I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 46

That bastard, without the slightest hesitation and without even looking around to see if anyone was watching, tore up the notes Ruad had painstakingly written during those three grueling hours.

At the same time, Ruad’s reason was ripped apart as well.

“You fucking bastard, why the hell are you tearing up someone else’s notes?”

Without warning, Ruad grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him into the air.

The man’s feet dangled above the ground, and his panicked toes kicked helplessly. His face turned pale.

“W-what? What did you say…?”

Shaking him by the collar, Ruad glared with blood-red eyes that burned like flame.

“Bastard. I asked you. Why the hell are you loitering at my seat?”

“N-no, that’s….”

“Why did you touch my notes? Do you want to die?”

The man caught in Ruad’s grip wore a face that seemed to say he was ready to die, but tried to explain anyway. Ruad, however, had no intention of listening.

Just then, the shredded notes he had written for three long hours fluttered down from the man’s hand to land at Ruad’s feet. The sight made Ruad’s rage surge to the very top of his head, and curses poured from his lips.

“You son of a bitch, I asked why the fuck you’re hanging around my seat and messing with my stuff.”

“T-that… I didn’t know this was Lord Ruad’s seat….”

“Then whose seat did you think it was if not mine…!”

Ruad was about to explode in another furious shout when his words trailed off.

A thunderous realization struck him.

He had been sitting in the seat right next to Lucia’s, and this bastard who had touched his belongings without permission must have thought they belonged to her.

He must have mistaken them for Lucia’s notes.

Which meant what he was really after were Lucia’s notes.

In that instant, the bizarre mystery of Lucia’s behavior in class—something that had baffled him until now—was unintentionally resolved.

The reason she didn’t take notes during class, instead memorizing everything on the spot and then reorganizing it after returning to her dorm, was clear.

The moment she put anything on paper and left it vulnerable, it would be ruined by someone else’s hands.

Even if it wasn’t left unattended, there would still be fools like the ones who had harassed her outside the library… idiots who would gang up on her, steal her papers, and destroy them.

No, without a doubt, they would have done so.

That was why Lucia Even had chosen such a troublesome method.

“….”

He swallowed, but his throat felt dry and gritty, as if filled with sand.

An unbearable, unpleasant sensation pierced his chest. It was something he had never felt in his entire life.

Just a moment ago, his anger had been like a raging volcano, but now it vanished, leaving behind only a cold expression as Ruad muttered under his breath. His blood-red eyes calmly fixed on the man.

“…Ah, this has nothing to do with me, so why do I want to kill you so badly?”

“Eeek…! I-I’m sorry! It’s all my fault…!”

Ruad was infamous as a scoundrel who always carried out his threats.

The man, still in the flower of youth, begged desperately, terrified he might be expelled from the academy or lose his head altogether.

Then, after a long silence, Lucia’s voice came from behind.

“…Ruad?”

Hearing his name, Ruad turned his head as if bewitched. There she was, Lucia, entering the lecture hall.

Her face, usually so hard and expressionless, now showed a faint trace of confusion. Her large eyes shifted between him and the man whose collar he was holding.

Lucia approached and asked. For the first time, she had spoken to him first.

“What are you doing right now?”

“….”

“Ah….”

As she tried to make sense of the situation, Lucia suddenly let out a short sigh, as if she had discovered something. She bent down and picked up the torn remnants of Ruad’s notes.

Lucia gazed quietly at the shredded paper, then lifted her head to look him straight in the eye.

“These are your notes from today. But they’re torn apart….”

Her clear brown eyes, seemingly lost in thought, blinked slowly. She was clearly trying to guess what had happened while she was away.

Ruad instinctively felt that she must not find out the truth.

She mustn’t know that he had discovered one of her secrets, something she would never want anyone else to know.

Even more, she mustn’t know that this bastard had mistaken his notes for hers and ripped them apart.

Wiping the hostility from his face, Ruad forced a smile and let go of the man’s collar.

The man, who had been dangling in the air, dropped heavily to the floor.

As soon as he was freed, he scrambled away on all fours like a cockroach, scurrying back to his seat.

Ruad couldn’t have cared less whether the man ran or hid. He simply snatched the torn pieces of paper from Lucia’s hand.

“Don’t worry about it. It just got ripped by accident.”

“….”

Her eyes looking up at him didn’t seem convinced at all.

Ruad twisted his lips into a fake smile, desperately trying to deceive her.

“It’s true. It was nothing serious.”

“For nothing serious, the fight seemed pretty intense.”

“Fight? Ha, it wasn’t like that.”

“….”

“Men are usually a bit rough with their words and actions. There was just a little mistake, and we argued for a second because of it.”

“….”

“I’m telling you, it really was nothing. Or should I call that guy back over and have him explain it too?”

As Ruad pushed firmly to close the matter quickly, Lucia lowered her head.

“…No. It’s fine.”

Then she walked past him and sat back down in her seat. Her desk was as empty and clean as always.

Ruad quickly sat beside her again and started chattering. It was both to ease the awkward tension and to make her forget what she had just seen.

“By the way, just now you called me Ruad, didn’t you?”

“….”

Lucia’s straight shoulders flinched slightly. It seemed she only then realized she had spoken his name.

Her cute reaction made Ruad laugh quietly.

“So you remembered my name. I thought you didn’t know it since you’d never once called me by it.”

“….”

“Since you called me by name, does that mean I can call you by yours too?”

“…Do as you like.”

It was the gentlest tone he had ever heard from her voice.

It wasn’t cold, nor was it particularly displeased. It also wasn’t the indifferent neglect she had shown before.

It was genuine permission.

And that meant Lucia Even was showing him a small crack, the first fracture in her iron wall.

He might have been furious over his notes being torn, but the fact that Lucia had called his name and allowed him to call hers was a significant gain.

And the scuffle of grabbing the man by the collar had been brushed aside naturally too.

‘Thanks to that bastard, things worked out pretty well.’

In a surge of good mood, Ruad grinned ear to ear and called her name.

“Lucia.”

Her brown eyes, which had been quietly staring at the empty desk, rolled toward him at his call. They carried a look as if to ask why he was calling her.

Though she didn’t speak, she answered with her gaze nonetheless.

Ruad, pleased at having cracked her solid heart, replied with a foolish smile, “It’s nothing. I just wanted to call you.”

“….”

The utterly bland exchange ended with Lucia turning her gaze away, looking as if she’d just seen someone truly strange.

***

From that day onward, Ruad began to chip away at Lucia’s heart, frozen like ice and hard as rock.

After watching her for about a week, he realized he had never once seen her eat. So he decided to start his strategy from there.

People were always in a better mood on a full stomach.

For some reason, Lucia avoided eating at the cafeteria, so he prepared things she could eat easily at her seat.

After trying different things and observing her reactions, he discovered Lucia had a sweet tooth. She liked sweetness so strong it felt like sugar was crunching between her teeth.

Among sweets, her favorite was chocolate.

She liked chocolate muffins more than a big strawberry shortcake piled high with fresh cream and strawberries.

She wasn’t picky about the type either. Even chocolates filled with alcohol, or cheap ones so artificial and sugary he himself found them disgusting, she ate them without complaint.

It was enough to make him worry she might rot her teeth someday.

But since she always looked so happy when eating chocolate, he swallowed his worries and kept bringing her the desserts she liked, as if taming a beast with food.

Of course, in between, he had to deal with pests who picked fights with her, and even play bodyguard now and then, but that was simple enough that it hardly felt like work.

Thanks to that, after about a month, Ruad had managed to grow closer to Lucia.

It wasn’t just him clinging to her anymore. Lucia actually looked at him properly and spoke to him comfortably.

“Ruad.”

She spotted him from a distance, met his eyes, and called his name.