Chapter 35: CH 35

With the sound of the final bell, Riett suddenly stood up from her seat.

“Where are you going? What’s going on?”

Lucas, who saw her like that, asked in confusion, but she couldn’t calmly respond.

“First, I’m going home.”

Without looking at Lucas, Riett quickly grabbed her bag and hurried down the stairs.

Throughout the class, she had been thinking about this situation. She had put the book in the space under her desk yesterday and went home. However, between the time when most students left and today, just before going to school, the book disappeared.

Unless the book grew legs, someone deliberately took it.

Recent forces were trying to harm her, but she wanted to leave that as a last resort. She didn’t want to lose her humanity just yet. Perhaps someone accidentally threw it away or put it somewhere else, so she planned to search all over the school.

The first place she decided to check was the incinerator.

Every day at 6 p.m., they incinerated the trash behind the main building. So she had to go before the smoke rose. It was five o’clock now, so she still had enough time.

Riett clenched her fist tightly and descended the stairs toward the back of the main building. Fortunately, she saw the janitor who was collecting the trash today.

“Excuse me, sir.”

It was a place where students rarely walked, so the janitor stopped what he was doing when he saw a female student.

“What’s the matter?”

“Can I take a look over there for a moment?”

Riett pointed to the pile of garbage, and the janitor looked bewildered. Without hesitation, Riett rummaged through the trash. However, there were plenty of papers, but there were hardly any books.

Just in case, she carefully checked each piece of paper. There were a few torn pages of textbooks here and there, but none of them were written in her handwriting.

“By any chance, is there paper trash over there?”

Riett looked at another pile of garbage.

“Yes… there are.”

The janitor’s eyes widened at the sight of the noble lady nonchalantly rummaging through the trash. But Riett paid no attention to his gaze and walked to the next pile of garbage, sitting down in frustration.

The exams were next week, and the most important textbook was missing. The custom-made textbooks for noble schools, depending on the number of incoming students, couldn’t be bought anywhere else, and there was no way to make copies.

In this world, various technologies use magic instead of science, and technology was used, but no device replicated printed materials like the copiers in South Korea. Therefore, she had to desperately find the missing textbook.

‘It’s not here… It’s nowhere…’

She had searched all the trash that came out today, and she was even searching the trash from yesterday just in case. However, Riett’s textbook was not found anywhere.

“Um… How much longer will you be searching?”

The janitor, who had been watching her anxiously for a while, looked at his watch and asked. Riett looked at the darkening sky and realized that a lot of time had passed.

“I have to leave now, and I can’t leave you alone here.”

“Yes…”

Riett replied with a gloomy face.

The janitor seemed concerned about Riett’s state and patted her back.

“If you have anything else to find, come back in an hour. I have to go to the fountain now, so I’ll be back around that time.”

Muttering, “Who the hell dropped the book there…”,  the janitor sighed.

Riett’s eyes widened as she listened quietly.

“… dropped the book?”

“Oh my, don’t even say that. The fountain is a complete mess because someone dropped numerous books.”

The janitor waved his hand as if he didn’t even want to think about it.

“Anyway, it will take some time to clean up the fountain, so come back later, and I’ll reopen the incinerator for you.”

“No…”

Riett hoped for a different answer, but her throat felt tight. She had to see it with her own eyes.

“I’ll go with you. I’ll help you.”

* * *

As the janitor had described, the fountain was in a miserable state. Pieces of torn paper were floating on the water, on the verge of coming apart.

Upon seeing this, the janitor complained.

“Seriously, who dropped the books like a fool? Even if they did drop them, if they had picked them up right away, it would have been much easier to clean.”

He was right. Even if someone had accidentally dropped them, picking them up immediately would have been the logical thing to do.

But to have left them here like this…

Riett approached the fountain and dipped her hand into the water. Pushing through the lukewarm water, she managed to retrieve a piece of torn paper with some writing still visible.

“…”

Riett looked down at the paper in disappointment.

“Well, thank you so much for your help. If I had come alone, it would have taken not just an hour but two.”

The janitor, who had been using a pair of tongs to retrieve the paper, expressed his gratitude to Riett. Riett nodded her head.

“It’s my fault, so it’s only right for me to clean up.”

“Why would you think it’s your fault? What kind of nonsense…”

“This is my book.”

The janitor, who had been stooping to retrieve the paper, raised his head in surprise.

“No, Miss, why would…?”

Riett didn’t have any words to offer in response to the janitor’s bewildered question. She was most curious about who and why someone would do such a thing.

Upon examining the paper she had just retrieved, she found her handwriting. She carefully examined the other papers, and though they were faint, they all had the same handwriting.

Why would her textbook end up in this giant fountain?

‘Of course, it’s not completely unimaginable.’

It was clearly an intentional act.

Riett was aware that her reputation had been polarized to an extreme degree lately. It had started with Henry, and then Pierre had added fuel to the fire. Although things had quieted down recently, there were still forces that regarded Riett with hostility.

But she never expected something like this.

Riett bit her lip and silently cleaned the fountain. It was not only the sight of her ruined textbook that bothered her but also the wasted effort and time that could have been avoided.

After a while of retrieving the papers, the fountain became much cleaner. The janitor straightened his back, which he had been stooping for a long time.

“Oh my, it’s exhausting.”

Of course, it wasn’t perfect. There were still small scraps of paper that wouldn’t be caught even with tongs, floating on the water’s surface.

Riett looked at the scraps and asked,

“What should we do with these?”

“I think I’ll have to come back tomorrow for them.”

“I’m sorry. You’ve gone through unnecessary trouble because of me.”

Earlier, it felt like her insides were burning with frustration, but now it seemed as if the ashes had turned to dust and been blown away.

However, whether her worries and concerns had turned to ashes as well, she couldn’t be sure.

“I’m not sure what the situation is, but cheer up.”

Riett weakly smiled at the encouragement of the janitor, who was having a proper conversation for the first time today. He left a message thanking her for her help and disappeared.

As the surroundings darkened, the streetlights lit up.

Riett, who was left alone, sat by the fountain and looked at her reflection in the water. The face reflected on the rippling surface had no expression.

With the streetlights now illuminated, Riett put her hand back into the fountain. She slowly picked up scraps of paper one by one.

Then she heard footsteps from behind. In response to the sound, Riett turned her head.

“….”

There stood Evan.

He approached without saying a word, rolled up his sleeves, and started picking up scraps from the fountain. Riett, who had been silently watching, grabbed Evan’s arm.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Let’s do it together.”

Finally, Evan spoke up.

“If you don’t want to spend the night here, let’s do it together.”

Evan gently released his hand from Riett’s grip. Then he put his hand back into the fountain. Riett also moved without saying a word. As Evan suggested, she couldn’t guarantee how long it would take to clean up all the scraps in this vast fountain.

After cleaning the fountain for some time, most of the debris that had been wandering in the water was gone.

“Oh.”

After bending over for several hours, Riett’s back was sore.

She slumped down on the ground. Soon, Evan sat next to her and reached out her hand.

“Give me your arm.”

“Why?”

“It’s wet. I’ll wipe it off.”

Only then did Riett realize that the sleeves she had rolled up had become wet. Water droplets were dripping down her arms from the damp cuffs.

“With what are you supposed to wipe it?”

There was nothing suitable for wiping around.

But soon, Evan took off his outerwear. Riett looked at him in disbelief, but it seemed her disbelief was misplaced. He nonchalantly pulled Riett’s arm and wiped it meticulously with his jacket.

“Hey, that’s expensive…”

Now Evan was using his luxury jacket as a towel. The dressing room at Kreutz Palace was the most famous place in the Empire. It was famous not only for the designer’s skills but also for its notorious prices.

“You’re swollen.”

Evan’s gaze reached Riett’s fingertips. The fingers that had been constantly fluttering in the water were as swollen as the scraps of paper from earlier. The palm was toughened by sword training, and the fingertips were swollen like frog fingers.

Riett felt sorry for her hands, which had met the wrong master.

Until Riett’s arms became clean, Evan wiped them off and casually wiped his arms as well.

Then he stood up and looked down at Riett.

“Let’s stop by our house and wash up. If you go in like this, the Duchess will worry.”

Riett nodded.

Although she didn’t enter the fountain, every time she lowered her head, the ends of her hair touched the water, and as a result, there were sporadic water stains on her collarbone and chest.

Her mother was a worrier, so if she saw her in this state, she would definitely ask what happened. If she found out the truth, she might shed tears again. She simply didn’t have the luxury to comfort her mother.

Conveniently, Evan’s carriage was waiting in front of the school. Evan opened the door and got in first. When Riett took a seat, the carriage soon departed.

Riett, with her chin resting on her hand, looked out the window at the passing scenery and spoke first.

“How did you know I was at the fountain?”