38 - Can I Cry Now?
Episode 38
Ibi was still taking classes alone.
When she went to history class, the children who had arrived earlier made it obvious that they didn't want her to sit next to them.
In the end, Ibi had to sit in the corner, even though she had arrived quite early.
It was the same after class.
Everyone went to the cafeteria in groups of twos and threes, but Ibi went inside alone.
Because everyone crowded in during the short time between morning and evening, there were no seats in the cafeteria.
Ibi ended up taking a packaged sandwich and a drink to eat outside.
Then she found a quiet place to sit.
There were people watching Ibi from afar.
"There, it's Ibi."
Ruska, who was looking out the window, stuck close and pulled Arcel.
Arcel coldly brushed off Ruska's hand, which was pulling at his collar, and straightened his clothes.
"So?"
Even as he spoke in an indifferent voice, Arcel's gaze turned to the window.
"Under that tree over there. Do you see?"
There was Ibi eating a sandwich alone where Ruska was pointing.
"Ah."
When Arcel acknowledged, Ruska clicked his tongue.
"When I saw her last time, she didn't seem very close to the other kids, and she's still alone."
"She's a commoner student and didn't make any friends before coming here, so she's probably being ostracized."
It was the first time the Academy for the Gifted had opened in a long time. The nobles were desperate to get their children or relatives in by any means.
But a commoner child had taken a spot that their own hadn't been able to get into, so they couldn't possibly look kindly on her.
Even though it was a spot she had earned with her own abilities.
"Let's go."
"Why?"
"Why else? I feel sorry for her. And why are you being so cold again when you went to look for Ibi with me last time?"
At Ruska's words, Arcel looked at Ruska as if he was pathetic.
"I went to look for her then because I thought there might be something serious going on. And I stayed with her for two days after that. I think I've done my part."
"Wow, you can say such heartless things so easily."
As Ruska spoke as if he was fed up, Arcel said with his face still expressionless.
"Just the fact that we were together last time probably earned us the animosity of other students, right?"
"I know."
"If you know, then restrain yourself now. If you take care of that child with unnecessary meddling, it will only make things harder for her. Or are you going to keep hanging around with her from now on?"
Even as he said that, Arcel's gaze was fixed on Ibi, who was sitting alone.
Did she get it from the cafeteria? She was munching away at a sandwich as big as her head.
There was no sign of discouragement from being alone.
Rather, she seemed natural, as if she was used to this situation.
That fact bothered Arcel.
What was so natural about being in that state?
Just as he was getting annoyed for no reason, Ruska replied in a carefree voice.
"Should I? That's not a bad idea?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"What else? You asked if I was going to keep hanging around with her, right? Then that's what I'll do. Hey, I'm going to go to Ibi. You stay here. Bye."
Ruska patted Arcel on the shoulder, slung his school uniform jacket over his shoulder, and quickly went outside.
"Ruska... Haa..."
Arcel, who was about to call out to Ruska, let out a long sigh.
He kept teasing him, asking if he was interested in her.
No matter how he looked at it, Ruska was the one who was interested.
Arcel knew that it was better to just leave Ibi alone.
In the current situation, approaching her himself or Ruska would clearly have a negative impact. He knew that very well, but...
"Damn it."
Arcel, who was about to focus on what he had been doing, saw Ruska running up to Ibi and saying something to her, and ended up getting up from his seat.
It would be better for him to stop that idiot before he made things worse.
'It reminds me of when I was in upper school.'
Ibi recalled the past as she ate her sandwich alone.
At first, she was in charge of simple cleaning at the upper school to help the Poorhouse.
Until then, the children at the upper school had not paid much attention to Ibi.
Just a poor child from the Poorhouse who came to clean.
However, when Ibi listened to their classes through the window and memorized them, and the Headmaster found out and she started taking classes with them, the situation changed.
From then on, the upper school students openly showed hostility.
Younger than them, and having started studying later.
Moreover, the child from the Poorhouse, who couldn't get any help, was overtaking them at a terrifying speed, so they felt fear.
That fear manifested as small and large acts of violence.
At first, they threw wads of paper, but later they threw small stones.
They would deliberately bump into her when she passed through the hallway, and they would put sticky resin on the chair Ibi sat on.
At that time, Ibi realized that it was better when they treated her like air.
'I used to eat alone like this back then.'
When Ibi went to upper school, the Headmaster of the Poorhouse packed her boiled potatoes for lunch every day.
During the students' mealtime, Ibi always ate potatoes outside alone.
After all, she wouldn't hear anything good even if she was there, and they might take her potatoes as a prank and throw them away somewhere.
'Compared to then, there's no one throwing anything now, and I can eat more.'
Ibi looked at the sandwich in her hand with a satisfied face.
The reason she couldn't bring herself to tell the Headmaster until the end about coming to the Academy for the Gifted was, of course, the food.
When she was at the Poorhouse, she shared food with several children, so Ibi tried to eat only a little, suppressing her desire to eat more.
But not here. When she went to the cafeteria, it was full of ingredients she had never seen before in her life.
There was enough for the Academy for the Gifted children and even the staff to eat and still have leftovers.
So, for the first time, she picked up as much food as she wanted.
The result was the sandwich she was holding in her hand now.
It was so thick that it was hard to bite into at once with her small mouth, filled with ham, cheese, butter, egg salad, and vegetables.
'Delicious.'
But she soon became gloomy.
'I wish I could send the leftover food here to the Poorhouse.'
The food was like heaven to Ibi, but there were many children at the Academy for the Gifted who didn't even want to touch it, asking how they could eat such food.
So there was a lot of food left over and thrown away in the cafeteria.
Ibi's heart ached every time she saw the food being thrown away.
Things that she and her friends had tried to eat even one more bite of were now going to be trash here.
'Should I pack some cookies later?'
That was when Ibi was thinking that.
"Hello, Ibi!"
Ibi was surprised by the sudden voice and turned her head.
There was Ruska waving his hand with a smile.
Ibi jumped up and bowed to him.
"Lord Ruska!"
"How have you been? It hasn't been a few days, but it feels like it's been a long time. The schedule on the boys' dormitory side was so busy that I wanted to ask you what classes you were taking, but I didn't have time. What classes are you taking with which professors?"
Ibi was flustered by Ruska's grinning words.
She thought that there would be no more reason to meet after he had taken care of her last time.
But he had come to find her and say hello in person like this.
"I told you to stop it, Ruska."
"Oh, you came?"
At Arcel's voice from behind, Ruska raised his hand, saying it as if he knew he would come.
Ibi's eyes widened even more when Arcel appeared.
Even though she hadn't been socializing with people much in the past few days, Ibi had heard stories about Arcel and Ruska here and there.
The young masters of the most powerful families in the Empire.
And the people most likely to become the Emperor's adopted sons.
For Ibi, they were people so high up that it was difficult to even look at them, let alone talk to them.
So she was worried that she might have done something rude to such people.
As Ibi was flustered, not knowing how to act, Ruska asked again.
"What classes are you taking? Oh, by the way, don't apply for Professor Aindel's math class. Even the same math class, that professor teaches it really boringly."
"Oh, I'm not taking that one. I'm taking Professor Maless's class..."
"Oh, that's great! What about history class? Philosophy?"
Ibi blurted out the classes she had applied for in response to Ruska's barrage of questions.
Then Ruska said to Arcel.
"You heard everything, right? Since there's still a course correction period left, we're going to change our classes to this, okay?"
"Why would I take that class with..."
"Excuse me? Why?"
Before Arcel could say anything, Ibi exclaimed in surprise.
Anyone could see that she had an expression that asked why on earth they would do such a thing.
Arcel felt a little resentful at Ibi's reaction.
