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Chapter 292: Suspicion (2)

After proofreading and sending it to the publisher, the writing of Volume 22 will be complete. It finished so quickly that I considered starting on Volume 23 right away, but I decided to take a short break instead.

Even if I take a break, it usually just means spending time with friends. By the way, Cecily was still absent.

She’s still managing internal affairs in Helium and might have to skip this entire semester.

Fortunately, Halo Academy understands this. They have a policy that allows students to avoid failing for one semester if unavoidable circumstances arise.

In special cases like Helium’s, they might even allow a year.

Although it felt a bit empty without Cecily at the academy, we kept in touch through Gartz.

I was enjoying the leisurely routine of the academy and was looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

In a secluded corner of the public training ground, with the lingering heat of summer still in the air, I released the tension in my arms as soon as I heard Adelia’s call to stop.

The hard feel of the stone under my chest was fully conveyed, and a sense of comfort spread through my body. I felt like closing my eyes and sleeping right there.

“Rest for 30 seconds, then do another 200 reps.”

However, Adelia’s ruthless words from behind brought me back to reality.

Without turning my head, I complained to Adelia, who was perched on my back.

“Can’t I rest a bit longer?”

“No. Stop whining.”

Adelia responded in a strict voice, showing no leniency when it came to managing my physical condition.

Even now, those weren’t ordinary push-ups. I have to repeat them with her on my back.

As a trained knight, Adelia has a lot of muscle, making her weight above average. She estimated it to be around 75 kg.

Considering her height is exactly 173 cm and the average weight for that height is about 60 kg, it means her muscle mass is enormous.

Even a simple push-up becomes incredibly intense with Adelia on my back. This can’t be mitigated with holy power.

Holy power is more suited for support, not direct enhancement. My growth depends purely on my effort.

“Noona.”

“Yes?”

“You built your body through sheer effort without any holy power, right?”

“Of course.”

Her confident response shows that Adelia’s true talent lies in her hard work and reflection.

She doesn’t just charge ahead mindlessly but thinks about the most effective methods, implements them, and sees the results.

If the results aren’t satisfactory, she revises her theories and practices again. This endless cycle gave birth to the person Adelia is today.

“As you know, unlike my other siblings, I didn’t have proper support. I had to do this to catch up.”

Adelia spoke with a slightly bitter tone while still perched on my back. I held back my words for a moment.

As she said, the Ters royal family provided only the basic necessities, leaving everything else for Adelia to handle.

Even her swordsmanship was taught in secret by a knight, who was later demoted when discovered.

The more I heard about Adelia’s hardships, the more I questioned how the Ters Kingdom managed its affairs, but it’s not uncommon for capability and compassion to be inversely related in people.

Maybe they believed in a noble duty to care for the populace. This was likely the most plausible explanation.

‘I’m okay with it, though.’

I can feel the growth I’ve achieved recently thanks to Adelia. A month ago, it was impossible to do push-ups with her on my back.

But with Adelia’s passionate guidance and support, I’ve made rapid progress.

In addition, when she takes care of the maid duties, she keeps track of my breaks so I can get out of the zone, which is great.

She might be an insignificant illegitimate child to the Ters royal family, but to me, Adelia is a pumpkin that rolled in on a vine.

“But look at you, trying to slack off. Hurry up before I add another set.”

Of course, she remained a strict teacher. It’s beneficial to finish quickly since it’s 200 push-ups per set.

Although the training was conducted in a public training ground where it was noticeable, no one paid attention.

At first, a few people glanced over, but they quickly lost interest, thinking it was just a trainer and a trainee situation.

They are too busy with their own training to have the leisure to look.

There are plenty of fit and attractive people around, so there’s no reason to particularly look at us.

“Isaac.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever thought about learning martial arts?”

While I was doing push-ups, Adelia subtly threw a question at me.

Given her serious tone, it was definitely not a joke. She was sincere.

I continued doing push-ups while thinking deeply about the question.

“Um… Not really? I’ve learned basic self-defense from my father, so I’m fine, but martial arts don’t particularly interest me. I don’t have the time to learn it either.”

“Is that so?”

“Is my body that good?”

Although it was a somewhat ambiguous expression, Adelia would understand. Instead, I sensed her flinch for a moment.

Then she smoothed over the awkwardness with a hollow laugh and answered my question.

“It’s not just good. Even though you have divine power, it’s difficult to get in such good shape in a short period of time. You definitely have talent.”

Although Adelia complimented me, I wasn’t particularly interested. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t have the time to learn martial arts when writing Xenon’s Biography is already hard enough.

In a way, it’s like planting potatoes in fertile soil. Still, my decision was firm.

“Sorry, I’m not interested at the moment. Besides, even if my body is in good shape, that doesn’t mean I have a talent for swordsmanship.”

“You don’t have to wield a sword or spear. There are weapons like axes or maces that are all about swinging. I can show you some basic grappling techniques and methods. It’s a form of self-defense too.”

“I’ll consider it. For now, let’s just finish this.”

Martial arts or not, exercise is the priority right now. Adelia seemed to understand that and quietly helped me.

“We’re done for today. You can go in and rest now.”

“Thanks for the hard work. Oh, by the way, Noona.”

“Yes?”

“Marie said she’d give you some time tonight.”

“… …”

I smiled as I spoke, and Adelia blinked a couple of times.

Then, her face noticeably reddened, and she turned her head, coughing awkwardly before replying quietly.

“…I will be waiting.”

Adelia, speaking in a formal tone now, displayed the demeanor of a dedicated maid rather than a bodyguard.

I gently stroked her cheek before getting ready to head back to the dorm. A shower at the dorm would be the final task.

Even though I’d sweat again soon, maintaining cleanliness is always important.

Being clean is far better than feeling grimy, no matter how annoying the process might be. With this thought in mind, I headed back to the dorm.

Unlike Marie or Cecily, Adelia doesn’t express herself outwardly, so she’s likely been holding things in for a while.

Given how much I exerted myself just now, I expect I’ll have a hard time getting up tomorrow.

“Huh?”

As I was finishing a refreshing shower, anticipating another intense night, I noticed an envelope that hadn’t been there when I arrived earlier. It lay conspicuously on the front doorstep.

The dormitory door had a slot for mail, so occasionally letters or packages would be left there. Most of the time, they were letters from home or manuscripts for Xenon’s Biography, and sometimes notifications.

‘Could it be from Mother?’

Recently, I’ve also been exchanging letters with Cecily, so it was quite likely from her. Unless something happened at home, there wouldn’t be much reason to send a letter.

Drying my unnecessarily long hair with a towel, I picked up the letter.

It was a plain white envelope, something you could see anywhere. Unlike the elaborate stationery Cecily or my mother used, this one was quite ordinary.

‘Who could this be from?’

Could it be a love letter? I dismissed the thought as I carefully opened the envelope.

Inside, there was only a single sheet of paper. With growing curiosity, I unfolded the letter.

And then…

[Are you Xenon?]

The neatly written question made me blink in surprise.

‘…Hiriya?’

There’s only one person who would do something like this, even if I lacked concrete evidence.

‘But what does she expect me to do?’

I was unsure how to respond to this.

*****

‘This should do it.’

A little while ago, while Isaac was cleaning himself up, Hiriya slipped the letter into his dormitory mailbox and quickly left the area.

In her disguise, there was no worry about being recognized, and she wore glasses to further obscure her features.

‘Why is that guy so diligent?’

As she walked away from the dormitory, she recalled Isaac’s daily routine, which she had observed over the past few days.

Isaac’s routine was that of a model student. Except for occasional meetings with Marie or Adelia, he spent most of his time holed up in the lab.

Even when he left the lab, he always headed to the library and then returned to the lab.

He was the epitome of a scholar, but that wasn’t what Hiriya was interested in. She wanted to understand his exact relationship with Cecily.

However, Cecily was currently absent due to internal affairs in Helium. Rumor had it that she might take a leave of absence for the entire semester.

This situation made Hiriya even more anxious. She needed to find out if Isaac was Xenon, and this delay was already causing issues.

Her goal wasn’t to prove that Isaac was Xenon, but to find out if he was or wasn’t.

‘If he sees the letter, he’ll react.’

If he wasn’t Xenon, he would behave as usual. If he was Xenon, there would be some change in his behavior.

Her initial goal was to observe this reaction. She could plan her next steps slowly after that.

If Isaac wasn’t Xenon, she could proceed with her original plan to take him away. But if he truly was Xenon…

‘No, it can’t be.’

Hiriya shook her head vigorously. If he really was Xenon, she would be in serious trouble.

One thing she had realized while following him was that his relationship with Adelia had deepened.

Even if he wasn’t Xenon, as long as he had the approval of Marie from the Requilis ducal family, it wouldn’t matter. The problem was the opposite. Isaac likely knew the complex situation between Adelia and the Ters royal family. If he truly was Xenon, then what?

‘Ters Kingdom would be thoroughly isolated.’

The moment they touched Xenon, Helium and the Luminous Church would intervene directly, and even Alvenheim might take action.

That had to be prevented at all costs. As reckless as Hiriya might be, she had some common sense and understanding of diplomacy.

Although she became a knight to avoid being sold off into marriage, she knew enough about foreign relations.

‘Using Adelia might help mitigate the situation somewhat…’

As Hiriya was walking, sorting out her complicated thoughts step by step, she suddenly collided with someone.

Thud

“Ouch!”

“Huh?”

Perhaps it was because she was walking with her eyes downcast. A passerby bumped into Hiriya.

Despite the collision, Hiriya remained standing while the person she bumped into fell to the ground.

The person was rubbing their backside and groaning, indicating they had fallen quite hard.

‘Pink?’

Interestingly, the person Hiriya had collided with had pink hair.

It was a rare cherry blossom color, much like Isaac’s red hair, known to be very uncommon.

Normally, seeing the pink hair would have made Hiriya try to guess which family the person belonged to, but she was too preoccupied to think about it.

“Tch. Get up.”

Hiriya clicked her tongue and extended her hand to help the person up.

Since she was the one distracted and caused the collision, it was only right to help.

The pink-haired woman took her hand and slowly stood up.

“Th-Thank you.”

“Watch where you’re going.”

Hiriya wasn’t one to talk, but she said it out of pride.

Despite her minimal courtesy, the passerby didn’t say a word and brushed past her swiftly. Hiriya’s eye twitched slightly, but she only grumbled inwardly and resumed her steps without delay.

When they had put some distance between them, the pink-haired woman, Cherry, muttered to herself as she watched Hiriya’s figure disappear.

‘She really is a stalker.’

Cherry, the woman with pink hair, had seen Hiriya following Isaac before. Last time, it was pure luck that she hadn’t been caught, but now she was observing from a distance just to be sure.

Luckily, the stalker seemed completely unaware that she was being followed herself and hadn’t noticed Cherry’s presence.

‘I need to let him know right away.’

As soon as Cherry confirmed the stalker, she didn’t hesitate for a moment and headed straight for Isaac’s dormitory.

Once she arrived at the front door of the dormitory, she raised her hand and knocked lightly.

Knock knock knock

“Senior Isaac, it’s Cherry. I have something to talk about…”

Translators note: