No!
The pain—too much!
Your Highness, why—?!
The moment the mandrake root was cleaved in two by [Wind Blade], Ken felt as though his own heart had been sliced open along with it. The burning sensation from the poison corroding his arm suddenly seemed distant and irrelevant.
But if Ken could still grit his teeth and bear it, someone else nearby had already lost all patience:
"You trash did that on purpose, didn't you?! I'm going to cut you up, slice you apart, and grind you into pieces to replace that mandrake root!"
Hysteria's eyes were blazing with fury. She bared her canine teeth and was about to lunge forward and bite Linen's neck—when a slender hand suddenly reached out and blocked her.
"Wait a second, Shia."
Elena stopped the girl whose gaze held only Linen's throat and turned her attention to Ken, her eyes cool and composed:
"Professor Ken, it seems the mandrake root we needed for class was accidentally ruined. Could we get a replacement?"
Of course not. What a naïve idea.
Linen snorted inwardly.
A mandrake root was a rare magical plant, and each study group was allocated only one. This was Eden Academy, after all. At a typical academy, the entire class might have had to share just one root.
Suppressing his fury, Ken still had to deny Elena's request. Then he spoke in a low, cold tone:
"Furthermore, Elena, since your group failed to complete the dissection for today's session, all members will lose one credit."
That's what I was waiting for!
Linen let out a long breath as the moment of point deduction arrived. When he saw Elena glaring at him, baring her own small fangs in frustration, he felt a rush of satisfaction.
It was the first time he'd ever seen her this angry—her expression was downright awful. She had to be furious.
Just then, Ken added casually, "Disposing of mandrake roots requires certain precautions, particularly to muffle their screams. We'll need specialized tools. Linen, come with me to retrieve them."
Linen nodded. He was also curious to learn just why Ken had failed to go along with his plan.
---
Once the two left the room one after the other, Hysteria scoffed and stuck out her tongue with undisguised contempt:
"Ugh! Two villains heading out together—probably off to hatch something even worse."
But Elena didn't share her outrage.
"Shia… I think we may have misjudged Linen. Try burning some of those mandrake pieces with your fire."
Though Hysteria grumbled that there was no point, her body betrayed her. She summoned a [Fireball] anyway. The scattered bits of mandrake root quickly went up in flames—but with them rose an acrid, foul-smelling smoke.
"What is that?"
Hysteria was stunned.
Mandrake roots were supposed to give off a faint herbal fragrance when burned, just like any other magical plant.
"You've probably figured it out already," Elena murmured, lips tightly pressed. "This mandrake root… was poisoned."
"If Linen hadn't destroyed it in time, I… we both might've been poisoned."
As Elena laid it all out, Hysteria's mouth hung open in a shocked little "o".
She had never imagined Ken would stoop so low. To poison them. In broad daylight. During class.
And now that she thought about it, Linen's words and actions from the start seemed clearly aimed at keeping them away from the mandrake. When he could no longer stop Elena from touching it, he'd finally resorted to force, using [Wind Blade] to destroy it outright.
"We should go report that bastard immediately!" she shouted, trembling with rage.
"No—we can't!"
Elena shook her head urgently.
"Don't forget… you heard it too. The magic agreement between Linen and Professor Ken."
"Agreement?"
With that reminder, Hysteria recalled it as well. Yes, there was an agreement—and it had been one-sided. Linen had bound himself not to implicate Ken.
If they reported this to the academy, Linen wouldn't be able to defend himself. He would be the one blamed.
Hysteria wasn't fond of Linen, but she couldn't bring herself to harm someone who had just protected her.
What shook her more was why he had gone so far. Linen Norton—that guy—had done all this just to protect them?
Could it be… was he really her fiancé?
The thought made her heart flutter in a strange, uncomfortable way. If he really was, then maybe…
Her thoughts were spiraling when Elena murmured absentmindedly:
"This time, I really owe Linen a big one. I'll make sure to protect him."
She meant nothing by it, but to Hysteria, the words struck like a lightning bolt.
Of course. Now that she thought it through—Ken had been trying to poison Elena. Which meant Linen had been trying to protect Elena, not her.
So then—he wasn't her fiancé after all.
But if that's the case… why did her chest feel so tight?
---
Meanwhile, on the other side of the academy, Ken had just finished explaining everything to Linen. The prince narrowed his eyes.
"You're saying the root was poisoned?"
"Yes, Your Highness! If not for you… I mean, if you and I had coordinated better, those girls would've—"
Ken was about to launch into a complaint when he caught the look in Linen's eyes—cold, furious, dangerous.
He hurriedly tried to backpedal, but he was too late.
"Idiot."
Slap!
The crack of the slap was crisp and loud. Linen struck him clean across the face.
Ken stood there stunned, eyes wide.
But as far as Linen was concerned, a slap was far too lenient. In his eyes, Ken was already a corpse.
From the start, he'd only wanted to "milk" a few sympathy points from the girls to trigger his system rewards. He had never planned to harm them. Poison? That was far beyond the line.
He hadn't expected Ken to be this ruthless—willing to poison his own students just to curry favor with the Tower of Chronomancy.
Worse still, if things had gone according to Ken's script, Linen would have ended up looking like some kind of hero who'd saved the girls from death.
It was terrifying. His hard-earned low favorability score had nearly rebounded.
Thank the heavens they hadn't realized what actually happened. Otherwise, he would never have been able to explain it away.
"Your Highness!" Ken finally managed to speak, voice full of grievance. He didn't understand—he was the one whose plan had been ruined, yet he was the one being slapped?
But when he saw the fire burning in Linen's eyes, he didn't dare protest further.
"You still don't get what you did wrong, do you?" Linen said coldly.
"Ken. No wonder you're nothing but a pawn."
"You and your scheme are laughable."