.｡.:✧ Chapter 22 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Do you have anything bothering you?”

“Huh? No, not at all.”

I went to check on what was happening with monitoring Rin, whom I had asked the Dean to watch, and found the dean sitting there with a strangely anxious expression, unable to keep his hands still.

“It’s suspicious.”

“It’s really nothing. Just… I feel like Rin noticed something.”

“Hmm?”

Even though it’s hard to believe, a third-year like Rin might notice, given that she’s being monitored by a magician of the dean’s caliber.

‘It could be possible.’

Considering that Rin was not an ordinary student but would later become a calamity that would engulf the world, it was possible that she could sense the dean’s surveillance.

‘But I can’t give up.’

“Continue monitoring her. Rin won’t be able to do much anyway.”

“Is that so? Alright!”

The dean nodded vigorously, as if he found a mouse hole, and although it felt like he gave me the answer I wanted to hear, it didn’t seem like a problem I needed to dwell on. [T/N: no fucking idea what the author means by a mouse hole]

“Are you still watching her right now?”

“Of course! Do you want me to show you?”

Without saying a word, he immediately used mana to expand the screen. It was after school, and it seemed like she was playing tennis with her friends, but something felt strange.

She was wearing specialized tennis attire instead of the school’s gym uniform, and she tied her hair up high, revealing her neck.

Her skirt swayed precariously and she opened her clothes to cool off the sweat, but her skin was strangely exposed to the side they were on.

“Has she always been this careless?”

Of course, it was an angle that others couldn’t see. It was a situation where it was only visible from the angle we were monitoring.

Back in the village, young boys used to lift the skirts of girls they were interested in to sneak a peek. Since the girls were young, they had no choice but to endure it, but Rin was different.

She was so guarded that there was no room for any openings, but now it seemed like she was allowing some room for it.

“Did you intentionally aim for this angle?”

I looked at the dean, wondering if he was doing this to please me, and he shook his head violently.

“Is this the effect of teenagers in their youth?”

Rin, the innocent country girl who used to smile so innocently, was unconsciously showing a peculiar charm. Of course, she was still a little 18-year-old, but I was starting to worry if things might take a strange turn.

“It would be good for her to be a bit more careful.”

Even though she was maintaining her composure without being seen by others, you never know where and how she might be seen.

I gestured for him to clear the screen, and the Dean promptly did so. There was no one else in the dean’s office, but he whispered quietly as if someone might be eavesdropping.

“I have a few video clips. Would you like me to give you some?”

“No, have you gone crazy?”

I knew this person had been crazy for a long time, but I didn’t expect him to be this insane.

Surprisingly, it was the dean who reacted as if he was surprised by my response. He seemed bewildered by my reaction, It’s as if he thought I would drool and wag my tail in approval.

“Delete everything right now. Don’t create any weird evidence for no reason.”

I spoke firmly, and he obediently nodded, lowering his head. A person his age should know better than to engage in such antics.

“I’m leaving.”

With a loud noise of the door closing, I walked out of the dean’s office and slipped my hand into my pocket, lost in a swirl of strange emotions.

***

“Hah.”

What was he doing?

He was so easily intimidated by a student and it caused him to immediately back down.

After Daniel McLean left, the dean, feeling frustrated with his disappointment, returned to his work.

Recent events had been piling up due to the heavy workload, and the Leiros family in the west had started to exert subtle pressure, so his mind was in turmoil.

“I should just expel them outright.”

Honestly, deep down, the dean wanted to expel Fenil Leiros and his gang right away. But that would turn into a real showdown.

Now it was just one more week until their return.

The dean hoped that through this opportunity they troublemakers would realize the couldn’t be completely protected by their family’s and would quiet down.

Knock, knock.

A light knock.

The dean immediately recognized who it was and smiled, inviting her in. There stood Rin, who had been playing tennis with her friends just a moment ago, with a towel around her neck.

‘What an impressive kid.’

At first, he didn’t know, but this girl had concealed herself perfectly with magic, erasing her presence, smell, and sound, and even becoming invisible. But she deactivated it upon entering the dean’s office.

In other words, she didn’t want anyone to know that she had any kind of relationship with the dean.

‘Even fifth-year students find it challenging to simultaneously cast spells like that.’

Nevertheless, this girl meticulously constructed magic while maintaining incredible speed and a steady rhythm.

As a fellow magician, the desn was certain at a glance.

This girl was a genius who could claim a place in the continent’s magical history, at least to some extent.

“How did it go?”

Of course, Rin didn’t come here for that reason now.

“He refused. He scolded me, asking me why I would record something like that.”

“Is that so?”

Rin was visibly disappointed.

If the dean were to ask her if she wanted to be recorded, the answer would be no, of course. Recording is a hassle, and it’s difficult to store, so what’s the point?

But this recording was agreed upon.

Because Rin, the one being monitored, wanted it.

“I thought you would like it.”

As he listened to Rin’s muttering, the dean couldn’t help but think that she was not entirely normal either.

At first, when Rin traced the surveillance that was monitoring her back to its source and arrived at the dean, he was shocked. He thought he had earned the disgrace of being a dean who spied on students because of Daniel.

‘Now, who asked for this?’

Surprisingly, Rin deduced most of the truth on her own and came to the dean with the correct answers. But there were some differences.

For example, the fact that the dean felt sorry for accusing Daniel and was helping him.

It was almost the correct answer.

Although Daniel was avoiding her he was still monitoring her through the dean. From Rin’s perspective, who had no idea that she would later stab her childhood friend and his fiancée to death, it was simply that the special condition Elise had mentioned was what was causing Daniel to do this.

‘It doesn’t matter. In fact, I like it!’

It was a special condition, but in any case, she was being observed with that kind of gaze. Just that alone sent shivers down Rin’s spine, and a mischievous smile played on her lips.

Afterward, Rin subtly made an effort to look good for the magic she was being observed by. When she thought about it, Daniel wasn’t seeing everything, but the dean was.

So, what Rin had in mind was a recording.

Since she couldn’t always look good, she wanted to capture the beautiful moments.

“For now, please don’t discard it. I might need it later.”

“…Alright.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“He mentioned that there was a bit too much exposure that other people could see.”

At that moment, Rin’s expression brightened significantly.

“He was worried about what others might see!”

With a satisfied smile, Rin told the dean to continue doing a good job like this and cast her magic again before leaving.

‘No need to worry. I subtly made it so that only you can see it.’

Thinking like that, Rin became increasingly cheerful as she walked faster.

After Rin left.

The dean took a deep breath and boiled some tea.

Whatever the Leiros family and other nobles said outside didn’t really matter.

First and foremost, organizing the academy’s internal affairs was crucial.

The reason the dean was helping Rin right now was solely one thing.

Because Daniel was under the illusion that Rin didn’t like him.

“…Unrequited love is such a strange thing.”

‘What?’

When Daniel first mentioned this surveillance, the dean mumbled something like that, and Daniel merely frowned, not outright denying it.

From his perspective, it was a nonsensical statement, but he couldn’t reveal all the details, so he gave an evasive answer.

The dean had misunderstood, and that misunderstanding had spread to Rin.

“If I help both Daniel and Rin at the same time, when the two of them start dating, they will naturally become grateful to me. Then, the internal problems will be resolved smoothly.”

To them, he was no longer the dean who tried to expel Daniel by falsely accusing him but rather the dean who secretly observed students.

He chuckled as he thought, “Hoho!”

After all, they were just kids.

They danced and laughed, feeling the freshness of puppy love in the palm of an adult’s hand.

‘It seems like the dean has been having some unnecessary thoughts lately. I should rein him in. Anyway, if I give him a little leeway, he’ll calm down soon.’

‘If the dean wanted to show him surveillance footage or recordings, it would mean he’d be alone in his office with Daniel, right? We should take some precautions for that.’

Unfortunately, they had something a little more twisted in mind than the dean’s expected innocence.

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