The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 9

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

Episode 9
“Noah has a habit of losing his composure when angered. More than a dozen instructors have been replaced because of it. I anticipated something like this would happen eventually—but they all proved unable to manage him. It seems you’ve handled the boy rather well. Without letting him get hurt.”
“Noah did act wrongly, that’s true.”
Rachel spoke with conviction. Somehow, she had the sense that this man—Crown Prince Lucas—was someone she could reason with.
“But there were certainly circumstances that justified his anger. That said, of course he shouldn’t act as he pleases. Noah is still only learning how to master his emotions.”
Rachel believed in the power of education. Anyone, given proper instruction, could grow into a good person.
That conviction had drawn her to teaching.
“I intend to teach Noah properly. So that he becomes someone who won’t be swept away by feeling, someone who can resolve problems through dialogue.”
He was still a child unable to govern his emotions, but that was precisely why he needed more patience—something Rachel understood better than anyone.
“So you’re not planning to dismiss Noah.”
“Of course not.”
He’s my source of funding, after all.
She hid the rest behind an awkward smile.
Lucas swept a hand through his hair. His mind was likely turning over the matter.
“Your Highness, do you understand what education between teachers and parents means?”
“Education between teachers and parents?”
She had studied extensively, reading numerous books to prepare for meaningful parent consultations. Rachel met his gaze steadily, her eyes bright with purpose.
“Education at school connects to the home, and education at home connects back to school. The two are inseparable. Therefore, teachers and parents each bear the duty to educate the child from their own position.”
“You’re saying you need my help?”
“Yes. Your active interest and support are essential. Of course, I will do my utmost at the school as well.”
Lucas regarded Rachel quietly for a moment, then smiled faintly.
“Now I’m curious what it is you’d have me do.”
“You mentioned you would visit the school often?”
“I did.”
“Come more frequently. Build relationships with the children. And please read every letter I send—without fail.”
Rachel compiled daily records of her students’ progress and sent them to their parents in letter form.
What positive changes they’d shown, what difficulties they faced.
Even the royal children were no exception.
“If you wish, you may send replies.”
Though in practice, very few parents bothered to write back.
Yet something told her that Crown Prince Lucas would be the type to do so.
“Letters, you say…”
Lucas leaned his chin against his hand, considering. His gaze drifted toward Rachel.
As if he could see straight through her. A brief silence hung between them.
“Then I shall. I look forward to your letters.”
Rachel felt an inexplicable tension creep up her spine.
* * *
That night, Noah sat on his bed, staring blankly at the wall.
Headmistress Rachel had given him time to collect his thoughts after his outburst, but truthfully, he felt no genuine remorse.
The other boy had provoked him first, after all.
He’d simply played along, feigning obedience and reflection, just to escape that place as quickly as possible.
‘This is unbearable.’
Noah hated this school.
Used to having everything at the Imperial Palace, trapped now in this cramped manor, the confinement was maddening. The servants there had trembled at his word; the adults here were stiff and unpleasant, as if they didn’t know who he was at all.
‘I want to go to Grandfather’s house.’
His maternal grandfather’s residence, far from the Capital, was his true home. He’d lived there from before his hundredth day until quite recently.
No one there nagged him. No one forced propriety on him. It was a place of lawlessness for Theo and Noah alone, and the single lesson Noah had learned there was this:
You are noble of blood. You are of the Imperial Family.
His grandfather, so proud that his house had produced an empress, had constantly reminded his grandsons of their bloodline’s greatness. He need not even speak it directly—his very life breathed superiority, in how he dismissed commonplace tasks as beneath them, how he sneered at ordinary behavior as peasant conduct.
Thus, in Noah’s young mind, the common folk became contemptible creatures.
His maternal grandfather had been a knight—a highly decorated one.
He’d hoped to raise sons to follow in his footsteps, but fate had thwarted him. He had only a daughter.
The marriage was bitter. He disrespected and oppressed his wife, lamenting whenever he could that other men fathered multiple sons while he couldn’t manage even one.
When his only daughter ascended as empress, he seemed briefly to soften—but it was fleeting. Soon he resumed tormenting his wife, complaining that he had no son-knight to serve beside the empress.
They lived together out of necessity. Their discourse consisted of shouting and mockery.
So when his daughter died giving birth to Noah, leaving him and his wife to raise Theo and Noah together by sacred decree, a single shared purpose finally united them.
The grandfather had done his best to raise the boys. Yet he could not shed the old habit of belittling his wife, and he would raise his voice at her even in front of the children.
He seemed unaware of how deeply his cruelty cut.

Not realizing for a moment what effect such things might have on children who couldn’t yet speak properly.
Wasn’t it said that one should be careful even about the water children drink?
Growing up between two guardians fraught with anxiety, Theo and Noah each twisted in their own way.
Theo inherited his maternal grandfather’s sarcasm; Noah, his capacity for violence.
The two boys absorbed their grandfather’s flaws slowly, then with unmistakable clarity—denied even the chance to mingle with other children their age, they grew like frogs in a well, like flowers in a hothouse.
And so the years passed, and passed again, until Theo turned eleven and Noah passed ten. Perhaps it seemed they had grown enough.
The Emperor summoned his two princes to the Imperial Palace.
“I don’t want to go!”
Noah gripped his maternal grandfather’s hand tightly. For the first time in his short life, he would be separated from him. He harbored not the slightest wish to leave the man who was his entire world.
Yet it was impossible to disobey the command of his father, the Emperor.
“Go and settle in well, and I’ll come visit you. Don’t worry too much.”
His grandfather accepted everything, then held Theo and Noah close. As always, his embrace was warm.
None of the three could have foreseen that this embrace would be their last.
The moment Noah first entered the Imperial Palace, he wanted to turn back time. For he had barely crossed the threshold when word reached him of his maternal grandfather’s death.
His grandfather, usually in perfect health, had suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed. He breathed his last that very moment, and from the shock his grandmother too fell gravely ill, so Noah heard.
It’s all my fault.
Grandfather fell ill because I left that place and went to the Imperial Palace.
Noah resented everything. And so he grew more aggressive still.
He hated the world and spent all day sharpening his edge, unaware that the Emperor and Crown Prince worried for him.
“In two days’ time, you will begin attending school.”
One day, his older brother, the Crown Prince, unilaterally declared that Noah must attend the Knight Academy. Noah was not pleased. School, of all things.
‘Why should I?’
Noah resisted at once. Unless the Crown Prince offered a logical reason why he should attend, he had resolved not to move an inch.
As if reading his mind, the Crown Prince offered no argument whatsoever. He simply brought Noah to the Knight Academy.
Since he’d been taken to a school he had no wish to attend, it was only natural that he felt no joy.
‘Trapped in this wretched place. Absurd.’
Who did he think he was? He was a prince of the Imperial Family, bearer of royal blood. And yet here he was, forced to live in the same space as commoners.
Displeasure crawled through every inch of his body. Noah clenched his fists around his bedding and made a vow.
By whatever means necessary, he would escape this godforsaken place.

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