Ch. 51 His Real Gaze (2)
Louise was surprised how smoothly the words left his mouth. A while ago, she couldn’t even imagine what a profound Professor Hill would be like. He always blurted out his words, and was often timid in his actions. But the professor was different now. He spoke to Louise with unwavering confidence.
“Be on your guard, Miss Sweeney.”
Louise’s shoulders flinched at those sharp words. Perhaps it should be Professor Lassen that should be on alert. But why? Louise was nothing but a commoner schoolgirl to her.
“Their purposes of their sponsorship is becoming strange. They don’t care what happens.”
Professor Hill paused as a few students passed by them. When it was quiet again, he continued.
“They will make sure their student is on the top.”
He deliberately chose the word “make”. Louise Sweeney had a good brain, so he believed that she would figure out what he meant.
“And when I confessed that I was a liar…”
“You were ‘made the top’.”
“That answer is correct.”
He smiled painfully and added frankly,
“I was the worst student of all art.”
And art class was one of the mandatory subjects.
“But even then, you were an early expert of biology…”
“That’s something only a very few are interested in.”
Still, the desire to be the best student was something that anyone in the world could understand. Simply and firmly. That was what Louise craved. She risked getting involved in the original story for that honor.
“No wonder…”
Louise hesitated for a moment. Of course she knew who this year’s sponsored student was–the heroine of this world, Stella Lapis.
“I can see why Professor Lassen wasn’t very nice to me.”
She was offended that Louise took away the title of top student at the entrance exams, which should’ve been Stella’s.
“And the professor was talking about the difficulty of the test.”
It was simply this. Stella didn’t attend Professor Hill’s class, but Louise did. The top student was determined by the total score across all classes. The harder Louise’s test was, the more likely Stella could take first place.
“So I considered.”
“Considered?”
“Yes. I want everyone to have a fair chance at becoming the top student.”
Lying could eat at a person’s confidence for a lifetime. Louise wondered if his timid manner was rooted in his past guilt.
“It’s not fair that you’re already telling me this.”
Louise spoke in a light tone, so Professor Hill smiled as the atmosphere softened.
“You know, professor.”
Louise took one step closer.
“I don’t mind if it’s not fair.”
“But.”
“Come to think of it, I already read your book even before I entered the Academy. I already have a different starting point from the other students. It’s already unfair. “
Louise thought up a variety of other potential inequalities.
“Or maybe I could get sick all of a sudden on exam day. Or it could be the weather I hate.”
“Miss Sweeney, I mean, this is–“
“Ask me any problem you want. Feel free to test me any you like.”
Louise clenched the hem of her skirt at her fingertips.
“And I’ll write down everything I know. That’s what exams are like, isn’t it?”
“I like idealism, too. But…I don’t want Miss Sweeney to be sacrificed to a bad plan…”
“Professor.”
Louise looked determinedly into his face.
“I’m not the kind of person to give up top student so easily.”
Louise Sweeney, the villainess, like to claim anything as her own, especially with her obsession with Ian. With Louise stepping away like this, Stella would be able to have anything. However…Louise wanted to take one thing away from Stella. The honor of being the top student.
“And I’m not stupid enough to just give back one thing I have.”
Louise swung around. Her thin skirt fluttered lightly in the air.
“So from now on I’m going to study.”
Professor Hill put on his glasses again. He could clearly see Louise walking away with a brave stride. No injustice in the world would overtake her honest footsteps. Of course idealism was his favorite philosophy in life. In any case, both Professor Hill and Louise were both idealists, so the conclusion was inevitable.
“Thank you… Miss Sweeney.”
He said a small murmur of thanks that didn’t reach her then began to walk again. After taking Louise as far as the student council room, he decided to go back to his room to sleep. Suddenly, he wondered. Would he continue to drop things in front of Louise or hold them confidently?
*
*
*
Professor Juliana Lassen clenched the curtain of her lecture hall as her strict gaze was fixed outside of the window. A sigh broke out at the mouth of the wrinkled face of the professor.
“When I look at this I feel that time repeats itself again and again.”
There was a small voice that called out to her.
“Professor Lassen.”
Juliana Lassen turned around. There stood a student with red hair at the other side of the room. Stella Lapis. She was the last surviving hope of Countess Lapis.
“I stood here even when the current king was still the crown prince.”
“I heard that was true.”
“Yes, it was.”
Professor Lassen paused and corrected her glasses.
“So I couldn’t even imagine. His Majesty, like that. With the dirty…”
She stopped. She didn’t want to say anything about the past. The king fell in love with a common woman in at the Academy and kept the feelings intact after graduation. And of course, the two married. Everyone was for a while fascinated by the fairytale, but they didn’t know that it would be the beginning of hell.
“As a teacher, I should have warned the young lord. Every seat has its own master.”
But that was the terrible past, and now Professor Lassen turned her eyes away from it.
“I hope you don’t forget, too. Stella Lapis has a place.”
