Chapter 76 - - 76: Not Couple’s Park

Chapter 76: Chapter - 76: Not Couple’s Park

After leaving Albert’s office, Elena and I walked side by side through the academy’s corridors, which felt considerably different from how they usually did during the day.

The classes had already ended some time ago, and the period when students normally gathered for extra curricular activities had also passed, leaving most of the academy building unusually quiet.

There were no groups of students discussing their lessons near the classroom doors, no sounds of practice magic coming from the training rooms, and no occasional arguments between students who had stayed behind longer than they were supposed to.

I glanced at Elena several times without saying anything. She had barely spoken since we left Albert’s office.

Under ordinary circumstances, Elena was not particularly talkative either, but there was a difference between her usual quietness and the silence she carried now.

Her shoulders were slightly lowered, and although she was walking normally, her expression remained distant, as if her mind were still there, returning again and again to the moment when Clara had detected the Evil Essence inside her mana.

I slowed my steps before finally stopping.

"Elena"

She also stopped in her track and turned around to look at me.

"Everything is fine now," I said quietly. "The contamination was removed. Principal Alfred confirmed that it was minor, and you are not carrying it anymore, so you do not have to keep thinking about all of that."

Her expression softened slightly, although the worry did not completely disappear.

I continued, trying to keep my voice as reassuring as possible "And Aunt Adelia will be coming soon, so you should meet her with a smile instead of letting her immediately notice that something is bothering you."

Elena lowered her eyes for a moment, then gave a small nod "You are right."

She paused before continuing "I know that everything is fine now, but I still can’t stop thinking about it" Her fingers curled slightly at her sides.

"I did not even know that something was wrong with my own body. If miss Clara had not noticed it, I would have continued going about my life without knowing anything was there."

Her voice became quieter.

"I keep wondering what could have happened if she had not noticed it, and what if something like that happens again without me realizing it?"

My expression tightened. That fear was not unreasonable.

The contamination had been extremely minor, yet it had been fresh enough for Principal Alfred to identify it as something that had entered her mana only recently.

If Clara had not possessed such an unusual sensitivity toward mana, neither Elena nor I would have had any reason to suspect that something was wrong.

And that thought bothered me as well. I had known that Elena would become involved with the Rhasa Sect.

I had known that she was one of the people who would eventually become deeply connected to the events surrounding the Evil Essence. I had even spent years thinking about how I could prevent the future I remembered from ever happening.

Yet despite all of that, something had still managed to reach her.

I looked at Elena for a few seconds before stepping closer. Then I reached out and took both of her hands. She seemed slightly surprised by the sudden gesture, but she did not pull away.

I looked directly into her eyes.

"I do not know what will happen in the future," I said, choosing my words carefully, "and I can’t promise that nothing unpleasant will ever happen to either of us, because that would be a lie."

Elena quietly listened.

I tightened my hands around hers slightly "But I can promise you that no matter what happens, I will be there for you."

Her eyes widened a little.

"I will do everything I can to protect you, Elena. If something like this happens again, we will find it. If someone tries to hurt you, I will deal with them. And if there’s something we do not understand yet, then we will find the answer to it."

I did not want to say it dramatically. But it is simply what I intended to do. From now on I will keep my eyes open for any danger that may approach her, and I will make sure that whoever is trying to hurt her, I will find them and get rid of them.

Elena stared at me for several seconds, and gradually, the tension in her expression began to disappear.

She lowered her head slightly "Thank you," she murmured. Her voice was so quiet that I almost missed it.

She took a small step toward me.

Our hands were still joined, and Elena was now standing considerably closer than before, looking at me with an expression that was no longer troubled in the same way.

For a moment, I simply looked at her.

The corridor was empty and the atmosphere around us seemed to have settled.....

I could feel that the mood was beginning to change into something different, and Elena seemed to realize it as well because her cheeks gained a faint warmth.

Then—

"Ahem." A faint, distinctly awkward cough echoed through the corridor.

Elena and I both froze.

Almost instinctively, our hands separated and we stepped away from each other at nearly the same time and turned toward the source of the sound.

Standing several meters away was a middle aged woman carrying a small stack of books.

The Librarian Ma’am

She looked at the two of us over the top of the books in her arms, and judging from her expression, she had probably witnessed enough of the situation to form her own conclusion.

For several seconds, none of us spoke.

Then she sighed "Ah, youth."

I had a bad feeling about where this was going.

"It is good to be young," she said, adjusting the books in her arms, "but this is not a couple’s park."

Elena’s face immediately became red.

The librarian gestured toward the corridor around us "This is an academic building, and although the classes are over, that does not mean students can simply forget how they are expected to conduct themselves inside the academy."

"We are sorry, ma’am," I said immediately.

Elena nodded beside me "We will be more mindful of our conduct from now on."

The librarian gave us a mildly suspicious look before nodding "You should."

She then walked past us, continuing toward the other end of the corridor.

Neither Elena nor I said anything. We simply stood there until she reached the end of the corridor. Just before turning the corner, she glanced back once.

I immediately straightened my posture and Elena did the same.

Only after the librarian finally disappeared from view did the two of us release the sigh we had apparently been holding.

I looked at Elena.

For a moment, we tried to maintain serious expressions but a faint chuckle escaped her first, and I soon followed.

The embarrassment of the interruption, combined with the sheer awkwardness of being caught by the librarian, was enough to break the remaining tension between us.

Elena covered her mouth as she laughed quietly.

"I can’t believe that happened."

"We were not even doing anything."

She looked at me with an accusing expression.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Because your expression just now was funny."

"My expression?"

"You looked like you had been caught committing some serious crime."

She gave me a small glare, although there was no real annoyance behind it.

I smiled faintly *At least she is not sad anymore*

After a moment, I say "We should probably go back to our respective dormitories and change."

Elena looked down at herself.

Only then did she seem to remember that we were both still wearing our academy uniforms.

We had gone directly to the teacher Albert’s office after classes without returning to our rooms first, and the day had become considerably more complicated than either of us had expected.

"You are right," she said. "My mother might also be arriving soon."

She adjusted a strand of black hair behind her ear.

"She will probably meet me first before going to the villa."

I nodded. "Then you should be there when she arrives."

"Yes." We continued walking, this time without the heavy silence that had followed us from Albert’s office.

There was still uncertainty surrounding what had happened to Elena, and there were still questions that neither of us could answer, but at least she was no longer carrying the weight of them entirely by herself.

Eventually, we reached near the dormitory buildings.

"See you tomorrow," Elena said.

"See you."

.....

By the time I returned to my room, the academy had become even quieter.

Ian was not there.

That was not particularly surprising, considering how often he disappeared after classes whenever he found something more interesting to do than remain in the dormitory.

*He is really a complete extrovert*

I closed the door behind me, changed out of my academy uniform, and eventually dropped onto my bed.

The moment my head touched the pillow, my mind returned to everything that had happened during the day.

There had been too many unexpected developments for me to simply sleep without thinking about them.

The first thing that came to my mind was the contamination in Elena’s mana.

Even now, knowing that Principal Alfred had removed it completely, I still felt uncomfortable whenever I remembered how easily we had failed to notice it.

The Evil Essence had been extremely faint, but it had been there. And Elena herself had known nothing about it.

Fortunately, Clara had noticed.

Without her, we might have left Albert’s office believing that everything was normal.

That possibility bothered me.

*Things are changing too much*

People were appearing who had never existed in the original story. Events were happening earlier or later than I remembered.

Even characters I had thought I understood were turning out to have secrets that had never been mentioned in the game.

.....