There is no happy ending

***]

The conversation was quickly cut short when Bianca almost threw the teacup she was holding at the woman for her unnecessary ramblings.

Ava’s attitude to the test was shallow, but the questions were anything but shallow. For the first time since leaving Palborne, Bianca’s head felt cold. It was like reality had slammed into a head full of arrogance.

On her first test, Bianca didn’t get half of Ava’s questions right. Bianca’s face flushed with shame. She thought she had done so well, which made it even harder to bear.

Ava flicked through the paper with an unimpressed look on her face. The only sound was the slow turning of the paper.

Bianca stared at Ava’s lips and unconsciously picked at her thumbnail. A habit from her very younger days, when she didn’t have to trim her nails, came back to haunt her.

‘…….’

Ava stared at the answer sheet for a long moment, then slowly put it down, squeezing her eyes shut. Bianca waited with bated breath for Ava’s answer, not knowing what would come out of her mouth. Slowly, Bianca’s heart pounded. It was the sound of tension.

‘Miss.’

‘……Yes, tell me.’

Bianca replied in a strained voice. Ava’s voice was quite cheerful in comparison, as far as Bianca was concerned, like a crushed frog.

‘You’ve got some brains, don’t you? I mean, not all the kids in Volona are as smart as I am, but almost. Your answers are pretty good.’

Ava continued.

‘Honestly, I was hoping you’d get a shitty score…… because I have a prejudice against high nobility.’

‘What?’

‘Oh, did I say that out loud? Ha, now I’m letting my secret out. I have a sickness where I get a kick out of watching high nobles snort. Please understand this as well.’

‘What kind of bullshit…….’

Ava smirked, placing her hand over the answer sheet she had set down. Bianca’s gaze naturally drifted to Ava’s hand. Ava’s hands were covered in calluses that had been there for a while. With a snap, snap, snap, Ava snapped her fingers over Bianca’s answer sheet.

Ava tapped the answer sheet with her fingertip, then spoke.

‘The questions you’ve solved, the answers you’ve written……, you’re biased in your knowledge, and it shows in your interests.’

Bianca’s succession training has been particularly fruitful for my favorite things. The results were much different in areas where I was just cramming information into my head out of obligation.

Bianca nodded, as I felt I had written an answer that exposed my interests. For once, Ava was right.

‘But it’s not bad, it’s a good answer.’

But ‘good’ was not the right word, and Bianca clearly remembers the level of the question and her poor answer. It wasn’t that Bianca’s standards were too harsh; it was simply a factual, objective statement.

Bianca retorted coldly.

‘You didn’t even get half the questions right, and your answers to the other half were sloppy, and you know it if you have eyes.’

‘……Uh, well. I guess so.’

‘But it was good?’

Ava tilted her head to one side, her dark hair falling. Ava bared her teeth and laughed a little. “I’m not sure if she did it intentionally.”, but it revealed her crimson gums.

Bianca rolled her eyes again. Bianca hadn’t realized yet that Ava was amused by my reactions.

Ava crossed her arms over her stomach, like someone shy and hiding a great secret. Her voice trailed off.

‘That’s because it’s a test for the students of the Volona Academy.’

Bianca barely held back the curse word that nearly escaped her lips.

‘What?’

Ava asked, propping up her chin with both hands.

‘You’re about to swear, yes, you are.’

‘That’s not the point, what was the test?’

‘It’s a selection of questions from the exams that the students at Volona took the previous term. If you’re being hard on yourself because of your score, don’t be. How can you expect Bianca to do well on the test when it’s an internal Volona matter?’

‘…….’

‘Don’t worry, your score isn’t bad considering you’re an aspirant.’

Ava’s words were shameless.

What is she doing? Bianca’s mind raced with thoughts. Truly, Ava was the kind of person Bianca had never met before.

Though she was now on the run, she had been one of the brightest lights of Falmorn’s social scene. Her name, her looks, her family’s position, and her wealth had ensured this from the start: no matter who she met or what she was doing, she could pick up what she wanted and pop it in her mouth like a canapé.

Everyone was envious of what she had, and so everyone made fun of her in front of Bianca, which is why Ava’s words and demeanor are so foreign to Bianca.

If it was a sneer, she would have slapped her, and if it was a sneer, she would have kicked her out, even if she needed a tutor. She doesn’t know how to behave because she can’t guess his behavior. Ava smiled as if she knew exactly that.

Ava continued.

‘Bianca, you’re not very interested in maths, are you?’

‘……Yes.’

‘I thought so. So are ancient languages and ancient history. By comparison, you’re interested in modern history, economics, and law, right?’

‘That’s right, too.’

‘Well, you’ll have a hard time getting into the Palace, the Faculty of Mysteries. That’s the easiest place to get into in Volona.’

With that, Ava laid Bianca’s answers out on the table. Bianca was about to reply that it wasn’t the Faculty of Mysteries I was aiming for, but another department……. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.

Ava went on, pointing to the answer sheet and adding explanations. Bianca listened intently to Ava’s explanation. Sometimes she would ask Ava why she wrote the answers she did. Sometimes she would simply answer.

‘This was a very interesting answer to this question. You used Ivan Sap’s law of action theory as an example. I’m very interested in the law of action theory and have a positive view of it, but apart from that, it’s a theory that’s pretty much dismissed as bullshit in academia. Why did you choose to use it as an example?’

‘Well, I thought it was an interesting theory, just as you did. I’ve tried it out on my miners, and we’ve seen an increase in production since then. It’s only been a few years, and the results are very limited, but I thought it had some significance, which is why your reaction is so strange.’

Ava pauses for a moment in admiration at Bianca’s response.

‘You do dig into the things you love, Bianca.’

‘I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or complimentary. Your expression is a little hard to read.’

‘Well, this time it’s a compliment.’

Before Bianca could ask if it was a compliment this time, or if it had been sarcasm all along, Ava spoke again.

‘Ivan Shovel’s theory is going to be rediscovered in a few years, because he’s the victim of a factional fight, and he got on the wrong side of the line, and now that the dean of Volona has been replaced by someone from Ivan Shovel’s faction…… it’s going to be unearthed again, because people there are a bit of a temperamental bunch, and once you win, you have to unleash all that you’ve been building up.’

‘I see.’

‘Oh, but I’m a little disappointed that you drew this conclusion from this answer because the evidence is a little weak. What’s an example of that?’ ……. Let’s take Apep’s anecdote.’

Ava explained. Bianca chose to keep her mouth shut and listen to her explanation, which was much more beneficial.

Ava’s explanation was seamless and smooth, something I often have trouble with myself because it’s hard to find an explanation that Bianca can understand.

Ava knew that what I knew was not what others knew; her level was much higher than what Bianca thought, or what Rayman said. Bianca listened to her explanation with small admiration.

It seemed that Rayman had not been exaggerating when he said that Ava Owyn was one of the geniuses that Volona had produced.

When all was said and done, Ava graded Bianca’s answer. There is no test without a score. That was Ava’s theory. She gave Bianca an E (elegante). It’s not a very good score, Ava reiterated, but it’s not a poor score either.

Ava suggested that Bianca could take her time preparing for the mid-year entrance exam, but Bianca wasn’t inclined to listen. The questions had been submitted with the assumption that Bianca couldn’t solve them, and she was ashamed that she couldn’t get them right.

Now Bianca is not satisfied with just passing the midterm exam. She wanted to do so well that she could become a member of Volona, which would make her feel better. So she prepared for the entrance exam very rigorously.

In any case, it made Jade live in tension. Jade also had to prepare for the test for Bianca’s benefit. Jade hated the idea of being beaten.

Then came Shabbat, the day Rayman had promised to visit the mansion. In her hands, she held a bouquet of colorful, blooming summer roses. It was a striking sight to see a man with red hair carrying red roses.

‘Did you bring flowers?’

‘Yes, I wanted to.’

Rayman added, handing her the bouquet.

Bianca didn’t like roses; they were too fragrant for her taste. Her dislike of red also played a part, but she didn’t let on.

‘I’ve had a lot of opportunities to think about Bianca since I’ve been at the institute because there are a lot of things that remind me of her.’

‘Like, for example,’ she says.

‘I have a friend who is very grumpy at meals, and her eyes are green, even though she doesn’t look anything like Bianca, and I have a friend in the same swordsmanship faculty who has the same hair color as Bianca, and I have a friend in the medical faculty…….’

Many times, trivial things that we can encounter in our daily lives popped out of his mouth.

You might ask if she thinks of me when she sees these things, but she doesn’t. To say otherwise would be to say that he thought of her many times a day, dozens of times a day.

On the contrary, she wanted it that way. She wanted Bianca to be very precious and important to Rayman. Bianca needed a horse with a good pedigree to adorn her, and it just so happened that she liked Rayman. It was something to be welcomed.

‘Also, there’s a maze garden of roses near the training grounds, and I love that place, and I was looking at…… Yeah, I kept thinking about you every time I walked by there.’

‘Why? Why is that?’

‘Because I thought you might be hiding there……. No, I thought it would be nice if you were hiding there. If I could meet you when I least expect it, I’d be happy all day.’

Rayman’s handing of the bouquet, and his subsequent words, were shy. Bianca was surprisingly reluctant to say no to a flower she didn’t like, so she accepted the bouquet with a big smile on her face.

‘The more I think about it, I realize that I haven’t seen you as much as I’d like to.’

‘Aren’t you being too greedy?’

‘Yes. I don’t know about you, Bianca, but I am a greedy person, and you should be able to accept this much greed.’

Bianca was fussy; she knew there was a tyrannical side to her; she tried to be rational, but she was very emotional. It wasn’t long ago, but I remember the day she married Bliss. Yes, I did, and I lost my temper and threw the whole parlor into a frenzy. It was a change of pace.

Bianca buried her nose in the bunch of red roses in her arms. With each breath she took, the heavy, rich scent tantalized her nostrils.

Bianca’s brow narrowed for the briefest of moments, then widened again. No one saw the wrinkles that briefly appeared and disappeared.

Suddenly, the thought came to her. That neither the color red nor the scent…… was as repulsive as it seemed.

‘Rayman.’

‘What?’

‘Will you get me red roses again?’

There were so many flowers that bloomed in summer, and she couldn’t think of any other, because his hair was red, because the flowers in his arms smelled sweet, and because a spot on his chest tickled her uncontrollably.

****