The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 14

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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 14
Yet Rachel held firm to her convictions. Her unwavering belief that all students must be equal before education.
“This Academy has royalty like you, but it also has students who are not. Within these walls, you are all equal students, but the moment you step beyond them, you cannot escape the station you were born into—a station you did not choose.”
……
“Noah. Have you ever made disparaging remarks about those of a different station?”
Noah glared at Rachel with fierce intensity. A complex silence passed between them.
“It wasn’t disparagement—I was speaking the truth. What’s wrong with calling a lowborn wretch lowborn?”
“That itself is wrong.”
Where should she even begin to reshape this child’s thinking? Rachel swept her hair back from her face.
“You must never condemn another person, no matter the circumstances. Especially not for something they cannot change through effort.”
“Do you even know what that lowborn wretch said to me?”
Noah, who had calmed only slightly, began to grow heated again.
“Then was what you did right? Can you say you acted with honor?”
“Why do you always take his side, Teacher? I don’t have anyone anymore!”
Noah’s voice rose to a cry. Rachel’s expression hardened. If she raised her own voice now, this would spiral into disaster.
“Why do you think I’m not on your side?”
“Because you’re only defending him—you haven’t considered my position at all!”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side. I’m trying to see this situation fairly, from the middle.”
“That’s a lie!”
Noah’s voice echoed through the room with a resonant ring. Rachel watched the child silently, then rose to her feet slowly.
“Then, Noah.”
Rachel held Noah’s gaze.
“Do you wish for me to always take your side, regardless of what you do?”
……!
But Noah only stood there, bristling without a word.
“If that were the way to guide you rightly, I would do it. But that would only ruin you in the end. So I will treat you both with the greatest fairness I’m capable of.”
“Get out of my way!”
At Noah’s shout, Rachel felt Henry stir beyond the door as if to open it.
“Henry, don’t come in.”
Rachel spoke those words while holding Noah’s eyes, her voice carrying clearly to the other side of the door. Beyond it, silence fell.
“I’d like us to see this matter through to a proper conclusion today. Until we do, I’m not leaving this room. And neither are you.”
Noah was no ordinary child—he was a prince. If he reported to the Imperial Palace that his teacher had confined him, her head would not be safe from the executioner’s block.
But she had to steel herself. Before being a prince, this child was her student.
“Will you spend the rest of your life simply growing angry every time something displeases you? Will you never grow at all, forever remaining a child?”
……
Noah said nothing. The words “remaining a child” may have pierced straight through the boy’s heart.
Upper-grade elementary students resist being told they are childish. They admire older students and wish to act with the maturity they possess.
Rachel suspected Noah would be the same, having watched his elder brother, Crown Prince Lucas. Indeed, Noah’s lips pressed into a thin line.
Rachel approached carefully and took Noah’s hand. Fortunately, the boy accepted her touch without resistance.
“Let your agitation settle for a moment, and let’s make today’s event the foundation for your growth.”
She studied Noah’s face intently. His expression, jumbled with conflicting emotions, was nothing but turbulent. There was clearly a shift taking place in his heart.
“You will meet many people in the years ahead, and you will become entangled with them in countless ways. Through this process, you will sometimes be hurt, and sometimes you will be comforted.”
……
“Though you were hurt today, let’s treat this wound together so it doesn’t fester.”
……
“Will you trust your teacher just this once? I promise I won’t let you down.”
Rachel hooked her pinky around Noah’s, pressed their thumbs together firmly, and then gently smoothed down the boy’s disheveled hair.
His hair was damp with sweat from his agitation.
“Here—this is the letter I mentioned.”
Rachel drew out a letter from her pocket and handed it to Noah. He stared at it without moving.
“Your friend who wrote this letter is ready to meet you. Read it slowly, and then let’s go meet them.”
……
“You’ll go, won’t you?”
Rachel asked gently as she stroked Noah’s hair.
Noah, who had offered no answer, simply gazed at the letter.
* * *
“Sigh. That was exhausting.”
As Rachel sank into the plush chair in the principal’s office, the fatigue that had plagued her for hours seemed to lift away at once.
She recalled the events from hours before.
‘I’m truly sorry for speaking such horrible words to you.’
Mare fidgeted with her hands clasped in front of her, and the gesture—laden with embarrassment and awkwardness—caught Noah’s attention.
Noah, mirroring her movements, brought his own hands together and fidgeted as well.
‘…I’m sorry for saying those awful things about you.’
She’d worried, for a moment, that seeing Mare might change Noah’s mind.
But fortunately, though Noah felt awkward, he accepted her apology and acknowledged his own mistake.
“Miss, have I grown that much?”
Noah looked up at her with clear eyes—relieved yet somehow bashful—and in them Rachel’s reflection shone bright and full.
“Yes, you’ve grown. Quite a lot, in fact. Almost like an older brother now.”
Rachel smiled warmly and ruffled his hair, her touch carrying a quiet promise: no matter what anyone said, she would be a pillar of strength for him.
“Children do grow, don’t they.”
Rachel smiled softly as she reflected on how much more mature Noah had become.
Through the window, the sky had already turned dusky. After managing such a significant task from morning onward, she found herself craving something sweet—chocolate, candy, macarons, things like that.
‘This month’s finances aren’t in too dire a state, at least.’
While macarons might be difficult, surely candy wouldn’t be out of reach.
Rachel made her decision and rose from her seat at once. She planned to buy candy while the children slept.
Knock, knock.
“It’s me, Miss.”
The voice belonged to Henry. When Rachel opened the door, he smiled brightly and held out something in his hand.
“I came because I wanted to give you something.”
It was wrapped in rough paper, its contents impossible to discern.
“What is this?”
“I thought it might be of some help to you, so… well, please enjoy it.”
With that, Henry immediately left the hallway.
Rachel blinked her wide eyes at the gift in her hands, then closed the door and unwrapped the paper. Inside was a bundle of candy—exactly what she’d been wanting.
She knew Henry cared for her, but each time his feelings showed so plainly, she felt a pang of guilt. It seemed she was taking advantage of his affection.
‘If it weren’t for me, he’d have no reason to stay here.’
Rachel let out a shallow sigh. This guilt, she suspected, would linger for some time.
* * *
Lucas was the perfect Crown Prince by everyone’s measure.
He conducted imperial affairs without hesitation in place of the Emperor, who lay ill, and showed no lack of skill in commanding the military.
Everyone in the Empire believed he would become the greatest Emperor.
‘The demon beasts causing trouble in the distant provinces again—that’s the problem.’
Lucas furrowed his brow as he read the report that had come up from the provinces.
The Empire was the largest nation on the continent. Its national strength was incomparably greater than anywhere else.
Yet for all that, there was one thing the Empire lacked.
The number of Mages was insufficient. The Empire produced scarcely five or six Mages each year.
Trying to manage such a vast Empire with little more than a hundred Mages was woefully inadequate.
‘We need more people who can channel Mana.’
Only nobles who possessed Mana could enter the Imperial Academy. There were precious few nobles to begin with, and among them, even fewer who could channel Mana.
‘At this rate, I can’t imagine what will happen ten years from now.’
Many nations were rising to rival the Empire. Analleo in particular, with its abundance of Mages, was strengthening its national defense year after year.
Lucas, lost in thought, rose from his seat. He intended to have some tea and clear his mind. Then a letter caught his eye.
‘A guardian conference…’
It was a letter from Rachel requesting a parent-teacher conference. The detailed account of matters concerning Noah revealed just how much affection she held for the child.
‘She’s quite peculiar. Eccentric, even.’
The day they had taken a walk together, her reaction had been quite amusing. Lucas smiled as he thought of Rachel.
It was a night he looked forward to the parent-teacher conference.

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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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