Chapter 403: Interlude: Gold and Silver (8)

0% It was the night before I entered the academy.

The joy of passing that notoriously difficult entrance exam only lasted for a fleeting moment.

While the realization that I would have to leave home and live in an unfamiliar place left my mind restless, keeping me awake all night.

I felt a confusing mix of anticipation and anxiety.

The academy was, without a doubt, the most prestigious educational institution on the continent.

It was obvious that, not only commoners, but also lower-ranking nobles like myself would be everywhere.

There would be people of such high status that I wouldn’t even dare to meet their gaze.

And I would have to survive in that environment for the next four years.

To say I felt no pressure would have been a lie.

But my younger sister seemed to have an entirely different concern.

“Listen carefully, Oppa… all women in this world are vixens.”

I wondered what she wanted to say, showing up so late at night–only to find it was something utterly pointless.

Yawning, I made it abundantly clear that I wasn’t interested.

But, undeterred, Ria insisted again.

“I-I’m serious! You absolutely can’t let your guard down! If a woman tries to get close to you, you have to push her away. There will definitely be people trying to get close just for your status and wealth!”

“As if. I’m just the second son of some countryside viscount…”

“No, no! That’s just because you don’t understand how women work… There will also be those who approach you just for a bit of fun, expecting you to worship them!”

It wasn’t the kind of warning that stirred any real concern in me.

Seeing my uninterested expression, Ria huffed and pounded her chest in frustration.

Is she starting to take after Celine?

Given that they had been close for so long, it wasn’t all that surprising.

“Anyway, just remember this–every woman is a vixen. You have to be careful around them!”

“How am I supposed to date then??”

“Don’t!”

Ria practically hissed, like a cat whose weakness had been exposed.

“You already promised you’d stay with me in the future anyway! So why would you even need a girlfriend?!”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”

I simply brushed off Ria’s warning back then.

She was just a little sister struggling to say goodbye to the brother she loved.

A bit of possessive whining wasn’t out of the ordinary. And as if to prove her worries unfounded, for the next few years, I didn’t have any trouble with romance.

Yet today I, for some reason, found that memory coming back to me, more clear than ever as I sat there, staring at the soundly asleep Junior in front of me.

Still unconscious, Seria let out faint groans, the tiny droplets clinging to the corners of her eyes standing out more than anything..

Nestled in her arms was a doll modelled after me.

Of course, I wasn’t the one who had given it to her.

As if by habit, she instinctively pulled it into her embrace the moment I laid her down on the bed.

Watching that, I let out a long sigh.

Even someone as dense as me could understand that Seria’s feelings for me were far from ordinary.

No matter how much men and women were treated as equals in this world, women were still the ones bearing the heavier burden on chastity.

There was no need to weigh a man’s virginity against a woman’s purity on a scale.

The woman would always be at a disadvantage.

And if that woman happened to be a high-ranking noble, the chances of an equal exchange were even slimmer.

All of those facts pointed to one undeniable truth.

No matter how much someone had lost control, a woman would never ask to share a bed with someone she didn’t truly desire.

Seria was no exception.

Faced with that uncomfortable conclusion, I remained silent.

“Senior… Ian….”

Seria, oblivious to my turmoil, simply whimpered.

Even in her unconscious state, she murmured my name.

Her feelings ran far deeper than I had imagined.

Which only made things more complicated.

I already had potential romantic entanglements–not just one, but several.

There was Senior Elsie, for example, who had confessed to me first.

Or the Saintess, whose body I brazenly touched all over–when it should have remained pure.

And of course, I couldn’t leave out Senior Delphine–who I already spent my first night with.

And yet, it was now of all times, that I had come to realize Seria’s feelings.

For me, it was completely unexpected–frustrating enough to make me sigh endlessly.

I reached out and gently brushed her hair aside as she slept soundly.

She was now groaning and breaking out in a cold sweat.

It looked like she was having a nightmare.

“Seria…”

Rationally, I knew I had to reject her.

But I couldn’t shake the image of the obsession Seria had shown before she passed out.

Anyone would have seen it as completely abnormal.

The way she nearly bit into her own thumb in shock of losing me, how she called the elder sister she once respected a ‘bitch’ and how , in the end, she completely lost herself and tried to throw herself at me.

Of course, I hadn’t always been sober when things happened with women.

With both the Saintess and Senior Delphine, I relied on alcohol to more boldly push things forward a bit.

But Seria lost her control far beyond that.

This wasn’t something that could be excused by mere intoxication.

Which was why I knocked her out in the end.

Part of it was because I was caught off guard by how suddenly things had escalated, but more than anything, it was to calm Seria down.

After all, I couldn’t possibly go through with something like that with a woman who wasn’t in her right mind.

And so, I could do nothing but sigh deeply.

Just then, I sensed someone carefully pushing the door open, peeking inside before tiptoeing toward me.

Her wide-open eyes made her astonishment clear.

She was the Fifth Imperial Princess, Cien.

She was the one who warned me that something was off with Seria. It seemed her curiosity about what happened next had led her all the way to this bedroom.

“My goodness, Sir Ian… W-What happened here? Why is Senior Yurdina…?”

“It’s a long story.”

I was already feeling mentally exhausted.

My voice sounded strained even to my own ears as I answered the princess.

Like an unspoken plea for her not to ask any more questions.

But Cien was not the type to pick up on such subtle cues.

“Senior Yurdina must have been going through a lot. She looks so frail now…. She doesn’t even have the strength to stay conscious–how pitiful.”

Even as she spoke with sympathy, I remained silent.

What could I even say?

I didn’t even know what to do at this point.

All I could do was quietly look down at Seria’s face.

And then, once again, a delicate voice slipped through Seria’s parted lips.

“Senior… Ian… hic, p-please… don’t… don’t abandon me….”

Cien’s eyes darkened.

A somber emotion surfaced in her pale gray eyes.

With a noticeably lower tone, she murmured,

“As expected, it really was like that.”

“…You knew?”

I looked at the princess in surprise as I asked.

I honestly felt a little pathetic.

If even the princess had picked up on it, that meant most people–except me–already knew about Seria’s feelings.

And it also meant that, when it came to relationships, I was even more oblivious than the princess.

Neither of those realizations were particularly pleasant.

But, as always, the truth had a way of being harsh.

“Of course, it was obvious. No matter how much someone looks up to a Senior, trailing after them all day like that isn’t something one would do without any personal feelings–especially between a man and a woman.”

Saying that, the princess started sneaking glances at me, as if gauging my reaction.

When I returned her gaze with a questioning look, she awkwardly cleared her throat, adjusting her voice.

With a brief, cute ‘Ahem Ahem’ sound.

And then, she repeated herself, this time with even more emphasis.

“You get it now, right? No matter how much someone looks up to you, there’s no way one would follow you around like that without feelings involved!”

“Ah, yeah. Well… I suppose so.”

I absentmindedly nodded, offering a dazed agreement.

I didn’t fully understand, but one thing was clear–the princess knew far more about relationships than I did.

So she was probably right.

Even so, she still looked at me with clear disapproval.

I had no idea why, but she shifted her gaze to Seria before I could question it, changing the subject.

Sympathy once again flickered across her face.

“When I saw Senior Yurdina earlier, I felt an emotion I’d never sensed before. It was dark and oppressive, like a wave threatening to swallow everything whole. I was so unsettled that I ran straight to you, Sir Ian, but now… I see something else as well.”

She didn’t bother explaining what that something else was.

Not that she needed to–I already had a good idea.

That was when her grating remarks began.

“So, have you given Senior Yurdina your answer?”

“No, I didn’t even get the chance to…”

“Ah, so she lost control of her emotions and ended up passing out.”

Now, as if wiping away tears,the princess was even dabbing at her eyes.

She seemed completely immersed in Seria’s plight.

“Even for you, Sir Ian, it must have been impossible to bring yourself to reject such a heartfelt confession. And while you hesitated… Senior Yurdina must have ended up fainting, didn’t she?”

My lips instinctively pressed together.

Well… I had hesitated at that time, unable to bring myself to say anything.

But Seria had collapsed for an entirely different reason–leaving me at a loss for words.

“I suppose there’s no way you could have been so cold to such a delicate girl… You couldn’t even have been able to bring yourself to push her away, let alone say anything harsh, right?”

I cleared my throat with a small ahem, subtly expressing my discomfort.

It was my way of signaling that I wanted to drop the subject.

But of course, the princess was utterly oblivious as always.

There was no way she would pick up on my unspoken plea.

And so, her relentless accusations directed at me continued.

“Surely no man would lay a hand on a woman who just confessed to him, right? If someone did that, they’d be absolute trash. A total scumbag!”

“But at least it’s a relief that the person Senior Yurdina likes is you, Sir Ian. At the very least, you wouldn’t do anything unbefitting of a knight, right?”

“So, how did you appease her, Sir Ian? Did you perhaps hold her in your arms and whisper gentle words to her…?”

Every single word of her was a critical hit.

I trembled for a moment before finally snapping.

“Enough!”

Startled by my sudden outburst, the princess blinked at me in confusion.

She seemed as if she had absolutely no idea why I was reacting this way.

As if the guilt I was already feeling wasn’t enough, she drove a dagger straight into my chest.

It would have been strange not to be annoyed.

And yet, scolding her for it would have been absurd.

Because she hadn’t said anything wrong.

If anything, I was the one at fault.

More than that, she was the emperor’s own daughter–hardly someone I could reprimand just for being a little oblivious.

So, in the end, after hesitating for what felt like forever…

I let out a resigned sigh and spoke.

Instead, I decided to steer the conversation toward something more productive.

“Let’s discuss something important for a bit.”

Toward the decision that would determine the fate of the Yurdina Family.

There was only one person fit to represent me before the emperor.

And only once this issue was resolved could I even begin to address Seria’s feelings.

That night, I sat down with the princess, deliberating until Seria finally woke up.