I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 78

“That woman approached you because she was after your money, Boss. Open your eyes wide and look properly. Can’t you feel that woman’s malice in those hazel eyes?”

“….”

“But unlike her, I truly respect you, Boss, and follow you with all my heart. You know I’ve been working here since last year, since Bell Restaurant first opened, right? Between me, who’s worked here for over a year, and that woman, who’s only worked here for a few months at most, who do you trust? Lucia Even is framing me right now! Look at how she’s keeping her mouth tightly shut!”

Laura Ellington shouted loudly, her face muscles twitching as she sprayed saliva while insisting on her innocence. Each time, the whites of her eyes flashed, and it stirred an eerie sense of fear.

She really didn’t seem sane.

‘She’s seriously terrifying….’

She was terrifying in a way that made me not even want to fight back.

If this weren’t a game world, and if my graduation weren’t tied to Evan Bell’s affection, I would’ve wanted to hand him over and run away immediately.

‘Still, I have to clean this up. …If I want to graduate.’

I thought of the various research books and papers piled up in my dorm room, and the half-written graduation thesis waiting in the original world.

For a graduate student, the most important thing in the world was graduation. I’d suffered through all of that just to graduate, so I couldn’t back down here in vain.

‘Yeah, fuck it. I have to graduate! If I lose to this woman here and can’t graduate, I’m screwed!’

Sudden rage surged up, and a fierce determination boiled within me to defeat the woman blocking my graduation and seize it.

With the resolve of a general heading into battle, I rose boldly from my seat.

Because of the unexpected commotion, everyone inside the restaurant had their attention drawn this way, and like being under a spotlight on a stage, all eyes turned toward me.

I stated the facts calmly.

“Get your story straight. You’re the one who asked me to put in a good word with the boss, not the other way around. I said it clearly. I’m just a secretary employed by the boss, I’m not close to him, and making that kind of request is burdensome to me.”

“….”

“And if you pin something you did on me, then I’m the one who’ll be in trouble.”

After saying that much, I added one more thing.

“And today is the first time we’ve ever talked.”

“….”

“I only just learned your name today, so why would I ask someone I’ve just met to do something like that for me? Are you really that special? From what I can see… not at all.”

Perhaps I’d hit the nail on the head, because Laura Ellington’s face twisted silently.

If the emotion she’d shown when Evan Bell fired her was anger, the emotion she showed toward me now was clearly killing intent.

The killing intent she radiated stabbed at my skin like needles. Still, I glared back at her, trying not to lose this battle of nerves.

This too was all for my graduation.

‘Graduating is really fucking hard.’

As I grit my teeth and endured through fear, Laura Ellington’s eyes suddenly lit up with a sharp gleam.

“What are you to say….”

“…?”

“What are you to judge me like this…. Who do you think you are!”

Then she grabbed the fork lying on the table and lunged at me. Her eyes had completely rolled back, and the hand gripping the fork was aimed straight at my eyes.

It seemed the words I’d said had provoked her more than I’d expected.

‘I want to graduate, not have my eyeballs gouged out with a fork!’

Startled out of my wits, I hurriedly ducked my head and covered my face with both arms. In that split second, I judged that getting stabbed in the arm was better than getting stabbed in the eye.

‘If my eyes get stabbed, I won’t be able to write my thesis or read research papers! Ah, I wouldn’t be able to write a thesis even without hands either…!’

“Secretary!”

“Stop her, quickly!”

Amid the sounds of people gasping, shouting from all sides, and hurried footsteps chaotically mixing together, I waited for the fork to obediently dig into my arm.

However, quite a bit of time seemed to pass, yet I felt no pain in my arm.

‘…? Why isn’t she attacking?’

There was no way she’d suddenly changed her mind now.

The killing intent Laura Ellington had shown toward me was real. It made no sense for a woman who’d raised a fork with the genuine intention of stabbing my eyes to voluntarily stop her attack.

Feeling puzzled, I slowly loosened my arms and lifted my head.

Then, a back that felt unfamiliar yet familiar was standing in front of me, blocking my way. A back clad in a perfectly tailored men’s suit with a luxurious sheen.

‘No way….’

Evan Bell was standing in front of me like a shield. As if to protect me.

‘Did he just protect me from that crazy woman?’

It seemed I wasn’t the only one shocked by his unexpected action, because Laura Ellington dropped the fork she’d been holding onto the floor.

In the silence all around, the sound of the fork hitting the floor rang loudly through the restaurant, as if announcing the end of the commotion.

Evan Bell calmly opened his mouth. His voice was cold enough to chill to the bone.

“It seems there’s nothing more to say.”

“Boss….”

“Laura Ellington. I don’t need someone in my restaurant who tries to slander others with lies. Get out of my restaurant immediately.”

“Boss…! Please, just this once, have mercy. Please forgive me just once! I did everything wrong! Yes?”

As she collapsed to the floor and clung to his leg, begging, Evan Bell looked down at her mercilessly and declared.

“You should be grateful that no matter how angry I get, I’m not so poorly raised that I’d lay a hand on a woman indiscriminately.”

“Boss….”

“And you’d also do well to stop sending me letters with no sender name on them while you’re at it. A confession of love would be better than that, honestly. That was just… hah, it’s embarrassing to even think about.”

Evan Bell clicked his tongue coldly and shook his head.

Laura Ellington’s complexion cycled rapidly between red and blue, then, as if she’d given up on everything, the hand clinging to his leg fell limply to the floor.

Once the situation was settled for the moment, Evan Bell began cleaning up the aftermath swiftly and precisely.

“Call a carriage that can be used right away, and as soon as it arrives, throw the woman out of the restaurant. Pack up any personal belongings or luggage she has here and send them along appropriately.”

“Ah, yes!”

“Handle the rest the same way you always do whenever there’s a disturbance in the restaurant, and you can report to me later.”

“Understood, Boss.”

“Then I’ll be going inside now. Sorry, but everyone, please continue your work.”

At Evan Bell’s orders, the employees scattered in all directions at once to carry out their tasks. Judging by how smoothly they moved, it seemed incidents like this weren’t exactly rare, and that there was a separate manual for handling them.

‘They say there are many people aiming for Evan Bell’s wife position. Looks like they’re really coming at him from all directions.’

I could understand it.

It was rare to find a commoner with as much money as Evan Bell, and one marriage could set someone up for life. It wasn’t an opportunity anyone would want to miss.

On top of that, his face was objectively handsome, and judging by his appearance, he didn’t seem that old either.

‘He’s definitely the kind of man women would flock to. A groom like that isn’t common.’

As the commotion inside the restaurant gradually settled down, I nodded to myself leisurely.

‘Well, anyway, my hands and eyes are both safe, and I’ll be able to write my thesis!’

I looked down at my perfectly fine hands without a single injury and was overwhelmed with emotion. It was the first time I’d ever been this happy about being able to write a thesis.

Although I’d never imagined I’d end up getting wrongly accused over something so absurd after getting tangled up with a crazy woman, fortunately, Evan Bell had taken my side.

‘He fired Laura Ellington before I even had a chance to explain. That man….’

He must have been eavesdropping on the conversation between me and that woman from behind.

I didn’t know exactly from where he’d been listening, but thanks to Evan Bell overhearing the exchange with Laura Ellington, things had become much easier.

I’d almost ended up getting fired myself and losing the golden justification that let me raise his affection regularly. On top of that, I would’ve had to pay back every bit of the fifteen million gold I’d received as an advance for working.

‘That really shaved ten years off my life.’

Even if it wasn’t my intention, I’d stabbed a dagger into his chest with my tongue. If he wanted to, he could’ve taken plenty of revenge, so I was grateful that he’d saved me at just the right moment.

And it had also been satisfying to see him deliver the dismissal notice right to Laura Ellington’s face.

‘But it’s still quite a while before six o’clock, so why did he come out to the restaurant?’

Usually, Evan Bell waited for me in his office. He knew that I passed through Bell Restaurant when going to and from the residence, but he’d never once come out to meet me.

And today, Evan Bell had come out to the restaurant at 5:30.

Could it be…?

‘Was he waiting for me? And from thirty minutes earlier at that?’

The thought suddenly crossed my mind, but I shook my head with a bitter smile.

No matter how I thought about it, it was clearly just self-consciousness.

Evan Bell wasn’t someone who would eagerly wait to see me.

If anything, after what happened a few weeks ago, he would dislike me even more. There was no way he’d be waiting for me to come.

‘Well, he probably just had business at the restaurant. Either way, I was lucky.’

I’d managed to get through the incident safely, so that was enough. And I was still grateful that Evan Bell had protected me from Laura Ellington when she’d charged at me with a fork.

Even though things had grown awkward between us after that day, something to be grateful for was still something to be grateful for.

Just as I was about to thank him, Evan Bell turned around before I could even call out to him.

“….”

Strangely, there was a chill in Evan Bell’s gaze as he looked at me. It was a coldness I couldn’t possibly expect from someone who’d just saved me from danger.

It wasn’t the atmosphere to offer thanks, so I quietly swallowed my words and gauged his mood. Then Evan Bell opened his mouth. His voice was as cold as his gaze.

“Follow me.”