13.
It was a foreign sensation. Generally, Diego did not experience significant mood swings; his life was a tranquil, stagnant pool that nothing could ripple.
From the beginning, it had been a perfect existence. Everything was provided long before he could even desire it. Consequently, there was nothing he desperately needed, nothing he felt was lacking, and nothing he found truly enjoyable.
Even if he felt a fleeting spark of amusement or a flicker of anger, no event had ever managed to shake him to his core.
That was why it was wearisome. It was boring. Uninteresting.
Yet, when he looked at Irene, covered in mud, he felt an inexplicable disgust. She didn’t seem to care about the filth staining her clothes, but the sight of her left Diego feeling profoundly unsettled.
“You seem quite sincere about your physician.”
If that wasn’t the case, he couldn’t explain the boiling emotion in his chest. So, Diego forced himself to nod at his own logic, even if it didn’t quite add up.
It seemed that at long last, he had come to desire something. It was ridiculous that his obsession centered on a mere physician, but so be it.
“Do I, too, want to live?”
Muttering the words to himself, Diego shook his head. A faint, dry laugh dissolved into the darkness.
“As if.”
It was right then, as he mumbled to himself, that a voice cut through the air.
“Who goes there?”
The caretaker cast a suspicious gaze toward the shadow standing blankly in front of the school gate. With a cold, hardened expression, Diego turned his back without answering.
Javier opened the carriage door. The vehicle carrying Diego sped through the night streets in an instant.
Diego cast an indifferent gaze at the passing scenery, recalling the back of Irene as she had run off without so much as a greeting.
He carefully dwelled on the words she had uttered with that blank, indifferent face.
“I want to live for a very long time.”
Suddenly, he was curious about the reason. He thought perhaps his own life would feel less tedious if he knew. For a fleeting moment, greed glimmered in Diego’s weary eyes before vanishing.
* * *
Irene, heading toward the dormitory, slowed her pace at the shadow blocking her path. Maxy, arms crossed, was glaring at her with bulging eyes.
“Didn’t you say you were going home?”
“I did.”
“Then why are you coming back with Grand Duke Cassis?”
Irene frowned at his interrogative tone. Suddenly, she felt a sense of déjà vu. Where had she seen this situation before? Thinking intently, Irene let out a low, “Ah.”
Among the books in Baron Rios’s library, there were a few pulp novels, and the husband confronting his cheating wife in those stories used exactly that tone.
But a Sea Anemone? That was impossible, even if she died and came back to life.
Realizing how absurd her own thought was, Irene considered another possibility. The conceited Sea Anemone wanted to be Diego’s physician and regarded her as a rival.
Hmm.
That made much more sense. The Sea Anemone was just on edge, worried that Irene might have accepted Diego’s offer.
Irene couldn’t quite understand it, but the Sea Anemone was bothersome. On days when she returned after spending the night digging through corpses with the talkative jellyfish for an anatomy exam, the Sea Anemone would invariably block her path just like this.
With a displeased look, he would pick fights, asking, “What did you do all night?”, “The exam range is the liver and lungs, so why did you spend the night examining the heart and brain, which have nothing to do with it?”, or “Did you really only perform a dissection?”
Irene knew that Maxy, who remained the eternal runner-up because of her, was disgruntled. She had realized it very late compared to others, around the end of their third year.
“Was it a lie that you turned down the Grand Duke’s offer? Are you… going to his estate?”
Maxy rubbed his palms against his trousers. Irene shifted her heavy bag to her other hand and answered dryly.
“You said it yourself. I can’t be a doctor.”
At those words, Maxy’s eyes widened slightly. Maxy, who had kept his mouth stubbornly shut, finally nodded after a long silence.
“That’s right, you can’t be a doctor. So don’t even dream of the position of the Grand Duke’s physician.”
Irene nodded slowly, as if she already knew. She had just come from hearing the exact same thing from Leticia.
Then what could I become?
Irene repeated the question she had long held in her heart. But once again, she did not know the answer. Still, she didn’t want to return home after graduation.
There, Irene was an eternal stranger, a ghost. It wasn’t much different at school, but at least here, she existed.
As a broom, a sword-wielder, or a reaper—under some name, Irene Rios existed. Her figure could be seen, and her voice could be heard.
She didn’t need to hold her breath in the attic until the guests left, nor did she need to get used to being treated like a phantom by her family and servants.
―If Irene can save my dying soldiers, I don’t care what her personality is.
Suddenly, Diego’s words came to mind. Irene shook her head to clear her thoughts.
“I know.”
She took a step forward, breaking the pause.
“I won’t be anything at all.”
The moment Irene brushed past him, Maxy clenched his fists. He hadn’t meant to say such a thing.
But for some reason, whenever he stood in front of Irene, his head and his mouth acted separately. Especially when he saw that insensitive face, unmoved even by his dagger-like words.
He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to see that expressionless mask crumble. He wanted to see her sobbing and crying out loud.
However, Irene passed Maxy by indifferently today as well.
“Hey, Broom!”
Irene let out a low sigh and turned back. At the same time, something heavy flew through the air.
“!”
Irene reflexively reached out to catch it. In doing so, her bag fell to the ground.
“I’m giving it to you because there was extra. Don’t think for a second that I saved it because I was worried about you.”
The paper bag was warm. Irene blinked and looked at Maxy. Conversely, Maxy frowned.
“It’s a waste to throw it away!”
Shouting, Maxy walked toward the men’s dormitory with long, sharp strides. Only then did Irene open the bag. There were two lumps of food that hadn’t cooled yet.
Picking up her bag, Irene muttered gloomily.
“……It’s a potato.”
The Sea Anemone was indeed a Sea Anemone. Perhaps Maxy had saved it knowing she disliked them.
To spite her.
Under normal circumstances, she would have tossed it into the trash without a second look. Irene stared at the bag with lingering regret.
“I haven’t eaten since lunch today.”
Grrr.
At the savory smell, her stomach rumbled noisily. As if it had already prepared itself to digest the offering.
Irene had no choice but to pick up the potato and bring it to her mouth. She took a big bite.
“Hmm?”
Irene widened her eyes. It wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Perhaps because she was hungry, it even tasted quite good.
“Even so, a potato is a potato. It doesn’t compare to a sweet potato.”
Even while muttering that, Irene finished off both potatoes right there. Then, staring at the spot where Maxy had stood just a moment ago, she wore a triumphant expression.
If the Sea Anemone had saved the potato to spite her, that plan had failed perfectly. Because Irene had enjoyed the potato very much for the first time in a while.
*Dust.*
Brushing her hands off, Irene picked up her bag and walked off vigorously.
* * *
“Think about it carefully.”
Professor Figueras looked at Irene with arrogant eyes. Because she was busy thinking carefully as he had instructed, Irene missed the timing to answer.
An anatomy assistant?
The suggestion of remaining at the school after graduation to become an anatomy professor’s assistant was shocking enough to make her eyes widen. Especially since it came from Figueras, who couldn’t hide his look of displeasure whenever he saw her.
Figueras pushed up his glasses and remarked sarcastically.
“Ms. Rios’s skill in dissecting corpses is not inferior to that of a barber.”
He was one of those common physicians who regarded surgeons as vulgar. He was the type who believed a true doctor should sit elegantly on a sofa, identify symptoms through conversation, and cure them by prescribing compounds.
“You are too kind, Professor.”
However, Irene was inept at grasping the true intentions hidden within the other’s words. Figueras clicked his tongue bitterly with the expression of *Irene Rios is just that kind of person after all.*
What was the point of mocking her when the other person couldn’t even understand it?
“Are you finished with your business?”
Irene stood up from her seat. Figueras looked up at her with his brow faintly furrowed.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes. You told me to think about it carefully, so I shall do exactly that starting now.”
Bowing her head slightly, Irene left the room, leaving Figueras behind.
Figueras let out a grand sigh as if for her to hear, but Irene, already lost in thought, did not notice it at all.
“An anatomy assistant. That doesn’t seem bad.”
Most students’ career paths were already decided. There were classmates who would open clinics with their parents’ support, and others who were appointed as personal physicians for nobles.
Those remaining were only those like Maxy, who wanted a higher position, and those like Irene, who had nowhere to go.
Irene had no interest in internal medicine. The field, which diagnosed ailments through deep conversations with patients, did not suit her. Some patients didn’t even know where they were hurting.
In comparison, surgery was good because the wounds were visible. A patient with a torn abdomen bleeding profusely couldn’t be mistaken about where it hurt.
Of course, what was better than that was anatomy. Because corpses don’t talk.
Nevertheless, the reason she hadn’t thought about remaining at the school was that no professor had made such an offer. Regardless of her skills, she was a difficult student to handle.
“It’s better than going back home, at least.”
Muttering to herself while lost in thought, Irene suddenly widened her eyes. A beat late, a soft groan of “Ah,” escaped her lips.
Maxy maxy how old are you?!