I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 4

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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 4
“That person?”
That person?
I stopped, my hands stilling over the pages I’d been rifling through.
The first name that came to mind was, of course, his.
Ernan Cleor.
Right—there was no way around thinking of that man.
Of everyone it could be, Ernan Cleor was statistically the likeliest suspect. And he was also precisely the person I most desperately hoped it wasn’t.
‘Damn it.’
Had he really come dragging up some rumor that I was still lurking in the Capital?
Without thinking, I bit down on my lower lip.
‘Please, let it be anyone but him.’
He was entirely the type to do it.
‘But then again.’
I marshaled every scrap of optimism I could muster. Ernan might not be the one. There was always a chance.
It could just as easily be someone from the Corvalyou Imperial Academy, where I’d held a membership.
“What will become of me if you leave?”
“What can you do about it? You were already displeased with me over that whole romantic entanglement anyway.”
“Ahem! Yes, ahem!”
The Academy President’s face had brightened remarkably as he coughed—an almost suspicious level of cheer.
Which made sense, really; he’d gotten off without lifting a finger.
‘No, not the Academy.’
In that case, let me consider Lomen University, the place that had worked me to the bone all those years.
“No! We can’t let you go. You’ve nurtured those microorganisms right here, and you’d abandon our university just like that? Wait—hold on! Don’t you dare move!!”
Oh.
There was potential there.
The Chancellor of Lomen University had always regarded me as a treasure sent down from heaven itself.
‘And I did manage to accomplish quite a lot while I was there.’
I’d been hailed as a prodigy from my student days, long before I even earned my bachelor’s degree.
After completing my master’s work, the creation of the microscope—an instrument that had never existed in this world—had earned me the status of living legend in scientific circles. In a way, it was only natural that I’d acquired the title of genius by pouring out knowledge from my previous life into academic papers as though it were common sense. Every single achievement had unfolded while I was at Lomen University.
They’d gotten a microscope from me. They’d gotten the discovery of microorganisms from me.
Both, freely given.
‘I did earn myself a reputation as a madwoman back then.’
Genius and lunacy were separated only by a hair’s breadth, people said. And they’d given me a wide berth—the wild-haired, zombie-like figure drifting through the halls.
The eccentric scholar of Marquis Jonas!
That was the nickname born from those days.
“Don’t go!”
The Chancellor’s cry still echoed in my ears.
‘That does put my mind at ease.’
Yes, just because someone had come calling at the house didn’t mean it had to be Ernan Cleor. The mere fact that I was worrying about the possibility of him finding this place was an excess of vanity on my part.
Why would he even have reason to visit the Jonas Mansion in the first place?
‘What scandal would he be chasing?’
Nursing my anxieties, I headed out to greet our unexpected guest.
* * *
I was done for.
That was my first thought upon catching sight of the person waiting in the main hall as I descended the stairs.
She stood in the center of the hall conversing with the butler, and I froze mid-step, my body going rigid.
I knew her.
A woman with mahogany-brown hair.
She caught sight of me and flashed a smile. My entire body erupted in goosebumps.
“Fidellia.”
How could I have possibly forgotten about her?
“Have you lost your mind?”
Wait, hold on.
“…Sanna, stop.”
“Do you have a brain in that head at all? Do you?”
Ignoring my protests, Sanna took long strides up the staircase toward me, her pace quickening.
Wait, just hold on.
“You’d better explain this letter properly. Unless you’d prefer to spend some intimate time alone with me.”
Sanna pulled a letter from the bag she was carrying and thrust it directly in front of my face.
It was a letter from a few days ago, saying she’d be coming down late because she was looking after Kiara.
The brown-haired woman in front of me, who insisted on speaking in that half-formal tone that didn’t suit her at all, was my aide. A colleague who’d been with me since my days at Lomen University, and one of exactly two friends I had.
If you asked why she spoke that way despite being a friend, it was because Sanna was a commoner. She apparently lacked the courage to speak casually to a noble.
It was the complete opposite of the way she actually treated me.
Sanna had originally stayed with me at the Townhouse in the Capital, assisting with my research at Lomen University. Then she’d gone to the Northern Region for a short time to obtain some rare mushroom.
While she was gone, I’d told Ernan Cleor that I was giving up my unrequited love and moving to the estate.
So we’d decided not to meet in the Capital and to each head down to the Jonas Territory.
“Because of that Ernan Cleor, you said you’d move to the Jonas Territory, and then suddenly you found some child and couldn’t come? You’re suddenly going to take responsibility for her? Really?”
“Just adding ‘really’ at the end doesn’t make it formal speech,”
“You’re being difficult.”
The luggage in Sanna’s hands dropped with a thud.
Thump, clatter, clatter…
I watched helplessly as the poor bag tumbled down the stairs.
That was the beginning.
Sanna freed both hands and clutched at her head.
“That Ernan Cleor is the problem!”
Her shrill voice echoed through the cavernous hall like a gong. From a face so composed and serene poured forth raw, unfiltered accusation.
She couldn’t understand why I’d ever liked Ernan Cleor in the first place, how I could abandon my research and chase after him like that, why I didn’t write even one more line of a paper instead of spending time on a love letter, why I’d spent money buying him gifts when I had plenty for research funds, and then suddenly I’d stopped liking him and decided to move to the estate, so if I’d stopped liking him, why on earth did I have to move to the estate…
“Watching that pathetic display—did you think I wouldn’t notice? I was even relieved thinking you’d finally let it go. But then you say you’re moving to the estate and suddenly change your mind? You still have lingering feelings, don’t you? Don’t you?”
Sanna grabbed my forearms, thrusting her face close to mine, and I saw the madness blazing in her eyes.
I was overwhelmed by that fury and my words came out stuttering.
“No… that’s not it. Listen, I can explain.”
I’d felt indebted to Sanna for a long time.
She’d watched my failed romance unfold right beside me, and she’d suffered professionally for being entangled with me. She must have mentally screamed a hundred times watching the mess I made.
‘So I was a burden.’
I felt grateful that at least I was coming to my senses now.
…Wasn’t I?
But there weren’t lingering feelings. That part was genuinely unfair.
“You must have lingering feelings! You’re staying in the Capital using some child as an excuse! You should just admit you can’t leave because you still have feelings!”
“It’s a misunderstanding. It’s not an excuse…”
“Sponsorship? Don’t lie. You don’t realize how absurd it sounds to sponsor some wandering vagrant?”
Her hair, bound neatly in a single knot, became disheveled under her clawing fingers.
“At least make your lies believable!”
Click.
“What now!”
Sanna spun around reflexively at the tug on her skirt hem.
And froze, rigid.
“…Who?”
A red-haired child stood there.
Sanna stared, blinking blankly. I answered helpfully.
“My Sponsored Person, obviously.”
“Yeah, Fidellia’s my sponsor.”
Kiara came running over and hid behind my back. Peering around me, she spoke to Sanna.
“Don’t yell at Fidellia. It’s loud.”
“….”
Sanna looked as if she’d taken a hit.
If I’d had no idea a child was there and one suddenly appeared before me, I would’ve looked the same way.
Having been thoroughly beaten by Sanna with nothing but the truth, I felt a sense of victory in this moment. I even laughed, rather giddily, at her reaction.
“Isn’t she cute?”
“….”
“It wasn’t an excuse. I really couldn’t leave.”
Sanna pressed her head in her hands, saying nothing.
* * *
Ernan’s Aide hated living these days.
No, let me correct that.
If she quit being Ernan’s Aide, living would be happy.
“Master Ernan.”
“….”
“Master Ernan?”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”
Naturally, the culprit behind all of this sat at the desk in that office: Ernan Cleor.
Working as Ernan’s Aide, she couldn’t remember the last time life had been pleasant.
Lately, he seemed to have grown even more insufferable.
The whole mess had begun roughly two weeks ago at the Imperial Banquet.
A grand and splendid affair held to mark the Corvalyou Empire’s 120th founding anniversary, the dignitaries who attended had enjoyed themselves as never before—all except one.
Ernan Cleor.
‘Unrequited love, was it?’
The Aide found it rather absurd, truth be told.
He hadn’t even confessed, and she wasn’t even sure he’d ever actually liked Fidellia Jonas in the first place.
“You like her. Stop it.”
After hearing those words, he’d barricaded himself in the mansion for two solid weeks, immovable as stone.
It was nice that he devoted more time to his duties than usual, she supposed.
But the signs were obvious to anyone with eyes.
The moment he’d returned from the banquet, Ernan had shut himself in his bedroom.
Why? Did he regret it now?
‘Too precious to give to someone else, but unwilling to keep for himself—something like that, perhaps.’
How many stories had she heard over the years of men who realized their love too late and spent their days drowning in regret? By then, it was always too late to fix anything.
It was no secret by now that Ernan had been cold toward Fidellia.
Fidellia was the one who’d pursued him with such relentless tenacity that even he must have found it irritating. For roughly a year, public opinion had turned against her alone.
“Doesn’t she understand how to consider others’ feelings?”
“Indeed. If she’d gone this far, surely she ought to have known when to stop.”
“Why can’t she see that such behavior damages Lord Ernan’s reputation? It’s only causing him trouble.”
But as time passed, that judgment shifted.
Now it leaned toward blaming Ernan himself.
“Shouldn’t he have pushed her away by now, having gone this far?”
“Why does he keep her near if he has no intention of accepting her?”
“Perhaps they’ve reached some sort of understanding—to remain just friendly?”
“Well, that’s possible, I suppose. But I disagree. This is nothing but Hope Torture.”
The Aide found herself agreeing with the noblewoman’s words.
“Toying with someone’s heart…”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing at all.”
In any case, navigating Ernan Cleor’s temperament—which looked fine on the surface but had grown far more volatile than before—was proving damnably difficult.
Why, he hadn’t even refused the Emperor’s summons before.
It was almost brazen, the change in him.
The only reason it didn’t become a scandal was because the Emperor cherished him more than his own children.
‘But if he’s going to mope about like this, what was that he said back then?’
When he’d returned to the mansion that night, he’d distinctly said he was rather relieved…
Just then, Ernan gazed out the window and rose from his seat.
“I need to go out.”
“Pardon? Suddenly, sir? Where are you going?”
Ernan seized his overcoat and strode out of his study without hesitation.
The Aide had no time to follow, and could only track his retreating form with her eyes. The answer he threw back was astonishing.
“A walk. The weather’s fine.”
The Aide’s mouth fell open in shock.
Did he not see the dark clouds hanging outside?

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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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