The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 34

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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 34
Knock, knock.
“Lucas.”
At the sound of his name, the door that had been closed swung open gently, and Lucas appeared in the doorway.
“Have you finished sorting through your thoughts?”
He ushered Rachel inside and asked softly.
“Yes. I’ve given it a lot of consideration.”
The air in the room felt far denser than it had the night before.
“So. What conclusion did all that deliberation bring you to?”
At his gentle tone, Rachel felt a knot of guilt tighten in her chest.
The Imperial Palace—such an enormous opportunity—and the Crown Prince’s offer to have her as a talent. But Rachel steadied her trembling breath and lifted her head.
“I’m sorry, but I believe I must stay and protect this school.”
“Protect the school, you say.”
“The children are changing. There are surely far better teachers than me in the empire, but I’m confident that I’m the only one who can truly see into the hearts of these children right now.”
There was unshakeable conviction in Rachel’s voice.
It wasn’t simply about repaying a debt. The time she’d spent with the children had become not a chain around her ankles, but the roots that sustained her.
“I’m truly grateful for your offer, but I will stay beside the children.”
“I see.”
Lucas exhaled softly. At the sight of his expression, Rachel found herself at a loss for words, so sorry did she feel. Yet she did not waver in her resolve.
“I understand. If that is truly your wish, then I must respect it. Forcing you to come would be pointless if your heart remains here anyway.”
Fortunately, Lucas respected Rachel’s decision.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Rachel managed a thin smile, thinking that her relationship with Lucas would grow awkward from now on.
* * *
Noah was a child full of discontent. He resented not being able to live as he pleased, and he resented the narrowness of his choices.
Had it been up to him, he would have wielded his strength however he wished and lived recklessly, but since attending school, he had learned that such behavior was unacceptable.
For a boy with no manners to speak of, it was remarkable progress indeed.
‘Troublesome as it is, there’s work to be done, I suppose.’
Back at the Imperial Palace, he had ignored whatever his tutors said, but things were different at Swan School.
Noah followed the school rules despite his complaints—though it would be more accurate to say he was following along because the other children were doing so.
‘Regardless of anything else, I do what others do.’
Noah held himself in check by comparing himself to the other children. He was directly benefiting from the structure of group living.
Yet this hadn’t been the case from the beginning. He’d thought hundreds of times a day about leaving school.
He wanted to escape the school and rest thoroughly at his Maternal Grandfather’s House, without anyone’s interference.
‘But that’s impossible.’
Noah let go of the idea easily. No matter how he thought about it, going to his grandfather’s house lacked practicality.
‘But why does Lucas…?’
He had cleanly abandoned the idea of visiting his grandfather’s place. He’d concluded that staying only where you wanted to stay was impossible.
Yet Lucas seemed different. He was free to stay wherever he pleased, for as long as he wished.
‘Why is the eldest brother still at school? And not just for a day or two—he keeps staying.’
Noah’s curiosity wouldn’t die. He wondered whether even a Crown Prince could simply abandon the Imperial Palace on a whim. Even if it were acceptable for him or Theo, the eldest brother’s position in the palace was entirely different.
Before his curiosity could explode, Noah approached Lucas. Finding him reviewing documents in his room, Lucas greeted the boy with a gentle smile.
“Noah, what’s the matter?”
“I’m curious about something.”
Lucas rose from his seat as if ready to answer anything, and stepped closer to Noah. Noah blinked his large eyes and opened his mouth.
“Why aren’t you going back to the Imperial Palace?”
“Is that what brought you here?”
“Yeah.”
Lucas sat down on the sofa. Was the conversation going to be a long one?
Noah, who had hesitated for a moment, also sat on the sofa. Between them, a teapot rested on the table. Lucas picked it up without a word.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Yeah. Just a little.”
Lucas poured tea into a cup. It was Lil’r Region Black Tea, Noah’s favorite.
Noah felt pleased that his thoughtful brother had remembered his taste. He savored the aroma slowly as he sipped.
“If I said it was because I wanted to watch over you all, would you believe me?”
Lucas spoke after setting down the teacup he had picked up.
“But you can’t expect me to believe you’d stay at this school just for that reason.”
Noah narrowed his brows. That explanation alone wasn’t convincing at all.
“Is that so? Then what do you think the reason is?”
“What I think the reason is?”
“Tell me what you think—why do you suppose I’m staying at this school?”
“Hmm….”
I’d never really thought deeply about it. I’d simply wondered why he was here in the first place.
“Because you don’t trust us?”
Noah offered up a fairly plausible answer. By his older brother’s exacting standards, Noah and Theo would certainly qualify as untrustworthy.
So he must be staying at the school like this—surveillance disguised as something else. Noah pressed his case.
“You could think of it that way.”
Instead of answering yes or no, Lucas shifted the subject slightly. At this point, Noah was growing genuinely impatient. He leaned his body a little closer toward Lucas.
“Brother, I’m really dying to know.”
“I’m curious about how you’re all doing. That’s the answer I can give you. I’m genuinely curious about how well you’re adapting to school life.”
Lucas spoke as he brought his teacup to his lips. Noah’s brow furrowed. No matter how he turned it over in his mind, that didn’t feel like the real reason.
The conversation with Lucas continued. Noah pressed him from every angle, but his brother’s answer remained consistent: he was here to look after them.
‘That can’t possibly be the real reason.’
Back in his own room, Noah threw himself onto his bed and kept thinking.
‘There has to be something else.’
He turned the matter over and over in his head, determined to puzzle out why Lucas remained at the school.
‘Wait….’
He bolted upright on the bed. Then his eyes fell on the 100 Questions 100 Answers Book he’d received as a birthday gift.
‘I heard that Rachel and my brother bought that together.’
When the Crown Prince required something, he commanded a chamberlain or lady-in-waiting to fetch it.
Those who received his orders would move as swiftly as possible to procure the finest goods and present them to Lucas. That was how things worked in the Imperial Palace.
‘But this time, my brother went to the General Store and bought the thing himself.’
Even outside the Imperial Palace, the fact that Lucas was the Crown Prince didn’t change.
Which meant that if he ordered a servant to bring something, they would fetch it straightaway.
‘So why did he go with his teacher to the General Store to buy it himself?’
A question took shape in Noah’s mind. He furrowed his brow and tried to reason out the answer.
‘The Practical Experience Learning is strange too.’
Noah’s frown deepened as he recalled that outing.
‘He didn’t have to go. But he did, and he experienced how commoners live.’
Lucas had joined the Practical Experience Learning and helped the children cut wheat. The Crown Prince had done work that only commoners would normally do.
‘Buying things at the General Store, cutting wheat, staying at school for so long….’
Noah racked his brain searching for a connection between these three things. And at the end of that chain of thought came,
‘Brother… could it be that you’re interested in how commoners live?’
It was Noah’s conjecture.
‘Could it be that you’re actually thinking of abandoning the Crown Prince’s throne and living like a commoner…?’
He’d heard that decades ago, there was a princess who fled the Imperial Palace, declaring she would marry a commoner.
It had been such a shocking scandal that the Imperial Palace had hushed it up, and it survived only as whispered rumor—but Noah knew the story was true.
‘My brother… my perfect older brother is taking an interest in commoner life?’
Noah’s expression grew rigid.
‘Could this possibly be real…?’
No matter how much he turned it over, he couldn’t think of any other explanation.
‘I need to stay calm. I should talk to Theo about this.’
He couldn’t carry something this serious alone. Noah rushed out of his room.
He had to find Theo, his second-oldest brother.

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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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