Chapter 275

A chilling hiss of air being cut tore through the darkness.

Watching the assassins drop in the dormitory yard, Cledwyn let out a weary sigh. The constant assassination attempts, the petty squabbles… he couldn’t fathom how he had endured all this during his school days and still graduated. He could bear it because he had Nerys, but how had he endured it in this life?

“Cough… I didn’t hear… it was this… much… hack!”

One of the assassins—someone he’d left alive out of habit—spat blood and forced out something pointless. Cledwyn replied flatly.

“I’ve gained experience. I’m not the same as when I was a greenhorn.”

Of course, the assassin didn’t understand. Without another word, Cledwyn swung his sword and cleanly severed his windpipe.

“Aren’t you going to ask about their infiltration route?”

A man in white robes stepped into the yard as he spoke. He was the son of a lord under Maindulante, and a rare theology student in Maindulante. Objectively, his divine power wasn’t impressive, but the little healing he could offer was a great help to Cledwyn right now.

Cledwyn shook his head.

“I already know.”

“…You do? How?”

“You must have told me.”

The white-robed man’s face hardened. The sharp tip of Cledwyn’s bloodied blade pressed against his Adam’s apple.

“W-why are you doing this?”

“You betrayed me.”

“Pardon?”

This man had long held a fairly important position among Cledwyn’s subordinates. Talfrin knew some medicine, but it couldn’t compare to the immediate effect of divine power. If this man had remained loyal, he could have gained a significant position once Cledwyn inherited the title of Grand Duke.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, he joined hands with Marquis Tipion and chose to put his lord in danger.

Recalling the night he had nearly died, Cledwyn narrowed his eyes. By now, the other subordinates in the dormitory had spilled outside and surrounded them, clamoring.

“What’s going on, Your Highness?”

“Are you safe?”

The white-robed man hesitated, then apologized after seeing the resolve in Cledwyn’s eyes.

“…I have nothing to say. But I had no choice…”

“I’m not curious about your reasons.” Cledwyn’s voice didn’t waver. “I know you and your father have been passing my information to the elders. No one will survive.”

The man’s face turned blue. Before he could spit out anything in resentment, Cledwyn’s sword was already moving.

With a wet, gruesome sound, the corpse rolled across the yard in the dead of night.

Talfrin approached, expression complicated. Cledwyn lifted the corners of his mouth at the sight of Talfrin’s much younger face—too young to hide what he felt the way he could now.

“That guy…”

“You didn’t know he was a spy, did you?” Cledwyn said, as if amused.

“I didn’t either, so don’t worry about it.”

“How did you find out?”

“I almost died once because I got tricked.”

‘When? How could I not know about something that big?’

Talfrin looked completely lost. Cledwyn smiled—then his gaze sharpened into something cold.

“Talfrin, there’s someone you need to watch.”

“Yes. Who is it?”

“My wife.”

“Master, are you married?”

Talfrin’s jaw dropped, and the subordinates handling the corpses flinched as well.

“It’s both yes and no. Never mind—just watch her.”

Cledwyn spoke as if it were nothing.

“She’s someone in the dormitory where you’re infiltrated as a caretaker. Her name is Nerys Truydd. She’s the prettiest and smartest in the world, so she stands out. You won’t miss her. Listen carefully. From this moment on, your mission’s top priority is her safety. Stay close, watch her, and if anything tries to touch her—take care of it.”

Could it be that it’s not our master? Talfrin’s eyes darted over Cledwyn, seriously searching for any sign of disguise.

(T/N: HAHAHAHAHAHAH)

Cledwyn didn’t care. He turned, went back into the luxurious dormitory building he was staying in, and fell into thought.

After seeing Nerys at the lake that afternoon, he had been quietly watching her. He had tried to speak to her at least twenty times, but every time, his body moved on its own and slipped out of her sight. First, he needed to learn exactly when the moment came—when she ‘couldn’t recognize him at all.’

This world was bound by strange laws.

Even if he gave up on approaching her directly and shouted from a distance or tried to throw her a note, it never reached her. Something always happened in between—his voice drowned under some other noise, the note ruined by some absurd coincidence.

It was as if fate itself was interfering, ensuring Cledwyn could never reach Nerys in this world no matter what he did.

From a single blade of grass by the road

To the sixteen-year-old body he was wearing now.

And he hated it.

“Wait, Master! Nerys Truydd? Truydd? That freshman sponsored by the Elandria Family?”

Talfrin, snapping out of it, hurried after him and asked urgently. Cledwyn answered like he was tossing the word away.

“Yes.”

“No, suddenly she’s your wife? What? Isn’t she twelve?”

“I waited. It’s fine.”

“I don’t understand anything right now! Did you eat something weird today? You didn’t eat anything someone else gave you, did you?”

“Shut up. More importantly, did you hear what I said earlier? Pack what you need and go to her. I’ll join you in the morning.”

“Yes?”

Talfrin was bewildered, but he left to carry out his master’s order. Cledwyn swept his gaze over the subordinates who remained, his eyes glinting ominously.

He had only followed Nerys—who had no chance to meet her classmates on a weekend—for a single day. That alone was enough to see how intimidated she already was.

The way she walked with her head down and shoulders hunched.

The way she turned back the moment she heard children her age laughing somewhere in the distance.

He wanted to take her out of here as soon as possible. He wanted to watch her every moment and seize any opportunity he could.

Even so, there was one clear reason he returned to the dormitory first.

To remove anything that might hinder him from protecting her.

“Is everyone here? …The people I’m about to name—step forward.”

This side had to be clean. No traitors.

He couldn’t afford distractions later.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Ugh, disgusting. It touched a thief!”

“Poor Alecto.”

Nerys’s small body stiffened at the words—right after they shouldered into her first, shoving her hard. Cledwyn, watching the scene through the freshman classroom window, clenched his fists.

Talfrin, perched in a nearby tree, let out a soft, mocking snort.

“Calm down. What, are you going to hit twelve-year-olds?”

“Those things are acting despicable.”

Several weeks had already passed since the night Cledwyn had purged the traitors from the Academy dormitory.

Which meant it had also been several weeks since the two men had been trailing twelve-year-old Nerys Truydd.

In the meantime, Cledwyn had tried everything. He had Talfrin attempt to speak to her. He pressured teachers into punishing the classmates who tormented her.

None of it mattered.

Everyone else in this world reacted to Cledwyn like he was a living person, and nothing about it felt unnatural.

But with one person—Nerys—no matter what he did, the influence was always cut off somewhere in the middle.

He managed to get close to her when she was asleep and unaware of the world, but speaking to her then was meaningless. If she started to wake while he talked, his body would flee on its own.

So he was forced to watch—helplessly—each hardship Nerys had never described in detail.

Without being able to approach her.

Without being able to hold her.

[Dad, you still can’t talk to Mom, right?]

The ball of light stayed with Cledwyn and kept talking to him. Since no one else recognized those conversations, Cledwyn answered without restraint.

“That’s right.”

[How much longer will it take?]

“I don’t know.”

[Haaam… it’s not fun. Dad, read me a fairy tale book!]

“…Fine.”

Cledwyn pulled a fairy tale book from inside his coat. While keeping one eye on Nerys, he began reading with the other. It had become a daily routine two weeks ago, after he lost to the light orb’s relentless whining, so his movements were practiced.

“Once upon a time, in a faraway country…”

It was a skill—reading fairy tales in a way that was oddly pleasant to children, even if he treated it like an obligation. The ball of light blinked happily, saying it was enough just to hear Dad’s voice.

In Cledwyn and Talfrin’s view, Nerys was finally released after her classmates finished throwing filth at her. Talfrin clicked his tongue as he watched her walk with her back hunched, terrified of meeting anyone’s eyes, terrified of bumping into someone and ‘dirtying’ them.

“I heard she’s been isolated like that ever since the gold coin incident, but it doesn’t look like she did it herself. From what I’ve gathered, it was likely Baron Nine’s daughter.”

“Angharad Nine?”

“Oh, you know her?” Talfrin nodded.

“Yeah. And seeing Megara Lykeandros dragging Angharad around before and after that incident, I’d say the mastermind is that side too. I started looking into them because I wondered if there was something between the Lykeandros Family and the Elandria Family.”

Cledwyn doubted there was any real conflict between the families. Megara Lykeandros had always hated Nerys.

[Dad, you haven’t finished reading! Read more!]

Cledwyn exhaled.

“Fine.”

He continued reading from where he’d stopped. Talfrin spoke again, as if remembering.

“As you ordered, I pressured the families of the ones who were especially vicious to Miss Truydd. You told me to push them into financial ruin—enough that they’d have to drop out—but strangely, they recovered almost miraculously, so I couldn’t go that far. Still, they were punished enough.”

If Talfrin from reality had been here, he would have carried out the order without hesitation.

But he couldn’t do that here.

This was inside Nerys’s memory, and what she remembered wouldn’t change. Her classmates had to remain by her side until graduation.

When Cledwyn paused reading to listen, the ball of light immediately urged him again.

[Daaad! Keep reading!]

“Okay, okay.” Cledwyn’s voice flattened.

“One at a time.”

He said it to both Talfrin and the ball of light at once, which made Talfrin glance over with suspicion. Cledwyn ignored it and kept reading.

Nerys returned to the back of the classroom, opened her locker, and pulled out a short note.

Talfrin recognized it at a glance.

“That’s what Rhiannon Berta slipped in last night. A Shadows subordinate saw it while we were at Miss Truydd’s dorm. You told me to report even the smallest things related to her, so I copied it.”

“Give it to me.”

Cledwyn finally finished the fairy tale and held out his hand. The note Talfrin passed over read:

‘I want to be friends with you. Nona.’

Cledwyn knew exactly how arrogant and hateful Rhiannon Berta was toward Nerys. There was no world in which that girl wrote something like this because she truly wanted to be friends.

But Nerys—innocent, starved for warmth—looked thrilled as she read it. She reread it three times, and even in the short walk back to her seat, she kept smiling softly.

Cledwyn let out a quiet breath.

If only he could give her even a single word of warning.

[Mom is small and cute, right, Dad?]

Only the ball of light, unaware of everything, drifted around leisurely, saying whatever it pleased.