Chapter 1. I was abandoned by my family
***
As the days went by, Leticia grew farther and farther beyond his reach. When he bumped into her she acted like a completely different person, so he couldn’t even think of what to say.
He was still deluding himself into thinking it wasn’t too late. He didn’t want to admit it, even though a part of him knew it was over a long time ago.
What she said continued to resonate in his head.
[Yes, I mean it.]
Leticia’s answer when he asked if she was serious about Enoch before the final match.
Her answer, without any hesitation or doubt, broke his heart and caused a bitter smile to cross his face. He could endure it though, because he believed it was Leticia’s one-sided feelings.
When he entered the arena to face off against Enoch for the finals, he saw something sparkling on his shirt. At first, he thought it was a common necklace. Then he saw the ring on the necklace, and his mind went blank.
It was a ring with the same design as the one on Leticia’s finger.
After that he couldn’t concentrate on the match. In the end, he made a series of unexpected mistakes and lost to the opponent he wanted to win against the most.
“Since when…”
When did they start feeling the same way?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Levion tried to settle down and leaned against the chair.
‘If Leticia had awakened her ability, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Even though he’d tried to help Leticia awaken her ability, she was always uncomfortable. No, it was right to say that she found it unpleasant.
‘If I tried to help you, you acted like that.’
He didn’t know what the heck she wanted him to do.
As he let out a conflicted sigh, he heard a knock on his door.
“Come in.”
As soon as permission was granted, the butler quickly approached Levion.
“I’m here because I have something to report.”
“What is it?”
Leticia’s voice, coldly telling him how pathetic he was, still lingered in his head.
Levion asked him to report without looking towards him, the butler began to slowly speak.
“I heard the Great age recently visited the Achilles’ mansion.
“The Great Sage would…”
He seemed to be referring to Seios.
It was strange for him to go to the Achilles’ mansion, and not the Leroy’s. Furthermore, Seios was said to have only visited the one household, and immediately returned to the Magic Tower.
“He didn’t go to the Leroy mansion?”
“That’s correct.”
He knew that Seios was Marquis Leroy’s godfather, so something didn’t make sense.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was no reason for him to go to one mansion and not the other.
‘Could Leticia have awakened?’
He didn’t know, but he needed to try and find out.
As soon as Levion became besotted with the idea, he sat down and quickly began to write a letter.
***
“IRENE apologized to RONAN?”
The weather was nice, so Leticia was drinking tea outside. Her eyes widened in amazement at the unexpected news. In fact, this little surprise destroyed her preconceived notions about Irene since she’d seen her at the academy.
‘Even if she apologized, she would’ve had no choice but to do it.’
She was a child who couldn’t admit their mistake until the end.
Mary watched Leticia as a dark look crossed her face, and she quickly said.
“It was her first time, so she wasn’t expelled. They ended up just disciplining her.”
“I see.”
Leticia smiled bitterly and put down her tea cup. Marquis Leroy seems to have persuaded the Academy Director. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended up this way.
“It’s important that the misunderstanding has been resolved.”
It was only after Mary laughed and said that she was okay, that Leticia’s expression eased a little.
“How is Ronan doing?”
“He’s doing well. He told me to give his regards to the young miss.”
Furthermore, he had done much better than the previous semester, and Leticia congratulated him for doing so well.
“By the way, a letter arrived from Count Aster.”
“Really?”
At Mary’s words, Leticia smiled brightly and received the letter. She had already sent a letter asking for advice, she needed help preparing for the party. It seems that she had just received a reply.
Leticia was reading the letter with excitement, and became emotional.
‘They’re going to help me.’
The description was quite long. In short, Count Aster and his wife were grateful to Enoch, and were asking for permission to come help personally.
‘I should hurry up and go tell Elle.’
Leticia told Mary that she would go in first and quickly went to find Elle. Fortunately, Elle hadn’t gone out and she found her in the drawing room. Ian had just returned from outside and handed something to Elle.
“What’s going on? Is this for real?”
Elle couldn’t hide her shock as she read the letter in disbelief. Ian, on the other hand, stood by calmly.
“Can’t you tell from what you’re looking at?”
“Crazy, crazy, crazy!”
Elle couldn’t hide her excitement, and slapped Ian’s forearm. She belatedly realized that Leticia was there, and ran over to greet her.
“Hey, hey! Look at this!”
“Why? What’s this?”
She thought something big happened, but seeing the smile on her face, she figured it was good news.
Leticia was very excited and checked the paper that Elle handed to her.
“Did you pass the second exam?”
“Well… That’s what happened.”
Ian said it as if it was insignificant, but he couldn’t hide the look of pride in his eyes.
‘The results already came out.’
She could see the words clearly written on the crisp white paper; Ian Achilles passed. The number of students taking the second round of the Imperial Civil Service examinations was significantly less than the first, so the results were released almost immediately.
“Oh my little brother! I’m so proud of you!”
“Go away, you’re disgusting! Who is your younger brother?”
When Elle began ruffling his hair, Ian freaked out and pushed her away, but there was no sign of displeasure.
“Then, did he get in too?”
“I think so?”
Elle asked as soon as it came to mind, Ian frowned as if he didn’t like the answer.
Leticia was quietly watching the two for a while and smiled. She could tell who they were talking about without having to ask.
“I hope he fails the third exam!”[1]
“Elle, no matter how much…”
“Why is that? I’m not saying anything.”
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Elle spoke with a disappointed look on her face, Leticia kept her mouth shut as she was confused for a moment. Next to her, Ian was also quietly waiting for Leticia to say something. He wasn’t in the mood to overlook her feelings.
Leticia was thinking for a while on what to say, then she slowly opened her mouth.
“Some things are obvious and don’t need to be said.”
Elle didn’t understand what she was saying for a moment, then realized what she meant and began clinging to Leticia.
“Right? You want him to fail too, don’t you?”
“Hmm… A little bit?”
“Is it really only a little bit, Sister?”
“….”
Leticia acted as if Elle’s persistence to hear the answer until the end had not won her over.
“A lot, actually.”
“I knew you felt the same way, Sister!”
Elle clung to Leticia’s shoulders in an endearing hug, as she liked her answer completely. However, her gaze was still fixed on Ian.
“Ian, even if he passes the third round, you have to get higher grades. Even if you both become Imperial officials, you should never lose to him. Do you get it?”
“I’ll try.”
“Effort alone is not enough. This is about the pride of our family, you should risk your life.”
Elle suddenly looked at Leticia with a worried look.
“We didn’t offend you, did we?”
“Huh?”
“Well, he’s still family…”
Elle seemed to be worried because she casually said that she wanted a member of Leticia’s family to fail the exam, even if they had no connection now.
Even though realized it was too late to take back her words, Leticia gently stroked Elle’s head.
“My family is here. What are you talking about?”
“….”
When there was no reply.
Leticia felt embarrassed with the unexpected heavy silence left.
“Oh, am I not family?”
“Of course we’re family. Soon you’ll be my sister-in-law too.”
“Sister-in-law?”
Leticia’s face began to blush, and turned redder and redder, as Elle spoke casually about it with a straight face.
“What is up with that?”
She was embarrassed and tried to squirm out of Elle’s arms, but Elle hugged her harder and didn’t let go. Ian, who’d been still until now, took a step closer to Leticia.
“Don’t you want to be my sister-in-law?”
“You want me to be your brother’s bride?”
They had not officially announced that they are dating, but Elle and Ian already knew there was a relationship between the two.
Leticia gently looked away in embarrassment, and wondered if they had been too obvious.
“We… We’ve just started dating, but getting married…”
However, Elle and Ian’s reactions weren’t completely unexpected.
“What? I thought you were dating him.”
“What?”
Leticia raised her voice in shock at his words. Ian nodded in agreement with Elle.
She could feel her face blushing fiercely as they asked questions about Enoch and her dating.
When she thought about how close they looked, she felt self-conscious and tried to escape Elle’s arms again. Suddenly she felt an eerie gaze from somewhere, Leticia raised her head and looked out the window.
‘What was that?’
Leticia loosened Elle’s arm and quickly went to the window. She didn’t see anyone out there and figured it was just her imagination.
“What’s the matter, Sister?”
Ian realized something was amiss, so he carefully asked her what was wrong.
Leticia looked out the window for a long time, then shook her head with a shallow sigh.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Leticia answered offhandedly, then returned to Elle and Ian.
However, the persistent gaze was still bothering her. It wasn’t an illusion, but the gaze she felt when she was excommunicated and wandered through the streets alone.
.
.
.
Leticia let out a long sigh as she returned to her room. She was trying to avoid Elle and Ian after they chided her about how long she’d hidden her feelings for Enoch and let him confess first.
She’d broken out in a cold sweat when they came at her with so many questions.
‘I think they’re having fun teasing me.’
She’d expected it from Elle, but didn’t realize that Ian would enjoy it too. At first glance, it seemed like he was trying to stop Elle, but secretly he encouraged her.
It didn’t feel bad at all, because she could feel the affection they had for her.
‘What do they mean by sister-in-law?’
They said it so casually that she was mortified.
She went to rest on her bed with a sigh, then noticed the book with flowers on the cover sitting on the bookshelf.
‘This…’
It was a book that Seios had left for her. He said he’d discovered it suddenly at the Magic Tower, as if it had fallen from the sky.
Leticia slowly picked up the book. The outer cover was old. She was being careful looking through it, so she was slowly turning the pages so she didn’t accidentally rip it.
Someone knocked on her door. Leticia left the book on her desk and went to see who it was.
When Leticia opened the door, she found a brightly smiling Elle standing there.
“What are you going to do for dinner?”
“Well I don’t know. Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Let’s see what ingredients we have.”
She sent Mary home early because of how excited she was that Ronan was coming home after so long. So today they had to prepare their own meal.
‘I should find someone to work in the mansion.’
The Lucky cookies were still selling well, so she could afford to hire someone. It might be disruptive if she did it on her own, so she thought it would be better to talk to Enoch properly about it first.
“Okay, I’ll be right there.”
Leticia nodded and asked Elle to go first. She was worried that she’d left the book out, without properly putting it away.
When she returned to the desk, she stopped short and stiffened.
“….”
The book that had been neatly placed on the desk had disappeared.
The window was left open for all to see.
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[1] So I’m not sure why it’s now 3 exams/tests when it was originally saying 2. I have a feeling it might be 2 tests and an interview. It would probably make more sense if I was familiar with how the school system works in Korea.