𖣔 My Sister the Heroine, and I the Villainess 𖣔

48

Chapter 48

Translator: Jawbrie

Mariwa Toinette was silently offering a prayer when a strong sense of uneasiness struck her, and she opened her eyes.

Her current location was a chapel within a small church situated in the downtown area of the imperial capital. She was sitting in a corner of the pews and offering a prayer to one who was long dead. She knew that usually such prayers were given in front of tombstones, but the woman’s bones were laid to rest in a place that Mariwa could not enter. And so once a year, she would search for a church where she could pray alone and in the quiet, and offer her prayers.

But just now, something unexpected and disagreeable had entered her heart.

She narrowed her eyes in displeasure and looked around the room.

Everything happens for a reason, that was the rule of the world. There must be a reason for this as well. And so she looked about her, but this poor church was quite bare with only the necessities placed here in the chapel. There was nothing that caught her eye. The usual time for prayers had already past, and so there was no one here, no one to see her, other than the statue of the holy mother.

Then what was it that had troubled her heart just now? Never quick to give up, she continued to search the room until one of the doors to the side opened.

“Oh?”

Mariwa couldn’t help but remark when she saw the person who had opened it. The person who had exited the room next to the chapel was a familiar ten-year-old boy with black hair.

“Leon, was it?”

“Ah, Miss Mariwa?”

It was the boy that her current student, the duke’s daughter, Christina had dragged around with her the other day. He was unlikely to have anything to do with the sudden feeling of unease that she had, but she remembered him well. He must have been quite the child to have been able to stick with Christina for as long as he did.

“I’m surprised a noble such as yourself would come to this downtown church… Is Christina with you?”

“Heavens, no. It is only me. I’ve just come here to pray a little, and to meet an acquaintance who works here. Why are you here, Leon?”

It was a chance encounter, but both Leon and Mariwa had met before. They had a common acquaintance in Chris, and so the two were able to talk without too much thought towards differences in status and age.

The only reason she could think for a child to be in church was Sunday school, but today was a weekday. But it did not seem like he was here to worship either.

“The priest here gives you private lessons if you ask. I’ve taken advantage of that and started to study under him.”

“Ah.”

That was an impressive reason. There was a certain pupil of hers who could use such an attitude towards one’s studies.

“I am very impressed Leon, and hope you do very well. …But, what has made you want to study so hard, all of a sudden?”

“Well, you know. You can take the entrance exam at the Royal Academy when you turn fourteen. Since you’re Christina’s private tutor, that must mean that she has been studying for a while. So, I feel like I might as well study as early as I can as well.”

“…So you want to enroll at the Royal Academy.”

Mariwa knitted her brows slightly.

One would have many doors opened to you in terms of a profession if you graduated from the Royal Academy. But it was also a school where many were nobles, and there would be a strong prejudice against those that were not. Why, it was not that long ago where the very school had strong traditions of looking down on women, regardless if they were nobles.