Chapter 44 – The Stage
A day shortly after spring reached its peak.
Maybe it’s not strange even if it feels close to summer.
The three people on stage were acting with their own thoughts.
First, Edward Weiss, who can be called the main character.
He was just passing the semester, and he was busy with the possibility of passing the thesis, which had changed a little.
You won’t need to make any more edits.
However, it was difficult for him to answer the question of what wind blew for a paper that had not been passed until then.
He was in the midst of accepting that good is good no matter what, with an attitude that was unimaginable in the past.
It was Edward Weiss who thought that the axis of his life, which had been slightly twisted from now on, seemed to be returning.
The second character, Carolyn von Ferroz.
Although she appeared a bit late, she was someone who could bring a variable to the stage.
She was in a state of strong doubt about the situation that was happening in her own home, her so-called ‘common sense’.
She was the one who wanted to know what kind of person he was and why such outrageous things were happening.
Was she from a fairly high family, given that her own father didn’t seem to object?
There’s no way she wouldn’t know about that, but could he be a bastard somewhere?
She was the one who had no doubts.
The last character, she was Seria von Ferroz, who could be called the main character.
It was not strange to think that this whole story started with her.
The fact that Heina Thor Lern ended up doing everything for her because her own emotions ran out of control.
The moment Eurelia saw Edward Weiss, she reacted with fear.
It all happened at her fingertips.
However, at that point, only two people knew the inside story.
Is it correct to say two?
Even her father, Hilbert von Feroz, who was her tacit collaborator, did not know the exact story behind it.
He just knew she wanted him, but she didn’t know more.
No.
Maybe she didn’t really want to know.
There are things you have to give up to get what you want.
To him, what her second daughter was doing probably amounted to that.
Elaborate
Now, the stage has begun in earnest.
There will come a time when the truth will come out and everyone will question their beliefs.
How many people can be convinced when they realize the truth and doubt?
Sooner or later, everyone will realize.
Maybe.
###
Like any other day.
I wonder if it’s right to write these words now.
Edward was called by his professor, Professor Rosalyn.
There was no big problem with going, but I was curious about what it was called.
Even if you get scolded, the difference between knowing and not knowing is very large.
However, in a situation where there is no information, there is no way to know even if you die and wake up unless you use some unknown ability.
He just chose to go.
“Professor.”
He was a door that was kind of awkward when he wasn’t going to school,
Now that he himself belonged to the school, those thoughts had long since disappeared.
The professor nodded his head as if telling him to sit down without saying anything, and I also sat down without saying anything.
Why do I get nervous just sitting in this chair?
As I was thinking about such useless thoughts, the professor brought up the topic.
“It’s the thesis.”
It just had to be tense.
It was a question that would probably decide the rest of his life.
Miscellaneous thoughts had long since disappeared from my head.
“Don’t be nervous, it’s not a bad thing.”
The professor tried to relax by saying something like that, probably because I looked stiff.
“I think your thesis will pass.”
That was good news for sure.
Feelings of relief, happiness, and roughly the same meaning began to come at once to hear that the years of hard work would not be in vain.
“I don’t know what wind blew those old people and suddenly changed their attitude.”
Professor Rosalyn was not on good terms with the older professors.
But should I say that I can say hello with a smile on the outside?
She probably couldn’t accept that she was radical, given how often she took issue with her age.
There is no correlation between age and being conservative.
Perhaps the professor’s challenging research project was something they didn’t like.
It was a direct refutation of what they believed to be the truth.
If the person refuting was nothing, I would have just ignored it or buried it.
The opponent was also the same professor, so the situation that couldn’t be like that was what I had seen since I came under the professor.
And that applied to me too.
My research subject.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t just me, but I still had to take responsibility and show it to the world.
It wasn’t once or twice that I wanted to quit every time I was rejected, but I wonder if it was a response to persevering.
Thinking of seeing the light of day soon, it felt like all the irritation and fatigue from the past had disappeared.
“Don’t you like it?”
“No, it’s not like that… It feels weird to think that it’s finally here.”
The professor also knew my situation to some extent, so he gave an expression of agreement.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“Thank you.”
I am really grateful to the professor.
It wouldn’t have been strange if I had just looked at my performance and dismissed it, but the professor continued to look after me.
Not thanking such a person would be something only a person who has truly given up on humanity can do.
“It seems a bit early, but congratulations on graduating.”
Considering the characteristics of our department, where passing the thesis is said to be the final gateway to graduation, it was not wrong.
It felt like I had crossed one big hill in my life.
Of course, there will be more difficult tasks than this in the future, but for now, I wanted to focus only on the present.
###
It was only after the professor tapped me on the shoulder that I came back to reality.
Maybe it was because it was like a dream, and it seemed like he had been away from reality for quite a while.
I said goodbye and left the room.
On the way down the stairs to the next class, I bumped into Seria’s older sister.
She had done nothing wrong with her, but she was a special relationship of some kind, and she was subtly uncomfortable.
“Why are you avoiding it?”
Why should I be passive?
I had a sudden thought.
“I didn’t avoid it.”
She looked at me with a puzzled expression, and to be honest, she was pretty.
Do the two daughters look a lot like their mother?
It was an assessment based on clear facts.
As she was thinking about her like that, she started talking to me.
It’s like a person who is observing and asking questions about something he doesn’t know.
“Excuse me, but could she tell me where she is from?”
It was a question that came out of her context, but I decided to answer it anyway.
It was polite, but it was a question that I took care of everything.
“I’m from the South.”
Southern. Southern. Southern.
She said just that word over and over again, and she still had a vague expression on her face.
But why are you asking about my hometown?
Are you looking for a level that is likely to come out of any creative work?
“I think you’ve been thinking pretty rudely.”
How could the ladies of the Feroze family see through my thoughts so well?
“I didn’t mean to ask in that way. I’m really curious about something, but it’s just that you’re involved in it.”
Any questions?
I have no contact with this person… I see.
As long as there was a point of contact called Seria, it couldn’t be said to be completely unrelated.
However, that meant that this person in front of me knew the relationship between me and Seria.
“It’s not just me. Everyone in the house knows, right?”
Had she already been caught?
I had to go to the mansion today, but I was dizzy thinking about the attention I would receive.
“I don’t really care.”
It was an unexpected word.
The atmosphere was like that kind of nuanced words, but the person himself didn’t really care.
She continued with her words while she still couldn’t believe the contradiction.
“You won’t believe it, but it’s true. That’s not what I’m looking for these days.”
What she explained was a sense of alienation.
More loosely, she says it’s because of the discrepancy between what she’s been told and what her own father has said.
I couldn’t understand it as I didn’t know either of them, but I decided to put my mind at ease that whatever was going on, it wasn’t my concern.
“That’s it. Then see you later.”
Leaving her words behind, she went on her own way.
But the words she left had an impact on me.
The fact that you already know the relationship between the two of us.
I wasn’t a trustworthy person yet, but I wasn’t one to lie about things like that, so I decided to conclude that it was the truth.
I sighed once and started on my way too.
###
Peroz Mansion.
“Oh, sir. Do you have time tonight?”
I had a lot of time, but what could it be?
“My parents want to go eat.”
What she said earlier was not a lie.
