LDTOTSDML Chapter 3

"People call that getting dumped, you idiot."

Mid-realization of the painful truth, the young lord said it once more.

Del glared at him resentfully, but the young lord only shrugged, as if to say, well, what of it.

"You don't know? That's why home contacted us earlier."

"The rumor's already gotten around?"

"You should be so lucky if it was just a rumor."

Only then did the young lord's expression finally soften a little.

"Your mother's message. Word for word: the moronic little shit who got rid of his perfectly alive parents and enrolled anyway—if you find a belly button rolling around over there, hang onto it. I laughed mine right off."

There was another message too.

This one from the Duke Consort.

"To be dumped, having inherited the face that even the discerning Duchess fell for—how embarrassing, how mortifying. Don't tell anyone out there that you're my son."

Del had already become the laughingstock of the whole household.

"But the way Arphina reacted—"

Whatever else, Del sank into deep, still more serious thought.

"...it was really strange."

"Well, of course it was."

The young lord snorted derisively.

"Some bastard shows up out of nowhere and confesses to her in front of everyone—of course she'd hate it. If your face was even a little worse, you'd have gotten stones chucked at your head."

"I wasn't dumped for my looks, okay? The only flaw in my face is that it has no flaws."

"Is that really the important thing right now."

It was enough to leave him speechless, that Del could still say his face was flawless even now—but, well, the man had a point.

The young lord looked steadily at Del.

'...At least it's not a face that'll starve to death wherever he ends up.'

He had to admit that face was objectively pretty and handsome, objectively. Of course, look at whose blood ran in them. Naturally they'd turn out remarkable.

'Then why was he dumped?'

From the look of things, this Arphina woman didn't seem to remember Del or himself at all.

'Well, that was more than eight years ago now.'

They'd only met her once, as children, briefly, and played together for that one short time.

Most people would forget entirely, but—

'I hope I get to see Arphina again, right?'

'What's Arphina up to these days, I wonder?'

'This? I'll give it to Arphina when I see her again!'

'Grandfather! Could you go ahead and give me one sunny plot of land now? I'm going to marry Arphina someday and share a burial plot with her there!'

Del had not, in the past eight years, forgotten Arphina for even a single moment.

The young lord, meanwhile, had been forced to remember all of it, having watched from right beside him as Del went slowly, steadily mad with love.

Del said,

"Arphina dumped me, and..."

"Everyone knows that already. So what about it?"

"She told me not to play mean tasteless jokes like that."

"..."

Well, at least he wasn't pelted with stones—thank goodness for that—the young lord had been about to say, sarcastically, when his brow furrowed.

You could refuse a confession.

But with those words?

'Somehow...'

There was self-deprecation in it. It wasn't that she'd refused because she disliked him—it was that she'd flatly decided there was no way anyone could like her. That was what was suspicious about the phrasing.

As though something similar had badly hurt her once before, too.

'...Ah.'

Only then did the young lord think he understood why Del had been so out of sorts.

"I thought I knew Arphina pretty well, in my own way."

Del had never once, not for a single moment, forgotten Arphina since he'd first met her at seven. And in his own way, he'd made it his business, in his own way, to look into how she was doing.

Whether she was healthy and doing well.

Whether she was hiding somewhere alone, crying.

That she wasn't on good terms with her family—even as a child, he'd vaguely sensed as much.

But had something else happened?

It seemed like something unpleasant and painful had happened to Arphina, something he himself knew nothing about.

Del was thoroughly disgusted with himself for having confessed so recklessly without knowing any of that.

"...That Arphina woman."

The young lord, silent for a moment, said.

"Even setting you aside, she's someone Mother personally looks after. So it's likely she's had a hand in controlling and blocking information related to her, to some degree."

"Why would Mother..."

"That woman—from the look of things, seems like she went through something not exactly pleasant..."

The young lord trailed off, feeling somewhat deflated. To put it precisely, he felt sympathy for this Arphina woman.

"How would you feel if you found out someone had been investigating something like that behind your back?"

"..."

"Mother was being considerate. Toward you both."

So that Arphina wouldn't be hurt.

And, at the same time, so that her precious son wouldn't do anything to hurt the person he loved.

"..."

Del couldn't say a word. The boy, in deep shock, wanted to say something, but in the end just pressed his trembling lips firmly shut.

To that Del, the young lord gave one piece of advice.

"Don't cause a scene."

The whole reason he'd come all the way to Del's dormitory in the first place was to say exactly that.

"I said it before, didn't I? Arphina Tonide is under our household's protection."

If unnecessary chaos drew attention their way, it could cause serious problems.

Not just for Arphina's own safety—there was a real chance it would jeopardize a certain "plan" their family was secretly carrying out.

"Do that, and that secretary hag will sneak straight onto Academy grounds and strangle you on the spot. You know she'd do it and then some, right?"

"Yeah..."

Thoroughly deflated, Del asked in a listless voice.

"...Did I make a huge mistake, with Arphina?"

The only thing he cared about was that Arphina had been hurt.

"That, I wouldn't know."

The answer that came back was coldly indifferent.

"..."

But Del soon nodded firmly, as if he'd made up his mind. His expression, having settled on what he needed to do next, was fairly grim with resolve.

'Don't bring that out where people can see, if you can help it. You're just smearing ink on the family name.'

'Of all the children to have first, and it had to be this defective one...'

'Can't even use magic! Who said you belonged here!'

'For god's sake, stop playing with that scrap metal! Have you no shame!'

'Why do you keep breaking your mother's heart...'

The vicious words had carved themselves into her mind like a mural on a wall.

"..."

Arphina, waking from sleep, stared blankly at the ceiling.

Sunlight seeping through the gap in the curtains drew a long, gleaming rectangle across the dim ceiling.

The faint chirping of small birds nesting in the dormitory garden drifted in as well.

It was a nightmare she sometimes had when she fell asleep tired or in low spirits.

So even though waking up left her chest tight with a suffocating dread, Arphina showed no reaction to it at all.

She could guess why she'd had the nightmare.

'I fell in love with you at first sight!'

'Please go out with me!'

The new student who'd shown up out of nowhere yesterday and confessed to her so abruptly.

'Hey, did you seriously think I'd ever like something like you?'

'This is just plain stupid!'

'Did you actually believe it? I can't tell if that's naive or just dumb.'

The new student's confession had dredged up the most terrible wound in Arphina's less than pleasant life.

"Are you okay?"

Sonia, her roommate, watched Arphina with worried eyes.

"Looked like you were having a nightmare."

"I'm fine."

Sonia studied Arphina closely, about to get angry, but stopped herself.

"...But, really—you don't remember him at all?"

Sonia couldn't stop thinking about the first-year underclassman who'd confessed to Arphina yesterday.

"It just didn't seem like a prank or a cruel lie."

The excited look on his face when he'd approached Arphina, the tension she'd felt while he confessed.

And the bewildered, sorrowful expression on his face when Arphina turned him down.

That handsome first-year had even looked utterly devastated, as if his whole world had collapsed, when Arphina had ignored him and walked right past.

It hadn't looked like acting.

But Arphina didn't believe it.

"Never seen that kid before in my life."

"Think harder! Is that a face you'd forget after seeing it once?"

The two of them, changed into their uniforms, headed for the dining hall for breakfast.

"I already told you, I don't remember him. And he wasn't even that handsome."

"You sure you actually got a good look at his face? He was seriously—"

"Arphina! Arphina!"

A classmate from the Technical Department called out to Arphina, flustered.

"Go look outside!"

The moment she realized who'd come, Arphina headed not outside, but straight for her own dormitory room.

When she came back down moments later, a gleaming, well-oiled monkey wrench was in her hand.

Gripping the monkey wrench with both hands, Arphina wore the grim, determined expression of someone about to swing it at any moment.

"Gah!"

Sonia, catching sight of this, was horrified.

'Not again, seriously?'

Sonia and every other student in the dining hall broke into a cold sweat, watching Arphina clutch her beloved monkey wrench like a self-defense weapon.

The Technical Department students still remembered it vividly.

Two years ago, the legend the freshman Arphina had built with that very same monkey wrench: the West Garden Bloodbath.

"Arphina."

Sonia said, her voice calm and soothing.

"Let's just talk first, okay?"

She looked exactly like a zookeeper trying to calm a wild beast that was already baring its fangs and growling.

Meanwhile, the other Technical Department students had formed a ring around Arphina.

Trapped inside their triangle formation, Arphina shook her head vigorously in refusal. Her grip on the wrench only tightened.

"It's not because that first-year's handsome that I'm doing this. I genuinely don't think he means any harm."

"How would you even know that...!"

Arphina's voice cracked, near tears.

"What if, what if he's—"

'Just messing with me again?'

The fear she couldn't bring herself to say out loud was what frightened Arphina. However composed she could act about the nightmares, a nightmare was a nightmare for a reason.

Because it was terrifying.

"If I'm wrong—if I'm wrong, then I'll be the one to smash that handsome first-year's face in with this monkey wrench."

Sonia shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

"You all heard that! If that first-year pulls anything shady, I'm bashing his ugly mug in with this wrench!"

"Heard it!"

"If you get arrested for it, I'll testify that I saw the whole thing."

"Hey, whoever just volunteered to testify, get over here. I'm smashing your face in first!"

In any case, won over by Sonia's persuasion, Arphina gave a reluctant nod.

Only then did sighs of relief go up from all around.

Sonia snatched the monkey wrench out of Arphina's hands first.

Stripped of the self-defense item that gave her comfort, Arphina's round eyes went droopy, like a puppy whose comfort toy had just been snatched away.

Then, with tired steps, she left the dining hall.

"Senior!"