Chapter 136

“Rose Bly.”

“Hmm… I don’t like it when you call me that.”

Rose Bly, walking with a cat grace, came up to me and slung her arm over my shoulder as she responded.

It was the evening after Josephine had left.

Just like she had done for the past fortnight, Rose Bly showed up unannounced and roamed around as if this place were her own home.

But today would be the last time.

“Where did you put my ring?”

“Ring? What ring?”

Rose Bly tilted her head slightly and widened her eyes as if she had no idea what I was talking about.

Black hair shyly draped over her pale shoulders.

I was briefly distracted by that before meeting her gaze and speaking.

“You took it, didn’t you? My engagement ring.”

“I think there’s some kind of misunderstanding… Did you lose your engagement ring?”

Speaking as if it were nothing serious, Rose Bly laced her fingers behind my neck and led me like she was inviting me to dance.

I placed my hand on her waist and gently pushed her away.

“Don’t play dumb.”

“…What’s with you?”

Finally sensing that something was different from usual, Rose Bly blinked her long lashes.

Her eyes wavered briefly beneath them.

“The day you came with your bags, offering to tell me the cure for cardiac cold syndrome…you took the ring off my finger yourself.”

“Ah… I kind of remember that.”

“Where did you put it after taking it off?”

“I obviously left it nearby. Probably on the bedside table. Wasn’t it there?”

“It wasn’t.”

“It wasn’t?”

Since Josephine’s visit, Dahlia had turned the house upside down at least three times.

Even after all that, she hadn’t found it and was on the verge of going through the laundry and even the trash.

That missing engagement ring was most likely no longer in the house.

Rose Bly bit her lip slightly.

“I really did leave it there.”

Hearing her say that left me with nothing more to question.

It was a situation too vague to hold her accountable.

I closely studied Rose Bly’s expression, wondering if she might be lying. But her face was so perfectly composed that I had no way of telling whether it was an act or not.

So then, what was I supposed to do?

Good grief.

I really didn’t want to resort to this trashy tactic…

“Rosie.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t need a woman who lies to me.”

As I said that, I lifted Rose Bly’s arm, which was still draped over me, and brushed it off.

Her face went pale.

“Wh-What’s wrong, darling?”

“From today on, stop coming to my house.”

“You know I don’t know anything about this. You know how scared I am of being hated by you.”

Tears welled up in Rose Bly’s eyes.

How could that possibly be the face of someone telling a lie?

…Not that I was saying that because Rose Bly was beautiful.

Seriously.

I shouldn’t fall for that face.

“Can you prove it?”

“Prove it?”

“That’s right. If you can find the ring here and now, I’ll believe what you said.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Then this is the end of us.”

“But—!”

If she hadn’t taken the ring, then she wouldn’t be able to find it.

And if she returned the ring, she’d be admitting she was the one who took it.

A checkmate either way.

My trap might’ve been a little obvious, but—

Rose Bly, without hesitation, dropped to her knees on the floor.

And she began searching the area, feeling around with her hands.

“It’s got to be somewhere around here. Let’s look together, okay?”

She wasn’t just pretending. She was searching desperately.

Dust tangled in her hair, her knees scraped against the wood grain…she didn’t care. She even stuck her arm under the bed.

Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d become a piece of trash…

No….maybe I really was trash?

In any case, despite all her effort, the ring was never found.

If something that even Dahlia couldn’t find suddenly popped up out of nowhere, I would’ve been more suspicious.

“It’s really gone…”

Rose Bly murmured in a hollow voice as she sat slumped on the floor.

I pressed her once more.

“Are you giving up?”

“I’m sorry. If I hadn’t taken the ring off your finger back then, you wouldn’t have lost it in the first place.”

“There’s no turning back spilled water.”

“I’ll fix it. I’ll go find that woman and explain everything and apologize. Would that be okay?”

“You’re going to tell Josephine about our relationship?”

At my words, Rose Bly’s expression darkened immediately.

“…I see. You don’t want to hurt her. Of course you have no intention of revealing what we are.”

It’s no use, even if she speaks in that sorrowful tone.

If our relationship gets exposed, I’ll get stabbed. Literally.

When I looked at her with a cold gaze, Rose Bly began to tremble.

Then she started wiping the corners of her eyes with her palms.

Tears streamed down between her fingers.

“Sniff… hic… Then what should I do? What can I do for you to forgive me? If there’s a way, please tell me…”

I’m not heartless enough to keep pressing someone who’s crying like that.

In the end, I let out a sigh.

“Get up. I’ll believe that you didn’t take the ring. I’ll deal with it myself.”

As I turned away, not even wanting to see her face anymore, Rose Bly wrapped her arms around me from behind.

“I love you. Please don’t throw me away.”

Her voice trembled with desperation.

I stroked my chin, lost in thought.

Could it be that Rose Bly really hadn’t taken the ring?

Then… where on earth had it gone?

My mind was so tangled up with questions about the ring’s whereabouts that I didn’t have the energy to talk with her any longer.

“Go home for today.”

“Then… does that mean you forgive me?”

“I’ll be in touch.”

And the next day—

Dahlia found the ring as if to make a point.

“Master! I found it! It’s your engagement ring!”

I had been sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, reading the morning paper when I shot up in surprise. In a rare moment for Winter Winslet, I actually ran to where Dahlia was.

[Warning]

[Willpower and Health have temporarily decreased.]

[Trait activated: Always Graceful]

A penalty like that didn’t matter right now.

“Where was the ring?”

“It was under your bed, in your room.”

“You’ve checked under there more than once.”

And Rose Bly had searched that spot last night too.

So how on earth had it gone unnoticed until now?

Dahlia shook her head vigorously.

“If the ring had been there before, there’s no way I would’ve missed it. I would’ve found it right away, just like today. Which means….it disappeared and then came back.”

“Came back?”

“Yes. Just yesterday!”

At Dahlia’s words, I frowned.

It’s not like the ring was a mushroom. How could it just grow from the wooden floor like that?

That kind of thing couldn’t possibly… Actually, it could.

If someone had returned it to that spot.

“…Hah.”

Realizing the truth, I let out a hollow laugh.

I’d been completely fooled.

By Rose Bly’s tears.

***

With the recovered ring on my finger, I went back to work for the first time in a while, reporting to the office at the First Magic Department.

Before stepping through the building’s entrance, I glanced up.

It had become a habit by now.

The habit started on my first day reporting to work after possessing Winter Winslet’s body. Someone had dropped a flowerpot on my head.

In the same vein, checking whether the mailbox had turned into a mimic or whether there were any homemade explosives mixed in with the mail had become part of my routine.

To be fair, there had been a few more similar assassination attempts since then, but I was far too powerful to fall for such cheap tricks.

Having survived the Caraphine explosion, a falling flowerpot was practically cute in comparison.

What’s more, even the assassination attempts had tapered off lately to the point that I hadn’t encountered any for nearly a month.

Maybe the ones trying to mess with me had finally gotten tired.

To the right of the entrance was the mailbox.

The slot with my name was stuffed full.

It had been a while since I last came to work. Letters were sticking out like birds had built a nest in there.

After checking for any homemade explosive scrolls with a quick scan of my mana field, I grabbed a handful, just as much as I could hold, and headed into the office.

There were far too many to go through all at once, so I’d read the rest when I had the chance.

Whenever that might be…

Rustle.

After spreading the letters out across my office desk, I sat down and skimmed through them.

Among them, a newspaper had slipped in.

Laurencia Royal Academy Student Newspaper

Headline: By-Election Results for Student Council President Patrick Brown, a third-year student from the Knight Department, Elected as the 47th Student Council President.

This marks the first time since the Academy’s founding that a student of commoner birth has held the position of Student Council President.

Commoner students welcomed the news, saying, “We finally have someone who can speak for us,” while noble-born students expressed general concern…

A commoner Student Council President, huh.

When I took down the former president Bernard, I never imagined things would escalate this far.

Still, to be honest, it wasn’t really any of my business, so I set the newspaper aside and moved on to the next piece of mail.

This time, it was a document from the Administrative Office of the Magic Department.

A formal notice: with final exams just three weeks away, all professors were required to submit a report detailing the format and specifics of their exams.

Written exams required the actual test papers, and practical exams needed the evaluation criteria.

But… I wouldn’t have to submit anything.

Because I was Winter Winslet.

The next letter was from Selim, the director of the botanical garden.

It contained both good news and bad.

The good news: the Frosthorn Crown Tree I’d examined earlier had recovered.

The bad news: my personal cultivation room had become unusable.

For some unknown reason, the soil in the room had become severely contaminated, prompting a complete greenhouse demolition and the start of pest control work, with workers digging up even the surrounding land.

It wasn’t as if growing a mandrake could cause soil contamination.

I had once told the students in my class they could grow whatever crops they wanted, within reason….maybe that had something to do with it.

Some magical plants with strong poisonous properties can poison the surrounding ground if not handled properly.

I wondered if Jacqueline had gone and planted a bunch of death potatoes or something… but surely not.

At the end of the letter was a polite mention of the construction costs. Guess I should send the garden some funding later.

The next letter…

Knock knock.

A knock at the door made me pause my review.

Who could it be this early in the morning?

Sure, my office location was publicly known to everyone at the Academy, but not many had the nerve to knock on this door.

“Come in.”

Clunk.

The door opened, and a familiar face stepped in.

“Ah, Professor! You’re still here. I rushed right over as soon as I heard you were back in the office.”

It was dean Jonathan Kingfisher.

Though I needed a moment to recognize him.

“You look… quite different.”

“Do I? I suppose I have lost some weight recently.”

Beneath his oddly voluminous hair, Dean Kingfisher’s face looked quite different from the old days, when it sagged like a deep-sea fish with drooping jowls. He had slimmed down enough for his facial contours to actually show.

It was probably because of the parasitic creature clinging to the crown of his head, sucking out his nutrients… but since he seemed satisfied with the way he looked, I didn’t bother telling him the truth.

Dean Kingfisher looked around my office, rubbing his arms like someone feeling the cold.

“Goodness, your office is really bare. Do you leave it like this on purpose? Or should I take the liberty of furnishing it with a few things?”

“No need.”

Knowing Kingfisher’s taste, he’d probably just fill it with overpriced junk.

Honestly, something like my home which Dahlia currently manages with just the right balance of comfort and minimal dignity wouldn’t be bad… but I barely used this office to begin with, so there was no reason to decorate it.

Unless a lot more visitors started showing up.

“So, what brings you here?”

I responded with generous patience.

After all, it was already a big improvement that he hadn’t summoned me to the dean’s office like the first time we met.

He said,

“Remember that task you assigned me a while back? You told me to catch the person who played that nasty prank on you.”

“Did I?”

“Yes, yes. You said someone had sent you an explosive spell scroll that activates when opened, and you told me to find whoever made it.”

Ah, right. I remember now.

That was even before I had the duel with Shannon.

And he’s just getting back to me now?

“Took so long I almost forgot about it.”

“Oh, come now, don’t be too hard on me. All we had to go on was a bit of burnt paper, so tracking the culprit wasn’t exactly easy.”

“So, did you find out who it was?”

“No. How would I know that?”

“…….?”

For a moment, I nearly loaded a lethal spell into my circuit without realizing it but barely managed to collect myself and let it go.

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Dean Kingfisher began sweating profusely and quickly added,

“I-I didn’t find the culprit, but I did manage to narrow down the list of suspects, at least a bit. Take a look at this!”

He handed me a long list.

I skimmed through it and sighed.

“That’s quite a list.”

“There’s a reason for that. First, I confirmed that the magic circle on the scroll had been drawn with a moonlight stone pen, right? And I also found out that the scroll paper matches the type produced by the Academy. That’s where I started my deductions.”

“Go on.”

“Stone pens are easy to find anywhere in the Academy, but the scroll paper isn’t. It’s a premium item produced in limited quantities each month by the royal paper mill. The Academy only gets a small amount for practical use. From there, it was pretty simple. All I had to do was find out who requested scroll paper.”

“So this list is the result?”

“Yep. It’s a list of everyone who’s checked out scroll paper stored at the Academy print shop.”

“Did you verify whether the paper was actually used for its intended purpose?”

“No, that was… a bit difficult…”

As I gave him a long, steady look, the dean fidgeted and asked nervously,

“Should I go back and check now?”

“No.”

I shook my head.

Because I had just spotted a name on the list that caught my eye.

A name I knew.

A senior student currently attending my class.

Just like Shannon Quinlivan, this one had been waving death flags at me from the very first lecture.

“Luke Russeau.”

I couldn’t say for certain based on this alone… but for some reason, my instincts were screaming.

This was the guy I’d been looking for.