I Became The Academy’s Narrow-Eyes

Chapter 34: Sorting the Hierarchy (1)

Wadadadada!

Adryn’s furious charge was so intense that it seemed as if one could hear such a sound.

“Oh my!”

“Oops.”

She threw herself between the two, separating Adella from Ceylon.

She blocked Ceylon’s way and glared at Adella.

Adella raised her hands, which had been wrapped around Ceylon’s hand, in a surrendering gesture.

She wore a relaxed smile, and Adryn shot her a sharper look.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, Adryn-ssi, isn’t that a bit rude of you? Using such vulgar language that’s hard to even utter. Now you’re treating me as if I’m Adryn-ssi’s subordinate. You’re supposed to maintain your dignity, even though you’re a lady from the Teln family, aren’t you? Hoho.”

“What? pretending to be a noble and elegant lady with ‘I’m a noble~ Aren’t I so elegant~?’ Is that what you call dignity? Dignity should be present in a person’s actions.”

“Hoho, how are my actions then? Oh, wait. Adryn-ssi, are you saying all this because I held your friend’s hand?”

Adella laughed softly while covering her mouth with smooth, gloved hands.

“How adorable.”

Sizzle!

Adryn’s face flushed with various emotions at once.

She smiled back at Adella, full of triumph, as if a fox revealing its teeth.

“Well~ It’s just a man’s handshake with a licentious woman who’s overflowing with male experiences like you, nothing to make a fuss about.”

Sizzle.

Adella’s expression, which was filled with elegant composure and a hint of a smile, trembled.

“What are you~ talking about? Calling me a licentious woman. It’s embarrassing.”

“Why would you be embarrassed? Did I hit the spot?”

“I wish there were a unicorn here right now. It could tell me a lot about your beautiful qualities without even looking at you and just approaching me.”

“Yeah, yeah. It probably went straight to you. To stab you with its horn.”

One was smiling while getting angry, and the other was getting angry while smiling.

At the point where their gazes crossed, sparks seemed to fly.

So, Adella flashed a graceful smile.

“Are you satisfied now? If the performance of argument is over, would you kindly step aside? I have something to discuss with Ceylon.”

“Does Ceylon have anything to discuss with you?”

“Who are you to decide that?”

“Then, if Ceylon has something to say, why not say it here and now? You’re not so close that you need to have a private conversation, are you? Or maybe, without holding hands like just now, you can’t even have a conversation?”

“You’re becoming increasingly rude without knowing the limits. I can’t tolerate further disrespect, so please be careful.”

Adella, her excitement subsiding, glared at Adryn with icy eyes.

“Haha, do you really think I’m making a fuss because you held this kid’s hand for real?”

Adryn continue to talk with a pure, mocking laugh.

“Before you try to maintain your dignity as a noble, try to have some decency as a human being. What’s with you showing up in front of Ceylon again, after trying to disgrace him so much in front of people? How shameless.”

“…”

Muscles on Adella’s face twitched.

It seemed like maintaining her smile was a struggle.

She managed to speak through her forced smile.

“Well, I was just… about to apologize for that. You were the one who interrupted.”

“Ah~ Apologizing? Good. Apologize. But how? ‘I’m sorry for insulting you as a mere commoner~ I didn’t know I would become first in the Academy’s 3rd entrance exam~’ like that?”

Sharp criticism turned into a needle and pricked Adella’s face.

Her expression twisted again under the strain.

Adella, who had been portraying the elegance of a noble, finally lost her composure.

She raised her voice with a bewildered face.

“Well, aren’t you the one-”

“Aren’t I what?”

“You, didn’t you deprive Ceylon of his pitiful record in the second test?”

“Ugh!”

“I heard from Melhen’s story that back then in the second test, you were the one who passionately denied Ceylon’s grades more than anyone else and spread false rumors about him, right?”

At that time,

Adryn tried to speak confidently.

According to what Ceylon said, anyone would have done the same.

She did what she had to do, and ultimately, it was the right thing to do.

“W-Well…”

However, when she tried to put it into words, it just wouldn’t come out.

The words were objective reasoning when they came out of Ceylon’s mouth, but they would become nothing more than shameless justification if they came out of her mouth in this situation.

“I-I was already apologize properly, and Ceylon accepted my apology…!”

Adryn weakly argued, her confidence wavering.

“It’s exactly what I want to achieve!”

“Your situation is different from mine!”

“Ha, what’s that? How is it different!?”

“You’re not really apologizing to Ceylon because you feel sorry, but because you’re bothered that Ceylon, whom you ignored, ranked first in the 3rd exam!”

Blushing!

Adella weakly countered with a blush.

“W-Well, what’s wrong with that? Evaluating others based on their abilities is natural! And if I ignored Ceylon, isn’t it technically your fault, not mine!?”

“What?! That’s an unreasonable excuse!”

“If you hadn’t canceled Ceylon’s record in the 2nd exam, bad rumors about Ceylon wouldn’t have spread. And if those rumors hadn’t spread, I wouldn’t have had a bad impression of Ceylon!”

“What, what?! It’s because of me!? Don’t blame me! People are like that in general! While there were many who ignored and insulted Ceylon, no one openly tried to hurt him like you did! I remember it clearly! You brought that bunch of trash with you, asked Ceylon if he was in the same group, and then laughed so hard when he wasn’t. You said he was lucky not to be in the same group as Ceylon. How can someone be so immature and weak!?”

The two engaged in a fierce verbal battle without taking a step back.

Ceylon, standing a few steps away from them, found himself completely absorbed in their spectacle.

“…Huh?”

At that moment, someone grabbed his sleeve.

A petite figure with sky-blue hair covering her forehead was visible.

A small investigator with emotionless eyes masked by a hood.

It was Mizu.

She pointed at the two with her index finger and asked, “Aren’t they stopping?”

“Those two? Is it too… precious to stop them…!?”

“Precious? What do you mean?”

“Where else can you witness such a rare sight?”

Ah.

Mizu sighed as if she understood.

“As expected, your way of thinking is different, born with the talent for assassination. Do you have to tidy it up like that? The mindset of an assassin.”

“Hahaha, just kidding. Just kidding. I was actually thinking of intervening soon. But even if I try to stop them, will they really stop? I feel like I’m standing in front of a fire with a fan in my hand.”

“I smell burning flesh from somewhere.”

“What smell?”

“A bad one.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, why not give it a try? Except for Espien, do it for our Miss Teln.”

Mizu motioned for Ceylon to look around.

At first, Adryn and Adella, as high-ranking nobles, maintained their dignity in conversation.

However, as the conversation progressed, it became more heated, and their voices grew louder.

There was no trace of the dignity of high-ranking nobles left.

Only the young ladies who had entered ‘I’m so annoyed with the world’ mode remained.

The entrance to the examination hall where the Academy entrance exam had just ended.

The people surrounding them were the participants in the Academy entrance exam, in other words, nobles.

For now, they were only glancing briefly as they passed by, but at this rate, the two would soon become an interesting spectacle for all the nobles in every place.

Their reputation as nobles would also be tarnished.

“Please, pray for my safe return…!”

“If you have any valuables, give them to me before you go.”

Just as Adryn had inserted herself between he and Adella earlier, this time Ceylon inserted himself between them.

“Now, now, everyone. Let’s calm down.”

“Calm down? Why should I calm down?! Looks like someone over there needs to calm down a bit!”

“Why don’t you listen to someone else’s advice, Adryn? From what I can see, you seem to be the one who needs to calm down now that I’m completely calm.”

Both of them, who claimed to be completely calm, trying to glared each other.

‘It hurts. It’s hot.’

Ceylon felt as if his body was pierced with a laser from both sides.

“By the way, Ceylon. What’s wrong with you? Are you actually taking her side?”

Eventually, Adryn’s fiery temperament, which had lost its direction, turned towards Ceylon.

She scolded him with a mix of deep frustration and irritation.

“Well, that’s not true, miss Adryn. I’m just worried about you-”

In the face of her fierce energy, Ceylon responded, sweating profusely.

His eyes, which always seemed to be smiling at the other person, looked unusually stern.

“You worried about me?”

Adryn finally focused more on that statement than on the surrounding stares.

Ahem.

Adryn cleared her throat as if her mood had eased.

“Alright, Ceylon. If you insist that much, I’ll endure it this time.”

Adryn looked at Adella with a haughty expression.

And then Adella had the illusion that Adryn’s voice echoed in her head.

‘See that?’

A voice filled with a sense of superiority.

“…”

Adella smiled slyly.

Crack.

An eerie sound emanated from her clenched hand, piercing through the smooth white cloth gloves.