<CHAPTER 31>
Learned Over Someone’s Shoulder
Evelyn, recalling her Academy days, slightly furrowed her brows and shook her head.
No matter how much she thought about it, he really was a strange fellow.
As the strange rumor that she was Aksion’s lover spread, there were also more people who were jealous and envious.
To the point where she received warning letters from the Aksion fan club every day.
“Ugh. I really hate annoying things.”
Moreover, having unintentionally stuck with her fiancé for a year, her opposite-sex friends had long since disappeared.
There was a time when she received a note from a male student whose name she couldn’t even remember.
Saying he had something to tell her and to meet behind the Academy after class.
Evelyn had gone there with some expectation, but in the end, she couldn’t find that student.
Without knowing why, the rumors about her and Aksion only grew more abundant after that.
‘At this rate, won’t my romance business fall apart later too?’
Evelyn let out a deep sigh.
For some reason, her human relationships seemed to be gradually narrowing to same-sex only.
But she thought this would naturally resolve when Aksion fell for the female protagonist.
‘Yes, I haven’t even started yet, so it’s too early to give up!’
Anyway, since she was in a contract romance with Aksion, she had to be firmly prepared.
“I just need to hold out until the graduation ceremony.”
***
Evelyn, looking around the laboratory built in the annex, spoke with a newly proud face.
“It’s much nicer than I thought?”
She had kept her promise to provide full support for Zekter.
Though it took time to complete, the laboratory made exclusively for the boy was a space suitable for researching magic.
“You’re here, Sister?”
“Yes, Zekter, you have a wonderful laboratory now!”
“Really… thank you so much.”
Zekter seemed happy to have his own space, yet also somewhat burdened.
Evelyn, whose mood wasn’t good, deliberately spoke playfully.
“I told you. I’m not just supporting you for nothing.”
“Yes, I’ll definitely succeed and repay you!”
At the boy’s determined ambition, she let out a small laugh.
“As I said before, just don’t get sick and grow up healthy.”
Fortunately, Zekter had gained quite a bit of weight compared to when they first met at the orphanage.
‘I think the chef has been especially attentive?’
According to Rarie, the servants were taking good care of the boy.
They probably felt sorry for the child who had been left alone at a young age.
Moreover, since Zekter was quick-witted and clever, there would be no reason for him to be disliked.
Since the servants were taking such good care of him, the sponsor couldn’t just stand by!
Evelyn, who had been busy focusing on research at the botanical garden recently, decided to spend time with the boy.
After looking around the laboratory, she looked at the books and notes on the desk with an interested gaze.
The notes Zekter had taken on his tests were almost perfect scores.
She knew he was bright, but it seemed to have been a good choice to assign him a separate tutor.
Evelyn smiled softly as she looked at the notes filled with dense handwriting.
She felt proud at the sight of the boy now using the Imperial language without hesitation.
Pulling up a chair and sitting at the desk, she tapped the seat next to her and said.
“Zekter, sit here. If there are any problems you don’t know, I’ll explain them!”
“Sister, you know magic engineering too?”
As Evelyn, who possessed healing abilities, opened a magic engineering book, Zekter blinked his rabbit-like eyes.
She firmly shook her head to prevent any possible misunderstanding.
“No, I just learned it over someone’s shoulder.”
“Over someone’s shoulder?”
At the boy’s clearly puzzled expression, Evelyn muttered quietly, barely audible.
“When I was young, someone always carried magic engineering books around.”
She thought she had tried quite hard to get close to Aksion when she was young, but it was all useless effort.
To escape from stray thoughts, she shook her head vigorously and asked in a gentle voice.
“Were there any difficult formulas?”
She thought it wouldn’t be so difficult if she applied mathematical formulas from her previous life to magic engineering.
Zekter looked through his notes earnestly, then pointed to one problem.
“Ah! I don’t really understand this part.”
“Let me see…”
Hmm, it seems more difficult than I thought.
Once she actually looked at the problem, unlike her confident self from moments ago, her head seemed to spin round and round.
Evelyn tried hard to hide her flustered expression and worked through the solution, applying factorization that she vaguely remembered.
Then Zekter, who had been watching with bright, sparkling eyes, exclaimed in a clear voice.
“The answer is 517!”
“Yes, well done.”
The child with astonishingly excellent learning ability quickly understood the formula.
Would he pass the Magic Tower entrance exam safely later?
Evelyn, who had been affectionately patting the boy’s head, soon wore an ambiguous smile.
Because the original story’s development suddenly came to mind.
In the original story, Zekter had researched an artifact to suppress ability rampage as the next Magic Tower Master.
But as he dabbled in black magic, that research eventually came to nothing.
‘For now, I’ve diverted the Imperial family’s eyes but…’
She couldn’t predict what means the Emperor would use when he recognized Zekter’s true value in the distant future.
At the very least, gaining enough strength to protect himself was what the boy needed most.
But she couldn’t send the still young boy to the Magic Tower immediately.
If he had a good teacher by his side who could teach him about mana utilization, it might be different.
‘There is exactly one suitable person.’
Evelyn, who had thought of her fiancé, scratched one cheek as if embarrassed.
She knew how busy he was, so it seemed she couldn’t easily ask him.
But wouldn’t it be good to mention it at least once?
While she was lost in thought, Zekter tilted his head and asked.
“Sister, is something troubling you?”
Ugh, did I make too serious an expression?
Evelyn, realizing her mistake, delivered her words evasively with an awkward expression.
“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about some herbs.”
“May I ask what kind of herb it is?”
Zekter, who knew that Evelyn was conducting herb research, asked again curiously.
Evelyn looked at the boy’s curious eyes for a moment and lightly nodded her head.
“It’s a herb called Duckworth, but you probably won’t know it even if I tell you.”
Though she had succeeded in cultivating it with difficulty, for some reason she kept failing to make it bloom.
They said the flower bud was the part with the strongest toxicity…
It was true that she had been racking her brains for several days about what had gone wrong in the research process.
While Evelyn was stroking her chin, deeply lost in thought.
“Isn’t Duckworth a poisonous herb?”
At the innocent boy’s voice, she blinked her widened round eyes.
“Zekter, how do you know that?”
“Well.”
Zekter touched his protruding cowlick, then continued slowly.
“Actually, my grandfather ran an herb shop.”
“An herb shop?”
“Yes, so I learned about herbs.”
The boy said he often went to the mountains with his grandfather to gather herbs.
Of course, after his grandfather fell ill with a chronic disease, running the herb shop became difficult.
Perhaps because a story about herbs he knew came up, Zekter added in a clear voice.
“They said you must never touch Duckworth’s flower bud!”
The boy’s words were correct.
Since Duckworth was so highly toxic, Evelyn always wore experimental gloves.
Wait, if he knows this level of knowledge…
At that moment, her eyes shone vividly.
“Zekter, do you happen to know how Duckworth blooms?”
The boy’s grandfather was likely someone with considerable knowledge of herbs.
Duckworth was not a well-known plant in the Valtian Empire.
That meant Zekter might know information that Evelyn didn’t.
At her question, the boy who had been rolling his golden eyes around finally provided the answer.
“Fertilizer… yes, fertilizer! I’m sure my grandfather said that!”
