I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 54

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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 54
“I was merely stating the facts.”
“So you think you can say whatever you like just because it’s true? You clearly don’t know the first thing about propriety, do you?”
Cesar shot back irritably.
“I wasn’t even speaking to you. Rene is sitting quietly — why are you making such a fuss?”
“……A fuss?”
“Yes. A fuss.”
Kiara’s mouth snapped shut at that.
Cesar thought he’d won the argument and figured she’d finally fall silent.
But that wasn’t how it would go.
“That is one irritating way to speak!”
Slam!
Kiara hurled the book she’d been holding onto the table and stepped toward Cesar.
That was it.
Kiara simply couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“What kind of education did you get at home? How can you be a noble heir and have worse manners than I do?!”
“What……what did you say?”
“I said you have terrible manners!”
Kiara abandoned all pretense of politeness and raised her voice.
Cesar, taken aback for a moment, quickly flushed red with anger in response.
“……And you think you can speak to me casually?”
“Is that really what matters right now? Want me to say it again politely?”
“Forget it.”
“Fine then. Let’s drop the formality and fight like animals.”
Kiara thrust her face close to his as she spoke.
“Is this how Noel taught you to behave?”
At that, Cesar’s expression hardened entirely.
Ever since he’d come to regard Noel as his protector, Cesar couldn’t tolerate anyone speaking ill of him.
“Why are you bringing Noel into this?”
“Because that man is your tutor! When I see how you act, it’s only natural I’d think that’s what he taught you, right?”
The irritation that had marked Cesar’s face earlier now turned cold and hard.
His voice rose with emotion.
“And what about you? Did your mother teach you to be like this?”
“What?”
“Or did you pick up her terrible temper? The way you treat Noel so harshly makes it obvious!”
“Are you finished?! I didn’t drag your family into this, but you’re attacking my mother?!”
“She’s not even your real mother anyway.”
“Oh, the audacity!”
Kiara groaned in exasperation and gripped her own hair.
* * *
Evening came around soon enough.
Ernan and I, who had been passing time in the Reception Room, made our way to the Library where Kiara and Rene were.
“By the way, it seems Lord Cesar is also in the Library with them.”
At the butler Pippin’s words, I raised an eyebrow.
“Cesar? What’s he doing there?”
That was rather unexpected.
‘I thought he’d shut himself in his room and not come out.’
Having read the original work, I had a vague sense of Cesar’s personality.
‘Wasn’t his character trait that he lacks social skills?’
All the male protagonists from Earth are like that anyway.
They dislike people. They distrust people.
Then again, if I’d grown up confined to a provincial mansion with no one my own age, I’d probably be the same way.
‘And the one father he has doesn’t even give him attention.’
Being the protagonist of a romance novel truly sounds like a miserable lot.
So there was no way Cesar, raised in such circumstances, would voluntarily go to the Library to make friends.
“Noel must have pushed him into it.”
“You really do understand him well!”
By now, I’d made peace with Noel’s occasional bouts of reckless enthusiasm and his head-in-the-clouds behavior.
I simply thought, ‘There goes Noel again with his Noel-ness.’
‘……But is he all right with Kiara?’
You don’t think they’re fighting, do you?
In the original story, Cesar and Kiara seemed to bicker with each other quite often.
But I tried to think positively.
‘That’s only the worst-case scenario, after all.’
I dared to imagine the three of them sitting properly and reading books together.
“What do you think? What do you suppose the children are doing? Reading? Or gossiping?”
I asked out of curiosity, and Ernan answered immediately.
“They’re probably fighting.”
…….
“Kiara especially.”
This man.
As I walked down the corridor, the Library drew steadily closer.
But the closer I got, the more ominous the sounds became.
“…… was first…… after all!”
“I…… when…… don’t you dare!”
‘This is absurd.’
Ernan’s imagination turning into reality?
I quickened my pace and reached the Library door in a single breath.
The moment I flung it open, what I saw was…….
“Hey, get over here!”
“I don’t want to……! Why are you so violent!”
“You have no right to say that! You’re the one hurling verbal abuse!”
The Library was in complete chaos.
All manner of furniture lay scattered about in disarray.
And there were our young protagonists, the ones who’d created this mess.
“……Fidellia?”
Only then did Kiara notice me and quietly lowered the cushion she’d been holding.
‘As if that helps.’
I saw her about to throw it at Cesar.
Ernan, who had come up beside me, surveyed the state of the Library.
“A complete mess.”
A succinct summary.
Kiara, looking somewhat flustered, attempted an explanation.
“Fidellia, it’s not what you think…….”
But her attempt fell flat.
It was cut short by someone who appeared behind Ernan and me.
Seeing the familiar figure, Cesar called out to him.
“Noel……!”
“Oh! Cesar?”
It was Noel.
* * *
I grabbed Noel by the collar once more.
“You said you were going to sleep. That you’d gotten trauma from me and needed to rest for a bit?”
Folding my arms, I glared at him, and he lowered his head with a feeble sound.
“I did sleep. For…… thirty minutes?”
“Huh.”
And he calls that an explanation.
“That’s not the point, little brother. I’m asking why you stirred up needless trouble when you should have been quietly confined to your room.”
The moment I saw the devastated Library, I sent Ernan and Rene away. And this was right after that.
Though they called it a matter involving the ‘children,’ Rene wasn’t actually a party to the conflict—which was how this had been possible.
I was now in Noel’s room.
I’d separated Kiara and Cesar and sent them to their respective rooms.
“I told you—I just wanted to make a friend for our young Master Cesar!”
“Even so, you can’t just thrust someone at him like that. You’re supposed to be a tutor—how can you not understand such things?”
“……But you made me a tutor in the first place!”
That was true enough.
It had been because Noel was the only one I could rely on, but seeing him now made me realize the irony—he might not be as reliable as I’d thought.
And yet, even if I went back to that moment, I would make the same choice.
Coaching Noel into his new role as tutor.
“Still, you’re pretty satisfied with your job, aren’t you? You like the children.”
I’m not particularly fond of children in general, except for Kiara and Rene, but Noel had always liked them.
If he thought I didn’t know how hard he’d worked to prepare for the position of tutor at House of Bertrand while claiming he disliked them, he was sorely mistaken.
“Don’t even mention it. It took over six months just to get close to that prickly young master.”
“Oh… that did take quite a while, didn’t it.”
Enduring even that much against someone as thick-skinned as Noel must have been no small feat.
“And it’s all because of the Duke of Bertrand. He was neglecting the boy.”
Noel swept his hair back with a rare expression of irritation.
Then he suddenly turned to me with a question.
“Wait, you didn’t… anticipate all this and send me to the Bertrand Estate on purpose, did you?”
“Of course not.”
It was actually true, but I denied it outright anyway.
“I just thought it would be useful to establish ties with House of Bertrand, that’s all.”
“I see.”
Noel broke into a grin.
“Well, either way it’s fine. Our adorable young master is quite satisfying to raise.”
“How long have you even known him, and you’re calling him ‘our’ young master?”
“Isn’t a year a long time? You call Kiara ‘our’ Kiara too, and you’ve only known her for a few months.”
“That’s… well, she’s become my daughter.”
“Exactly my point! How does adopting a child you’ve known for just a few months even make sense? You’re something else, honestly. No matter how I try, I can’t bring myself to want to make Cesar my son.”
“You’re just cold-hearted.”
As I said this, I turned my head toward the door without thinking, and…
……
……
Cesar was standing there.

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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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