Standing off to the side, Silvia watched as the fleeting gloom in her eyes quietly dissipated upon hearing Greg's firm denial.
She let out a soft sigh of relief, her tense shoulders visibly relaxing a little.
Thank goodness... Senior Greg doesn't like Princess Vivian...
The one he likes is still...
She unconsciously glanced sideways at her close friend, Victoria. Deep within her pink eyes, a complex, inexplicable emotion flickered before quickly being replaced by a gentle smile.
As long as Senior Greg's feelings haven't changed, and the object of his affection remains Victoria, my plan still has a chance of working...
However, the moment Silvia relaxed—perhaps because her movement from taking that deep breath had been slightly too large—
Clatter.
An object slipped out of the side pocket of her uniform skirt, dropping onto the polished floor with a soft thud.
Greg picked it up without hesitation, discovering it was a small human-shaped doll.
The craftsmanship was far from delicate—crude, even—made from a fabric that looked unpleasant to touch.
Even though the classroom was bathed in ample light, a faint shadow seemed to drape around it, emanating a subtle, bone-chilling aura.
Greg's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.
“Is this...?”
The design of this doll, the bizarre symbol drawn on it, and that unsettling aura it gives off...
It looks somewhat similar to certain cursed items from the original game. But why is Silvia carrying something like this?
He was just about to inspect it closely to check if he was mistaken.
However, a pale, slender hand snatched the doll back before he could.
Silvia's movement was so swift it almost left an afterimage, completely different from her usual gentle and deliberate demeanor.
The instant she grabbed the doll, she hid both hands behind her back.
Greg looked at Silvia in confusion.
“Silvia, what was that—”
“It's just an ordinary doll, Senior Greg. I was just idly sewing it myself and did a poor job. Please don't laugh at my clumsy handiwork.”
She interrupted him before his question could even get off the ground.
The flawless, gentle, and pure smile without a trace of gloom had already returned to her face, as if the moment of panic and slip of composure had never occurred.
“No, that doll seemed—”
Greg tried to point out the doll's strangeness, but his words were cut off once more.
The curve of Silvia's smile didn't waver in the slightest—if anything, it grew even sweeter. Yet her voice dropped slightly lower as she looked straight into Greg's eyes, repeating word by word:
“Senior Greg, you saw wrong.”
“It really is just an... o-r-d-i-n-a-r-y... doll.”
Her pink eyes stared clearly at Greg, yet he felt an indescribable, subtle pressure weighing on him.
“...”
Greg opened his mouth, meeting those beautiful pink eyes that revealed zero emotion, then glanced at Victoria beside them, who seemed entirely oblivious as she cupped her chin, still mulling over the morning rumors...
After a few seconds of silence, he slowly closed his mouth.
Reason and an instinct born of survival screamed warnings at him simultaneously, making him decide it was best to pretend he had seen nothing.
Besides, a cursed item of this caliber wasn't particularly dangerous anyway, incapable of inflicting real harm, so Silvia keeping it probably wouldn't cause any real trouble.
“Class is starting, everyone. Please get ready.”
Before long, an unfamiliar middle-aged female professor stepped into the large lecture hall, carrying a thick binder of lesson plans under her arm.
Her attire leaned more toward the crisp, functional outfit of a combat-oriented professor rather than the loose robes typically worn by theory instructors.
Instead of unhurriedly adjusting a magic projector like most theory professors, she swept a sharp gaze across the packed crowd of students as if inspecting a training field. Her brow furrowed imperceptibly, as though she felt somewhat out of place in such a quiet lecture setting.
Evidently, she had been brought over from another department on short notice to replace Associate Professor Audrey, who had died in the recent kidnapping case.
Having her teach a relatively static course on theoretical magic history was truly like trying to drive a duck onto a perch.
Furthermore, it was worth noting that the Church of Light's handling of the matter was predictably identical to their playbook in the original game.
The public announcements and the academy's daily news only highlighted Greg Sass's heroics in defeating the Demon King Cult executive and rescuing the kidnapped freshman, omitting any mention of the scandal involving Professor Audrey conspiring with the Demon King Cult and ultimately dying from magical backlash.
Even the internal notice circulated to students and faculty brushed over it vaguely, stating merely that 'Professor Audrey resigned due to personal reasons.'
Still, Greg figured it was completely normal for them to deliberately cover up the truth.
After all, a believer employed at Glory Cael Academy who was theoretically supposed to uphold the light's teachings had actually been seduced by the Demon King Cult into committing such an atrocious act against the church's Candidate Saintess.
If such a scandal were made public, what a staggering blow to reputation and crisis of faith it would cause for the Church of Light, which touted itself as the embodiment of justice and purity!
“Move over further inside.”
Greg's train of thought was shattered by Victoria's unceremonious voice.
She was trying to squeeze into the empty seat beside him, but he was sitting near the aisle, blocking her path.
Pushed around without room for argument, Greg grudgingly slid all the way into the corner seat by the window, practically pressed against the wall.
“Wait, why did both of you come sit in the back row too? You wanna be delinquent students like me?”
Greg turned sideways helplessly to make space for them, unable to refrain from complaining.
“Hmph, do you think we want to be glued to a trouble magnet like you?”
Victoria made a little room for Silvia as well before plopping down right next to Greg, shooting him a testy glare:
“I just wanted to settle the favor I owed you as early as possible.”
Saying that, she reached into her uniform pocket, rummaged around a bit, pulled out a small pouch, and slapped it down onto the desk in front of Greg with a loud clack.
Inside were roughly twenty gold coins glistening with an enticing luster.
“Here, this is the reward we agreed on last time. We're even now.”
Victoria raised her chin, speaking casually, though a subtle flash of relief crossed her gray-blue eyes.
“Holy crap, this much?! You didn't... actually sell a pair of your worn over-the-knee socks in private to the store owner of Faded Iris, did you?”
Greg took the heavy pouch of gold coins in surprise.
He remembered that the glove could sell for forty gold coins at most, which meant a thirty-seventy split should have only netted him twelve gold coins—yet here he was, holding a full twenty...
This left Greg with no choice but to suspect whether Victoria had struck some shady under-the-table deal with that shopkeeper, earning herself a handsome bonus.
“What kind of nonsense are you babbling?!”
Victoria's cheeks instantly flushed with a suspicious coat of red. She glared at Greg in embarrassed anger:
“My socks aren't embedded with gems! How could they possibly be worth that much?!”
She took a deep breath to compose herself before explaining in a normal volume:
“The extra portion is to pay you back for the favor of giving me that gem in the dungeon earlier. So for selling the glove this time, we split it fifty-fifty—forty gold coins total, twenty each. Completely fair and reasonable.”
“What... Little Gray, you...”
Greg froze. He looked down at the heavy pouch of money in his hands, then looked back up at Victoria's awkward expression—which practically screamed I just did what I ought to, don't get all emotional on me—and a complex warm surge rushed through his heart.
This girl... even though she was usually reckless, greedy, sharp-tongued, and her chest was... ahem, she really was a good woman!
Rate on N.U.
