* * *
“Then what—are you going to sleep outside in the garden?”
Ranshel widened his eyes and asked seriously.
Could this delicate young lord even survive the outdoors?
Even he only managed a week in a subway station.
Zavad let out a baffled laugh.
“You really are… just. Something else.”
“Likewise, young master.”
“You’re seriously annoying sometimes.”
With a snap, Zavad flicked his fingers right in front of Ranshel’s face.
“Focus. We need to prepare to leave the estate quickly.”
“…Excuse me?”
Ranshel was flustered, but for a whole new reason.
‘Leave the estate entirely?’
“Wait, you’re just… abandoning the place? Where are you even going? Are you planning to shave your head and join a monastery?”
“There you go again, spouting nonsense.”
This time, Zavad flicked Ranshel right on the forehead.
It echoed with a sharp snap.
Despite his delicate appearance, Zavad had a surprising amount of strength—it was just how his character was built.
Caught off guard, Ranshel held his forehead in confusion.
Unlike before, the flick hadn’t felt malicious, so his body hadn’t instinctively dodged it.
“This place is crawling with people out to get me. At the very least, I need to leave the territory until I come of age.”
This route hadn’t even crossed Ranshel’s mind.
He was so thrown off that he didn’t even feel the pain from the flick.
“Then… where will you go?”
“There’s only one option. The boarding school in the capital—Delta Sacred Academy.”
Delta Sacred Academy.
The game knowledge buried in Ranshel’s mind came to life.
Typically, young nobles from ordinary families were tutored at home from an early age.
After building up their basic skills, they often attended school in the capital before debuting in high society.
The heroine, Frey, had a bad leg and spent her childhood being taught by visiting tutors at home.
She only entered society after receiving an oracle from the Grand Temple—and the place she went to first was that school.
Originally, Zavad was supposed to remain trapped in this castle until a summons from the Imperial family allowed him out.
That’s why, even in the common route, he was one of the last and most difficult characters to encounter.
‘…This is a new route!’
If he transferred to the academy, wouldn’t he end up meeting the heroine and other capture targets there?
Ranshel bounced his legs nervously, unsure what to do.
While it was nice to meet the other characters earlier, the story going off-track like this wasn’t reassuring.
‘His hatred for the family hasn’t even peaked yet…’
What if meeting Frey now made love take priority over revenge?
In the end, this game was still a romance game.
The capture targets were meant to fall in love with the heroine.
If the plot got tangled here, things would get messy.
Anxiously, Ranshel fidgeted with his gloved hand—until his fingers bumped the floor with a tap.
“…!”
He nearly screamed, holding it back by force.
It was just a little split in his nail, but since it was his hand, it kept catching on things all day.
Zavad glanced over, furrowing his brow, and grabbed Ranshel’s wrist.
“Did you hurt yourself? Burn your hand cooking or something?”
“…No? I’m totally fine.”
Ranshel answered quickly and gently slipped his hand out of Zavad’s grasp.
He didn’t really need to hide the injury, but he didn’t want to go through the hassle of explaining it either.
Just thinking about how he got the cut made it hard to keep up the act.
Even now, his heart was already aching a little.
Ranshel looked down, his eyes drooping.
But Zavad, who had been watching his face quietly, suddenly made a firm declaration.
“…Yeah. We’re definitely leaving this castle. As soon as the Imperial family approves, we’re heading to the capital.”
“Wait, but… do you think they’ll give you permission?”
“They won’t have a choice. I’ll report the fire too. If I die before they can use me, that’s a loss for them.”
He said it casually, but Ranshel felt like someone had just hit his core.
Zavad seemed to understand his position far better than Ranshel had given him credit for.
He was planning to make full use of the favor he had with the Empress’s faction in the royal court.
Those who hoped for the Empress’s power to remain intact would undoubtedly wish for Zavad’s safety.
So, it wasn’t like they would outright deny his enrollment, but even so, Ranshel wanted to deny the situation staring him in the face with everything he had.
“Well? I don’t think so? I really don’t think so, okay?!”
“And who are you to judge…? Never mind. Just mind your own business and pack up.”
Zavad waved him off like he couldn’t be bothered anymore.
It seemed like he’d fully made up his mind to leave the palace.
Ranshel began to worry he’d given Zavad too much false hope.
Normally, Zavad wouldn’t have been able to gain Ranshel as an ally and would’ve just been wasting away helplessly in the room at the top of the tower.
The story was clearly going off-script.
“Well, you’re fine, but I’ll have to figure out what to do about Petro. They’ll get suspicious if I suddenly bring a gardener with me.”
Zavad tapped his chin with a thoughtful finger.
Ranshel was completely unsettled.
It still felt way too early for him to attend school.
But how was he supposed to stop him?
“…Wait. Young Master, um, are you even allowed to go to school yet? Shouldn’t hiring a private tutor come first?”
Ranshel blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
Zavad chuckled, amused.
“Are you worried I won’t be good enough?”
“Well, yeah. There’s an entrance exam and everything, right? I mean, you should at least lay the groundwork first—”
“No need.”
Zavad cut him off sharply and gestured for Ranshel to follow.
“If you’re that worried, come along. I’ll show you myself.”
Show me what? Ranshel followed after him, bewildered.
The secret passage didn’t just connect to Zavad’s room—it led to various other spaces, too.
Zavad climbed down a ladder with practiced ease, heading somewhere Ranshel didn’t recognize.
Clearly, he’d been sneaking around like this for some time.
‘So he wasn’t really locked up, huh.’
Of course, no one would’ve expected Zavad to go crawling through every hidden nook and cranny.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have left the hatch on the floor unblocked.
If he wanted to, he could’ve used this passage to escape the palace entirely.
Then why had he stayed trapped in the tower?
Sure, abandoning a noble’s life and running off on his own wasn’t easy, but wasn’t that still better than being stuck in a room getting tormented all day?
Was noble status really that important?
For someone like Ranshel, who’d always prioritized sheer survival, it was hard to comprehend.
“We’re here. Come inside.”
Zavad’s voice pulled Ranshel out of his thoughts.
They had arrived in a dim, spacious room. Ranshel followed where he was led.
“…Whoa.”
The awed exclamation slipped out before he realized it.
The place looked like a grave made entirely of books.
Every wall was covered with bookshelves, and books were stacked higher than a man’s height in nearly every corner, leaving barely any room to step.
“Are we even allowed to be in here?”
Ranshel glanced around while straining his ears for any footsteps.
A library with this many rare books surely had someone in charge of it.
* * *
