Chapter 155: Azrael Veridius [Part-3]
"Hello everyone. As you know, I am Leviya Argenuit."
She looked around at her audience with a sickeningly sweet smile as she continued.
"I am incredibly thankful to be able to stand here with everyone else, all of my companions present here today, after four long years of being together. While listening to everyone’s appreciation, even though I don’t know if I truly deserve that praise or not... But still, as a student who has given her all in this academy, I will just suggest to the juniors to do one simple thing. Just never become like ’some’ laid-back people who just remain lazy and lounge around at leisure. You should take that precious time and put it into hard work, pushing your own limits instead, so that you can become far better than you were in the past...."
The students became dead silent as they listened to her speech. For some odd reason, their gazes collectively turned toward me. I sat there stiffly, trying to act as calmly as possible. Even my own classmates were actively looking right at me. I ignored them entirely and stared blankly at the stage. Even Principal Clara was looking at me with a small smile, but I could clearly see the pity hidden in her eyes.
’Damn that shitty girl! Ughh!!!...’
She noticed me glaring daggers at her as our eyes met again. But even then, her fake smile only curved up higher as she looked away. I felt my heart skip a beat as I realized she wasn’t done yet. She was definitely going for something far more drastic, and what came next was definitely not what I wanted to hear in this crowded place.
’I hope she will not tell them ’that’...’
But to my utter dismay, she was going for exactly that.
"Oh, I have one more special announcement, everyone..."
All of the students’ focus shifted solely back onto her. Everyone silently looked at her, wanting to listen to what grand thing she was going to announce.
Leviya looked around the captivated students as her smile remained firm.
"I would like to announce that I, Leviya Argenuit, am officially engaged to Azrael Veridius. We have been engaged since we were very young. I guess we both decided to hide it in order to live a normal, peaceful life in the academy, but now that it is finally time to leave, I thought I should tell everyone the truth."
The whole crowd of students suddenly erupted into absolute chaos after hearing that their untouchable goddess was already taken! I instantly felt a massive amount of killing intent burning into my back from the crowd as I kept my mouth tightly shut.
Leviya nodded respectfully to Principal Clara, who also seemed quite surprised at her sudden revelation, and walked gracefully down the stage. This time, she deliberately chose to walk closer to me and sat right beside me. She even positioned herself in the exact same lazy style as mine, putting her right hand on the armrest of the chair, resting her head on her knuckles, and giving me a sidelong glance.
"Hehe... How did you like my little surprise?..."
I looked at her, wanting to punch her on the face, but I held back. The reason? I hate touching her.
Her smile only widened after seeing my frustrated expression. She leaned closer, and the cheering voices of the other students fell into the background. Her emerald eyes turned to that familiar coldness, utterly devoid of any ounce of love or friendliness.
"You should remember your place. At least feel some shame knowing that your own fiancée is growing stronger, while here you are, just the same pathetic weak ass..."
I looked right at her, meeting her cold eyes fearlessly as I leaned closer to her and whispered back.
"It is my life. I can live it however I want to. It is none of your business..."
She looked at me for a second. I felt like she was definitely going to hit me, but thankfully she pulled herself back, maintaining her elegance.
So what words could I use to simply express her?
Dangerous. Nah—she is the most dangerous person one can possibly have in life. That two-faced bitch was the very reason why I couldn’t live my life peacefully! She was the exact person who had sent different assassins daily to kill me since day one of the academy.
She already knows that such cheap methods are pathetic and won’t work, but did she care? Nope. Her secondary goal in life is simply to annoy me to death!
If I think about the long list of people who might genuinely want to kill me, then she would definitely come on the very top of it.
Just hearing or seeing her behave so differently around others, or more appropriately, pretending to be kind, made me feel like laughing earlier. I had once tried to expose that too. But as a result, I suffered severe consequences because of her acting skills.
First came the vicious rumors that I had harassed some random girl, which resulted in my suspension for a week. After proving my innocence, I was finally able to join the academy back, but with a massive loss of respect among my peers. Later, she also framed me for sneaking out of the academy at night without permission from the staff—the exact time when I originally was in my secret hideout having a peaceful training moment.
I had faced various more troubles because of her. After that day forward, I just decided to give her space and actively tried to dodge her as much as I possibly could. But since she was my ’sweet’ fiancée, she wouldn’t let me go, and constantly found new, creative methods to break my spirit.
As I remembered the past four years of endless struggle, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.
’Sigh... I want my system to suddenly call out something like: "Ding! You are just one step closer to becoming the God of Patience." Hehe, that would have been fun. But let’s forget about that and focus on the current event...’
The remaining ceremony passed smoothly, with every other graduate receiving different kinds of gifts, though of course, they were lower in value than the top graduate’s reward. My name came right in the middle, as I was not the lowest, nor was I the top student either. I was just an average boy surviving day by day in the academy.
As the hours passed, the killing intent directed at my back remained constant. This time, no one showed any pity on me. There were only glares and pure jealousy. Even those students who already had a girlfriend started looking daggers at me.
The graduation ceremony was finally completed in relative hardship, at least for me. I walked out immediately after the function was officially over. I walked straight toward the dormitory building to take out my packed stuff, as the driver from the Veridius family may have already arrived.
As I walked, the students’ bitter bickering remained constant. When they saw me, they became much braver, openly commenting on my face even though they actually knew I was passing right behind them.
"Yeah, that is probably the exact reason why he is so lazy. Who would work hard when they already have everything, even more than he deserves."
"What a pathetic person. If I were in his place, I would have worked twice as hard so that I wouldn’t remain weaker than my own fiancée..."
"He is just a shameless bastard. He doesn’t even deserve her. Just because he is the son of the Veridius family, he gets what he wants. I am sure he must have begged his mom to arrange an engagement with her."
I passed right through them without replying. If I had wanted to, I could have easily shut their mouths. Badmouthing a noble, especially one from a prestigious family, was a great insult to the entire bloodline. I have enough power to let them know their rightful place, but whatever. I am not wasting my precious time on their petty words when I have my own things to handle.
They were talking about how I am pathetic just because my fiancée was more powerful than me. Yeah, that would have hurt most arrogant men’s egos, but in my opinion, it was completely different.
What is so wrong with a woman being more powerful than a man? She works incredibly hard, and she deserves to be more powerful than me. What is wrong with a lady being the more powerful one in a relationship between a man and a woman? There is nowhere written in the rules of the universe that only a man deserves to be strong. The world is changing, and they should also change their outdated thought processes. Such a pathetic worldview was the exact reason they were all single—not that I think of myself as a couple anyway.
As I walked inside my room and grabbed my packed things, the two men who were my family’s personal guards were waiting for me outside the dormitory room. They quickly took the suitcase from my hands as they led the way.
As I was walking through the academy campus while looking around, I felt a sudden, unexpected sense of sadness. It was true that I had suffered quite a lot of problems here, but this was also the place where I had lived for four years. I somehow got attached to this scenery. Now, leaving this place made me feel like a small part of me would miss it.
But with a heavy heart, I kept walking, leaving the academy in silence. However, after reaching the academy’s outside gate, all of my calm expression broke instantly.
A guard was standing outside a black, luxurious car. But what truly shocked me was the girl who sat by the window seat. Her red hair swayed gently in the breeze coming from the open window, and her emerald eyes bored at nothing in particular while looking out. As she saw me watching her, our eyes met. She quickly turned away without expressing any reaction, as if I was worth absolutely nothing.
I looked at the guard blankly. He remained still like a statue. He didn’t answer my silent question; he just opened the door of the car for me to sit. After slumping my head in defeat, I finally entered the car, sitting beside her while deliberately maintaining a respectable distance. She didn’t even give me a second glance as she looked straight out the front.
As the guard took the driver’s seat and began to drive toward the Veridius mansion, I couldn’t help but ask her.
"Why are you coming with me?..."
"..."
Silence remained. No answer could be heard from her lips. She just stared outside the window with her perfectly blank expression.
"Hello? I said, why are you coming with me?!"
"..."
As she didn’t answer again, I looked away from the window, folding my arms. I felt so thoroughly annoyed that I actually felt like biting her. But I controlled myself, thanks to the traits of the soon-to-be God of Patience.
As both the delusional soon-to-be-God and the campus belle sat together while their destination was the same—the Veridius Family Mansion—their journey went in total silence. But it was not a peaceful one, at the very least.