The Elegant Sea of Savagery - Chapter 2

To explain this terrible relationship, you have to go back seven years.

The first time Irina Noviac and Elenoa Schuberg met was the Royal Academy of Kissien.

Irina was only seventeen years old then. However, when average noblewomen reached that age, they would pretend to be noble enough that they would be reluctant to smile without covering their mouths.

Irina was different from her peers.

Enough to give goosebumps—It means that she was a great tomboy.

Marquis Noviac used to send people behind every day, worried about what kind of accident his eldest daughter would cause at the academy.

The same was true of Elenoa, who was different from his peers.

Elenoa, who just turned eighteen, was an incredibly quiet boy. Very few people saw him smile at the academy, and he was so quiet that even the number of people who had talked to him once could be counted on one hand.

Elenoa was the son of Count Schuberg’s concubine. His mother was a prostitute, and Elenoa was brought up in a brothel before being registered as the second son of the count.

Concubine’s child, mother’s origin, pretty appearance

It is not known whether his unique personality is an innate temperament or an acquired environment. But one thing was clear— that his childhood was not very smooth.

Thus, both were problematic figures in the academy. They have always been at the center of the topic and made people buzz with rumors.

It was on a chilly autumn day, long after the school had started, that they were able to exchange conversation for the first time.

* * *

“Oh, what is this bastard?”

“…….”

Elenoa glanced at his book that fell on the ground.

His face was fair, and when he got off, there was a deep shade around his eyes. It certainly looked beautiful for a boy. However, if you look closely at the beautiful face, there was no expression.

He pretended to be a coincidence, but it was definitely not a coincidence.

Since Elenoa entered the academy, there have been frequent disputes. And Elenoa often ignored a lot of disputes.

“Are you ignoring me?”

“…….”

“If you bump into someone, you should apologize.”

Naturally, his ignorance only irritated boys of his age even more.

Elenoa was also aware of that. Sometimes he felt it was annoying, but he didn’t feel like dealing with it. He had no desire to be social and get along well.

He will be able to overcome these disputes if he wants. He knew well that the world was originally such a poor place.

When Elenoa tried to pick up the book that fell on the floor without a reply, one of the furious boys from the group pushed his shoulder hard.

He was fine the first time or two, but it was a short time before he stumbled. The moment he lost his balance, Elenoa fell back due to the harsh fist thrown by someone.

They are noble children who grew up with severe etiquette education. However, they were in their late teens.

A society (academic society) different from the aristocratic society established by the families was formed here. And it was clear that they pointed to Elenoa Schuberk as the underdog* of such society.

(*a person who has little status in society.)

Words that disparage his mother and him—who grew up in a brothel, and words that ridicule him by combining his origin with his appearance*.

(* Here they combine his pretty appearance with his origin coz usually brothels have beautiful people, in a way saying he is better suited to serve people in brothels)

Elenoa was passing through all those words without much difficulty. There was no sadness or anger.

And it was when he once again reached out to pick up the book on the floor. Elenoa paused when someone tried to trample his hand with the shoe.

“…….”

Contacting the Count was something Elenoa was very reluctant to do. But he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, so he eventually sighed and tried to get up. In fact, he was the owner of a decisive tendency who hated even anyone touching him.

Slap!

It was then that the sound of slap on face resonated in the middle of the hallway.

The great sight of a group quarrelling with one, and other students at the academy who had just been watching, opened their mouths silently.

It was the girl with burning red hair who suddenly intervened and slapped another person’s cheek.

By the way, she was a celebrity of the academy that everyone knew well.

She was Irina Noviac.

“What are you doing?”

The voice of slapping him first and then asking— contained a cheerfulness. However, it was excessive cheerfulness that made the person who had already been slapped go crazy.

“T, t, this c, crazy bitch…….”

“…….”

Irina was silent for a moment at the sudden abusive language. She had a look of disbelief.

“…… Is that what you just said to me?”

Isn’t it her, is it? They asked, but everyone could see that the emotion on her face was just ‘this bastard is playing’.

Even in front of men who were much taller than her, she showed no signs of intimidation. Originally, she was more famous for her reckless and crazy temper than for her status as the eldest daughter of the Marquis.

Once again, overturning everyone’s expectations that she would slap his cheeks once again, Irina moved her lips. And the people who were casually listening covered their mouths with groans,  and pale, weary faces.

At first, they thought something went wrong with the pronunciation. However, the voice that followed was pronounced as a bastard.

They thought it would be possible to wrap it up because they heard it wrong, but her swear words were getting messy without knowing the limit.

And finally, when various curses referring to masculinity began to flow out of the lips of the noble, the classmates began to turn their backs on Irina one by one.

It was a feast of vulgar words that were difficult to hear for the finely raised children of noble families.

Is this what makes your ears feel contaminated? Where on earth does Irina keep learning words that are likely to be used by bullies?

Academy students covered their ears not because the surrounding was becoming noisy but her words were getting really vulgar

Meanwhile, after swearing coolly, Irina was looking at the gang with a pathetic face. There was a clear contempt in her eyes.

“You too feel bad and embarrassed because you are insulted in front of others. But if you had thought like that, you wouldn’t have done it to others. You….know that you’re really a bad guy?”

She took a step closer.

She was quite tall, but she was slender. However, there was a strange power in her attitude that did not shrink.

“If you’re angry, just hit me. I’ll be right. I didn’t do anything shameful. So there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

They hesitated for a while and left one by one with a look of being in a bad mood.

It wasn’t because they couldn’t hit a slender girl. It was just because they didn’t know how to act.

Three boys couldn’t really fight with the girl and Irina, who was ferocious, was already leading the atmosphere.

And Elenoa, who was looking at the scene, soon came to his senses and smiled without realizing it.

It was a rare smile that was hard to see from his face, but in fact, it was not a very good smile. It was a little ridiculous.

He never asked anyone to help him. So this was just an undesired kindness and an uncomfortable favor.

When the atmosphere cleared up to some extent, Elenoa spat blood on the floor. He felt like his mouth was torn.

It was exactly the third time he reached out to pick up his book that was thrown away while touching his lips.

But he had to face another interruption.

“Elenoa Schuberg…. Right?”

“…….”

Elenoa, who was surprised that she knew him, looked at Irina quietly. And nodded his head briefly.

Taking a closer look at her, Irina’s facial features were more gentle than expected. She looked so clear that he couldn’t even believe that she was the one who slapped the faces of the senior boys.

Elenoa squinted his eyes without realizing it.

However, Irina Noviac’s impression was by no means ordinary.

Her burning red hair and bright gold eyes soaked in sunlight were making her impressions clear.

Elenoa, who had been looking at her red hair that looked like flames at one angle and at the other angle it looked like the light of sunset, and then this time he looked down at the handkerchief she held out him.

It was meant to wipe her lips, but when Elenoa did not take it, Irina forced it into his hand. And asked,

“Why do you always get bullied by Martin’s gang all the time?”

Elenoa actually didn’t know which of them was Martin. However, she had an expression on her face that she couldn’t understand.

“Won’t he keep doing that because you are staying still?”

“…….”

It was unfair to say that.

He can’t beat the three alone, so it’s not worth answering back, but this will never end even if he deals with it.

How many reasons are there in the world? But Irina said completely different words.

“Don’t do that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“…….”

“Even if you lose, lose in a cool way.”

He paused, Elenoa once again carefully looked into her face. Only then did he realize that Irina was angry at something because of him.

Elenoa’s expression as he watched it became a little subtle.

The skinny girl in front of him is not telling him to win. Rather, she concluded that he would lose. However, she was telling him to fight back even if he loses

So what she was talking about was probably honor.

Elenoa never thought that there would be a day where he would be valued.

She was saying contradictory things about him being honoured.

“…….”

Elenoa stared intently into those noble golden eyes with his navy blue eyes.

It was Elenoa’s first brightness in his night sea-like life.

He tried to ignore it as usual, but he was somewhat unstable and fragile in those days. As the light shone on his inner self, he admired it and felt a bit of shame.

She waited for Elenoa to open his mouth, but when there was no answer, Irina, who thought she was ignored, pouted her lips with a very grumpy look.

Soon after, she left her place. However, Eleanoa remained nailed to the place for a long time after that, looking at the handkerchief she handed over.

It was a trivial routine for one person. However, it was a huge event in the life of the other person.

In fact, it is likely to happen anywhere.

People sometimes reach out this helping hand when someone is in trouble. It may be because of a sense of justice in their heart or because it is not much trouble for them to help. Perhaps it might be because of one’s big ignorance of being nosy.

However, at times like this, people of a very cautious class keep an eye on the situation and refrain from making hasty moves. They are worried that it will come back to themselves.

It’s heartless, however he wanted to say something in the same context.

Don’t help people carelessly.

You can’t guess what kind of consequences that action will have on your life.

You don’t know who the weak(underdog) are, whether the person receiving help is the good or the bad.

* * *

Comments from Korean readers:

Omg, she helped a manipulative and obsessive man!!

This novel feels different from the other novels written by this author

Author! I really enjoyed your novel <Your Meaning> I am very much looking forward to this novel!

‘It was Elenoa’s first brightness in his night sea-like life.’— this line gave me goosebumps