Ellis Akstra was always alone.
A loner with no one she could trust.
It was only natural.
In the Akstra Marquis family, who lived in the shadow of the empire, there was no one to help a young girl.
No matter how much of an adult she was, even someone who had been around for a long time would fall into the abyss if they let their guard down.
The place where Ellis lived was a place where people of lower status would covet the positions of higher-ranking people.
On the contrary, people of higher status would do their best not to be taken over by lower-ranking people.
A world where everyone was busy finding their own path.
A world where everyone was busy figuring out how to survive here.
-Ellis, I will be your nanny from today.
-……Mother?
And this also applied to Ellis’ parents, the Akstra Marquis couple.
Being the leader of a family meant that, in other words, one had to endure the envy and jealousy of those who followed behind them.
Ellis knew this fact well.
In fact, she was the one who felt this fact more deeply than anyone else.
Because she had experienced it firsthand.
Unlike the noble Yeong-ae who grew up receiving both her parents’ love and the love of those around her, she experienced the cold and heavy reality firsthand.
The world is never warm.
The moment she had a weakness called a warm heart, she might be bitten by beasts that were after her and lose her life.
Ellis knew this better than anyone else.
That’s why Ellis tried hard.
She did her best so that no one would be inferior to her when compared to her.
Family management, information trading, dagger fighting.
She learned everything she could as the successor to the Marquis of Akstra, and grew quickly.
Red eyes stained with madness.
That’s what her relatives, who always targeted the weaknesses of the next successor, called her.
It was a title that suited her very well, always devoting herself to the given task like crazy.
Ellis liked that title.
It was a sarcastic expression, but it was still a certain degree of recognition for her efforts.
A twisted desire for recognition.
It was a desire that Ellis developed because no matter how hard she tried, she never received sincere recognition.
-Wow, you’re saying you were number one on the written exam? What’s your name?
-…..Ellis Akstra.
This was a fact that hadn’t changed even after Ellis entered the academy.
Effort.
Now, a word that couldn’t be separated from Ellis.
Ellis didn’t stop working hard even after entering the academy.
She handled the family’s work that came in as it came.
The information guild that she started running herself was now comparable to any other information guild.
In order to maintain her top grade at the academy, she studied harder than anyone else and trained in swordsmanship similar to dagger fighting.
However.
If there was something Ellis hadn’t expected here.
-That person is the princess?
-Wow, it’s the princess Layla that I’d only heard of.
The fact that real geniuses were blocking her from escaping from the well of the marquis family.
Of course, she didn’t admit it at first.
No, she absolutely didn’t want to admit it.
The wall called talent.
She didn’t want to admit the wall called talent that blocked her from overcoming any wall through effort.
However, as time passed, Ellis gradually began to accept reality.
She couldn’t win.
The size of the wall called talent is much larger than I initially expected.
I felt it while watching Princess Layla and Princess Elena.
I felt it with my whole body especially when I directly crossed swords with Princess Layla.
It is impossible.
She can never keep up with the person in front of her.
When she worked hard for 10 to get 100.
Real geniuses worked hard for 10 to get 1000.
-You have the ability to become strong enough, Ellis Akstra.
If you train more here, one day you will be able to cross swords with me on equal footing.
-……Is that so?
-Keep working hard in the future.
What made such an Ellis even more miserable was the advice of Princess Layla, who had directly faced her with the sword.
How much more.
How much more effort would she have to put in to keep up?
She was definitely trying.
She was trying several times harder than most people.
How much more effort would she have to put in to catch up here?
Inferiority complex.
This was definitely an inferiority complex.
The emotion she truly hated.
The emotion she had felt when other families looked at her, she was now feeling it herself.
“…I hate it.”
As someone who hated such emotions, she wanted to forget them somehow.
That’s why she tried harder.
She tried harder to the point where it made the efforts she had made up until then seem ridiculous.
She reduced her sleep time from 5 hours to 3 hours.
She gradually reduced the operating hours of the Information Guild, which had started to operate without her, and focused more on her academy classes.
No one could keep up with her in the written exams.
Given the nature of Sacred Academy, which places more importance on physical ability, there were no students who studied harder than she did.
The problem was still the practical exam.
Unlike the written exam, which only evaluated the theoretical part, the practical exam, which also evaluated physical ability, was still a wall that blocked her.
14th place, 11th place.
These were the rankings she recorded in the two most recent practical exams.
Of course, her actual ranking was higher than that.
The Sacred Academy exams were ranked by the combined scores of the written and practical exams.
Roughly 3rd or 4th place.
This was Ellis’s ranking in the combined ranking of the written and practical scores.
Some might say that this was high.
They said that it was high enough.
They said that it was enough in Sacred Academy, which was famous for having a large number of students.
……It was a phrase that only someone who didn’t know her well could carelessly spit out.
Only 1st place.
In a cold world that only remembered 1st place, her goal was always 1st place.
That’s how much she wanted to be recognized by others.
That’s how much she wanted to get rid of the feeling of inferiority that existed in her.
And, in order to achieve the above goals, she absolutely had to win 1st place.
“… This time, I’m in 11th place.”
However, reality was much colder than she had expected.
The results of her efforts were far less than she had expected.
When human expectations fail to exceed the target, those expectations naturally turn into disappointment and come back several times stronger.
For her, the disappointment returned as an even stronger sense of inferiority.
Why on earth?
Even though she’s working so hard, she can’t keep up.
What’s lacking?
What on earth is lacking that makes her feel this way?
Of course, Ellis already knew the answer.
Just like in the past, she knew it but couldn’t admit it.
The difference in talent.
The difference between the talent she had and the talent of the shining people was beyond imagination.
She already knew all too well.
She had to understand the given reality since she was young, so there was no way she wouldn’t know.
That’s why she overworked herself.
She knew that fact better than anyone else, so she pushed her body even harder.
The sleep time that had been reduced to 3 hours was now reduced to the point where it was meaningless to specify the time.
-······Ellis. –
Why did you come to me? Mother.
-Aren’t you overdoing it lately? I heard from your attendant that you pulled an all-nighter for two days in a row.
Her mother, who had become somewhat comfortable with her solid successor position thanks to her efforts, sent her worried looks every weekend.
-It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. –
-…..Of course, she didn’t worry.
She thought it would be more beneficial to spend time on other things than worrying about herself.
However, it was true that she was feeling uneasy.
After all, her mother, who had firmly maintained her position until now, had said those words directly to her.
“……My nose is bleeding again.”
Because she knew better than anyone else that her condition was worsening in real time, her mind became increasingly anxious.
She had to catch up with those who were better than her before her condition got so bad that she needed to be treated at a hospital.
And, was it because of this disturbed mind?
“…I lost.”
“You worked hard too.”
It was a defeat that was much simpler than her usual defeats.
“Ellis, why don’t you stop now?”
“You know that no matter how hard you try, you can’t win against someone like me who has trained in swordsmanship since long ago.”
The fact that Erica Perleino’s provocation, which she would have just let slip, worked on her properly.
She felt something snapping inside her.
The thought that all her efforts up until now were being directly denied made her feel like a string was snapping.
“…”
This feeling quickly turned into an impulse and hit her.
She took out her dagger.
She would always carry it hidden in her bosom to prove her efforts up until now to the stupid woman in front of her.
Just 2 seconds.
If she had been given two more seconds, she would have taken out the dagger from her bosom, having lost her senses.
“You?”
“Why are you here all of a sudden?”
If that man hadn’t suddenly barged into the situation, she would have succeeded in taking out the dagger.
Lian Trice.
It was the name of the man she had been forcing information about the past into until now, the man she really hated.
The man’s words who suddenly barged in made even Ellis, who hated that man, make an idiotic expression.
“Erica Perleino. May I challenge you to a duel?”
“…”
“Oh, of course you can decline. Unless you want to avenge your boyfriend.”
The Sacred’s scoundrel.
I don’t know who gave him that nickname.
But it really seemed like a well-given nickname.
Those were the thoughts that occurred to her as she continued to look at Lian Trice with a dumbfounded expression.
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Who’s is the sacred scoundrel..is it mc or Erica??
It refers to mc!