My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 60

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

Episode 60
While everyone was enjoying a pleasant time at the food trucks, a black sedan sat parked in front of the Royal High School’s main entrance.
Though somewhat aged, the lustrous paint job revealed it had been carefully maintained all these years.
A young man settled into the vehicle.
“You said it’s been taken care of?”
The elderly woman in the driver’s seat turned back with concern to regard her grandson.
“Fabian.”
He answered her affectionate worry with a gentle smile.
“Yes, I’ve submitted all the documents they asked for.”
“Right, you did. Though I never expected them to demand a police report as well.”
His grandmother, Montrose Lady, started the car slowly, her hands sheathed in white lace gloves.
“Fasten your seatbelt.”
Driving at her age was not an easy thing, but she disliked letting strangers into her home.
Not since her son-in-law had been executed for treason, and her daughter imprisoned as an accomplice.
“Your classmate’s accident was only ever coincidence, you know.”
Montrose Lady was not ordinarily given to complaint, but she made an exception when it came to her last remaining grandchild.
“Yes…… it was.”
Fabian answered with a bitter smile.
“Of course, in so far as that student had treated you poorly…….”
“Grandmother.”
Fabian spoke quietly, calling to her.
“That’s enough.”
“I’m sorry. There was no need to speak of such painful things.”
“No, it’s all right. After all, because of this, I can return like this.”
The car passed in front of the Cafeteria, where students were lined up. Traffic forced them to crawl along at a snail’s pace.
Fabian sat in the back seat, watching the students visible beyond the window.
At first glance, they all looked happy, but if one looked closely, it wouldn’t quite be that simple.
How well a school could draw out humanity’s cruelty.
He had felt this keenly throughout his elementary and middle school years across the sea in the East.
There would be no difference here.
“……Do you really have to attend school?”
His grandmother had said the same thing while waiting for admission to Royal High School, when he’d decided to attend Berke for a time.
“A tutor would be sufficient for your studies. We still have the means for it.”
He understood what she was worried about.
She remembered how much Fabian had struggled with school life abroad.
“You had such a hard time lying.”
“Yes, I did.”
He laughed self-deprecatingly. So many of the lies he’d told in the past came to mind.
Where are you from? What do your parents do? How often do you go home? Why did you come to study abroad?
There had been a fixed “manual” for answering all those questions, and Fabian had been forced to follow it.
“But Evelyn is here, isn’t she?”
“I wonder. The princess…… will she truly be kind to you?”
“Evelyn will be.”
“I wonder. I hope this world won’t be too cruel to you. Think it over during the Easter Break. You have time until then.”
“I’m all right.”
His voice was calm.
“……No matter how harsh the world is, in the end everyone faces punishment for what they’ve done.”
His grandmother did not answer.
She seemed busy enough checking her surroundings to navigate the roundabout safely.
Traffic was growing heavier. Fabian fell silent to let her concentrate on driving.
He turned over what he’d just said, mulling it in his mind.
Does everyone truly receive their just punishment?
“Perhaps…… not everyone does.”
His grandmother’s question came again shortly after.
“What did you say, Fabian?”
“Oh, nothing important.”
He manufactured a bright tone in his voice.
“I just hope the Easter Break will pass quickly. So that……”
He lowered his gaze and closed his hand over the Admission Permit resting on his lap.
“I can see Evelyn again.”
The paper crinkled softly under his grip.
Period 7
The fourth day of Easter Break.
Ivy changed into the clothes her maid had brought, gazing blankly out the window.
In the Royal Palace Garden, two groundskeepers were hiding colorful eggs among the flower beds—preparations for tomorrow’s public Egg Hunt.
Had she been a child, she would have run about trying to find more eggs than anyone else. Now she had reached the age where she would deliver the royal address at the Easter Grand Service.
When she turned her gaze further out, the city streets appeared beyond the fence.
The afternoon sunlight, people at leisure, and the tent roofs of the Easter market spread like open macaron boxes.
Could Ivy ever set foot in that beautiful landscape painted with words like peace and grace?
Looking back over the last four days, she had had no time for it, and would have none in the days to come.
The Maundy Thursday charity event, Good Friday service, the Easter Grand Service, the banquet, garden-opening ceremonies and receptions, accompanying foreign ambassadors.
She felt as though her facial muscles would wear away and disappear.
Cyrus would probably answer coldly that facial muscles don’t vanish that quickly just from overuse.
Though she couldn’t fathom why she was thinking of that boy at all.
In any case, today too held a schedule to torment her cheeks.
The Royal Scholarship Foundation Easter Reception.
She was taking her mother’s place. It looked better for the heir to show her face, or so they said.
She would have given anything to wrap herself in a blanket and watch videos today.
Videos of lizards shedding skin or cats climbing in and out of boxes.
She put on her jacket and stood before the mirror.
A pale purple tweed set with a small brooch. A face without Glasses, her hair arranged neatly.
Ivy Underwood was nowhere to be found.
In the mirror stood only Evelyn Claire de Crest, with quiet eyes.
……The feeling was strange.
When she lowered her gaze toward the palace entrance below, a black car was already waiting.
Owen opened the door for her, and Ivy boarded the vehicle.
She immediately began checking the prepared documents—an overview of today’s reception, information on the people she absolutely had to remember.
“Owen, you double-checked the guest list, right?”
Ivy asked without lifting her eyes from the papers.
Owen, sitting beside her, stopped tapping his Laptop and looked up at once.
“Yes, Your Highness. No need for concern.”
Concern about what?
If you considered that this was a “scholarship” event, the answer was simple.
Cyrus Quinton.
The era’s finest talent, who had recently received the “Excellence in Research Award” at the Royal Youth Research Symposium.
Oh, he also received the “Sustainability Award”? He really is greedy.
“That guy is the real problem. He should obviously put in an appearance, shouldn’t he?”
She was picking on Cyrus without cause. Attendance was voluntary, and if anything, his showing up would inconvenience Ivy, not the other way around.
“Indeed. He’s truly beyond help.”
Owen enthusiastically agreed.
“An honor carries implicit duties, yet he fails to understand that.”
But it was more than mere agreement.
Clearly relishing the opportunity, he continued his censure in earnest.
“Honestly, no matter how good someone’s grades are, if the person is cold, what good is it all?”
“……I wouldn’t say he’s cold exactly.”
“Your Highness?”
At Owen’s surprised rebuttal, Ivy realized her mistake.
Good heavens, defending Cyrus!
She set down the documents on her lap.
“What I mean is, Cyrus is……”
“Good Lord, Cyrus? Now you’re calling him by his first name?”
“Everyone does at school! Anyway, the point is that Cyrus not coming would be good for me.”
“Just a moment ago, Your Highness, you insisted that he ought to make an appearance.”
“Well, that’s…… different.”
Ivy lifted her chin brazenly.
“If he’s not here today, what else would he do back at the Dormitory? Study, that’s what. And I can’t abide that.”
Ivy spoke with some heat, then quickly added in a flustered tone.
“Of course, it’s not that I dislike obligations.”
At this, Owen smiled knowingly.
“I’ll do my best to create some time for you to rest, if possible.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but not today. After you spend about an hour and a half at the Scholarship Foundation reception, you’ll need to return to prepare for the evening banquet. You know how it is—you’ll also have a brief interview in the reception room before the banquet.”
“……I understand.”
Ivy murmured weakly.
After changing clothes again, smiling before cameras with the guests, and then attending a three-hour formal dinner, Ivy would be utterly exhausted.
* * *
The Central Library appeared far more resplendent than Ivy remembered it.
The stone columns and arched windows remained unchanged, but Easter Wreaths hung on either side of the entrance, and daffodils and white roses were woven together along the stair railings.
Warm light fell from the high ceiling within the hall.
Pastel linens lay across the long tables, atop which spring flower arrangements, finger foods, and champagne glasses were arranged with precision.
The library’s distinctive scent of aged wood and old paper was subtly masked by the fragrance of flowers.
Scattered in small groups were mostly middle-aged and elderly people engaged in conversation—donors, university officials, and the like.
Gazes recognized her as they turned toward her in ones and twos, and she received their greetings without her attendant close behind.
“I’m delighted to meet people I so greatly admire.”
An impeccable smile.
Good, this should go well.
She was thinking positively, ignoring the silent protest of her facial muscles, when it happened.
Over the shoulder of a university official, a silhouette appeared.
Familiar but so utterly unwilling to acknowledge as such—that…… back.
‘No, it can’t be.’
Cyrus was not supposed to come.
‘There’s no way Owen’s information was wrong……’
It was wrong.
The moment he turned his head to greet someone, she was certain.
‘Owen!’
Ivy screamed silently in her mind.
He said the guy was too cold to show up!
Good Lord, I’m firing him the moment I get back!

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