Ch#78
Professor Sian.
At that call, everyone's gaze turned to him.
‘This person?’
Airin widened her eyes in surprise.
When Ibi had said Professor Sian was more handsome than Arcel, she had thought there was no way inside.
As the daughter of the Terins family, Airin had grown up surrounded by beautiful and precious things since childhood.
Thus, she naturally had a discerning eye.
Especially since her own appearance was quite striking, she had rarely felt moved by others.
But when she first saw Arcel, she had honestly been awestruck inwardly.
His looks were impeccably refined, both objectively and subjectively.
Yet Ibi had flatly stated that Professor Sian was far more handsome.
She had called Arcel pretty, but if compared again between Professor Sian and Arcel, she would have subtly sided with Professor Sian.
‘Ibi just likes that professor too much, so she said that.’
Being a young child, she probably just saw the person she liked best as the most handsome.
Or perhaps her standards of beauty differed from others.
But now, seeing this Professor Sian, she understood why Ibi had insisted he was more handsome than Arcel.
From the moment she laid eyes on him, she couldn't look away. Not just Airin—the other students seemed the same.
They weren't whispering about who he was; they couldn't even close their mouths.
Tall stature, sturdy build, and an inexplicable air of intimidation.
He was someone who made heads bow involuntarily.
‘A professor…… really?’
Airin recalled the professors she had seen at Yeongjae Academy.
They each had a presence varying by experience and age.
But they all shared that unique feel of being called professor.
Yet Professor Sian had none of that same vibe as the others.
His aura felt more like the knights she had seen during palace tours than a professor.
Was it his physique? But other professors larger than Professor Sian didn't give off that feeling.
And even sharper and more intimidating than the palace knights.
‘Not a professor……’
Realizing that, Airin took a step back and eyed him warily.
First, she needed help from others.
‘Arcel or Ruska at least.’
Though they usually muttered for her to stay away from Ibi, she knew well how much support those two provided.
Airin turned her head to find them.
“Huh……?”
Then she sensed something off about the two.
Arcel and Ruska were staring at Professor Sian with eyes full of disbelief.
The issue was that their bewilderment differed from hers in nature.
As if someone who absolutely shouldn't be here had appeared, they looked shocked—and Airin caught on.
‘Someone they know?’
But why were they so surprised? Was he one of the capital's most notorious criminals despite his looks? But no matter how she looked, he didn't seem like it.
While Airin was panicking like that, Ruska and Arcel were truly flustered.
Naturally, the two had recognized Clois the moment he entered.
So they couldn't believe their own eyes.
The Professor Sian whom Ibi had praised endlessly was His Majesty the Emperor?
Frozen for a moment, the two belatedly recalled the etiquette to observe before the emperor.
As they moved to bow their heads, Clois lightly raised a hand toward them.
It meant not to.
Realizing the emperor had no intention of revealing his identity yet, they awkwardly stood in place with mouths shut.
Clois walked through the parting crowd and stood before Ibi.
“Ibi.”
At his call, the trembling Ibi raised her head.
Clutching the dented paper box, the blood-smeared child's appearance was utterly wretched.
Clois knelt on one knee. Now the mess on Ibi's face came into sharper view.
He raised a hand and wiped the still-dripping nosebleed with his sleeve.
“Professor, your clothes……”
Red stains marred the clean shirt, but he paid no mind and continued cleaning Ibi's face.
But it wouldn't clean easily, so he turned his head and ordered,
“Find something to wipe with.”
“Yes.”
Arcel replied politely and turned. Ruska did the same.
The students, who had been dazedly staring at the sudden stranger, finally realized something was off.
This Professor Sian was issuing commands so naturally, and the two most noble among them were obediently following.
As if it were the most obvious thing.
Soon Arcel searched the surroundings and found a clean cloth, which Ruska took and ran to wet in the bathroom before handing it politely to Clois.
Clois wiped Ibi's face with a stern expression.
Once the blood was cleaned, the red handprints on her cheeks stood out vividly. Clearly Izriella's doing.
Clois carefully examined Ibi.
Fortunately, it was just the nosebleed; no cuts on her lips or inside the mouth, or elsewhere that might bleed.
Even so, her state was still pitiful.
A single small child had been unilaterally beaten by five much larger students, after all.
Once he had wiped away all the bloodstains, Izriella, who had been watching blankly, belatedly came to her senses.
“A-anyway, she's the thief! There are stolen items in that box! That's why she's refusing to show it. She's trying to sneak it away now that she's caught!”
At Izriella's finger-pointing, Ruska and Arcel's faces paled.
To the people, Clois was known as the sage king who ended the tiresome war of succession and led the empire to revival afterward.
But he could do so because he acted without mercy.
Though people focused on his achievements and overlooked it, how many had been executed since Clois ascended the throne?
For years until the empire stabilized, he had shown no mercy, enforcing the law strictly to maintain order.
That ferocity had been directed rightly, or he would have gone down as a tyrant of legend.
And now she was arrogantly pointing and slandering such a man.
When she had initiated the violence first.
Seeing Clois's icy face, Arcel and Ruska instinctively knew.
He would never let this end quietly.
Watching Izriella scream, Clois turned back to Ibi.
Then, erasing the chill from moments ago in an instant, he spoke in a gentle voice.
“Ibi, is that student right?”
At his question, Ibi shook her head vigorously.
“N-no. I didn't do that.”
“Liar!”
As Izriella shouted, Clois glared at her.
The moment their eyes met, Izriella stopped breathing and staggered back.
A mere child student couldn't withstand the sharpness of one who had slain hundreds, thousands on the battlefield.
Clois let out a short sigh before saying to Ibi,
“Ibi, I know you don't want to show what's in that box.”
“……”
True, she hadn't let go even while getting hurt, so it must contain something she desperately wanted to hide.
“But right now, it seems there's no way to prove your innocence otherwise.”
He didn't believe for a second that Ibi had stolen their things.
She was just refusing to show it for some reason.
Ideally, he'd take her away now and let her hide the box as she wished.
But doing so would leave her under suspicious glares her whole time at Yeongjae Academy.
“Won't you show them what's in the box?”
Even at his careful request, Ibi flinched and couldn't bring herself to hand over the box.
Then Izriella snorted as if she had expected it.
“Hmph, thief and con artist acting innocent to frame her on an orphan……”
“No!”
As Izriella criticized Clois, Ibi couldn't bear it and yelled.
“Professor……”
Then she bit her lip hard and held out the box from her chest.
As if resolved, she squeezed her eyes shut, opened the dented lid, and upended the box.
Its contents spilled out onto the floor with a clatter.
Expectations of stolen goods finally appearing turned to bewilderment on the faces around.
“This is……”
