I’ve been feeling something while constantly getting help from Kyle lately.
And that is that I’ve raised Kyle to be an amazing man.
“After all, he helps people so well, never says a harsh word even when things might be uncomfortable, and cares for the servant with such devotion.”
Isn’t he just an incredibly good guy?
Seeing Kyle worry about me to the point of discomfort felt… a bit strange.
Is it because he looks at me with such apologetic eyes?
It was really weird.
“I wonder when Kyle will come back…”
At first, I thought Louise and Elin would help me more.
After all, Kyle is a Duke’s Son.
He shouldn’t be helping servants, nor should he be nursing someone.
So, I expected him to spend more time with his other friends.
But Kyle insisted on helping me, so we ended up sticking together almost all day.
Kyle even woke up early in the morning to wait for me, and sometimes I woke up early to wait for him.
We casually shared breakfast with Kyle sitting in the chair next to my bed.
Not wanting to make me move too much in the morning, Kyle joined me for breakfast in my room.
It made things slightly uncomfortable with my leg pain.
If I hadn’t gotten hurt, Kyle would have been able to enjoy a normal breakfast, not just a simple one like today.
“Ugh…”
Still, I was really thankful for Kyle.
It was great that he’d help me wash, even when it was still difficult for me, and he would support me every time I needed to go to the bathroom, feeling the pain in my leg.
I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d treat a servant as well if I were a noble.
Anyway, I really did raise Kyle well.
“Ah… I wonder when he’ll come…”
With Kyle gone for his lessons, I found myself with nothing to do.
I happened to finish reading all the books he had given me before, so I was just stuck in my room all day getting bored.
Louise and Elin visit me once or twice a day, but they’d already come to play today.
So, they probably won’t come again.
Thus, I waited for Kyle.
He always came to see me after his lessons.
Sometimes, if he’d been working hard outside with the Duke, I could catch a whiff of sweat from him.
I was thankful he came to help me without taking the time to wash up first.
And it wasn’t like his sweat smelled bad, so I actually found that scent enjoyable.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t smelled that scent much lately.”
I noticed I hadn’t been catching that sweet smell from Kyle these days.
That scent was sweet and nice.
Is it a type of perfume?
I really don’t know.
I’m not that knowledgeable about perfumes or cosmetics.
“Hmm…”
Well, no matter how much I ponder, I won’t find an answer.
I’m not Kyle.
*
“Sophia, what is a boarding academy like?”
“A boarding academy, you say…?”
Kyle asked while we were spending time together in my room.
A boarding academy…
It was quite a chaotic place.
At least, it was that way for me.
“Yes, I know you graduated, but I haven’t heard much about it.”
“Um…”
To be honest, I wasn’t eager to talk about it.
Unlike the fun and thrill-seeking adventurers, they were a bit… off.
In the lower grades, it wasn’t that bad, though.
“The boarding academy is where many people filled with inferiority complexes and excessive pride go.”
“Huh?”
“Literally. They have tremendous feelings of inferiority on the inside but project an enormous sense of confidence on the outside.”
Most people attending the academy were lacking in some way.
“The boarding academy specializes in training maids and servants. You know that, right?”
“Yes. So, you were a servant too.”
“Exactly. Essentially, it’s run for that purpose. And most of those who come here don’t really come by choice.”
My mom sending me there was an exceptional case; most were pushed there almost against their will.
“Most of them are from very lowly noble families, too weak to have any real power, holding onto a noble title alone, or lack standing in their families.”
Those who arrived without standing were usually the worst.
It was tough dealing with those kinds of guys.
“Imagine having the noble class but learning the roles of a maid or servant.”
It costs money to attend the boarding academy.
It’s a more specialized field than you’d think.
Of course, there are cheaper maid or servant options.
But the higher the status of the family, the more quality maids and servants they want.
And the place that produces those quality ones is the boarding academy.
“Nobles attend the academy to work as servants or maids for other nobles. For them, it must be extremely distasteful. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Right. There’s this pride, after all.”
“The problem is that special kind of pride among nobles.”
I seriously worried that people who were truly noble were built of confidence and self-esteem.
Of course, after meeting Kyle, I changed my mind about that.
But still.
“There’s a surprisingly large difference in the ratio of noble students to non-noble students. It takes certain funds to attend a boarding academy.”
Thinking about it, I wondered how my mom even managed to send me there.
Did we have a lot of money or something?
“Anyway, those proud nobles spend their time at the boarding academy gritting their teeth. Naturally, their stress just keeps piling up.”
“Um…”
“And there are a few prey types around. Civilian students who aren’t even on their level.”
People like me.
Particularly, I stood out a lot in their eyes.
“A commoner who had better grades than them, a commoner who received a lot of attention from the teachers, a commoner who stood out way too much.”
They were absolutely the worst kind of kids.
If they could waste time on that kind of stuff, they might as well spend it studying.
Why they blew their tops at me was just ridiculous.
“Anyway, that’s the kind of place the boarding academy is for those nobles who monitor commoners incessantly.”
“…”
“The staff at our castle have been around for a long time, so they’re probably decent people. Unlike those idiots who act out in the boarding academy.”
That was true.
No one like those who acted up at the academy worked here.
All I had were proper servants and maids.
Just thinking about the boarding academy made me angry.
Thanks to that, I could momentarily forget about the pain in my leg.
“Ah… I see…”
“I’m sorry if that wasn’t the kind of answer you expected.”
It was probably an answer entirely different from what Kyle had in mind.
I knew that well.
But I chose to just tell the truth.
Honestly, saying truthful things beats lying most of the time.
“Not at all. I’m glad to learn about something I didn’t know.”
“Is that so…?”
If that’s the case, I’m relieved.
Honestly, I thought my previous answers were turning the mood sour.
Especially after bashing nobles like that.
“Did you… face any harassment, Sophia?”
“…”
Ah, crap.
It’s going this way.
If I had known, I would’ve just brushed over it casually.
Amidst my talk about truth, it seemed ironic to mention lies now.
How should I get past this…
“…..”
“Sophia?”
I thought about explaining what happened at the boarding academy.
To be honest, my memories from there weren’t particularly fond.
It’s partly why I felt like a wreck now.
So during my adventurer days, I desperately tried to lose weight.
“Ugh… Do you really want to know?”
“.. Yes.”
Alright, curiosity is good.
It’s better to know than to be in the dark.
Although in this case, ignorance would feel better.
“To get straight to the point: yes, I faced a lot of harassment.”
“.. Really?”
“Yes. I excelled academically compared to them, received attention from teachers, and I had a dominant presence among commoners.”
We just shared meals and chatted casually, but they felt inclined to see it otherwise.
I honestly couldn’t understand why they felt inferiority over that.
They were just bizarre people.
“So, they suddenly started to keep an eye on me. A commoner like me, not even a noble.”
I just don’t get why they would feel the need to watch a commoner like myself.
“They would talk behind my back, and when in discussions with other peers, they’d suddenly pull me aside to vent.”
They never laid a finger on me.
If they had, I would’ve reported them, and I would’ve been expelled from the boarding academy in an instant.
So, I was unable to do anything about it.
Just talking trash wouldn’t earn you expulsion.
“And as the years went on, things only got worse.”
I knew using such gross words around Kyle was inappropriate, but I just couldn’t help it.
Maybe everything I’d held back then just spilled out now.
“You see, as I grew older, my second puberty kicked in late, and my body started to develop. Naturally, they began bullying me about that.”
Thanks to that, I realized that in this world, having large breasts or hips seemed to be a sin.
At first, I found girls with big breasts attractive.
That was more or less the case in my past life.
They were seen as a sign of femininity, something charming.
But those idiots changed my perspective.
“In class, they’d start by saying how uncomfortable it must be to have big boobs from behind, and you won’t believe how much gibberish came from that…”
“….”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
No matter how close I was to Kyle, that was going too far.
I crossed a line.
Kyle was a noble, after all.
It was unacceptable for me to spill such words around him.
I’d crossed numerous lines before, but this one felt different.
“Anyway, that was the case.”
Was it because I crossed a line?
Kyle’s gaze grew slightly colder.
His blue eyes, usually warm, were anything but now.
It sent chills down my spine.
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