The Duty Of An Academy Student Should Be To Study - Chapter 79

Episode 79

Rose kept thinking about Jasper, and as she did, her strength seemed to drain from her body, and she mumbled in a weak voice.

“I’m a bit tired…”. 

“Aren’t you studying too hard? You might collapse from that, really.” 

Briley responded. 

Rose approached Briley, sat down on the couch with a sigh, and tightly hugged a cushion that was in the corner.

It was the first time she had thought so deeply and for so long about something not related to magic engineering studies but about a person. Rose absentmindedly poked the innocent cushion corner with her fingers and cautiously opened her mouth. 

“Hey, Bry…”

“Yeah?”

Rose concluded that whimpering alone would only complicate things further. When delving into an unfamiliar field, the help of a pioneer was always needed. 

She asked Briley with a nervous tone, recounting the current situation. 

“Well, you see. What do you do when someone seems to like you?”

“Oh my.”

Briley covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide in surprise at the unexpected question.

Rose nervously twitched her lips and continued her explanation. 

“If, for instance, you’re not into that person. Oh, it’s not that I dislike them. I can’t say I like them either. From the beginning, liking that person is just…”

Rose mumbled nervously, losing her usual composure. It was difficult for her to speak as if it weren’t her issue.

Briley, forgetting even to blink, listened quietly but eventually jumped up from her seat and exclaimed.

“Did Jasper confess to you?!”

Startled by Briley’s loud voice, Rose was taken aback. Briley leaned in close to Rose and rapidly poured out her words.

“What on earth happened with Jasper? Why didn’t I know about this? What did you two do when I wasn’t around for our Rose to become like this?!”

“I, I never said it was Jasper…!”

Rose reflexively denied, but it seemed Briley didn’t hear this defense. 

Briley, very excited, continued firmly.

“Well, it must be Jasper, of course! Or is it someone else? Who is it? Who dared to approach you?”

“Huh? It’s not someone else…”

“Definitely Jasper, then.”

Pressed by Briley’s momentum, Rose involuntarily nodded her head.

‘I didn’t plan to get into the main topic so quickly.’

It was astonishing that Briley suddenly mentioned Jasper without any prior context. Briley rested her arm on Rose’s shoulder.

“What happened? Tell me.”

Rose hesitated for a moment and briefly explained the situation to Briley, omitting the various unpleasant events that occurred before the confession. 

Briley listened quietly to Rose’s words. As soon as the story ended, Briley burst into laughter and exclaimed.

“Wow, Jasper, that guy is quite bold and mischievous, huh?!”

Rose realized her face had turned crimson without her noticing. Talking about Jasper seemed to get her all worked up.

Touching her throbbing temple with her palm, Rose asked.

“Bry, what should I do now?”

Briley firmly held Rose’s cheeks and exclaimed in a playful voice.

“What should you do? Why the serious face? Anyone would think you’re going to a funeral, not dealing with a confession.”

Rose’s pronunciation got a bit muddled as her face was held close by Briley.

“W-well, it’s just an unbelievable situation… I’m flustered…”

“You still can’t believe Jasper likes you?”

Rose nodded thoughtfully. 

“Hmm…”

Briley seemed lost in thought for a moment and then released Rose’s cheeks, speaking up.

“What’s going on in your heart right now?”

“My heart?”

For a moment, Rose’s mind went blank. She realized that she had been only thinking about Jasper for the past few days and hadn’t seriously examined her feelings.

Briley’s firm voice snapped Rose out of her daze.

“Rose, if you don’t like Jasper, you don’t need to worry about this. Whether he confesses again later or not doesn’t matter!”

Silence lingered.

“And if things get awkward with Jasper, that’s on Jasper Conway! He’s the one who confessed, and he’s the one postponing defining the relationship. Why bother worrying about it?”

Briley bluntly added to the perplexed Rose.

“Above all, first and foremost, tell him to deal with his engagement issue.”

Engagement. The moment Rose heard that word from Briley, she was reminded of Adela Bluewood.

‘Why did I forget about it?’

Ethan Conway was actively pushing for Jasper’s strategic engagement. After hearing the confession from Jasper, it seemed like Rose had been floating in a daze for the past few days.

Rose murmured to herself as if lost in thought.

“…You’re right, Bry.”

If she didn’t like Jasper, then it wasn’t a problem to begin with. There was no need to overthink whether Jasper’s words were sincere or not.

Yeah. If she didn’t like Jasper Conway, that was it.

Thud. 

In an instant, Rose felt her heart plummeting as if crashing downward. Her breath hitched, and her vision blurred. Tension crept into the muscles around Rose’s eyes, and wrinkles formed on her forehead. At a glance, she looked like someone on the verge of bursting into tears.

Seeing Rose’s trembling hand, Briley swiftly grasped it firmly with her palm.

“Rose, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Anyway, do what your heart tells you. That’s the answer!”

“My heart…”

Rose hesitated for a moment and inadvertently spoke.

“I… I’m scared.”

As she extracted her deep-seated feelings, Rose could squarely face herself. She realized what emotions had been gripping her entire being for the past few days. It was fear.

“Scared? What are you afraid of?”

“…That I might start liking Jasper.”

Rose’s trembling voice resonated in the room. As soon as the words left her mouth, she took a deep breath. Her heart pounded rapidly, and cold sweat formed on her palms.

‘What if…?’

Perhaps it wasn’t that she didn’t believe Jasper’s feelings, but that she didn’t want to believe. She wanted to run away. She didn’t have the confidence to reject Jasper Conway, who was sincerely approaching her.

Briley’s eyes, looking at Rose, were tinted with sorrow. Briley gently pulled Rose into a hug.

“Is it frightening to like Jasper?”

Rose nodded silently. She had thought that Jasper Conway was someone she should never like. It wouldn’t lead to anything good in the conservative aristocratic society.

Briley spoke with a more subdued tone than usual, almost flowing with her words.

“It’s understandable. You’re someone who wants to live quietly. Yes, Jasper is not an easy person.”

The moment Rose got involved with Jasper, her path would be filled with countless obstacles. Briley wasn’t certain whether Rose could overcome all those obstacles and reach the finish line safely.

Rose herself had already understood and penetrated the facts with her reasoning.

‘Why, even though I know…?’

The unsettling fluttering in her heart wouldn’t stop.

“Do you think I like you?”

Suddenly, Jasper’s voice from a few days ago echoed in Rose’s mind. In an instant, a shiver ran down her spine, and an itching sensation spread throughout her body.

Rose’s face turned as red as a cherry, and she unconsciously stood up.

‘No… No.’

Rose constantly screamed at herself, trying to quell the rising heat. She fanned her face desperately with her small hand. Rose’s features contorted more and more.

‘No… I can’t like Jasper. No, I shouldn’t like him. I mustn’t go crazy. This is not the time to be concerned about this from the start.’

How could someone who couldn’t control her own heart survive in this academy and society? Rose tried to whip herself into shape, but she couldn’t shake off the image of Jasper from her mind.

Maybe it would have been better if her appearance had been blurred and unremarkable. Why did he have to be handsome? Suddenly, Rose felt resentful towards Jasper. Jasper’s dazzlingly handsome face stubbornly occupied her thoughts.

‘Snap out of it. I need to pull myself together…’

Rose paced in place, trying to calm her breathing, but her chest was beating faster and faster.

Briley, watching the fidgeting Rose, lowered her head and spoke.

“It’s human nature to want to do things more when you’re told not to do them. It’s like that with anything.”

Lost in her thoughts, Rose didn’t fully comprehend Briley’s words and blurted out.

“What did you just say?”

“Nothing. Rose, but are you feeling dizzy?”

“…Huh?”

Only then did Rose stop pacing and was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness that made her stagger.

“Oh dear.”

Briley held onto Rose firmly to prevent her from falling and whispered.

“The road ahead is long for both you and him…”

* * *

Unbeknownst, the final exams for the spring semester were fast approaching next week.

Rose, caught up in a whirlwind of activities, oddly considered it a relief. Immersing herself in magic engineering knowledge helped keep thoughts about Jasper at bay.

It was impossible not to pay any attention to Jasper. His striking features alone would grab attention wherever he appeared, not to mention they were in the same club and often bumped into each other.

Every time Rose saw Jasper, she tried to maintain composure and put effort into tensing the muscles of her face. Internally, she repeated the same words over and over, nudging herself.

‘Don’t like him, don’t like him…’

She firmly resolved not to waver in the face of Jasper Conway. Even as she tried to focus on studying, there were moments when Jasper’s face inexplicably popped into her mind.

It was all because of that ambiguous confession.

The incident from that day had not become a topic of conversation again between Rose and Jasper. Rose was navigating through days filled with confusion like she had never experienced before.

Then, one day, after a common class had ended, Jasper approached. 

Rose was tidying up her things, preparing to join Briley and Rebecca, when Jasper handed her a note.

[I have something to say. Come to the club room.]