Chapter 5
Soon, the finance teacher came in. He was an old man with a hollow top and glasses high enough to make his eyes look small.
‘…For some reason, I have a lot of group assignments, and I look like I’ll only give grades of C.’
Elisha didn’t want to judge the man by what he looked like, but when she saw him, she had a real hunch.
Anyway, it was the first time meeting the teacher, so I had to prepare for it.
Elisha got up from her seat and gave him a nod.
“Hello, I’m learning financial affairs from you from today. Nice to meet you.”
“I have heard about your little bridal training from Sir Albert. It is an honor to teach such an enthusiastic student. It’s nice to meet you.”
After the brief meeting, the teacher started the class right away.
He gave Elisha a question after a brief introduction on how to handle the abacus.
“Then, Miss Elisha. Would you like to mark 326, 15, and 739?”
“Ah, yes!”
Elisha’s fingers, which had been rolling the abacus on their own, stopped. Then, she took a peek at Richard.
She seemed to confirm her answer by looking at his reaction.
But when Richard reacted indifferently, she checked the abacus again.
Richard, who was looking at the figure, sighed and grabbed Elisha’s hand. A hard hand covered Elisha’s small, thin one.
Richard grabbed Elisha’s finger and moved the abacus.
“You did 15 right. 326 is like this, and 739 is like this.”
“You’re correct, Young Duke, you’ve done it properly.”
The finance teacher, who was watching the scene, praised Richard. Elisha also smiled, saying
“Thank you.”
Richard, who stared at a smiling Elisha, realized that he’s still holding her hand and finally took it off.
“…Listen to the class properly.”
Richard’s ears, while turning his head, tainted red.
‘It’s not about helping, it’s about reviewing.’
That’s what Richard thought.
Elisha was not a fast learner, but she thought that she’d use it once she mastered the abacus.
Richard actually appreciated her ability, but he didn’t tell her.
“That’s it for today’s class.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“I had students like you two yesterday. I hope you will learn from each other as rivals and colleagues.”
The finance teacher organized the room and left. Now, only Elisha and Richard were left in the room.
Richard tried to leave the room, leaving his abacus and his notes on his desk.
Then Elisha called Richard.
“I’m supposed to see the town with Ann after class, do you want to come with me?”
“I’m busy.”
Richard didn’t even pretend to be worried about it and answered in a snap.
“See you then, Young Duke.”
Ann, who came to Elisha, nodded her head when she saw Richard.
Ann was dressed in an out-of-town suit, carrying an outdoor robe believed to belong to Elisha. Elisha asked Richard, taking the robe that Ann handed her.
“Do you want me to buy you cookies?”
“Only kids like those.”
It was meant to be a sarcastic remark about Elisha, who loves cookies, as a child.
“You’re a kid too!”
Now that we’re on the same boat, I hoped that we could get along well, but it seemed that Richard didn’t intend to.
Elisha looked back at Richard with a glaring look.
“Oh, really? Then I should buy some and eat it in front of your eyes. I won’t give you any.”
“Do as you please.”
Richard left the room with a rude reply.
Elisha looked at his back nastily and turned around.
“Let’s go, Ann.”
***
A few hours into town, the wind blew fiercely. It was unusual for the clear day to become cloudy all of a sudden, it seems like it’ll rain.
Looking out the window, Richard turned to the book that he was reading again.
Fluttering.
Richard, who was turning the pages tastelessly, furrowed his forehead gradually.
In fact, Richard had encountered more monsters that were becoming active in the spring than the bandits that he encountered when he came to the kingdom through the mountain path.
‘But the monsters rarely came down to the private house.’
But it bothered me. A lot.
It has been a long time since I’ve been forgetful and distracted while reading. My mind was thinking too much.
Eventually, Richard closed his book and stood up.
“…It’s really bothering me.”
If monsters attack her, and if she gets hurt in the house, Albert might kick her out, saying ‘How can you give birth to a child with that body?’
Elisha, who is currently away, is better than the other women Albert had in mind. That’s the only reason I am concerned about her safety.
Richard wore an out-of-town robe and came out of the balcony, and focused his mind.
The wind gathered around Richard and slowly floated him towards the sky.
Gradually getting further away from the ground, the cold air penetrated into his lungs and filled his body. It felt good because he felt like he was one with the wind.
His altitude rose to half the height of the castle.
Richard, who was about to step straight toward the mall, looked around the castle hastily.
‘No one’s there.’
Fortunately, no one was looking at him.
Albert disliked Richard’s use of flying magic.
Flight magic is magic that requires high concentration, and if you let your guard down, you could fall and die.
But over the past year, after coming to the Duke’s residence, Richard had secretly practiced flying magic, avoiding Albert’s watchful eyes, which allowed him to use it more skillfully now.
Richard, who reaffirmed that no one was looking at him, headed toward the shopping district of Young-Ji.
***
“Give me this, too.”
Elisha, who stopped by a grocery store in the town square, was buying various ingredients to make cookies and snacks.
Because one of the things that Elisha envisioned after the divorce was a snack shop.
But Albert and Richard, the owners of Rubelin, never ate any snacks.
So there was no such thing as cookies or snacks in the Rubelin Castle. So she bought a lot of them.
Elisha finished her purchase and left the store with a satisfied expression.
I just bought the ingredients, but I felt reassured as if I had already reached the first stage of my business.
Then Ann and the servant with the goods followed behind Elisha.
But unlike a little while ago, the sky was so dark. Which is a sign of rain.
The servants who waited in front of the carriage said with anxious expressions.
“Young Madam, with this unusual weather, it’ll likely rain soon. Why don’t you go home today?”
“The spring rain in the north is very cold unlike the spring rain of the south where my mother lived.”
“I see. Then we’d better go back home soon. Let’s go.”
After purchasing all the items anyway, Elisha got into the carriage with Ann.
The carriage carrying Elisha and her company went out on the west side of the village.
Originally, Rubelin Castle was located north of the village, so it was faster through the north gate.
But it had been in repair for some time so they had to go back through the west gate.
As the carriage went through the west gate and continued on for a while, the gravel began to tread off the well-polished road. The impact rattled the carriage.
The moment she thought the rattle might have grown bigger, an urgent voice came to Elisha’s ear from the outside.
“Mo-monster! A monster has appeared!”
At the same time, the carriage came to a sudden halt.
The reaction nearly caused Elisha to roll out of her seat. The situation was a bigger problem than that.
‘A monster?’
As Elisha was too surprised to look out the window, the servant opened a small window leading to the horseman’s seat in the carriage and shouted.
“Madam! Crawl on the floor!”
Elisha and Ann were puzzled, but as the instructions of the servant, they huddled on the floor.
Outside, there was the sound of men’s cheers and the chunky sound of the blade hitting something. Soon, the sound became louder, as if someone was joining.
It seemed that the knights and a passer-by of Rubelin were joining forces to fight the monster.
“…It’s okay, everything’s gonna be fine.”
Elisha hugged Ann, who was surprised. It was also a soothing remark.
The two children quickly waited for the situation to pass.
But the moment they finally calmed themselves down.
Bam!
An unidentified powerful force swept the carriage.
“Aaah!”
Elisha and Ann fell back together along with the tilting carriage.
The shock made me feel pain as I bumped into the wall of the carriage. My mind went into a daze.
Elisha managed to gain consciousness and examined the surrounding situation.
The carriage fell sideways, and Elisha and Ann were glued to the window on the left side of the carriage.
But I couldn’t get out because it was blocked by the ground.
Elisha raised her gaze to the opposite window.
“…!”
There, a giant centipede-like monster was drooling while staring at Elisha and Ann.
At the moment of eye contact with it, Elisha felt a terrible fear she had never felt before. She got goosebumps all over and began to tremble.
“Ma-madam…..”
Frightened, Ann cried and hugged Elisha.
‘What happened to Rubelin’s knights? The servants?’
Elisha also hugged Ann and she looked at the centipede. She did not avoid the monster’s eyes even though she trembled in fear.
‘I don’t want to die like this…!’
The centipede, looking at Elisha and Ann through a small window, broke the window and raised the main lamp.
Elisha crouched and closed her eyes in anticipation of the imminent shock.
But then.
A strong wind pushed the centipede and provoked it.
Soon after, I heard a very familiar voice.
“Your opponent is me.”