34 - How to Escape the Reverse Harem Cliché
Chapter 34
I've only run away from home once in my life.
Setting aside the fact that I matured early, I went through a turbulent adolescence, so I don't think it was so bad to have wandered off once.
In reality, it wasn't much of a wandering. I wasn't hanging out with bad friends, nor did I fight with my mother.
I was just curious. Was the apartment I used to live in still the same? Was my father still there?
Did my father remember me?
To cut to the chase, I didn't meet my father. I just watched him from afar, alone.
My father had already formed a happy family and was laughing joyfully. I had thought it might be the case, but seeing it with my own eyes brought a flood of emotions.
It wasn't sadness. Around that time, my mother and I had also completely forgotten about the existence of a father.
However, watching them enter the apartment I drew and longed for every day made my stomach churn.
Then, I burst into a hollow laugh, finding it absurd even to myself.
That house wasn't my home. The moment I left holding my mother's hand, it was no longer my home, yet I had lived in a futile delusion for far too long.
A futile delusion that I would one day return there.
〔Young lady. All preparations are complete. Please tell me the date, and I will act accordingly.〕
I savored the words from Lena's letter.
The "preparations" mentioned here refer to the land and status needed to escape and live. A comfortable home and status are more crucial to me than anything.
So, while I was confined and unable to be free at the Academy, Lena was arranging the external factors for our escape from the Count's estate.
The date... I've set it for right after Olivite's graduation ceremony. If I ran away after throwing 3,000 gold coins, Evan would chase me to hell, so I had to let him graduate first.
Here at the Academy, a grand festival lasts for about two weeks, before and after graduation. Many guests come from outside during this time, so I planned to blend in with them and slip away amidst the chaos.
Actually, the original plan was for about a year later, but my anxiety worsened after Evan's Berserk incident two months ago, so I moved the schedule forward.
That day, Valerian clearly felt the faint Guiding from me remaining in Evan's body. If I hadn't mentioned compensation, he might have dragged Evan away and threatened him for answers.
Valerian wasn't the only issue. Aiden also had questions about Evan being unable to accept Rose's Guiding but accepting mine.
"It must be because we're compatible. That matching rate."
I said it as casually as possible and moved on, but Aiden's gaze, which was scrutinizing me, didn't change.
"Laila. Whatever it is, don't get involved with him. Not as a Guide, not as a fellow student."
"I understand. Don't worry."
"How can I not worry?"
On the carriage ride back to the Academy that day, Aiden asked me several times. He asked if I would consider transferring to the Academy with him.
Before, he had given up because he thought I was a normal person, but now that he knew I had Manifested as a Guide, the situation had changed. He tried to persuade me that I would be safer with him, but I just shook my head.
Orion always respects my decisions, but Aiden is the persistent, clingy type. Even after two months, he still proposes my transfer to the Academy at the end of every letter, so that says it all.
I sometimes wondered if I shouldn't have told Aiden, but then I thought it might be for the best if, when he eventually learned I disappeared of my own volition, he could understand my circumstances even a little.
In any case, those uneventful days were passing by.
"Hello, Derman."
"You don't have to greet me so deliberately. Enjoy your meal, Laila."
Rowen glanced at Evan, who was greeting him, with a displeased expression, then waved goodbye to me and disappeared in the opposite direction.
After his Berserk incident, Evan had been diligently seeking me out three times a week.
When I mentioned breaking the contract, having violated its terms, he refused in a panic. Instead, he proposed to resolve it by breaking one clause himself.
That's what this is. He comes to bother me during lunch breaks.
Of course, I refused at first.
The Academy students were already paying a lot of attention to the relationship between Evan and me.
There were rumors that Evan was bullying me, and also gossip that we had gotten together after being partners for a poetry class. The latter rumor gained more traction when it spread that I had gone to his class and dormitory when Evan went missing.
Therefore, I absolutely did not want to be seen alone with Evan by others.
Fortunately, unlike my expectation that he would cling to me pathetically, Evan seemed to nod and retreat obediently. But from that day on, I could feel Evan's pitiful gaze lingering around me, which was another kind of torment.
No matter how I thought about it, the intense Guiding that occurred that day must have affected me. If not, why would Evan Olivite, whom I only found bothersome, occupy my thoughts like this?!
In the end, I gave in, exhausted by my own internal struggle, and we compromised that his proposal would only be possible when I was with Rowen.
Rowen still disliked Evan, but after realizing he wasn't tormenting me, he no longer bristled at him as he used to.
"Laila. Shall we go?"
"Yes."
About four more months until Evan's graduation.
When that time comes, this tiresome contractual relationship will end, and I will be completely free. I'll run far away to a place no one can find and live in peace.
It wasn't the apartment I only dreamed of, but a place close to country living, my first home acquired with my own hands. Of course, the name wasn't mine, but if you think about it, the name Laila Passianne isn't my real name either. Thinking that, I would often jump up from my sleep, filled with excitement.
"Laila, how is it? I did tell them to consider your tastes as much as possible."
At Evan's words, I finally snapped back to reality and looked at him.
My eyes widened at the course meal placed before me.
No, what is this...? Why is the formal banquet I used to eat at the Pascianne mansion served in this shabby storage room...? Huh? What's going on here?
"I had to make it in a hurry over two days, so it's not quite finished yet. Getting permission for Esper access is a bit tricky."
The neglected, shabby storage room had been transformed into a study and a dining room.
It felt as if a background music track, "Tada-da-da-da," would play the moment I opened the door.
No, this place had its own atmosphere. The dust that settled gently whenever I sat on the floor, and watching the dust motes shimmer in the sunlight filtering through the curtains, was my joy...
He broke my small happiness into pieces by doing something unnecessary.
"Laila?"
He had done it thinking he would be praised, but seeing me stare at him with an expression of utter bewilderment, Evan's face turned anxious.
I wasn't angry, of course... I just felt so hollow that I let out a hollow laugh.
This wasn't just any Academy; it was an Academy under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. No matter how high-ranking a noble was, they couldn't do anything to the Academy.
Yet, Evan had changed a space within the Academy to his liking in just two days.
He brought in an Esper to alter a space within the Academy, which is terrified of Espers.
Seeing this, I felt ridiculous for struggling so hard to survive and even buying a name.
"Laila. If you don't like it, even now..."
"No."
"..."
"It's not... I don't feel anything in particular."
I walked past Evan, who was trying to hold me back, towards the prepared table and sat down.
He was about to pull out a chair for me, but I sat down first. Evan fidgeted, glancing at me, then sat opposite me.
As I picked up my knife, I couldn't help but think about it, finding it increasingly absurd and baffling. I didn't know what kind of system this world operated on. Titles? Money? Or Esper rank?
Then, I genuinely wondered, which of these three enabled Evan Olivite to do all this?
"Laila. Did I do something wrong again?"
"I told you I didn't. Eat. I'll enjoy the meal."
"...Uh, yeah."
To prevent further conversation, I began to release the Guiding I had been suppressing.
Evan, unable to control his trembling hands, put down the knife and fork he was holding and closed his eyes, accepting my Guiding.
Glancing at Evan, who was engrossed in receiving my Guiding, as if he had forgotten all about the meal, I began to eat alone.
And the source of the ability that allowed Evan to change this place, which I had been so curious about, was revealed in an unintended way just a few days later.
