The Despot Club (2)

The vice-principal left the atelier and the art class began.

The students started working on their own original drawings, and Katya wandered around the atelier, pretending to evaluate the children’s drawing process while scribbling something on paper.

“Teacher, may I ask you something?”

If a student were to ask a question like this,

“Oh, that? How about trying it like this?”

Katya naturally explained various painting techniques she had read in art books.

She didn’t know how to demonstrate them, but she could pretend to be an expert with her words.

Even when playing chess, giving advice from the side was the easiest way.

The students became completely engrossed in the new art teacher.

The original art teacher was inexperienced in teaching, and in fact, she was also a parachute with almost no knowledge of art.

‘Does it make sense that a noblewoman who was hired as a teacher at the country’s top women’s education institution knew less about her subject than I did?’

Katya frowned in disbelief as she guessed the former teacher’s abilities while listening to the children’s stories.

Although Molniski Ladies’ Academy had belatedly added art practice to the curriculum by benchmarking the Art School Conservatoire in neighboring Archetia, which nurtured female artistic talent, it was essentially just going through the motions.

Regarding the cultivation of female painters, art figures including Baron Lanzkoi were highly skeptical.

They believed that whether it was academia or art, only men could do it.

The faculty and even the parents of Molniski Ladies’ Academy all had the same idea.

Molniski Ladies’ Academy, which claimed to have been established for women’s education, eventually became a bride training institution for cultured hostesses of each family.

Although classes such as flower arranging and embroidery were taught by the best professional instructors, the art teacher knew even less than Katya, who had only read books.

Compared to the teacher who only had self-study time day and night to hide her poor skills, Katya, who kindly answered every question and continued the class, aroused the students’ intellectual curiosity.

“Teacher, do you happen to be able to demonstrate the technique yourself?”

A student asked out of pure curiosity.

But Katya, a master of improvisation, was not flustered.

“What should I do? I’m in this state right now.”

She said, holding up her right hand wrapped in a bandage.

In fact, it was something she had prepared from the beginning rather than just improvising.

“I’m sorry children, but I won’t be able to show you at this time.”

Katya would have already achieved her goal here by then and disappeared from school.

So she could throw bad checks like this as much as she wanted.

“Sure. I’ll show you everything. That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”

Sorry, kids. Because the Grand Duchess is a liar.

But she had decided to tell Nikolai to send a proper art teacher to the kids when they went up to the capital.

Whether it was her nature or her way of speaking, it seemed that Katya was well-suited for being a fraud. She considered herself fortunate to have met good parents and learned morality and ethics.

Otherwise, she might have become a scammer who ruined her name by now.

At that moment, one of the noble girls raised her hand.

“Teacher, I have another question.”

“What is it?”

Katya turned around with a gentle smile on her lips.

“Please tell us about your first love!”

At those words, curious girls began to rush towards their prey like beasts with sparkling eyes.

“That’s right! Do you have a lover, teacher? Do you like someone?”

“Of course she does! Who is it? If it’s the teacher’s lover, he must be really handsome!”

“I mean it! You said you went to the Art School Conservatoire in Archetia and came back this year, so are you in a long-distance relationship? Archetian men are so passionate and good-looking!”

“Eyy, no way. Teacher, has your fiancé been decided?”

“You must have received a lot of proposals during the social season! How many engagement letters have you received?”

“Hey girls, calm down and ask one question at a time.”

Katya said with an awkward face.

Wait a minute. She realized that this could be an opportunity to get closer to the students.

There is no topic that brings people closer together as easily as talking about the opposite sex among men or women.

Katya decided to make good use of this opportunity.

“Um… First of all, to answer the question about my engagement, I wasn’t very popular.”

“What? That can’t be true!”

“That’s right. You’re the epitome of beauty and elegance!”

“If the teacher wasn’t popular, then the guys must have been blind!”

“That’s right. It’s either that guys gave up on approaching a heavenly goddess like you or it just doesn’t make sense!”

The kids shouted that it was a lie.

If they knew that Katya had been stumbling around in high-heeled shoes that she wasn’t used to until this morning, they would probably laugh it off.

The ‘Alyona Lanzkoi’ they were seeing now was far from Katya’s true self.

She was imitating Bianca’s posture, gestures, voice, and even her way of speaking in a low voice.

She had also dyed her strawberry blonde hair platinum blonde to hide it.

This hair color, with a slight golden hue as if mixing butter with honey, made Bianca, the traditional beauty of Hersen, stand out even more.

In the Hersen Grand Duchy, the Sharmante Empire, and the Archetia Kingdom, platinum blonde was a symbol of handsome and beautiful gods.

When they saw a woman with platinum blonde hair, people of all ages in the continent and even in Archetia couldn’t help but admire and envy her, just like in temple murals.

Whether it’s a woman or a man, if they have platinum blonde hair, people tend to have a favorable impression of them.

Besides, Katya was originally a beauty that anyone would fall for as long as she closed her rough mouth.

Imitating Bianca’s gestures, she looked like a goddess who could have taken control of Archetia’s social circle in the eyes of the children.

I was known as the wicked woman of the south, but here I am, ranked first in the world as a goddess?

‘Oh, this isn’t even a book title. Goddess, I keep feeling guilty.’

Katya was embarrassed and her throat burned, but she quickly hid her burning face behind a smiling mask.

“Well, is that so? I’m not sure…”

“Oh my god! Is this like in a novel where everyone is only looking at the teacher, but you don’t realize your own popularity?”

“That’s right. The teacher is like the perfect heroine.”

“Ha, you said it well! Like a pitiful heroine who dies first in a tragic opera with a male lead!”

“Girls, why are you trying to embarrass Teacher? And why do you have to kill me in a tragic opera?”

The girls clapped and laughed at Katya’s words.

“And I don’t have a lover.”

Instead, I have a terrifyingly handsome husband.

You don’t know how scary his personality is.

Katya swallowed hard to hold back her words.

Thinking of Nikolai made her smile for no reason.

He was an obsessed man who sincerely worried that other men were looking at her and would make them blind with jealousy.

He was a terrifying tyrant whom everyone feared, but he also had an absurd side where he would prostrate himself on the ground and ask his vassal to give him his daughter, and he did his best to be loved by his father-in-law.

He treated Katya’s family, who were his contract family, as if they were his own family, and even took care of their dog Laika with love and care.

Where else in the world can you find such a man?

“Do you have someone you like? Are you thinking about that person right now?”

“Well… I’m not sure if I like him.”

Katya tilted her head and murmured.

The girls, who were at the age of being interested in their friends’ love lives, were all excited.

Suddenly, the art class had turned into a counseling session for Katya’s love life.

“Just the fact that you’re worried means you have feelings for him, right?”

“Yeah. He’s like a friend. The closest and most intimate friend in the world.”

“And then you become lovers and family.”

Friend, that man is already her husband.

Katya shouted inwardly.

Their relationship was really confusing. Nikolai loved her and even though they were in a contract relationship, they got married. So, it was like a relationship and marriage, but they had never dated.

‘But we did a lot of skinship except for kissing.’

They held hands, hugged, and even slept together with his head on her lap.

‘We even took a bath together.’

It was such a unique and unheard-of relationship.

“What kind of person is he? I’m so curious.”

“The person who thinks the world will collapse if I get even a little hurt or sick.”

“Kyaaaa–! It’s so sweet just to hear it, Teacher!”

The girls ran wild, hitting each other’s arms and shoulders.

Lost in thought, Katya spoke her mind.

“If I have even a small scratch on my body and can’t see it, he says he can get hurt instead of me because he has many wounds. He wants to comfort my wounds, but hides his own.”

It was Nikolai who always showed a smiling or playful face to her.

Did he always try to show only the good side of himself?

When she saw him suffering from nightmares for the first time, Katya…

“Ah.”

She realized something.

‘I wanted to hug him.’

She thought she wanted to feel his pain if she couldn’t help him. If that wasn’t possible, she wanted to share his burden and take half of it.

At that moment, something welled up in her chest.

“Teacher…?”

A tear rolled down Katya’s cheek.

‘What should I do, Grand Duke?’

I really tried to endure it… but now, everything has gone wrong.

Katya finally became aware of her emotions.

Now she had to admit it.

‘I think I’ve started to like you.’