"I have to turn on the light first. I can't see anything... … ."
Lucy fumbled along the wall and walked somewhere. Soon she found a candlestick hanging from an old nail and lit it. The dark library was soon filled with bright orange light.
"I'm glad there are still candles left."
Lucy said relieved.
Then she approached the table. She started sorting out the books she brought with her. Whenever Lucy's hand moved, the books piled up neatly with a clicking sound. It was embarrassing that Felix had different thoughts, and she was showing the appearance of a sincere book clerk.
"I'll help too."
Embarrassed, he approached.
"Then could you check between the bookshelves?"
Lucy picked up a book and flipped through the pages.
"Sometimes something like a student ID comes out. I use the things around me as bookmarks and then forget about them and just return them."
"okay?"
Felix picked up a book that was nearby. As he fluttered through the bookshelf, a sheet of paper fell from among the books. It was not a student ID.
[Arkel become bald]
Archel be bald
Archel becomes bald... … .]
The same sentence was filling up one side of the paper. Archel was a history teacher known for being strict and stingy.
"What is it?"
Lucy asked. After receiving the paper Felix gave her, she said, 'Put!' and held back a laugh.
"I think you should be very careful, Archel. Because every time I get such a cursed message."
"every time?"
"Yes."
Lucy began to list the things she had seen.
"… … Some were cursed to suffer from diarrhea all year round, while others were cursed to be constipated all year round. There was also the curse that I had a hundred boils on my ass and the curse that a long-lived beetle came out of my ear… … ."
… … Isn't it a miracle that Archel is still alive?
Felix thought as he heard Lucy's various curses.
In addition to the cursed note to Archel-sensei, strange things appeared among the bookshelves. Most of them were garbage such as receipts, graffiti scraps, and candy peels, but there were also love letters that someone had put in and forgot.
A love letter... … .
Felix stood and looked at the letter with the strange confession written on it. The names of the sender and recipient were not written.
"It's too much."
Felix turned around at the voice he heard behind his back. Lucy was looking at the letter he was holding with a sad face.
"How dare you treat a letter that someone courageously confessed to you like this… … ."
"Yeah."
Felix folded the letter in half and placed it on the stack of papers. The letter, which someone must have had the courage to write down, was inadvertently used as a bookmark, and now it is in danger of being thrown away.
"It would be very sad if the other person treated my heart like this… … ."
Lucy returned to her original seat and muttered to herself. His expression looked depressed.
"Are you planning on confessing to anyone?"
Lucy raised her head to the question that Felix suddenly asked.
"Yes?"
"… … Why are you so surprised?"
"… … I was not surprised."
But her voice was trembling softly.
Were you really going to confess to someone?
A face appeared in Felix's mind.
maybe Adrian?
His expression quickly turned serious.
no. There was no way Lucy suddenly had such bold courage. Ande, who couldn't even ask to go together during 'Literary Night'.
Felix reassured himself. But his anxious hands were fluttering wildly across the bookshelf without realizing it.
The wind blew a note that had been stuck in the book far away from the table. Felix picked it up.
"Hey, popular vote?"
As he opened the note, he let out an exasperated laugh.
The note had a ranking of popularity among female students of the Xenomium Academy.
"Who did such a childish thing?"
While saying that, Felix's eyes were naturally checking the ranking.
The first place was Claire Hamilton, the daughter of the Marquis and the student council. Rose Millard was in second place by a narrow margin. From 3rd place onwards, only the names of female students he was not familiar with, there was no name for Lucy.
"what. On what basis did you choose?"
Felix let out a voice mixed with dissatisfaction.
It's ridiculous. How could there be no Lucy's name?
"Isn't everyone blind!"
He crumpled the paper and threw it onto the table.
Without time to dry, Lucy quickly picked up the paper and unfolded it.
"… … After all, do you think that Rosé is number one?"
Felix looked at her in surprise at her words as she checked the paper.
"what? Rosé Millard?"
Felix asked with a puzzled expression.
"How did you come to that conclusion? Didn't you see me fighting Rosé on the market floor?"
"Were you fighting? … … You look good in my eyes... … ."
What the hell are you talking about!
Does Lucy Keenan's definition of a 'good relationship' refer to a relationship between people who can't eat each other? How can you say that you are good friends even after seeing that scene?
"We joke with each other… … I'm joking... … ."
Lucy hesitated and blurted the end of her words.
Joke? joke?
Felix's face flushed with embarrassment.
I swear I never uttered a single joking joke to Rosé Millard.
"It's mine."
He stole the note from Lucy and crumpled it relentlessly. Then he opened the lid of the nearby box labeled 'Discarded Books' and shoved a note.
It's useless for nothing.
There was a strange silence in the library. After finding a note with a girl's popularity ranking, Lucy was silent and focused on organizing the books.
In an atmosphere that did not know why it became awkward, Felix also continued to flap the bookshelf. Lucy looked depressed because she wasn't feeling well.
It was not long after that an unexpected object appeared that blew away such an uncomfortable atmosphere at once.
"uh?"
Lucy, who was flipping through the pages, noticed something and looked down. Her lips parted in shock.
"Senior Felix… … ."
Lucy called him carefully. Felix lifted her head, and she listened quietly to what she had discovered.
"Here is the senior's report card… … ."
"Ah."
Felix snatched the report card with lightning strikes.
"Why is this in there?"
Felix closed his eyes tightly after checking his name and grades on the report card. In essence, it was the transcript of 'then'.
"Elder… … ."
Lucy muttered, still holding the empty hand that had been taken away from the report card.
"How could all but one subject be an F… … ."
As Lucy said, all subjects except 'Swordsmanship' were recorded as F on the transcript. This is because he left all the answer sheets blank for the midterm exam last semester.
Felix quickly folded the report card in half and shoved it into his pocket.
"There was a reason for that."
Felix answered with a puzzled face.
"What the hell is going on… … ."
Lucy muttered with a face still in shock.
In fact, Felix had one strange obsessive-compulsive disorder. It was that he was extremely reluctant to be put in a competitive position with his twin brother. Even if his grades were slightly similar to Adrian, he felt anxious.
Instead of praising her whenever she showed herself superior to her younger brother, her mother was busy comforting the disappointed Adrian.
His habit of yielding most to Adrian was born from seeing the scene. As long as he doesn't defeat Adrian, the mother won't even be hurt.
Therefore, after entering the academy, I purposely made more mistakes in the exam questions. Thanks to that, the chief was always Adrian's charge. Still, Felix didn't care. Even though I didn't get good grades, I felt comfortable mentally.
The problem was the reaction of the duke when he found out about it.
"How can the next Duke of Berg be unable to hold even a single head of the Academy! If you can't beat even one of your younger brothers, what are you going to do to control people from now on!"
The Duke wanted Felix to see Adrian's success as a competitor to overcome and win rather than simply celebrating Adrian's success.
Felix was always torn between his mother, who wanted him to be less than Adrian, and his father, who wanted him to be better than Adrian.
Turning out all the answer sheets on blank paper was an accidental act in the process.
After that, it was a problem to leave the report card anywhere on the desk. Hopefully it's stuck in a book and found in Lucy's hand at this moment.
Lucy, a sophomore and never getting a failing grade, seemed quite shocked.
"All but one subject are F… … ."
She stood blankly in her seat and muttered.
"How can such a score be achieved unless you hit it with your foot? … ."
But in the next moment, Lucy was surprised by the words she had unintentionally spit out and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Sin, I'm sorry!"
She apologized to Felix with a reddened face.
"You felt bad! Stop being so surprised... … !"
"done. Not even shocking."
"I don't mean that… … !"
Lucy waved her hands in embarrassment.
"Yeah, I think it could be!"
"it's okay. Don't comfort me."
Felix sat down on the chair with a dead expression on his face. Then Lucy was even more embarrassed and restless.
Eyes round like a surprised rabbit. A face as red as a blush.
For a while, he was ashamed of his report card being revealed nakedly, but Felix's indecisive reaction was slowly becoming more interesting.