NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 16
The Agail Duke’s dining table boasted a grand size befitting its reputation.
It could comfortably seat twenty people and still have space left, even with fifty different dishes on it.
However, on days when there were no guests, only three people were ever seated at the table.
The head of the household, Ruphon Agail Duke, his wife, and their only daughter, Rynelle Agail.
“I heard that Crown Prince Kyle was ambushed in the Witch’s Forest the other day. Rynelle, do you know anything about it?”
“It was a different starting point, so Crown Prince Kyle didn’t even know he had been targeted for assassination. I’m sorry I couldn’t meet your expectations, Father.”
“That’s fine. I didn’t have high hopes anyway.”
The Agail Duke never once looked at Rynelle during the meal.
He had no real expectations for his only daughter and regarded her merely as a light source of information.
Rynelle picked at the food in front of her, forcing a wry smile.
Had she been from another family, her father would have scolded her for such an expression in front of him.
However, Rynelle was sure that her father wouldn’t look at her until the meal was over.
As she predicted, the Agail Duke, having finished his meal first, immediately left for his office.
Next, the Duchess also left with half her food uneaten, leaving only Rynelle in the wide hall.
‘……This atmosphere hasn’t changed.’
Rynelle laid down her utensils and subtly looked up at the chandelier on the ceiling.
While others envied her for being the sole daughter and monopolizing affection, reality was different.
The Agail Duke wanted a male heir, and the Duchess hadn’t been able to meet his expectations.
Their relationship naturally began to deteriorate, and other nobles saw this as the perfect opportunity to suggest a concubine to the Duke.
Eventually, Rynelle’s biological mother began to resent her, wondering why she hadn’t been born a boy.
As if Rynelle had chosen to be born a girl herself.
‘If only I had an older brother or younger brother….’
Good or bad, a different scene would have unfolded. Rynelle let out a deep sigh at the pointless imagination.
She hadn’t been idle at all.
In fact, Rynelle had shown remarkable talent from a young age.
She was capable of casting magic at a level higher than her peers, and her teachers praised her as a genius in unison.
Despite her desperate efforts to catch her father’s attention, the result was indifference.
‘Was even a word of praise too much of a waste of time for you…?’
She didn’t even desire praise.
Just being able to exchange words with her father for even a second was enough for her.
That’s why she made a scene before entering Kia del Academy and ended up in a special class.
If she couldn’t earn praise, she at least wanted to hear a scolding.
But even when she made a ruckus, the Agail Duke remained consistently uninterested in Rynelle’s affairs.
He treated her as if she had never existed.
‘So frustrating…’
Even though this grand mansion was undeniably her home, it felt suffocating.
Her only family ignored her, and even the servants worked silently like the Agail Duke.
In the end, her days in the Agail household felt no different than serving time in prison.
‘No, a prison at least has guards who care about the well-being of the prisoners….’
It would be more accurate to say it was worse than prison.
And to validate that fact, Rynelle picked up a plate and threw it at the floor.
Clang—!
The plate shattered noisily upon hitting the ground, but no one came to investigate.
No matter whether she threw two or three more plates, nothing changed.
Even if she overturned the whole table, the servants would clean it up as if nothing had happened after she left.
“……Boring.”
At first, it served as a minor stress relief, but now it held no thrill at all.
No matter what she did in the mansion, her hollow feelings couldn’t be filled.
Rynelle stopped her destructive behavior and looked out the window.
A carriage was waiting outside to take her to school.
It had only been a month since she enrolled, but Kia del Academy felt more comfortable than the mansion.
At least there were people who responded immediately to her actions.
Recently, there was even someone she was especially concerned about.
A person intentionally hiding the power to attract her stone-faced father’s attention.
A man who had evoked jealousy but instead brought her embarrassment when she tried to put him down.
His careless attitude had instead become a stimulus, igniting her excitement that he was at the academy.
‘……Not bad.’
With a lighter step, Rynelle left the dining room.
And today, she vowed to give that man a taste of his own medicine.
*
“Ugh! Did I overdo it…?”
The first day back after the field study.
Despite the backlash from excessive mana usage, she had been working like crazy and ended up exhausting her body.
With muscle pain that felt like being pricked by needles, her brows furrowed every time she moved.
It would have been better to take a sick day to rest, but unfortunately, that was not possible.
Today was the day she had a lecture to give.
If Crown Prince Kyle had genuinely taken a liking to Nina, he would join her lecture starting today.
Since Kyle and Nina were from opposite classes, S class and F class respectively, the two wouldn’t meet in the morning.
However, elective classes had no class restrictions, so any student could freely attend.
Thus, if Crown Prince Kyle was going to speak to Nina, it would only be during her lecture time.
‘Throwing flirtation at Nina during a sacred lecture hour? Absolutely not.’
No matter how much of a prince he was, I couldn’t allow him to try to woo Nina in front of me.
With sparks in my eyes, I trudged toward the lecture hall.
Imagining the Crown Prince desperately flirting with Nina, I gripped the doorknob tightly.
As I swung the door wide open and stepped inside, for some reason, I saw Nina and Rynelle cleaning the podium.
An unexpected combination.
“Eh…?”
“Professor, you’re here?”
“Professor Daniel!”
The two, who had been cleaning vigorously, brightened up upon seeing me and approached.
With Nina, that was one thing, but it was incomprehensible why Rynelle was there.
“What were you doing?”
“I noticed dust piling up at the podium, so I thought I’d clean it a bit before you arrived!”
“Some notes you wrote last lecture were still here, so I erased them.”
“Uh… um, thank you.”
The looks of kindness from both of them were overwhelmingly burdensome.
Avoiding their gazes, I surveyed the lecture hall.
Next to Nina’s usual seat, which could now be considered fixed, the Crown Prince appeared to be sitting there, looking quite withdrawn.
Seeing an elite like him putting in the effort to attend my lecture showed that he had clearly fallen for Nina, but I had no idea why he was acting all shy.
The other students, on the other hand, seemed to be glancing at Kyle, aware of his embarrassment.
What had happened before I arrived?
“I’ll start the class, so you both can return to your seats.”
““Yes!””
A dazed Kyle, a compliant Rynelle, and Ailey, who had yet to show any signs of fatigue.
Everyone, except for Nina, was displaying a side they had never shown before, leaving me utterly perplexed.
One might wonder if I had crossed over into a different dimension.
“Hmm? Rynelle, you’re sitting in the front today? Don’t you usually prefer the back?”
“Of course! It’s so I can listen to the professor’s lecture more accurately and clearly!”
“Is it possible my voice didn’t reach the back?”
“That’s not it. I just reflected on my past conduct and decided to live more seriously! In that sense, since today’s lecture is given by my esteemed professor, it deserves to be taken seriously. Oh, by the way! If you have time later, could you spare me a moment? I’d like to review some of the material I didn’t catch earlier.”
Rynelle’s gaze briefly flickered to Nina before returning.
It seemed she meant to say it to Nina rather than me.
Consciously or not, Nina smiled sweetly and made a suggestion to me.
“Professor, if it’s not too much trouble, may I teach Rynelle classmate? Since I’ve been diligently attending your lectures, I think I could sufficiently explain it to her! Plus, it’ll serve as a review for myself as well, so it’s a win-win, right?”
“That’s not bad, but I’m worried that there may be content you might have missed, Nina.”
“That won’t be an issue at all. I’ve been diligently taking notes on everything you’ve said during lectures!”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Here, look!”
Nina opened her notebook, revealing it filled to the brim with notes.
Every word I had uttered during the lectures was indeed written down.
Even the lame jokes I had thrown in to lighten the mood were included.
What the? That’s a bit creepy.
“Professor, it’s my first class today; would it be alright if I also received some supplementary instruction from Nina?”
Taking advantage of the confusion, Crown Prince Kyle attempted to attach himself to Nina.
I couldn’t allow that.
“No. I’ll conduct separate supplementary lessons for the two of you after class, so….”
Whoosh—!
At that moment, Nina suddenly tore her filled notebook in half.
“I’m sorry, but my notebook just got torn, so I think I need to join the supplementary lesson too!”
With her own hands tearing her notebook apart, Nina demanded supplementary lessons.
Even Nina, who had been the most composed until now, turned shameless.
“Professor, me too.”
Ailey, too, drowsily asked for supplementary lessons.
What on earth was going on with all of them?
Unless they had eaten something bad, this situation was beyond explanation when suddenly, a student who hadn’t even appeared in the original story raised their hand.
“What’s up? You also want supplementary lessons?”
“No, I just raised my hand because I was hoping we could start the class already.”
“Oh, I see!”
I awkwardly felt flustered.