My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 51

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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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Episode 51
The Counseling Office was quieter than usual.
On any other day, the hallway would have been as loud as a hospital waiting room with students coming to air their grievances, but today it was empty.
Ivy stared intently at Bennett, who sat across from her.
The teacher seemed to be choosing his words carefully, sitting in the reddish shadow cast by the curtains.
What could this possibly be about.
“Underwood.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There have been attempts to access the Teacher Cloud Server using your account.”
What?
Ivy froze, unable even to voice her confusion.
The Teacher Cloud Server?
That was where teachers uploaded assignments and reference materials, and Ivy accessed it regularly.
It was the most natural thing in the world.
Any student who studied properly would log in there.
“What I mean is,”
Bennett added, elaborating.
“A place where only teachers are supposed to have access. Because materials are shared there that students shouldn’t see. For instance……”
The teacher hesitated, and after a moment’s thought, Ivy met his gaze directly and made the situation clear.
“You mean exam questions?”
Bennett nodded slightly after a brief silence.
Now she understood why the exam had been postponed today.
“Using my account.”
“That’s right. Your account. Saturday night.”
“Did they succeed in accessing the exam questions?”
“It’s impossible to say for certain.”
“But there’s a school rule that postpones the exam even on an attempt alone. Isn’t that right?”
Ivy immediately pulled out her mobile phone, tablet, and the laptop she’d had in her bag.
The teacher looked slightly startled, as though he hadn’t expected her to produce them on the spot.
“I understand what you suspect.”
She pushed all three devices across the desk toward him.
“Ivy, I’m not suspecting you—I’m just trying to confirm.”
Empty words. In truth, Bennett wasn’t even meeting her eyes.
He hadn’t entirely ruled out the possibility.
‘Of course he hasn’t.’
Bennett knew well what Ivy desired.
That she was prepared to do anything to become first.
He could believe that, faced with the anxiety before an exam, she had attempted a method that wasn’t above board.
“Sir, I’m not stupid. Placing second in this school twice isn’t something you achieve through tricks.”
Ivy lifted her head straight.
If there was one thing she had learned with certainty at the Royal Palace, it was how to carry herself with dignity even in the worst circumstances.
That shamelessness hadn’t always served her well, but it certainly helped now.
“If I truly wanted to be first and accessed your teachers’ server, I would never have used an account like mine.”
“I know. Of course I know.”
The teacher answered with a kindly smile, but beneath it he also held open the possibility that ‘she might have anticipated exactly that and boldly used her own account instead.’
“Since you’ve submitted all these devices to me, a simple procedure should prove your innocence.”
Bennett began placing the devices Ivy had handed over into a white box.
“Wait in the dormitory. Once the investigation is complete……”
“No.”
Ivy spoke firmly to Bennett, who was wrapping things up.
“I didn’t submit all these devices just to prove my innocence, sir.”
And she deliberately paused for effect.
“It’s to find out who did this.”
Bennett offered no response.
Ivy rose from her chair, offered a polite bow, and left the Counseling Office with her now-lighter bag.
* * *
Third Dormitory Anonymous Board
[Question]
Is today’s exam postponement because of our class president?
Posted by: Anonymous | 09:07
I saw teachers calling the class president aside in the hallway earlier… is it connected to the exam being postponed? The atmosphere was tense no matter how you looked at it.
[Anonymous 1]
I saw it too. But the class president always gets called first whenever something blows up lol
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[Anonymous 2]
This
[Anonymous 3]
Original post, are you trying to pin the blame on the class president right now?
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[Original Post]
More like it just seems weird to me
[Anonymous 4]
Great, the anonymous board’s specialty rears its head again. Another blame game? Come on, knock it off
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[Anonymous 5]
222222 Class president gets help from everyone then does this. Really pathetic
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[Anonymous 6]
The teachers are the ones acting weird. The fact that they can’t even explain properly—isn’t that suspicious?
[Anonymous 7]
(Deleted comment.)
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[Anonymous 8]
What’s with the deletion lol
[Anonymous 9]
Conclusion: whether your class president did something or not, isn’t the most suspicious one right now Cyrus?
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[Anonymous 10]
What’s with this sudden whiplash? Are you insane?
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[Anonymous 9]
It’s not sudden—everyone’s already thinking it privately anyway.
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[Anonymous 11]
Honestly agree 222
[Anonymous 9]
Like at the debate tournament, he suddenly stepped in as a substitute. That was hilarious.
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[Anonymous 3]
Quinton was in the debate tournament???? I didn’t know because I wasn’t paying attention.
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[Anonymous 8]
But how is that relevant?
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[Anonymous 11]
It’s totally relevant. There’s always something happening around him. He took Joy’s debate spot, the class president got hurt—are you saying all of that’s a coincidence?
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[Anonymous 8]
Hmm….. I’ll stay neutral for now
Third Dormitory Anonymous Board
[Urgent]
Today’s exam postponement seems like hacking or a leak or something.
Posted by: Anonymous | 10:19
There’s actually someone who pulled this off. I respect them
[Anonymous 1]
Where did you hear that from?
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[Original Post]
Rumor from the Broadcasting Club lol the teachers had an emergency meeting with the microphone still on
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[Anonymous 2]
Teachers are really careless lol
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[Anonymous 3]
They leak the exam questions and then leak the meeting about the leak lol
[Anonymous 4]
Wait, didn’t some anonymous person mention Cyrus earlier? Creepy
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[Anonymous 5]
Creepy my ass. Here we go again with the blame game. Aren’t you tired of this?
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[Anonymous 4]
But he’d be good at stuff like that, right? It seems possible.
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[Anonymous 5]
“Seems possible”? Go get some sleep
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[Anonymous 4]
It is possible. He already hacked the Teacher Drive back in middle school. Why couldn’t he do it twice?
[Anonymous 6]
Yo, case closed. Cyrus just got called to the Counseling Office
* * *
The moment a post went up saying Cyrus had been called to the Counseling Office, public opinion flipped almost instantly.
“Third Dormitory is just stupid, I’m telling you.”
He drops one anonymous bomb on the Third Dormitory board and the rest builds itself.
A bunch of dimwits with their frontal lobes fried, all gathered in one pathetic dormitory.
Nothing like the First Dormitory, where he lived.
His phone buzzed with a notification.
[Comment Alert: Pilgrimage underway after reading the above]
Similar reactions followed one after another.
[So this rumor was actually true]
He scrolled through the notifications trickling in and smiled slowly.
* * *
As Cyrus emerged from the Counseling Office, Ivy, who had been sitting in the waiting chair outside, immediately got to her feet.
“Quinton.”
He glanced at her and answered in his usual tone.
“What?”
Ivy studied his expression carefully.
“Did… nothing happen?”
Though she didn’t have her smartphone right now, Joy had shown her the commotion on the anonymous board, so she knew about it.
The scandal had started with Ivy, but within seconds it had shifted to Cyrus.
It was a farfetched claim by any measure, but when news of his summons attached itself to that damnable rumor like evidence, everyone seemed to swallow it.
Though everything had been deleted by now, the suspicion already spread couldn’t be erased.
“Yeah.”
He answered as if it were nothing.
“Just a procedural check to see if I’m okay. It’s natural that someone suspects me, whether I do something or not.”
“That doesn’t make sense. They called you to the Counseling Office over something like that?!”
When Ivy’s voice rose slightly, he glanced back at the Counseling Office and gave her a look to be quiet.
But Ivy couldn’t calm herself.
‘To complete the administrative procedure of: consulted with a student suffering from rumors,’ they deliberately called Cyrus in on a day like this? Wasn’t that just spreading the rumors further?
“This is wrong. I need to tell the teacher.”
She started toward the Counseling Office indignantly, but only managed a few steps before his arm caught hers.
“That’s enough. Handle your own situation.”
“No, you have the right to object. And as dorm president, I’m going to stand by you. Absolutely!”
When she said she’d stand by him, she felt his grip on her arm loosen slightly.
She seized the moment and quickly turned her body away, but he caught her again just as fast.
“Quinton!”
“You said I have rights, didn’t you, Underwood.”
“Yes! No matter how important the administrative procedure is, it can’t damage a student’s honor.”
“Then I choose not to exercise that right.”
“……What?”
Ivy couldn’t believe her ears.
The teacher’s hasty action had clearly caused harm to Cyrus. Yet he wasn’t raising his voice about it?
“But everyone……!”
He didn’t even wait for her to finish her hasty objection.
“Say whatever you want. I don’t care.”

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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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