Chapter 21: EtiQuette

After being sentenced at the hospital, my academy classes usually went like this.

I listened to classes that had lost meaning to me.

At some point, I was treated as an invisible person by other students and professors.

Of course, being treated as an invisible person was the only good thing.

If I made a mistake, the other students would immediately gossip about it.

Still, indifference was better than hatred.

Nothing hurts more than the indiscriminate gaze of hatred.

Anyway, time alone like this, where no one cares.

Isn’t this the meaning of the only academy class that was allowed to me?

Just quietly.

Time that just flows along the road, like water flowing quietly.

The classes that I once listened to more diligently than anyone else were no longer necessary.

The relationships that I once worked harder to improve than anyone else were now meaningless to me.

A bonfire that would go out.

There was no need to do stupid things like putting firewood in a bonfire that would go out no matter what I did.

That was a waste.

A waste that had no meaning at all.

That’s why I actually felt comfortable in this situation.

Because it was peaceful.

If no one cared about me and I cared about no one, it couldn’t be more peaceful.

In the past, it was just because I didn’t realize this fact that it was hard.

I was trying to change my image.

I was just greedy enough to change my image somehow and fit in with others, so it was hard.

It’s easier if you give up.

I don’t know who made that up, but it was a clear answer that I nodded my head in agreement with.

At least that’s what I felt until last class.

“Am I seeing things correctly?”

“Why is Princess Laila sitting next to that rascal? Wasn’t there a place to sit?”

“But that rascal always sat there by himself?”

Yes, until ‘last class’.

Until today, when Layla suddenly sat next to me and caught everyone’s attention, that is.

‘……Haa’.

I swallowed the sigh that was about to escape my mouth little by little and spoke to Layla, who was still calmly concentrating on class.

“……Princess.”

“Why are you calling me, Lian Trice? It’s class time right now, so small talk is definitely prohibited.”

As soon as she heard me, Layla blocked the sentence that would follow with the shield of class time.

I didn’t really want to know.

This is what it feels like to be speechless.

It was a truly amazing experience.

How can you become speechless in an instant?

If that’s talent, isn’t it a talent?

A talent that instantly binds the other person so they can’t say anything.

As I stared silently with a speechless expression, Layla finally raised the corners of her mouth as if it were a joke and continued talking.

“However, since you obviously know that fact and went through the trouble of calling me, I’ll answer just this once.”

“……Yes. Thank you.”

“Yes. What do you want to ask me?”

“Don’t you feel something, Your Highness?”

I asked Layla, making a bewildered expression.

Don’t you feel it?

I felt the gazes so well that my skin felt stinging.

I’m not lying; it really stung.

To exaggerate a little, it seemed like everyone in the classroom except the professor was looking this way.

I think someone said that humans are creatures of adaptation.

I think they said that if you keep receiving other people’s gazes, you get used to it.

I thought I heard that somewhere.

But judging by the stinging sensation I felt right now, it didn’t seem to be that.

“……Does your face feel stingy?”

“What on earth does it feel stingy? Did your skin crack because it was so cold?”

Because of this, Layla, who was sitting neatly as usual and making jokes, seemed even more strange.

I wondered if she was really a human.

I wondered if it was really human to see someone attend class normally while receiving this kind of gaze that a normal person wouldn’t be able to endure for even 5 minutes.

And, as if she had read my thoughts, Layla quietly opened her mouth with a blank expression.

“You seem to find me strange.”

“…”

“Perhaps that’s only natural. No matter how much you’ve lived your life hearing the world’s assessment that you’re a total idiot, it must have been hard for you to get used to the indiscriminate stares from people.”

“If you were offended, I’d like to apologize right now.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize. That’s the normal reaction of a person.”

Layla shook her head slightly, denying my words, and now looked straight at me.

“Rather, I now feel like you’re a person.”

“……A person?”

“Yes. Although I haven’t fully grasped the person that is Ryan Trice, at least from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think you’re a person.”

Inhuman.

It was a remark that could have sounded extremely insulting to some.

No.

There was no need for anyone to go that far.

If a normal person had heard it, they would have naturally refuted it head-on.

Even if the other person was Layla.

Even if the other person was the crown princess of the empire.

A human’s pride was much more important than you might think.

Furthermore, this was an academy where status was relatively less important than outside.

A normal person would have at least denied Layla’s words for the sake of their pride.

“You’re not really refuting it?”

“…… Is there really a need to refute it?”

If only the listener were a normal person.

‘……Pride.’

Pride.

It was a word that was truly distant and foreign to me.

-I’m sorry.

-…..

“Please, please, I’ll beg you like this. Please forgive me for my foolish past.”

To repent for someone else’s mistakes means that you have to put down your own pride.

A year was a long time.

In other words, it was more than enough time for a human to completely abandon their pride.

The situation had been reversed, and now Layla was looking at me with a curious expression.

“You showed me the eyes of a normal person for a moment, and then went back to your original eyes.”

“……Is that so?”

“Yes. Those are the eyes that I hate the most in the world.”

Layla stared straight into my eyes.

As if she was going to engrave the eyes she hated the most into her memory once again.

“I still don’t know what kind of life you’ve lived.

I can’t judge a person’s life based on just a rumor I’ve heard.”

“…”

“But I can be sure of this much.

Your current appearance is very similar to my past appearance.”

…That’s right.

What an honor.

The last words never left my mouth.

The reason was simple.

As someone who had read the original, I simply didn’t have the confidence to agree with Layla’s words.

Layla von Pelias’ past.

To be exact, the lonely past of the young crown princess who had lost her only supporter.

Could it be the author’s dark taste?

The pasts of the characters in the novel Sword of the Academy were not smooth.

The main character, for example, was an orphan who lost his entire family to monsters and spent his childhood in an orphanage.

The heroines who developed feelings for the main character all had pasts that were quite far from normal.

The heroine with the most normal past was Aria Trice, who had a scoundrel like Lian as her older brother.

‘…….This is also because her past was the least revealed.’

Considering that this was also simply because her past was not revealed much, the original setting was darker than you might imagine.

Layla smiled as she heard the sentence that was cut off after coming out well.

“This is the first time this has happened.

It’s the first time the princess herself says that her past is similar to hers, but she still maintains her composure.”

“…”

Then she suddenly changed, and said with a cold expression.

“An ordinary noble like you would dare to know about the royal family’s affairs.

And it’s not like it’s something that’s related to me, the crown princess.”

“……Ah.”

“Isn’t that so? At least that’s what I think.”

I made a mistake.

It was a thought that came to my mind as soon as I saw Layla’s cold expression.

I shouldn’t have nodded there.

I should have just laughed it off as if to say, “What on earth is that?” or frowned.

To Layla of all people.

To Layla, who had spent her childhood in a place where people would die if they weren’t careful.

Just when I was starting to feel guilty for making such a huge mistake,

“… Of course, this is also a joke.”

“…”

It was then that Layla’s cold expression softened as if it had never been like that.

“Because you told me yourself last time. You just want to live comfortably.

You probably didn’t think much of it just now.”

“…”

“There’s no particular reason why I’m sitting next to you today.

I’m just keeping a promise I made over the weekend.”

“……If it’s the weekend?”

“I’m sure I sent you, right? Let’s meet at the academy on Monday.”

After hearing this, a message suddenly came to mind.

-You worked hard today too.

-Then, let’s meet at the academy on Monday.

The content of the message that Layla sent me after the request was over.

“……That message, no way.”

“You’ve finally remembered. I was just keeping a promise to you.”

Layla spoke confidently as if she had no guilt at all.

‘……That was a real promise?’

Of course, I was bewildered because I thought it was just a polite message.

That was real.

This was something I could never have imagined.

“You dismissed my true feelings as just a polite message.

This is really heartbreaking.”

“……I haven’t said anything yet.”

“I don’t need to wait; I can tell just by looking at your expression.”

“…”

“Ugh, stop blaming yourself. This is all because I trusted someone I shouldn’t have trusted.”

Is it because of my mood?

I’ve heard this tone of voice somewhere before.

Why does it feel so familiar yet unpleasant?

As I was chewing on Layla’s sentence, which seemed to remind me of someone with gray hair, Layla made a suggestion as if she had been waiting for this moment.

“Instead, how about you tell me now. Why you want to live comfortably?”

“…”

“Surely you wouldn’t refuse after the mistake you just made.

I don’t want to believe that you are such a rude person.”

Layla smiled wickedly, as if she had finally found a way to hear the truth from me.

How unfortunate.

“……What is manners?”

“…”

“I am so stupid that I really don’t know what that is.”

I am now a person who can be rude enough for myself.