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Chapter 263: Second Encounter

Lilian accepted Chris’ request without much hesitation.

This was not the first time that she had taken on a tutoring role. Last year, as the most outstanding student of ‘Chris’ Classroom’ and the representative of the Second Grade, she took on the job of conducting supplementary classes for her First Grade juniors.

It was worth noting that such practices weren’t the convention in the Saint Freya Academy. In fact, the dynamics of student relationships could differ greatly depending on who the teacher was.

Take the teacher who boasted the most students in the academy for example, Flatley, his teaching ability was naturally at a decent level, but the key reason why the students picked him over his possibly more competent colleagues was the easier examinations he set.

Similar to Roel’s previous life, failing the examinations in the Saint Freya Academy was a nightmare for all students. Not only would they be taking on additional financial burden, but they would risk facing the threat of expulsion too.

It went without saying that failed compulsory classes needed to be retaken, and these retaken classes needed to be paid for too. In fact, in order to ‘encourage’ the students, they would have to pay twice the usual amount for repeated classes, and that was definitely not a small sum given the Saint Freya Academy’s already exorbitant tuition fees.

Expulsion cases were even more straightforward. Of the compulsory classes that the students took on every year, anyone who failed five of them would be given a warning. They would have to take a make-up examination at the start of the next academic semester, and if they failed that as well, they would be sent packing right away.

Such strict rules meant that there were plenty of expelled students each year, but a disproportionate amount of them came from the freshmen. It was understandable since they were new to the academy and hadn’t adapted to the environment yet.

Under such immense pressure, having a teacher who would often slip questions he had gone through in class into the examinations a godsent gift. In Roel’s previous life, those people were called ‘Living Buddhas’, but here in the Saint Freya Academy, he went by the name of ‘Light of Salvation’ Flatley.

Due to that, the demand for Flatley’s classes far outstripped the supply. Slots ran out like hotcakes even though he took in more than a hundred students each year. Heck, the slots were even auctioned off at exorbitant prices in black markets!

However, the nature of Flatley’s classes also resulted in his students being less bonded too. They were there just to scrape a pass and that could be pulled off easily enough. There wasn’t much of a reason for students to interact with one another. Even if fellow classmates were to meet one another after graduation, they would simply exclaim ‘Long live Mr Flatley’ and that would pretty much be the only commonality between them.

In contrast to the colder nature of ‘Flatley’s Classroom’, ‘Chris’ Classroom’ was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Chris sought to nurture only the greatest of talents, so the examinations she set were challenging. In fact, there were cases where all of her students failed the examinations and had to take the make-up test.

Chris’ teaching method was harsh, but it produced results. It had only been eighteen years since she graduated and became a teacher here at the Saint Freya Academy, but she already had more than a hundred elite graduates under her belt.

‘Chris’ Classroom’ was definitely far more stressful than ‘Flatley’s Classroom’, and over the years, there were students who were unable to take the pressure and harbored hatred toward Chris.

However, when they started experiencing the hardships of society, they realized that the hardships they had been through during their student life weren’t in vain, especially when they managed to seize a precious opportunity or avert a calamity with the knowledge and skills they had grasped. That turned their lingering grudge into gratitude.

‘Slacking off in the academy will only lead to hardships in the future’—this was a philosophy that many graduates only came to realize after they stepped into the real world.

When examinations became harder, the students were more likely to huddle together and help one another through the crisis. On top of that, Chris only took in the most talented of students, so there weren’t that many people in her classroom. Due to that, her students tended to be very close to one another.

One of the reasons why Lilian chose Chris as her academic advisor was due to her neutral position arising from her being a Brolne’s local, so the latter wouldn’t fawn or be hostile toward her. Other than that, she also had her eyes on this strict sage teacher’s formidable network of connections.

One must know that Chris had groomed over a hundred elite graduates in less than two decades, so even her earliest batch of students was only in their early thirties. These people were still young and harnessed great potential, so there was no doubt that their influence would only continue to grow with time.

Even for an imperial princess like Lilian, this network of connections was a valuable asset.

The political situation in the Austine Empire had been growing tenser in recent years, and it was hard to tell what would happen in the future. It was necessary for her to start expanding her influence so as to be able to stand her ground.

While those were her initial intentions behind choosing Chris as her academic advisor, over the past two years, Chris had become one of the few friends she had. The two of them were on good terms with one another, and that was also the reason why Lilian didn’t hesitate to accept her request.

“Are there many students this year?”

“Nay, I only took one in.”

“I see. Is it a woman as usual?”

“Well, about that... it’s a man,” replied Chris awkwardly.

Lilian frowned upon hearing those words.

It might sound narcissistic coming from her, but any long-term relationships she had with any men always resulted in a common outcome—a confession.

The previous supplementary class she had to take proceeded without a hitch only because all of the students were women. She was hesitant about tutoring a man since her previous experiences told her that things would likely get awkward and troublesome.

Perhaps sensing the thoughts of the black-haired young woman, Chris sighed softly and added on.

“It can’t be helped. That lad is simply too talented that I don’t think anyone else can rise up to the occasion. In truth, I wanted to tutor him myself, but I’m worried that others might interpret it as excessive bias, and it would be unfair to my other students too.”

“Yes, that would indeed be a problem.”

“It would also be more appropriate in terms of qualification since you’re a Ringbearer too.”

“Ah? Wait a moment...”

Lilian sharply sensed the implied meaning behind Chris’ words, but before she could clarify the matter, a knock suddenly sounded on the door before a young man covered in a hood and a scarf walked in.

The young man hurriedly closed the door behind him before breathing a sigh of relief. He began putting down his hood and taking off his scarf as he greeted the two individuals who were already in the room.

“Miss Chris, you’re already here? Is this the senior who will be... Ah?”

“You are...!”

Roel’s greeting trailed to a halt upon seeing the familiar face in the room. At the same time, Lilian shot to her feet as she stared at Roel with widened eyes. Two pairs of eyes met one another as the rings they wore on their fingers glimmered faintly.

...

It was a secret that Roel Ascart had become the student of the youngest sage teacher of the academy, Chris Wilde, but not to the two ladies closest to him. Nora and Charlotte knew about it right from the very start.

They felt a little regretful about Roel’s decision, but they chose to accept it.

‘Chris’ Classroom’ was known not just for the difficulty of its examinations but its high barrier of entry too. After the bestowment of the ‘sage teacher’ title a few years ago, Chris began to take in even fewer students, and on this particular year, she chose to accept only Roel. This was an indication that she was intending to focus her effort on grooming him.

This was clearly a rare opportunity, so the two women who wished the best for Roel couldn’t bring themselves to voice their opposition to his decision. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that they weren’t concerned.

“If I remember correctly, Lilian Ackermann is one of Chris’ students too, right?”

Nora picked up the teacup before her and took a sip before voicing her concern. Seated opposite to her, Charlotte nodded with a slight frown.

“Indeed. It’s only normal for someone as talented as Lilian to be Chris’ student. This is common knowledge in the academy.”

“I never thought that I would be forced into a confrontation with that woman through such a manner.”

“Since they’re students under the same teacher, I reckon that she wouldn’t make things hard on him. It’s just that the thought of him having to attend classes with that woman is displeasing,” said Charlotte with knitted eyebrows.

By the nature of her birth, she harbored great hostility toward the Austine Empire, so it couldn’t be helped that her impression of Lilian would be poor as well. It frustrated her to no end that she was unable to do anything about this situation.

Unlike Lilian, both Nora and Charlotte had no need to expand their connections since they were already in a stable position themselves. Instead, what they needed to worry about was being ‘brainwashed’ by a foreign teacher with different ideals—or at least that was what the nobles of their respective countries were worried about.

For that reason, Nora and Charlotte’s teachers ought to be from their respective countries, someone whom the nobles could fully trust. Due to that, they weren’t able to accompany Roel.

They could only console themselves that there would be no vixens in ‘Chris’ Classroom’. All of the students there were far too busy trying not to fail their examinations to get romantically involved with one another.

Maybe the highly intelligent Lilian was one exception, but both Nora and Charlotte agreed that it was impossible for Roel and her to become a thing.

For one, it was impossible for an imperial member of the Austine Empire to marry a foreign noble. On top of that, Lilian was known to be a cold-natured person who naturally distanced herself from others, and there was no way Roel would take the initiative to get close to her either.

No one knew Roel better than they did. He was a person with a strong sense of responsibility, so he wouldn’t approach another woman whom he couldn’t take responsibility for. Be it Alicia, Nora, or Charlotte, they were at least people within his reach to care for.

Someone who lived far beyond his scope like Lilian was definitely out of the question.

Besides, even if Roel really succumbed to Lilian’s beauty in a moment of hot-headedness, Carter would surely step forward to strongly oppose their relationship. Considering how much Roel treasured his family, the chances were slim that he would go against’s Carter’s wishes.

What Nora and Charlotte were more worried about was Roel getting into a conflict with Lilian. Their previous encounter before the entrance ceremony was already a tense one, and things were likely to get worse now that Roel had become a Ringbearer.

“Darling should have already anticipated this in advance. We can only trust him to handle this matter carefully,” said Charlotte as he took a sip of tea.

Nora also nodded in agreement as a relieved smile finally appeared on her lips.

Little did they know that Roel was just getting into his second encounter with Lilian.