I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 97

“Then I’ll have a servant prepare some tea. Is there any kind you’d like?”

“Let’s see… I recall the tea you brought back after traveling somewhere before wasn’t bad at all.”

As she casually broached the topic, Jeran quickly realized what Isabella wanted and smiled brightly.

“Ah, you mean the rose tea I got from the southern region?”

“Yes. I think that was it.”

“You didn’t say anything back then, so I didn’t realize you liked it, Professor.”

“…Don’t tease an old woman, Professor Ennessy.”

Isabella, who wasn’t very honest by nature, gave him a light scolding and took a defensive stance.

However, Jeran, who already knew her personality well, didn’t pay it much mind.

Instead, hearing the word “Professor” from the woman who had taught and guided him filled him with emotion, and his green eyes shone.

“It feels strange hearing you call me that, Professor. That I’m a professor like you, it really doesn’t feel real….”

“You’ll be called Professor by students from now on. You can’t be getting emotional every time. You need to keep your dignity.”

“That’s true, but….”

Even so, he couldn’t shake the unfamiliar and odd feeling rising in his chest.

Jeran’s cheeks flushed red as he placed a hand over his chest. Even through the layers of clothing, he could clearly feel his heart pounding.

Isabella quietly watched Jeran like that, then murmured softly, “…I can’t believe that child has become a professor alongside me either.”

“….”

“When you first entered the Academy, you were such a small child, still soft with baby fat. I don’t know when you grew up so much. It feels like I raised you myself.”

“You really did help me adapt well to life at the Academy, Professor. The Jeran I was at the Academy is practically someone you raised.”

“You certainly have a way with words.”

Isabella spoke haughtily, as if to show she wouldn’t be easily swayed by sweet talk, but even so, her expression wasn’t bad.

Though she seemed cold on the surface, it was clear she was inwardly pleased.

As if to support Jeran’s impression, Isabella spoke again in a noticeably softened voice.

“That’s enough talk. Hurry and prepare the tea. Talking this much has made my throat dry.”

“Ah, understood. I’ll ask a servant for it right away.”

Jeran opened one of the boxes scattered across the floor, found the box containing the tea, took out the rose tea, and handed it to a servant, asking them to prepare it.

The servant bowed lightly and disappeared.

A few minutes later, warm tea and a plate of soft, sweet biscuits were placed on the table in front of Jeran and Isabella.

Isabella lifted her teacup, inhaled the fragrance rising with the steam, then took a light sip.

“It’s a tea with a very pleasant aroma. Perhaps because you don’t see flowers when it’s cold, I often find myself thinking of teas like this in winter.”

“If you’d like, should I pack a few for you? There aren’t wide varieties of flower tea, though.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be leaving the Academy soon, and I don’t want to add unnecessary baggage.”

At Isabella’s reply, Jeran’s expression darkened.

A few months earlier, she’d collapsed from overwork and only barely regained consciousness. Unfortunately, she hadn’t recovered her health to the level it had been before she collapsed.

According to the doctor, she was told that she needed to give up both research and teaching for the time being and focus on recuperation, and she had once sent me a letter saying she was agonizing over what she should do.

Considering her health, resting was obviously the right choice, but knowing how much passion she’d poured into her work as a scholar and professor, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything lightly.

After agonizing over it for a long time, I sent her a reply saying that since she was a wise person, I believed she wouldn’t regret whatever decision she made. In the end, it seemed she’d decided to take the path of rest.

“How have you been feeling lately?”

When Jeran asked with concern, Isabella answered calmly, “Not bad. I’m getting regular checkups from the doctor and taking my medicine diligently, so it’s not to the point where you need to worry.”

“That’s a relief, but… are you planning to return to the Academy later on?”

At his cautious question, Isabella closed her mouth thoughtfully for a moment. Her gaze drifted to the clear, pinkish tea.

After staring at her reflection in the tea for a while, Isabella opened her mouth calmly.

“Well. I don’t think I can guarantee that I’ll be able to return.”

“….”

“It’d be nice if I could come back, but if circumstances don’t allow it, I’m also considering stepping down comfortably. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have regrets, but I’ve lived faithfully to the title of professor all this time, so I don’t have too many lingering attachments.”

Jeran had more or less anticipated this from the moment she decided to rest, but hearing it directly from Isabella left his heart unsettled.

Though he hadn’t served her for that long, Isabella was still one of his precious mentors.

He’d only just thought that they might finally stand shoulder to shoulder together, but to hear that she might leave for good made him feel gloomy.

Sensing Jeran’s inner thoughts, Isabella changed the mood by bringing up another topic.

“I’m more worried about you than about myself. You’re already twenty-six, yet you’re still not married. There’s no news of marriage at all.”

“….”

“There’s no need to ask. You probably don’t even have someone you like.”

At the sudden turn of the conversation toward him, Jeran snapped out of his thoughts and remained silent. He had nothing to say. Everything she said was true.

Seeing Jeran quietly fiddling with his teacup, the light gone from his eyes, Isabella launched into a stream of nagging.

“I thought that once you got older, you’d give up that dreamlike hope of wanting to marry someone you love, but I didn’t expect you to still be holding onto it even now that you’ve become a professor.”

“….”

“When are you planning to give me some news? I want to see you get married before I die.”

“…Please don’t talk about dying.”

That was all Jeran managed to say after a long while of sitting dejected in silence, carefully reading her mood.

Seeing the pitiful look on Jeran’s face as he sat across from her, Isabella’s heart wavered. She clicked her tongue lightly, bringing her long yet short scolding to an end, then asked,

“So, now that you’re a professor, are you planning to take on any disciples?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet. I’m younger than most of the other professors, and I also want to focus on my classes until I’ve built up a certain level of experience myself.”

Unlike when the topic had been marriage, Jeran straightened his back and answered confidently.

It was a conclusion he’d reached after quite a long period of consideration ever since his appointment as a professor had been decided.

However, Isabella didn’t seem satisfied with his answer. She frowned slightly, then resumed the nagging she’d paused for a moment.

“If you do that, your reputation around you will be ruined. For about half a year, they might be lenient and say it’s just a period of adjusting to life as a professor, but once that period passes, they’ll definitely start looking at you strangely. They’ll say you lack both credibility and ability as a professor, since you don’t even have a single disciple.”

“….”

“Being humble is fine, but you need to realize that what you have is greater than you think, Jeran. So when a student appears whom you truly want to teach, choose them without hesitation.”

“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind, Professor Cornell.”

Jeran nodded as he took Isabella’s advice to heart. He might be stubborn when it came to marriage, but when she spoke this firmly about his role as a professor, he couldn’t insist on his own way.

‘It seems I should think more carefully about the matter of taking on a disciple.’

Just when it seemed the topic was wrapping up, Isabella, wearing an unusually troubled expression, added a piece of advice whose meaning was unclear.

“However… be careful of one person.”

“…What do you mean? Be careful of one person?”

“Lucia Even.”

At Jeran’s question, Isabella suddenly spoke the name with an utterly serious expression.

“There’s a student at the Academy named Lucia Even. If my prediction is correct, the moment you see that child, you’ll want to take her as your disciple at first sight.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because that’s what happened to me.”

“….”

At her decisive answer and the intense gaze fixed on him, Jeran closed his mouth.

The Isabella he knew was extremely demanding and strict in her evaluation of others. Even he, who had entered the Academy at the youngest age, had taken quite a long time to earn her recognition.

Yet she was saying that there was a student she’d wanted to take as a disciple at first sight. Jeran couldn’t imagine it at all.

“I know. I know that an evaluation like this from me sounds quite strange. But once you meet that child, you’ll be forced to think the same way I did.”

“….”

“That’s how talented she is. There’s probably no one at the Academy who doesn’t know her name. Professors, students alike. She’s practically a celebrity.”

Listening quietly to her words, Jeran felt even more confused.

Isabella was always rational and logical, maintaining her composure, but no matter how he thought about it, what she’d just said didn’t add up.

“If she’s such an outstanding student, then why are you telling me to be careful of her? Shouldn’t you be recommending that I take her as a disciple instead?”

That was right.

If she possessed talent so exceptional that Isabella herself had been captivated at first sight, then rather than warning him to be careful, it would make more sense to suggest that he take her in as a disciple and help that talent grow.

However, the moment he asked, a sharp look flew from Isabella’s eyes, as if to say the matter wasn’t as simple as he thought.

“That child is poison.”

After summing up Lucia Even mercilessly in a single sentence, Isabella continued, “Lucia Even is a commoner. That means she has no right to choose or change her supervising professor. She has no freedom of choice at all. In other words, there’s absolutely no legitimate way to take her in.”

“But no matter how much of a commoner Lucia Even is, if she talks it through with her supervising professor and comes to an agreement, that should be enough—”

Before Jeran could finish voicing his opinion, Isabella cut him off coldly.

“Do you really think someone wouldn’t recognize that level of talent?”

“….”

At the reasonable retort, Jeran immediately fell silent, having nothing more to say.