I Broke Off My Engagement and Got a Job at the Academy

64 – Inner Thoughts

The first impression of Vanessa’s academy was… peculiar.

From Noble mtl dot com

After completely botching the entrance exam and retaking it (she couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied that ‘Master’ never showed his face despite reporting the problems she found during the entrance exam), she finally enrolled in the academy.

Naturally, she not only topped the Swordsmanship Department but the entire class. Her grades spoke for themselves.

However, to be honest, it didn’t matter at all.

She had reached the level of an expert. She knew that comparing herself to other little newcomers was as meaningless as comparing a child to an adult. So, Vanessa didn’t pay much attention to others. Just do her own thing properly, and as long as she fit in reasonably well, everything would be fine.

The girl who had wielded a sword instead of dolls and dresses since a young age was already adept at handling interpersonal relationships. No, at least she thought so.

Until just before she saw the boys approaching her with jobs.

“Um, can you spare a moment?”

Vanessa barely managed to suppress the surprised expression at those words.

It was an experience she had never had before. Someone showing such overt romantic interest and attention towards her was unprecedented.

When she lived in the northern regions, she not only didn’t get along with her peers but occasionally felt their difficulty in being around her. In the north, she was an absolute presence. The entire northern empire was in the domain of Delphius, so no one dared to mess with her.

But… it was different at the academy.

There were boys sticking to her everywhere she went. Their interest was solely in her appearance.

What should she do? Honestly, although she had seen such scenes frequently in novels, facing it firsthand felt somewhat repulsive.

The fact that people were only interested in her looks without caring about who she was didn’t sit well with her.

She began to ponder silently. How should she handle this? There were too many people approaching her with job offers, and she didn’t really want that in the first place.

On the other hand, she couldn’t treat them as ruthlessly as she did in the north. After all, regardless of whether they judged her by her appearance, they were still people who said they liked her.

In the end, she decided to politely refuse and turn them away. After all, her mind was already preoccupied with the fact that ‘Master’ had never shown his face, not even a glimpse, making her uninterested in other men.

However, there was something she overlooked.

When she earnestly refused, she didn’t consider how her naturally stern behavior, typical of the north, and her inherently cold beauty would manifest when combined.

“I apologize.”

What she thought was a sincere rejection, fused with her voice and frozen facial expression, turned incredibly cold and distant.

The person who was rejected by her received an unforgettable wound in their heart due to her cold attitude, and other girls, observing such behavior, labeled Vanessa as an “unlucky woman.”

Originally, she had never met the central nobles, so there was no one with whom she could form a friendship. Naturally, to the female students, she was an easy target.

A “unlucky woman” who garnered the attention of men at a glance due to her beauty and haughty demeanor. However, with no engagement prospects and no worries about post-academy life after graduation?

Numerous malicious harassments were inflicted upon her. Secretly discarding her belongings, surreptitiously tempering the sword she would use in class against monsters.

And Vanessa, amidst such harassments… had no reaction whatsoever!

Belongings disappeared? She simply assumed she lost them and bought new ones. She couldn’t distinguish whether she lost them herself or if they disappeared for another reason, but money flowed abundantly.

Sword tempered? Contrary to the expectation that she would scream like a girl and be in a pathetic state, Vanessa simply beat the monster to a pulp with her fists when the sword broke.

Thanks to that, she didn’t even realize she had become the target of other female students. Afraid of the consequences of going too far, harassment towards Vanessa suddenly stopped.

Vanessa, proud of getting her act together, secretly felt satisfied that she no longer lost her belongings.

Ironically, as these situations continued, Vanessa’s popularity soared even more. Her haughty and cold attitude was enough to earn her the title of “arrogant” from noble boys, but when they saw her face, they couldn’t bring themselves to say it.

Noble boys, full of confidence due to not experiencing many rejections, mocked others who were rejected mercilessly, thinking they were different.

Even boys from other grades, not just newcomers, approached Vanessa. At that moment, Vanessa was silently sighing inside.

She had secretly admired the growing popularity, but she had never wished for it to go this far!

Rejecting each one was a task in itself. Moreover, Vanessa, who had little experience mingling with her peers, had to muster several times the mental strength to reject them.

Her locker was always filled with love letters (by the way, the derogatory graffiti from noble girls cursing Vanessa was hidden beneath, completely out of sight), and she took all of it to the incinerator (those who suffered from this shed tears, and those who watched thought they were different until they suffered the same fate the next week).

By this point, the interest that boys had in her felt more tormenting than the clandestine harassments from girls whose existence she might not even be aware of.

After some time, she thought of a possibility.

“Could it be… that I’m inherently incompatible with people?”

When she lived in the North, there were times she admired the protagonist who attracted the attention of numerous men, but reality was harsh. Despite several weeks passing, she still didn’t have a proper friend.

Realizing that, Vanessa fell into deep shock.

Somehow, other girls who seemed friendly avoided her when they saw her (it wasn’t just a feeling, it was true), and boys seemed to only have thoughts of bothering her (this was also true). Was it because of her lack of interpersonal skills? (This was not true!)

“Then… is the Magician avoiding me for the same reason?”

The Magician, meaning Professor Edun Kainus… avoiding her after a conversation, troubled by the frustrating feeling of evading her!

“Yeah… now that I think about it, the first encounter was when I was following him, but I had no reason to want to meet him.”

Vanessa hugged the doll she bought secretly every night (after entering the academy, she was captivated by the cuteness she had never experienced in the North), without others knowing. Being the heiress of the prestigious North had been in the academy for several weeks, and still, there was only one doll embraced in her arms. How pathetic.

Vanessa held the doll in her arms tightly.

And the doll, unable to withstand her strength, burst.

“… “

She lost her only friend and, feeling that there was nothing she could do, she clenched her teeth and buried her face in the pillow on the bed. By the way, I said “buried,” and there was a sound of sniffling from the bed.

After losing her bursting doll, Tosoon (the name of the doll), and with a hole in her chest, Vanessa traveled towards a shady place that others did not visit.

The result was the beautiful lake she found. It was a restricted area for students due to some monsters roaming around, but who cares? They would just die with a single blow anyway.

She trained and practiced swordsmanship alone there. So she felt that there was no inconvenience and it was comfortable.

Because she had no need to interact with humans, the hole in her chest only grew bigger… It was probably because of her mood.

“I was never comfortable with people and was always swinging my sword even in the north…”

No, thinking about it, I did get along with my father and his colleagues back then. It was worse than living in the north.

Should I be grateful that I didn’t have to stain my sword with the blood of monsters?

Every time she had such thoughts, it seemed to make her feel sad, but she decided to bury them for now.

Yes, now that I think about it, is all of this because I haven’t met the magician (or is it)? To be so close and then betray a woman’s heart!

Meeting Eduen Keynes at the lake happened while she was thinking about these things, bravely swinging her sword.

“Who’s there!?”

The reunion that occurred with a sword raised, though it wasn’t her preference, she could say.