I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11
Sugugunsugun — a secret club at Veritas Academy.
Founded by Bennett, it was a remarkably small organization with just four members total.
There was a saying that every rumor circulating through Veritas passed through this club, testament to its effectiveness.
Of course, that was Bennett’s own assessment.
They held regular meetings once a week, but even those had grown sparse since training began.
It was because Bennett, the club president, returned from each training session looking like a corpse, barely able to drag himself to the infirmary.
But today was different.
“Is that actually true?”
“I’m telling you it is. I think there’s some seriously deep history between those two.”
“You said the same thing about Panya and Cesare Kishier before. We checked, and there was nothing.”
“Shh! Even monkeys fall out of trees sometimes.”
Lacking a proper clubroom, the group had scattered themselves across an open courtyard of the academy, pulling out various snacks and bottles of alcohol they’d brought along, chattering away.
“So what you’re saying, Bennett—”
“Is that something is going on between Olivia and that crazy instructor!”
“There’s definitely something. My guess? Soon. The day Olivia actually kills the instructor.”
They’d been seeing a new side of Olivia lately.
Though she’d always been somewhat reserved, the “noble lady” Olivia—who was ordinarily elegant and composed beyond comparison—had spent the past few months with profanity perpetually on her tongue, dark shadows pooled beneath her eyes.
Of course, those curses were always directed at only one person.
In any case, the Olivia who hadn’t so much as blinked through even the harshest training now seemed to be plotting revenge against the instructor with fierce determination burning in her gaze.
“You just haven’t seen it!”
“Seen what exactly?”
“They had a sparring match! And on top of that, the instructor even gave Olivia a Healing Potion!”
Bennett thumped his chest indignantly as he spoke.
“Bennett. This is the Knight Division of an academy. Usually they conduct sparring every day, every hour. And come on! Olivia’s the top student—wouldn’t she naturally be the first to spar with the instructor? I heard it was incredibly fierce. He probably gave her the Healing Potion out of precaution.”
“That’s not what I’m saying!”
Bennett recalled what had happened that afternoon.
Even now, thinking of those instructor Aiden’s eyes, the way he’d looked at him with such lethal intensity, made his entire body tingle with lingering dread.
The look in those eyes—it was unmistakably jealousy, directed at Bennett for occupying the space at Olivia’s side.
At that moment, Laura, who had been listening while chewing on squid jerky, let out a snort of laughter and chimed in.
“Bennett. Your whole body tingling is probably just because you got beaten to a pulp by the instructor. You couldn’t even mount a counterattack, could you?”
“You don’t have to bring that up.”
It was true that Bennett had gotten thoroughly thrashed by instructor Aiden today.
But he wasn’t alone—every student had experienced the same thing.
The instructor, having lost to Olivia, had proceeded to rampage like a rabid dog.
“Honestly.”
“Olivia, the instructor’s lost it.”
“No. He’s only using half of half the strength he uses in solo training. Just now too—he could have struck me down in one blow, but at the last moment he pulled his strength from his back muscles.”
“…You could see that?”
“Of course I could see it. Goodness, such a thoughtful movement.”
What had seemed to Bennett like nothing but a mad dog was, through Olivia’s eyes alone, transformed into “a considerate and gentle instructor.”
At this point, didn’t Olivia herself have a problem with her vision?
Bennett was genuinely worried about his classmate.
“And Bennett. If there really is something between them, that’s a serious problem.”
“What? Why?”
“Why do you think? Olivia has a fiancé, and it looks like instructor Aiden is engaged too. You saw him, didn’t you? Olivia’s fiancé.”
That’s right.
It had been about two months ago when he’d seen Olivia and her fiancé doing something like a late-night tag game.
Olivia’s fiancé was quite the unhinged character himself…
Why were there so many crazy people in this world?
Bennett genuinely wondered.
Then something suddenly occurred to him.
“Blonde hair!”
“What?”
“Olivia’s fiancé’s hair color! I couldn’t see much else, but one thing I saw clearly—his hair was golden, like moonlight captured in a full moon!”
“How unusually poetic for you. Ugh.”
He brushed off someone’s criticism without a second thought.
Because Bennett seemed to have just made an enormous realization.
So Aiden Oblion was Olivia’s fiancé.
That made sense.
The strange current flowing between them, the way they looked at each other—it all fit.
“Olivia’s fiancé was instructor Aiden all along. No wonder! The instructor always seemed to look at Olivia about three seconds longer than at anyone else! My intuition was right.”
“You know, if your delusions are that consistent, it’s a disease. Should I call a healer?”
“Just wait and see. I’ll be proven right.”
It was flawless reasoning, yet no one at the gathering believed him.
It was because Bennett had missed the mark so many times before.
Panya was always chiding him over it, saying that if they’d used all the wrong conclusions Bennett had drawn as bridge supports, the empire’s rivers would have at least three more bridges by now.
“Even if we grant that you’re right.”
“Stop saying ‘grant’—I’m right!”
“Then it’s even worse.”
“What is?”
Laura uncorked a wine bottle and took a long swig before speaking.
“Olivia’s fiancé supposedly has some very deep connection with Olivia’s brother.”
“Huh?”
“So that would mean instructor Aiden is Olivia’s fiancé while also having… that kind of relationship with Cesare Kishier, and now he’s become Olivia’s training instructor and is working her into the ground?”
“Huh?!”
“If that’s really true, Olivia might actually end up killing the instructor. She came all the way here to stab her fiancé to death, after all.”
A brief silence fell over the gathered group.
And in that moment—
“Well, that’s quite an interesting rumor.”
Whoosh.
A breeze happened to blow at just the right time.
The sweet aroma of wine spilled from the uncorked bottle wafted on the wind around them before dispersing.
And where the scent had faded, there stood an angel with blonde hair.
“Hm. Drinking within the academy, no less. My juniors, you’ve got some nerve.”
“I-I-Instructor.”
“Why so frozen? It’s fine, it’s fine. You can say whatever you want behind closed doors. I’ve trash-talked the professors plenty too.”
Aiden, materializing from nowhere, smiled broadly at them and spoke in a friendly tone.
But these students possessed instinct and survival sense.
Hard-won wisdom from living alongside Olivia for years.
One more careless word here, and they’d be dead.
“Why so quiet? Student Bennett. Weren’t you having quite the interesting conversation?”
“No, sir!”
“No? But I clearly heard it. Something about me and Cesare Kishier, and—ugh. Sorry. What was I, exactly?”
“I-I misspoke, sir!”
Aiden casually draped an arm over Bennett’s shoulders and gestured with his eyes to the other three.
The meaning was unmistakable: get lost.
The three abandoned all sense of loyalty, exchanged pleasantries with Aiden, and quickly scattered.
Leaving only Bennett behind.
Chirp, chirp-chirp.
The cry of early crickets drifted through the air.
A cool night breeze swept between them, and stars twinkled across the sky.
Under a perfectly picturesque scene, Bennett found himself alone with Aiden.
“Well, Bennett. Shall we have a little chat?”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been curious about quite a few things regarding you, actually.”
Those blue eyes, meeting his from close range, gleamed like a predator’s.
Aiden looked down at Bennett, his smile stretched wide.
“What’s this about Olivia’s fiancé being me?”
He was caught.
Bennett thought as much.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
Aiden showed no sign of ever letting him go.
But this was all Bennett’s own karma.
As the saying went, those who prosper through gossip perish through gossip—and Bennett, who had made his name spreading rumors, had finally met his match.
“Let’s talk it through, step by step. The night is long, after all.”
Flutter-flutter!
As if sensing the ominous atmosphere, birds that had been drifting toward sleep suddenly took flight and vanished.
Bennett was kept by Aiden late into the night.
Only after spilling every rumor he knew and then writing an affidavit swearing never to speak carelessly about Olivia again was he finally released.
He returned to the dormitory half-sobbing.
“What’s wrong? Something happen?”
“I-Instructor Aiden…”
“Ah. He grabbed you like a mouse in a trap again, huh. What about me this time?”
“He said if I spread rumors one more time, he’d kill me.”
“Honestly. Didn’t I tell you to cut back on the gossip…?”
But the students of Veritas Academy were not cowed by threats.
The next day, news swept through the academy that Aiden was extraordinarily sensitive about rumors—a testament to their resilience.
“This gossip-obsessed school drives me crazy!”
It took Aiden less than twelve hours to come chasing after Bennett again, exasperation plain on his face.
And so Veritas’s day proceeded as peacefully as ever.
For a very, very long time.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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