### Chapter 24

Laren lifted her head just a fraction before burying her face right back into the pillow. Even for her, coming face-to-face with a man’s bare chest out of nowhere at such close range was thoroughly embarrassing.

With her face still buried, Laren sank into deep thought. Now that she thought about it, embarrassment was one thing, but beauty was another. The glistening black hair dripping with water, the smooth upper body defined by lean, sculpted muscle—even a fleeting glance was enough to tell that he was nothing short of magnificent.

*‘L-Let’s take another look.’*

But by the time she peeked over her pillow again, the man had already pulled on his shirt. A wave of petty disappointment washed over her, and Laren pouted, giving him a sullen glare.

“Who are you?”

As Laren scrutinized the stranger, questions raced through her mind. Why on earth was he taking a shower in someone else’s dorm room? Was he an acquaintance of Karr?

The man before her was breathtakingly handsome. Pitch-black hair, deep navy eyes…

“Karr?!”

“…”

“…Wait, no. But… you look way too much like him?”

Bolting upright in bed, Laren stared intently at the man. Even his reticence and bored aura felt eerily similar to Karr’s. When the man looked back, however, he showed no reaction whatsoever. Offended at being so thoroughly ignored, Laren snapped.

“Hey! Answer me! Do you happen to know a boy named Karr? Are you two brothers or something?”

“My ears hurt.”

The man tapped his ear with an expressionless face, giving an answer that had nothing to do with her question. His deep navy eyes, catching the daylight, were beyond merely bored—they looked hollow. Put unkindly, he had the gaze of someone with a screw loose. No matter how she looked at it, his vibe was far too reminiscent of Karr’s.

“Hey! I asked if you know a boy named Karr!”

Ignoring Laren, who was pounding her fist against the bed demanding an answer, the man turned away. He casually shoved his tie into his pocket and tousled his wet hair, completely unbothered.

“Hey—!”

His dark navy eyes flicked toward her as she thrusted herself forward in anger. Noticing Laren freeze up under his sudden gaze, the man tilted his head slightly.

“Pig, you’re loud.”

*Pig?* Overwhelmed with confusion, Laren stared at him, unable to close her slack-jawed mouth. It wasn’t exactly a flattering insult, but it was the very word Karr often used to address her. An impossible theory began to storm through her mind.

“What… are you?”

For a fraction of a second, the man’s impassive expression almost cracked. To think he was hearing the exact same question thrown back at him that he had once asked her back at the slave merchant ring.

When no reply came from the man, Laren felt like she was going crazy from the frustration. She recalled that oddly mature aura unsuitable for a child, the quiet composure as he swung a blood-stained sword, and those deep navy eyes reflecting the moonlight…

“You… You’re…”

Their eyes locked in midair. Staring into her wide, shimmering blue eyes, the man approached Laren with unhurried steps. *Tap.* With a flick of his index finger, he pushed her forehead back as her face turned into a picture of total confusion.

In that instant, sheer shock washed over Laren’s face. This was every bit as astonishing as the moment she had looked in the mirror after being cursed.

*‘No way…!’*

Watching her frozen in place, the man carelessly threw on the uniform jacket lying scattered on the bed. Only when he made a move to leave the dorm room did Laren snap out of her daze.

“Wait, wh-where are you going?!”

Turning at her call, the man swept his eyes over Laren without a single change in expression. She had just woken up, her white hair sticking up in all directions, and she was still in her pajamas. Staring at her quietly, the man gave a slight jerk of his chin toward the door. Following his gesture, Laren’s eyes darted to the clock on the wall.

*‘Class!’*

A flurry of frantic, chaotic noises echoed through the room.

—

Amidst the lively chatter on the terrace, a single table remained wrapped in heavy silence. Jian rolled his round eyes. The hands of the person sitting across from him hadn’t moved an inch. With every passing second, Jian’s expression grew increasingly grim.

“…Um, Ren, are you feeling sick or something?”

“Huh?”

Not only had she looked utterly dazed all the way to the terrace, but now she was merely picking at her sandwich. Taken aback by this uncharacteristic behavior, Jian watched her with concern.

Meeting his anxious gray eyes, Laren finally snapped back from whatever far-off world her mind had strayed to. Goodness, spacing out with a sandwich right in front of her! She realized all over again just how tangled her thoughts really were.

“Did you bump into Sir Pigone or something?”

“No, it’s not that.”

Pigone, my foot. In her head, which was currently knotted in a tight tangle because of the man she had met this morning, there wasn’t even a fingernail’s worth of room left to care about someone like Pigone. Mulling over the man’s appearance and mannerisms once more, Laren set down the sandwich she had been raising to her mouth.

“Jian…”

Her voice trembled slightly as she called his name. Her subdued demeanor was so genuinely grave that Jian’s expression grew serious in turn.

The man who had appeared in her dorm room looked to be somewhere between a boy and a young adult—right around Laren’s age. A theory she desperately wanted to deny kept seizing control of her mind.

Karr’s unusually touchy reactions whenever she treated him like a child… A ‘Physical-type Qualitas.’ Finally, she understood Karr’s Qualitas.

“Jian. Do you know what Karr’s Qualitas is?”

“I knew it. You really didn’t know.”

“…What?”

At Jian’s calm confirmation, Laren bolted to her feet.

“You knew?! You knew that Karr—that Karr isn’t actually a child?!”

“Honestly, in the entire Academy, you might be the only one who didn’t.”

Laren slumped back into her seat, her face utterly blank. Was she really *this* dense?

She had brushed off his sensitive reactions to being treated like a kid as mere childish petulance, and she had assumed his uncanny maturity was simply because he had lived a hard life. Recalling everything she had done to Karr up until now was enough to make her clutch her head and tug at her white hair in utter embarrassment.

“Why! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Well, I wasn’t entirely sure myself, and Sir Karr wasn’t saying anything either… I just assumed you’d figure it out eventually. You were just really slow on the uptake, Ren.”

Watching Jian blink his round eyes, Laren had never found his face so infuriating. He was always so quick to share useless gossip, yet he had stayed completely tight-lipped about *this*.

Memory after memory flashed back—the bizarre looks her classmates had given her every time she carried Karr around. Of course they looked at her like that! She had been carrying a fully grown man around in her arms! But why on earth had Karr just let her?

*‘Knowing his personality, actually…’*

Remembering the bored expression he used to wear while cradled in her arms, it suddenly made sense. He was probably just too bothered to push her away, so he let her be.

“Is that what a Physical-type Qualitas does? But if so, why was he walking around in the form of a child?” Laren muttered to herself, staring blankly into space. Jian waved a hand in front of her face, but she didn’t react at all.

“He goes around in the form of a child from time to time. I was really shocked when I saw it for the first time, too.”

“Why? Just… why?”

Her question wasn’t aimed at Jian. It was directed at Karr, who might be sleeping off his fatigue somewhere at this very moment. Watching her vibrant blue eyes lose their focus, Jian simply shrugged.

—

Karr hadn’t returned to the dorm last night. Dragging her hands with sluggish movements, Laren packed up her textbooks and stepped out of the classroom. Even after a whole day, the usual sharp luster in her blue eyes remained dulled. As she trudged across the campus, a shadow fell over her path.

“You lowly commoner, where do you think you’re standing, blocking my path?”

Irritation flared across Laren’s hollow face. Her head was already a tangled mess, and Pigone’s timely appearance aroused a fierce urge in her to yank out his pink hair. Seeing the commoner—who had been acting so fiercely lately—offer no reaction whatsoever, an unexpected glint flickered in Pigone’s eyes.

“It seems the peasant has finally recognized Lord Pigone’s true worth.”

“Quite a sight, seeing her meekly tuck her tail between her legs.”

*What true worth? And I’m a commoner, not a peasant.* His trio of lackeys still hadn’t learned how to address her properly. Laren looked back and forth between the textbook in her hands and Pigone’s entourage, sinking into deep vexation.

Should she just slam this textbook onto the top of his head? Even if Pigone was the one instigating the fight, accepting a duel would only result in disadvantages for her. Loosening her clenched fists, Laren let out a soft sigh.

*‘Sigh, what an utter nuisance.’*

Giving Pigone a sidelong, unimpressed glare, Laren brushed right past him. It wasn’t because she was afraid of him; she just didn’t want to dirty her hands. Enraged by her complete lack of response, Pigone’s face turned bright red.

“You… You insolent…!”

Raising his hand to rush at her, Pigone’s movement froze, his eyes widening in shock. Ensis Tatio, the direct heir of the Tatio Ducal House, had grabbed him firmly by the wrist. Unaware of the scene unfolding behind her, Laren’s figure continued to drift farther into the distance.

*‘It feels almost like I’ve lost a little brother… though even saying that feels a bit weird. Ugh, I’m getting depressed over nothing.’*

Laren lightly kicked a tiny pebble at her feet. The black-haired man who exuded the exact same aura as Karr crossed her mind again. Those tightly set lips of his—he was unmistakably Karr.

“Why on earth did he have to be so darn cute in the first place?!”

*Whoosh.* Her angry fist sliced through thin air. Huffing in frustration, Laren collapsed onto the ground where she stood. Watching the yellow petals scatter delicately in the gentle breeze seemed to soothe her bitterness just a bit. Sitting there, picking incessantly at her nails, she presented a truly forlorn picture.

“In a bad mood?”

Right in front of the yellow blossoms, a golden flower appeared. She had wondered why he was being so quiet today after showing up incessantly lately. Narrowing her eyes to glare at Ensis, Laren shifted her gaze back to the flowers.

“Do I look like it?”

“Yeah.”

Offering an enigmatic smile, Ensis looked down at Laren huddled on the ground. Shadowed by long eyelashes, his blue eyes were strangely quiet.

“Lord Ensis.”

“What?”

To think she was actually spending her days addressing Ensis with honorifics. Laren rubbed her arm and let out a self-deprecating sigh.

“Life is just one long series of ups and downs.”

Ensis looked down at Laren as she uttered the pseudo-poetic line. The way the vitality was gradually returning to her blue eyes suggested she had sorted through her chaotic thoughts to some extent. Ensis, meanwhile, pulled his hand from his pocket and covered his face. If he laughed out loud right now, a fist might genuinely come flying at his head.

“…No matter what obstacles I encounter along the path, I must stand back up. And so, I stand.”

Pushing herself up abruptly, Laren took off. Though she had just forced that bit of pseudo-encouragement on herself, her shoulders remained noticeably slumped. Staring blankly at her receding back, the corner of Ensis’s mouth twitched.

“She really is something…”

Ensis was left alone in the academy flowerbed. Swaying in the wind, his golden hair blended with the yellow blossoms in an almost magical harmony.

—

Stepping into the dorm room, Karr came to a dead halt. Waiting inside was the normally mild-mannered girl who used to pester little Karr, now transformed into a full-fledged predator. Her blue eyes glinted sharply as she scanned every inch of him. Now that he was no longer in his child form, the look in her eyes was entirely different.

“Man… who looks like Karr. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Sighing at the ridiculous way she addressed him, Karr unbuttoned his uniform jacket with a face steeped in exhaustion. He reached for the buttons of his dress shirt, clearly intending to change into something more comfortable.

*‘…!’*

Horrified, Laren feigned composure and jerked her eyes toward the ceiling. Could there possibly be a more excruciating situation? Taking off a shirt wasn’t inherently a huge deal, but staring straight at him felt like committing a crime.

While she studiously looked away, Karr changed into fresh clothes and sank onto the opposite bed. The Karr she had known best until now was always trying to sleep, sipping tea, or going right back to sleep. These languid, sluggish movements were intimately familiar to her.

*‘It really… is Karr.’*

Laren crossed the room to his bed and crouched down beside it. His sharp, finely sculpted features and shadowed lashes were impossible to deny.

Reluctant as she was to admit it, the only truly handsome man Laren had ever encountered was Ensis. Her silly thoughts drifted along, realizing she would now have to update that tally to two. *No, wait—three. My own face is pretty handsome, too, which is probably why I ended up getting dragged off and dumped at a slave merchant ring in the first place.*

“He really is absurdly handsome.”