The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 110

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Episode 110】

Frederick hadn’t met Rianel from the beginning.

Since this was Asil’s house, Frederick encountered Asil first.

“What’s the matter—”

Asil, who had come out to the reception room to greet the guest without much thought, found himself grabbed by the collar.

“Hey, you kidnapping bastard!”

If Ensilen was someone who generally showed no change in expression and was equally indifferent to everyone, then Asil was indifferent to everything except for one single person.

Still, having been educated and raised as a noble, Asil maintained a hypocritical facade on the surface.

Even now it was the same.

Though he wore an innocent lamb-like expression as if he didn’t understand what was happening, Frederick wasn’t fooled.

“I knew you would do something like this.”

Frederick had thought that Asil would cause such trouble someday.

That someday he would confine the Professor and keep her only where his eyes could reach.

Asil had always been wary of everything that approached Ensilen.

Even a goose following its owner would be less vicious than this.

‘No, a goose would actually be better.’

That thing was human, so it knew how to scheme insidiously from behind, making it more dangerous.

“If you noticed, you should have backed off on your own. What’s your reason for coming all the way here?”

“You bastard! Do you call that speaking?”

The guy who was already insidious at the Academy had now equipped himself with shamelessness too!

Frederick exploded with indignation.

“The Professor’s scholarship belongs to everyone! It’s not there for you to monopolize privately!”

“She’s no longer a professor though.”

“Even so, that doesn’t change her essence.”

Frederick didn’t think his feelings would have cooled just because Ensilen had left the religious order.

He remembered Ensilen as she had been—a passionate professor.

“The Professor’s knowledge should be used properly for society. That’s also utilitarian correct.”

Asil clicked his tongue.

That crazy bastard had always been irritating.

Others would get scared and back off on their own with just his moderate glances, but this guy alone pretended to be oblivious and approached the Master until the very end.

How many times had his time with the Master been interrupted because of this guy?

And now he was being troublesome even at a moment when she was no longer a professor.

‘Annoying bastard.’

However, he couldn’t just kick him out carelessly.

If he did that, Rianel would dislike it.

Her private relationships had to be respected.

As Frederick said, he did want to confine her.

He hadn’t wanted to come up from the coastal villa either.

He wanted to stay forever in a place where only the two of them existed.

‘Can’t be helped.’

Asil knew that just as he couldn’t bind Rianel, he couldn’t do so to Frederick either.

Frederick wasn’t particularly smart, but he was the type who was quick to notice things in strange ways.

‘And he’s persistent on top of that.’

Even if he sent him back from here, he might pop up in some unexpected place, or grab onto this fact like a pretext and keep pestering about it.

Since the fact that Ensilen had entered Rianel’s body was a secret, it would be troublesome if this caused a commotion.

“Come this way. Master is currently taking a rest.”

* * *

Rianel was organizing her thoughts in her head.

Learning that the body’s owner might have settled her affairs before dying had made her head complicated.

Suddenly, the Duchess’s letter came to mind.

‘She said that child had agreed to it too…’

Rianel had strangely narrow human relationships. At first, she thought it was because she had a fiery temperament, but looking back, it felt like she had lived as if there was no tomorrow.

‘Of course, it might not have been intentional.’

Rianel believed she had been abandoned because she was a child who expressed little and spoke little.

So to avoid being abandoned anymore, she intentionally displayed her opinions and emotions strongly.

‘Truly inefficient. Doesn’t that just waste unnecessary energy?’

Of course, this was only her opinion, and the body’s owner seemed to have thought differently.

That attitude became her characteristic, and people distanced themselves from her.

However, it didn’t seem to have become her true personality.

In relationships where it wasn’t necessary, for instance in front of Rupert, Rianel didn’t reveal her emotions well either.

Just then.

“Professor!”

“?!?”

“Professor, are you there?”

At the sudden title, Rianel’s shoulders reflexively flinched. Even though she was no longer a professor, habits ingrained in the body didn’t fall away easily.

At that familiar appearance, Frederick’s eyes reddened.

“As I thought, you really are the Professor.”

Asil, already feeling complicated by those fierce eyes, clicked his tongue. He regretted not being able to stop that guy.

“Professor, you’re someone who should shine at the Academy.”

He strode forward and grabbed Rianel’s hands first.

He had thought from the beginning that becoming Empress with such outstanding scholarship made no sense.

“But to think you’re at the Imperial Palace again. I don’t mean to disparage the Professor’s current profession, but this is clearly a waste of talent. It’s a loss to academia and inefficient.”

Asil was dumbfounded.

“Just like whose student, using words like loss and inefficiency.”

“Haha, right? It’s because I learned well.”

Frederick felt embarrassed.

During Ensilen’s tenure, attending her lectures and being in the same department as Asil had been Frederick’s joy and pride.

Of course, his persistent and tenacious attitude toward Asil’s Master hadn’t been welcome.

“Please come back. The Academy is always waiting for the Professor.”

“Master didn’t even graduate from the Academy, yet you’re telling her to stand at the podium. Do you mean she should start from Academy admission?”

To become a professor, one naturally needed to produce results worthy of academic recognition, and minimum educational qualifications were also necessary.

“What’s the problem? If it’s the Professor, she could complete all courses with top honors in one year and even graduate early.”

Asil couldn’t argue back.

If Rianel wanted it, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Even during her school days, she was someone who had set such legends, and those records hadn’t been broken even after her death.

“I have no reason to return.”

“No, why… You used to love standing at the podium.”

Weren’t you more enthusiastic than anyone about helping students, especially those with potential like Asil?

“That life ended with my death.”

It would be a lie to say the fact of failure wasn’t painful. But anyway, she considered it sufficient that she had the opportunity to unfold her ideals.

What was important was this life, this opportunity.

-I hope this time it will be a life without regrets.

Even if it was to fulfill that letter.

“Right now I have a more important task.”

At the word ‘task,’ he, who had once been a student, reflexively shrank back.

“What is that?”

“Confirming the truth about my death.”

“Uh… Didn’t you die of illness?”

That’s what the Imperial Palace had announced.

“It was poisoning.”

As always, Frederick’s eyes widened at the professor’s habit of casually dropping important information without warning.

“Pardon?”

“There are still more hidden truths than what has been clearly revealed.”

That was the only way to avoid dying so futilely again.

This also meant not wasting her new life in vain.

For this, she needed to know how Duchess Vincenheim had regarded her.

‘I should also find out why I died and ended up in Rianel’s body.’

Ensilen was bothered by the fact that she and Rianel had more in common than expected. There must be a reason why she felt no particular sense of alienation despite entering someone else’s body.

“Did you meet all the noble ladies of the Empire when you were a student?”

Frederick was shocked by a different aspect.

Duchess Novantium was famous as her patron, but there were others too?

At this point, it seemed like they could hold a gathering just with the nobles who had met Ensilen.

“Back then, various families came looking for me to recruit me, so it was only natural.”

Frederick clicked his tongue.

“I think I know why you were poisoned, Professor.”

Just as you don’t need to be hit to know it hurts, there are truths you can tell just by looking.

“It’s because of your personality!”

Anyone with intelligence would want to grab the back of their neck after conversing with her.

‘You speak only facts to the point of provoking people’s anger, making it impossible to even argue back!’

Aside from respecting her, that personality was absolutely indefensible!

“I don’t understand what flaws you think my personality has.”

Asil, who had received a death glare, cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Well, honestly, I can’t say it’s good… No, I didn’t say anything, Master.”

Asil added one more comment.

You don’t even make the slightest effort to understand ordinary people.

“…”

The reality of a personality that even Asil wouldn’t defend.

Rianel was rarely at a loss for words.

* * *

Ensilen had met Duchess Vincenheim during her student days.

Rianel expressed her intention to visit the Academy to check related records.

Frederick immediately expressed concern.

“Visiting the Academy is fine, but it would be better if you moved without attracting others’ attention as much as possible.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, you’re a famous figure on campus, Professor.”

Rianel was aware that recently in the Empire, the fact that the former chancellor’s papers were actually Ensilen’s had been revealed, and her achievements were being re-examined along with movements to commemorate her.

The fact that her efforts were finally being recognized, albeit late, was personally meaningful.

“That seems unrelated to my physical body.”

No one would know that the former professor’s soul had entered Rianel’s body.

“No, you’re popular now too, Professor. These days, with things like ‘Introduction to Rough Studies’ and whatnot, the campus is quite noisy…”

He said there was a trend of establishing rather dubious academic disciplines.

“???”

“Well, people want to pursue shortcuts.”

“I wasn’t planning to move around conspicuously anyway.”

Since she hadn’t found a clear connection between Duchess Vincenheim and her death, Rianel planned to investigate secretly.

“Ah, then that’s fortunate.”

A few days later in the evening.

Rianel and Asil carefully entered toward the department office.

At that moment.

Thud-!

She collided head-on with an unfamiliar body.

Her vision shook with the spreading impact.

The person in uniform sat down and screamed, and Rianel also staggered.

“Ahhh!”

“Are you alright.”

Even in this situation, Asil, who looked after his master first, immediately caught Rianel before she could fall.

Then the title of the fallen book caught her eye.

『Circulation of Wealth: A Study on the Sustainable Development of the Empire’s Economy and Wealth Redistribution』

‘That’s what I wrote…’

When Rianel stopped after confirming that fact.

The student who had dropped the book bent down to the floor as if screaming.

“Ahhh, my book!”

He hurriedly picked up the book and brushed off the cover with his sleeve.

He had wanted to meet this author directly, but the person was already deceased. The student resolved this regret by cherishing the book dearly.

He even slept with it, covered it with a blanket at night so it wouldn’t be cold, and lovingly wiped the cover daily to prevent damage.

“What are you going to do! Dust got on my precious book!”

Asil felt both awkwardness and pity.

‘Oh dear.’

That student was doing something he would regret for life.

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