Chapter 10
Starting that evening, my one-on-one tutoring sessions with the top student of Hyaelern began. His confidence wasn’t fake—he was actually a pretty good teacher.
“Agnès, George III is the king of Aiden, and this is Louis III.”
“…”
“…”
“Agnès, that’s not George V, it’s George VI.”
George, George, George! I was getting crushed by all the Georges. Wouldn’t it be easier if we just combined all their achievements into one big George?
He gently used his fingers to smooth out my annoyed, wrinkled forehead.
“Want to take a break?”
At his words, I laid my arms on the desk and rested my head. My body was stiff from concentrating so hard.
While I was resting with my eyes closed, he had been rustling around beside me, but then he suddenly went silent.
Something felt off.
It reminded me of when a puppy goes quiet after causing trouble.
I quickly lifted my head.
He was staring at my test paper—the one I scored 30 points on—like it was some kind of fascinating discovery.
No! I hid that carefully between the books! How did he even find it?
I snatched it away and crumpled it, throwing it into a corner.
He raised an eyebrow, impressed by how fast I was.
“So that’s why you said you really have to pass this time.”
“That test paper was fake.”
“By who?”
“By me. I faked my own score. People get bored when someone is too perfect.”
“Then why stop faking it?”
“Because anything gets boring if you keep doing it.”
He gave me a strange expression—somewhere between a smile and a frown. Embarrassed, I looked down.
Then he quietly laughed for a long time.
“Stop laughing.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t tell Arno.”
“I’ll take it to the grave.”
That seemed a bit dramatic.
“You can just tell him if it comes to that.”
It was a serious secret, but not worth dying over. At my words, he again covered his face, shaking his shoulders as he laughed.
“Shall we continue?”
“Yes.”
The next morning, he came to my room early again.
Even though we’d studied late the night before, he brought practice questions he had prepared himself.
When did he even make these? I looked at them, amazed.
No wonder he became the top student.
César became a very dedicated tutor during that short time.
He even made a mistake notebook with summaries and my wrong answers.
Thanks to his effort, I no longer got confused with all the Georges, and I started getting nearly perfect scores on the questions he gave me.
Finally, tomorrow was the day Mr. Hermann would arrive. I was reviewing the last few topics I was unsure about.
“Lord Valdeon, the emperor who united three kingdoms was Vicente, and four was Narciso, right?”
“…”
He didn’t answer, so I looked over at him. He was resting his chin on his hand, eyes quietly closed.
He must’ve been really tired.
I quietly got up on tiptoes and closed the curtain so the sunlight wouldn’t bother him.
Then I stacked some papers so he could rest comfortably and gently laid his head on top of them.
I sat down next to him and quietly picked up my pen.
The only sound in the room was the soft scratch of my pen on the paper.
With him sleeping beside me, I felt drowsy too, and eventually, I began to nod off.
At some point, the pen slipped from my hand and dropped onto the desk.
“César Harkiness, born in the Red Palace of Rua Province.”
A flat voice broke into my dream. I slowly opened my heavy eyes.
“Moved to Finesse at age two. His father, Carloy Harkiness, became Duke Carloy Valdeon, so he changed his name to César Valdeon.”
Through my blurry vision, I saw César reading a paper, still resting his chin on his hand.
What is he reading?
I blinked several times until the paper in his hand came into focus.
Wait—no! That’s the background report on him that Sophia had found somewhere!
I was instantly wide awake and reached to snatch it away, but he easily dodged me with one hand and kept reading.
“Favorite things: unknown.”
“Lord Valdeon—”
“Dislikes: potatoes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Engaged: no.”
Why did Sophia even research stuff like this?
“I’m really sorry for looking into you behind your back. Please just give it back!”
I struggled to get the paper, but he didn’t budge and calmly kept reading.
After reading everything, he finally handed it back.
“If you were curious, you could’ve just asked. I would’ve given you a better answer. No need for all this effort.”
“Well, the truth is—”
I opened my mouth to try to mix in a little lie, but he cut me off.
“But this is a problem.”
Right. Of course it is. Anyone would be angry if they found out someone looked into them secretly.
But surprisingly, he seemed very calm.
“I’m really sorry for making things awkward.”
“No need to apologize. But…”
I swallowed nervously, like a prisoner waiting for their sentence.
“But…?”
The longer he stayed quiet, the more anxious I got.
“Agnès. Sorry, but maybe you should look for someone your own age.”
“…What?”
The words that came out of his mouth were completely unexpected. Like night and day from what I imagined.
I glanced at him to see if he was joking. But there was no hint of laughter—he looked completely serious.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell your brother. He wouldn’t take it well.”
“What are you thinking right now?”
“I actually knew you were following me around.”
What?!
I covered my mouth in shock.
When did he find out?
No, I had to stay calm. No point panicking in a tiger’s den. I just had to find the best way to handle this.
“It was just a coincidence! Total coincidence! We just happened to be in the same place!”
“Ah—”
The look on his face showed he didn’t believe a word of it.
“It’s true! I mean, there’s not much to do in this mansion, so sometimes our paths overlapped!”
“You don’t have any reason to be near the training grounds, though.”
“The grass there is super soft. It’s nice to walk on.”
“Agnès, there’s no grass where you were hiding.”
“Well… I didn’t know that until now.”
Did we run out of money for grass? Was someone stealing funds? Even in a crisis, I couldn’t help but worry about the household budget.
“So you admit you were spying on me?”
I had no idea where to even start fixing this mess.
After thinking for a moment, I made a big decision and looked at him seriously.
“Yes. It’s all true. I followed you and looked into you. I acted badly and I’m sorry.”
Rather than trying to cover it up, I decided to confess honestly.
“I wasn’t offended.”
He said it calmly, with a neutral tone. He was hard to read, as always.
“You were the first friend Arno brought here. I was curious if you were dangerous or weird.”
“So, do you think I’m someone who should be around your brother?”
He smiled slightly as he asked.
“No.”
He looked surprised at my firm answer.
His lips smiled, but his eyes didn’t.
“…Why?”
“Well, you know how people have different ‘sizes’ of character? You’re just… too big. Arno’s not like that. He’s… like a sauce dish.”
“What?”
“You, Lord Duke, are amazing—smart, talented, and good at swordsmanship. When Arno’s next to you, he looks like a plain rock next to a diamond.”
Even if he was a villain or a rebel, César was clearly someone who would one day sit on the throne.
So I chose my words carefully—I didn’t want to upset him.
“Was that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Not really. More like an honest evaluation.”
“An honest evaluation, huh… so what’s your final point?”
He crossed his arms and waited, like he wanted to hear more.
I took a deep breath. I had a feeling this was important.
“I’d rather you didn’t get too close to Arno.”
At last, I said what I had always wanted to say.
