My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 25

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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 25
For a moment, I nearly dropped my smartphone.
Ibi caught herself before typing back “Who is this?” without thinking.
Never respond to anonymous messages like this. Ever.
It was something Owen emphasized constantly.
But ignoring them didn’t make the fear go away.
This account was one Ibi had created as “Ibi Underwood” to stay in touch with school friends.
‘What if someone at school has figured out who I really am?’
Buzz.
Before she could finish processing that thought, her phone vibrated again. The moment the tremor spread across her palm, Ibi’s breath caught.
What was it this time?
With trembling hands, she gripped the smartphone tightly and slowly lowered her gaze to the screen.
[@vacuum_state Don’t worry about it.]
What?
Ibi had to read that curt response three times before checking who had sent it.
It was Cyrus Quinton.
The timing was unbelievable.
Though, to be fair, she had messaged him first.
Ibi set aside the unsettling message for now and typed back to Cyrus first.
[What kind of way is that to talk?]
He’d read it immediately. The typing indicator appeared, suggesting he was composing something, but nothing came through.
So Ibi sent the next message herself.
[I was trying to tell you I’m grateful to you.]
This time he read it right away, but there was no typing indicator at all.
‘Right, figures. He wouldn’t want to waste time chatting with me about nothing.’
Earlier, when she’d been searching for him, hadn’t he looked at her as though she were some rare, newly discovered creature?
‘Though I have to admit, his bluntness snapped me out of it.’
The anonymous message had sent ice down her spine, but Quinton’s curt words had swept that chill away in an instant.
Ibi glanced around, then moved to a more private spot and made a call.
—Yes, Your Highness.
Owen’s loyal voice came through, as steady as ever.
“Owen, I received a strange message. I’m going to send you a screenshot now. Can you look at it with me?”
—Of course.
Reassured by his immediate agreement, Ibi captured the suspicious message and sent it to him.
She gave him a moment to examine it, then spoke again.
“What do you think?”
Perhaps because it was an urgent matter—
there was no verbal response, only the urgent sound of keyboard clicks. He’d launched into an investigation.
Owen had a tendency to be overprotective, so he would never brush off a situation like this.
—Your Highness.
“Yeah?”
—Regarding the more serious message at the top: please reply as I tell you. Say: “That’s not something you need to worry about.”
“The message at the top?”
—There were two suspicious messages in the screenshot you sent me. I’m referring to the more serious one—the upper one.
‘What is he talking about?’
Ibi pulled up the screenshot she’d just sent.
There was only the unpleasant anonymous message… oh.
Only now did Ibi notice there was another new message notification at the top of the screenshot.
[@vacuum_state Rest.]
—When did you even follow that despicable person back?
“Huh? Just now… wait, how do you even know who that account is?”
—Your Highness, what do you think I do?
She could almost see him raising his chin proudly.
—Of course I investigated. He’s our primary rival.
Rival.
Right, that was true.
Everything Ibi was struggling so hard to accomplish at school was to defeat Cyrus Quinton.
—So please, send him a sharp reply exactly as I say: “That’s not something you need to worry about.” And.
His voice took on a heavier tone as he continued.
Ibi dimly sensed that Owen had mentioned Quinton first to lighten her mood—an act of consideration.
—Regarding the message at the bottom, I’ll begin investigating it at once.
“One by one?”
It sounded as though he had an entire list of people who might threaten her.
—……
A slip of the tongue. He neither corrected himself nor elaborated.
“Is that an order?”
—Yes. In any case, never leave your phone unattended, and make sure you’re always with someone.
“Owen.”
—The school is normally safe, but with all these food deliveries coming in, outsiders can access the campus easily right now.
“Are there really people out there who would target me?”
—Your Highness, you are not a private individual.
The Royal Family is the nation’s symbol.
She knew that. And she knew what came with it—that her life could vanish in an instant to serve the interests of some faction.
“Is this… that kind of situation?”
It was only one line of text, but something about it didn’t feel like that kind of threat.
—It could simply be a phishing attempt. I’ve filed an information request, so we’ll verify the details once we receive a response.
“…Got it.”
No matter what Ibi said, he deftly steered the conversation, which meant he was following her father’s orders.
—Your Highness.
His voice gentled as he called her name.
—You know that I care for you, don’t you?
“……”
—You are the only family I have.
Owen and Ibi weren’t without ‘real’ family.
But what meaning did blood ties hold?
The only people Ibi considered family in any true sense were Owen and her Tutor.
(Though the Tutor probably wouldn’t approve of that designation.)
“I know. But I don’t like it when you hide things from me.”
—That’s only for now. Later, when you’re queen, you’ll be able to make me tell you anything.
He seemed to be speaking of the time after she became queen.
Though she couldn’t quite imagine it yet.
—If anything seems strange at all, don’t agonize over it alone. Tell me everything?
“…Understood.”
—That’s my princess. And don’t forget to send that despicable person a scathing reply.
At the mention of Quinton again, Ibi let out a small, stifled laugh.
—I’m serious, not joking.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
Ibi gave a perfunctory response and hung up, but Owen had continued talking about Quinton right until the line went dead.
“I don’t know why he worries so much. It’s just one back-and-forth conversation.”
Ibi opened her chat with Quinton and sent a reply immediately.
[You too.]
She’d thought that would be a decent way to end it, but—
[@vacuum_state likes your message.]
Huh?
When she checked again, there was a red heart icon beneath her message saying “You too.”
Then it changed to a laughing emoji, and a moment later to a thumbs-up emoji, cycling through repeatedly.
‘What is he doing?’
After several emoji changes, a message finally arrived.
[Accident.]
Ibi had to stifle her giggling for a moment.
She could practically see the obnoxious Quinton panicking after realizing he’d sent a heart emoji with his message.
Instead of replying “it’s fine,” Ibi decided to tease him a little. Opportunities to mess with Quinton were precious.
Rather than typing a new response, Ibi reacted to his “Accident” message with a red heart emoji of her own.
‘Will he be angry?’
He definitely would be.
The fact that no response came back made it certain.
Period 3
The emoji incident with Cyrus had made her laugh for a moment, but that was all.
In the days following the anonymous message, Ibi lived in a state of constant fear.
Worrying whether someone at school knew her secret, whether they might expose it somewhere.
Whenever she had spare time, she haunted the anonymous boards, and every time she spotted the word “Class Representative,” her heart leaped into her throat.
But the anonymous account disappeared, and no more strange messages came.
Nothing dangerous happened around Ibi, and no one whispered about her behind her back.
Perhaps it had been nothing at all.
‘I got scared at the mention of a “secret” and jumped to conclusions, but maybe it was just someone trying to rattle me. Or the secret might not have been about me at all—maybe it was about Joy.’
Everyone had secrets. Or perhaps the “secret” in question belonged to someone else entirely—Joy, even.
On a hunch, Ibi asked Owen to look into it from that angle.
He said investigating anything near the Carter Family would be extremely difficult, but he promised to do his best.
<So Your Highness should stop worrying and focus on school.>
Because he’d said so, Ibi resolved not to let random worries distract her and to focus on what was in front of her.
…Though she’d certainly meant to do that.
One day after making that resolution, when she came to her senses, Quinton had her wrist firmly in his grip.

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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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