Never Die Villain Chapter 127

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[ … words ]

Ilya knocked before stepping inside, only to find Vera sitting behind her desk with several folders spread out in front of her, apparently still occupied with work.

Vera looked up from the papers.

“What do you need, Ilya?”

“I was wondering whether Assistant Professor Adelheid would like to have dinner with me.”

“Oh?” Vera rested her cheek against one hand, immediately looking amused. “Asking me out on a date now? Pretty bold for a student to ask an academy staff member out. Do you even have any idea how old I am?”

“Very old.”

“….”

Vera’s smile disappeared.

“Do you want me to hit you?”

Ilya chuckled and walked over to the couch, pulling a cigarette from his pack as he sat down.

Vera gave him an irritated look before returning to the documents on her desk, although the corner of her mouth was already beginning to rise again.

“If you have that kind of time, go hang out with people your own age. Last I remember, you’re practically friendless in this Department, so go make some friends, form a social clique, find a girl, or do whatever students normally do after class.”

Vera flipped to another page.

“I’m quite busy, so you’ll have to entertain yourself.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

“…?”

“I’ll buy dinner.”

Vera’s hand stopped.

She looked up at him, then at the folder in front of her. After considering the offer for all of two seconds, she closed it and pushed the entire stack aside.

“I was getting hungry anyway.” A smile appeared on her face. “What are we getting?”

“….”

Ilya stared at the now-abandoned paperwork.

“…So you weren’t busy.”

“I was. But free dinner changes priorities.”

“….”

Ilya lit his cigarette and leaned back against the couch. He glanced toward the other desk in the office, noticing its owner was still nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s the Senior Professor, anyway?”

“Still teaching.”

Vera began putting away the few things she had actually been working on.

“Uncle usually goes straight home after his last lecture, so I’m normally the one who stays behind to close the office and finish whatever work he conveniently decides is beneath him.”

“Sounds like you’re being exploited.”

“Of course I am. That’s what family is for.”

Ilya nodded as though that made perfect sense.

“And you were really going to stay here working instead of eating?”

“I wasn’t working that hard.”

“I noticed.”

“Shut up.” Vera tossed one of the folders into a drawer before locking it. “I have to at least look busy. You never know when the Headmaster might suddenly walk through that door and discover I’ve spent the last hour smoking and thinking about what I want for dinner.”

“Wouldn’t the cigarettes give that away?”

Vera glanced at the ashtray on her desk.

“….”

She pushed it slightly farther away.

“Now they won’t.”

“….”

Stepping outside the office, Vera turned off the lights and locked the door behind them. The two were about to make their way farther down the hall when a familiar voice suddenly called out from behind.

“Ilya!”

Ilya stopped and turned around. Once again, it was Elise.

“….”

Why did she keep chasing him around like this?

This time, quite literally, judging by the state she was in. Elise had clearly been running through the building looking for him, arriving out of breath and bending forward with both hands against her knees.

“Finally…” Elise breathed out. “I found you…”

Ilya stared at her for a moment, unsure what could possibly have been important enough for her to run around the academy searching for him.

“Uh… do you need something, Elise?”

“Are you mad at me or something?!”

“Huh?”

“If there’s something I need to apologize for, then just tell me!”

Elise straightened up and looked directly at him, frustration and uncertainty written all over her face.

“I really don’t know what I did, but you keep… you keep avoiding me, and now I can’t stop wondering whether I did something wrong!”

Ilya blinked. “Avoiding you?”

“Yes!”

“When?”

“Today! Every time I tried talking to you, you found some excuse to leave!”

Elise began counting them off on her fingers.

“You refused to join my group, then you disappeared from the classroom while everyone was talking, then I tried asking you to lunch and you went into Assistant Professor Adelheid’s office instead! After Mana Ecology, you disappeared again!”

“How do you know I had Mana Ecology?”

“Because I was waiting for you!”

Ilya was surprised. He hadn’t even known Elise had been waiting for him.

As far as he remembered, he had simply left the lecture hall with Lisbet and gone on his way, never noticing Elise waiting nearby.

“Pfft.”

Beside him, Vera turned her face away, but the slight trembling of her shoulders didn’t escape his notice.

“…Senior.”

“I’m not laughing—Pfft.”

“…Alright.”

Vera immediately covered her mouth and cleared her throat, making a poor attempt to regain her composure, although the smile stubbornly remained on her face.

Elise’s cheeks reddened when she realized how ridiculous the entire situation probably looked from an outsider’s perspective, but despite the embarrassment, she quickly turned her attention back toward Ilya.

“Whatever! That’s not the point! You’ve been acting differently around me all day, and I thought maybe… I don’t know. Maybe I did something!”

Ilya stared at her.

Only now was he beginning to understand why she had been behaving so strangely around him all day.

From his perspective, he had simply been going about his first day in the Magic Department, meeting new people and following his schedule as usual, but apparently, Elise had interpreted every little thing he did as him deliberately trying to stay away from her.

And considering how worked up she had gotten over it, she had apparently been thinking about it all day.

“I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“Then why—”

“Do you remember what you told me on our first day at the academy?”

“Ah…”

Elise did.

Back when the first semester had just begun, she had been the one to tell Ilya that it would probably be better if they kept their friendship a secret.

She had never said the real reason outright, instead giving him one excuse after another, but both of them had understood what she actually meant.

She had been worried about what other people would think.

“I just did what you wanted.”

“….”

Elise couldn’t answer.

“So, see you around, Elise.”

“Wait—”

She reached out, but Ilya had already turned away and continued down the hall with Vera.

Vera glanced between the two of them before giving Ilya two light pats on the back, clearly finding the entire situation far more entertaining than she should have.

Elise’s hand slowly fell back to her side.

“….”

She bit her lip and lowered her head.

He was right. She had been the one who asked him to keep his distance in the first place, so what right did she have to complain now that he was doing exactly that?

Ilya hadn’t misunderstood her, nor was he treating her unfairly. If anything, he had simply respected the boundary she herself had placed between them.

Even so, Elise was human.

She could make mistakes.

Back then, she had been weak to social pressure, far too concerned with rumors, appearances, and what the people around her might think if they saw her openly associating with Ilya.

It had been easier to hide their friendship than endure the attention that came with it, so that was exactly what she had chosen to do.

But things were different now.

After everything that had happened at Mount Serebryany, worrying about something as insignificant as what other people thought of her suddenly seemed ridiculous.

She had lost far more important things than her reputation, and if there was one thing she had learned from that experience, it was how stupid it was to push someone away simply because other people might talk.

Elise raised her head.

Ilya and Vera were already halfway down the hall.

She straightened her back, lifted her chin, and took a deep breath.

“My name is Elise Margaux de Beaumont!”

Her voice echoed throughout the corridor, prompting Ilya to halt in his steps.

“….”

Several students farther down the hall turned around as well, but this time, Elise didn’t shrink under their attention. Her face was burning from embarrassment and her heart was pounding hard enough that she could feel it in her chest, yet she forced herself to remain where she was.

Ilya slowly glanced over his shoulder.

Elise looked straight at him.

“Let’s be friends again, Ilya Valentinovich Belozersky!”

“….”

For several seconds, Ilya merely stared at her.

Then, his lips curved into a smile.

“Sure.”

In truth, Ilya had been avoiding her on purpose.

If Elise had simply accepted the distance between them and continued pretending they barely knew each other, then that would have been the end of it.

Apparently, however, whatever had changed in her after Mount Serebryany wasn’t as temporary as Ilya had thought.

Instead, she had chased him across the academy, confronted him directly, and then shouted both of their full names through a crowded hallway without caring who heard her.

That was more than enough.

Ilya wasn’t someone so important that Elise needed to beg for his forgiveness, nor was he petty enough to hold it against her after she had already gone this far to correct it.

If she was willing to stop hiding their relationship, then he had no reason to keep pushing her away.

“Ilya Valentinovich Belozersky!”

Apparently, she wasn’t done.

Ilya had barely begun walking again when Elise called his full name for the second time, somehow even louder than before.

“I’d like to invite you out to dinner today!”

“….”

Ilya scratched his cheek awkwardly.

No, this was getting embarrassing. Not even his own embarrassment, either. The sheer confidence with which Elise was shouting everything across the hallway was giving him secondhand embarrassment.

“Uh… sorry.”

Ilya glanced beside him before pointing at Vera.

“I kind of already have plans today.”

Elise followed his finger. Vera smiled and gave her a small wave.

“….”

Only then did Elise seem to process the situation.

Her cheeks slowly turned red.

Then redder.

“…!”

Then completely crimson.

Without another word, Elise turned around and ran. Ilya watched her disappear around the corner, wondering how someone who had just gathered enough courage to shout across an entire hallway could lose all of it again in the span of a few seconds.

“You know, we could’ve invited her too,” Vera said as she watched Elise flee. “House de Beaumont is filthy rich. We could’ve drained her wallet and eaten somewhere expensive.”