房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 417 137 - Back to the Aspakeony Academy (part 8)

The lunch break arrived, the teacher left, and the students were either going to the Academy's cafeteria to grab some of the food provided by the facility or waiting for their attendants to bring it to them.

"..."

The gold-haired first prince Horeo glanced at the black-haired boy at the desk in front of him.

He and Miriette had talked over his unexpected behavior of Zoemi for the entire lecture and came to the same conclusion.

Zoemi had not changed a bit – he was still putting others before him.

It was infuriating – all the more so that it wasn't like this was some dumb idea – for the circumstances, that might even be considered the right thing to do.

People love to have something or someone to push the blame for the bad things happening in their lives, even when the scapegoat of their choosing isn't guilty in any way.

That is why it was always so hard to root out the bad rumors to the point of impossibility.

The black-haired boy had already proven that he was willing to take the blame and bear the brunt of the consequences for others when he took Miriette's punishment upon himself even though that made the punishment increase in severity a few magnitudes over.

And now he was doing the same thing but for the gold-haired prince.

...funnily enough, both Horeo and Miriette missed the little detail that the black-haired boy's sentinels picked up on immediately – that being Zoemi's affection towards Miriette – but considering that they both knew how dense the black-haired boy could be, they couldn't really be blamed for that...

Still – the scapegoat tactic wasn't a problem in itself.

After all, Horeo had enough confidence in himself to deal with and erase any actual threats to his best friend's wellbeing...

No.

The problem laid with that making Zoemi the scapegoat was the same tactic that Horeo's very own mother tried to apply after the murder of the young lord Derizno almost a year back.

The first prince had an issue with following the same plan that the queen already tried and failed to execute.

"...he cut me off..."

"...hmm...?"

The dark-haired girl muttered to herself all pouty and grumpy, causing the gold-haired boy to return back to reality and look at her while raising his brow in confusion.

"...I used the message spell on him but he cut off the connection..."

Miriette muttered, deeply offended, as she was glaring daggers at the back of her former attendant.

"It happens. It's Zoemi, he wouldn't do that without a purpose... probably a dense and inconsiderate one, but a purpose nonetheless."

Horeo shrugged his shoulders and breathed out.

"Let's play along until he will decide to let us in on the plan – we should damage control him if he goes too much over the line, absolutely no one needs the repeat of the whopping..."

He added with a concerned expression.

"I can understand why would he want to keep things hidden from others. But why wouldn't he let ME in on the plan early?! It's not like someone is listening in on the wavelengths of my spells and spies on my every word! I will not concede for my number one spot just because he has some plan now!"

But the prince's words only seemed to infuriate the dark-haired noble lady who started hissing at him in a hushed voice.

"Don't make a scene. Or maybe do? Zoemi might actually want you to get crazy. He might have missed the drama."

"Pffft...! Shut up."

Horeo waved his hand dismissively before suddenly smirking and nodding his head with approval, which ended up causing Miriette to snort and shook her head with a semblance of a smile peeking through her grim expression.

"We can just wait and see what is he planning to do next, Veo and Teo should be here any moment with our meal. Oh – I wonder if Zoemi knows about Patishi? Probably not... if she doesn't have plans with her friends we could call for her to eat with us, I don't think he would be able to refuse the invitation..."

The gold-haired prince said with a soft smile before he suddenly furrowed his brows and shook his head.

"No, wait... wouldn't that interfere with Zoemi's plan, whatever it is...? Seriously... he really has a lot of lessons to catch up on in the communication department. He probably thinks that our actions will be more believable if we know nothing or some basic misconception in that fashion."

He sighed, rolling his eyes, before putting his elbow on the desk and nonchalantly resting his chin on his hand just to keep up the appearance for the people not meant to hear him.

"Hmph... whatever... Why isn't he getting up, though? He isn't going to eat anything?"

Miriette scoffed shrugging her shoulders before leaning towards her fiance as if she intended to lean on his shoulder just to make the love-dovey couple farce alive – even though it was n longer working the way it was intended to.

*click*

"Wha...?!"

"Huh...?!"

"...eh...?!"

"Isn't that...!"

As if to answer the question asked by the dark-haired girl, the door to the classroom opened and a few attendants entered carrying the trays with food for their respectful masters, and although Veo wasn't amongst the initial group, someone else was – a blue-eyed blond girl with eye-catching voluptuous chest wearing an elegant and proper servant's uniform.

Burushiitto.

The same girl who got officially expelled from the Aspakoeny Academy right before the end of the previous academic year.

Despite all the gasps and feverish whispers that her appearance caused, the girl herself did not even try to look around at the faces of her former classmates and instead was focused solely on the tray she was carrying, as keeping it perfectly balanced wasn't a skill she yet mastered.

"What is she doing here...?"

A pale-gold-haired girl gasped leaning towards the green-haired boy, who only shook his head before discreetly glancing towards the indifferent Zoemi.

"My lord. Here."

Burushi managed to get to Zoemi's desk and put the meal in front of him, tray and all, breathing out in relief after confirming that nothing was spilled or knocked off.