Chapter 21

Translated by Momo & edited by Mary

A week has passed since Cecilia returned from the school camp, and it’s also been a month since Leanne transferred to Wruhel Academy …

“Hey, Gil.”

“What?”

“I just want to get you back in a good mood…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m the same as always.”

Gilbert’s dreariness was reaching a record low level.

On the way to the school from the dormitory, Cecilia frowned as she looked at her stepbrother walking beside her.

He’s been in an increasingly bad mood these days.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He would answer if she talked to him, and they would have lunch together if she asked, but his responses were far less earnest than usual.

Before he would always be taunting Cecilia. It was very common to hear him calling her an ‘idiot’ and 'fool’ at the same time, and it was easy for him to point out things that hit all her sore spots.

But behind those words, she always felt his kindness. It could even be called his deep affection. Despite using harsh words, he was always worried about his scatterbrained older sister.

However, his recent behaviour has become prominently prickly.

They didn’t actually fight. It was because of other reasons.

And Cecilia knew it.

(After all, he’s still upset about 'that’…)

Cecilia watched the female students frolicking on the bench in the yard.

There was a book in their hands.

“This is the rumoured novel by Nealen*! I finally borrowed it from a friend!”

“It’s the one that everyone was gossiping about with characters similar to Cecil and Oscar, right? Oh, I also wanted to read it!”

“It looks like Carol cried while reading. Her eyes were swollen red this morning!”

“Now I can enjoy it too!”

The girls were ecstatic and closed their eyes as if they were immersed in pure joy.

Cecilia’s face twitched awkwardly while watching them.

Somehow Leanne’s previous novel has begun to circulate among the students in the past few days.

Apparently, she had some of her novels printed and bound and also found a way to place them in the school library.

Jade, who recently begun to dabble in the printing industry, probably helped her.

Three days ago, the book caught someone’s eye and an explosive interest on it rose throughout the school. Then all the girls went crazy over her books.

By the way, the author’s name 'Nealen’ seems to be an anagram of 'Leanne’.

As the novel began to spread, Cecilia talked to Leanne and asked why she would do something like this.

She explained that the purpose was to increase the number of friends with 'shared interests’.

Jade turned out to be a great buddy, but he was not enough. In order to drag someone down to the 'abyss’, the person themselves needed to be exposed to those works and become enraptured by them.

“The biggest problem right now is that I’m the only creator around. So I need to raise them from scratch!”

Leanne’s energetic voice echoed in her ears. She really came off as an ambitious girl!

And Gilbert’s bad mood was due to the novel this girl wrote.

“It seems Cecil can handle that kind of thing very well.”

While following Cecilia’s gaze, Gilbert pursed his lips.

He called her “Cecil” because there were other people around.

“What kind of thing?”

“You know, being used as a character in 'that’. And with His Highness. And more so paired with His Highness!”

Cecilia leaked out an “Aaaaah!” in response to Gil’s words.

“Well, it’s not a novel with mature content, even if it was modelled after Oscar and me, the names are different. So I thought it would be ok to just let it go…”

The protagonists were definitely inspired by Oscar and Cecil. However, the names were so different that Cecilia couldn’t say anything. If someone said it was an original character, that was the end of it.

However, from their atmosphere and speech patterns, everyone seemed to be wondering if they were really the inspiration behind it.

“I don’t agree. It doesn’t matter if you say it’s fiction or whatever, I still loathe it.”

In a nutshell, Gilbert didn’t like the flirting going on between the two characters in the book.

He was always staring at the book with a disgusted expression that seemed to be looking at something filthy.

(Gil really loves this sister…)

He was always like that.

A cute stepbrother with a sharp tongue and not honest at all with his feelings, but still always looking after his sister.

“And somehow, you actually ended up getting along with His Highness …”

Gilbert lowered his voice even more.

Ever since they had returned from the school camp, he had an eerie feeling things were strangely going well between Cecil and Oscar.

Cecilia scratched her cheek with a wry smile.

“Well, so many things happened during the camp, and I realized Oscar wasn’t that bad of a guy. Well, when we ended up staying in the same room, I was honestly wondering what to do…”

“Huh? In the same room?”

“Ah!”

Gilbert widened his eyes and stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

Cecilia was completely covered in a cold sweat.

After all these years, she immediately understood. She had just stepped on Gilbert’s bottom line.

He stood right in front of Cecilia.

She took several steps back, trying to escape from him until her rear touched against the outside wall of the building.

“What did you mean 'with the same room’? At the school camp? Wasn’t it a single room?”

“No, um … that happened because of the lott– …”

“Lottery…?”

Gilbert’s expression became even sharper.

His dark emerald eyes stared down on Cecilia. The shadows that deepened his facial features made him look scarier by the second.

She desperately waved her hands.

“No, wait! But I wasn’t exposed! Even when we slept on the same bed nothing happened !!”

“…Slept on the same bed…?”

In a moment, Gilbert’s expression blanked out.

Cecilia never thought she would be so scared at such an expressionless face.

“Why? Were you forced into it?”

“Um, no… A lot happened and I got really scared…”

“Did you crawl in yourself?”

“Well, if you ask like that…it was just the final outcome?”

The moment Cecilia said that the sound of Gilbert loudly gritting his teeth could be heard. Cecilia shrunk herself as much as possible while waiting to be intensely scolded.

But instead of shouting, Gilbert didn’t say a word. On the contrary, he turned around and walked away. His strides were large and he was walking with a powerful momentum as to leave her behind.

“Hey, Gil!”

“I’m sorry. I can’t look at you now.”

“Why are you mad? it’s something different from before, right? Gil, did I do something wrong?”

Cecilia panicked at Gilbert’s furious expression.

She tried to stop him by grabbing his arm as he walked away.

But she was shaken off.

“Gil…!”

“Don’t follow me and stay away for a while. I need to cool my head before we can meet again.”

After saying that, he quickly entered the school building.

Cecilia’s whole face stiffened while watching his back fade into the distance.

“This is awful. I really made Gil angry …”