When he saw her, he was suddenly reminded of something that happened not too long ago.
The way she ignored his request to take a walk in the garden together and left as if she didn't know anything about it.
Today was no different.
He came to the academy, but up until this point, he hadn't seen Camilla at all.
If he hadn't walked by the training grounds, he might not have run into Camilla today.
'It's as if she's a different person.'
Pedro smirked.
"Let's go."
He glanced at Camilla for a moment, then resumed his walk.
"But don't you think Miss Camilla has changed?"
"Sure."
"She may not work hard in class but she's not the kind of person to sleep—"
Wham!
"Hey, what the f—!"
Pedro's friend, Roy, who was walking along chatting, bumped into someone hard and staggered.
For a moment, he grimaced and shouted, but stopped mid sentence.
"Huh?"
His entire body froze as he recognized the face of the person standing in front of him.
"Was that directed at me?"
"Ah… N-No! Th-That wasn't—"
Roy's heart sank as he came face-to-face with the dark eyes sparkling through long bangs.
"I'm— I'm sorry, Arsian."
Arsian Sefra.
The eldest son of the Sefra family, one of the three ducal families alongside Sorpel and Jévillon.
He was much thinner than the average adult man, so he was very lean.
However…
"Don't apologize."
"A-Arsian."
"Because I'm not apologizing."
Roy shuddered at the sight of Arsian's twisted smile. He knew of his brutality all too well.
As the eldest son of Sefra, a magical family that has produced countless archmages, Arsian's magical powers were immense.
Plus, unlike other wizards, he was athletic, but not everything can be perfect.
There was only one thing Arsian Sephora lacked: morality(1).
There was a very famous incident last year.
A transfer student, who had no idea what he was getting into with Arsian, was beaten to death, literally.
After using his vast magical power to heal him, Arsian began to beat him again.
Healing and beating.
The process was repeated countless times. Those who were subjected to it had lost their minds.
Even the teachers, who rushed to his aid when they heard the news, were unable to stop Arsian's malice.
"I-I'm so sorry!"
So it's no wonder Roy reacted the way he did when he bumped into Arsian.
"Come on, let's stop. This isn't worth fighting over."
At that moment, Pedro stepped in between them.
"It was a misunderstanding, Arsian. He apologized, so why don't you let it go?"
Pedro stepped in to mediate, wearing his usual good-looking smile.
"Are you a clown?"
But Arsian's eyes only grew colder.
"Clown?"
"I wonder."
"…"
"If you'll still be smiling even when you're being beaten."
"…I'm a little curious about that, too."
Pedro's smile widened.
"But let's stop here."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Arsian."
Whoosh!
Wham!
"…"
"…"
In an instant, a fist flew out, which Pedro quickly blocked.
The two stared at each other wordlessly for a moment, fists clenched.
"Don't call me by my name."
Arsian's voice was chillingly cold.
"I don't want to hear it."
His voice alone seemed to send a chill down Roy's spine, and he swallowed hard.
"Hey! What are you doing!?"
As the commotion grew louder, professors rushed in from the distance.
"What a shame."
Arsian clicked his tongue as if he were disappointed and took a step back.
It's funny how the professors, who usually pretend to not see such things, rush to Pedro, the son of a duke, when someone touches him.
"Stay out of my sight."
Pedro stared at Arsian, who turned away as if nothing had happened.
"That was fast."
He looked at his hands as he faced Arsian. His hands were still frozen.
That one punch he'd just experienced was enough to show him the gap between the two. He was faster than a man who had spent his life wielding a sword------
What's more, there's more to Arsian than that.
'Mana.'
Though, no magic was used when he punched him. He only used his physical strength.
Clomp.
"…"
Meanwhile, Arsian's pace slowed to a halt as he walked through the training field.
His eyes lingered on Camilla, lying under the shade of the tree.
He could see Camilla tossing and turning, then seeing something and quickly looking away. She never turned her head in that direction again.
"Hm."
Arsian stared at the figure.
"Can she see it, too?"
* * *
"This isn't an academy, it's a ghost paradise."
Camilla let out a weak laugh as she walked into the classroom after her swordsmanship lesson to attend her regular class.
A student ghost sat in an empty seat at the back of the classroom.
'Why are there no seating arrangements in the classroom?'
The reason why no one pays attention to the extra desk and doesn't clean it up is because of the ghost, right?
People would subconsciously shun and avoid such haunted places.
'Phew.'
If the ghost in the classroom was that one student, that's what she would have done.
'Why are they even teaching the class?'
There was the ghost of a professor who was feverishly teaching a class next to a professor who was equally enthusiastic.
The sounds coming from both sides made her head spin.
'You're really studious.'
Do you want to stay at the Academy until you die? Do you like studying that much?
Camilla chose to slump down on her desk as a way to avoid eye contact with the ghosts as much as possible. She was thinking of sleeping.
"Lady Camilla."
But unlike her swordsmanship professor, the professor who teaches math didn't condone Camilla's behavior.
There were two kinds of professors in the Academy.
The first ones are professors who completely ignore Camilla Sorpel and treat her as if she doesn't exist.
And…
"Apparently, Lady Camilla doesn't find my class interesting."
Professors like Professor Velvet who tried to undermine Camilla in any way they could were the second.
It was bad enough that she wasn't paying attention in class, but she was also slumped over her desk.
However, there were a lot of people in the classroom who were just as distracted as she was. Some were even sleeping out in the open.
It was obvious why they left everyone else alone and were only pointing fingers at her.
To get a kick out of being mean.
In fact, those who could not even raise their heads in the presence of the Duke of Sorpel wanted to feel superior by crushing her.
"Are you protesting that my class isn't worth taking?"
"No."
"Okay, so I guess I can take that as a sign of confidence that you can solve this problem without taking a class?"
Well, that's one hell of a conclusion. Camilla choked back the laughter that threatened to break out.
"Would you like to come forward and work through some of these problems?"
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Professor Velvet's mouth. The other students in the room had similar expressions.
Everyone, even those who had been distracted by the thought of watching Camilla squirm in front of the chalkboard, had their heads up to focus on the current situation.
'How childish.'
Camilla smirked. After a quick glance at the questions on the board, she strode forward.
'I may not look like it but I graduated from S University.'
It was also in the news that she got into the university with a perfect CSAT score.
It was big news when a celebrity got into S University with a perfect CSAT score. Not only was it a big deal in the entertainment industry, but the whole country was buzzing.
'Because I didn't want to hear it.'
She didn't want to hear that she was an orphan, that she couldn't study because she didn't have parents.
She studied hard. She never gave up on her studies, even though her entertainment career left her with little time to sleep.
It was not uncommon for her to get less than an hour of sleep a night, but she didn't care. She always carried her textbooks and study materials with her. Fortunately, she wasn't born with a bad brain.
'I mean, it wasn't that bad.'
She memorized the entire script after viewing it a few times.
After all, she had turned heads with a perfect CSAT score that no one could ignore.
Did she think that the math skills of South Korean test takers are ridiculous?
'It's not much of a problem.'
On top of all that, she's seen Camilla's school days for over the past 20 years.
She could almost memorize what was in that book by heart.
'I've taken the midterms at least ten times.'
Standing in front of the board, Camilla worked through the problem without much difficulty.
Professor Velvet's eyes grew wide as she wrote down a problem that could be solved by plugging in a basic math formula.
"Can I go back to sleep now?"
Quickly scribbling answers to the three questions on the board, Camilla smiled up at Professor Velvet.
"…"
Professor Velvet's expression blanked.
Did she really solve those problems in one go?
It was the same for everyone else.
After returning to her seat, not a single person spoke as Camilla put her head back down on her desk and tried to sleep.
* * *
"Sigh…"
She was tired.
Once class was over and she entered the carriage, Camilla let out a long sigh.
She only spent one day at the academy, but her whole body was exhausted. She felt like she filmed three different dramas in a row.
Mathematics was one of them, but the other classes were not difficult at all. In fact, she was so familiar with the content that she was bored.
The bullying didn't bother her too much. Rather, it was quite pleasant to not have anyone bothering her.
The problem is…
"The ghosts."
There were ghosts everywhere in the academy.
Camilla sighed softly as she watched the ghosts enjoy their own version of Academy life.
—————
[1] Originally, the word "인성" means "personality" but it is usually used to evaluate someone's degree of morality.