Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Hearing Endra's question, Eliseline rolled her eyes. "Who wouldn't send spies to you after the little show you put on? Didn't you sense the two other spies that were sent your way? You should thank me, by the way. Thanks to Sen taking care of them, most nobles in the capital won't dare bothering you anymore."

"Thank you."

Something about the way he said it seemed to bother the woman. 

"Boring, boring, boring little boy. Just admit your love and everyone will be happy. You don't even need to be embarrassed. Half the boys in the Academy have some sort of crush on me. I'm sure I'm responsible for some teacher's sudden dislike of his wife."

Endra frowned, hearing the woman's shameless remarks. 

"I see."

"So you admit it?"

"No."

Eliseline smiled at that. 

"Then you must be the enemy of my father. You're planning to use me to get closer to him and stick a knife in his chest. You're not someone who loves me, so that's the only logical answer possible."

Endra's frown deepened. Even knowing she was joking; he wasn't happy hearing those accusations. Could he go against a Duke? Probably not. So even if she was joking, there was a miniscule chance her words would be taken seriously.

'I should've lost the fight…' Endra thought with a sigh. 'If winning was so troublesome, I'm better off staying a loser.'

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"Can I leave?" Endra asked.

As for Eliseline's words, he could only hope they were jokes. No, they were jokes. And the woman herself shouldn't be childish enough to make trouble for him like this. 

"Wait," the Eliseline said. She looked at Endra discerningly for a few seconds, before speaking. "You're the same as me, aren't you?" Her speech turned different from the almost childish one she used previously. "A Child of the Empress." 

"No."

"Officially, I can respect your stance. If you want to keep your secret from the world, keep it. It's none of my business. But please tell me the truth."

"Officially and privately, the answer's no."

Eliseline sighed. "In that case, fine. But before you leave, would you listen to me for a bit? I promise I won't accuse you of loving me or using me anymore."

Endra's first instinct was to refuse, but he realized he was curious about her. The cold way she acted in public, the childish way she first talked to him and the mature way she was talking to him now… Endra wondered what else would she show him.

"Sure," 

Endra sighed and sat down a sofa nearby. Eliseline sat on another one and out of her Storage Ring pulled out some snacks for the two. After settling down, she started speaking.

"How much do you know about me?"

Endra dug into his Storage Ring and brought out the list of Eliseline's characteristics he compiled a few days ago. She looked through it and nodded.

"So you know most of it."

"…" 

Endra did not believe the woman's remarks. No way in hell the rumors in the streets were most of it.

"Don't look at me like that. Despite what people say, I'm not that secretive or mysterious. But even with me exposing my everything, people still try to make up stories about me."

"Sure."

"You're scoffing now, but soon enough, you'll feel the same exact pain as me. I'll see you laugh when the common people make overexaggerated stories of you."

Endra wasn't so worried about his sudden rise to fame. Even if they wanted to fuss around him, he would gladly share everything he could. With that, interest in him would dwindle and soon enough, he'd be left alone…

'Wait, that's exactly what she's trying to do, isn't it?' he suddenly realized. 'And still, half the city talks about her as if she murdered the king.' 

Endra frowned, realizing he might be in trouble. 

"Even today, our whole class was buzzing about you non-stop," Eliseline said. "Who is that guy? Where did he come from? Who trained him? Blah, blah, blah. It got so bad, that even I got pulled into it. They thought your provocation using my name had some meaning, and some girls even discreetly asked me if the intense gaze you sent me meant something deeper."

"…"

"Have we met somewhere before? No, right? Even from my previous life, I've never seen someone like you."

"…"

"Hello? Why are you sitting there silently? Have we met before or no?"

Slowly, the woman's speech turned playful again. Endra felt this was her default mood.

'She probably only died in her twenties. Or maybe she was just a child.'

"I was just thinking."

"What about?"

"You."

That made her pause. She grinned soon after.

"See? The way you said that so naturally. You even said it without batting an eye. You're definitely a Child of the Empress. An adult in the body of a kid. And I'm sure you were a terrible playboy in your previous life, too."

"I was just being honest."

"Eleven-year-old teens are too fucking awkward to be honest," she scoffed. "Actually, I'll tell you something else. You wanna know what I learned when I started studying with these kids?"

"?" Endra cocked his head.

"Teenagers are absolutely and utterly idiotic."

"What?"

"Don't you think that too? Every time I see them, it's just a fucking mess. Their decision making is outright self-destructive; they're thoroughly self-absorbed, they struggle to realize others have problems in their lives; they barely know anything, so they question you all the time; and worst of all the absolute confidence they exude as they perform these disasters, it's as if they truly think they're doing good in life."

Endra found himself smiling at the rant.

'It's just humans developing at their natural pace,' he replied in his head, but of course, he didn't want to admit his knowledge. "Then I'm also probably as dumb and idiotic as the rest."

"No, you don't get it. It's so fucked, I even had trouble believing I was also a teen once. How could that be? But the more I remember, the more accurate it felt! Can you believe it? Me! Trying to puff up my appearance by using soot as an eyeliner, shoving squashed apples in my bust… Starving myself, just so I could look a tiny bit better to the handsome son of the mayor in town! Aaaargghhh!"

Obviously, Endra was familiar with these idiocies. Decatur's days of trying to put Evin in the dust, Bella's days hating her father and making that her whole life mission, and Arza being Arza. It was just the natural development of their brain and their egos. 

Endra was even surprised he could still mostly retain adult thoughts. Technically, as his brain was still in development, he should've been much dumber than he was previously.

'I thank the Empress's grace,' he muttered under his breath.

"Anyway," Eliseline suddenly said. "Because I can see how dumb these teens are, I can confidently recognize you don't belong in that age group. In fact, you even act older than me!"

Endra sighed. "And how old are you?"

"Not telling."

"You were probably and old hag," Endra smirked. "Probably died in your fifties. How sad. Though… it's weird you choose to attend school with teens. Should I be worried?"

"How cruel. I just wanted to experience a normal childhood after I was reincarnated. What's so wrong with that?"

Endra was surprised by the answer and how confidently she said it.. So the woman had a mature side to her, after all.