Chapter 10 – I’ll Sign a Lifetime Contract (6)

‘It’s true I asked those soldiers to pretend to threaten me, but if I admit that, Eclipse will definitely scold me, right?’

There was no point in explaining—it would only get her in trouble.

So Lynette decided to cover it up.

“Hmm… maybe you saw wrong because it was dark? I checked the soldiers’ faces myself, and no matter how many times I looked, they weren’t the ones who threatened me.”

Her answer came without a hint of hesitation.

Because of that, Eclipse’s suspicion faded a little.

‘So it was just a misunderstanding.’

The person involved, Lynette, sounded so sure.
Maybe that witch really did mistake someone else for her attackers.

“That’s good, then.”

“Yeah, really good. But, big brother, do you know how cool Elsie was? She came flying in on a broom, surrounded those bad guys with fire, and totally scared them! You should’ve seen it.”

Lynette stretched her hand out dramatically and even made a “whoosh!” sound with her mouth.

“She was so cool. In that moment, I thought, ‘Wow, I want to learn magic from this person! Maybe this is fate!’”

Yes, fate.
Lynette felt fate with Elsie—though in a slightly different way.

‘Fate, huh…’

Eclipse watched his sister gushing about Elsie with a faint smile.
At times like this, Lynette really was just a kid.

‘And to think she even agreed to study holy magic, which she’s always hated, just because of this…’

Lynette had been born with strong divine power, but she never liked it.
Now, suddenly, she’d changed her mind—all because of a mysterious witch?

‘…This bothers me.’

Too many things about this situation felt suspicious.
Eclipse decided he had to keep a close eye on Elsie.

“So yeah, I wanted to learn magic from her. Plus, Elsie told me she lost something really important while saving me—something worth a whole year’s income.”

Eclipse listened quietly, then gave a small laugh.

“So that’s why you kept interfering with the contract terms.”

“Yeah. I felt bad, you know? She almost lost her livelihood because of me. I had to make sure she was compensated.”

Lynette answered brightly, but her true feelings were different.

‘If it were really just that simple, I’d feel a lot more at ease.’

She trusted Eclipse deeply, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him everything.

She had her own reasons.

‘This is all for your happiness, big brother. For that, Elsie is absolutely necessary. Somehow, I have to bring the two of you together… but how?’

Her head was suddenly crowded with too many thoughts.
She felt she needed some time alone.

“Well, I’ll get going now. Don’t overwork yourself, okay?”

Eclipse smiled faintly.

“Got it. Classes start next week. I’ll tell Bloomhire as well, so be ready.”

“Thanks. You’re the best, big brother.”

Lynette waved cheerfully and left his office.

* * *

At the Wendelton house, I quickly packed up my things.
Then, I threw myself into preparing for Lynette’s lessons.

And just to be clear: I had never even been near the Mage Tower.

Basic mana control techniques? Nope, never studied them.
Everything I knew was self-taught.
Practice, practice, and more practice—that was my only method.

“So… for the first week, I should focus on understanding basic magic and simple mana control, right?”

In less than a week, I devoured dozens of books.
I had to if I wanted to create a proper curriculum.

One thing that surprised me was that the magic books in the mansion’s library were practically brand new—as if nobody had ever touched them.

‘Wow, this makes prep so much easier. Rich people really do live differently.’

There were two main reasons I could prepare so well:

1. The large collection of reference books in the library.
2. My experiences from my past life.

‘Who knew I’d ever be thankful that I died in my third year of high school.’

That’s right—I had died at 17, while still preparing for college entrance exams.

Why would I be thankful for that?

‘At least I learned how to study.’

In this life, I was just a poor extra. I never had the money or time to study properly.
But maybe because of my past life, I turned out to be surprisingly talented.

Magic—self-taught.
Running a shop—self-taught.
Everything—I taught myself.

“If that counts as a buff, then yeah, it’s a buff.”

I laughed to myself.

In my past life, I’d been a decent student.
But sadly, I died two months before the college entrance exam.

‘If only I had lived until university… I could’ve at least tried tutoring once.’

As I organized my lesson plans, I suddenly remembered the day I died.

‘I can still picture it. It was the day of the September mock exam…’

That morning, I overslept. While rushing to school, I was hit by a car that ran a red light—right in front of the school gates.

That was how I died.

And then, I woke up reincarnated into the romance-fantasy novel I’d been secretly reading on the way to school.

‘Too bad I ended up as some small-time villainess character.’

When I first realized it, I thought my luck was terrible.
Especially since I was caught trying to scam the final boss villain of the story.

But somehow, my fate changed.

I’d saved the heroine, and now I was her personal tutor.

‘Wow… my life is a total rollercoaster.’

And since I already knew the story’s plot, I could use that knowledge to make money.

“Alright. All done!”

I finalized the weekly lesson goals and detailed schedules.

“First week: focus on basics. Foundation is everything. If I only teach theory, she’ll get bored, so I’ll mix in some practical exercises.”

My heart raced with excitement.
Tomorrow at 1 p.m. would be my very first class.

* * *

“The Saintess’s private lessons will take place here, in this classroom. Your assigned time, Miss Bloomhire, is Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m., three hours in total. Please keep that in mind.”

It was finally the first lesson day.

Silbern, the butler, was giving me instructions.
I nodded to show I understood, and he continued.

“On Wednesdays, the Saintess will not be at the mansion, so there will be no lessons then.”

“I see.”

This was something I already knew from the original novel.

Lynette would fully awaken her divine powers rather late—at 18 years old.
Because of that, the priests often struggled with her schedule.

‘She skipped so many lessons back then, Eclipse had a really hard time.’

Well, the title of the novel was The Saint Doesn’t Want to Believe in God, after all.

The first half of the story was basically: the lazy saintess constantly trying to slack off, versus her older brother desperately trying to make her into the next head of the house.

Things only got serious in the second half, when the cursed Eclipse and Lynette ended up on opposing sides.

In the original story, Eclipse eventually died from the curse…

‘But do you think I’ll let that happen now?’

No way.
Absolutely not.

Eclipse was my employer now.
He couldn’t die under any circumstances.

‘You’re gonna live a long, healthy life, boss. Like, forever!’

While I was double-checking my teaching materials on the cart, Silbern spoke again.

“Please, go inside and wait. The Saintess will arrive shortly.”

“Alright.”

I stepped into the classroom.

On one side, there was a large, elegant desk and a wide sofa—obviously Lynette’s.

‘Yep, that’s definitely not mine.’

On the other side stood a much simpler desk.
Fancy set = Lynette’s.
Plain set = mine.
No names written, but it was obvious.

‘Figures.’

I rolled the cart over and began spreading my teaching materials across my desk.

‘Well, at least it’s roomy.’

Behind the desk were a bookshelf and storage drawers.

As I busied myself, Silbern added:

“That bookshelf is assigned to you. The drawer beneath it is also yours.”

According to him, although the classroom was shared, each tutor used separate shelves for their own materials.

‘Oh yeah, I remember this from the novel.’

When Lynette was younger, she had thrown a tantrum about studying holy magic.
She scrambled all the books in the tutors’ shelves, then ran out of the mansion.

The poor tutors spent days re-sorting them, and Eclipse gave Lynette a very strict scolding for it.