* * *
Ruite glanced at Chester, who was standing squarely in front of him.
To say they had simply bumped into each other while passing by would be an understatement; it was more accurate to say Chester had deliberately blocked his path.
Dylan, sensing the odd tension, looked back and forth between the two.
Ruite’s mind was racing.
Why on earth was Chester blocking his way again with that look of extreme displeasure?
Ah, wait—was it that?
Was he angry because Ruite had tried to pass by without greeting him?
Was he thinking, ‘How dare someone like you ignore me after making eye contact?’
“Oh, uh… hey?”
Reaching that conclusion, Ruite awkwardly raised a hand and offered a greeting.
Ignoring the look from Dylan that seemed to ask what was up with the stiff gesture, Ruite forced the corners of his mouth upward into an awkward smile.
But apparently, that wasn’t it either.
Chester neither accepted the greeting nor spoke a word.
It would have been easier if he had just been his usual blunt self.
Being stared down in total silence made Ruite feel like he was sitting on a bed of needles.
Just then, a voice called out to Dylan from a distance.
It was one of the blacksmiths from the Belore Smithy; it seemed Dylan had left some of his belongings behind.
Dylan, finally letting go of Ruite, told him he’d be right back and headed toward the smithy.
As fate would have been, the two were left alone on the street, leaving Ruite to glance around uncomfortably.
“What brings you here?”
Finally, a voice flowed from Chester’s lips, which had looked as though they were glued shut.
His tone was as rigid as ever, but it was better than the silence.
“Dylan wanted to take care of some business and asked me to come along. What about you?”
“Why should I have to tell you that?”
‘You were the one who asked first.’
Ruite wasn’t actually curious about why Chester was there.
Just as Dylan from the Swordsmanship Department was obsessed with swords, Chester might have wanted to browse some magic tools.
He had just walked out of a magic tool shop, after all.
“Hey.”
The way Chester addressed Ruite was fixed.
It was never “Ruite” or “Everhart”—it was always just “Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“I think you need to start living with a bit more thought.”
“Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?”
Aside from accidentally bumping into each other, had anything happened?
Ruite didn’t think he’d done anything to warrant such a comment.
He had tried not to act like he knew him at first, and he’d even made an effort not to smile since Chester had said it was annoying.
“This is outside the Academy.”
“I know that.”
He wasn’t that oblivious.
Did Chester really think he was a complete idiot?
“That means this isn’t just a place for students, professors, or Academy staff. It’s a place where any number of random people pass through.”
Ruite remained silent, having no idea where this was going.
“What would you do if someone from my family or yours happened to be among them?”
“People from our families? Then I’d just greet them.”
It wasn’t that difficult.
However, that clearly wasn’t the answer Chester wanted, as he let out a heavy sigh.
A breath laced with irritation scattered into the air.
“Do you think the families would be happy to see someone with a fiancé clinging so closely to another man—more than necessary?”
Ruite was confused for a moment until he remembered Dylan’s playfulness from earlier.
Dylan was naturally sociable and often got physically affectionate with friends he was close to, and Ruite was no exception.
So, Chester was asking if Ruite wasn’t worried that someone from their families might see them joking around and get the wrong idea?
But who would see that and think anything of it?
It was obvious they were just close friends.
However, looking at it point by point, Chester’s argument did have a certain logic.
“In any case, the marriage arrangements are currently proceeding between our families, so I’d appreciate it if you behaved yourself. I don’t want to become the subject of gossip within the family because of you.”
This was harder than he thought. Inside the Academy—a virtually isolated organization—he had to try not to upset Chester to prevent rumors from spreading on campus.
Outside the Academy, he had to worry about family members who might be watching at any moment.
“Fine, I get it.”
Still, if it meant Chester would eventually agree to the breakup, he could handle this level of annoyance.
After all, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that half of his fate was currently in Chester’s hands.
“Chester, you’re heading back to the Academy now, right? Then let’s go together.”
“How did the conversation even lead to that?”
Chester furrowed his brow, looking genuinely baffled.
“We’re still in the plaza, and like you said, there might be family members around. Even if I’m with Dylan, if we’re all together, the thing you’re worried about won’t happen, right?”
It was a pretty decent suggestion for something he’d just come up with.
Chester’s lips parted and closed several times as if he hadn’t expected that response.
He looked like he wanted to argue, but couldn’t quite find the words.
Fortunately, Dylan returned with his bag just in time.
Not expecting the three of them to still be together, he asked Ruite with his eyes what was going on.
“Chester said he was heading back to the Academy too.”
“Oh, so we’re going together? I don’t mind.”
Being sociable was convenient at times like this.
Even though Dylan wasn’t particularly close to Chester, he nodded readily at Ruite’s words without showing any sign of discomfort.
And so, an unintended trio was formed.
As they walked through the plaza, Ruite deliberately put Dylan in the middle to keep his distance from Chester.
“You’re Chester, right? I’m Dylan Bredelin, a third-year in the Swordsmanship Department.”
Dylan, seemingly excited at the chance to speak with one of Whitmore’s celebrities, started with an introduction.
“Ruite and I are dorm meal buddies.”
“If I knew you were going to steal my food every day, I never would have been your meal buddy.”
“How heartless. You know eating with me is the highlight of your day.”
Dylan let out a hearty laugh and reached over to mess up Ruite’s hair.
“By the way, I heard you two are mates? You must have gotten pretty close, then?”
Standing in the middle, Dylan looked back and forth between them.
“We’re just classmates in the same group,” Ruite replied, summarizing their relationship in one sentence.
His tone made it clear he didn’t agree with the idea that they were “close.”
Chester offered no objection to that statement.
“Chester, how is he usually? Does he pester you in class?”
“Hey, why are you asking Chester that?”
Dylan asked various questions as if he were Ruite’s guardian.
Neither of them noticed the slight crack in Chester’s expression, which had been stoic until then.
“There’s no chance for him to pester me. I have no interest in him to begin with.”
When Chester cut him off bluntly, Dylan scratched his head, looking a bit flustered.
He was likely thinking, ‘He really is just like the rumors say.’
“He spends lectures sprawled out asleep, shows up for school every day with his hair sticking up in the back, and constantly calls out for Colin, which is distracting. It’s closer to ‘annoying’ than ‘pestering’.”
At the unhesitating critique, Ruite naturally reached back to touch the hair at the nape of his neck.
Had it been sticking up?
He learned a fact about himself that he hadn’t even known through Chester’s mouth.
“Ah… I see.”
Dylan nodded along awkwardly and leaned slightly toward Ruite.
He brought his lips to Ruite’s ear and whispered.
“Man, Chester really seems to dislike you. Did you do something huge to offend him?”
Dylan shielded his mouth with his palm, whispering so Chester wouldn’t hear.
“Who knows.”
If being a burdensome fiancé was the problem, then that was the problem.
If he had to name a “fault,” it would be that the original Ruite had liked Chester far too much.
But since he couldn’t explain all that, he gave a lukewarm answer—only for Chester to suddenly stop in his tracks.
As a result, the other two slowed down and stopped as well.
“What’s wrong?”
Dylan looked at Chester, who was now a step behind, with confusion.
But without a word, Chester looked back and forth between the two of them just as he had before, and then slowly began to walk again.
However, Chester didn’t walk in a straight line.
He adjusted his direction, wedged himself between Dylan and Ruite, and stood right in the middle, effectively separating the two.
While they had been walking with Dylan in the center earlier, Chester was now the one walking in the middle.
Although it was a small gesture, Dylan tilted his head as if he found it quite strange, but Ruite simply continued toward the plaza exit with a face devoid of any emotion or thought.
* * *
