Looking at the contents, it seemed like it was a circle that helped with digestion. Swanhaden casted the circle on Hestia. Moments later, Hestia grabbed at her stomach, confused, before rushing out of the room.

Swanhaden didn’t even glance at Hestia as she ran to the restroom. Instead, he just continued to stare at me.

He seemed like he had a lot to say to me. His face was filled with emotions that I couldn’t place. I frowned when I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

I couldn’t help but flinch for a moment. He seemed too similar to dream Swan for a moment. But I decided to try and separate the two of them in my mind. It’d be wrong of me to ignore the current Swan just because of what I had seen in my dream.

I needed to be able to separate dreams from reality.

“…….Shushu.”

He called my name, voice shaking, as he slowly came closer.

Swanhaden was just about to say something to me but closed his mouth shut. Then, he just watched me.

With eyes that were full of hurt, he glanced at my face and then my hands before putting his hands in his pockets and taking out a ton of items at once.

They were all rings filled with different types of white magic.