The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 86

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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 86
Lucas Maxim had been raised with unwavering purpose to become Crown Prince. Born of wise Empress blood rather than the cunning Emperor’s, he had distinguished himself across every discipline from childhood.
The Emperor jealously resented his own son. Absurdly so.
He tested his heir repeatedly, sometimes subjecting the boy to trials far beyond his years, as though to torment him.
At such moments, anyone might have shown the strain. Lucas never did. Instead, he regarded each trial as a step in his own becoming.
For a boy who had grown wise too quickly, ambition crystallized into a single purpose: to protect his younger siblings in place of their departed mother, and to secure the throne without incident. For this, he stood ready to do whatever was required.
When he entered a betrothal with Katie—a woman wholly unsuited to him—he moved with purely political calculation. It seemed the wiser course, he reasoned, to obey the Emperor’s will for now.
Marriage would not take place until all was prepared; whoever sat beside him until then scarcely mattered.
That was his thinking before he met Rachel Swan.
“Swan Knight Academy?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Intriguing.”
When one of his trusted advisors first mentioned Swan Knight Academy, Lucas could not have foreseen what was coming. He had only thought that if the institution could improve his siblings in any way, it hardly mattered that it lay beyond the Imperial Palace.
“Rachel Swan.”
When he first encountered her, a faint curiosity had stirred. But it was a small spark, soon swallowed by the demands of his days.
Within days, Rachel had vanished from his thoughts.
At what moment had she begun to seep into his world?
He found himself lingering at the Residence under the pretext of seeing his siblings—a senseless decision, yet he made it as though enchanted. He wanted to observe Rachel Swan more closely, to come to know her.
“I love spending time with the children. Changing someone’s life is truly meaningful work.”
When asked if the work exhausted her, Rachel had answered with a gentle smile, her sincerity unmistakable and unguarded. Lucas read the truth in her words. Before his eyes, she shone.
“Helping those who need it, improving their ways—I love all of it.”
Every word she spoke was weighted with genuine feeling, her eyes crinkling as she smiled. That moment, he thought, was when his heart had begun to give itself to her.
He looked forward to their conversations. A simple touch of hands, an arm linked with his—such small intimacies sent his spirit soaring.
Once he understood that all of it stemmed from loving her, each day became electric with possibility. He could scarcely imagine a day without Rachel Swan. The simple act of opening his eyes brought joy—the prospect of seeing her again.
“I care for you very much.”
So it was that he could speak to her with perfect honesty: that he loved her, that she dwelt in the depths of his heart.
He waited for her answer. In that brief span of time, breath seemed to abandon him as he waited for her, desperately hoping she would give him the answer he longed for.
“Rachel.”
“…Yes, Lucas.”
“Won’t you be selfish with me, just a little?”
Lucas’s low voice reached her.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
……
“Set aside what’s practical. Tell me only what your heart says. The rest—I will handle.”
Lucas spoke with measured calm. Rachel nodded.
“Be a little selfish. Think only of what you feel.”
Words so honeyed they could bewitch anyone. How could she not waver? Rachel found herself nodding again, entranced.
A mere baron’s daughter becoming the Crown Prince’s betrothed—a truly historic event unfolding before her very eyes.
* * *
The Imperial Palace erupted in turmoil.
Rachel Swan, a baron’s daughter, had become the Crown Prince’s betrothed. In one stroke, Katie, descended from the Duke Family, had been displaced.
With Katie stripped of her position—Katie who had the Empress’s backing—the Empress grew furious. She summoned the Crown Prince at once, but Lucas politely refused.
The Empress nearly collapsed from the blow. Robbed even of this small satisfaction, she gnashed her teeth in fury, swearing she would have her revenge one day.
Those who had stood with the Crown Prince, meanwhile, welcomed Rachel. Exhausted by Katie’s misdeeds, they saw Rachel as the better woman. Among them, naturally, were Theo and Noah.
“Teacher!”
“Is it true you got engaged to our brother?!”
Theo and Noah rushed to Rachel, bombarding her with questions. She nodded awkwardly by way of answer, and the children shrieked with delight, bouncing up and down where they stood.
“I always knew you’d be a betrothed!”
“There’s no one as good as you are!”
The two boys vied to sing Rachel’s praises. Standing before the subject of their flattery, they lavished compliments upon her. Rachel felt an embarrassed warmth creep up her neck.
But the moment passed, and she quickly composed herself, offering the children a bright smile.
“But you know it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still your teacher, right?”
“We know! That’s what makes it even better!”
“You’ll be our teacher and our family at the same time!”
Though no betrothal ceremony had yet taken place, the children were already speaking of family.
These two had lost family members one by one since earliest childhood. And their only father had been no comfort to them—merely a villain who tormented the eldest brother they could trust.
To them, a new family was simply a welcome thing. Especially one embodied by someone they already loved.
“Then when will the betrothal ceremony be? I hope it’s held grandly—so everyone in the Empire knows!”
“Why can’t you just get married right away? I’ll be your witness! I heard you can get married with just a witness, even without other preparations!”
The two children pestered Rachel with questions. She found herself with no easy answer. The decision, after all, was not hers to make.
“Should we ask him?”
“Should we?”
Finding it difficult to get a straight answer from Rachel, the children quickly rose to their feet. And it was in that very moment—the door opened and Lucas entered.
“I heard you two have been giving your teacher a hard time.”
“Brother!”
“What are you doing here?!”
Lucas’s sudden appearance startled the children. But they weren’t the only ones surprised. Rachel’s eyes widened in shock as well.
“Brother, you’re the best. I’m totally in favor of you getting betrothed to the teacher!”
“Me too, me too!”
The two children voiced their opinions. Unadorned by any exaggeration, their words sent Rachel’s spirits soaring once more—so much so that she found herself wishing days like this would never end.
“But what brings you here, really? You didn’t come just to see us, did you?”
Theo pressed Lucas again. At that, Lucas reached over and ruffled the boy’s hair before speaking.
“There’s somewhere I need to go with your teacher.”
“Where?”
“The Temple of the Sun God.”
“The Temple of the Sun God…?”
Until that moment, Rachel had been sitting without particular thought. But at the mention of the Temple of the Sun God, her lips parted slightly.
“Is it what I think it is…?”
She didn’t know much about this world, but she understood clearly what the Temple of the Sun God oversaw.
‘The Oath of Truth for new bonds….’
More precisely, when people entered a betrothal or marriage, they would swear the sincerity of their vows before God. What else could his invitation to go to the temple together mean, now that he had accepted her as his betrothed?
With so much opposition to the betrothal, he meant to take the initiative and swear their bond before God.
His resolve ran that deep.
Having read Lucas’s intention, Rachel’s face flushed crimson.
“Rachel, I’d like for you to go to the temple with me.”
Lucas, his mind already made up, made the request to Rachel.
Rachel quickly nodded. Since things had come to this, she too was prepared to face it head-on.

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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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