Chapter 26. Why Are You Speaking So Charmingly?

***

Just as I was lost in thought.

“In that sense, student Han Chunsung?”

“…Yes, Instructor.”

As I answered blankly to the sudden call, Kali suddenly smiled a very strange smile.

“After today’s lecture is over. The student will follow the instructor.”

…

Afterwards, Kali’s lecture proceeded smoothly in a calm atmosphere.

Brief but intense words. A sense of crisis about the battlefield.

Kali’s presence, which had imprinted all of this on the students, was truly overwhelming, and even the lecture was conducted in a way that was easy for most students to understand. Kali, too, didn’t try to discuss practical combat or difficult topics, as it was the first lecture.

How to control one’s mind. How to control emotions. Surprisingly, Kali emphasized the importance of these mental aspects.

As time passed, the afternoon approached.

Tap tap.

Standing at the podium, Kali lightly organized the teaching materials she had brought, and then announced the end of the first lecture.

“Well then. That’s all for today. Good job everyone for attending the lecture. The rest of the time is free. You can go to the training ground allocated to C-class students for self-improvement, or do your own training. It’s fine to take a rest too. Or socializing with other students is also a way to adapt to this academy.”

While listening to those words ending the lecture, my heart was actually in turmoil.

‘Follow her…’

Although the lecture was over, I was the only student in this space who wasn’t free.

Kali had openly singled me out and told me to follow her after it ended. It meant I didn’t even have the right to refuse.

How could I have refused in that atmosphere?

Glance.

As Kali gave me a small glance at the end and left the podium, it felt like a kind of signal to me.

ㅡTo follow her on my own.

Tap.

At that moment, David, who lightly tapped my shoulder, smiled brightly and I blankly looked at him.

“Han Chunsung. I don’t know why Instructor Kali is doing this, but have a tough day today.”

“…Yeah. I guess so.”

As I answered blankly and David stood up, I stood up too.

Even while organizing the basic tools provided, I felt dazed.

Thud.

In my sight, I soon saw David leaving his seat and approaching a female student not far away to talk.

“Eili! What are you doing later? I was thinking of looking around the academy and going to the cafeteria. If it’s okay, I’d like to go with you and your friends.”

“Oh! That’s fine. Let’s go together then.”

“Thanks.”

Unlike me, it seemed he had already made friends with some students, and seeing this made me feel strange.

‘Is this right?’

I didn’t feel like I had been marked by Kali, but I couldn’t describe this strange feeling of suddenly being isolated in this classroom.

Normally, I should be mingling with David like that.

Thud.

Thinking this, I slowly moved down from the classroom.

“Phew.”

I took a short breath and composed myself.

When I think about it carefully, this situation isn’t that bad right now.

It’s very good that Kali is conducting my lecture, and if I develop a separate connection with her, that’s also a good thing.

And crucially, Kali didn’t view me negatively.

‘Let’s think positively.’

As I was about to leave the entrance with that resolution.

I felt a strange gaze.

When I turned my head slightly, I saw pink twintails that would catch anyone’s eye. Luna Vermont was visible.

“Hmph!”

As soon as our eyes met, she snorted and turned her head away like yesterday, but seeing this, I didn’t feel particularly bad anymore.

“Milia. Let’s go straight to the academy cafeteria. I’m hungry!”

“Okay. But Luna… It’s not good to have such a crooked attitude towards a fellow student.”

The black-haired woman right beside her, Milia, restrained Luna with a slightly apologetic look, and I was unconsciously curious.

‘Will Luna’s attitude change if Milia says that?’

As I gave them a curious look.

“…I don’t know, I’m fine just being close with you, Milia. I don’t particularly want to be friends with other students.”

“Luna, really….”

As Milia replied as if troubled, I smiled slightly and turned my head away.

If that was her response even to Milia’s words, it meant Luna wouldn’t change no matter who spoke to her now. So a sigh of admiration escaped me.

‘Leonhardt. What kind of battle have you been fighting?’

In the original work, that Luna was a popular heroine.

Although I used to view her tsundere attitude positively in the past, facing it in reality was completely different.

As I left the classroom like that, I saw Kali leaning against the wall.

With teaching materials held near her chest, she immediately gave me a glance, and I inadvertently flinched.

“Is student Han Chunsung a bit late?”

“I-I’m sorry, Instructor.”

“It’s okay. Don’t be so tense. I’m not trying to do anything bad to the student or scold you at all. I just wanted to have a meal together, I heard about yesterday’s duel too.”

Kali smiled brightly and slowly started walking ahead, and as I matched her pace, I felt dazed for a moment.

‘What’s with this gap…’

Kali’s appearance now was completely different from what I saw in the classroom.

Even making eye contact didn’t give me a strange feeling, rather it felt comfortable. It was like seeing a completely different person.

“Ah, right. Student Han Chunsung. Did I perhaps interrupt your time to mingle with other students? Did you have prior plans or…”

As Kali carefully asked, I immediately shook my head.

“No. I hadn’t made any plans. It’s fine.”

“Really? That’s good then.”

Kali answered lightly and walked with a faint smile, and I unconsciously looked at her.

The straight nose line under her flame-like red hair and her large eyes. Seeing her up close like this, she didn’t look as scary as I thought.

‘Just a beautiful person.’

That’s all I felt, an extremely beautiful person.

Moreover, even the emotions I felt from her were positive.

Goodwill, benevolence, emotions that could be called that were felt directly from her light attitude and tone.

Thud. Tap.

As we started walking with different footstep sounds, I could immediately see other students.

It seemed the lectures for C2 and C3 classes had also ended, as students were pouring out, and when they came out, they stopped in their tracks when they saw us.

They seemed surprised to see Kali in her distinctive black instructor’s suit.

As the students we encountered bowed their heads lightly one by one to greet her, Kali lightly returned their greetings.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to bow so deeply.”

Even as I heard that relaxed voice, I was amazed anew.

That I was walking like this beside Kali. Moreover, the fact that I was going to eat a meal with her felt somewhat unreal.

‘…It’s really unbelievable.’

In fact, Kali was quite a significant character in the Royal High Academy, ‘RHA’.

Although she wasn’t one of Leonhardt’s heroines, she was a character so popular that many people questioned why she wasn’t a heroine.

She values effort and has high achievements. Moreover, she’s a beautiful woman, so perhaps it was natural that she was popular.

In the novel, her seemingly indifferent yet light expressions of interest towards the protagonist felt subtly charming.

In fact, she was one of the characters I quite liked…

“Student Han Chunsung?”

I flinched at the voice I heard.

“…Yes, Instructor.”

“Am I perhaps very uncomfortable for you?”

“Ah, no. How could that be?”

“Then why are you so quiet? From what I can see, Han Chunsung doesn’t seem like the type to be so quiet.”

She turned her gaze to me and smiled playfully.

Thump!

Suddenly, my heart beat loudly.

Now, that Kali from the novel…

Is having a conversation with me.

And she’s showing interest in me first. She’s speaking to me first.

For a moment, I quickly racked my brain on how to respond, and hurriedly opened my mouth.

“…From what I felt during the lecture, Instructor Kali seemed to have a rather calm personality. I thought you might dislike it if I talked too much.”

As I answered calmly, Kali burst into laughter as we descended the stairs.

“That’s because it was during the lecture. An instructor can’t appear ridiculous to students, right? And that student Gerard seemed to take me too lightly from the first lecture, so I tried to establish some discipline. Let me say it again. I don’t force anything on students outside of lectures. I don’t act as stiffly as during lectures… Well, to Han Chunsung who attended the lecture, I might appear to be that kind of woman.”

As she trailed off at the end and gave me a strange look, I felt my body stiffen as we descended the stairs together.

‘Why are you speaking so charmingly?’

It felt unfamiliar as she kept saying things that made even me, the listener, feel fluttered.

More than the realization of safely entering this academy, this completely unexpected situation felt real. A strange feeling where confusion and joy intersected.

Thud. Tap.

Even as we walked together, my heart continued to waver.

After leaving the academy, I saw a quite sophisticated academy cafeteria.

Of course, as I was about to head there.

“Student Han Chunsung. We’re not going there.”

Suddenly, Kali shook her head and gently stopped me.

…And as she pointed in a different direction, I unconsciously realized.

The building where instructors in black suits were walking one by one. It was the instructor-only cafeteria.

As Kali led me not to the student cafeteria, but to the instructor-only cafeteria, I found it amazing even as we walked together.

“…What’s with him?”

“Yeah, what’s really going on?”

“Judging by the student uniform, he seems to be a C-class student.”

“But he’s going with an instructor…”

Then, as I heard various comments from students lining up in front of the student cafeteria, I even felt excited for no reason.

It would be strange not to feel excited.

ㅡSpecial treatment.

Anyone could see that I was now receiving special treatment from Kali and entering the instructor-only cafeteria.

“You can look forward to it quite a bit. The quality of food will be on a completely different level from the student cafeteria.”

“Thank you.”

“There’s no need to thank me, I have something I’m curious about and want to ask the student while we eat. Think of it as a kind of payment.”

As I listened to Kali’s light response and entered the instructor-only cafeteria, admiration escaped me first.

“…Wow.”

A luxurious medieval dining hall that you’d only see in dramas or movies. It was even buffet-style, and I unconsciously swallowed my saliva looking at it.

Compared to yesterday when I had a simple meal at the student cafeteria to save money… high-class foods on a completely different level were endlessly spread out.

‘I really… did well to have that duel.’

The duel with Leonhardt must have been the biggest fortuitous encounter for me.

That snowball rolled and rolled, bringing me even this kind of luck.

“Heh… Is it that surprising?”

Looking at Kali who asked as if my appearance was cute, my heart beat even more fiercely.

Lunch with a beauty.

How could I not be excited when the character I liked was living and breathing right in front of me like this?