The Nerd Turned Out To Be The Tyrant - Chapter 45

Rev didn’t answer. Instead, he raised the corners of his lips and smiled.

And asked again.

“I want to hear more things you couldn’t say. I, too, to you. What is it?”

“I, too, to you….”

Luce, who was copying the words as if possessed, caught the words that were about to fly away beyond her memory.

“Ah. I’ll only be nice to you, too?”

“All right. Thank you.”

He smiled as if he was about to melt and turned his body again.

Looking at Rev staring at her in the mirror, Luce felt distant.

Taking off his glasses is so bad for her heart—.

“No, wait, wait! Why, no, how did you change your eye color?”

It’s not important to be nice, now!

Compared to how surprised Luce was, he gave a simple answer.

“You gave me the idea of a lens. That’s why I made it with magic engineering.”

It has only been a few days since she told him about it, but has he already succeeded in making it?

She put off the fact that Rev didn’t answer the question of ‘why’ out of surprise at the ‘how’.

How does he do it with magic engineering? With what material?

If he thought he wanted to make something, could he make anything? By the way, how did he get the lens prescription?

Rev, who had been answering sincerely—of course, he seemed to explain it in an easy way, but she couldn’t understand half of it— only tilted his head to the last question.

“I mean the prescription. Glasses prescription.”

Seeing that it was still difficult to understand, Luce took the glasses in his hand and pretended to wear them.

“Here, I’m talking about glasses. How do you correct your eyesight… Ah.”

The world looked the same through his glasses as it did before she used them.

Luce’s hand fell.

Rev’s glasses weren’t for eye correction.

‘Rev was always wearing glasses, but not because he had bad eyesight.’

It seems that he was wearing glasses to cover his eyes.

Even though he didn’t have to insist on it in front of her, he continued to use it, and that became a habit.

It was as if she had heard the answer to the question ‘why’ in advance.

‘I guess it was because he was afraid that the strangers he met today would point fingers at the color of his eyes. What should I do? I’m upset.’

Without further words, Luce carefully returned the glasses.

‘Now that I think about it, when he took part in a quiz contest, did his glasses not have a prescription because they weren’t curved? I thought about it for a second. I didn’t know it was for this reason.’

Luce, who was hesitant, bit her lip a few times, then broke it and spoke painfully.

“Rev is amazing. It’s amazing that you can create a new magic tool with my words. But why did you change the color to green?”

“Your eyes are green. It’s bright and fresh. That’s why I chose green… You don’t like it? If you don’t like it.”

“No, I don’t hate it! I don’t hate it.”

She felt like something was blocking her chest.

‘No, that’s not what I really have to say.’

These are not words to be passed over while talking about Rev, who has a new eye color and pretending to be normal.

Perhaps it was strange that she couldn’t speak, so Rev stood up.

Luce, receiving Rev’s worried green gaze, reached out her hand.

And she hugged Rev tightly.

“Luce?”

“You told me about the standard, Rev.”

Rev’s quiet voice, which had become tense as his hand rose into the air, landed in her ear with a slight tremble.

“Ung. You are the standard.”

It touches people’s hearts in so many different ways.

Luce said forcefully.

“No matter what others say, your eyes are pretty. Red, brilliant, clear and beautiful. I like you with green eyes, I like you with blue eyes, and I like your eyes with black or rainbow colors, but my favorite is red eyes. Got it?”

Because you’re the one that matters, color doesn’t matter.

Was my meaning, which I spoke without hesitation, conveyed well?

Luce thought as she moved away from his arms. One step, two steps away.

“Ung, thank you.”

But Rev, who immediately got closer, pulled Luce’s hand.

Luce listened to his answer while being held by a hand much stronger and firmer than the one she had held before.

“I only have you.”

It sounds like he’s whispering right from his heart.

I only have you. Like an echo, his words kept coming back over and over again.

Obviously, this is also a word that cuts out all the important words, that you are the only one who said that to me.

Knowing that, Luce nodded her head. Like it really was.

*****

The academic festival occurred in the castle hall, near the tower.

There was still some time until the festival started, so she went in slowly because she wanted to be free, but somehow—.

“Lucette!…Wow, a handsome friend!”

It was full, except for the two seats next to Dietrich, who waved his hand, looked at Rev, opened his mouth, and waved again.

“If you were a little late, you wouldn’t have been able to sit down. And you?”

“Ah, this person is a student at that academy.”

“That’s right. This is Brother Dietrich. He is Dominic’s older brother. This is Revinas. My friend.”

“Revinas.”

Dietrich pondered the name Revinas for a moment.

He whispered to Luce without noticing that Rev was staring at it strangely.

“I can see how you, who were like a rascal, became interested in strange romance novels, ugh.”

“Be quiet, ugh.”

Luce gave Dietrich a blow and sat down, only then did she notice the correct position of the seat.

Fortunately, it was the back seat Luce wanted.

After grinding her teeth, Luce hit Dietrich and sat down. It was only then that she saw the correct position of the seat.

Fortunately, it was the back seat that Luce wanted.

Rev, who looked around as if looking for someone, belatedly greeted Dietrich with a cold tone and sat down. He sat next to him.

Thanks to this, Luce’s seat in the hall was right next to the entrance door.

Looking through the brochure, the speakers’ biographies were written one after another.

It seemed they were quite famous people, such as a former academy professor, a wise man in a certain area, and a chief engineer in a certain laboratory.

Is that why there are so many people?

“I would have been able to sit in the front seat if it hadn’t been for the prize draw event after this, but that’s a pity.”

Aha, that’s why.

Luce quickly understood Dietrich, who spoke with his neck pulled out, and she nodded.

Our Lord knows how to deal with people delicately.

He has been spending money to invite speakers, but it’s better to fill them up no matter what than to leave them empty.

“Lucette? Oh, there’s Revinas, too.”

Luce grabbed her chest and said, almost jumping at the thought of the voice she heard.

“Ah, Lord. Did you come to observe the academic festival?”

“That’s right. I’m here to see if things are going well. Are you going to attend other events later? Harvest festivals, especially music nights. I had a hard time gathering the orchestra members, but today’s concert is more than I expected.”

“Can I decide after seeing the time when the academic festival ends?”

Even though she told the Baron quietly that she wasn’t going, he didn’t seem to understand.

“I finally succeeded in running the air conditioning. It’s the main event, so I’ll introduce it when all the festivals are over. We didn’t experience it properly back then, so it would be nice to see it today, right?”

“Ah, yes yes. That, Lord, will you stay here?”

‘No, don’t stay. I’m going to play Omok.’

“Shouldn’t we go see it now? I can’t wake up the children sleeping in the cradle of learning with my appearance! Haha!”

She doesn’t know what to answer.

Still, when she sent the Baron away with a learned response and turned her head, Rev was wearing glasses before she knew it.

Is it a habit that makes him feel empty when he doesn’t use it?

Then she saw Dietrich’s eyes looking at her without talking to her.

‘Why are you looking at me?’

‘You can’t take your eyes off him.’

‘I’ve been talking to the Lord until now, and I’ve only seen him once?! Now turn your head, now!’

‘It’s so obvious.’

‘So what the hell?!’

What a nonsense, really!

Rev was only looking forward, regardless of whether or not he knew that she and he were having a strange fight.

*****

The Emperor, who was slowly looking through a report listing events in the empire in detail, stopped at one point.

『Rodante – Harvest Festival, Academic Festival, Music Night』

Looking at the small writing at the end as if it was not worth describing in detail, he recited emotionlessly.

“It’s an academic festival.”

It is an insignificant event in an insignificant estate.

Under normal circumstances, it was an event that the Emperor wouldn’t mention.

However, if the Prince lives in hiding on the estate, and the Prince, who only knows books, is interested in events, the story is slightly different.

The Emperor held out his hand.

A man came out of the darkness like a nail and knelt down.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

He was one of the Emperor’s royal guards.

Those who followed any Imperial mandate would often be called in this way.

An Emperor doesn’t have to give long, detailed orders. His orders are always short.

For example, if they went there because they were told to “Clean up the Castian county,” there were people lying around the County’s mansion who were throwing up blood.

Then set fire to the mansion, burned the corpse, erased all traces, and came out.

Questions about how they died or why they wanted to get rid of the bodies weren’t for them.

However, they sometimes worried about who might have arrived before their closest relatives to the Emperor and poisoned their meals or busted people’s heads.

They wondered if there was someone they trusted more than the Royal Guard, and if there was, why did the person who would have killed people disappear without a trace and clean up the mess themselves?

Of course, questions that were not theirs never came out of their mouths.

“Baron Rodante.”

But today, the Emperor’s name was a little longer than usual.

“At the harvest festival there will be a boy with red eyes and glasses. He will be dressed in neat clothes, and whether he has his hair down or is wearing a hat, he will try not to expose his face as much as possible, so there will be no difficulty in determining.”

For the first time, the Royal Guard, which was only in charge of the cleanup, was given the target.

They didn’t know why the Emperor wanted to harm the boy living in the small estate or why he only described the target’s appearance, not the exact name, but they thought this was a kind of test.

It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

“I will definitely finish it and come back.”

The Emperor’s lips, visible through the glass of red wine, murmured softly.

“If that is possible.”

It’s the same as laughing.