Ch#71
"It would be best to part ways here."
Clois stopped a short distance from the dorm.
As curfew approached, children who had been studying in classrooms or professors' offices were returning all at once.
Among them might be some who had seen him at banquets invited with their parents.
'That would be a problem.'
He didn't want his identity as the emperor revealed.
Otherwise, he couldn't meet Ibi this casually anymore.
People would read unnecessary meaning into every action he took.
He recalled a past incident.
He had paid extra attention a few times to a child born the same year as Evie, wondering if that was how big his daughter would be if she were alive.
Then the palace turned into a nursery, with all sorts of people bringing children the same age as Evie.
Some even borrowed relatives' or others' children if they didn't have their own.
'I can't go through that again.'
It would be horrific for him and certainly not good for Ibi.
Who knew how many unsavory people would swarm around a child specially looked after by the emperor.
"What about you, Professor? Are you heading straight out of the palace?"
"I need to stop by the Main Palace for other business on the way back."
Clois handed Ibi her bag.
At that moment, he smelled the sweet scent again. It was the cookie smell from the professor's office.
'It didn't seem like there were cookies in it.'
If there had been, he would have heard rustling when he carried the bag, but it was clearly full of only books.
'Maybe she put them in during the day.'
That would explain the lingering pastry scent in the professor's office too.
'Next time, I should bring some snacks.'
As Yeongjae Academy received full support, it wouldn't lack pastries for the children.
But they weren't overly abundant, so the cafeteria didn't have a wide variety.
Even when he attended, there had been plenty in quantity but not endless varieties.
Clois remembered how the excited chef had been sending up all sorts of desserts lately as he increased his meal portions.
"Chief attendant, do you think this is an amount one person can eat?"
Clois had asked wearily amid dozens of desserts, and the chief attendant had replied that from next time, only one kind would be brought.
'It would be nice if she could come to the Main Palace with me.'
Then he could feed her every pastry in the empire in the vast, beautiful gardens until she said she couldn't eat any more.
Clois swallowed his regret and waved.
"Then go on in. See you next time."
"You too, Professor!"
Even after greeting each other, the two just stood gazing at one another.
"Aren't you going in?"
"I'll go in after watching you leave, Professor!"
"No. You need to go first."
"But I'm going into the dorm, and you're heading back to work. I'll wave for you."
Thinking that wasn't enough, Ibi made one more promise.
"Until you're out of sight."
He had tried to hold out a bit longer.
But at the cute offer to wave goodbye, Clois couldn't resist.
"Alright then, I'll be off."
He raised both hands in surrender and turned away.
After a few steps, he looked back to see Ibi waving vigorously with one arm raised.
Seeing her keep her promise made him smile unwittingly.
Ibi kept waving until he rounded the corner and vanished from sight.
Even after he was gone.
"Ibi? What are you doing?"
"Airin!"
Turning at the voice from behind, she saw Airin standing with wide eyes.
"I was waving goodbye to Professor Sian."
At those words, Airin looked where Ibi had been staring.
Wondering who could be there in the empty spot.
"I should have come out earlier. Then I could have greeted him too."
"Um, want to go together tomorrow?"
Airin shook her head at Ibi's suggestion.
"No. Tomorrow I'm busy with more supplementary classes too. And I have more studying. I'll meet him after exams."
Airin wasn't uninterested in Professor Sian either.
'That Mana Stone was real.'
The professor who caused such a commotion. Even now, she couldn't fathom why he gave something so precious to his ward.
She had found it strange, but Ibi followed him devotedly.
'She seems to like him more than us, whom she sees every day.'
From Ibi's stories, he was an incredibly kind guardian.
While they had gone home, he had taken her to the seasonal festival and shown her around outside.
'And lots of gifts.'
Ibi had shown her the wooden Squirrel Doll too.
Proudly boasting that she won it herself, somehow resembling the squirrel she drew.
'She hasn't even spent that much time with Professor Sian.'
Yet how did she follow him so well...
She dismissed suspicions that he might be a strange person.
Ibi, young as she was, keenly sensed malice toward her.
If such an Ibi followed him this devotedly, he couldn't be bad.
"Let's go in for now. It's still chilly at night."
Airin rubbed her arms and took Ibi's hand, entering together.
Moments later, Izriella emerged from behind a tree.
'Good. At least I've confirmed that man is Professor Sian.'
As she headed to her room, she recalled the Professor Sian she had seen.
He was more normal than expected. No, far from normal—he was strikingly handsome.
His build evoked a knight more than a professor, tall and lean without an ounce of excess fat.
'No matter how I look at him, he doesn't seem like a professor.'
Then a dorm employee called to Izriella.
"A letter from home. They asked to check it urgently."
Urgent? The letter was from her brother.
'He's really obsessed with this.'
She could guess why.
The Mana Stone story must have piqued her brother's curiosity.
Izriella's father owned many Mana Stones.
Her brother saw it as a noble hobby and frequented auctions to acquire his own.
So naturally, he'd be interested in a Mana Stone causing a stir at Yeongjae Academy.
'He seemed to know something about Professor Sian too.'
Entering her room, Izriella hurriedly tore open the letter.
[To Izriella.
Is there really a Professor Sian at Yeongjae Academy right now? I checked, and the registered 'Sian Rosen' professor at Yeongjae Academy specializes in geology and has definitely returned to his hometown.
Moreover, he's ill and over 70, so he's not recovering easily and has postponed his return to Yeongjae Academy. At this rate, he'll retire completely...]
Izriella's eyes widened.
"Over 70 years old?"
No way. The man Ibi called Professor Sian moments ago was at most late 30s, even if aged generously.
Absolutely not 70. And back in his hometown?
The letter continued that her brother had confirmed multiple times it was Yeongjae Academy's Sian Rosen.
Then who was the man she just saw?
A smile crept across her face.
'Who cares who he is?'
What mattered was that he wasn't a professor.
Yet he was impersonating one, freely entering and exiting Yeongjae Academy.
And claiming to be Ibi Alden's guardian too.
'That brat's hiding something in the professor's office.'
Like before, Ibi had crouched in various school spots, picking things up and stuffing them into her bag.
Today too.
Her bag had been full going in, but when she came out with Professor Sian carrying it, its volume had noticeably decreased.
'And quite a few students have lost items.'
Like the girl who lost her bracelet in the classroom before, many reported missing things around.
Izriella pictured Ibi secretly putting lost items into her bag.
Just imagination, but in her mind, it was already fact.
She jumped up and grabbed the rulebook.
Flipping frantically, her hand stopped.
[Article 17, Clause 1.
Anyone who steals a fellow student's belongings shall be expelled.]
It was exactly the rule Izriella had longed for.
