I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 93

Evan lifted his lowered head and composed his expression. Then he gave Karl Evenhart’s tightly hunched shoulders a few firm pats. Each time, Karl’s body swayed unsteadily.

“If you want to receive compensation or damages from me regarding the investment, then hire a lawyer and submit a formal written request. When it comes to going to court, I’ll listen to everything you have to say as much as you like.”

Karl Evenhart no longer had any money left to hire a lawyer. In other words, those words were no different from saying that Evan had no intention of compensating him even a single coin.

Realizing that, Karl Evenhart’s expression turned blank with shock. It seemed he didn’t even have the energy left to be angry anymore.

He muttered as if talking to himself, “…So in the end, you don’t have even the slightest intention of apologizing? Even though the mineral called Moon Shadow Stone doesn’t exist at all, and you scammed me by saying you could process it into gemstones?”

“That’s why you should’ve looked into it more carefully. If you had, you wouldn’t have ended up getting scammed by someone like me.”

At the reply, which was shameless to the point of being utterly nonchalant, Karl Evenhart didn’t know what kind of expression he should make and simply stared blankly at Evan.

He looked as if the sheer absurdity and anger had washed all emotions clean instead.

‘I think I had the same expression when I was betrayed by Lucia and let her go….’

Even as Evan overlapped Karl Evenhart with himself, he didn’t feel much sympathy for him. He wasn’t kind enough to pity the man who had taken Lucia away from him.

After standing there like a stone statue for quite a while, Karl Evenhart finally asked. Unlike when he had burst into the shop, his voice was surprisingly calm.

“…Then let me ask just one thing. Why me?”

“….”

“Professor Burnett, who was with me, said that at some point your contact with him became infrequent and then stopped entirely. But with me, you maintained a relationship, and now it’s come to this. There’s no way to see it as anything other than you targeting me.”

“….”

“Why me? What did I do wrong for you to do something like this to me? Why!”

His words gradually grew more heated, and soon he shouted as if venting all his fury. He seemed unable to believe why he had to be reduced to this state.

That was only natural. He’d lost everything he had overnight, so the despair must have been overwhelming.

However, the reason for his downfall was so simple that Evan knew it would only drive the foolish Karl Evenhart even more insane. Evan looked at him with a pitying gaze.

Then he gave him an answer.

“Because there was someone I wanted to see.”

Lucia Even. The Lucia Even you stole and took away. I wanted to see her.

Even though it was almost a year since she’d come to the Academy, Lucia Even, who hadn’t shown her face even once, I wanted to see her.

“I thought it’d be good for you to be ruined in order to see that person.”

Karl Evenhart was Lucia’s patron. Evan already knew that attending the Academy required a considerable amount of money.

Including tuition and various other expenses, it would probably come to around ten to fifteen million gold.

For nobles, it was pocket change, but for Lucia, who had cut ties with her family and had no one to rely on for help, it would be an endlessly overwhelming sum.

“That way, it seemed like that person would come to see me.”

With nowhere else to go, Lucia would have no choice but to come to him to ask for help.

The fact that Evan was a sudden nouveau riche was already known throughout the entire Empire, and there was no one else who could lend her money but him.

So whether she liked it or not, Lucia would come to him.

And then he would take revenge on her.

He would make her regret abandoning him so deeply that she’d beat the ground in despair, and just like he had, he would make her crawl on the ground in misery and beg him.

He would torment her relentlessly, watch her scream and wail in pain, and finally feel happiness.

Evan pictured that version of Lucia in his mind and let a faint smile spread across his lips. It was a smile filled with joy.

“That’s why I proposed the investment to you. Not to Andrew Burnett, but to you, Karl Evenhart.”

“….”

“Does that answer your question?”

Karl Evenhart stared at him, dumbfounded. His face looked as if he couldn’t comprehend what kind of insane nonsense this madman was spouting.

However, he didn’t ask any further questions. It seemed he thought that asking would be pointless anyway.

As the uproar in the shop gradually settled down, Evan signaled with his eyes to the staff who had been watching them.

“Then it’d be best for you to leave now. If you have anything to say later, please relay it through a lawyer. I’ll respond anytime.”

As Evan offered a polite bow, several broad-shouldered staff members came forward and escorted Karl Evenhart out of the shop.

Whether because he knew that throwing punches wouldn’t even faze his opponent, or because he realized that even if he wanted to grab Evan by the collar again, he couldn’t reach him, Karl Evenhart was chased out of the shop without resistance.

Even so, unable to let go of his lingering resentment, Karl Evenhart circled around the shop a few times before finally disappearing completely.

Only then did the tense atmosphere, which had been tightly wound due to the unexpected commotion, gradually ease.

“Looks like he’s finally gone.”

“Wow. That old guy’s temper is no joke.”

With their tension released, the staff muttered among themselves, glancing through the glass window to see if Karl Evenhart would return.

Among them, the calmest one was Evan.

Only he remained composed, as if nothing at all had happened.

Just as the manager, who had been quietly observing the situation, was about to ask Evan if he was all right, Evan spoke first.

“I’m sorry, but could you put this up in front of the shop?”

As he said that, he held out a single sheet of paper.

The manager quietly accepted it.

What Evan handed over was none other than a recruitment notice. It stated that Bell Restaurant was looking to hire staff.

“Why this…?”

Bell Restaurant had already hired all the employees it needed, and there was no need to recruit more staff. Yet he was suddenly being told to put up a recruitment notice in front of the shop.

He couldn’t understand why someone who had been perfectly fine a moment ago was suddenly acting like this.

Moreover, this was the Academy, where most people were nobles, and there was practically no one who would work as a restaurant staff member.

Even so, Evan’s expression remained confident.

“I know what you’re thinking. Hiring people to work at a place like this academy. You probably think I’m insane.”

“Ah… well, not quite that….”

At Evan’s blunt wording, the manager broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly denied it.

Evan, in response, laughed brightly. It was a refreshing laugh, hard to believe it belonged to someone who had just been grabbed by the collar by Karl Evenhart moments earlier.

“But someone will definitely come to look at this notice. I guarantee it.”

It sounded unbelievable, but Evan was confident, filled with strong conviction.

“So if you see anyone lingering in front of this notice, report it to me immediately. Drop everything else, no matter what. Understood?”

Though he had no idea what was going on, there was only one answer the manager could give.

“…Understood, boss.”

And not long after the recruitment notice was put up, just as Evan had said, a woman appeared. She stood in front of the shop, carefully reading the notice.

***

I woke up after a long dream. An unfamiliar yet strangely familiar sight greeted me.

It was still early dawn before sunrise, and it seemed that after meeting Evan in the evening, we had gone straight into the bedroom, done everything, and I had passed out and fallen asleep just like that.

But none of that really mattered.

What was important to me right now was Evan’s past.

‘I knew he’d have some kind of connection with Lucia, but I never imagined a past like that….’

I would’ve been shocked even if they’d just known each other, but to think she was his ex-fiancée.

And to find out she’d vanished without a word on the very day they were supposed to prepare for their wedding, that was something I never could’ve imagined.

Evan’s erratic and unreadable behavior until now suddenly made sense. At the same time, an unbearable sense of self-loathing came crashing over me.

‘To think I slept with my ex-boyfriend… and it wasn’t just any ex.’

It wasn’t something I’d done. It was something Lucia had done. But as things stood now, what Lucia had done was no different from what I’d done.

‘After running away and disappearing like that, then acting like she didn’t know him when they met again, how ridiculous must he have felt?’

If it were me, I’d have been so dumbfounded I wouldn’t even know what to say.

Truly, out of all the experiences a person could have in their life, this game was making me go through the most horrific ones imaginable.

Having my thesis stolen, ghosting someone and then shamelessly clinging to my ex-boyfriend to borrow money, cruelly wounding an ex-boyfriend who still loved me with words, and so on….

It was so awful I was at a loss for words.

But what I found even harder to understand than Lucia’s decision to abandon Evan and leave was Evan’s attitude.

‘After going through all of that, how can he still love me?’

Unable to resolve that question, I silently looked at Evan sleeping beside me, completely unaware of the world.

His face looked quite tired, yet at the same time somewhat peaceful. Like someone who had finally returned to where he belonged.

Perhaps Evan had regained his peace because he’d acknowledged the feelings in his own heart.

That was the part I couldn’t understand.

‘If I were Evan Bell, I wouldn’t have ended it like this.’

If I imagined that there was a man who had promised to marry me, then suddenly cut off all contact and ran away at midnight on the very day we were supposed to prepare for the wedding, the first thing I’d do upon meeting him again would be to beat him half to death while hurling vicious insults.

But Evan didn’t do that.

Through the contract, he had the authority to control, command, and direct everything about me in bed.

Even so, the level to which he tormented me wasn’t that high. Not compared to what I’d done to him.

‘He didn’t treat me like a dog, or nitpick absurd faults to beat me down. It’s not like he seriously humiliated me either….’

His manner of speaking was just poor. That was all.

As I felt a tangle of complicated emotions over Evan’s gentle revenge, despite how deeply he must’ve resented me, he suddenly opened his eyes.

Sleepy blue eyes looked at me, and in that gaze I felt a soft affection directed at me.

His large arm reflexively wrapped around my waist.

As my body pressed close to Evan’s, my heart dropped, and it became hard to speak casually.

“…Evan.”

“Lucia….”

“I’m sorry. I woke you….”

I couldn’t finish the sentence. Evan pulled me into his arms, buried his face deeply against my chest, and murmured, “Just a little more…. Let’s sleep like this a little longer.”

As if drunk on drowsiness, he murmured those words and quickly fell asleep. His hot breath, coming and going in a steady rhythm, spread fully across my chest.

I silently looked down at Evan as he slept. With his face relaxed in comfort, he slept softly, breathing in my scent.

That face overlapped with a face I’d once seen from him before. The face of a very young boy.

“….”

An emotion difficult to put into words surged up inside me.

‘I don’t think you should love me like this….’

I wanted to say those words, but they weren’t something to say to someone who was asleep, and even less something to say to someone holding me tightly while feeling at peace.

In the end, I quietly swallowed those words and gently stroked his jet black hair.