Anything But Study - Chapter 66

Without even dreaming that Hailon was guiding her to think this way, Melia reached the conclusion that starting from the next tutoring session, they should change the location to her house.

When we go home today, I definitely need to tell him….

No. Wait a second.

To begin with, does Hailon, who ranked second on the regular exam, even need tutoring?

It was the moment that the most fundamental question occurred to her.

Thud-

Noticing that another thought had appeared in her mind, Hailon thrust his hips up hard.

“Ahh!”

Her sensitive spot was crushed at once, and Melia let out a moan between her lips.

“You really can’t focus, can you?”

“Ah, uh! Th-that…, wait, stop for a moment, our tutoring….”

She was about to ask whether it was even necessary anymore.

Tap tap tap-

‘Huh?’

At the sound coming from somewhere far away, Melia’s eyes widened.

“W-wait a moment. Ah, ah!”

She wanted to ask if he hadn’t just heard something.

“There’s no way I’m stopping when you like it this much.”

But Hailon ignored her plea to stop and mercilessly pushed his cock in.

Even while struggling with the sensation of her lower belly filling completely, Melia shook her head violently.

She was sure she heard something.

“From somewhere, what was that sound…!”

“You dislike my fucking so much that you’re thinking about something else?”

As if displeased that she was thinking about something else, Hailon drove her even harder.

“Ah, mm!”

Her inner walls were crushed far too strongly. Her vision flashed white.

So much that the other thought vanished in an instant.

Overwhelmed by the intense pleasure before her, Melia was completely conquered and soon forgot about that sound.

***

Hmm, hmm.

A little humming slipped out of Melia as she walked through the hospital corridor on the first floor.

“He should be able to leave the hospital this month.”

“Really? Thank you!”

It was because she’d just heard the wonderful news that Ervan might soon be discharged from the hospital.

It was even sooner than the schedule she’d heard before.

It felt as if all the worries that had been lying in her heart like fog were clearing away.

Melia was about to head upstairs with light steps to see Ervan when someone suddenly called out to her.

“Ah, Ms. Anderson. One moment.”

It was the nurse at the desk.

Did she have some business with her? She usually handled things like visits and reception.

Since she was responsible for tasks that didn’t really involve Melia, Melia had no idea what she might say.

“Yes? Is something wrong?”

“Someone came to visit the patient today.”

“A visit…?”

Melia’s face filled with confusion.

A visitor for Ervan.

There wasn’t a single person she could think of.

“Yes. They’re in the hospital room right now. They seem to know your younger brother. But we verified their identity, so you don’t need to worry.”

Hearing that they knew Ervan only filled her head with even more questions.

Unless her uncle had suddenly appeared again, there truly was no one connected to Ervan.

And it couldn’t possibly be her uncle.

Without realizing it, her steps quickened.

She hurried upstairs, somewhat anxious, and opened the door to the hospital room.

The face she saw inside was.

“D-director?”

She recognized her immediately. After all, her face hadn’t changed at all.

The visitor was the director of the orphanage.

“Melia! It’s been a long time.”

“How did you know to come here?”

Seeing the woman who looked exactly as she remembered, Melia asked with a bright, welcoming expression.

“My father was hospitalized, so I came back to the Empire for the first time in a while. There’s no place with medical facilities like the Empire, so he’s staying here. Then, while I was out for a walk, I happened to see Ervan.”

A few days ago, Ervan had become well enough to take light walks.

He was preparing to face the world on his own again after finally getting out of that tiresome bed.

And in the process, he happened to run into the director.

“Sister, it was really amazing for me too. At first, I wondered if I was even seeing things right.”

Perhaps because of the unexpected reunion, Ervan looked more excited than usual.

To think such a coincidence could happen.

Melia also found it just as surprising.

“Director, you’ve been doing well too, right?”

Melia left the orphanage when she was eighteen, so it had been almost four years.

In the meantime, the orphanage had closed, and the director, exhausted by the civil unrest at the time, settled in another country.

“Of course. The Kingdom of Delian is peaceful. Since we met like this, it feels a shame to part right away. Shall we take a short walk together, Melia?”

At her words, Melia glanced at the clock.

Before she knew it, Ervan’s visiting hours were about to end. Since she couldn’t stay any longer, Melia nodded.

“I’d love that. Then Ervan, I’ll see you again next week!”

“Okay, sister. Director, I’ll see you again too.”

Seeing Ervan, who looked much healthier now, send her off made Melia’s heart swell with emotion for no reason. It felt like there would be no more worries from now on.

The two of them stepped outside the hospital room and continued their conversation.

“You must have gone through a lot, Melia.”

“There were times when things were a little difficult. But now every day feels happy.”

A gentle smile rested on Melia’s lips as she answered.

As they exchanged news about each other and talked about various things….

“Ah, right. I heard you’re attending Erpen now. Then have you met Calix as well?”

“…Pardon?”

An unexpected topic slipped from the director’s mouth.

Melia’s expression froze instantly.

She couldn’t understand why that name was suddenly mentioned together with Erpen.

In an instant, the horrible memory from that day surged into Melia’s mind like raging flames and took over her thoughts.

The blazing fire. Melia screaming as she looked at Ervan trapped inside it.

How could she ever forget the moment when she almost lost her precious younger brother?

And the cause of it was….

“Calix?”

It was him.

Why was the name of the one responsible for setting the orphanage ablaze being mentioned here?

After that incident, Melia kept her distance from Calix.

She knew it wasn’t intentional. Melia wasn’t foolish enough not to understand that.

But even so.

Whenever she faced him, she would remember Ervan struggling just to breathe, and it felt like she would lose her mind.

She simply couldn’t endure it.

There was no way she could casually talk with Calix.

So after the fire, Melia never saw Calix’s face again. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say she avoided seeing him.

Until the day he left the orphanage.

Melia’s expression stiffened.

It seemed the wound still hadn’t healed.

Recently, his name had occasionally surfaced in her thoughts, so she believed she was fine now, but apparently not.

Perhaps because this was the hospital where Ervan was staying, and the orphanage director was right in front of her, the emotions from that time were resurfacing even more strongly.

Even though Ervan was healthy now and it seemed like she should be able to overcome it.

The director, unaware of Melia’s confused reaction, simply continued the story she’d been telling.

“No, not Calix. His original name was… Hailon, was it?”

Completely unaware that those words would cause such an upheaval.

“W-what… did you say?”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

All the blood in her body rushed to her heart at once. At the same time, it felt as if all the blood drained out of her head.

The pounding of her heart rang loudly, abnormally fast.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Melia’s pupils shook violently. Her breathing came out in uneven gasps.

Hailon?

Did she really hear that just now?

‘No, that can’t be.’

She must have heard wrong because she wasn’t feeling well. She must have mistaken it for some other similar name.

‘That’s impossible.’

Clinging desperately to that small hope, Melia tried to convince herself she had simply misheard.

But the next words from the director felt like pure despair.

“Ah, you might not recognize him just from the name. I mean the Young Duke of Alfred. Have you perhaps run into him? You attend Erpen, don’t you? Weren’t you quite close when you were young?”

The hope she could no longer hold in her hands fell to the ground and shattered completely.

The Young Duke of Alfred.

It was a name that could never be mistaken.

No, that can’t be.

Why, why….

Melia’s face turned deathly pale.

“Hailon… is Calix?”

Melia managed to ask again in a voice that cracked apart.

“He’s the one… who made Ervan like this. That boy. And that’s really, really… Hailon?”